A Day at Manly

Today was our first Saturday here.  We got up and had McDonald's breakfast which was a huge hit!  Then got some Starbuck's which was a hit for me!  And headed to circular quay, the main Sydney harbour, where we caught a ferry over to Manly, a northern suburb of Sydney.  It was a beautiful 30 minute ferry ride, going by the opera house and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

  Manly was a wonderful little town.  It is a laid back beach town, home of  Manly Beach, one of the most famous beaches in Sydney.  Today there was a jazz festival there along the beach and it was very crowded.  The kids quickly changed into their swimsuits and went out to try the water.  It was very cold, but somehow they managed to swim a bit.  Brady mostly built a large sand fort while Luke and Elise played in the water and sand for over an hour.  It was a sunny warm beautiful day.

 After the beach, we went a couple blocks inland and found a little place to have lunch.  Then we took the advice of one of the visitor center guides and followed a path around the peninsula called the "Manly Scenic Walkway" which went through Manly Beach, Sydney Harbour National Park, and North Head.  It was about a 2 hour hike!  Those of us who had worn flip flops got a little more than we had bargained for but we had some great views and took lots of pictures. 

We rode the ferry home right at sunset, and of course got some more pictures of the opera house and bridge at dusk.  I'd say this day was quite a hit and probably our best day here so far.

Making the Transition

So today marks our 4th day here.  We are still working on getting the time zone change to feel normal.  Each day feels a little better.  But we are still in bed by 8:00 each night, and I've been waking up by 5:00.  The transition has been hard in a lot of ways, but nothing that I didn't expect.  I think our schooling has gone fine so far, finally today on day 3 I came up with a written schedule for each kid.  This came out of my going crazy having to come up with each of their plans on the fly while they each needed me at all times during the morning!  I have even managed to go to the fitness center the past two mornings and use the treadmill.  We have tried to eat in our apartment as much as possible to cut on expenses.  Last night we made meatballs (since they don't have frozen here) with spaghetti and french bread.  It worked out fine.  But each time we realize something we are still missing in our kitchen.  The kids and I are trying to venture out somewhere each day but we are still learning what there is to go see on foot.  We did the subway/train one evening with Ethan and were pretty overwhelmed with how to figure it out!  Possibly this weekend we'll work more on that.

The weather has been wonderful.  It is early spring here, and has been mostly in the 70's each day.  It's very breezy, since it is right on the water, so lots of times we keep a jacket with us.  Ethan walks to work each morning only about 4 or 5 blocks down the street.  Yesterday we picked him up at lunch time and walked on over to Darling Harbour, a very famous tourist area in Sydney.  They had lots to see, and a great kids play area that the kids enjoyed.  We had a bad experience with the McDonald's in the food court over there!  Even McDonald's can be different in other countries!  One of the many mistakes that they made:  Ethan ordered a cheeseburger, just ketchup for Elise.  Well he got a bun with ketchup on it!  We put this experience on our "Bad things to laugh about later" list that we have started.

We are limited on our internet usage in the hotel.  It is weird to be limited, since in the states it seems so easy to get unlimited data plans and free Wifi in so many locations.  Here, even if you buy a drink at Starbuck's, you only get to use the internet for 30 minutes.  We can't skype from our hotel because it takes too much of our data usage.  We will try to go to Ethan's office and do some things that take more data.

Ethan has a three day weekend this weekend and we are staying in Sydney to explore.  I think we'll get to see alot more of what is out there this weekend!  As you can see, I'm not being the most outgoing, exploring person by myself with the kids.  I feel much more comfortable doing lots of these things for the first time with Ethan.  The kids are adjusting alright, but I know it is hard for them too.  They basically have one TV channel that they watch which is Disney.  They didn't bring the xbox so they play games on the ipad a lot when we are here at the hotel and not doing school work.  The sibling rivalry has definitely kept on pace, but hopefully they will realize that they are each other's only friends, so they better treat each other nicely!  I see glimpses of that at times.

