our journey to Australia

Thursday, January 5, 2012 (Houston time)
Our journey started at Houston international airport with a 7:15 p.m. flight to Los Angeles.  We locked up our empty home in The Woodlands one last time and took our 7 pieces of luggage, 2 car seats and 5 carry-ons to the airport.  My parents drove us there and stayed to say good-bye (or "see you soon" as I'd like to say!).  Our flight was about 3 hours and we landed at LAX and took a very long walk with our 5 carry-ons, and Will sleeping on Bryan's shoulder to the international terminal to catch our Qantas flight, where we had to go through security again!
On board the Qantas flight, we were on the top deck of the plane in Business class.  Our flight took off around 1:00 a.m. Houston time.  The kids watched movies, played the iPad, ate, slept, walked around.  Claire loved having access to tv shows on the flight and having her own remote.  I watched "The Help" - it felt really good to lay down and watch a 2 hour movie with minimal interruptions, after all the traveling we had done.  We all slept for about a 5-6 hour stretch. They kept the cabin dark for about 12 of the 16 hour flight.  But Will and Claire were excited about watching movies, tv, and playing games to sleep again.  We had a couple of meals on board - dinner and breakfast and snacks in between.  It was interesting to watch the flight map on the screen to keep track of where we were flying and what we were flying over (mainly all ocean!).  Although seeing that long line connecting LAX to Melbourne really seemed far away, now that we were on our journey.  Claire also asked several times during the flight "what time is it?"  How should I answer - Houston time? LA time? Melbourne time? What day is it?  We were all so confused.   
Our flight landed safely in Melbourne and we packed up our 5 carry-ons and headed to customs.  We were very lucky that onboard, the flight attendant gave us 4 "express" passes through customs, so we had a special line to go through and didn't have to wait at all.  Baggage claim was another story - it was an absolute zoo.  We arrived on a Saturday morning during the summer holidays, so maybe that was part of the reason there were so many people. Several Asian airline flights landed at the same time as us.  There were 6 baggage carousels for these flights and I kid you not, thousands of people.  It took over 30 minutes for our 7 pieces of luggage + 2 car seats to come out, which we loaded onto 3 buggies.  Then to the fun part, we got in this huge snake line to clear our bags through customs.  This was a difficult time, as we were all exhausted from the long journey and just wanted to arrive and be there.  I had boxes of granola bars in our luggage, and apparently you can't bring anything with seeds or nuts into Australia (as well as a list of other food items that are prohibited and must be quarantined).  So we had to "tick" the box that said we had these food items, but lucky for us we had a very nice immigration officer that just looked at our paper and said to go on through.  There were many other people that had to open every piece of luggage for inspection, and we thought that was going to be us. After packing all of our bags over the course of a couple of days, I couldn't even remember where exactly all the granola bars were?  So we were lucky to escape that.  Onto the taxi "que" to find a mini-bus to take us all to our temporary apartment in the city.  

Saturday, January 7, 2012 (Melbourne time)
We landed in Melbourne at 10:05 a.m. on Saturday, January 7th ~ after leaving Houston at 7 p.m. on Thursday night.  With the time change, the amount of time it took to travel, and our journey through 3 airports, we really weren't sure what day it was.  After getting our bags, clearing customs, and our mini-bus taxi ride to our new apartment, it was about 1:00 p.m. when we arrived.  We have a nice 2 bedroom apartment at Quay West.  It is in downtown Melbourne, right on the river, just 2 buildings over from where Bryan will start work on January 16th.  The area is filled with restaurants, shopping, food courts, gardens, and the river.  It is a great place for us to stay for now until we find a home.  Our apartment has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a living area/kitchen in between. It is actually 2 rooms connected by a front hallway.  At first I felt a little shocked coming in here - all of our possessions were loaded into suitcases and here we were in a 7th floor apartment in a downtown city.  Where were we? and what were we doing?  Once we got a little more settled in, got the suitcases unpacked, computer up and running and internet access, kids toys and books unloaded, it started to feel a little better.  Now I think it will definitely work for us temporarily. :)  Although, there is no wifi at the apartment, which means no ipad for now.  Lucky for us we have our laptop to communicate.  
Upon arrival, we unloaded all of our bags at our apt. and headed over to the food court near the river to grab some lunch.  We had pizza and smoothies and we ate outside next to the river.  The breeze was so nice and the weather was really enjoyable - about 80 degrees.  The kids were then excited to go swimming at our hotel.  Eventhough they really wanted me to come and make a cannonball splash into the pool, I passed this time around, so that I could stay back at the apartment and get our bags unpacked.  They had a fun time at the pool and then we headed out to dinner at a nearby restaurant - the Blue Train Cafe.  The kids ordered pizza (again!) and Will fell asleep in my lap the first 5 minutes we were in this loud, noisy restaurant (about 6:00 p.m. Saturday night).  He slept through our dinner, and Bryan carried him back to our apt., where we changed him into his pajamas and put him in bed - he never woke up!  He slept until about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday morning!  By about 7:45 p.m. on Saturday night, all four of us were asleep in bed.  We had a great night's sleep and we were ready for a new day in Australia on Sunday morning.

