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.

Observations of a Legal Alien

I now have a social security number and a bank account. Americans still use cheques regularly, so I’ve got a cheque book for the first time ever. I have yet to use a drive through ATM. They make sense when it’s snowing (so do the drive by coffee kiosks.) There are those vacuum tubes they have in Kmart so you can make a deposit (at the bank, not the coffee kiosk). Apparently they don’t like coins. Sinead recently tried to deposit coins and the bank contacted her the next day to let her know they had managed to fix the tube and retrieve her money.

I’ve been feeling like a slow learner, more than usual. The main reason is probably that my first driving attempt during this trip went so disastrously and Kelly has declined my offers to drive again since. I started driving down the left hand side of a road that had a concrete median strip and he got a bit excited at me, not in a good way. I later realised that my main problem was being on a one way street before the turn, so I was legally on the left hand side of the road. When I went to turn left it just felt normal to stay left. There are a lot of one way streets in the down town area, so I will have to watch that and have a little chat to myself at every intersection.

I also felt particularly dumb when I went to cross the road last week and wasn’t sure whether the sign said ‘cross’ or ‘don’t cross’. It was a lit up, white man and he looked like he could have been walking or waiting. When the sign changed to a red hand I felt more confident that the white man meant ‘cross’. (He would have been green in Australia). So now I know that the sign means all white men may now cross the road. Or something like that.

Similar confusing situations arose when I went to Europe after uni but it has been so long that I forgot what it feels like to be so incompetent, and you really think you’re past that at 42, and in another English speaking country. I am also disappointed to find out that it will take months to process my teaching qualifications and translate them into something recognisable to American employers. That could make banks look on us less favourably too, when we apply for a home loan. Relief teachers get paid a lowly $65 a day. Never mind. My qualifications should be evaluated for the next school year, and I will cross my fingers that there are still some positions.

Kelly and I have been driving by lots of houses with the hope of buying something and there are plenty of options.

Tangent: I have almost got used to the American way of numbering streets so you could, for example, be looking for a place on the corner of 6th street North and North 35th Street. It's all about your numbered grid, although there are anomolies. What's more, if you have numbered streets and you are looking for a house at number 1235, that tells you it is on the block after 12th Street. Yet another thing I worked out is that there is not necessarily a house to correspond with each number, so you might live in 1303 Datura Street and your next door neighbour is number 1308. It's like they take a number line they want and stretch it out to make the house numbers cover it.

Back to my story about house hunting: We have mainly been looking at mid sized houses on tree lined streets. (I am really looking forward to Autumn, or Fall.) That way we will have room for us, Casey and Sinead, who is moving back to Billings soon for a few months, and a guest room. We are looking for a house that will rent out well so when Casey goes to College next August we might live in the shed at Blue Creek while we build, and the house hopefully pay for itself.

Supermarkets here are huge with so many choices, especially in canned and frozen goods. The only thing I am still trying to source locally is tea leaves without going to a designer boutique. There is now a great Thai restaurant which sells good curry paste so I have already made a good laksa which went down well with Casey. When the weather warms up we will go to the famers’ markets and buy all the local fresh fruit and veg we can, but that won’t be for a month or more. Clothes are cheap and the op shops are amazing. We bought a really good iron for $3, and it seems that a lot of stores dump their out of date stock, as well as lots of quirky finds. We got some great dress ups for Casey’s 17th birthday party; the theme was ‘Thrift Store Chic.’



We celebrated Anzac Day on the 25th with a Big Aussie Breakfast at dinner time. There was a quiz on Australiana (spot the frustrated teacher!) covering topics from vegemite to our flag. They had to translate “I hope your chooks turn into emus and kick your dunny down.” Casey was the only one who got it right but there were some amusing interpretations that got the spirit of the curse right.



Update …

Today we picked out a Subaru Forrester for my car from a good second hand dealer. Subarus are reliable all-wheel drive vehicles, much safer on icy roads and snow. Kelly is looking for a ute (pick up) that will be helpful at Blue Creek, hopefully one with a couple of dings in it already so we won’t mind if it gets a couple more in it. Mike and Mick have plans to build a bridge over the little creek and name the creek Alice Spring.

