Sunday, July 29, 2007

tried to catch up with some pictures

the trees in downtown perth.

We leave for Bali, Indonesia in the morning! Our flight takes off around 8am so we'll be arriving at the airport around 6am to drop off the rental car and check in. Before we go, I should post some pictures of our time here as some parts have been really beautiful. Here you are with some pictures of Western Australian.

More later as the server seems to be struggling here. Perhaps we'll actually have internet access at our house in Bali. Wouldn't that be delightful? We promise to be better about being in touch and uploading more pictures. I just got an e-mail that someone from the birth center is scoping out a house for us today! Hope to update you all tomorrow and throughout our first week in Indonesia.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Visas, check!

We got our visas today for two months in Indonesia! YAY!!! We just need to find a printer now so we can print out our e-tickets. Just a few more days until we leave early in the am for a short flight. We are so stoked!

This week, we took a road trip down the coast of southwest australia. We drove through Mandurah, Bunbury down to Bussleton. The ocean views were beautiful. We saw our first kangaroos! A whole field of them were lounging about next to the ocean on one of those scenic turnout drives that we took. But not a single one was moving. No hopping kangas. Half of them were just lying on the ground on their sides and eating grass with their cheeks to the ground looking lazy. Others were lying on their backs with feet up in the air and a few were standing about or bent over eating. Ez said, "kangas, kangas." and made little hand motions in front of her chest. Hilarious.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Joondalup, Indo and Ez Update

Joondalup is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Please look on google for some pics of it asap so you can enjoy the view. Unfortunately, we did not have our camera on hand when we spontaneously drove in yesterday.

We bought our tickets for Indonesia, today. We have applied for our visas, too and they should be available by Wed. afternoon. The latest update on us is that we are skipping Thailand for now and heading straight to Indonesia. I have an opportunity to work with a midwife in Bali who runs a birth center and attends homebirths. She also runs a training center for traditional birth attendants to improve their skills and understanding toward becoming midwives. I will be a volunteer helping and learning as I go. Our visa is for two months but we hope to extend it by at least 30 days.

In other news, Ez likes to count to 10 these days, have memorized Good Night Moon and is eating large quantities of bread. We've converted to using undies instead of diapers throughout the day and she has occasionally woken with a dry dipe in the morning. She frequently says, "sherpie, come!" but he is nowhere to be found. Since we rented a car yesterday, she has been riding around in a forward facing car seat for the first time. We think she prefers it to the rear facing one. And, with all that bread she has been eating, her weight is certainly okay for it.

Off to check on the laundry.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

whole foods, OH OH OH how i miss you!



It is impossible to convey in words how deeply i miss being able to go to whole foods and buy nourishment for myself and my family.

Friday, July 6, 2007

we are in perth

We finally made it to the land down under! They are a generous and kind people thus far. We've ridden the metro into town a few times; it's just a short walk from our "house". We've walked to the grocery store and into the town that is kind of a suburb of perth. It's hard to find decent vegan food and things are rather expensive. Our bathrooms are outside and there are all kinds of door codes to enter as we live in the middle of the city where there is a bit of crime and robberies. We were told our house has been broken into and that a homelesss lady jumped the fence to shake a kid saying, "where's the money? where's the money?" We laugh at this story a lot and i am even laughing out loud right now as i write it. The story is really not all that funny when I think about it but the way andy tells it just cracks me up.

so, what are some things that we actually like about this place?

australians are so friendly and helpful.
tea time every single morning at 10am.
walking everywhere and not using a gas guzzler.
perth seems to be very energy conscious. there is more than one option for what kind of flush you may need at the toilet. the electric outlets are always turned off and you have to turn them on to use them, which saves electricity.
lots of recycling and re-use going on around here.
the most common phrase we hear is "no worries, mate."