Down Under Everything Is Upside Down

“You mean Christmas is in June?!?!”

That’s what Lulu said when I told her Christmas in Australia was in the summer. I explained that everything is backward there. Christmas and New Year’s are warm and sunny while June and July are cool (but not cold, at least not where we’ll be living on the Gold Coast). If you go north, it gets hotter; go south and it gets colder. The water goes down the drain the opposite way.

“But if everything is backward, nothing will be the same as here,” she replied. Well, I said, that’s why we’re going.

Do not adjust your screen. You read right. We’re moving to Australia for a year, in theory so I can help out my company’s fledgling Aussie operations. But really so Lulu and Boo and I can have an adventure. And P. P’s coming with us, which any of you who followed along on this blog back when I actually updated it know is something like a miracle. 

Welcome back

It’s been a challenge to blog over the past year or so. Things have mostly the same, in a good way. Lulu and Boo are healthy and happy and (usually) wonderful. We spend the summers swimming at the pool and the winters in front of the fireplace. Lulu and Boo started Tae Kwon Do lessons in February and will test for their orange belt at the end of the month. They’re both good, but Boo (who at 5 is always the smallest in the class by at least a head) is something of a savant. His reflexes are astoundingly quick and his kicks and punches are sharp.

P. and I have been reassuringly solid. There are fights from time to time, all resolved with relative speed and kindness. And we’ve grown closer in the past year, enduring his being fired from the company we both work(ed) for – a challenging time for both of us, but one we got through together. He no longer even speaks to the WW, a switch that once seemed as unimaginable as me moving to Australia. We had a great 10 days in Oak Island, NC, this summer with the kids. I loved how kind and patient he was with them. It was marred only by the sad discovery when we returned that his cat would have to be put to sleep. P decided he wanted to bury the Little Guy in my backyard. Digging a grave together is an undeniably bonding experience.

Even ex-H has been stable. He’s still with L, and she is still as sweet as ever with Lulu and Boo. Nothing’s perfect – there’s never enough money and always more things that need to be paid for, work has been difficult of late (pre-assignment to Australia), the kids fight a little more (and a little more loudly) than I would like – but it has been, if I may say, a pretty good time.

Does everyone really say “G’day, mate”?

But now with the upcoming move and the prospect of an incredible adventure ahead, I thought it would be a good time to revive my neglected blog and document this exciting time.

First up, figuring out a place to live. We looked briefly at Sydney, which is a bit like San Francisco, which I visited last month on a work trip. Insanely beautiful and insanely expensive. We crossed it off the list pretty quickly – P is not much of a city boy and I didn’t want to spend my year abroad fighting crowds.

Next we looked at Brisbane, which is about 11 hours north of Sydney and an hour north of where my new boss lives. It’s the third-largest city in Australia, and is semi-tropical, with warm winters and hot, humid summers. Then, we gazed a little south of Brisbane to the Gold Coast. In addition to the gorgeous weather (warm winters, slightly warmer summers) and relatively inexpensive housing, it has this going for it:

Yeah. Decision made. Since this is where my boss lives, he is able to help me out with schools, which is huge as public school quality varies as much in Oz as it does here. He recommended the school his children go to, where – much to the consternation of Lulu and Boo – all the kids wear green-and-gray uniforms, complete with required wide-brimmed hats. (There is apparently no ozone layer over Australia, kind of a problem.) I made the mistake of telling Boo I thought the uniforms were cute. He told his nana (my mom), “if my mom says something is cute, is IS NOT CUTE.” Point taken.

I can't say I understand the political references here, but this cartoon shows what the uniforms look like. I still think I am right -- Boo will look so cute!

Oh, and the school year runs late January through mid-December, so we’re going Jan. 1. I wanted Lulu and Boo to have a full semester here before we leave – Boo’s starting kindergarten and it seemed ideal that he learn to go to school before I toss him into school on another continent. It gives them a full Aussie school year, too, then another full term once we get back. They haven’t caught on yet that they will be skipping a summer. I think living at the beach for a year will more than compensate. 

Actual view from one of the apartments I've been checking out online:

Lulu and Boo aren't entirely sure about the move. But the more pictures like the ones above and below I show them, the more they start to come around.

That’s all for now. Next post: Can just anyone hold a koala? And, what percentage of the world’s deadliest snakes live in Australia?