Sydney Part 2

   Friday morning Andy woke up first as usual. He and Aliya headed out of the hotel, and came back with groceries for breakfasts and a large skinny flat white (yes, that's a coffee) for me. Breakfast in bed! We cleared out the mini bar to store our milk, yogurt, and fruit. Then it was time to head off on our first adventure.
      From the very beginning of planning, Andy knew what he wanted to do in Sydney: a bike tour. We'd done them in Munich and Barcelona and felt they were a great way to get an overview of a new city. After a bit of Googling, we booked the four-hour Sydney Classic Tour  for Friday morning. Given that we had a lot of bike-riding ahead of us, we opted to take a taxi up to  "The Rocks," an area of Sydney near the bridge and the Opera House where the Bonza Bike Tours was located. We got our bikes and helmets, and waited for the other five tour members to arrive.

    Once everyone was ready, we walked the bikes down a steep, narrow laneway and found a nice spot near a huge cruise ship for a briefing. That's when we discovered that Aliya's hand brakes were too far for her hands to comfortably reach. While we'd checked to make sure she could comfortably reach the pedals and handlebars, she hadn't actually tried braking. Fortunately, Andy used to work in a bike shop, and the guide had a backpack with some tools, and they were able to make the necessary adjustments.

   Our first real stop had a great view, so of course we had to get our picture with the iconic Sydney Opera House. What I didn't get a picture of is the Japanese tourists taking pictures and videos of Alanna and Aliya! They are apparently fascinated with other children, especially when they are of the blonde-hair, blue-eyed variety.

We rode around Dawes Point, and eventually looped onto the Sydney bridge.

   You can see from the picture below they wanted to keep us separate from the train tracks next to us. It was a bit freaky when the train went by, shaking the bridge.

We rode halfway across, then stopped for a group photo...

...and to admire the fabulous views. We could actually see the famous Blue Mountains in the distance from here. 

   We truly lucked out on getting such a spectacularly clear and beautiful day. The day before it was absolutely pouring rain.

    After all that riding, it was time for Andy's favourite (when in Oz, spell as the Aussies do) stop: a pub! 

 Yes, it's named the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. Australia can be confusing that way, because hotels are really pubs. Andy found this out before while trying to book accommodations for our Mt. Buller trip.

Suitably refreshed, the group continued on, as we still had a lot to see and do, including: biking through Darling Harbour, a very touristy area.

We rode to, then walked through, Chinatown.

We biked through Hyde Park,

and saw the Anzac War Memorial,

 took our photo at the Archibald fountain,

 

goofed off at the fountain (and decided to visit St. Mary's Cathedral--seen in the background--at a later time,)

walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens (bike riding prohibited, but walking on grass encouraged)

 viewed the Opera House and bridge from Mrs. Macquarie's Point:

 took another family photo:

 flexed our muscles:

and took a group photo. Would you believe one of the couples was from Pittsburgh? Small world!

 

    The kids were pretty tired by the end of it, but they made it. We replenished our fluids at the Lowebrau Keller. Actually wasn't our first choice, but we needed somewhere to sit after buying food from the street vendors--yummy Turkish flatbread concoction with chicken, cheese, and spinach for the grownups, and meatball sandwiches for the kids.

We took a taxi back to the hotel for a short break. A couple of hours later, the kids had revived and were eager to go swimming. We loaded up our swim bag and set off for the Cook and Phillip Park Aquatic Center, which was just on the other side of Hyde Park. The mom of one of Aliya's friends used to live in Sydney, and had given us a lot of tips and suggestions on kid-friendly places to go. This was one of her ideas, and it was a great one.

   After a nice swim, we walked back to the hotel. Had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, and by the end, the kids were completely exhausted. Back to bed to rest up for another exciting day ahead!

