#amazballs

Well, I bet you didn't expect a title like that out of me, but in honor of our one month anniversary living in Australia I thought why not? It sort of sums up the last few weeks. Ok, not really, but that is how Ikea describes their new veggie and chicken balls (see the sign for yourself), and Ikea sums up a large chunk of our life the past few weeks, so it seemed fitting. Not to mention, we did consume our fair share of veggie, chicken and meat balls while there...

Ikea's hashtag, not mine.

Emma's favorite bed at Ikea, she sat here every time.

Emma's favorite way to eat Ikea food, like a goofball.

Daddy and Emma contemplating the bar stools, trading sunglasses was a necessary requirement.

We finally got the keys!

So what have we been doing exactly besides eating chicken, veggie and meat balls? More like what have we not been doing. We moved into our apartment just over two weeks ago and in that time and the few days proceeding it Emma and I visited Ikea a whopping five times (Steve joined us on two of these trips), we've spent who knows how much time assembling said Ikea furniture purchased (all of it is now assembled with the exception of the underneath drawers on our bed, which we've now disassembled and Ikea is sending us different drawers - fingers crossed they work this time and it is not just a user error), we've made countless trips to the two local grocery stores in an attempt to stock up our pantry and buy household items (when you're walking you can only bring back as much as you can carry), we have joined a local car share and rented a car three times and with relative success navigated the busy Sydney streets to purchase a few more things we needed, we have also discovered numerous local parks and playgrounds, we purchased, prepared and ate several cuts of kangaroo (yes I know they are cute, but they are over populated in some areas and they taste pretty good too), we tried to make some new friends in local music classes and playgroups, we found some local cafes where we could happily become regulars, as well as the authentic Italian place literally just under us that serves great pizza, pasta and seafood (good thing eating out is a bit expensive here, otherwise I would be eating here way too often as I have a weakness for pretty much everything on their menu), oh and Steve has become an active contributing member of the business world too.

Start the unpacking!

The way you act when you're excited to open all the boxes just delivered to your new house.

A new playground explored in the heart of the city that has a splash area too!

Australian playgrounds really teach kids to climb, they have tons of areas like these - Emma loves them.

While we are more than pleasantly impressed with how settled in we are at the one month mark (in comparison when we were in Zurich we had just barely moved into our actual apartment at the one month mark and would still have another month of rented furniture and kitchenware before our shipment arrived), we still will wait for a little longer to give you a full tour of our new place. Emma has been an instigator to make sure we got every box unpacked as quickly as possible, regardless of whether or not we had somewhere to put the contents or not (and did I mention just how many boxes were full of Emma's toys? Way more than I ever remember packing, we seriously would have hardly shipped any boxes if kids were not a part of the picture). Oh and for the next time I pack my own boxes - I really need to make sure to label which ones have the scissors and other useful household items like silverware, so that I can open it first and not second to last.

Nothing like take away pizza and a kids table to eat your first dinner at your new house.

Surprisingly only a few boxes were opened and inspected at customs and we weren't charged for anything nor was anything confiscated - I guess I cleaned our shoes well enough (they're pretty picky about any foreign soil entering).

This is what happens when your daughter unpacks and "organizes."

She seems pretty happy with what she found.

A few nights after we moved in we already had outdoor dining, a grill to make dinner and picture perfect weather!

Perhaps the biggest problem we have encountered is what to do with all the boxes after we have unpacked them. While the trash and recycling is not crazy complicated like it was in Switzerland, living in an apartment there is still limited shared container space and it may be a slow process over the next few weeks or month to rid ourselves of all the boxes. Luckily our bedroom has a random small sun porch that realistically isn't usable for much, but it does seem like a great storage place for leftover boxes until we can get rid of them.

