The Ends of the Earth

Monday, August 20, 2012

4 Observations

4 Initial Cultural Observations:

Portions. American food portions are RIDICULOUSLY humongous! We wonder about our obesity epidemic but it seems obviously related to our 24oz drinks and pothole cover plates of food. If I must be honest, I love it - but, wow... I mean, wow... I also think the food is so tasty, but in a somewhat diabolical way. It just seems as though the food is engineered to assault our bodies with a huge amount of salt and sugar and yumminess that makes it SO HARD to resist. The Kiwi food we've been exposed to is a little bit bland, but perhaps just not as full-on addicting as US food.

Left/Right. Initially I found myself running into lots and lots of pedestrians with the walk on the left side habit. Yesterday, 2.5 weeks into my trip, I found myself driving on the wrong side of a quiet residential road near my parents' house (still going head on with another vehicle). Intersections concern me, and I find that before crossing the road I look right, then left, then right, then left again, then right once more before finally crossing.

Running Courtesy. Runners in the US are SO FRIENDLY! I love smiling and waving at all my fellow runners. I was running in DC and taken aback by all of the friendly smiles and waves I got. In Wellington I've slowly ceased acknowledging any fellow runners that I pass on the road. I miss the shared camaraderie that a simple wave encouraged.

Toilet Bowl Water. Toilet bowl water in the US is much higher than in NZ. On one hand, I've continually felt bad for all of the wasted water with every flush. On the other hand, I don't miss the over-reliance on a toilet bowl brushes that low water necessitates.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Back in the U.S.A.

It's been A LONG time since my last post... I've been in the US for 2.5 weeks and it's been nothing short of a WHIRLWIND adventure! Super, super fun and deeply exhausting... I finally found time to reflect, I'll start from the beginning...

Overall the travel was super easy. As it turns out, Sydney has a phenomenal McDonalds play area and Charlie and Liam hyperactively played for hours with a group of kids who also had a 5-hr layover. In true Qantas fashion, the boarding staff hunted me down in the airport to help me pre-board the flight (a different scenario from my experience on United). The 15-hour flight from Sydney to Dallas was packed to the gills but the boys slept for 90% of it. We were seated next to a lady who seemed pretty freaked out to sit next to a 1- and 3-year old on the long flight. She tried to switch seats, demanded noise-canceling earphones and when Liam touched at her book she shrieked and told me to keep his hands away from her. I was more than a little concerned about the LONG flight, but I knew the poor kiddo was overtired and just needed to fall asleep. I stared at Liam and the lady for about 1.5 hours ensuring that his hand didn't cross over the invisible line of demarcation that ran between their seats. He quickly passed out and didn't cause any problems the rest of the flight (later the woman complained about her meal and other things, and the flight attendants told me to notify them if she caused me any more problems).

My biggest lesson learn from this flight was to request assistance with the airline staff. I remember I was so jealous of all of the older handicapped passengers on the United flight in December, but I now realize they requested assistance from the airline when they checked in. We had a very tight layover in Dallas, and I had to clear customs with 3 large suitcases, 1 carry on backpack, 2 car seats, and 1 humungous bagged stroller. By requesting service, the airline picked up my bags and rechecked them so I didn't need to bother with them and the two littlies. The customs line in Dallas was LONG, and after 10 minutes, I jumped into the diplomat and airline staff line and was immediately processed. I think everyone felt bad for me traveling with the 2 little kids and let me go through the shorter line. I wasn't afraid to ask for help and I found people were more than willing to give a hand.

We arrived into Washington DC Sunday evening (32 hours after we boarded our flight in Wellington on Sunday morning) and fortunately our luggage didn't make the flight but was on the next flight. We took the metro to our hotel and our luggage was delivered that evening (thank you Lord we didn't need to transport EVERYTHING by ourselves!). The boys were settled in their beds by 9pm and everyone was quickly fast asleep. Amazingly enough, the boys fell into a good sleep schedule waking up around 8am and taking afternoon naps. My strategy of sleep deprivation was successful in acclimating to the new time zone.

Here is a video of Nana Joyce meeting us at the airport.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

US-Bound

Heading back to the US for almost 2 months. 0330 wakeup for a very EARLY morning departure from Wellington. Wellington to Sydney flight was a dream with Liam passed out and Charlie gorging himself on cartoons. We are now is Sydney for a 5 hour layover with a pretty pathetic kids play area (see pic below). I love QANTAS - amazing support with the kiddos - the flight attendants were awesome and the pilots even helped pull Charlie in his GoGo BabyZ carseat stroller. Next flight is 14+ hours so fingers crossed it goes as smoothly.

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Liam and Anna

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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Hippie Ice Cream

We spent a day in the Daintree Forest near Port Douglas, Australia (a lot of the previous pics I posted were from there). We took a car ferry and drove about 1 hrs north searching for rain forests, beaches and cassowaries (HUGE flightless birds). We didn't expect to stumble on the world's best homemade ice cream with tropical fruits grown on the premises.

I always tease Jason because 90% of his photos flora and fauna instead of our 2 gorgeous kids. He actually captured many precious pics of the kids on this trip.