Sydney Part 1

After our trip to New Zealand, the next question was obviously "Where to next?" We went down the list of "Places We Must See Before Leaving Australia" and selected Sydney. We chose the long weekend in March (Aussie Labor day) and starting making plans.
We finally saw the bright side of all of Andy's travel: we were able to exchange his frequent flier points for four airplane tickets. Whoo hoo. Just as well the tickets were free, given the cost of accommodations over a holiday weekend in Sydney. Yikes, the prices were insane! But because we only had four days, and wanted to see as much as possible, and definitely didn't want to rent a car, we bit the bullet and paid through the nose to get a nice hotel in the city. Our hotel location turned out to be perfect: grocery store and coffee shop just around the corner, easy walking distance to most places, and if we didn't feel like walking, we could easily catch a taxi, train, bus, or monorail (all of which we did!)
So, we departed on a Thursday night for the airport. Dropped off our car at long-term parking, breezed through airport check-in thanks to Andy's Gold frequent flier status, and headed for the lounge. Another perk of Andy's status is that in addition to himself, he was allowed to bring three guests in. Wisely, he chose us. The girls were amazed at all the free drinks and food available. Though we usually make them stick to water, we felt that going to Sydney was a special occasion to be celebrated with sodas for the kids and alcohol for the adults. Cheers! 

Aliya even commented, "Dad, you should travel more often," thereby breaking Andy's heart. Of course, she didn't mean it, she simply was enjoying the lounge. Soon enough, it was time to head to the plane for our laughably-short flight. The girls had a nice view of the sunset out of the window:

We landed in Sydney about 9:30. We could have taken a train to our hotel (love the public transport in this country) but decided that it would be simpler just to take a taxi. The girls still had lots of energy and were able to amuse themselves while waiting in the queue. 

We got to the hotel and checked in with no problems. The only drama was the huge decision of who got to sleep with whom and in which bed. Andy voted to sleep with me but got overruled. The kids agreed to alternate which parent they slept with, but there was still which bed and which parent first to negotiate. Somehow, we were able to compromise and get to sleep. Good thing, because we had a big day planned!

Penny (and Hoosier) Lane

Yay, another post from Andy!

After Aliya’s basketball game on Sunday morning, Alexi had booked herself a date to see a movie with her friend Tierney. Which meant that I had to babysit the girls … uh, I mean perform my  “parenting duties,” and keep an eye on Alanna and Aliya for the afternoon. But what to do with the time?  Well, with it being a Sunday, the girls and I quickly settled on a plan to go in search of our traditional donuts-and-smoothies, which is not nearly as easy as it sounds, since donuts are not all that common in Melbourne, and there is really only one smoothie chain in the city. In the end, we agreed that it would be fun to take the train into the city for our treat, since we could get donuts and smoothies right next to Flinders Station. But what to do after that?

Much pondering ensued before Alexi remembered that we had purchased a quiz/trivia/guide to the shopping arcades in the central business district (downtown) of Melbourne.  Now, when I say “arcades,” I don’t mean pinball and videogames.  In Melbourne, the arcades are narrow, pedestrian alleys filled with unique stores, restaurants, artwork, architecture and history. So, that sounded promising.  Get a little exercise walking in the city. See a bit of history. Learn a bit about old Melbourne. Use the clues to solve a riddle. And find more chocolate treats, to really amp up the sugar level.

Naturally, the girls wanted to bring friends, so on rather short notice, we started calling around to everybody on the class lists.  We had absolutely no luck with Aliya’s friends, but we did score with one of Alanna’s friends, Lara. I talked with Lara’s mom, Tammy, and she agreed to let her daughter join us for our little excursion into the city. In fact, she sounded rather happy to off-load one of her kids for the afternoon. With that settled, we gathered up the quiz/maps, coloured pens, backpack, jackets, water bottle, money, and MyKi cards for the train ride. But before heading out, Aliya was firmly determined to bring her Razor scooter along, desperately complaining that she was too tired to walk, and sobbing that I was being mean, and she hated me, etc. Sigh. I refused to load the scooter in the car, since I didn’t want the hassle of carrying it around the city. And off we went to Lara’s house, with a rather morose Aliya sulking in the back seat.