There is a colleague of Ethan's who is going to have us to his home and he has a couple of children close to our kids' ages.  I also have two contacts down here who I think we will try to meet up with and they also have kids close in age.  It will be fun for the kids to interact with some other kids when the time comes.

The pictures I did take yesterday at Darling Harbour were on my American cell phone and the only way to get them off my phone was to put them on facebook.  I'll try to take some this weekend with our camera that we can post on the blog.  If you are still reading you are a trooper!  This has been long.  Bear with me while we get used to this change in countries and we'll post about the fun things we do as well!

Missing America (i.e. my car, my coffee, ICE, and my pillow!),

Suzanne

Luke's third day

Today we are going to a place called Darling harbor.  Also I am going to meet with my dad at his work  to eat lunch at the food court before we go.  I can't wait to go.  After that we are going to explore more places across Sydney.  I think we are going to swim some more at are rooftop pool.  Then we will go do something else around here.  Yesterday it was my first time ever going on the subway.I thought it was alot fun.  We might have lazania or spaghetti tonight for dinner.  Yummmmmmmm!  I have to go now bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elise's first Day in Sydney

Elise's First Journal (typed by Suzanne with some spelling corrections.)  I had a long flight.  It was 16 hours.  We are going to the Opera House.  It is a big city.  We have a pool on our roof.  The plane was huge.  We rode in a taxi.  Their money looks different.  There is a day care across the street from our hotel.

Luke's first day

It all started when I was leaving to go to the airport.  I was so nervous, but so excited at the same time.  We said bye to nana and papa and we had tears in our eyes.  We got on the plane to Dallas and took off.  I was on the first step on my journey. I could not wait.  Then we landed in Dallas and had an hour until we left to Brisbane.  For dinner we had Fuddruckers and I got a burger with mustard and ketchup on it.  It was so good.  We got on the plane to Brisbane and I thought it was huge. My mom said I should get comfy because it was a 16 hour flight and I would be tired when we got to brisbene. Sinse we finished a 16 hour flight a 1 hour flight would fly by.  We got to Sydney and got exploring immediately. I saw the Opera House and the Sydney bridge. Then when we got home to the apartment my mom and dad went shoping and siad everything is so expensive here.  Then we went swimming on are rooftop pool. I slept 13 hours that night because I was so tired. I woke up that morning and knew that we would have amazeing adventures up next.

Luke

My First Day Down Under! by Brady

It all started around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon. We drove to the airport and said goodbye to Nana and Papa. We got there and saw the exciting ending to the Chiefs vs Saints game. We got through security sucsessfully, and waited only to find out that our flight was delayed 45 minutes. When we got on the plane, I slept until we reached Dallas. Then, when we boarded our plane to Brisbane, I was out cold for the first 3 hours my mom said. It was exciting and adventerous flight. It was really amazing to be in such a big plane. My mom made us a checklist and she said that if we finish it, we would get some Australian money to spend. They had such amazing movies, games , music and more on the flight. I had over 100 movies to choose from and I watched the Avengers aout 3 times and the Hunger Games twice. When we landed in Brisbane, it was 4:30 am local time. We waited for about an hour while eating a scrumptious egg, bacon, and tomato breakfest sandwich. When we landed in Sydney, we got our passports stamped off, and reunited with my dad. After that, we took a taxi to the apartment, and explored Sydney for the rest of the day. Well its time for me to go. We have alot of exploring to do.

Brady

We Made it Down Under!

Well we made it!  Our initial flight was an hour late, but that turned out to be our only real glitch in the 24 hour trip.  I am amazed at how well the kids did on the long flight, which was 16 hours.  We left Dallas at 10:00 PM Sunday night, and with the help of some dramamine all three kids were asleep soon after 11:00.  I had a much harder time going to sleep, but was so glad that they slept fairly well.  We definitely had our moments...short seconds where each one would wake up and be so miserable that I thought we were going to really lose it...but thankfully they kept going back to sleep.  We slept on and off until about 7:00 AM central time.  But still had another 7 hours of flying!  Who is the genious who invented those individual movie screens for each airplane seat?!!!  They were a life saver.  Most days if Elise would watch 7 hours of iCarly I would be appalled...but in this case it was bliss!  Of course the kids all hated all of the airplane food.  They were pretty hungry when we landed in Brisbane at 5:00 AM Australia time, and I had to buy them a $40 breakfast on the run to catch our final flight.