Sunday, January 8, 2012
We spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning just enjoying our apt., playing, unpacking, getting ready, ordering room service for breakfast.  Claire was disappointed because they overcooked all of our overeasy eggs, and the bacon did not taste the same as ours at home.  I am sure this was just the first of many different discoveries we will have here.  I met a lady from Melbourne back in The Woodlands before we left and she told me that when they arrived to their new country (USA) she told the kids "it's not better, it's not worse, it's just different".  I think that is a really good way of putting it.  I am sure I will use this phrase many times as we adjust to our new life here in Oz.  

Speaking of which, more people have called Australia "Oz" and so I had to google it to find out why.  Here are some of the explanations I found:
*In actual fact, with an Australian accent 'Oz' sounds exactly like 'Aus' and 'Ozzie' is exactly how we pronounce 'Aussie'. (The 'ss' is pronounced 'zz' - very confusing for non-Australians!)
*I found three things via searching the web....Oz is another way of spelling "Aus", which is an abbreviation of "Australia", so "Oz" means "Australia".
*"Oz" came about as a nickname for Australia because, in an Australian accent, it sounds sort of like the first syllable of the country's name, or is one way to pronounce the abbreviation "Aus." (The connotation of a wonderful, far away place isn't bad, either.) And "Ozzies" is used as a nickname for the people who live there because it sounds a bit like "Aussies." I don't think there's a direct relationship between the nickname for Australia and the land of Oz, although there have been some stories of Australian soldiers singing "We're Off to See the Wizard" on their way to fight in World War II.
*The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz".

We left our apt. around 10:00 a.m. and headed back to the airport to pick up our "hire car."  We got a Mitsubishi Pajero (SUV) and rented 2 Australian carseats for the kids, until we could get to the store to buy them their own.  The regulations are different with carseats here, so we can't use ours from the US.  We learned that we could get a ticket/fine or our insurance would not cover our claim if we were found to have US carseats installed. Luckily I did some research before I came and knew what brands to look for once we got to the baby store.  Once we got our car, we headed down to the bayside beach area.  It is southeast of Melbourne.  We had a broken GPS, a radio that would only stay on one station, and no rear-air in our car.  The kids were hot and I was bothered. ;)  I guess this was a lesson in appreciating all of the modern conveniences we enjoy back home.  So with a huge paper map in hand, Bryan was driving and I was trying to navigate.  We wanted to look around Brighton, Hampton, and Sandringham ~ three beachside suburbs that we have narrowed down our search of where we hope to live.  These are all about 6-8 miles to Bryan's office, which will be a nice commute for him.  In The Woodlands his office was 39 miles from our home!  We have talked to several people from Melbourne - different connections we have made through Bryan's job and friends of friends, as well as our relocation consultant in Melbourne and they have all recommended this area.  Also, when Bryan was in Melbourne on business in December he drove around a few areas and he thought this area felt more like it would fit us well.  I was amazed how quickly we got from downtown to the SE suburbs.  We drove by the beaches and found a nice park to stop at.  The kids chased seagulls and ran around in the grass - some much needed exercise and freedom for them!  We then walked over to the shops at Sandringham to find a place to eat lunch.  We came across the Boathouse Cafe and found a table inside.  Will ordered strawberry pancakes, which came with ice cream and whipped cream!  His face just lit up!  Claire, Bryan and I got sandwiches and we had a nice little lunch there.  It was great to get out and walk around a little and the weather was beautiful.  We headed back to the park where the kids played a little.  While we were at the park, Will had to go to the bathroom, and luckily there was one there.  It was one stand alone bathroom with a metal door and electronic buttons.  The vacant button was lit up, so we proceeded inside.  Once inside, you press another button to close the door, which makes you feel like you are entering a vault.  The door locks and then the speaker announces "your 10 minutes begins now".  There is also a sign in this bathroom that says when you hear the alarm beeping to get out immediately because your 10 minutes is up.  Then what happens? Do you get locked inside?  I have not seen a bathroom like this before, and trust me, I have seen my share of interesting bathroom facilities, especially in Malaysia and Thailand. 

