Monday I took Bruno for our first walk just me and him. We went down past Crossways and the library and to the park. There were a lot of weird birds at the park, that I still haven’t looked up, but I wish I knew what they were.

Those white ones. It’s still amazing to me how different the birds are here. My first night I thought it sounded like I was in a zoo because there were such unusual bird sounds. Then we went to the theatre where there are some cool things.

Then we walked back to Rokeby and found some rose gardens and took some pictures together.

For some reason I always seem to take mainly picture of plants on our outings, they’re really cool here so I guess it’s okay. Here’s another.

Then we found one of my favorite spots.

Me and Bruno made our way home, where me and the whole HF proceeded to take Chris to swim class. She was super cute in the water with HD. They would do ‘Wheels on the Bus’ and ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.’ At one point they have to walk down a mat and jump into the water, but she would stop halfway and just sit down and start playing with toys. It was really hard for HM because it was her first time back since everything and she saw a close friend and they cried together.

After we got home the HP disappeared into their room because they were tired, physically and emotionally, so I did my laundry and hung it out to dry, a first for me.

Me, HGM, and Chris then went out to the pharmacy and the grocery store. We picked up some juice (apple guava, yum) for me and Tim-Tams and a chicken (chook) and veges for dinner. HGM made dinner, potatoes, pumpkin (I tried), sweet potato, carrots, beet root (I also tried), and the chicken. I saw a picture of baby and HM talked about him and how he’s never going to do all this stuff and we were all emotional. We all at some Tim-Tams (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, yum). I sat on the floor and Bruno hopped in my lap which HM found hilarious as everyone seems to think he’s a killer, but we’re BFF’s.

My HM is in her room sobbing. What do I do!? I feel so bad, it’s such a terrible situation but I know I can’t help. Sucks and I just feel really awkward. I can’t leave her here alone with the baby so I’m just hiding in my room.

Firs thing in the morning HD took me out to practice driving. We went around the neighborhood a bit and then through King’s Park. I thought I did pretty good, only got honked at twice, HM found that very funny. Let me say, driving on the opposite side of the road from what you’re used to is harder than I expected.The gas petal is still on the right, but the blinker is switched so I kept turning on the windshield wipers instead of the blinker. The hardest part by far, which I hadn’t even thought about until I was driving, is keeping room on the left, because the drivers side is the right side. I’m so used to having room on the right, it’s natural to me, everything is orientated to my right at home, but here I was almost in the gutter the whole time because I just kept forgetting. My HD told me that if I hit a car it will definitely be a parked one. Other than that I think I’ll get the hand of it, it’s the same rules, just reversed. Except that pedestrians don’t have right of way here. There are also a lot of roundabouts, which I hate, even at home. That’s where I got honked at both times because I’m a very cautious driver, I wait until I’m completely sure I’m safe, which is really hard to do at roundabouts because you never know if people are going straight through or all the way around. 

HM, HD, Chris, and I took a drive up to Mindarie just to get out of the house, as just sitting around at home is still very hard for them. Mindarie is beautiful, right by the Indian Ocean and full of huge houses and yachts.

We walked along the board walk where I heard Family Force 5 playing at a little ice cream shop. Then we ate lunch at the Indian Ocean Brewing Company, for free because their friend owns it (so many friends). The view was spectacular.

We all got beer and I ate fish and chips, as did the bub.

We drove back by the Indian Ocean and I saw a Target, which I’ll probably visit when I get homesick.

After we had been home for a while HD’s sister came over and we all talked for a while, then I went to Skype my mom. We talked for an hour and a half and eventually my HM came in and asked if I was hungry because we hadn’t eaten yet and they were about to go to bed. I said I would make some toast later. About ten minutes later My mom and I finished our Skype, which was hard to do. It was really good to talk to her, we both cried. I feel like I didn’t realize how much I missed her and everything about home until I saw her. It was good to talk though, because it was Mother’s Day morning for her. After the Skype I went out to make toast and my HM had made it for me, along with a bowl of cookies and chocolates.

I cried to my HF for a bit, which made me feel dumb, I hate crying in front of people, but they said they would think I was a freak if I weren’t sad and crying.

May 11th was the big day. They day i finally tried Vegemite. For those of you who have seen Mary-Kate and Ashley’s ‘Our Lips Are Sealed,’ I’m sure you’ve wanted to try it too. It was very high on my list of must-do’s while in Oz. My HM decided to take some picture of my reaction.

It’s really weird. Basically, it tastes like straight up salt. So salty that you think you might become dehydrated from it. I’m a salt person, love salt, but I’m still not sold on it. I really want to like it because ten year old me would be very upset if I didn’t, so I’m going to give it a fair go. Also, Milo is a very Aussie thing, it’s usually put in warm milk or water and is kind of like a hot chocolate. The first time I had it my HD made it and he didn’t put any sugar in it and it was just okay. Since then my HM has made it for me and it was really good because she put two cubes of sugar in.

After that experience me, my HM, HGM (host grandma), Chris, and Bruno went for a walk to a little playground, I pushed the pram and held the lead. Chris likes to stick her hand out and grab the lead and act like she’s walking the dog, very funny. Chris at the playground was cute because bubs loves swinging and sliding down slides, but she has to be watched crazy close because she’s still so wobbly. There was a see-saw thing that a little Japanese girl was doing with her dad and we tried getting Chris to do it with her, but she was being shy.

I went to the grocery store, Farmer Jack’s, with HD. It was my first time there and it’s a lot different from the grocery stores I’m used to. It’s more compact and full of local fruits and eggs and fish. HD seems to know everyone, he was like “We know Ellah, of Ellah’s eggs, she’s like 24 and has a free range chicken farm. Over here are fish from my cousins and over here are fish from my other cousins.” My HF know everyone, it’s ridiculous. We saw kangaroo meat, he said we’d probably have it one night while I’m here. It’s interesting because they only shop from what they need right at the moment, like on that trip we were getting stuff for lunch. It’s very different from what I’m used to, where we go to the grocery and stock up on everything we could need for the next week or more.

After we’d gotten the necessities for sandwiches we all went to HD’s parents house and had lunch. HM was having a very difficult time because it was her first time at their house since everything had ‘turned to shit’ (as she’s put it) so I ended up just running around after the bub to make sure she didn’t get hurt or break things.

We went home the HP went to the cemetery while HDM and I watched Chris and hung out laundry. For dinner we had a vegetarian Frittata that someone had brought over (they have a lot of friends) and chicken. Dinner was nice and we all had some laughs together. We made a plan to start me driving the next day.

I have been systematically picking up Greek words and phrases because they’re Greek and they speak Greek with Chris. Somethings I’ve got so far (I only know them by sounds so this is probably multiple levels of wrong): Aheh sto stoma, ta, makkya, neraki, biblio, opah.

Basically just got drink with host family. No worries.