Why Easter was a 5 day holiday and other Aussie facts.

First, I just spent an hour or so browsing all of your blogs. It made me so very homesick and I must admit quite guilty that you all have made time to post interesting stories and pictures. I miss you all, but am so grateful for the small glimpse into your day to day and it made me realize that maybe it is the same for you. So many of you have asked me for pics of my house and neighborhood. I will post those. The truth is we found so much damage when we unpacked our stuff that until this weekend the house was not at all put together. Even now my couch is balanced on some books. The other reason I haven't posted pics is because the hub keeps looking at other houses and suggesting that we should move. To make a long story short: relo company entered into the lease without our consent. So I guess house pics are hard for me.

OK, it is the end of April. We just finished a 5 day holiday. Friday was of course Good Friday, which in Australia is a public holiday. Saturday and Sunday Easter weekend. BUT Monday was ANZAC day which is sort of like Veteran's day. Because ANZAC day and Easter Monday fall on the same day this year we also had today as a public holiday. Easter Monday celebrated on Tuesday. If I lost you at Good Friday you are not alone. While Australia is not an overly religious country it is part of the British Commonwealth and therefore celebrates and commemorates all of the protestant holidays. So fun we had a nice big break!! It was good fun, but also a little tricky because there were no stores or businesses open of any kind from 5:00pm on Thursday until tomorrow at 8am. That is a little crazy!! So no grocery store, etc. We spent a lot of time going to parks, playing games, and watching DVDs. It was good fun. I just should have planned a little better. Not sure what the girls are going to take for lunch tomorrow.

Besides house pics which I will post. Several of you have asked how Australia is different. I have already talked about the driving which is getting better, by the way. I still really need to work on parallel parking though. In no particular order a few things come to mind: the schools. I would say there is a much more rounded approach to education where music and math and pe all have the same weight. I have thought a lot about this and I guess in the US so many of our schools are struggling financially that we have really defined successful education as mainly math and English with a little science and history thrown in. Another big difference is grocery shopping and groceries in general. The stores are small like the size of a Walgreens and the variety is non existent you can either buy this brand or not buy it. Most Aussies shop almost every day buying small quantities of things and really mainly what is fresh. So when I go to the store and buy a weeks's worth of groceries there are always comments and the reality is I really can't buy a weeks worth of groceries the food expires. Milk for example only lasts a few days. Bread is the same and there are very few canned goods. The prices are crazy. Chicken is between 7-10$AUD per pound and the rate right now is $1.10 US to $1. Aussie. I am trying to get used to it and just go with it, but it's crazy. The flooding really drove prices up. Last difference because this post is too long and there are no pics. laundry. Most Aussie's do not have a dryer they hang everything on the line. I am not sure why this is, but ok. The problems for me are allergies and rain. Not sure what you do in that situation. I have a dryer, but it is the size of an EZ Bake Oven. No it is a little bigger, but I can't fill my washer because if I do all of the clothes will not fit in the dryer. Oh and by the way the shortest washing cycle is 2hours. I am not sure why. I have one of the most energy efficient Deluxe washers so I can't imagine how long a more basic washer would take. It's crazy. Needless to say shopping and washing take up a large part of my life here. I guess in many ways not a lot has changed. : )