End of Vacation

Summer vacation came to end for me this week as teachers went back to school on Monday, 21 Jan. We had a week of planning and getting ready for the start of the new school year. As a result the kids went to vacation care which they were very excited about. On Wednesday, Ellie went into Brisbane on the train with her best friend Laura and Laura's mom. They had a lovely lunch at South Bank and then went to see the stage production of "Hairy Maclary." They all had a lovely time and really liked the show. Alex was at vacation care and they went on an excursion by bus into the city to the Queensland Museum and Science Centre to see the Dinosaur exhibit and the rest of the activities.

Friday brought ex-cyclone Oswald and lots of rain and heavy winds. The rain and winds continued until Monday. Saturday was Australia Day which is celebrated here much like the Fourth of July in the US even though the reason for the holiday is different. It celebrates the landing of the first fleet. Monday was a bank holiday since Australia day fell on a Saturday this year. Of course the entire weekend has been a complete washout! There has been lots of flooding and trees blown over. The flooding fortunately has not been as bad in Brisbane as the great flood of 2011 but some places in Queensland have had record floods. Just driving around it is shocking how many trees have been blown over. We live just up the hill from the start of Cabbage Tree Creek. We have never seen it more than a little trickle up where we are but it was a roaring torrent by Sunday afternoon. We all put on our raincoats and wellies and went down to see how high the water was, trees blown down across the walking path along the creek, all the way up until the first foot bridge over the creek which had white water crashing over it.  Sunday night at about 1900 we lost our power. Fortunately it was just about bedtime for the kids. The power did come back on just in time for the grown-ups to go to bed at about 2200.  We have discovered today how lucky we are because lots of areas still don't have power back yet.

The damage has been extensive all over Brisbane. Kids at my school were supposed to start on Tuesday, 29 Jan but that has been pushed back a day because there has been damage to the school and they still did not have power back by Monday afternoon. There are lots of schools that will not be starting on Tuesday but it appears Alex and Ellie's school has been spared and they will start on Tuesday. They are very excited to be starting year 1. Emma has taken advantage of a weekend stuck at home to cover all their books and stick a seemingly never-ending supply of name stickers on every pencil, coloured marker, glue stick, and everything else in the huge book-pack for a year 1 student these days.

We are all looking forward to a busy week with the start of school, and the kids are very excited to be going back to school.

We're Back!!

We’re back! The blog has been silent for almost a year-and-a-half and I apologize for that. I think that after a while life felt normal. We were not in an exotic location like Oman or the Caymans and life seemed routine. I will try to keep up the blog this year. Most of you who read this probably know what we have been up to so I will keep it short. We are in the midst of the last lazy days of a warm summer here in Brisbane.  The kids finished their first year of school here called Prep in December. (The equivalent of kindergarten.) In December I also finished up my first year of teaching here in Oz. I am teaching maths at St Peter’s Lutheran College. Last year I had two classes in year 9, two in year 10 and a year 11 Maths B class. I go back to school on Monday the 21^st of January. I am scheduled to have a year 8, year 9, two year 11 Maths B classes and I will continue with my year 11 class from last year as they go into year 12.  The kids start in year 1 on Jan 29. They are in the same year at school since the cut-off date for school here in Queensland is June 30, and on that date they are the same age. They are in separate classes at the local primary school which is a lovely school. 

The kids and I went to Carlsbad, California for two weeks at the start of December to see my parents who are there for the winter staying at my brother’s house.  We also got to see my brother and his wife Songul, my cousin Barbara who came down from Portland to visit, and my sister Tamara who surprised us all by coming out from Minneapolis for a long weekend. The kids really enjoyed seeing the USS Midway, Legoland, SeaWorld and the Safari Park. They also enjoyed playing on the beach and in the surf even though it was winter. Emma is enjoying banker’s hours as she is on a secondment from her law firm to ANZ Bank to cover a maternity leave in on one of their legal teams.  I will try to be more regular with my updates of life in Oz this year. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and your new year is off to a good start.