We now have an international bank account - weird. We made it to the bank yesterday and after waiting a while and going to two different banks (only one branch does foreign currency) we have money in an account here!! It still seems strange that we are really living here for a while. We also went out for our first house finding trip. We saw six houses in six different areas. They take you to see different areas so that you can get an idea of what area will fit you best. Next Wed. we will head out to look just in one or two areas and hopefully find a house to rent. We are going to go to church in one of the areas on Sunday so that we can get a feel for the ward. We also have to decide how far out we want to live from Sydney city center for Kev's commute - one of the areas we looked at today was nice but he would have to ride the bus in and it would be at least an hour. So many decisions.
I have decided that I am a country girl (okay a suburb girl), not a city girl - especially with kids. I don't know how people live in big cities with kids - it is so hard. There are people everywhere and they don't really look down for kids so I am constantly telling the kids to get out of the way or to look where they are going. I like living where it is a little slower paced and there are fewer people, but I still like the conveniences. There are also just so many people here. Salt Lake is really a small city when you compare it to others. Here is a picture of Madi and Cooper who were tired of walking. We hear that a lot from them - their feet get tired because we do a lot of walking in the city. This time I held Rylee for a while and they rode together in a one seat stroller. It was interesting - I am sure people thought we were a bit strange. The other thing is that there are few children in the city. The other day Rylee was crying in the stroller as we were walking down the street to our apartment - I had tried everything and she was not calming down. We were walking quickly and people kept looking at us as if to say "can't you take care of that baby". I just kept wondering if they had ever heard a baby cry before. It is the same thing if she starts crying while in a store - it is just not a sound that is heard often in the city I suppose.
They do have Target here as well as K-mart, but the prices are giving me a heart attack. We went to the grocery store to buy a few things and spent $60 AU - we didn't even get that much either. I am just going to have to get what is cheapest and not compare it to Utah prices. We have to remember that Sydney is comparable to NY and LA.
Tomorrow we are meeting with a friend of Kev's from work. He has actually never met her - just talked to her on the phone. She quit working a year or so ago so that she could be a stay-at-home mom and now she and her husband are moving to Singapore for work. They are putting all their stuff up for sale. We are going to see if they have anything that we can buy for cheaper that we would get it at the store.
They also have Australia Idol (like American Idol) it actually starts Sunday night. We have seen Deal or No Deal as well, it is the same except for the flashy models. It is funny to see the same shows just done differently - it shows a bit about American culture versus other cultures. I will let you know how Australian Idol is - I love American Idol so we will see if it is comparable.
1 comment:
Hey, you need to make a post that starts listing all the interesting Australian phrases that we don't use here the US. Like when you call somebody on the phone and the, in the US, line is busy, so you say, in Australia, "they're engaged", etc. I think it would be fun to learn about some of language issues you are going through.
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