We headed back to the car to look around the streets of Brighton, Hampton and Sandringham.  We wanted to scope out a few of the rental homes that we hope to see this week with our relocation consultant.  Well, this plan was a bust, because our GPS was broken, and I had this paper map that didn't have alot of the small streets on it.  Nonetheless, we got a feel for the area and then went to run a few errands at a nearby shopping center.  We arrived at the shopping mall and I was immediately overwhelmed.  Target and "Big W" (which reminded us of Wal-Mart) are both in the mall, as well as liquor stores, Aldi, and grocery stores.  I guess it is one-stop shopping, but it is a bit overwhelming, especially on a Sunday when it is packed.  People are walking through the mall with their shopping carts, which by the way, are locked up and you have to insert coins to rent your cart.  Our first stop at the  mall was the Telstra store so I could get a cell phone.  I was looking forward to getting connected again.  Bryan has his blackberry from the US and will have that until he starts work here and gets his Australian one.  So at least we can be reached, but as pathetic as it sounds, I felt a little lost without my iphone the last couple of days.  So we enter the phone store, and I am hoping this goes quickly so we can move on to our other errands.  We find out in the first couple of minutes that this is not going to work out.  They need Australian credit cards, bank statements, many forms of ID - including passports, drivers license, etc.  We had our passports with us, that count for a little, but a TX driver's license wasn't as good as a Victoria driver's license, and a US credit card isn't as good as an Australian one - and we didn't have any bank statements or birth certificates with us.  So we got denied and sent away, very disappointing.  We'll have to see what we can gather up to present to them in the next couple of days.  Apparently you need 100 credit points to sign up for a plan and each document we bring in is worth different points.  Not the end of the world, but certainly a bump in the road.  Off to "BIG W" we go to pick up a few items we needed: Wii, trash bags, handsoap, bottled water, hangers, laundry detergent, dishwashing soap.  It was a successful trip and the kids were very excited to have a Wii to play back in our apartment!  We keep hearing how expensive Australia is in comparison to the US, but today the prices we found on the items we bought were similar to the US - the Wii console was $180 AUD (Australian dollars).  The current exchange rate is:

1.00 USD

=

0.980493 AUD

We took our "trolley" of goods down the elevator and back out to the "car park" to load up and move on to the baby store, to buy our car seats.  At about 3:30, we were all ready to get back home to our apartment.  The kids couldn't wait to get the Wii set up and play the new games they picked out - Mario Cart and Just Dance for Kids.  We spent the evening back at the apartment playing, ordering room service, and heading to bed.  I spent some time on the computer figuring out how to get a blog started.  Thanks to my dear friend, Becca, who encouraged me - I really am going to try and keep up with this!  I also started a phanfare site to store our pictures, thanks to my Uncle Tom's inspiration!  I think that will be easier/better to use than Kodak Gallery which I have done in the past.  Here is the link to our phanfare site:
thepicketts.phanfare.com 

I also spent time researching more of the homes for rent that we hope to look at this week.  We meet Monday morning with Bernadette, our relocation consultant, to start looking at homes.  She has a list of about 10 homes on our itinerary, some of which are townhomes, so we are going to try and switch those out for other homes to look at.  I could hardly sleep because I can't wait to look at these homes and see what we find - do they look as great as they do online? What is the neighborhood like? What is the street like?  Will it feel like home to us once we get settled?  I am also interested to see what the process is like to put in an application to rent.  I hope it all goes smoothly once we find the home we are looking for.  More to come from Melbourne....

lots of love,
Chrissy :)