The Longest 43,300 Minutes Ever... Part 2

I realize I have failed to provide an answer to the very important question I posed in a previous post: Can just anyone hold a koala?

Yes, pretty much. Lulu's birthday fell a week after we arrived here, so I wanted to make it memorable. I found a Groupon for a wildlife reserve not to far from where we were staying and we lucked in to a relatively tolerable day, heat-wise (it's summer here, and quite hot, a welcome contrast to the freezing winter we left behind). We went immediately to the koala area, where we got to hold a very cute, slightly smelly, and entirely disinterested koala for a few seconds each and have photos taken to prove it. It's one of those things you must do in Australia, because where else will you get the chance?

After wandering through the park, watching a bird show, and having a snack, we stumbled onto the kangaroo area. I had pictured a regular zoo sort of habitat, where we would watch them behind a gate and take lots of pictures. But to our delight, it was a massive enclosure where you could walk freely among the kangaroos, pet them, and feed them from a little cup of food. We spent at least an hour there, fascinated and thrilled. There were lots of joeys (both in and out of the pouch). There was a strict rule against touching the babies in the pouch, but those already out were fair game and very sweet and soft. Periodically a little train would come by to take visitors to another area of the park, and as it approached the kangaroos would all pop up and start hopping around. Quite charming.

Afterward, the heat and the walking had gotten to us so we headed toward the cafe and gift shop for lunch and then to pick out Lulu's birthday gift, a giant stuffed sheep with curled horns like we had seen in the reserve. ("Sheepie" is so large that I doubt he will fit into any suitcase we have and may have to have one specially bought to transport him home.)

Queen Money

But back to the story. We made it through the 14-hour flight surprisingly well (we loved Virgin Australia and its free movies and delicious meals) and arrived, a bit sleep-deprived, a 7 am in Brisbane. We sailed through customs, and managed to steer two luggage carts piled with our hoard of suitcases to the Hertz counter, stopping only to get some Australian money from the ATM. We were all fascinated by multicolored bills, which Boo has deemed "Queen Money" because of the ubiquity of Elizabeth II on it. (Did you know Australia isn't even entirely a free country? Its head of state is still the British monarch. Sounds like someone needs a revolution!)

After a shockingly fast stop at the rental counter, we had our car loaded with suitcases (literally every free spot was stuffed with a bag or a kid) and were ready to make the 60-minute drive to our hotel in Broadbeach.

That drive, and every one for a week or so after, took a few years off my life. I held my breath, insisted on total silence from the kids, and tried my best to follow the car in front of me. I don't know how, but we made it without incident and collapsed in the hotel lobby, where we discovered we would have to wait five hours for our room.

It was a very long five hours. We had breakfast, walked down to the beach, sat around the lobby, had lunch, and tried to avoid a total nervous breakdown (with limited success). Once we made it to the room, we collapsed. I raided the 7-11 downstairs for dinner food and we were all out cold by 6 pm.

That was the first day.

Swedish Meatballs and a Side of Pressed Wood

It got a little better after that. We visited my boss on day 2 and Lulu and Boo instantly made friends with his three children. We still fell asleep by 6:30 most evenings, and woke up around 3 am. It took at least a week to get on anything like a normal schedule. Since school wouldn't start until three weeks after we arrived, we had a lot of quality time together. Dragging the kids on nearly daily apartment-hunting ventures in the 90-degree heat were tough on all of us, but daily trips to the pool were more fun. Somewhere in there we accompanied my boss and his family to a surfing lesson (more fun than I expected) and a horseback riding lesson, and we found an apartment that we all liked and whose smell did not offend Boo's over-sensitive nose.

It was exhausting but we managed to have a good few weeks, marveling at the strange accents and new words, blanching at the cost of familiar items like a small bottle of Coke ($4!) and Krispy Kreme donuts ($3 each!), and relishing the delectable tropical produce. Lulu cried for ex-H nearly every afternoon for a couple of weeks, and P's mother died not long after we left, both of which tore at my heart for not being home. But mostly, I was too tired to think or feel anything much.

Once we got moved into our new furnished apartment, it began to sink in that we were here for a long time. One day shortly after we moved, we headed to Ikea to buy a desk for the new place. We were all giddy with excitement over being somewhere so familiar. We wandered the aisles buying things with funny names, ate swedish meatballs, and stocked up on frozen swedish food. It was maybe the best day we'd had so far.

Part 3 coming up next...