After grabbing Lara, I realised I needed some cash, so backtracked a little to the ATM.  And I caved. Yep, I changed my mind, and did the one thing that I shouldn’t have. I drove the car back to the house to pick up Aliya’s scooter.  I should have just stuck with my first decision, and held firm. But no, I tried to placate Aliya, rationalising that Alanna had a friend along, so Aliya should get something … a scooter to ride in the city. Bad parenting on my part. Doh!

Anyway, with all the prep work done and dusted, we headed to the station and caught the next train into the city. Easy ride, except for the few seats on the train. The crowd, we realised, was due to the Formula 1 Grand Prix race happening in the city.  I would have liked to take the girls to see the F1 cars and races, but tickets for the day started at $100 each. Ouch. In any case, we were in the city in about 15 minutes, and heading for our first clue at the Young & Jackson Pub and Hotel before grabbing our smoothies and donuts. 

I should explain that our map had a number of questions we had to answer about curious and historical places in the city. For example, “Search around the exterior of the Young & Jackson pub and find out how much the site was sold for when it was first purchased in 1837?” The answer is 100 pounds, which we had to spell out and enter in a crossword, which we were to use to find the answer to a riddle.

Anyway, once done at Young & Jackson’s we headed to the donut shop and the smoothie place replenish our energy stores. Chocolate-glazed donuts all around.  

Then off we trekked through the first of many arcades, trying to identify the names of buildings, the number of stained glass windows, the words that complete a motto, who Matthew Flinders (famous explorer in the early-1800s) was apprenticed to, etc. The route took us past several places I’d regularly seen on my commute into the city, but had never noticed before. Very cool stuff for me, but not so interesting for the kids. So we stopped at a fine chocolate shop to spice up the walk. Unfortunately, the chocolates were so rich, decadent, and unusual, that neither Alanna nor Aliya particularly liked theirs. Lara had her own money from her mom, so she bought two pieces to take home.

We continued our walk, with Aliya starting to complain more and more about how tired she was, even with the scooter. But I persisted, determined not to turn around and cut the trip short. The furthest point of the walk was right next to my office building, so we had a pit stop and a bit of a rest before heading back toward the train station. Along the route, our map/guide instructed us to find the public men’s toilets on Elizabeth Street which were first constructed in 1810, adjacent to the first public women’s toilets which were constructed in 1827. Naturally, the girls asked what the women were supposed to do when they didn’t have their own toilet. I couldn’t resist, and said “Cross their legs, I guess, for 17 years!”

 At one point, we had to stop to try and figure out our route, and a nice, older couple noticed me looking at our map while surrounded by three girls, and we got to chatting. Turns out they were on holiday from Victoria, British Columbia, and exploring the city just as we were. They were most interested in what Alanna and Aliya had to say about living abroad and going to school in Australia.  The girls were open and polite, and clearly enthusiastic when describing their school and life in Melbourne.

Next we headed for Hosier Lane, a famous cobblestoned alley decorated with “urban art,”  i.e. graffiti of a political nature. Take a look at a few of the photos to see if you can discern any political meanings in the graffiti. 

  The best part of Hosier Lane was coming upon a group of artists who were restoring some of their previous graffiti, by painting over the tagging that somebody had painted on their work. Graffiti on the graffiti, that is. Quickly realising the potential in this, I asked if the girls could help out, and they readily agreed, and handed us a couple of spray cans so each girl could take a turn spray painting graffiti over the tagging (see photos of our budding “urban art” crew).  Pretty cool of the artists to let the girls have a go.

 Finally, we reached the end of our walking/eating/graffiti tour, back where we started at the train station, which called for a bit of a celebration with some French fries from a placed called “Lord of the Fries” before we boarded the train for the trip back to our neighborhood.

Searchin'

Hooray, a guest post from Andy. Hopefully this will tide you over until I can blog about Sydney, Taylor, and a few other things!

During the past year, we’ve managed to lose a few minor items around our house, including a pair of my eye glasses, and more importantly, Aliya’s iPod.  But the final straw came when we managed to misplace the remote that turned on the television.  We were without it for almost two days, and had to actually turn on the telly manually.  In fact, the girls were completely surprised that the TV could be turned on by pushing a button on the front of the TV.  Imagine if they’d had to get up and turn a dial on the TV to switch channels … but that’s just me showing my age.

