We made it!

Greetings from Down Under! Yes, it is summer here and yes, this is a crowded beach in Newcastle as everyone is on holiday here. I think it is comparable to Summit County during the week between Christmas and New Years.

So to sum it all up, things are going beautifully. We are truly blessed not only to have this experience but to have it go so smoothly almost every step of the way. I am amazed, really.

Let's see...one bummer that I do have to mention is that while we do have wireless internet, it is very slow compared to what we're used to. It took me about 5 minutes to download the one picture here and frankly, I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to sit for 5 min. per picture unless I have something I can be doing while they are downloading. So if the blog is a bit shy of graphics, you'll know why. On the other hand, it will give me a chance to do the dishes, something I might not otherwise get around to as often as I should.

Okay, so grab a cup of tea and get comfortable. We had a lovely time in LA, as I said. Then we got on a huge plane headed for Sydney at 11:30pm on Tuesday night. It was a 14 hour flight. Mark slept in fits and starts. I slept for about 5-6 hours off and on, once I figured out a way to lie down, cradling Jordan on top of me. Gabe slept for 4 hours waking up at 3:30 and staying up the rest of the time. Jordan slept for about 12 of the 14 hours. While those of us who were awake were awake, we watched free movies that we could order individually and Gabe played a video checkers game. It was pretty sweet, considering the circumstances. We arrived safely and on time in Sydney, made our way through customs and met Prue right away.

A word about Prue: for those of you who will have a chance to meet her, you will be in for a treat. She's wonderful. We haven't gotten to meet her son and probably won't, sadly. She is so friendly and so excited to be coming and a bit nervous as well. With all the hospitality she and her friends have already shown us in the 36 hours we've been here, I am so hoping you all will welcome her with open arms whether you are in Colorado or outside. Feel free to call her at our phone # as we'll teach her how to check messages. I really think you'll like her.

Anyway, back to the story. We found our new car easily and Prue drove it home for us. Fortunately, the car was exactly where it was promised and it runs just fine. Unfortunately, because of the Sydney holiday traffic, what is typically a 2 hour drive home was a 4 hour drive in the heat in an old car that didn't like the A/C on in stop-and-go traffic.

We got to our new house on Thursday afternoon and it is adorable. It is small but it is really clean, well-cared for, well-decorated and has an upgraded kitchen and bathroom. She had put a lot of thought and time into turning her office into Jordan's bedroom, complete with butterflies on the bedspread. (And Andrew, if you aren't nice, I am going tell you all about Mark's "patterns" as soon as I'm done with the details of the house, so be patient.)

Everything is so lush here--semi-tropical they call it. I would love to describe it to you but describing scenery is not really my thing. I'll try to find time to download more pictures. Suffice it to say that everything is dripping with green and there are bright flowers poking out everywhere. The most tropical aspects, however, are the animal noises. They are clearly lurking all around us though we haven't seen any of them yet. The cries we hear sound like the animals are hurt, in need of help, lonely and angry. It is a little disturbing to hear so much emotion coming from the trees and who knows where else. Tonight when we were driving home from the "barbie", we saw a swarm of birds that had a sort of bat feel to them though they were too big to be bats. There were hundreds of them flying in the same direction coming from the same source. It looked like there was a bubble machine somewhere shooting out birds. Very strange. And we have no one to ask about stuff like this yet. I'll let you know what I learn as we go.

Anyway, back to the house. Once Prue let us in and showed us a few things, she left us alone to get settled. This is when I freaked out. I started realizing that not only we were very far from home and would remain far from home for a whole year, but that I didn't even know where I was. I didn't know how to drive and I wouldn't know where to go even if I did. I simply didn't know where in the world I was. I mean, in my world, Australia is a land as foreign as Mars. And there's no way I'd ever end up on Mars, and if I did, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. This is how I felt. When we drove by the Sydney Opera House on our way home from the airport, I thought, "Oh my g-d, I'm in Sydney, Australia." Now, for those of you who have traveled extensively, you might not remember the first time you saw a foreign landmark as famous to you as the White House or Mt. Rushmore. But seeing that grand structure in real life simply didn't make sense to me. Traveling this far shook my foundation in a way that I've not experienced before.

It didn't help that as I was looking around the house, I began to realize that Prue didn't put any of her stuff in storage. She'd left every closet, every shelf, almost every nook and cranny filled with all her stuff. You might remember us talking in November about shipping boxes of our stuff out and you might also remember seeing pictures of Gabe's room filled with all our stuff so she'd have the house to herself. So not only did I feel unsettled but I was afraid that this house would keep me from ever finding a way to feel settled. Luckily, Mark kept his wits about him and assured me "she'll be 'right." But the best I could do that night was go to bed.

The kids, in the mean time, were happy as can be, as they are whenever we land in a new hotel room. They explored like cats, checking out all the nooks and crannies, finding lots of objects that could be transformed into new toys, regardless of their intended use. They fell fast asleep as they were exhausted by about 7pm.

We woke up this morning and with my new perspective combined with the very large and very cool spiders who'd woven webs in the front yard to rival Charlotte's, we were off to a good start.

Driving: I tried it today. Mark says he's gearing up to try it tomorrow. Let's just say I now have a greater understanding of the fact that it is extraordinarily hard for human beings to adopt new perspectives on old ideas. It is amazing how hard it is to wrap my head around the fact that it is okay to turn left without having to look right to see if there are cars coming. They just won't be. And I'm finding it very challenging to park a car from this bizarre vantage point as I have no idea where the left side of my car ends. I'm pretty sure before it is all over, I will take off the side panel of a parked car on the left side of the road. But it is fun, driving this way. It keeps my adrenaline up and I like that.

We took the kids to the beach today. The sun was hot. The beach was crowded. The water was fun. It was good. I'm looking forward to finding another beach or to going back to that one during off-season. The drive home along the ocean was spectacular. It was all you'd expect out of Australian beaches. Vast ocean with a seam of white breaking waves along the edge; white sand, broken up by rock outcroppings here and there; rock walls coming up out of the sand several hundred feet and topped with green trees like thick hair; people everywhere all looking genuinely happy and alive. It's really good. I am glad we get to experience this for a whole year.

After the beach, we found our way to a grocery store. The weirdest thing is that it is inside what feels like a mall. You walk into this big building that doesn't look like a grocery store except there is a sign for the grocery store outside the building. We actually walked around the parking lot for a while (looking like idiot tourists, I'm sure) wondering how you get to the grocery store. We finally ventured into the building and it felt like walking into Villa Italia or some really old and run down mall. There was a butcher, a deli and a bakery and then at the end of the long hall was the grocery store. We bought some basics though nothing looked familiar except maybe the apples. Even the lettuce was weird--the roots are included with all the heads of red and green leaf lettuce.

After the grocery store, we came home to ready ourselves for the barbie. That was at another beach and we got to meet a few of Mark's future colleagues. Everyone was superbly friendly and chatty. I love hearing their accents and comparing our two different cultures. Gabe was feeling pretty punky tonight so we left after a few hours and both kids fell asleep in the car at 8:00, which is unheard of at home. For whatever reason, they are the ones who are really struggling with the time change as Mark and I seem to be on track.

Which brings us to right now. And if you've stayed with me through this whole post, you now deserve to go do something else. If you still have a little time or can find some time later, I'd love to hear from you. I wish you were all here!
Love, Nancy