First Snow

Even though the official start of fall is October 1st, this is what we woke up to on Friday the tenth. It's so pretty!



I am on bus duty on Fridays, which involves being in the car park four times during the day to see the two cohorts of kids safely on and off the cliched yellow school buses we all recognise from American tv and movies. Anyway, during my twentieth year of teaching I have now done my first yard duty in the snow! It wasn't actually that cold, only a bit below freezing, so I was fine. I am sure that the snow will be less charming by the end of winter, but I am really enjoying its magical qualtiy for now. It feels quite different to be living in a place with snow, in our own home with jobs to go to, rather than visiting a place with snow.

I am quite happy for Kelly to claim shovelling snow and clearing it off cars as a man job because this is what Ruby (my raspberry Subaru) looked like this morning.



Part of the service is also to start the car and turn on the heated seat for me. What a man :) Speaking of man jobs, I think he was right to harvest all the remaining vegies from the garden on Thursday night when they were forecasting snow. Lots of the tomotoes will ripen inside and others will be made into green tomato salsa, which is reputedly very good. Look at Kelly this morning in the yard, removing tree branches from over the powerlines; they are getting so heavy with snow and we don't want the power to be cut off is this weather.



In the meantime, I am happily snuggled up inside with a huge pile of marking and abuntant cups of tea. This evening I will by enjoying some hot chocolate with a dash of peppermint schnaps. Tomorrow I will try driving (slowly!!!) to church and then out to Lockwood for the traditional McCarthy family brunch. It will be a good first snow drive for me because the ground temperature is still relatively warm, so the roads won't be too slippery.
Loving you all and wishing you were here to share the winter wonderland with me.
Glennie

Fall

That's what they call it here, of course; fall rather than autumn. Whatever you call it, it is undeniably a beautiful time of year. I am reminded of John Keats' "Ode to Autumn"...
"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun"



During Mum's recent month long visit, she delighted in checking on the progress of the turning leaves daily, if not hourly. Her knowledge of each yellowing tree in the neighbourhood was truly impressive. Next year she might come in summer when I will have more time to spend with her, or just maybe she will give in to the urge and come in October when fall is in its fullness. Today the maximum was an agreeable 16 Celcius, and the last couple of weeks have generally been in the twenties. Colleagues at work are remarking on how wonderfully mild the season is, as it is not unheard of to have snow already by this time. Stores and front yards are decorated with displays of pumpkins, autumn leaves and other harvest decorations. Before long it will be Halloween and then Thanksgiving.



Kelly and I have been harvesting the bounty of the garden and giving thanks for every delicious bit of it. Today I did some canning with our abundance of tomatoes, boiling them to get the skins off and bottling them with herbs and garlic for later use. We have also had a bumper crop of zucchini, squash (I am a recent convert to squash), cucumbers that have been eaten fresh and turned into the best pickles in the world, Swiss chard (spinach, basically) chillies and Anaheim peppers. We picked our first pumpkin today, and the broccoli will be ready soon too.























On the work front, things are going well. In other words, I haven't stuffed anything up yet. I am adjusting to the multiple choice testing and using a wiz-bang computer program to publish grades constantly. The kids are getting used to me, my accent and my world view. The Friday before the grand final, I played them a short clip of Aussie Rules highlights and explained the game to them. That is a frightening concept, I realise, Glenda as ambassador of anything sporting, but I actually did a pretty good job. All those weekends spent soaking up the mania by osmosis might have been worthwhile because I now have many young converts to our great game.

As I have joined the Drama Club and volunteered to create a 20 minute multi media piece for the Fall Production in 6 weeks time, I will be very busy. It's nothing I haven't done before, but trying to achieve a credible performance without class time (4 afternoons a week from 3.15 till 5.30) is the scary part. I'll let you know how I get on.

The teachers I work with are great, and after this Drama Production is done, I hope to join in with some of the gun teachers on the committees for school improvement and curriculum development etc. I am also required to do some further study, so that might be a college course in Native American history and issues. Mum and I had a wonderful day trip to the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the location of Custer's last stand during the Indian wars. I am eager to deepen my understanding of local cultural perspectives.

That's just a brief update at least. Loving and missing you all,
Glennie

New Pics

Admiring the view at West Rosebud River as it heads down to Emerald Lake


In Vegas with Justin and Sam for a great weekend















During the first week of school there was the "Bronc Bash" where clubs and sporting teams promoted themselves for the new Year 9 students (aka Freshmen). Here are the Varsity Singers on the front lawn of Senior High, promoting their talents.