We arrived in Sydney at 8:00 AM Tuesday morning.  I was not only flagged as the person who they needed to search for explosive powders, but then since we claimed we had brought some snacks into the country they had their sniffing beagle go through my things as well.  All was fine and we made it through to see Ethan waiting for us outside!  We took a taxi to the hotel.  We have been so tired all day, but really trying to make it through this day to get on their schedule.  Ethan took the day off of work so he could show us around a little bit.  We ate lunch at a subway close to our hotel/apartment, then walked down to Sydney harbour and saw the world famous opera house and the Sydney Bay Bridge. We walked around The Rocks area and came back to the apartment for a quick rest.  Then Ethan and I went to the grocery store downtown close to our hotel.  We got some essentials, things to make for dinner tonight and some lunch and breakfast things, but it all ended up being more than we should have carried in one trip!  Ethan held most of the heavy things and walked so fast to get home I could barely keep up!  And that is after we made quite fools of ourselves at the self check line with way too many items to be self check.  (Yes I can say that we are definitely obvious "Americans" by the way we are dressed and by anything that comes out of our mouths.)

Our aparement is very tiny.  That is all I can say about it.  I'm sure it will work out just fine.  It has everything that we need, laundry, an oven, microwave, small refrigerator, and small dishwasher.  There is even a grill up on the roof by the pool that we are going to grill on tonight.

The downtown urban feel is fun, very cosmopolitan, very busy streets all throughout the day.  We are learning to walk on the left side of the two way walking traffic, just like they drive on that side, that is the norm.  I'm sure that tonight we will go to bed early and we'll be on our own tomorrow since Ethan will be back to work.  We have not taken any pictures yet but will try to post once we do!

Suzanne

It's All About Rugby Down Under

 

 

OK, so I didn't know sport had to be so confusing!  There is clearly a difference between Rugby League, Rugby Union and ARF (Australian Rules Football).   As big as the Super Bowl in the U.S., Australia is currently in the final stages of competition for Australian Rugby League.   In fact, the two semi-final or preliminary final games . . . . oops I mean matches were held over the past two days.   In preliminary-final match one, the Melbourne Storm defeated the Manly Sea Eagles 40 - 12.   The star of the game for Melbourne was none other than Billy Slater (my new favorite player since I live on Slater St. back in the States).    He had 200 All Run Meters, 3 Line Breaks, 2 Try Assists and 2 Tries.    For those of you unschooled in rugby (including myself) that is a very good individual performance.    Match two featured the Canterbury Bulldogs and the South Sydney Rabbitohs (sweet team name).    The Bulldogs pulled off the match victory 32-8 due in part to the hobbled South Sydney team who lost rookie of the year, Adam Reynolds due to a hamstring injury after only 26 minutes of play and leading the match 8-4.   So, next Sunday at 4:30 is the Super Bowl of Rugby or the Grand Finale Featuring the two best teams, the Bulldogs (18-6) v. the Storm (17-7).

 

Back to the differences though, which are important as I have learned.   Rugby Union has 15 players. Rugby League has 13.  Besides the number of players on the field, the main difference between Rugby League and Rugby Union concerns the tackle situation.  In Union when a player is tackled (Their progress is physically halted by the opposition) the ball is recycled by a ruck (if the ball is on the ground) or by a maul (if the ball is held up off the ground). One recycling of the ball is called a phase and there is no limit to the number of phases as long as a team keeps possession of the ball.    Have I lost you yet?     

