You Can't Do That

     Turn right, that is, unless, you move all the way to the left. You see, Melbourne has something known as a hook turn, feared by drivers everywhere, but especially newbies to Australia. Imagine you're in the States driving, and want to turn left. You get in the left turn lane if there is one, and make the turn when it's clear. If you were doing a hook turn in the US, you'd get in the far RIGHT lane (in other words, as far as possible from where you want to be) and then when the light just changes, you make the turn. That's what you do, with the right and left reverses, in Melbourne. To add to the excitement, there's usually a tram line running through the middle of the road, so be sure to avoid the trams. Did Andy get to attempt this today? Maybe, maybe not. First things first.
   Today we visited two more schools, one government (public) and one not (Catholic.) Both had potential. Andy was sold on the Catholic school, not for the obvious reason but because of it's proximity to the bay and beach. Alanna will probably like the public one because the colors are purple and yellow. Have to share a few pics from a bulletin board from that school.


They have a variety of take away food




There aren't that many gangsters

  The Catholic school had a really cool play area though. In addition to raised bed gardens where the kids grow fruits and veggies and sell them, they have some large games:


Connect 4



Chess

    After touring the schools, we headed to the only Costco in Australia to pick up a printer for Andy's office. I finally caved and bought my first soda, since it was a mere $1.50, only to be a bit dismayed to find no diet soda. After inquiring, I tried Pepsi Max, which has "no sugar and maximum energy." There you go! Next up, a quick visit to Andy's office, then the fun began: navigating through the city in rush hour. Wouldn't have been so bad except on most of the streets we couldn't turn the way we wanted, and some weren't even through streets. Finally, the opportunity, and necessity, for a hook turn presented itself, and here are the results:

    It's my last night in Australia, so I'm trying to soak up the culture a bit listening to the radio. Every other ad announces that it's Mo-vember, mo being short for moustache, and I believe it's prostate awareness month. This concludes the public service announcement.
   We watched the ARIA awards last night, sort of the Australian grammys. Very refreshing, shall we say. One of the things I love about going to other places is hearing the music, and it will be interesting to see if any of the songs make it in the States.
   For those that might be interested, the news here right now is focused on a few main events:

1. Hillary Clinton's visit to Melbourne. She didn't visit us, shockingly.
2. Quantas. Three problem flights (and emergency landings) in three days. I'm flying United home, for what it's worth.
3. Interest rates. If we were undecided before about renting vs. buying, the question has been answered. They don't have anything like a 30, 20, or even 15 year fixed mortgage rate. As far as we can tell, 5 years is the most. So rising interest rates means pretty much everyone's mortgage is going up. And huge exit fees means it's expensive for people to refinance with another lender. Yikes. We definitely won't buy anyway, as the housing market is about as insane as the southern Cali market.
4. Sports. This country is serious about its sports. We definitely need to pick a footy team to barrack for (very important: root means something entirely different here). And we clearly have some learning to do with regards to cricket. Let me share a quote from the paper: "Tharanga set about proving his value with a composed 86 not out that led Sri Lanka to 3-213 before two rain delays ended the innings after 41.1 overs, and set Australia 244 from 39 overs at the SCG." yeah, okay, if you say so.

Not sure if I'll get to post again before I head home tomorrow, so I'll say G'day for now. Overall, I'm really glad I made the trip. The people here are incredibly friendly and the schools seem excellent, so that puts my mind at ease quite a bit. Cheers!