Billings Senior High School is known as the home of the Broncs. The foam padded bronc mascot will be at all the games. The cheer leaders performed at the orientation day, but I hadn't thought to take my camera. I'm sure there will be lots more opportunities :)

We took Mum for a trip to Missoula to catch up with the beautiful Sinead. This is her on the patio of the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed, right by the Clarkfork River.

Interesting Differences

It’s been a while, dear blog readers, and much has been happening from our base on Yellowstone Avenue. The 4th of July holiday was celebrated with good friends and family. It was wonderful to see Dee, Tony and Bella during their visit. We went to a baseball game at the newly remodeled stadium and watched the Billings Mustangs defeat the Helena Brewers. I have always loved baseball as a spectator sport. I find it easy to follow and well paced. Hotdogs were compulsory and the boys had beer. It was too hot for me to drink alcohol (over 40 degrees) so I had a Pepsi and ice cream as well. Yay for American junk food! I love it in moderation.



Later that evening we went to Erin and Paul’s party (Erin is one of Kelly’s sisters) and enjoyed fireworks in the back yard. There we had the good fortune to meet Kenny LeCompte and his wife Melissa, both Native American artists. It won’t surprise anyone that Kelly quickly stuck up a conversation and invited them around for lunch the next day, whereupon he purchased three beautiful prints for his office. His plan is to have one wall dedicated to Australia (courtesy of our artist friend Richard) and another dedicated to Montana.

As you have gathered, Kelly still has an office and therefore a job with I-Tech. He didn’t get too settled for the first week just in case, but no-one has asked him to clear out his desk :) He comes home weary from the information overload and long days but is very much enjoying the job. He is learning lots about banking and his natural aptitude for all things technological is coming in handy. Thankfully he is also very impressed with his colleagues and boss, all hard working, friendly people. I have yet to meet most of them. I could have met some at a work function last night but I decided to stay home and prepare for my job interview!!! That’s right, an interview for an English teaching position at Senior High School. It went fairly well, although interviews always seem so pretentious and awkward. “Tell us about yourself and why you think you are special.” “What is your pretend answer to how you would cope with this hypothetical situation?” The Principal, Deputy and English Senior who interviewed me all seemed very nice, and I should know one way or the other by then end of the week. I am very grateful to at least have scored an interview and happy enough to return to relief teaching if I don’t get the position.

Kelly and I are now both considerably inconvenienced by the reality of going to work regularly so it is difficult to fit in jobs from our never ending list on the weekend around McCarthy get togethers. We have, however, purchased a ride on mower which is heaps of fun. I learnt how to use it at Blue Creek last weekend. Kelly went one better and got to drive one of his Dad’s tractors with a larger moving attachment. It was high time that we cut some fire breaks and mowed with all this warm weather. When I’m out there at Blue Creek I have all these naïve, greeny fantasies about living in the shed next year with a water tank, generator, solar panel and gas ring stove while we wait for the house to be built. I have such a feeling of well being out there, with the hill side covered in wild sage and choke cherries. I want all of you to come and share it with us.





After making friends with the Interfaith Network, a fairly small group based mainly at the Buddhist meeting house, Kelly has found another group of like minded souls in the Humanists. They meet each week and vary their activities throughout the month. One week it is a book club and they discuss socially aware and philosophical books. Last time it was one of our favourites, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” about the problems of corporate mass produced of food in America and other first world countries. Last Sunday was the Socrates Café where members gather to discuss a philosophical question after voting on suggestions put forward. Our question was “Will America be ready for PTSD and other after effects of the war?” Another suggestion related to Indian Reservations and how we assimilate ethnic / other cultures. The aim is to ask questions and challenge underlying assumptions. As a result of a previous question, “What can be done to combat race crimes in Billings” we went out to dinner recently at a Mexican restaurant for a ‘diversity eat in’ because they had been the victims of racist graffiti. It is a wonderful and inspiring group of forward thinking people.

