Saturday Chores

Not every day in Australia is full of exciting adventures and sightseeing. The Olivers live here full time and most of the days are filled with normal activities that families have to do the world over. School and work. Laundry and Homework.



And the grocery store....

Erin drove us to the grocery store today. She is learning to drive so they have to put a big L on the car to let everyone know she is a learner driver.

A drive to the store would be a normal activity except you drive on the left side of the road here and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car.

Many grocery stores in Perth are located inside of a mall next to clothing, shoes, electronics, and other normal mall-type stores. The Olivers usually shop in a mall called Claremont Quarter and the grocery store is called Coles. There is another large chain of grocery stores named Woolworths, but everyone called it Woolies.

Many things in the store are just like the things they bought in the US.

Apples.

Oranges.

Dr. Pepper, Powerade, Coke.

Oreos.

Other things look the same but they have different names.

Green peppers are called Capsicums.

Raisins are called sultanas.

Jell-o is called jelly and jelly is called jam.

Cheerios are made by Uncle Toby's and not General Mills.

Milk is sold in 2 litre jugs instead of gallons.

Other things are completely unique like mushy peas. I'm not sure that is really a "smart buy".

Omo laundry soap.

Tim Tams. Yum!

Vegemite. Not so yum.

Kangaroo steaks.

Easter is close and it is a big family holiday here.

Hot Cross Buns are traditional brekky (breakfast) food around Easter.

Lots of bunnies!

Now we head back home to clean the house.

Location:Claremont, Western Australia

Flat Stanley goes to Fremantle

I went on a team building adventure with Cheryl and her coworkers today. I'm not sure what team building means, but I did get to drink traditional English breakfast tea with a scone and ride a ferry down the river which was pretty cool.
We started the day at the Perth Mint where they make money. They have lots of shiny gold there. We watched them take molten gold and turn it into a gold bar. Melted gold is so bright! They won't let you take any pictures of the real gold but here I am with a couple of replicas. Do you see the one that looks like an eagle? It was discovered in Western Australia in 1931 by a 16 year old boy.




Here is a tent where the people looking for gold might have lived.




After the tour, we had a traditional morning tea with scones. The Australians still follow a lot of British customs.




After tea, we got to ride a ferry from Perth to Fremantle. In Fremantle, the Swan River meets the Indian Ocean. The locals call it Freo and it's home to lots of restaurants, a maritime museum, a port with really big ships, and very tall trees.








On boats, the Australian flag is red.




It's hard to see it, but Erin and Kinsey's school is behind me here.




We passed by the most expensive house in Western Australia. It sold for nearly $60 million a few years ago. It's a little hard to see here, but it's really big and has a nice view of the river.




Finishing the day with a tour and dinner at Little Creatures.

Location:Fremantle, Western Australia

School

Today Erin took me to school. This was amazing because it's an all girl school and I'm a Boy!!!

Erin and Kinsey go to Methodist Ladies College. College refers to schools that have Years 1-12 in Australia. Erin and Kinsey are in Years 9 and 11. Methodist Ladies College has been around since 1907 and is an all girls private schools in Perth. Most of the girls at the school are day students, but some girls live too far out of town or come from other countries and they board at the school. There is a boys school next door and Erin is going to introduce me to some of them on another day.

All school kids wear uniforms whether they go to private or public schools. Erin and Kinsey said they didn't like this so much at first but now they kinda like it because it makes it easy to decide what to wear in the morning. They have a different uniform for summer and winter. The seasons are reversed in Australia because it is in the Southern Hemisphere so they are still wearing summer uniforms.

Here is Erin's Tute class. They start every day with their Tute (Tutorial) class. They hear announcements and prepare for the day. The Tute classes are divided by their House. A House is just like Gryffindor or Slytherin from Harry Potter. It's a group to hang out with and they have different competitions throughout the the year like swimming or track and field. (Erin's house teacher is not the best photographer and this is a bit fuzzy.)




These are the steps leading up to the main building called the Centenary Building and is where the principal, reception, and school nurse are located.




This is Erin's friend, Katie being silly. She is wearing the PE uniform. The school colours (which is how color is spelled here) are yellow and green. Their principal is designing new uniforms which will be purple and green.




This is Katie and Lauren.




This is the view from where Erin eats lunch with her friends everyday.




Everyone was so nice to me at their school. Erin promised to take me again and maybe take me to her French class which is a combined class with the boy's school next door, Christ Church Grammar School.