In between all the unpacking and Ikea construction we have done lately, here's a look at all the random things we have learned in our first month of Australian living:

• Many avenues of Australian LIFE seem to be a blend somewhere between European and American life. Perhaps the Sydney lifestyle can most broadly be generalized to be like living in a large American city such as New York or Boston where walking and public transit use is high, traffic is terrible, and housing prices are astronomical. Then throw in a mix of California laid back beach life and beautiful people with gorgeous accents, a little more value around family time and slightly less work time like Europeans and you have Sydney. Anyway, you size it up I think many Aussie stereotypes are in fact true. Most importantly, they really are incredibly friendly people, especially in comparison to Swiss. Perhaps it helps that we all speak English, but they all seem so happy and so willing to help. I LOVE it. Every time I ride the bus I am impressed with how many people getting off in the back will take the time and effort to shout "thank you" to the driver up front!
• I have a mixed love hate relationship with the re-introduction to ECO-FRIENDLY appliances like we had in Zurich. Our washer, dryer, dishwasher, and refrigerator all have their eco-friendly stickers on them, which in general to me translates as they won't clean or dry as well, keep food as cold, and it will probably take about three times as long to do what my American appliance did a better job at. Oh yes and don't get me started on the whole two different flush buttons on the toilet. I honestly don't even know why they have the "small flush" button as I'm not sure it accomplishes anything. Every time Emma sees toilet paper left in a toilet she insists on flushing it again before she can use it, and, well, that surely defeats the purpose at all... However, we really did luck out in the regard that our apartment came with a washer, dryer and refrigerator as these are items that the tenant often buys and takes with them to new rentals. AND it has a built in full-size dishwasher. Dishwashers are really not all that common in rentals (at least at our price point) and several places we looked at only had half size dishwashers. For this soon to be mother of two, a dishwasher was a pretty big deal. Oh and I forgot to mention that not only is our laundry actually in our apartment itself, but as our place is a duplex it is on the upstairs level, the same level as our bedrooms, I feel like a I hit a gold mine. I have never before in my married life had laundry on the same floor as my bedroom! It's the little things sometimes... right?
• I guess our lack of GARBAGE DISPOSAL might be considered more eco-friendly too? It seems funny to me how our kitchen here, just like our kitchen in Zurich, is a sleek, modern design, yet neither has/had a garbage disposal. Although its really not a big deal at all, I don't think I'll ever become a fan of wiping all the soggy food crumbs out of the bottom of the drain.
• Lack of A/C and HEAT. I certainly understand how this is indicative of the climate, and don't get me wrong Australia has one of the most amazing climates. So far spring weather has been pretty darn nice. Its bounced around a bit and been a little unpredictable, just like spring most anywhere else we have experienced it, but for the most part leaving the windows and the patio door wide open is perfect on most any day and I love all the fresh air (it was one of the first things I really missed when I left Switzerland). Yet, come December and January I am not sure I will have the same to say when it is 30 degrees plus every day (that's above 90 for those in the Fahrenheit world) and we don't have an air conditioner and I'm eight months pregnant. The same may be said in July when it may only be in the lower teens (50 degrees Fahrenheit) and I'm freezing cold. I know that's really not that cold, but without heat you'd be surprised. I think I may understand why the Australians all wear their Uggs in the house... And to be fair there are plenty of places that do have small air conditioning or heating units, but it's not necessarily the norm and it sounds like they rapidly escalate your utility bills.
• They have TARGET here. One of my absolute favorite places, but sadly it is not the same. They do a pretty good impression (I did my research, there's no connection with the one in North America), but still have a ways to go.
• CARPET. They really like it here in apartments. I was shocked, but from what I have been told tenants like it better too because you don't hear your neighbors as much. Which, that does admittedly make sense, but especially in a warm weather climate I am still surprised. Oh and not really what I had hoped for with small children, but oh well. Carpet cleaner was one of my first purchases. On the flip side, we no longer have 80 year old squeaky hardwood floors. At least it will be easier to sneak away from a sleeping baby.
• The dreaded HALF SHOWER door/window has re-appeared. This was always a big pet peeve of Steve's in European shower/tub combos where it was commonly found to replace a shower curtain. We didn't have one at our place in Zurich, but we DO now in our new place here. Hopefully at least some water stays in the tub while we shower.

