Hi everyone!
We just had another holiday here on Friday -Anzac Day. It's like Veterans day in the states and it is in remembrance of soldiers defending their country. The churches in the state in Australia have a big annual picnic on Anzac day where people come from nearly every congregation (even Canberra, which isn't in this state but is at least 3 hours away). It's a lovely time where people catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and especially report on the work their congregations are doing. They share ideas for spreading the news of Jesus, they share news of current needs and prayer requests, and I found it really interesting to get to hear about all the other congregations and the ministry here.
Instead of being in the Christian majority here (like in the Bible belt) I suddenly find myself in a country where missionaries are sent to work. I had some really interesting conversations about this with a member of the church here who has seen many mission students come and go over the years. It's really a new perspective to hear about mission trips and AIM students and all from the other side of the fence.
And some of the best news (for me anyhow) is that there are quite a few OKIES here doing mission work in the church. Can you believe it? Not just Americans, people whose parents live in Broken Arrow and such! There is apparently a big link between Australia and Oklahoma Christian, through a program called Helpers in Missions (HIM). As this program just developed within the last 10 years (while I was buried in my own schooling out of state), I never really heard of it before I came over. Some professors now at OC used to live and work in Australia and apparently do a pretty thorough job of preparing students to come and live over here for 2 years and work in the ministry. The program doesn't just send people to Australia, but some other places too. (Some great people from my own church back home are apparently in this program in England -The Perrys!)
Small world. Two more girls are coming over in August from OC to help with our church directly, and the congregation couldn't be happier. As one of the smaller congregations I don't think they often have the same resources. Everyone is so pleased they are coming that they all make it sound like they will be here in two weeks! :) I can't wait to meet them and buy them a Dr. Pepper as they settle in.
So anyhow, I had a lovely weekend and met some more nice people my age (okay, so most of them are a few years younger -I found out they know my best friends younger siblings). It was nice to talk with other people who have just made the same move as us. We compared Visa stories and and had loads to talk about. Hopefully I can help some of them through hurdles I faced here already.
Hope you all are having a lovely day. It's sunny and lunchtime so I'm going to walk to the shops and get something to eat, and probably walk my dogs. It's been raining here lots lately and they're going a bit stir crazy without the exercise they are used to.
Cheers!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Brrr, Chilly!
Boy it's chilly here. It's not standard to have central heat or air conditioners in Australia -or any heat or AC units. I'm glad I brought my jacket over. (It's not extremely cold really -it's just me being cold-natured. High today of 67, low of 58, & currently feels like 63 according to the weather.) I'm sure with a cup of tea I'll warm right up.
We should have internet connections sorted by tomorrow finally so V and I aren't fighting for use of the one computer. Nothing ever gets set up right the first time in any country.
They do have peanut butter here in stores. I'm eating PB on bread or instant noodles until we get a fridge for this place and some real groceries. Feels like I'm still in college most days (Except no Dr. Pepper! You can only get a Dr. Pepper in a specialty store in the mall for nearly $3 a can! Have I mentioned that before? Probably have. How can nobody in this country drink Dr. Pepper? Guess I'll have to stick with tea.).
Cheers everyone!
We should have internet connections sorted by tomorrow finally so V and I aren't fighting for use of the one computer. Nothing ever gets set up right the first time in any country.
They do have peanut butter here in stores. I'm eating PB on bread or instant noodles until we get a fridge for this place and some real groceries. Feels like I'm still in college most days (Except no Dr. Pepper! You can only get a Dr. Pepper in a specialty store in the mall for nearly $3 a can! Have I mentioned that before? Probably have. How can nobody in this country drink Dr. Pepper? Guess I'll have to stick with tea.).
Cheers everyone!
Nothing like moving....
Hi again! There's nothing like moving to keep you really busy. We're in a new place now, much closer to stores, a post office, and our friends here. It's got a great sized back yard for the dogs and lots of lovely plants -a purple bougainvillea, several shades of hibiscus, a white rose bush, and several other bright flowering but as yet unidentified plants. As for the rest of the house, it's a disaster of boxes still. I've got a bag of cleaning supplies and hopefully will everything here scrubbed down and put away this week.
