Arrival in Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne safely with our luggage at 3pm local time (Sunday), but were supposed to be here at 8 am.  Melbourne is 17 hours ahead of Alberta... so 10 pm Saturday night.  We had a 1 hour delay in LA, which caused a 6 hour delay in Auckland!  Because we weren't sure when the new crew would arrive (the old one timed out waiting for the plane to come in from LA), we couldn't leave the airport to see the sights of New Zealand.  Luke and I considered taking the chance, but because we were both so tired, we ended up shopping and sleeping instead.

 

Flying with Quantas was wonderful.  They checked our luggage for us in Calgary, and they transferred it for us in Seattle, LA, and Auckland.  The meals were large and tasty, and for once my knees weren't in the back of the seat in front of me.  It was so weird flying on July 4th.  For a Friday, the airports in all 3 countries were fairly dead, and the planes had a lot of empty seats.  That meant Luke and I got to share the seats in a 3 person row all the way from Seattle to Auckland!  It was so nice to have extra room!

 

And, thanks to Diana and Dad for getting me the keys to a wonderful apartment 15 minutes from school my new school (www.westmountchater.com ) in Marda Loop, Calgary.  I was so worried I was going to be a victim of fraud there for a while, but luckily my initial judgement of my landlord's character was correct.  Unfortunately he just had a forgetful cleaner come in to clean the place,  so she ended up taking my keys to Stampede!

 

We have met so many pilgrims for WYD so far!  There was a group of 100 from Quebec who were sponsored by the Canadiens, so they all were wearing jerseys in the LA airport.  (Uncle Percy would have been quite impressed seeing so many jerseys in one spot!)

 

Anyways, I'd better go soon.  We still want to plan our day for tomorrow, before we collapse into our beds at "The Nunnery".  By the way... know you that saying about "Don't let the bed bugs bite"?  Well apparently it's actually true here in Australia.  There are tons of signs warning you not to use your sleeping bags unless you absolutely have to, so it prevents spreading them!  Yuck! 

 

Love you all,

Andrea

 

PS.  Luke wants to try Kangaroo tomorrow... I'll let you know how that goes.

 

 

 

 

PR: Week 1

Hello, Hello!

Last post I promised to let you know how the move went. Since I finally have Internet at home, I can finally do that. The packing went well and surprisingly smooth. It's amazing how much my Mom and I packed into "Blanche" the family minivan, and my car. The drive up to Peace River took forever though! Near Valleyview, they've taken out part of the divided highway, so at one point 4 lanes were reduced to one! I hope it gets finished before the next time I have to go through there!

Thankfully my neighbour Sam decided that helping me move was a better workout than going to the gym. We had the van unpacked in 45 minutes! After a little break, Janelle, Lauren, and their friend Seb helped me unpack the car. It was so nice to have some extra help!

My Mom and Dad stayed 2 days to help me unpack, set up furniture and buy a couple of necessities for the apartment. Since then it's been a bit of a whirlwind of adventure. Such adventures include: cowboy church in Bluesky, hiking in Dunvagen, picking cactus thorns out of Dave's hand, shopping with Beth, setting up my classroom, and landscaping with the VP.

From looking at my blog you can tell that I've spent oh so much time planning today. If procrastination were a subject in university, I'd have a doctorate by now. So tomorrow brings course outlines for my math and health courses. That's right. Health. Because of some circumstances beyond my Principal's control, I don't have Band 6 anymore... I get the "fun" job of teaching health 7 and 9. At least the Health 7 switches to Psych second semester! Possibly health 9 too... but I don't want to get my hopes up quite yet. It's not that I hate teaching health, it's just that when you compare it to band... it's a bit of a let down.

Anyhoo... I might be able to get a little bit done yet tonight, so I guess I'd better get at it while I'm still motivated to do so!

Good luck this week!
~Andrea~

I did it!!!

I passed! Whoohooo!!!! It seems like the second time's the charm when it comes to driver's tests! First time: 105 demerits & an automatic fail for having a signal light not cancel in time for an upcoming intersection. This time I only had 20 demerits! After all of that practicing, I'm finally able to drive MY car on my own!

Quite a bit has happened since my last post. Sorry about that! I'll try to catch you up:
I've been a part of Beth's wedding, found an apartment, bought a car, and passed my driver's test! Phew! Now all that's left this summer is to pack my stuff, move to PR, and start school! I'll let you know how that goes later, and fill you in about my summer a bit beter, but for now I'm going out for some "celebration shopping & dinner" with my parents in Red Deer.

Talk to you soon!
~Andrea~