August 17, 2014

Since our new manager has joined us we have launched some new programs and, boy, the workload has increased dramatically! New programs take a great deal of time to create, so we have been super busy. We also have been busy with church classes and such as well, so Sundays are anything but a day of rest! It’s all good though… keeps us off the streets:) I’m pretty happy that we have a very small house and absolutely no yard at all; it sure makes it nice not to have extra chores to do. Our tiny apartment-size washer and dryer make it so we have to do laundry quite often, but since the loads are small, the folding is minimal, so even that chore is a breeze. I kind of like living small.

We worked three Saturdays in a row, but finally, last Saturday, we had a chance to spend some time downtown touring a couple of places we've wanted to see for a while. The weather has continued to be beautiful, so walking around outside is a pleasure. Winter is starting to be felt though as of this week. The temperature has dropped and the rain has arrived. Australia has been in a drought, so everyone but me is thankful for the rain. I’m not a fan of rain, so I’m all in favor of droughts. August is the last month of winter, so the weather should be warming up soon. The weather has been so perfect the last couple of months that I hate to see summer come, mostly because Australians don’t know how to air condition homes. There is absolutely no central air conditioning in homes over here; they just have a small unit on the wall in one room. You’d think with all the heat and humidity Australia is famous for, they’d be into central air, but no, their sense of conservation overrides their physical comfort. Pretty crazy. I’m hoping for a long spring and a short summer.

We had the most beautiful sunset the other day. It was so breathtaking that people pulled over and stopped their cars to take pictures. This picture was taken from the grounds where our center is located. Pretty cool huh?!!

Grandkids:

I thought I would show you some pictures from the places we saw this past weekend. This building is a monument to the ANZAC soldiers who died in World War I. If you remember, ANZAC stands for ‘Australia New Zealand Army Corps’. I like how this building looks and I love the pools of water surrounding it. It’s very peaceful here. 

We went to a place called the Susanna House in a place downtown called The Rocks. It’s one of the oldest settlements in the city. The houses are built right on top of sandstone rocks, there’s no dirt, just rocks. A lot of houses were built in this area a long, long time ago when the first settlers came to Sydney harbor. This area of town was always a slum where poor people (and bad guys) lived. In the 1900s rats off of ships that arrived in the harbor brought bubonic plague and lots of people died. The government decided to destroy all the houses in The Rocks, but World War I started before they could destroy all of them. Susanna’s house is one of the places that survived. The government owns the area now, but they kept the Susanna House just like it was when it was built. I took pictures so you could see how the houses looked inside when your great-great grandparents were alive.

This is Ivan, our guide on the tour. His history was interesting-- his mother was an Armenian born and raised in Turkey, but her family left Turkey during the genocide. They went to Egypt and that's where his mother met his father.  His parents married and started their family. Ivan was born in Egypt, but his family left in 1964 following the Suez Canal war. They came to Australia and he's lived here ever since.

This is a recreation of the store that was Susanna's business. Customer's in the old days didn't have much to choose from compared to today's grocery stores!

This is the back yard. There was a little tiny garden space, just enough room to grow some vegetables. They probably had to bring in the dirt because, as you can see, the ground is all rock.

This is the back of the house, interestingly enough, this wall is the most photographed backdrop for wedding pictures in all of Sydney.  In fact, while we were on the tour, two different wedding parties came and took pictures.

This is the kitchen. Can you see the little sink area in the back on the left? How do you think your mom would like to have to cook all your meals in a fireplace? Most fireplaces had a wood stove in them instead of an open fire.  After electricity was invented, most houses put a little stove in the kitchen and only used the fireplace for heat in the winter.

This is the bathtub!  It was outside in it's own little shack. People had to heat water over a fire and pour the hot water into the tub.

This is the laundry room!  It's outside. Moms had to light a fire inside the little opening in the brick to heat the water in the kettle above. Then they washed their laundry, wrung it out, and rinsed it in the first sink, then had to wring it out again and then they rinsed it again in the last sink. They would add 'bluing' to the water to make their white clothes look whiter.

This is the toilet. They have it roped off so no one will use it, but I don't think there's much chance of that happening because this outhouse is outside on the back porch area where everyone can see you!  

I thought I would also show you some of the silly names they have for food over here.

These are bottles of what we call 'sprinkles', over here they are called 100s and 1000s.

What we call 'packets' they call 'sachets'

They call Jello, Jelly

You can't buy Oreos in a regular package like we have in the US, they only come in packets, three to a box. They are made in China, so even though they are basically the same as Oreos in the US, they look a little bit different. The cookie part isn't quite the same as the cookie part in the US. 

Did you all get your Lego temple kits put together? Send me a picture, I want to see them! I hope you all have a great week. School starts soon. I kind of miss the excitement of the first day of school. Over here they started their second semester of school the first week of August. Their semester will go until the first week of December, then they are on break for almost two months. They start their new school year the first week of February and go until the end of June. Kind of crazy huh?

Grandpa and I love and miss you all.