"Canada is like one part Oregon, one part Minnesota, and a big splash of Europe. I kind-of like it! Tom, let's move here next!" - Myla
A quick flight from Seattle took us to beautiful Vancouver BC, Canada. It was all of our first time there and I let Tom know I could definitely live there! The airport is beautiful and quiet. Vancouver is clean. We hopped a train from the airport to the waterfront. It was the kids' first train ride ever and it was a blast to watch their reactions to little things like the affect in the train when our train was passed by another going the other way.. My favorite part was people watching. There was a group of 4 young guys watching a soccer match on their phone. Along with their kind-of British accents it made me feel like I was back in Europe. We got off at the waterfront downtown area and let the kids just run in a big cement open area. They were super thrilled about the pigeons - as we don't see many of those in Seward. We also stumbled upon the world's first steam powered clock right as it was striking 11:00. That was a treat. The rain started not long after we got downtown and then the rain turned to snow. Most of the people we talked to seemed thrilled that it was snowing. I kept thinking that it was an awful lot like where we just came from. We ended up at a brew pub playing cards and feasting, then headed back to the airport.The kids' decided that their souvenir from Canada was going to be Canadian money. So they went to the exchange desk at the airport and exchanged their first money. They had so much fun looking at the paper and the coins! Overall we are waiting through a 12 hour layover. I'll be honest. I'm tired. My eyes hurt as i don't have my glasses. The next 16 hours on the plane are going to be long, but I'm so looking forward to what is on the other end. We will lose January 1 because we are crossing the international date line, so I'll touch bases again on the 2nd! Happy New Year everyone!!
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“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - JRR Tolkein
Our first day of adventure to the Land of Oz! The days leading up to our departure were hectic and a bit stressful but with some help from great people we made it out the door. Mac, thank you for letting me back into my classroom for last minute items that I'd forgotten. Jena, thank you for taking my kids - twice! Nickole, thanks for stopping by and saying goodbyy at the perfect time - I needed that to crack my stress! Tasha, thank you for getting me out the door and giving me a final taste of Alaska's beauty. Ken and Linda, thank you for dinner! Finally a big thank you to Becki for detailing my car for me (it is gorgeous) driving us up to Anchorage today, AND mailing my glasses and mouth gaurd that fell out of my pack into her car. Thank you to all of you that have sent notes, wished us well, given hugs, and have - in your own way - helped us to feel important in your lives and excited for our endeavor! So, my family is crashed in a kind-of quiet corner of C-Terminal at the Seattle Airport. Our toothbrushes were also in the bag left in Becki's car, and I'm amazed that every member of my family - except me - brought a spare! So I brushed my teeth with my finger, and and am typing this with no glasses. In 5 hours we are off to Vancouver BC! So, you know how there are words in different languages that don't have an equivalent in English? Gemütlichkeit is one of them. It is a German word that refers to a cosy warm happy feeling or atmosphere. Well, I need a word for the hazy "dumb" feeling you have when you are about to move your family across the world. Today I wished someone "Happy Birthday" instead of "Happy New Year" and while at City Hall I couldn't figure out how many quarters were in a $10 roll of quarters! And I'm a teacher... not able to think... in public....!!! I can't seem to remember everything, and I am stressed knowing that whatever I'm forgetting is important!
There are so many odds and ends to pull together at the last minute. I know I"m going to forget something. My friend Jena offered this though, " You have a lot of people here in Seward that care about you and will pick up any pieces that you forgot." Thank you Jena! (She also took my kids for me today! My hero!!) I've had some people ask about what exactly our family is doing with this exchange, and I realized that I actually never posted it on the blog. I am participating in a year-long teacher exchange to Australia. A teacher from Australia and her family will come live in our house, while we go live in theirs. The Australian teacher will teach in my classroom while I teach in hers. The program I went through is called the Colorado International Teachers' Exchange League (CITEL) and is the only teacher exchange program left in the US now that Fulbright lost funding in 2013. There are two countries you can exchange to as an American: Canada and Australia. Since we already live in an environment like Canada, we decided to go for Australia.