The dreaded half shower as Steve calls the glass door on the tub...

• REAL SIZE BEDS. Since we didn't ship our bed this go around I was excited to find out that they didn't follow the European protocol of placing two single mattresses next to each other to make one bed. They do in fact believe in queen and king size beds. 
• People in our neighborhood really like their Mazdas and RANGE ROVERS.
• I thoroughly enjoy learning the little nuances between the versions of ENGLISH we speak and deciding which way I like it better. Small word choices that I'm going to make part of Emma's vocabulary simply because I think it's cute and will annoy Steve. Some of my favorites thus far: Sack pack to replace backpack (especially because Steve had a sack pack issued by work with his laptop instead of messenger style bag or briefcase), sneakers, tidy, lovely, no worries, and have a go at it.
• Wildlife and INSECTS INSIDE my house. I don't know how I'm going to feel about this and it's not even summer yet. Too many people before we moved were sure to tell me how many poisonous insects and deadly animals live here, so needless to say the couple times I have spotted a tiny spider inside I freak out and assume it is deadly and go to all extremes in its destruction method. I also read about how some people "bug bomb" their apartment and Steve's co-worker informed us that everyone has a cockroach or two at some point in their place. GREAT. Oh and what about the tiny geckos I have already spotted running around on our terrace? I think they are super cute, but I am not going to think they are so cute when I find them in the house. I'll never forget the summer I lived in Houston and found a gecko in my pants - luckily, before I put them on. However, we already have Emma in training and she makes sure to close the patio door if she sees a gecko. Or more importantly she often double checks as we tuck her into bed that we closed the door because Steve warned her about wallabies or wombats coming in the house at night. THANKS Steve, now I constantly get lectured about "what to do if a wallaby comes in the house." Let's be real, I don't think that's going to happen - especially being on the 1st floor (one floor above ground level), but I must say I would much rather have one of those inside than a potential possum I have heard of finding their way into people's homes in our neighborhood. 

The first spider I found was in our temporary apartment on the 24th floor. I really had hoped bugs couldn't get that high. I guess that means there's no hope for our 1st floor apartment.

These little guys are all over on a nice sunny afternoon. Emma saw one about to run right across my legs on a park bench. We'll do our best to keep them outside.

• Wildlife and insects OUTSIDE my house. I think I am going to enjoy these much more. They have some absolutely gorgeous birds that live in our neighborhood - although some including this ibis below seem to be a bit more like a nuisance when they come right up to you at a park and try to snatch the food right out of your hand like one did to Emma. We've seen signs to warn us of swooping birds in the area. So let's hope we don't get dive bombed. We've also enjoyed already seeing some large lizards at the park and are looking into some nearby trips where the wildlife should be incredible. I'm especially excited to take Emma to a spot a few hours away called Pebbly Beach where large groups of wild kangaroos evidently live right on the beach and aren't shy of people at all. Meanwhile I could do without the flies, which seem to have a genuine affinity for staying close to one's face. Luckily, was I told this is really just a spring time problem and I shouldn't notice them after a few more weeks.

Ibis at the park.

• People like to get outdoors here and fishing is a common hobby. Perhaps I just don't know enough about fishing, but I still think there probably aren't too many bait vending machines out there. However, there's one not too far from our house and it promotes itself for being open 24 hours a day and is stocked with both frozen and live bait. No matter where you live, I bet you haven't seen one of these. I'm still trying to figure it out and how the live bait in fact stay alive in a vending machine...

So it's fair enough to say we've stayed busy. Now it's time to find some more of a routine and new favorite things to do in our neighborhood. We hit the beach a couple more times before we moved out of the temporary apartment and raised our total beach visits to five, all different ones. When we were in Switzerland we had a list of 30+ hikes we tried to do throughout the country, this time we might need to make a list of all the different beaches to try. We are looking forward to celebrating a smaller version of Halloween here, but have already found out a few festive streets in the neighborhood so we will be taking a purple butterfly out to get some Australian candy. And maybe we'll even find a trip or two to take around here before kid #2 shows up. Here's to new adventures the month of November, warmer weather, more bugs, discovering new beaches, and learning how to keep my sanity at home with this three year old!

This is her new "cheese" pose!

She's getting a little braver to barely walk in the water when there are no big waves. I am perfectly ok with her not venturing into the ocean by herself. Her being brave frightens me.

While I don't know the name of these tropical flowers, I love them and they are right outside my kitchen window!

Bliss in discovery of her princess costumes and jewelry!

And her bike!

And we found face paint in her craft basket. You can see the result... Steve said Emma's paint job on my face reminded him of a tribal warrior and he couldn't take me seriously. I don't know what he was talking about.

Pure joy at the new neighborhood park.

A Grand New Adventure

Taking in the view a little walk from our
new home in Sydney

A little over a week ago we left the United States for Australia.

We never truly expected to have another chance to live abroad, but when Steve had a new opportunity with Ernst & Young arise, we knew we had to say yes. We once again felt the wide range of emotions about leaving family and friends, U.S. familiarities, our jobs and so many other things. Yet, we felt the excitement on the other end of having new experiences, learning about a new culture, making new lifelong friends, and of course new travel opportunities!

As every situation is uniquely different there are things about this move abroad that made it both easier and more difficult than moving to Switzerland. It is significantly easier from the respect that Australians speak English. I also spent a summer here in college doing an internship, which gave me some basic level of familiarity. It was also easier simply because we have moved abroad before, while the terms and arrangements from Ernst & Young are slightly different than before, it still certainly gives you a level of comfort to know that you've done it before and can do it again. It is more difficult simply because it is further from the U.S., providing more challenges for us to go back and forth and we expect for visitors to come as well. Another challenge we face is feeling like we really do not know anyone here in making this move. Steve knows a few people that he will be working with from e-introductions and we know some people who used to live here, but we feel like we are starting from scratch for the most part. We luckily knew a few people that lived in Zurich prior to our arrival and quickly met a whole contingency of U.S. expats shortly after our arrival. This group of people became our family and some of our closest friends. We shared many common experiences and learned our way in Switzerland together. While we expect it to be difficult at first, we hope it does not take long to find some new, great friends here in the land of Oz.

Our adventure really started days after we arrived back from our vacation to Costa Rica and Panama in mid-June. And really by adventure, I mean adventures. First, we found out we were pregnant. Yes, that's right, we've moved abroad again while expecting. There's no way we could ever plan this, seriously a God thing right here, somehow telling us we are not meant to have kids in the United States. So within days of returning home and finding out I was pregnant, Steve found out about this opportunity in Sydney, and as you can guess it by mid-July he was offered and accepted it.

Come August we had a huge moving sale, our St. Louis house was sold and we moved to a temporary apartment in St. Louis. While we initially expected to do a small container shipment with furniture and household items like we did to Switzerland, at the last minute we had a change of heart as we found out just how long it would take to arrive: 10 to 15 weeks (and that's IF all goes as planned and doesn't get stuck in customs). Let's just say that even if our container had a month head start on us leaving the country, this pregnant lady had no intentions of sleeping on a blow up mattress for another couple months while we waited for our bed to arrive. As a result we really did get rid of most everything, with the exception of what could fit in a small storage space and the boxes we ended up shipping with us.

While it took a little longer than expected our visas were officially approved on September 18 and two days later we booked a flight for the following weekend on the 27th. Despite the fact that we had already done so much by moving out of our house a month earlier, somehow there is always a lot still to be done at the last minute. Luckily my last day at work had been a week earlier and it gave me a little extra time to prepare, with my trusty three year old side kick by my side. By the time we finished up our last few things and shipped all 30 boxes (10 more than we had hoped to ship), packed our six suitcases and said all our final good byes we were more than ready to set off.

