The flight to Melbourne was awesome. A combination of a two hour nap for all three kids to start the flight, a great couple across the aisle that loved kids, two flight attendants who loved babies and took Niall from us a couple of times and an iPad for each kid all made the eleven hours way more manageable than the six hours to Hawaii.
Though Australia was originally used as a penal colony for Mother Britain, we feel far from "sent" to this far away place. Oh yeah, it's a tough life: beautiful beaches, great coffee, extremely nice people, excellent weather. We're itching to get out of here.
We were welcomed to this country by Shem's parents, John and Andrée. Despite the fact that our flight was two hours late arriving (the pilots put the proverbial pedal to the metal and caught up one hour in flight), these kind people were waiting for us with a sign in hand and a dinner in our fridge. No better welcome could be imagined.
Our new home in Geelong is wonderful! Left very clean and with all the trimmings (such as bikes for kids and parents). I'd like to give a special shout out to the coffee machine. It's a Breville (good Aussie brand) like ours at home, but WAY nicer. I'm fairly confident that Breville has convinced the Fitzgeralds (probably with free coffee) to force me into an upgrade. I love our machine at home... but this one makes coffee SOOO much more easily and it froths milk like no other.
Though Australia was originally used as a penal colony for Mother Britain, we feel far from "sent" to this far away place. Oh yeah, it's a tough life: beautiful beaches, great coffee, extremely nice people, excellent weather. We're itching to get out of here.
We were welcomed to this country by Shem's parents, John and Andrée. Despite the fact that our flight was two hours late arriving (the pilots put the proverbial pedal to the metal and caught up one hour in flight), these kind people were waiting for us with a sign in hand and a dinner in our fridge. No better welcome could be imagined.
Our new home in Geelong is wonderful! Left very clean and with all the trimmings (such as bikes for kids and parents). I'd like to give a special shout out to the coffee machine. It's a Breville (good Aussie brand) like ours at home, but WAY nicer. I'm fairly confident that Breville has convinced the Fitzgeralds (probably with free coffee) to force me into an upgrade. I love our machine at home... but this one makes coffee SOOO much more easily and it froths milk like no other.
We have been welcomed to campus with open arms. There are tonnes of kids on campus (just like at Brentwood, but on steroids) and the other couples are great. It seems like every family we meet has 3 or 4 kids... seriously. It's like a dream for large families. It's just been a great start to our year away. Below is a picture of the main part of campus. The chapel and main building are gorgeous and the war memorial between them shows a wonderful reverence for Australian veterans, specifically those from the school who have died during their military service.
Now, what will it be like when it is teeming with students??? Roughly one month and we'll know...