Location:Methodist Ladies College, Perth, Western Australia

Sculpture by the Sea

Today I finally got to go to Cottesloe Beach. It is so pretty there. The water is so blue and the sand is so white. I was very excited to find out I had come while they were having the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibit. It's a traveling exhibit that sets up at a few of Australia's most famous beaches. The exhibits are out on the sand and up under the giant Norfolk Pine trees.
It was incredibly windy so I'm a bit fuzzy in most of the shots. Being flat is very hard when it's windy!




The crocodile was awesome!




This guy has been watching the ocean too long!




Three guys praying in the sand.




Lots of windmills. This one made music as the wind blew through.




The sand.




A giant kangaroo with a shopping cart. There were a lot of local school kids at the exhibit.




An old car.




Giant pieces of licorice! Yum!




These people were funny looking.




This one was called The Optimist.




Black crows.




A crayfish (lobster).
I'm hoping we can go back sometime when it's a little less windy and I can see more of the displays.

Location:Cottesloe Beach, Perth, Western Australia

Flat Stanley celebrates Kinsey's birthday in Sydney

Everyone had Friday (1-Mar) and Monday (4-Mar) off school and work so we packed up and flew to Sydney for the long weekend and to celebrate Kinsey's 14th birthday. I was so excited to be sitting in the front of the plane instead of in a mail bag in the cargo hold.



Kinsey's birthday present was a shopping trip in the famous and cosmopolitan Pitt Street Mall in the heart of the CBD (Central Business District) in Sydney. It was raining, but luckily they had cut up a plastic folder to protect me on the journey and it doubled as a rain coat! Here we are in front of a popular Australian shop for girl's clothes.



After a day of shopping, we headed down to Circular Quay (pronounced "key") to eat dinner and then see a play at the Sydney Opera House which is home to opera, ballet, concerts, and lots of plays. We saw The History Boys. The opera house has 5 theatres. Two of them are side by side under the beautiful tile sails and the foyers overlook the harbour. There are 3 smaller stages below on the ground floor. The play we saw was in one of the lower theatres.



Here I am standing outside of the Opera House just before the play with the Harbour Bridge in the background. You can climb up to the very top, but it was windy and I was too afraid to blow away. I like the view from down here.






Photo bomb!!!

On Sunday morning, we went to The Rocks in Sydney. The Rocks is where Sydney really began in 1788.  It quickly became a place with lots of bad people and did not have a nice reputation, but in the 1970's, they began restoring the whole area and now there are a lot of historical buildings and very trendy shops and restaurants. On Sundays, they close the streets and set up a market. I really enjoyed the street performers and singers (performing on the streets is called "busking") and some are even semi-famous.  This is Mark Wilkinson.  He has 6 albums recorded and has successfully toured in Australia and Europe.





My first exotic bird! An ibis. That is one funny beak.



On Sunday night, Scott and Cheryl found an Irish Pub with a band. Kinsey loves live music so they are always on the lookout. It was so much fun. There are a lot of Irish who have immigrated to Australia in the last 8-10 years. Ireland is in a recession and Australia is doing very well, so many come here looking for work. We had a great table upstairs where we could look down at the band. Being as flat as I am, it was quite easy for me to even do an Irish dance keeping my arms straight and only moving my legs.



On Monday morning we headed back to Perth. I needed a cuppa (cup of coffee) to wake me up after such an exciting weekend!

Flat Stanley hangs with the local wildlife

Traveling through 14 time zones in the US mail was exhausting. I laid around the house for a couple of days waiting for the world to stop spinning. The house had been abuzz with anticipation of Erin's upcoming River Cruise since I arrived. I have heard of Junior proms in the US before and apparently this River Cruise was the Australian version. Erin goes to a private, all-girls school and is in Year 11. The don't use the Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior classifications here. Next year she will be a Leaver since it is the last year of "grammar" or "primary" school. After they graduate then they go on to tertiary learning or University. They kids just call it Uni.

Erin went to her friend's house after school and did whatever girls do to get ready for these affairs. When Cheryl and Kinsey drove me there later, Erin walked out in the prettiest dress I've ever seen. She was practically sparkling. I got to meet Katie, Bec, James, Harry, and Jack. I've noticed that the Australian boys names are almost all from the Bible or British kings. They were so hard to understand. Although they speak English, it sounds so funny and they use strange words like arvo (afternoon), wag (skip school), rubbish (trash), sunnies (sunglasses), and lippie (lipstick).

Cheryl drove Erin and James down to the jetty where they met the boat. I didn't get to go on the boat with Erin unfortunately, all of the girls had dates already, but she told me about it later. They danced and ate pizza and took lots of photos. She showed some of the photos and the girls were all dressed so pretty. I can't wait until I'm old enough to go to a school dance.

Location:Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia