Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
It is good to be home (although I already miss the warm Queensland weather that just embraces you when you step out the door). Within a few hours of our arrival our house was full of all the play mates from school and the neighborhood, as Daniel said with a happy smile: "The whole gang is here."
The only one with a jetlag is unfortunately the only one in the house unable to look after himself, our little Jonathan. At 2 am in the morning he is ready to rock, unlike the rest of us, which means that after 1,5 hours of ba-ba-ba-ba, he becomes bored and starts screaming instead...
Just like our home, our car remains the same, which is less fortunate as it is still old and really too small for our family. And I have to ask myself: why did we spend all our savings on a long trip to Australia rather than a new car, which would have been the sensible thing. Thankfully there are numerous reasons that made the trip well worth it and more, no doubt it was a fantastic adventure. I thought that I would write all those good reasons down as a reminder before they fade as I am fighting to squeeze three kids into the back seat and fitting all their equipment into the very little trunk.
So what did we get out of it:
We wanted Thomas and Daniel to be immersed into an English speaking environment and give them a school experience from a different country. This was sure a success: in the 10 weeks of school, they both learned to read in English (at each their level), they improved their spoken English greatly (including a charming Aussie accent), they earned a 'good boy badge' at school and made some good friends. No doubt, it was sometimes hard for the boys to be thrown into a new environment, but they were so brave and made the very best of it. I feel very proud of my boys. Their friendships also gave us a small taste to the Australian life style as we would meet for family barbecues on the beach, the typical Friday night thing to do.
An important criteria for us to choose Australia as the place to go was to experience living in a place where it is always warm and the sun always shines. Going to Queensland in the rainy season we knew that we latter was at risk, and we sure did have some rain. But thankfully we had much more sun, and even on rainy days, it was just so nice and warm. The biggest decision of the day was which flip-flops to wear and we never had to bring a sweater, even for late nights. I don't I have ever before had such a long period of not wearing a sweater or long pants - not hard to get used to.
Choosing to move our parental leave to Australia would also give us a unique chance to spend a lot of time together as a family. Jonathan has been getting so much attention from us all, and noone can make him laugh like his big brothers can. It was a wonderful experience to have all the time in the world in the afternoons to do homework, go swimming, fishing, play cards or just hang out. Our every day life consisted of beaches, swimming pool, cafés, cocktail hours, star gazing from the balcony and lots of quality time with our boys. And as the icing on the cake we made some new friends Naomi, Mickey and their two children to share our Paradise with.
On top of our initial expectations being greatly exceeded we got a lot of bonus material:
- We had a once in a lifetime chance to live in a beautiful river front house that we could never afford in 'real' life
- Thomas and Daniel have developed a very close friendship and an ability to make a great game out of the resources available
- We have had amazing wildlife encounters: the baby turtles of Lady Elliot Island, the dolphins in Yamba, our local lorikeets, kangaroos everywhere
- We have seen beautiful nature: endless beaches (of which our own Noosa beach was our all time favorite), rainforest, waterfalls and mountains
Definitely well worth driving that old car for another year or two or three ... Please remind me when you hear me complaining.
Strange to think that our Australia adventure ends here. The boys are excited as they are packing their school bags and souvenir koalas for their class mates, and Bryan cannot wait to go back to his x-rays tomorrow. And Jonathan and I look forward to phase 3 of our time at home. Welcome to everyday adventures ...
- comments
Naomi Ball I am so, so happy for all of you, that it all worked out so beautifully. Truly the trip of a lifetime, and one you and your boys will never forget. I feel privileged to have shared it with you! Big hugs to all of you. We miss you, but are happy that you're home, safe and sound.
anna Hej ven Hvordan har du det? Gæt fint. Først, mit navn er Anna, jeg er ung flot pige, art og friendly.Well jeg kom igennem din profil, og jeg besluttede at droppe dig en note.Meanwhile kan du skrive mig noget mere om dig selv, mens jeg komme tilbage på dig herunder mit billede? Kontakte mig via min private adresse. Har en meget dejlig dag. Tak, anna ([email protected]) kysser med kærlighed og tillid
Christine Voss Hi Mette, welcome back to Denmark :-) Well, what should I say - 2 weeks and I will be in Cairns. Your long-stay report really encourages me to my 5 weeks adventure that lies ahead of me, and I really hope that we will be able to catch up sometime, maybe sitting together in a quite corner (lol-if that is ever possible) and exchanging the "must-dos" and "must-sees" of our stays.