In any case, I searched high and low, literally, looking under couches and on top of cabinets.  Surprisingly, I managed to find the missing glasses up high, in a small container on top of some shelves in the dining room.  And more surprisingly, I stuck my hands deep down inside one of the couches and magically came up with Aliya’s missing iPod, which had not seen the light of day since well before Christmas.  This was most significant, because we’d all been lamenting the loss of Aliya’s iPod, which contained several memorable videos of her narrating a tour around our house in California.

But still no luck with the remote. Finally, getting desperate, I offered a reward of $20 to anybody who found it. Naturally, this set off a massive rush by the kids to see if they could earn the bounty by finding the treasured remote.  And within 60 seconds, Aliya had stuck her small hand between another set of cushions on another couch, and come up with the missing remote.  Whew!  We’re back in business, able to enjoy our telly with the lazy comfort of a remote in hand.

So it was definitely a good weekend for Aliya. She got her iTouch back and made $20!

Back to School Again

I can't believe the girls started their second year at an Aussie school. Aliya is in Year 2, and Alanna is in Year 5, and they both seem happy to be there.

A lot of people ask me how the schools compare in Australia vs the States, so I thought I would list some of the differences. Granted, I am really only comparing one particular school here in Australia. Schools vary from place to place, just like they do in the US.  I could easily make comparisons to the Catholic school and the public school the girls attended back home. If nothing else, it's a more detailed description of the girls' school.

