Happy Anniversary to Us

It's kind of a big day for us, July 13.  It's Joel's and my 12th wedding anniversary, but it's also the first anniversary of our arriving in Australia.  Taking stock of the year that has passed . . .

Things I've learned
1.  Driving on the left.  I'm pretty proud of this.  I remember the first few weeks when the kids were in school, Joel started work and it was my job to get the kids where they needed to be and to run the house, with all that involved.  I had to spend ten minutes psyching myself up to drive them to school, another 10 minutes after drop-off psyching myself up to drive back home.  I would drive way out of the way just to avoid parallel parking.  I would find a car park near the supermarket and just turn the car off and breathe for a few minutes to recover from the stress. 
2.  Saying "pardon me" not "excuse me."  "Excuse me" is what you say when you're annoyed with someone. "Pardon me" is a polite way of getting through people blocking the footpath.
3.  Talk slowly with a lot of modifiers, and say "yup" when people are telling you something so they know you are listening.  The first few months I was here, I was constantly interrupting people because I thought they were done speaking.  Nope, just taking a breath.  If you think it's your turn to talk, start with a "yup" or an "mmm" before launching into what you want to say just to make sure there's nothing else coming from your conversation partner's way.
4.  Jetstar really sucks.  Qantas is awesome.
5.  Don't drive down Glenferrie Road unless you have the whole day to do so.
6.  Don't be too friendly.  Don't be too enthusiastic.  Avoid superlatives.   Joel's always been like this.  If I asked him if I looked nice, or if he liked dinner, he'd say, "Yeah, it's okay," or "Yeah, you look fine."   I used to be insulted, now I realize it's cultural.  If I look "fine," I look pretty good.
7.  Colour.  Aluminium.  Practise.  Realise.  Capsicum.  Zed. Three, triple 1, double 4, five.  Cheers, Ta.
8.  To embrace morning tea.  It's not like it's going anywhere, and when I turn it down it just confuses or insults people.  Just drink the coffee.
8.  I am not funny in Australia.  :(

Things I love
1.  Having family close by.  I've always liked Joel's family, but we saw each other so infrequently it was hard to develop relationships.  Now I have a niece and nephews and sisters- and brothers-in-law and a mother-in-law right around the corner, and we can really get to know each other.  My kids have cousins they play with regularly.  It's pretty cool.
2.  Flat whites.  They have ruined me for lesser coffee.
3.  VicRoads (seriously!)
4.  The huge online and meetup expat community willing to provide help and moral support.
5.  Gorgeous parrots that fly all over in pairs at the parks we play in and the paths we walk on.  But not the cockatoos.
6.   Cadbury - the good stuff. 
7.  The intoxicating smell of eucalyptus trees in the summer.
8.  Medicare.  Hooray for health care for all!
9.  Automatic 9.5% contributions to retirement funds from the employer.
10.  Looong holiday breaks.
11.  The metric system.  So easy. 

Things I could give a miss
1.  Stupid traffic with stupid parking rules and lanes that disappear and playing chicken with trams.
2.  Companies that don't answer their phones, don't give notice that they're closing for three weeks for holidays, and don't call you back when you are *trying to spend money in their business*
3.  Holy high prices, Batman. Grapes for $16/kg.  Petrol for $1.50/l.   Thoroughly average houses for a mere $1.5 million. 
4.   Specialist Maths.  Are differential equations really necessary in Year 12??
5.   Evaporative cooling systems.  They. Do. Not. Work.
6.  Inefficient clothes dryers.  Australia needs to get on the phone, call America, and find out how to build one that actually works.
7.  40 degree days
8.  Insanely high fees.  $700 to register a car for a year.  $90 parking tickets.  $140 for my teaching license for one year.  $180 to get one signature on one piece of paper notarized.  $150 to apply to private school, and another $150 to accept the acceptance from said school.
9.  Tricky access to some US-based media.  

Thank goodness for VPNs.

9.  Being so far from family and friends who are so important to us.  

So overall, so far, it's been a pretty good experience.  Not that we don't still miss America.  We do.  Ruth asks almost weekly if we can move back, and she misses her friends.  I miss my friends too, but I hardly ever cry about it anymore.  We're figuring out how not to pay through the nose for healthcare and groceries and overseas calls.  We're finding reasonable substitutes for products we miss, or we find the products at Costco.  We're making friends.  Joel's work is good, my work is interesting.   The kids' school is a good fit for them and for us, and we are learning a lot.  So Happy Anniversary to us.  Twelve years ago when Joel and I got married I never, ever thought I'd be living here (primarily because he promised we wouldn't have to move here), but it's been an interesting ride.