Greetings From Australia

Hey everybody.  Its taken us forever to get this started, but better late than never right?  I blame the lack of reliable internet access- seriously, there is no such thing as internet by the month- its all paid for by the megabyte of usage. Do you know how long it takes Skype to burn through 3 GB? We do- its about 44 minutes.

Anyway, our lives are starting to look normal.  We got the cats out of quarantine and moved into our house last week. It is giant- we have a four bedroom house, so anytime any of you want to come and visit, you don’t have to worry about us having enough space.  Its also very white.  We are looking into getting permission to paint, because as you can all guess from our last place, we are fans of color.  We live in a suburb called Franklin, its relatively new, there are new houses still being constructed around us, and its about a 15 minute drive from the City Centre.  To most everyone this is an eternity away, but come on, we just moved from the DC area. You can’t drive anywhere in 15 minutes. And there is no such thing as traffic. I think we’ve died and gone to commuter heaven. We really like the house- now if only they will hurry up and inspect our furniture at customs in Sydney, so we can have our stuff.

The birds here are crazy.  Magpies are crazy aggressive- the embassy handed out a two page document on what to do when they swoop at you.  Mostly its because you are near their nest, but it can also be because they don’t like you. They remember people who have treated them wrong and will attack them every time they see them, or people who look like them. There are about seven or eight who live near us, and they are apparently great neighborhood watch since they get used to who lives there and will go after any new-looking intruders. We watched one literally run down a woman who was holding a piece of bread it wanted. Flocks of cockatoos are everywhere and while quite pretty are really loud and sqwauky. Most unique are the giant ravens- which sound exactly like a screaming, dying baby. I don’t know what is more disturbing- the sound they make, or that we are starting to get used to it.

Two weekends we drove to the coast and Pebbly Beach, a small little beach alcove on the southeastern shore of Australia. It was beautiful, but best of all, there is a guy who lives there who has spent the last fifty years taming the local kangaroos.  So, we petted kangaroos, and watched them hop around, and their little joeys wiggle in and out of the surprisingly roomy pouches.  You know nothing too exciting or adorable. Facebook pictures coming soon.

Contact info: Our address is 32 Daniels Street, Franklin ACT 2913. For mail though, its probably better to use our post office box at the Embassy- PSC 277 Box 52, APO AP 96549. No international mail! Our phone at the house is 6242-9601.  To dial from the states it would be 011-612-6242-9601.  We are currently 15 hours ahead, but as soon as you guys lose an hour (silly northern hemisphere, going into Autumn) we will be 16 hours ahead. I think that will put us roughly two and half days ahead of Hawaii.

We miss all of  you, and the hardest part about this move has been moving away from you guys.   Stay in touch and we will try to do a far better job at sending updates now that we have our blog!