1. Calendar years. The school year starts in early Feb, and ends late December. That leaves a nice break during the summer here. It's certainly easier to say "the 2012 school year" instead of "the 2011-2012 school year."
2. Term structure. There are four terms of about 10 weeks each, with a two week break between terms. I much prefer this. The summer break is too long in the US: kids to get bored or forget most of what they learned. And the two week breaks between terms here is a nice treat.
3. School hours. 9 - 3:30. Much later than the girls previous two schools. Definitely works for me, and this seems to be pretty standard for the primary schools.
4. Uniforms. As far as I know, all schools, even public schools, have them here. I loved uniforms at their first school, and I love it here. Alanna sticks with the shorts and polo, while Aliya mixes it up with the prison gingham dress on some days. And of course, in Terms 1 and 4 (closest to summer) hats are required. No hat, no play. Very important because of the incredibly strong Aussie sun. They've got a saying here: Slip, Slop, Slap. Slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, slap on a hat. [Apparently they've added to it: Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek, Slide.]
5. Primary schools are grades Prep (kindergarten in the US, and just to confuse things, Aussies have "Kinder" which is like pre-school) through Year 6. Secondary schools are Years 7 - 12. Some private schools do go from Prep - 12, but I haven't seen anything equivalent to a middle school or junior high. In the Aussie state of Victoria, there are about 1500 government (public) schools, about 500 Catholic schools, and about 200 private schools. Private schools are extremely expensive, often running about 20,000 a year!  There's quite a lot of debate and angst among the Year 5 parents as they try to decide where to send their kids the year after next. I'm glad we don't have to worry about that as we'll be home before Alanna would need to go to another school.
6. Curriculum. If I had to guess, I would say Australia is behind the US. Alanna's class was memorizing times tables in Year 4, something her third grade class back home. Aliya didn't start doing spelling tests until Year 2, while they started doing them at the beginning of first grade back home. Because we pushed Alanna ahead half a year (with her birthday she made the April 1st cutoff) we're not too worried about the transition back. With Aliya, we held her back half a year (she missed the birthday cutoff and would have been by far the youngest in her class) so we may have to do some tutoring before we go back. 
7. Religious education. Even in a public or state school, there is about a half hour of religious education a week. Parents can opt-out their children, in which case they go to another room and finish classwork. I think the choices vary by school. In our case, it's Jewish or Christian education. Alanna tells me one of her Christian RE teachers is a pharmacist. Interestingly enough, last year the Victorian teacher union passed a resolution calling for the RE program to be scrapped.  It's pretty controversial. Some parents want a religious survey class instead, some are concerned about the preaching/evangelical nature of the teachings by some volunteers, and some think that religion has no place in a public school. 
8. Fruit break. Around 10:00 there is brief snack break where only fruits or vegetables are allowed. Great idea to boost their nutrition and also their attention span. Helpful to kids who eat breakfast early or isn't that hungry in the morning. This way, they won't have to wait until the official snack time (called play lunch) to eat. Even better, this year a vendor donated fruit to the school, so the kids always have a bowl of fruit available to them in the classroom.
9. Homework. What homework? Just a nightly reading journal for Aliya. Alanna's gotten a few worksheets and had a couple projects, but she usually gets those done in class. Compared to what her peers are doing back in Cali, she's getting off quite easily. Hopefully not too easily. This year should be more challenging in that regard, though I definitely appreciate the lack of stress in their schoolwork, and I do believe in letting kids have time to just have fun. Update (since I started writing this a month ago): Alanna has begun to have regular homework assignments. Alanna says: TOO MUCH! 
10. Communication with teachers. It was so convenient to email the teachers in the US. Here it's more difficult. You have to email the office which forwards it to the teacher, or write a note. Also at both schools back home, the teachers had websites with class information, homework, updates, etc. You always knew what was going on. Here, the teachers do send home notices occasionally.
11. At both schools in the US, a folder of papers came home each week. Mostly they consisted of worksheets or homework, but they might also have stories or artwork. I tried to save one item each week for a binder, and tossed recycled the rest. It was nice though, because we could see what they were working on. Here, papers rarely come home, until the end of the year. Then they bring home everything in the form of numerous scrapbooks, notebooks, and journals. It's nice to look through these items and see their progress, but it doesn't help much during the year.
12. Because of the lack of communication, it's difficult to know where the girls stand. Yes, the teachers are available for conferences. But there's no regular feedback. At the girls' first school, there was a program called GradeLink that actually let us log in and see their current grades. Which brings us to the report cards. They are actually called Reports, and they are several pages, not just a card. Additionally, report cards/progress reports only come out twice a year, and the end of Terms 2 and 4.
13. Which brings us to the grading system. Ugh! Here's how it works in the state of Victoria. If your child is performing at the "standard expected at this time of year," they get a C. So even if they do all of the expected work perfectly, that's a C. To get a B, they need to be working about 6 months ahead and to get an A, they need to be performing at a whole grade level higher. Now, one of the girls did get a few As, so it is possible. But for the most part, especially in things such as Arts, PE, Science, and Computers, they really have no opportunity to be a year ahead, or show that they can perform at a much higher level. When discussing this with the teachers, they suggested we think of the C's as B's, and the B's as A's. I suppose, but I think it's a difficult standard to explain.Following the pages of explanations and grades is a whole page written by their primary teacher. What the child has achieved, areas for improvement, how the school will support the child, and what we can do at home. Some of it is clearly cut-and-pasted, but for our girls, there was plenty of specific information that clearly related to them. The next page has a paragraph from each of the specialist teachers (art, Italian, Music and PE.) Finally, there is a page of self-assesment by the child, which is always a bit interesting to see how they perceive their strengths and weaknesses.
14. Focus on environment. I've seen more "green" initiatives here in Oz. Our school here has Nude Food Wednesdays, where a "Golden Trashcan" is awarded to the class with the most "Nude Food," (no wrappers or trash, only containers.) Also each upper class has a member in the Green Team, which organizes school clean ups and help count Nude Food lunches.
15. Focus on charities seems pretty good here.There were numerous times during the year where the children had the opportunity to help less fortunate. Alanna was so inspired by one activity to raise money for Save the Children that she held her own fundraiser.
16. Leadership opportunities. Our current school seems to try hard to foster leadership and public speaking. Every week the older children organize and lead the assembly. There is a junior school council for Year 3s and up. A boy and girl rep is selected by a vote from each class. Year 6 has House captains and vice-captains, also voted on by their classmates. (There are four houses at our school, and no, they aren't Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin.)
17. IT. This varies from school to school. Ours has some catching up to do. Alanna's classroom didn't have a smart board until the middle of Term 3 last year. Halfway through Alanna's year: SuperClubs. As you might have read on Alanna's blog entry, she's learned quite a bit. She's been known to say things like, "I'll send you the URL link to the page after I upload this graphics for my image store." Love it! Lower grades use the computer room which has maybe 20 computers, not quite enough for a whole class. [Update: went to a "Coffee with the Principal" on Friday and asked about this. They'll have 25 PCs in there by the end of the Term 1. Whoo hoo.] Usually they go once a week. Year 5 and 6 students are meant to use laptops and iPads in the Senior Learning Center. They've been working on an Ultranet for a few years now, and that should be pretty cool once it's completely rolled out. When it's ready, they can create their own blogs with external links, email, calendars, classroom assignments.
18. Language. Back home, one school had Spanish, the other school had no foreign language. In Australia, I believe every school has a LOTE (Language Other Than English) program. The language varies by school, and at ours it's Italian. 
19. Money. We do pay a fee upfront, I think it was several hundred dollars, to cover various expenses. But it seems like almost every week one child or the other comes home with an envelope requesting money for this activity or that excursion or a bus trip. Or the gold coins for Icy Pole day, or special Free Dress days. It's not the money per se, but the constant demands and the need to continually come up with the right amount of small bills/coins.
20. Classroom activities. When I was the room parent for Alanna's class back home, the main job was organizing the class holiday parties. They don't have them here. This year I am class rep for Alanna's class (didn't get it for Aliya's unfortunately) and my main tasks are organizing contact details from everyone for a class list, and arranging a few get-togethers for the parents outside of school.