 

In League when a player with the ball is tackled the referee halts play and it is restarted when the tackled player stands, places the ball on the ground and rakes it back with his foot to the player behind them (oddly called the "dummy half"). The opposition must retreat 10 meters from the play-of the-ball except for two markers who line up in front of the player of the ball.  The team in possession can recycle the ball 5 times (much like downs in the NFL) in this manner but if they are tackled with the ball a 6th time then the ball is handed over to the opposition.

With regard to scoring and how points are assigned,

Rugby Union points: a try (like a touchdown) is worth 5 points, a conversion (like and extra point or PAT) is 2 points, a penalty goal is 3 points and a drop-goal is 3 points.
Rugby League points: a try is worth 4 points, a conversion is 2 points, a penalty goal is 2 points and a drop-goal is 1 point.

 

OK so now you are ready . . . for the most part . . .  to enjoy the Grand Finale next Sunday at 1:30 a.m. CST back in Kansas City.    I know you are all dying to stay up and watch this epic, historical match, but just in case you can't make it, I will provide the details or at a minimum an update as to who wins the match on this blog.    Stay tuned and Cheers for now!

 

Ethan



Finally In Sydney!

 

So, I am finally here, Sydney, Australia.  After a 21 hour journey from KC to Dallas to Brisbane and finally Sydney, I have arrived.    Things went great on the plane ride over and as luck would have it I had an open seat next to me the entire way (a very rare occurrence these days).  I did however sit in the same row as a retired gentleman named Paul from Gunnison, Colorado who was a geologist working as a contractor for the Marengo Mining Company.  He was on his way to Papua New Guinea for the next 6 weeks for a consulting gig.    Paul liked to talk and talk and then talk some more.   I learned more about geology and mining from Paul than I would like to have known.   That said, Paul was a very nice fellow with a penchant for storytelling.   Paul was a very sharp individual and he gave me a brief history of Australia as he lived in Perth and Sydney for approximately 6 years during his time with Marengo.    I must admit that when Paul excused himself to go to the lavatory, I put on my headphones and watched a movie.    I don't think I was being rude as we had been conversing . . . . rather I had been listening for about 3 hours by that time.  

 

As you arrive in Sydney, you fly directly over Botany Bay and your first image of this country is stunningly beautiful.    The rising sun and the golden coastline paint a lasting image in your mind.   After clearing customs and hopping a train from the airport to my hotel in the CBD (Central Business District) I checked into my apartment/hotel and decided to explore and get my bearings.    Sydney is a large city with over 5 million people in the greater metro area.    The city was bustling with activity and I must have walked 10 miles from Circular Quay and The Rocks down by Sydney Cove to the Royal Botanical Gardens and East Sydney before returning to the hotel and hitting a brick wall of fatigue at about 6 p.m.    During my walkabout I confirmed what I had read prior to my arrival that the prices of things in Sydney are "eye popping".    Controlling expenses with food is going to be difficult as eating in may prove to be a pain given the size of our kitchenette.  

 

Regarding the apartment, it is a very small 2 bedroom unit with a living-room attached to the kitchenette.   We are on the 10th floor with a beautiful view of George Street and the CBD.   Clearly space is at a premium in downtown Sydney, but I am not complaining as my family and I will be in the heart of this beautiful city for our entire stay.  I am hoping that the tight living quarters will give my kids an appreciation for the things that they have back in the States.    I have found an underground mall near Wynyard station, several food courts and of course a couple of nearby Starbucks to feed my coffee addiction.    I have already had a peppercorn meat pie and a sausage roll and will likely have several more during my stay as they are everywhere.   Speaking of food, I haven't had breakfast yet and I think I will venture out and try some more local flavor.    I'll be back as my family arrives in Sydney on Tuesday morning and I can't wait to welcome them to this wonderful city.    For now . . . . . Cheers!