Closets aren't standard in Australia and this rental property didn't come with any, but luckily in this part of the city they are having yet another -yes you guessed it- council cleanup. Today V and I were lucky enough to find not 1, but 2 nice wardrobes that were as yet untouched by all the rain we've been having. It rains every day here lately; good for the plants, bad for furniture sitting on curbs.
We've got internet hooked up here for just one computer so far, so I have to pry V off his pc for some online time, but hopefully that will be remedied soon. I've got lots to do around the house anyhow to settle in finally. I'll post some pictures once it stops raining and I can take some of the pretty flowers in my backyard. At least they are getting watered with all the rain and are very green.
We're glad to finally be in our own little place and start establishing a rental record in this country so the next time renting will be a little bit easier. Hope everyone is enjoying spring in the states. We're starting to pull out jackets here for a bit of chilly wind as fall sets in. Miss you all. Cheers!
Closets aren't standard in Australia and this rental property didn't come with any, but luckily in this part of the city they are having yet another -yes you guessed it- council cleanup. Today V and I were lucky enough to find not 1, but 2 nice wardrobes that were as yet untouched by all the rain we've been having. It rains every day here lately; good for the plants, bad for furniture sitting on curbs.
We've got internet hooked up here for just one computer so far, so I have to pry V off his pc for some online time, but hopefully that will be remedied soon. I've got lots to do around the house anyhow to settle in finally. I'll post some pictures once it stops raining and I can take some of the pretty flowers in my backyard. At least they are getting watered with all the rain and are very green.
We're glad to finally be in our own little place and start establishing a rental record in this country so the next time renting will be a little bit easier. Hope everyone is enjoying spring in the states. We're starting to pull out jackets here for a bit of chilly wind as fall sets in. Miss you all. Cheers!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
And the hunt continues....
Lucky you Cyrus! (Read his comment on previous house-hunting post on how simple and efficient the rental system is in America.)
Unfortunately for us, long story short in the end we are back on the hunt ready for our 50 billionth house hunting trip on Monday morning. As inflation and interest rates are soaring, more people are turning to renting rather than buying, making this as tv ads call it "the highest renting market in history". Boy I'm glad I arrived just in time for this.
America, please hurry up and send you recession over here to deflate prices, pretty please?
Unfortunately for us, long story short in the end we are back on the hunt ready for our 50 billionth house hunting trip on Monday morning. As inflation and interest rates are soaring, more people are turning to renting rather than buying, making this as tv ads call it "the highest renting market in history". Boy I'm glad I arrived just in time for this.
America, please hurry up and send you recession over here to deflate prices, pretty please?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Other odds and ends
Hrm, so many little things I've meant to post and haven't because I've been so busy. Well today since for once I don't have to house hunt and the dishes are done and the laundry is running I guess I can spend a few minutes posting and catching up on long neglected e-mails.
Thanks to all my family who's been sending me updates. I appreciate hearing from you all and being kept up to date on things. If you're not related to me, well, some health problems in the family lately. (I love you Granner and think of you all the time, so get to feeling better!) Mom also had surgery on her birthday this week (what a way to spend a birthday).
V had a birthday this week too. We celebrated with a nice Japanese meal for lunch and pizza for dinner for the birthday boy. I think we're also going to try to go out to celebrate next week with friends here when we can get schedules coordinated.
Before Easter I had 2 things happen in one day that were fairly big -I had a wisdom tooth pulled out and I had to go dress shopping. One of those events was quick and low-cost. Dress shopping, however, was long and painful and so expensive in the end I took it back to the store. It didn't match the rainy weather for the event anyhow. V's sister was married on the beach but unfortunately we had some morning showers.
