Hello Again!

Saturday, February 23

I can't say that I'll update everyday, but I realized there were a few things that I left out of yesterday's post, and a few interesting things that happened today. 

First, the weather here is much more tropical than I expected.  It has been in the mid 70's yesterday and today, but extremely muggy and humid.  Part of the reason that it has been humid is because it has been raining since last night, off and on. While summer is their wet season, they are receiving more rain than normal.  Summer officially ends on February 28, with autumn beginning on March 1.  Temperatures will still be in the 70's and 60's.

Second, the town that I'm in right now is called Epping, and I visited Chatswood today (very Australian sounding, don't you think?).  I will be moving to my permanent home in Maroubra tomorrow.  I'm told that the house where I'll be staying isn't more than a 1km walk from the house, so perhaps I'll be there frequently!

Third, the steering wheel being on the opposite side of the road is hard adjusting to, but not as hard as the driving on the opposite side of the road.  Left turn on red is common here, but it still feels odd. Lots of rotaries all over the place too.

An interesting practice that perhaps the US should employ is what happens when one is becoming a driver.  At 16, one takes a written test, and if passed, the student must drive with a square with a "L" attached near the license plate, with an already licensed driver.  Once they have enough hours, they take a test in the car, and if passed, receive a square with a red "P" which they must still attach to their car.  They are then able to drive solo, but have restrictions such as not past 11 o'clock at night, or they are only allowed a certain number of people in their car.  After approximately a year, they pass to another level, still a "P" but a different color, and it must still be attached to their car.  They again have restrictions, but after a year they are finally considered an unrestricted, licensed driver.  While things are similar in the US, I think that it would be beneficial to know which cars to avoid ; )

So we headed out today to another shopping center, a "posh" (per the mother) one located in Chatswood.  There are 2 shopping centers in Chatswood, the main one we went to was 4 floors, but the other one had 6.  Each mall has it's own attached parking garage. The first 2 or 3 hours are free parking, but then they charge you (sometimes $10 an hour!).  Inside the shopping center were butcher shops, fish markets, bakeries, supermarkets, and normal shops.  I saw 4 shops here that we have at home: Target, Kmart, EB Games, and Pandora.  Also "normal" was a KFC in the dining court.  So now I know where I can be reminded of home! 

I was again struck by how expensive it is here, as a small coffee was considered cheap at $3.50, and a sandwich and drink were at least $10!

So I saw an amusing sign today, similar to our US "slow children at play" but this Australian one said "go slow children don't bounce"  : )

Until Later,

Kaitlyn