Speaking of wonderful, we also went to our first Farmers’ Market last Saturday in the middle of town. It was quite a festival, and very popular. The biggest vegetable stalls are operated by the Hutterites, one of the Peace Churches, similar to the Amish. These people live in colonies of up to 150 people. They practice their traditional Christian life style, brought to America from Germany under threat of religious persecution in the 1600s. They work hard at their farming, live simply and dress modestly. Their children are schooled on the community with some help from the education department. Unlike Amish, they will drive vehicles but typically choose practical, old trucks. The men are recognisable by their chin line beards, the women by their head scarves and long skirts. I marvel at such a testament to choice in the super-culture. The ‘Hoots’, as they are affectionately called, are American citizens born here whose first language is Old German. It is another example of diversity which we rarely see outside America, unless it is some ghastly reality TV show with young Amish in a Big Brother style house of temptation. Side note; if you are a member of one of the Peace Churches (Hutterite, Amish, Menonite or Quaker) you cannot be drafted into military service.



It seems to me that other common impressions of American culture hold fairly true. People are more demonstrative about patriotism and Christianity. I don’t even notice the flags flying on front porches any more, except one house on our street that I thought was decorated for the 4th of July, but has not un-decorated since. The teens I work with can list off the presidents in order and tell you how many amendments there are to the Bill of Rights; proof of of the status of Civics education, and the emphasis on factual knowledge. (Even after a concerted television campaign I doubt that many Aussie kids could tell you who our first Prime Minister was.) I’m not saying either system is right or wrong, just noticing the differences.



There is a semi trailer I see driving around with a HUGE slogan on the side, “Jesus Christ is Lord, not a swear word." Again, with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club, many more go to church, bible study and youth group than I am used to. They are really nice kids. They can rattle off the names of the New Testament books, and I have to remember not to say ‘damn’ or ‘hell’ because they are bad words here. ‘Dang it!’ is the typical response to disappointing news. Also, I can’t help smiling inside when someone ‘Yes Ma’am’s me. This has happened a couple of times when I had to reprimand someone who knew they were in the wrong and felt contrite. Possibly as a result of Christian values permeating the culture, there are more adopted and fostered kids than I have ever known before. Maybe this is also related to how difficult it is financially to raise children on welfare. It seems that when abstinence education doesn’t achieve its aims, the next step is adoption for many, rather than termination. There are also quite a number of kind Christian families who foster children. I am not sure whether my experience at the Boys and Girls Club of Lockwood is reflected in national statistics.

Not everyone in America is living large. I think this impression exists outside the States, an awareness of the working poor and those who struggle on welfare, but it is often overshadowed by the consumer culture reflected in the media. One on hand it raises issues of social justice, especially for those who work 40 hours a weeks and can barely afford the necessities of life. On the other hand it is just eye opening to see for myself that so many people live the sort of simple lives you would not expect to find in the wealthiest country on earth, and do so fairly happily because it’s ‘normal’ to them. I know one girl who happily reported that her family was moving to a new trailer, one without mice.

Interesting Little Differences …
• Supermarket aisles display signs for food staples including ‘beef jerky’ and ‘popcorn’.
• I have to explain the meaning of more words than I expected to. People did not understand what I meant when I said I was ‘peckish’. Just to rub it in, the US spell checker does not recognise the word either. I understand all of what they are saying, but that’s the power of Hollywood for you.
• A ‘concession’ is a stand where you can buy fast food or t-shirts etc at a game or fair.
• I have been asked more than once if the water really does swirl in the opposite direction down an Australian toilet … I found out (on Google) that water swirls differently in any place depending more on the shape of the bowl and flow of water.
• Language that I associate with Westerns lives on. A difficult person is described as ‘ornery’ and it is impolite to use ‘cuss words’. We tidy up the house when we are expecting ‘company’, usually pronounced ‘comp’ny’. When the comp’ny arrives, it is customary to sit and ‘visit with them’ for a while.

That’s all for now. Keep the emails and calls coming, please. Only 4 weeks till Mum arrives.

PS I got the job :)

Come Inside

This blog is a photographic tour of our home so far, and mainly for the benefit of Mum and Cathy who need to be able to visualise where I am in order to feel at ease. Soory if it is boring for others, but the Sanderson girls need their images. The lounge room is Our little dining room (but I love it!) Notice the Cait Wait art work, so I can always see the beautiful country of Central Australia, the Western Macs and Mount Sonder. This is the other end of the kitchen. You can go out to the garage, or left and down the stairs to the basement. Kelly put up a clothes line for me. I'm taking Aunty Glen's advice and trying to get otehrs enthused about leaving the clothes dryers off, but there's not much success. Some are allergic to the pollens etc and most people find their clothes too scratchy when they are line dried. I'm going to try putting dryer sheets in the wash, because you can't get fabric softener for washing machines here. I think the convenience of throwing clothes into the adjacent machine is also a comfortable habit. The garden. Kelly turned the horse shoe pit into a vegie garden. You can see the corn and tomatoes here. The lovely long summer days make a great growing season. Yum! The grass is getting some extra help too. Kelly has set up a compost bin and made use of the abundant poo courtesy of the many local horse enthusiasts. 

625 Yellowstone

Last week Kelly, Casey and I moved into our new home on Yellowstone Avenue and Sinead stayed for a few days too before heading back to Missoula. It was quite tiring, especially as Kelly and I caught a nasty bought of gastro from Aiden and Evan (Tera’s twins) on the day before we moved in. Many in the family have suffered through this nasty bug. For us it was limited to a fierce 24 hours.

Anyway, it felt strange to unpack my dinner set and put it in American cupboards. I was so looking forward to making a home again, as we have been on the road in one way or another since the end of January. I am very grateful for the house, the beautiful old neighbourhood and all the blessings, but have to admit that a wave of Aussie homesickness swept over me as I realized that ‘this is it’ for the time being. I was unwrapping some crockery from a few pieces of butcher’s paper and suddenly wished it were a serving of fish and chips, something you don’t really get here (along with leaf tea and affordable lamb) Also, the house smells funny, like there’s a whiff of dodgy antiseptic. I know all the unfamiliar feelings will pass, but I suspect that will happen sooner if I acknowledge them and then let them go.



Two things recently brought home to me the fact that I am living in Billings Montana; firstly, Kelly cleaning his guns at the dining room table (in readiness for the rattle snakes out at Blue Creek) and secondly, going to a gun show where Sinead had a baked goods sale. I thought I would help her out a bit and made some fairy cakes. To my surprise she couldn’t sell a single one and eventually worked out why when a couple of cowboys were teasing each other about buying ‘fairy’ cakes. Kelly said I should have called them ‘gun slingers.’



Our furniture arrived on Thursday. Until then we were on swags and had a couple of cardboard boxes as a dining table. I have pretty much emptied all the boxes now, so at least I know where things are. Being a little house, it is a challenge to fit everything in the cupboards, but having the basement with an extra kitchen down there certainly helps. We also have a big box ready for St Vinnie’s. As we unpacked we asked ourselves why on earth we hauled so much of this stuff we don’t need across the planet. How embarrassing – and we tell ourselves we are not materialistic or environmentally irresponsible!

The other big event was that it was my first full week as Teen Coordinator at the Boys and Girls’ Club summer vacation program with about 25 teens in my group. I was mightily relieved when Chuck, the unit director who is not known for his effusiveness, pulled me aside on the second day and said ‘The teens really like you. I was surprised at how well it went, so kudos.” I am still getting my head around what it is that I am doing, and how the vacation program is different from teaching. It’s actually delightful to be around little kids in the afternoon too; lots of tiny, barely verbal girls who jump rope and swing off monkey bars with boundless energy, and boys who cry as soon as they are sent to time out but then want to be your best friend again five minutes later. Navigating my way around the pool table when the under ten year old boys are playing is hilarious. They wield their pool cues like planks in a Charlie Chaplin slapstick routine, and then climb up on the table to fling them in wonderfully unorthodox styles. I have one quiet, big boy from a nearby rural area who reads Louis L’Amour westerns at lunch time :) Lots of kids thought I spoke a different language because I am from Australia, and some of them asked me about the lions and hippos there. I have to confess that I occasionally put on an American accent or use American phrases for some of the little ones when they look blankly at me after I speak to them. As I become more settled in the house I hope to focus a bit more on making a really interesting program and learning all I can from the opportunity of this job.

Kelly has had a couple of promising job interviews in between doing lots of ‘man jobs’ setting up the house and garden here. He has had great help from Casey, Mick and Dad as usual. We now have a vegie garden all tilled and planted with lots of tomatoes, corn and other goodies. This is a real treat as we struggled in Alice, unable to dig the ground properly for fear of wrecking the irrigation system in the base house.