I'm really happy with my new dentist so far, which is good because I think I'm going to be seeing a lot of him in the near future after my checkup. The dentist was as nice as anyone who scrapes your teeth with pointy metal scrapers and drills can be. He's also from England originally. (Many people I meet here are from England or South Africa, not many locals.) I was pretty scared about experiencing health care in a foreign country, but I guess it's like every country there are horror stories and extreme cases.
What else? Oh , I finally got a cell phone. A red one. :) It's the most basic little prepaid thing I could get, but at least it gave realtor's a way to get in touch. It also took me 5 hours to go and get by bus and get back home, as somehow I got on a limited stop bus that didn't not let me get off where I expected and I ended up somewhere totally new. Then I had to find a phone there because it was getting too late to wait on another bus and take it back through traffic. Stores mostly close at 5pm here, yes, even the mall and grocery stores. 5 pm. Thursday night it does stay open a couple of hours later, and most things close 6-7 pm. Saturdays things close around 1pm.
So even though Wal-mart is a huge (and monopolizing, evil, & giant) store, be grateful for it you Americans! Cheap goods, variety, all in one store! Open 24/7
The best shopping here is a catholic charity store, like a salvation army store, called St. Vincent DePaul's. I went once and it was packed with people. It has everything and it gives me hope that we be able to afford things like dishes, silverware and chairs in our new place. Lucky we were able to scavenge so much, but some things we need for our new place we didn't previously have room for here with the in-laws stuff.
I've been sitting here listening to country music today while e-mailing and posting. Really odd for me I know, but it makes me feel like I'm back in Texas, which I really miss. Of course, when we come back, don't plan on dragging me to any Dixie Chics concerts Mom and especially Dad!
Gonna go enjoy the sunshine for a bit as it's a beautiful day today. Thanks for the comments and hope you all are doing well and enjoying the coming spring weather (if you're far enough south to be finished with snow that is!)
Thanks to all my family who's been sending me updates. I appreciate hearing from you all and being kept up to date on things. If you're not related to me, well, some health problems in the family lately. (I love you Granner and think of you all the time, so get to feeling better!) Mom also had surgery on her birthday this week (what a way to spend a birthday).
V had a birthday this week too. We celebrated with a nice Japanese meal for lunch and pizza for dinner for the birthday boy. I think we're also going to try to go out to celebrate next week with friends here when we can get schedules coordinated.
Before Easter I had 2 things happen in one day that were fairly big -I had a wisdom tooth pulled out and I had to go dress shopping. One of those events was quick and low-cost. Dress shopping, however, was long and painful and so expensive in the end I took it back to the store. It didn't match the rainy weather for the event anyhow. V's sister was married on the beach but unfortunately we had some morning showers.
I'm really happy with my new dentist so far, which is good because I think I'm going to be seeing a lot of him in the near future after my checkup. The dentist was as nice as anyone who scrapes your teeth with pointy metal scrapers and drills can be. He's also from England originally. (Many people I meet here are from England or South Africa, not many locals.) I was pretty scared about experiencing health care in a foreign country, but I guess it's like every country there are horror stories and extreme cases.
What else? Oh , I finally got a cell phone. A red one. :) It's the most basic little prepaid thing I could get, but at least it gave realtor's a way to get in touch. It also took me 5 hours to go and get by bus and get back home, as somehow I got on a limited stop bus that didn't not let me get off where I expected and I ended up somewhere totally new. Then I had to find a phone there because it was getting too late to wait on another bus and take it back through traffic. Stores mostly close at 5pm here, yes, even the mall and grocery stores. 5 pm. Thursday night it does stay open a couple of hours later, and most things close 6-7 pm. Saturdays things close around 1pm.
So even though Wal-mart is a huge (and monopolizing, evil, & giant) store, be grateful for it you Americans! Cheap goods, variety, all in one store! Open 24/7
The best shopping here is a catholic charity store, like a salvation army store, called St. Vincent DePaul's. I went once and it was packed with people. It has everything and it gives me hope that we be able to afford things like dishes, silverware and chairs in our new place. Lucky we were able to scavenge so much, but some things we need for our new place we didn't previously have room for here with the in-laws stuff.