Ok, you can only really be so ready to take a 30 hour trip with a three year old. The toll of the past few weeks was taking its course as Steve and I both had bad colds as well, but luckily none of it had affected Emma. She was eager and ready to go on the "big flight" to Australia that we had been talking about for the past month plus. We too, were so thankful to finally have checked everything off our to do list and finally be on our way.

Steve was smiling here in St. Louis with all our luggage, he wasn't smiling quite as much by the time we got to Sydney...

Unfortunately when you book so last minute your travel options are not always as ideal as you would like and we ended up with a 7.5 hour layover in Los Angeles. Note to self or any of our future visitors: fly through Dallas (as had been recommended to us previously). Los Angeles was terrible. And while Emma did phenomenally well on the flights, let's just say some three year old beastliness showed itself during that layover. We were thankful when she finally passed out for the "night" about an hour before we boarded the flight leaving LA. However, it didn't help us out as much as we hoped as we sat on the plane for an extra two hours waiting for the flight to take off. Evidently that little truck that pushes your plane back from the gate is a big deal and when it's broken and the airport is extremely busy it takes a long time to get a replacement truck...

Emma enjoying the Magic House exhibit at Lambert

Luckily we found another play area in LAX and Emma made about 10 new friends during our three hour play session

Some 16 hours or so after boarding the flight in LA we finally arrived in Sydney, and note to self again, always be awake for the sunrise landing as it's amazingly beautiful as the plane circles over all of greater Sydney coming in. A few more long lines and we were safely through customs, all six checked suitcases, car seat and stroller arrived safely and we didn't get stopped for bringing in any apples (ask me sometime about my previous experience in New Zealand and you'll understand). We found a super size taxi and made our way to our temporary home for the next two weeks in the heart of downtown Sydney.

We were all thankful for the iPad and the headphones on the planes...

While it was only 10 am on Tuesday morning in Sydney (we left on Sunday morning St. Louis time), we were obviously all pretty exhausted despite actually getting what can be called semi-decent sleep for flying economy. Nonetheless Emma went straight to what she does best, organizing. We had hardly been in the temporary apartment but 10 minutes and she had to unpack her suitcase and start to unpack her parents' suitcases too. She finally stopped once all our swimsuits were found so that we could go swimming, because when your temporary living arrangement has a pool, you of course go immediately swimming!

It sure didn't take long to find the swimsuit for the indoor pool at the apartment

By the time early afternoon arrived we were all ready to call it a day and crash but we dragged Emma around the city a little bit in order for a bank account to get opened and to eat dinner. By keeping her up until 6 pm we had hopes she would at least sleep until 3 or 4 am, boy were we wrong when she came in our room at 11:58 pm and said "I'm not tired anymore." I managed to get her to lay in bed for another two hours but by 2 am she was up and ready to go. And so it began.

The view from our temporary apartment

The rest of our week was filled with early mornings, a cranky child by 9 or 10 am (7 am on that first day), followed by the pursuit to find an apartment for us to move into within the next couple of weeks while simultaneously learning to navigate Sydney's public transportation.

Emma loves helping to tell us when it's a "green man" and "red man"

When you're jet lagged you're lucky if you make it to dinner, but the chances of finishing it are slim

Wednesday left us all feeling deflated between jet lag, colds turning to sinus and ear infections, and three less than stellar apartment viewings. We quickly were getting a sense of just where our rental budget put us, and as I had read many a story of other expats doing, by the following morning we had decided to increase our budget.

We really thought our expectations were in check, especially after living in one of the few countries that is more expensive in the world. Yet, the online pictures of the apartments we viewed had done exactly what they should, made them look a lot nicer and larger than they actually were. We already knew that in the areas of the city we wanted to live we would most likely be keeping to a two bedroom property, but we had hoped to still find at least 800 square feet or so. Instead we were finding more of 600 or 700 square feet.

