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.

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.