All in all, we're satisfied with the education our girls are receiving at a good public school. Which is good, because we chose this neighborhood for the school, knowing it would be a massive burden to afford private school here. The kids are having fun, making friends, learning a lot, and getting exposed to a lot of new things. I wasn't so sure at first, especially since the girls left such a great enviroment. Aliya had the most bubbly, enthusiastic teacher so it difficult to switch to a more serious, quiet type. And Alanna had a very motivated and inspired teacher who constantly supported and challenged her, and also gave them so many cool technology tools to assist their learning. Her teacher last year in Australia left a bit to be desired...

   I have to say that I am especially excited for Alanna this year. The Year 5 teachers (three of them) are a fabulous team. At the Parent Information Night they kept talking over each other in their excitement to discuss all of the ways they have to make learning fun. They showed off the green screens, boom mikes and professional-quality podcast microphones that were used last year to make movies about the planets, example. Sure is more interesting to make a movie about why you should move to Mars instead of just writing a report, don't you think?

   We all know a good education is one of the best gifts you can give a child. Our parents valued a top-notch education, which is why both Andy's parents and mine made sure we went to great schools. It served us well, and we hope it will serve our kids as well down the road...they need to get good jobs and support us in our old age, right??

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

   Alanna has her own blog. You never know what she might write about, so go check it out!

   Quiet and very rainy weekend here. Andy's off on a boys weekend in Sorrento with some of his rowing buddies. It's a little town on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula, and one of his friends has a beach house there.

   In the meantime, visit Alanna's blog and say hello!

Hey Bulldog

Aliya came home from a playdate on Sunday looking like this:

So she decided to get out our face paints. Apparently Andy wasn't too interested in having his face painted, but he was okay with some bicep artwork.

   It was a brutally hot weekend. Finally experiencing a true summer in Melbourne. It got up to 37 degrees, almost 100 degrees F! So hot, the girls went swimming twice. Once in the morning with me at the local outdoor pool. Again later in the afternoon with friends. They were having a sleepover so that Andy and I could attend an adults-only 40th birthday party. Our friends took them to Harold Holt pool. 
   Who is Harold Holt, you might ask? I'm glad you did. He was the Prime Minister of Australia who went for a swim in 1967 and was never seen again. Love their sense of irony in naming a swim center after a Prime Minister who drowned. Assuming, of course, you don't believe the conspiracy theorists who think he was abducted by a Chinese submarine.