What we will miss most about Australia....

My mom had the great idea of interviewing everyone in our family to find out what we all will miss most about Australia when we return home. So, here it goes!

What We Will Miss Most About Australia:

Marina:

1. Grzesiaks (a family we met through Boeing who attends our church; Lukie Grzesiak is about her age, and they are close friends)
2. Replay (a place where one can play video games at the mall)

Madeline:

1. Sarah Grzesiak
2. Replay - surprise, surprise :-)
3. New Zealand (we had a fantastic trip there in the beginning of 2006)
4. Beaches
5. Hot weather, or, as she put it, "the sun"
6. CityCat, a public ferry that stops at different locations along the Brisbane river
   

Meagan:

1. Beaches
2. Grzesiaks
3. Our Queenslander home, including the backyard hottub & pool
4. Unique, tropical flora and fauna
5. Dreamworld (an amusement park we've only been to twice)
6. CityCat

Me (Michelle):

1. Beaches
2. Family trips
3. Grzesiaks
4. New Zealand

Mom:

1. Tropical climate
2. Laid-back lifestyle
3. Walks to Racecourse Road with my dad (they desert us girls for this ritual at night at least once a week ) :-( No, we really don't mind; it's great that they have a chance to get away.
4. Weekly trips to the grocery stores (here, the shopping is more European in that you go to one store for meat, another for produce, another for bakery items, etc. . . but most of the stores are right next to each other, so it's not too difficult)
5. All the fantastic people she's met, many who have lived abroad
6. A wide variety of fresh produce
7. Getting by with only one car - we can do this because my dad takes public transport to work . . . very environmentally friendly, at least compared to Al Gore's private jet! :-)
8. Beaches
9. and of course...the Grzesiaks! :-)
   
   

Dad:

1. Tropical climate
2. Short commute to work (it only takes my dad about 15 minutes on a bus to get to work, compared with 45 minutes or more in America)
3. People he works with (I think this corresponds with #5)
4. Fun family trips
5. Easy-going lifestyle (Australians are not so rushed as Americans)
6. Walks to Racecourse Road with my mom
   
   
   
   
   

So, some other time, I will post about what things we are most excited to go back to. I hope this gives you all a good representation of what our life is like here, especially when combined with my next one!

Becoming Jane

Ok, so as I mentioned in an earlier post, Callie, Margaret, Meagan, Maddie, Marina, my mom, and I saw Becoming Jane, a movie portraying the life of the author Jane Austen. I would say that we all enjoyed it, but at the same time, we all thought some parts of it were inappropriate.

First of all, the acting was wonderful. Before watching the movie, I wondered how Anne Hathaway, as an American, would play the British Jane Austen, but I was pleasantly surprised. Her British accent was not as strong as, say, the characters' in the Harry Potter films, but she definitely pulled it off very well. The only movies I have seen her in (like Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada) gave Hathaway really modern, American parts, so I was unsure how she would perform in a movie set in England during the early nineteenth century, but she acted very well. Also, all the other characters did great in their parts.

Second, the cinemotography was fantastic. The setting really emphasized the beauty of England. The rain and green landscape reminded me of Seattle!

Third, young children should probably not watch Becoming Jane. We took Madeline and Marina simply because we didn't know what this movie contained, but wish we hadn't. There are some inappropriate romantic scenes (mostly innuendos), but they flew over the girls' heads, so they're fine. I also wanted to warn any of you who might not be allowed to watch those things--the movie was disappointing in that respect.

Fourth, this movie does not portray Austen's actual relationship with Tom Lefroy, but only her possible relationship with him. When I went to the movie, I did not realize that, and was therefore quite surprised at some of the storyline. Now that I understand the movie was not an actual portrait of Austen, it makes more sense.

Fifth, this is definitely a "chick flick!" Some guys might like this, but it is rather sentimental.

And I don't think I have a "sixth." Overall, Becoming Jane was a well-done and enjoyable movie, but had a few bad parts. Those of you planning on watching it, I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. This movie does not come out in America until August 3 (Yay!! Sorry, but I have had my fair share of waiting to watch movies here in Australia; movies generally come out earlier in America than here, so it is a little relieving that we can see some movies before Americans . . .).

ANZAC Day

Ok, so I have not gotten around to giving Australian slang words for a while . . . sorry about that! But here's one for this week:

Australian term: Digger

American equivalent: Australian soldier


I chose that word because this Wednesday, Australians nationwide celebrated ANZAC Day. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, and this day commemorates the battle in WWI at Gallipoli. The Allies definitely lost this battle, but that is not what this day remembers. Before Gallipoli, the "diggers" separated into their own states, and some held bitter rivalry towards the infantry of other states. But at this battle, the Australians joined together, and fought not as separate divisions, but as one country. Australians celebrate this day to honor the soldiers' lives who were lost in the battle of Gallipoli and also to remember the day that Australia came together, both on the battlefield and also in Australia, where the mourners of the lost men drew together in grief.