Emma at least enjoyed apartment hunting for all the new parks we found along the way

The giant slide at the playground in Darling Harbour

Thankfully the slightly increased budget and five more apartment viewings on Thursday gave us more hope. Although none were an exact match (not that we expected to find an exact match in such a short amount of time), we found one that was pretty good, and we decided to apply. Perhaps we jumped the gun a little bit, but given our short time window and our knowledge of the Australian rental market we had no time to waste. You can only view or "inspect" an apartment within a 10 - 20 minute block of time designated by the listing agent. At that time you can expect as many as 20 other people to be looking at the apartment also. There is no time to waste, get the details you want and then dash home and apply as quickly as possible if you really like it. If you think you are really going to like it, some people may go so far as to come with application in hand to the "inspection."

So when we found one we were pretty happy with on Thursday afternoon we didn't dare risk the apartment going to a second inspection on Saturday. As you can imagine weekday viewings are really the time to see the property if you can, as from what we've been told it can be absolute chaos on a Saturday and you truly need to immediately apply if you have any hopes of getting it. On top of that, as we found to be the case in Switzerland, the odds can really be against you as an expat. Aside from just an application we had to turn in copies of our passports, birth certificates, previous bank statements, Steve's work contract, personal and professional references, a family overview statement, and past rental references and proof of timely payments. Somehow within a couple hours of submitting everything on Friday morning we had an unofficial acceptance and by Friday afternoon the application was officially accepted. We had a short window of doubt and thinking this all went way too easily and considered backing out and looking elsewhere, but then thought better of it and decided to move forward. Somehow after reading numerous stories of people making countless applications, our application had been accepted on the first try. We had the same dumb luck in Switzerland. Perhaps we are just not picky enough or perhaps we are really that ideal of candidate, let's hope we don't regret anything after we move in!

Emma seems to like the local cookies here...

No matter what turns out we were thankful to have the hunt over and to be able to enjoy the long Labor Day weekend here in Oz. It meant Steve had today (Monday) off of work as well, so what did we do? Well we went to the beach three days in a row and three different beaches. While spring is only beginning they had summer like weather in the low 90's and we weren't the only ones who headed to the beach, it felt a little like the other 5 million Sydney residents did the same thing. Luckily there are tons of Sydney beaches to explore and we, of course, chose to hit some of the most popular ones - Bondi, Manly and Balmoral. Emma found herself at home in no time and I think it's safe to say we have found one of what will become our new favorite family activities.

Welcome to Bondi Beach

She didn't wear a swimsuit this day, but she still wanted to be buried in the sand

Welcome to Manly Beach

Oh thank goodness, I was so worried Emma wouldn't find Frozen here... no not really.

We couldn't get her to stop.

If you spend all morning at the beach followed by nonstop bouncing in a bounce house, you're going to need to eat a gigantic ice cream cone.

Third stop: Balmoral Beach, a little quieter spot from the big ocean waves

So what's on tap for this week? Well we'll continue to live in our temporary apartment until we can move into ours the middle of next week. Steve unfortunately has to start work tomorrow, oh wait, that's probably a good thing since that is what's got us here and will hopefully continue to pay us to stay. So Emma and I will play and explore a new playground every day per her request. I'll attempt to get the Australian healthcare system better figured out and find a new doctor. And we'll get ready to Ikea, Gumtree (Australia's slightly nicer version of craigslist), and Target Australia shop (yes there's Target here, no it's not exactly the same, but based on their website they at least have a few similarities to my favorite go to back in the states). While we have a lot of boxes arriving soon with many of our household items, we don't have any furniture and Emma is awful excited for her new Ikea bed that she picked out two months ago.

She has enjoyed looking at the Ikea catalog maybe a little too much.

Let's start the countdown until move in date, I can't wait, nearly two months of temporary living for this pregnant momma is about as much as she can handle. Oh and that Ikea food sounds pretty good about right now too...

Here's to many more adventures and Friday fun nights that include teaching Emma to like seafood!