I should be ready to start some relief teaching next week, and I’ve got my head around the process for getting my Aussie qualifications evaluated. If there are not teaching positions still available for the next school year starting in August I’m sure something will turn up. The Karma Fairy is being pretty good to us at the moment.

And here's a squirrel because I think they're great, and I like they way they sound with an American accent; sqrrrl



Thanks for emails and phone calls. It helps keep the homesickness at bay. It’s good to know the blog is still useful and what might be interesting to friends and family. Love you all biggest mobs.
Glennie xxx

Life in Billings

It’s normal that I don’t feel settled. Naturally, we have spent most of the first few days with family. When I have a social security number, a bank account, an American driver’s licence etc, my presence here will feel less like a holiday and more real. At least we have received our stuff. It’s now stored in the shed at Blue Creek (our property) thanks to Mick and Mike who helped Kelly move it.


Kelly and Mick at Blue Creek

The weather is rather erratic. I just went for a walk and it is lovely; it feels like 22 Celsius. However, yesterday when we were out a Blue Creek it was so cold it snowed! I’m sure it is the last remnants of cold weather as the grass is already turning green, although the trees still have their baldy winter look.


Nieces Emma and Kristen with me at Blue Creek

The temporary rental house we have is great. A charming historic house on the edge of down town, it has been nicely renovated. Casey has been here with us this week and it’s so great having him around.

See Ya Later, Australia

The last few days in Sydney were surreal. Both of us felt a little unnerved leaving Gypsy in a Newcastle van dealership. Homeless and in limbo. The salesman put us on the train and we shot down to the northern suburbs of Sydney where Ally picked us up. Wahroonga with Ally and the kids felt familiar and homely after our previous visit to organise my visa. Their house is fantastic, backing on to bush land and frequented by lorikeets, rosellas, cockatoos and possums.





This time Enzo made an appearance too. Kelly was just about ready to start digging up the back yard in search of his remnants when he showed up, freeing Ally of our suspicions (husbandacide). Between work, business trips and training for a corporate triathlon he had plenty of valid explanations.

We also managed to catch up with Kellie and Macka, both doing amazing creative things. Kellie is directing her first production since graduating from NIDA, called Bumming with Jane at Belvoir Theatre (that’s in addition to running the youth program at NIDA). Macka is about to graduate from AFTARS, and then goes to Beijing to work on his first payed film production gig. I wish I could see Kellie’s play and I can’t wait to see Macka’s animation ‘The Red Kite’. Both of them and Sally totally spoilt us with a slap up dinner and the big, fat love of old friends.

Major bummer – we went to Darling Harbour for a wonderful lunch and ferry cruise, but my hand bag was stolen from the ground between us at a nice café. The police were not surprised. We lost my money, cards etc, but worst of all the video camera and five weeks of magical holiday footage.



The other catch up we had was with my Sydney rellies for Sunday lunch. David treated us all, and Ree was there from Sydney as well as (the original) Glenda, Jim and the kids and of course, Uncle Merv. Who should crash the party but my Mum! She flew from Adelaide to surprise us, which would have been more surprising had she not established a pattern of similar surprises over the years. It was so lovely to see her, and she stayed in the same hotel as us for our last evening.

So with huge love in my heart, a series of farewell phone calls, text messages and more teary hugs from Mum we boarded our flight to San Francisco with connections to Seattle and Billings. About 24 hours later we were greeted by little sister Lori and her husband George who delayed their return to Belgium to hook up with us. Tera also made it up to the airport to join the welcoming committee.

Gosford and Ballina

Having heard that my Mum’s sister, Aunty Glen, was in hospital recovering from a broken hip, we thought we’d head straight to Gosford and see her before doubling back to Sydney. We set up headquarters in her unit and made friends with the little old folks who neighbour her. They were very welcoming even after Gypsy busted the eave off one of their homes; we discovered the hard way that she is too tall to fit in the parking bays : / oops … Aunty Glen was doing well, considering. She is an inspiration with all her activities, including University of the Third Age, scrabble club, the Social Justice Group of the local Catholic Parish and the Greens Political Party. We also enjoyed chokos and tomatoes from her lovely wild vegetable garden, which takes up her entire small courtyard.