 

Ethan

 

 





Overwhelmed with Community

What a weekend!  Gosh, we are only going away for 3 months but you would think we were moving away forever, the way we are being celebrated and honored with sendoffs!  I am completely overwhelmed with thankfulness for all of our friends and family here in KC who seem to care that we are leaving!  Friday night a group of neighbors had a little shin-dig here in the hood which was very fun.  Saturday, our church of 20 years, Heartland Community Church, was having an all elder meeting and they asked us to come get prayed for as they sent us off.  It was so special and really meaningful to us.  (Thanks to all of you who were there!)  Saturday evening we got to spend a fun evening with Ethan's brother Alex and his wife Nancy, and their daughter Sarah.  After that a bunch of neighborhood/kids' school guys went out to give Ethan another sendoff!  We had a great last lunch (for Ethan anyway) with my parents today, then a wonderful time with a long time family small group for dinner this evening, where they also prayed over us for our time away.  All of you are making us feel so completely cared for and part of such community here, that of course we will return and not decide to stay in Australia!!!  :)  Although I'm sure it will be tempting!  I can't leave out several lunches that I have this week (yes I'll be dieting a bit once I get down there after all of these great meals out!) with so many of my girlfriends who I will miss terribly while we're gone.  But believe me, I do know that 3 months will go SO fast and we will be back here in no time!  At least I need to keep telling myself that during the hard homeschooling moments...

Ethan is getting packed and leaves on Tuesday.  Then it will really feel real, once I have to deal with the 15 hour time change to try and find times to communicate with him, and I'll be getting packed for all of us after that.  We are so excited but just really anxious to get there!

This week our dear friends, Seth and Andrea Sears will be moving into our house.  I don't think I have mentioned in the blog yet that these good friends of ours for many years (Seth and I went to school from kindergarten through high school together) are missionaries in Costa Rica.  They have been down there for about 3 years so far, and have just recently returned to KC for a break from ministry until January.  For a few months before they came home several of us were trying to figure out housing for them and their 3 kids while they are here.  Little did we know that God would bring this opportunity to Ethan through his work, giving the Sears' a place to stay for at least a large chunk of their stay in the states!  We are all thrilled that God designed this to happen, so they will move in this week while I'm still here to go over some of the little details about our house before the kids and I leave.  What a win-win for all of us!

I know these pre-Australia posts are quite boring so I'll try to be quiet until the fun stuff starts up.  That's all for now!

Counting Down...12 days until departure!

So today Ethan forwarded me a link to the hotel that we will be living in for the next 3 months.  It is beautiful!  It is a high rise, right in downtown Sydney, with a gorgeous roof top pool!  It really does look like a vacation destination.  The rooms look much like a hotel, but we'll have a 2 bedroom and it will have a small kitchen, laundry, and a living room.  The views from many of the rooms look amazing.  We don't yet know what floor we'll be on.

I write this as we are watching a History Channel special on the 9/11 attacks.  Today is the 11th anniversary of that awful day.  I will never forget.  I was in our Shawnee house, Brady was 20 months old and that morning I was getting him ready for his very first ever "mother's day out."  I saw the attack on TV as I was watching the Today show.  My boys are very interested in learning about that day, I'm glad that they will grow up knowing about the heroes from that day and having an appreciation for our country and our freedoms!

I am so excited for all of us to experience a different culture for longer than a few weeks.  Granted, Australia may not be a huge difference from ours, but it will be a global perspective that we have never had before.  Bring it on!

Suzanne

We're starting a Blog.

So we are starting a family blog.  Ethan has taken a job rotation in Sydney, Australia for the next 3 months.  We are all going!  We are excited for an adventure!  Ethan leaves on September 18th and will be there 5 days to learn the ropes before we come.  The kids think they are excited, but really have no idea what to expect.  We will be trying our hand at homeschooling to try and keep them up to date with school!  Luckily much of the Blue Valley curriculum is online so we should be able to get access to a lot of it.  We will live in a 2 bedroom apartment in downtown Sydney.  We hope to get to explore a lot, and possibly travel to some other close countries as well.  Our plan for this blog is for the kids to journal about their experiences and update on here.  All 5 of us will be posting entries, so you can keep up with our adventures!

Suzanne