My dad got the day off, so we called up the Grzesiaks, and carpooled up north to the Sunshine Coast. A cute little place called Noosa is situated right on the beach, so we settled down there. The water was surprisingly warm, so we spent more than one hour bodyboarding and bobbing in the waves. After we dried off, we ambled through the Noosa National Park, keeping watch for koalas, but without any luck (during an earlier trip to this park, we saw one koala). Then we had lunch, and of course, ice cream. We sure needed it after that big day! :-) Altogether, we had a fantastic time celebrating our last ANZAC Day in Australia.

April 10-13

Last Friday, around 10 AM, Meagan and I gave our last hugs to our close friends, Callie and Margaret, and waved them good-bye as they finished checking on their bags. I teared up a little (I normally am not the crying type...), but this good-bye was a lot easier than the one last July. At that time, we had a year before we knew we would see each other (we did not know at that moment that they would visit us in Australia), but now, we only have six and a half weeks! I can hardly believe we will be driving on the right side of the road, spending time with our friends, and shopping in American stores--all in only 6 1/2weeks! It seems like ages from this moment, but the time will probably fly by.

We had an absolutely fantastic time with Callie and Margaret! Some of my favorite times include days spent at Twin Waters, our day-trip to Dreamworld, and the few hours we had at O’Reilly’s. I have put links for those places so that you can read the posts on my family’s blog that talk about those occasions—I could begin explaining our time there, but I guess my dad and mom did a better job. Also, I have other later instances I need to talk about here….

On the last Tuesday Callie and Margaret spent with us, we walked down to Cecilia’s Nail & Hair Salon, a cute little place a few minutes' walk from our home, and each received a French manicure. We had only one professional French manicure before that day, and consider it a special treat, but our Grandma Kim, my dad’s step-mom, kindly helped us out financially (Thank you, Grandma Kim!!!). So, we all had lots of fun doing girly stuff. Here are some pictures of our time at Cecilia’s:

That night, Meagan and Margaret continued the pampering mood and decided to give each other facials (Callie and I diligently [yeah right!] worked on our U.S. History homework :-)). You should have seen the bathroom! They set up at least ten little tea lamps on the floor and prepared all of the home-made scrubs, masks, etc. before hand. At one point, they even set the fire alarm off! :-)

The next day, Callie, Margaret, and I called the Moores for our weekly US History class. I had a lot of fun sharing my experience on the phone with them.

After that, my mom drove us to Chermside, where we showed them one of our “shopping centres,” called “malls" in America. We spent our time leading them into various shops, and all came away with something, whether a shirt or lipgloss or a hat.

On Thursday, the last full day with the McKenzies, we took the CityCat to South Bank, the location of the 1988 Word Expo. We strolled through the pathways lined with tall, curvy arches ornamented with rosy blossoms, and took lots of pictures. Twice, we had a Chinese tourist film us while we were taking

pictures or even eating Tim-Tams! We all thought that was a little weird, but my mom told us later that she had experienced that before. She said that lots of Asians think that Americans are really cool, so that’s why they film us! Isn’t that strange?

That night, we moved the queen and two twin mattresses into the rumpus, or bonus, room, and positioned them so that all our heads would be together. But before we tumbled into bed, we soaked for more than an hour in the hottub, just chatting about our past memories in America, our more recent ones in Australia, and our plans for our future. After we rinsed off and finished preparing for bed, we crawled into bed and relished our last moments together by talking some more. Meagan soon dozed off, Margaret following about half an hour later, but Callie and I stayed up until almost 3 AM. We did not beat our previous record, which was staying up until 3:40 AM, but it was pretty late, especially since we woke up before 7 AM. We arrived at the airport around 9 AM, and after a long wait to check in their bags, waved good-bye to them. The rest of the day we spent tackling school, organizing some of our boxes, and talking about how much fun we had with Callie and Margaret.

I have to go now. Hope you enjoyed reading this!

Easter!!

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day worshipping Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Earlier today, we attended the 8:30 AM church service (our church has two services, one at 8:30 and another at 10; we prefer the earlier one, because a. the families with kids attend that service and b. it gives us more time to accomplish other things during the rest of the day), and there met the Brannans, a new family who arrived here three days ago from Colorado Springs. Mr. Brannan will work with my dad at Boeing. The Brannans have been on many short-term assignments for Boeing, living in places such as Alice Springs (a place right in the middle of Australia, where one can find Ayer's Rock, aka Uluru) and England. We spontaneously invited them over for dinner tonight (I always love inviting people over at the last-minute!!), so that will be fun.

Immediately after church, we drove to Mt. Coot-tha, a tall mountain with a spot that looks out over the Brisbane city. I really love it because it gives a good view of the winding Brisbane river. To the right is a picture of us there.

Tonight, we will have dinner with the Brannans. Callie, Meagan, Margaret, and I also plan to prepare a little Easter egg hunt for the younger kids.

Sorry, everyone, for taking so long to post on this blog!! I have been busy showing Callie and Margaret around. We have done lots of fun stuff so far, so if you would like to keep updated with what's going on here, I would encourage you to look at my family's blog. I'll start posting more regularly soon! Have a fantastic Easter!!!