Field Family of Four: January 2012

Happy Australia Day

In celebration of this day I am going to list off some of the difference here in Australia versus the states. These differences aren't bad, not at all, they are just different and they make it fun to live here.

1. (A big one) they drive on the opposite side of the road. Everything is opposite, the hardest thing for me to get used to is that the rear-view mirror is my left not my right. I still always look right first.

2. Yield signs say "Give Way"

3. Exit signs say "Way Out"
4. We are the people with an accent. A lady waiting for the bus with us one day said (talking about Forest) "How cute even your little one has an American accent"- hmm I didn't realize that.
5. There are lot of different terms for things. For example: if you say "I am pissed" it doesn't mean you are angry it means you are very drunk.
diapers are called nappies
trash can is called bin
cantaloupe is called rock melon
Heaps instead of a lot
ta for thank you
There are heaps more but that is all I can think of at the moment.
6. The words college and university are not synonymous here. And Australian's shorten "university and just say "uni"
7.The animal life is also very different. ( I have a lot to talk about on this subject.) Before arriving here I allowed my imagination to go wild and thought I was going to be killing spiders larger than Westly on a daily basis and that I would have to fight off snakes with my bare hands - I had too many nightmares with these scenarios. But to my relief I have not seen a snake and I have only seen one large spider which was in my neighbors house, it wasn't as big as I thought it would be. Phew! But there are different animals that I do see all the time. The one I see the most is the tiny lizards (the size of a pinkie finger) I see these daily. I have also seen a handful of larger lizards, one longer than the length of my forearm.
Some of my favorite animals to see are the colorful birds. Australia is often referred to as the land of the parrots because there are around 39 varieties of parrots living here. It is so fun to see the bright birds flying around. The picture bellow Bridger took from our balcony.

There are also some strange looking birds, one (not picture) has a crazy long curved beak - this bird is often savaging for food with seagulls.
I am not sure what the name of the bird bellow is but look at those crazy feet?

I also love to see cockatoos. The yellow and white one is the only kind I have seen out and about but at the zoo I saw black and rainbow tail feathered cockatoo and a pink and white one.

All the birds are so fun to see and hear - the cockatoos are SO loud! There is one bird (I don't know what it is) that sounds like a baby crying and for the first couple weeks I kept thinking it was Westly and would run to his room to check on him only to find him fast asleep.
Another fun sight are the bats - they are LARGE bats. Every night bats fly into the park across the street. It is incredible to see all of them swoop in.

We have yet to see a kangaroo or a koala in nature. We need to go further out of the city to be able to see them.

8. Another difference in Australia is the plant life. There are heaps of different bright colored plants.

The trees are very different too. There is one tree here that has adapted to the dry climate and can actually absorb water it will swell up and store the water for later. Isn't that amazing?!

I have no idea what this tree bellow is but it is awesome. Forest asked, "who pushed over the tree?"

The huge tree in the picture bellow is very common. I always want to take pictures of these trees when I see them because their size is always so stunning! They also have these crazy large roots that grow partially out of the ground. I love this tree - wouldn't it make a great tree house tree?

9. In general Australia seems healthier than the U.S. (that is pretty easy to do) portion sizes at restaurants are smaller, there seems to be less over weight people, everyone is always exercising, there are less processed food in the grocery stores, and even with some of the American brand foods the ingredients are different and slightly healthier - like you rarely see High Fructose Corn Syrup in any food here (it helps that Australia does not have fields and fields of corn like in the U.S.)

10. You do not tip here

11. It is more expensive here, way more. For a can of soda you will pay around $2.50! ouch! Talking about soda you can not find root beer or Dr. pepper here.

12. Stores do not stay open late. Most store close at 7p.m. and grocery stores generally close at midnight. It is very rare for stores to be open 24 hrs.

13. Appliances are generally smaller. My oven is so tiny, one of my large pans will not fit in it.

14. light switches turn on and off the opposite way of the states.

15. all plugs have an on/ off switch - I love this it helps save electricity

16. generally all toilets are dual flush

17. A BBQ is a full day event. This caught us off guard the first BBQ we went to. We were told it started at one in the afternoon so we figured it would last just a couple hours anyways it went well past 11p.m. yawza!

18. I am not sure if they are in style in the states but mullets and rat tails, on boys, is huge here!

19. topless tanning is acceptable here and very common

20. Good Mexican food is really hard to find! Also, the variety of Mexican food at grocery stores is very slim and disappointing. I think I am going to need to start making my own salsa.

21. They do not have a 1 cent here. The smallest coin is 5 cents. So store round up and down to the nearest 5th.

21. Last but not least Sydney, and Australia as a whole, is very safe. Last year Sydney was ranked number 10 on the best places to live. It is a great city and we are really enjoying it!

the End

My baby turned two.

How is he growing up so fast?

Here are a couple pictures for the family and friends who are too far away and unable to celebrate his special day with him.

He woke up to streamers and balloons(he looks a little unsure in this picture but he really did love the streamers and kept running through them over and over the whole day)

Here is the stud on his birthday (this is the only picture of him actually dressed in the post)

The anticipation of the cake almost killed Westly. He kept climbing up on chairs and drawers in the kitchen to snatch the tractors on top of the cake. In this picture he is pointing and yelling "TRACTOR!!" or as he says it "track-track"

After finally getting his new tractors he did not let the tractors get too far from him the rest of the night

blowing out his candles

mmm cake!

He ate his cake Westly-style and efficiently smeared the whole cake all over himself and tray

Even his knee had cake on it

After a quick wash down, it was time for presents. West did such a good job delicately opening his presents. It was so cute to watch him s-l-o-w-l-y open them.