Final Leg to Perth

Final Leg to Perth

Our final flight was only 5 hours, which felt like a breeze after the 14 hours over the Pacific.  Ethan was getting much more comfortable and let's face it, maybe a little bored so he walked up and talked to the pilot when he was out stretching his legs. After a quick conversation, Ethan sat back down and the pilot picked up the phone in the galley.  After a couple minutes the pilot walked back and crouched down and said to Ethan, "Hi Ethan, it's 1 hour and 29 before we land and 1 hour and 9 minutes before we start descent."  This was followed with a big smile and, "Be sure to let me know if you need anything else, mate."  Shortly after that we landed safely with all of our luggage in Perth, Western Australia.  The kids excitement was palpable as they realized we were "home" (for the time being).  Here are the kids at Scarborough Beach shortly after our arrival.  

Home Sweet Apartment Life

The kids shared this space nicely as we settled into The Quest in Innaloo. We stayed in a two bedroom apartment with a kitchenette.  The best part (little did we know at the time) was that it was next door to IKEA. I've honestly never loved IKEA, but I think it's fair to say that I haven't given it much of a chance until now.  I should probably just apply and work there part time as random employees now recognize me and give a friendly wave as I pass through.  The apartment had a workout room as well, so that became part of our routine that everyone would go downstairs and hit the gym.  The kids were at a phase where they needed to burn off some energy, so this was perfect.  Of course the first thing I noticed was that the treadmill was set up to show how far you ran in kilometers; the kids just thought they were running really fast.  

Now the work would begin of quickly trying               

to find a house (the hope was to find a furnished house) within a reasonable commuting distance to Mike's office and in a highly ranked school district.

But first... setting up an Australian bank account, new cell phones, merging U.S. and Aussie phone numbers, acquire vehicles and drivers licenses (only after you have an Aussie address). You get the idea. We were quickly finding that there was a distinct order of events that must take place.  

We were lucky to get a wonderful real estate agent who worked quickly for us as far as the Aussie work pace goes.  I mean no negativity here, but let's face it we aren't in Kansas anymore, Toto. By this I mean, the work life balance here is much different than we are accustomed to back home.  People generally work 8-4:00 pm and stores close around 5 pm.  Except on Thursday's.  Yep, Thursdays are the one evening that everything is open late; and by late I mean 9 pm.  As far as viewings go to look at houses, the owner typically has the house open for private viewings approximately 1 time a week for 30 minutes (yes.. that's it, you better run through and then take good notes afterward).  We were lucky to get 2 viewings a day on a couple occasions but they were usually kept to 1 a day.  If you liked the house, you applied immediately as sometimes it was based on a first come first serve basis.  With some of the viewings, we were the only potential renters but on one particular Saturday, we were four of 50 to 60 people walking through this house at the same time. There was nothing special about this property except that it's proximity to downtown Perth was closer compared to some of the suburbs where we were looking.  We found this very comical and chuckled the whole time as we bumped elbows, shoulders, knees etc and kept hearing, "Sorry... no worries, mate". Fast forward a week and after viewing more listings than I care to count, and applying to numerous properties, we felt like we won the lottery when we found out that we had been approved on our number one choice. We had an address.  Ocean Reef, Western Australia.  I couldn't have been more pleased. 

Move all of our belongings in 11 totes, check.  Find a property, check.  Our attention turned immediately to registering the kids for school. Alison will be a Year 7 (Senior High) and Ethan will be a Year 6 (Primary School).  Their school year started in 20 days and we had a lot to do.  Luckily all of their resources could be ordered online and would hopefully show up in time.  We immediately reached out to the principals of both schools and got tours set up.  We gently reminded the kids of the advice that we had been given by some friends of ours back in MN.  "Remember that you are representing all of the United States of America when you start school."  No pressure or anything, kids.

Our New Normal

Anyone that knows us as parents is aware that Mike and I didn't want to succumb to buying our kids cell phones before the ripe age of say 15.  After many talks, we decided this battle was pointless by this point. Presently, our eldest is the new proud owner of a Google Pixel 4.  The look of pure joy on her face almost makes it worth it, almost. Picking a mobile phone provider is not any easier in Australia.  We now have choices like: Telstra, Optus, Votafone, Yomojo.. the list goes on and on.  We are finding the same types of annoying issues with cell phone plans as back home.  

We did have a nice little finding with Google Voice.  We paid $20 to merge my U.S. number to my Aussie number and that also holds my number for 

when we move back to the States.  

Shopping 

Australian's are hilarious.  There are no two ways about it.  This popcorn bag is from our first shopping excursion to Spudshed (groceries). There were maybe 4 choices of popcorn flavorings to choose from and every bag had a different clever saying written on it.  What I can't get used to is that these large grocery stores (Woolworths, Coles, IGA, Spudshed etc) are in the middle of the mall and people load up their groceries in their carts (trolleys) and then head to the pharmacy (chemist), then stop at Votofone to get help with an app that never seems to work, then stop at a jewelry store to see about getting rings cleaned all while pushing a damn shopping cart.  Dad's are pushing kids in the trolleys and swinging them in circles- look out!  While passing a shoe store in the mall (pushing a trolley full of pretty much everything), the kids eye's got a little big as they noticed a giant sign for THONGS for sale. They started giggling.  Yes, thongs in Aussie terms just means sandals.  It might be a good time to mention that Kmart is actually more like Target and Target is the crap store.