More good news for me is that my credentials are now all approved in the USA, so I am a step closer to getting a teaching position. At least I am fully qualified here now. Even if I have to do relief teaching again, my pay will go up from $65 to $70 per day! How will I spend that extra $5? Probably on a couple of those drive by coffees from ‘Mountain Mud.’ I confess that I became quite un-Australian in my pursuit of a permanent teaching position. There is a form that can be filled out by a teacher if they find the 'substitute' (relief teacher) was either incompetent or exceptionally good. At two of the schools where I subbed more than once for History and Modern World Issues, I offered to do presentations on Australia and got fantastic feedback. Knowing how busy teachers get, I took it on myself to photocopy the evaluation page and put it in the teacher's hand, asking if they would mind filling it out on my behalf. They were more than pleased to help me out. The next time I was in the Human Resources office, the ladies were excited to inform me that they had received some wonderful reviews on me, and I acted pleasantly surprised. In this great nation of competition and self improvement, I decided to get involved in some self promotion I would probably never have considered in Australia, and certainly not in Alice Springs where we all knew each other anyway.

Even more exciting than the positive turn in my prospects is the purchase of Mum’s first airfare to visit us. She will be arriving on August 22nd and staying for a month. That will be Fall (Autumn), and we can take a drive up in the mountains to see the aspens turning. Hooray!

Thanks again for the phone calls and emails. Can’t wait to see Dee, Tone and Bella in just a few weeks!

On the Streets

In the last thrilling episode of Glenda’s adventures in Montana, our muddled heroine was having trouble crossing the street and driving on the ‘right’ side of the road. Hope appeared in the shape of a Raspberry Subaru. Well, the very same vehicle is now owned and adored for its many wonderful features. I should start with the fact that it’s all wheel drive, so very safe for the slippery winter conditions, but I have to admit that the heated seats brought the biggest smile to my face. Toasty buns, mm-mmm! It’s the first automatic I’ve ever owned – they are a lot more common here. The cruise control makes me a bit nervous but I’ll get used to it, I’m sure. The sun roof just seems silly. Maybe I’ll get some Jackie-O sunnies and a scarflett?



“What’s the point of having a nice new (to me) car if I can’t drive it?” you might wonder. Not so fast! I passed my driving test yesterday, after embarrassing amounts of studying the rule book and making notes, as well as a few relatively confident driving sessions. The overpass/underpass/interstate highway stuff is still daunting but I can now get out and do stuff independently, which feels great. I drove three blocks today on my own to see if the YMCA had any summer holiday jobs. I didn’t even mind that they said no because I got there and back smoothly. Kelly’s car is a V8 Dodge ute. That will come in handy for farm jobs, hauling a water tank, hay, pooh etc. Some of the pick ups we've seen should come with ladders to get into them.



Here's the lucky winner of Kelly's automobile approval.




I have now completed all my paperwork for teaching positions in the Billings area and at Pryor (the town on the Crow reservation). I am still waiting on my FBI clearance to be able to do some relief teaching. I have also filled out an application for the ‘Outback Steakhouse,’ the Aussie theme restaurant (kitchen prep, clearing tables or hostess). If I get a bit of relief teaching I can top up hours at the restaurant, if they hire me. I am strangely curious and a bit excited to think of doing something other than teach … you know, with real people.

Kelly has applied for lots of jobs related to business. He has had two interview sessions with a finance company called Prudential, and they might offer him a job selling insurance etc mainly to businesses. He has been up front about not being interested in selling any policies that wouldn’t be in the best interest of the client, and the boss is happy with that. Kelly really likes him. I really like seeing Kelly in a suit and tie; very appealing dress ups, even if he thinks suits are for nerds.



Last Saturday I went to a charity auction raising money for senior services with Terry, Erin and Christina. We put in together and won table settings, decorations and drinks for a Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) Party. That’s Mexican Independence Day, and a lot of Americans enjoy the festivities. As a result we turned the weekly Sunday brunch into breakfast burritos with Mariachi music etc.



Nieces Shealynn and Kristen



Kelly and his Nana



Dad, Mick, Kelly and Erin cooking brunch



Our other bit of progress is that we put in an offer on a house, conditional on building inspection and appraisal. It is a little, older style house but has 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms (half of them in the basement). The kitchen is remodeled and it has a deck and nice sized back yard, all in a good area (one of my tree lined streets). The owners are agreeable to a ‘lease to buy’ contract so we could rent for 6 months and then apply for a loan when we have some employment history. I really hope it works. It is not the dream house, but it would work really well for now, and could be a good renter if we start building at Blue Creek next year. Also, there would be enough room for visitors!

As usual I still love and miss everyone and everything Australia, but I’m grateful for all the good people and opportunities here. Overall I think I'm doing pretty well.

ps: just a bit of a boast – the Australian Teacher Magazine online currently has an article on me about my awards. I did the interview while driving along Great Ocean Road.