I've been sitting here listening to country music today while e-mailing and posting. Really odd for me I know, but it makes me feel like I'm back in Texas, which I really miss. Of course, when we come back, don't plan on dragging me to any Dixie Chics concerts Mom and especially Dad!
Gonna go enjoy the sunshine for a bit as it's a beautiful day today. Thanks for the comments and hope you all are doing well and enjoying the coming spring weather (if you're far enough south to be finished with snow that is!)
Exhaustion of the House Hunt
Hi Everyone,
Well the house hunt really has been a blood-thirsty hunt. V and I have been hitting real estate office after office day after day, and when he's had to work I've gone by bus. It's really competitive to be approved for rental and you see the same people applying at place after place, all with their organized binders of paperwork required for application, each of us hoping that we outshine the other candidates at at least one proerty.
These rental people usually require 100 points of identification, with points gained from each id document you can supply (such as drivers license, passport, other photo id, birth certificate, bank statement, utility bills, previous 4 rental receipts, car registration papers, a month's worth of pay stubs, written references from previous landlords, etc) And you have to have as many of those as possible, as well as personal references and work references. Also, you have to visit each property before you are allowed to apply, and they are only open for viewing for 15 minutes around lunchtime one/two days a week. Usually the first person to the house with a good application gets it, so we have to scramble from house to house trying to be first there and first to fill out the forms. And the houses are all spread out of course over several suburbs so we have seen a lot of the coast lately. Well, we drove by the coast anyway. I was usually too busy looking at the map to find the next property's location.
I've filled out dozens of applications now, and finally this week we got some nibbles. I'm not saying anything here for certain until the paperwork is signed and it's officially official. I'm glad we're at least being considered for some finally. It's been an all-consuming task. The bad thing is many places are only beaing leased for 6 months until they plan to rennovate the place, so in 6 months I get to go through all this again. At least then I'll have more Australian references so I don't have to chance they will call my poor USA contacts in the middle of the night. Thank you to all who let me list you as a reference; I really appreciate it. I don't know if they bothered to call the US, but you never know.
So hooray!, moving day seems to be in the near future and V and I will finally have a place of our own. I've had suitcases packed and ready to move for a few weeks now, so they'd better give me a key soon.
Cheers!
Well the house hunt really has been a blood-thirsty hunt. V and I have been hitting real estate office after office day after day, and when he's had to work I've gone by bus. It's really competitive to be approved for rental and you see the same people applying at place after place, all with their organized binders of paperwork required for application, each of us hoping that we outshine the other candidates at at least one proerty.
These rental people usually require 100 points of identification, with points gained from each id document you can supply (such as drivers license, passport, other photo id, birth certificate, bank statement, utility bills, previous 4 rental receipts, car registration papers, a month's worth of pay stubs, written references from previous landlords, etc) And you have to have as many of those as possible, as well as personal references and work references. Also, you have to visit each property before you are allowed to apply, and they are only open for viewing for 15 minutes around lunchtime one/two days a week. Usually the first person to the house with a good application gets it, so we have to scramble from house to house trying to be first there and first to fill out the forms. And the houses are all spread out of course over several suburbs so we have seen a lot of the coast lately. Well, we drove by the coast anyway. I was usually too busy looking at the map to find the next property's location.
I've filled out dozens of applications now, and finally this week we got some nibbles. I'm not saying anything here for certain until the paperwork is signed and it's officially official. I'm glad we're at least being considered for some finally. It's been an all-consuming task. The bad thing is many places are only beaing leased for 6 months until they plan to rennovate the place, so in 6 months I get to go through all this again. At least then I'll have more Australian references so I don't have to chance they will call my poor USA contacts in the middle of the night. Thank you to all who let me list you as a reference; I really appreciate it. I don't know if they bothered to call the US, but you never know.
So hooray!, moving day seems to be in the near future and V and I will finally have a place of our own. I've had suitcases packed and ready to move for a few weeks now, so they'd better give me a key soon.
Cheers!
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