It has been a long process. I started the application back in July 2015. It was due in December 2015. We started getting "hits" (possible matches) in February 2016. Beteween February and May we reviewed about 9 applications of possilbe matches, but none seemed to be right for us - or we weren't right for the Australian exchangee. In May we were notified that we had a possible solid match and then on the last day of school May 2016 I got my official proposal. Since then we have been preparing our house and our lives for the exchange. Some questions that people have asked: Q. Are you going to exchange cars? A. No. Bron is going to buy a car when they get to Seward, and we are going to buy one in Oz. Then we will both sell before we leave. Q. What are you going to do about utilities? A. We are both keeping our own accounts and will pay each other's bills. Q. Are you going to meet them? Will your paths cross at any time? A. Sadly, we miss each other by 2 hours at the Anchorage Airport. We have talked on the phone and have Skyped. We both don't have return flights so maybe at the end of exchange our paths will cross. Q. It must have been expensive to buy plane tickets to Australia! A. We used Alaska Airlines miles. A one way flight is about 40,000 miles. Q. Are you shipping your stuff? A. No we are each bringing two bags. Q. What will you be teaching? A. I have will teach a Geography class (probably Australian geography) to Year 7 and 8 students (7th and 8th grade) and a 20th century Australian History course to Year 9 and 10. Q. What will Tom do? A. Tom is going to be a stay-at-home dad. He is going to plan our adventures and make sure the kids are adapting well. He's definitely looking forward to a year off! Q. What about your pets? Will she be watching your cat? A. We rehomed the ducks. Our dear wonderful old dog Kena died in March. Sven, our cat, will go live with my good friend and cat-whisperer Naomi. "We don't want the snow globes to freeze!"
"Present for you my dear.... coconut oil. Well,...er... half a container of coconut oil." "I wish the toilet could go in the corner of the bathroom." "#$%, #@$%, **(&^." (Tom - working on the laminent on the bathroom floor.) "Please take my kids for a few hours! Otherwise we will eat them!" "OLIN!!!" (Alta) "It was an accident!" (Olin) "Too bad we aren't staying so we can enjoy this clean house!" "We'll get it all done, right?" (Me to Tom) I did it!!! Classroom is ready to go. Keys have been turned in. Time to now focus on the house and the family! ... And the cat. Tomorrow he's heading to Naomi's!
About to start my last day in my classroom! Trying to get an early start so that I can get everything organized. I've had my classroom keys for about 10 years now, and will be turning those in so that they can get passed on to Bron. I keep feeling like I should be stressed or behind somehow, but I actually am feeling like I'll be ready to go when it is finally time to leave.
Tom worked hard yesterday and got almost all of the trim on the mudroom. We've been working on building a mudroom for the last two years, and are just finishing the final touches. Took the first steps in organizing my Exchange Information Skype session yesterday. Dustin in IT let me know that I could use Skype for Business and that it would be pretty easy to have people from the district join the session. Randi from HR is going to be checking into some other details to help me make this happen. 8 Days. Awesome messages from my dear students at Seward Middle School! These are some of the messages left for me on my whiteboard on the last day. I posted the ones that didn't include names for privacy reasons. The one on the far right was from a student that posted random facts about the Founding Fathers every day (especially Hamilton.) Such neat kids!
Today is my last day with students at Seward Middle School. Yesterday was a little sad as it was the last day that I had them in class. Today was a fun day with Terri Carter's Elves Unleashed extravaganza so I did not have formal class with them. I had a lot of kids tell me they would miss me and that was really nice.
Alta and Olin are both saying goodbye to their teachers today. As per our family tradion, they gave their teachers avacados with bows and a note. After today they are done with 1st and 3rd grade and I will officially have a 2nd and 4th grader! I'm not sure if it has really hit them yet that they will not come back to their teachers when we return in 2018. Came home to Tom trimming out the mudroom. We just need to get that done, and the bathroom finished and then our house updates will be all complete. I think I might try painting a wall in the kids' room before we go - just to spruce it up a bit. I also need to paint the ceiling downstairs but I really loathe painting ceilings. Tom has booked our shuttle from the Sydney Airport to our house in Gosford. We are going to take a shuttle so that we don't have to figure out driving through Sydney ('other' side of the street) after traveling for all those days. After we get to Gosford we are going to take a train to a place where we can rent a car for WAY cheaper than what we could rent out of the Sydney airport. The kids started packing their rooms up yesterday. Olin was a champ. He had no problem getting rid of stuff or putting things in boxes. Alta on the other hand needed a lap to sit in a good hard cry. We brought up some permanent pens so that she could label her boxes, which seemed to be the right move because she engrossed herself in coloring on her boxes. She seemed to be OK after that.
Olin has his birthday party this weekend. His friends gave him a really nice little photo album and pictures of him and them on their adventures. He wants to take it to Aus so that he can remember them while he is there. Bron sent pictures of Rainbow laurikeets today. Beautiful little birds! I'm going to try to get my classroom organized today. It will be great if I can just get out of here on Thursday and not come back. I'm starting to feel very very ready. Might paint some walls this week. |
AuthorThe Liljemark's enjoy exploring the world. This blog chronicles our adventures. Archives
December 2017
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