Holy crap. We are really moving to Australia. The reality of the situation has finally set in.
Jay had a successful trip down under. Thank goodness he went ahead of time to get the big things taken care of (did I REALLY think I could just pack up the fam and head to a foreign land without having a home and daycare lined up)??? He was able to find a beautiful home for us. The kids (and mama) are going to love the pool. My not-so-secret grand plan is for the kids to beg daddy for a pool when we get back to the states. :). More to come on this, I am sure. If anyone wants to check it out, Google map Hope Island Australia. We will be in the Gracemere area in one of the homes that sits along the canal. Don’t get too excited about the canal, though. No swimming allowed unless you want the adrenaline rush of swimming with the bull sharks!
Jay was able to get the kids signed up for daycare, although this was not an easy task. He realized how spoiled we are here. He stopped the first daycare on his list during tea time (no worries, they don’t actually give the kids tea) and they were literally eating their snacks on the floor…with no plates. He nearly repeated my first daycare visiting experience and almost puked in the bushes. Carni, the wonderful lady that helped tick the to do items off Jay’s list, was able to find a much more suitable place the next day. This place actually has tables, a great outdoor play area, and the teachers seemed super friendly. One major difference is that the majority of the daycares in Australia don’t serve meals, so our days of having Ty get a hot breakfast and lunch are over. I am a little nervous about packing all of his food for the day, but I am sure we will adjust. Any chance he will like Veggiemite sandwiches??
Jay also scoped out the area. He found a grocery store, doctors office, mall, and most importantly a beach (although that wasn’t hard to find!). He met some lovely people, including some expats that invited him over for a barbecue. I am excited to meet everyone myself!
Today was my first day back in the office after 11 weeks of maternity leave. I have a few days left next week to cuddle with my sweet Lily-bean, but had to go to work today to get some Australia cultural training. I went into it thinking that Australia and the US are similar, the Aussies are great people, the land is paradise, how hard will it be. I am so glad we did the training because I had a major reality check, and for the first time since this whole idea of moving to Australia came up a few months ago, I got really nervous. Apparently all expats go through a period of time where there is culture shock/adjustment that can be fairly serious. There are typically 2 low points, that I will hereafter refer to as the Little Dipper, which is just a tease of feeling isolated/homesick), which is followed by the false sense of “I’ve got this” before plunging into the Big Dipper. So fair warning, my posts may not always be sunshine and roses. Please be patient as we work through those times that are inevitably going to come upon us and trust that everything will be all right in time. After the Big Dipper, we will truly be able to embrace the Australian culture. I am not looking forward to the lows, but I know that they will be just a short period of time in the whole adventure.
One final note…the spiders are no joke there. So I was worried about the spiders, snakes, sharks, jellyfish, and deadly octopus, but after the training today I am for real terrified. The female Funnel Web spider is “one angry b!tch” and is not afraid of humans. She will stand on her hind legs and attack. I asked how to kill them, do I just use a shoe? The response I got was, um, nope, a shoe would put you a little too close for comfort. A broom? Well, I don’t know if that would do the trick. So I will be purchasing a spider killing shovel as soon as we land.
Holy crap. We are really moving to Australia.