As we could feel the countdown upon us, we decided to make one last dash north to spend some time with Julisa, Craig and the kids, some ex-Alice friends. They live in Ballina just south of Byron Bay and one of Sinead’s favourite places on earth. The weather is always beautiful, the people are a bit alternate (hippies welcome) and the beaches are superb. I could not believe how much their kids had grown. Brianna is taller that me at 14 and way too cool. Jalan is the star ruck rover for the local footy team and Charli is as yummy as ever – just bigger. I think it was a close call as too who talked more, Julisa or I, as we crammed months of catch up over coffee and sushi etc, during swims at the beach and while waiting for Bri to finish riding her horse, River.















Kelly speaking: Glenda, Julisa and I were having lunch one day at Shelly’s Beach. As the conversation turned girly – emotions, tampons, Tupperware etc. – my attention became consumed by the surfers down the beach. As I was watching one of them riding a glass curl from left to right, four other surfers came up from the water underneath him and joined him on the way in. The four other surfers were dolphins having a play. It was one of the most incredible sights that I’ve ever witnessed.

(Sad story in the news – a couple of the kids near Ballina took their boogie boards down to the beach this morning and one of them was attacked by a shark. Hiis friend went back to help him but the poor kid had lost too much blood by the time the got to shore. We swam nearby last week.)

We returned to Gosford past the sugar cane fields and lovely, wide, coastal rivers of New South Wales. As we did, we happened by a few roadside stands selling fresh oysters. Being a fan (Kelly only), we stopped at the first stand only to find out that due to the heavy rains, the river was closed to oyster collection. The lady operating the stand muttered a warning that if any oysters were on sale down the road, she would be suspicious of their safety. I stopped at the next stand where they were more than happy to accommodate.

I ate the oysters raw with a shot of Tabasco and a beer chaser. The first signs of food poisoning hit around midnight and lasted for the better part of a day. It turns out that the rains wash down pesticides, manure and a host of other nasties into the brackish river. Normally the river is salty enough to kill anything unwanted, but after being diluted by rain water, the oysters are bathing in something not too unsimilar to raw sewage.

Back in Gosford Kelly and I were able to catch up with cousins Judy and Ray, Auntie Glen’s kids. It’s good to realise that years can go by and you can pretty quickly get back into a comfortable conversation and laugh about old times.

Canberra

Canberra, Australia’s capital in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) is totally surrounded by New South Wales. It is a relatively short drive from Mount Koszciusko and was our next stop. Canberra is also known as the “bush capital” surrounded by farmland and bush rather than metropolis. It is well planned around a man made lake and boasts some great architecture. A case in point was our first stop, the Australian Parliament. It is built into the landscape with a grassy green roof, signifying that the people are above the parliament, and topped with a gigantic flag pole. We were able to park right underneath for free!!! Parliament was not in session, but we enjoyed checking out the houses, art galleries, halls and displays.



Our chosen caravan park had a pub right in the middle of it, made resistible by a very bogan (redneck-ish) set of local residents. I truly thought I had walked through a time warp back to the 80s with the number of mullets on display. Next morning we woke to celebrate The Festival of Kelly. Yep - he’s caught up to me again and I am no longer sleeping with a younger man as we are now both 42. Then we headed off to The National War Memorial Museum, a very moving tribute to Australia’s participation in conflicts since the Boer War. Mainly we focussed on WWI and WWII, to which the bulk of the Museum is devoted. The Anzac and Gallipoli displays are very emotional for me, and those associated with the Japanese massacres and the Nazi death camps in WWII. I anticipated Kelly, with his military background, would want to spend more time, but after two hours he was, like me, ready to go. I love visiting the museum and I love leaving it. Tragic stuff.