One Funny Story and One Reason to Have a Baby in Australia

1. The focus of a Melbourne radio station's afternoon show earlier this week was "How I tricked an American". I didn't realize we were known as gullible folks, but this is evidently the case.

The DJ claimed he met an American guy in a bar last weekend who was traveling around Australia. The American was eager to go to Tasmania (island off the southern coast of Australia). His question to the DJ was, "When is Hobart (Tasmania's largest city) closest to the mainland of Australia?" Obviously the DJ was confused, as cities usually remain in the same location. The American tried clarifying by stating that an Australian had told him that the island of Tasmania rotates clockwise on an annual basis. Come on!

Another caller added his 2 cents saying that he convinced a couple of Americans that he had the official job of a "Roo Monitor". This job entailed watching for kangaroos every day on the Sydney Harbor Bridge and alerting motorists if one was seen. Kangaroos may be like deer and be seen in most places in Australia, but it is very unlikely they would choose to run through the middle of a city the size of Sydney.

2. I learned an interesting tidbit this week about how the Australian government supports families with children. Unbelievable!

A married couple that decides to have a child will most likely receive a lump sum of at least $4,133 upon delivery, a parenting allowance for a child under the age of 6 of $380 bi-monthly, and a tax benefit of up to $5K until the child turns 24 (if they are a student). If this is not enough, the government also provides a childcare supplement for working parents. The amounts are subject to an income test, but that is something else, huh?

Unfortunately Americans don't have the ability to take advantage of this!

Cash's Last Week in Quarantine and Counting!

He's out of the joint on April 7th conveniently in just enough time for Easter supper! He is tired of that "dog food" junk.




More pictures of Cash and our place:
http://picasaweb.google.com/schoen.julie/Cash326MelbourneAndOurGeelongHouse

Melbourne Wine and Food Festival

The expectation of good food and wine will make us do just about anything. On the weekend of March 24th that included taking an hour train into Melbourne to take part in the activities associated with the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival.

There were a ton of events taking place around the city, but we first chose to explore the Flour Festival. Around 100 vendors were selling and offering samples of food containing flour. We started at the end eating ice cream, moving onto a pizza made with spelt (supposed to help digestion, and we needed it after all that we ate), some sort of greasy Sicilian pie, and finished up with Mexican sopes.

That gluttonous tour laid a nice base for the Victorian Microbreweries Showcase where we tasted about 20 glasses (small glasses, mom) of different pale ales and ambers from around the state of Victoria. One of our favorites was Mountain Goat Pale Ale.

Here we are about 10 into the game:

Wine in the Yarra Valley

Mark and I visited the Yarra Valley wine region on Australia's Labor Day weekend (March 12th). This region runs along the Yarra River about 30 miles to the east of Melbourne. It is considered a cool climate wine producing region and specializes in sparkling wines, chardonnays, and pinots. We are excellent judges of quality (mainly due to the pure volume of tastings) and agree that they were all very nice. The Balgownie Estate Winery informed us that 2004 was a particularly excellent year for Victorian (state where the Yarra Valley and Melbourne is located) wines. Keep that in mind when you visit your wine store next time!

Generally speaking, this region begins their harvest in mid-March for Pinots (remember March is fall in Australia) and winds up in May with Cabs. Some wineries we visited had already harvested and others had not begun the process due to their location in the Valley.

Some of the wineries we visited and wines we suggest if you can find them in the U.S.:

Balgownie Estate - Cabernet Sauvignon 1997

Yarra Tracks - This family-run winery named all of their wines after their grandchildren. You will not be able to find any of their wines in the U.S. or probably outside the Valley for that matter. The wines were good, but the highlight was meeting their dog Cocoa, an Australian Kelpie mix.

Yering Station - Oldest winery in the Yarra Valley; 2004 Sangiovese

DeBortoli - Probably the biggest and most commercial winery in the region, and you should be able to find their stuff in the U.S. Try the 2004 Pinot.

My favorite wine of the entire weekend did not come from the Yarra Valley but from a South Australian winery. It was really the only complement to an uninteresting meal we had at a little place called The Berry Cafe. The owner had just moved from Adelaide in South Australia and brought some of his own wines. You must try to find Vulgar Wines - Blewitt Springs - 2005 Shiraz. It's delicious!


During the weekend we pulled ourselves away from wine long enough to bike 40 miles along the Lilydale-Warburton Trail. The trail wound through a few little villages and a few vineyards. Mark and I thought we were good until we continued to be overtaken by three, old people. It had to have been the lack of speed in our rented bikes......

You can see a few more pictures from the weekend at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/schoen.julie/YarraValleyAustralia

Konichiwa!

[LtoR: Zen Rock Garden in Kyoto, Kajal consuming a nasty Bento box (full of raw stuff we couldn't figure out) on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto, All three of us in brightest district of Tokyo, Shibuya]

[LtoR: Julie and Kajal in front of the biggest Buddha in Japan in the town of Kamakura, Julie stuffing her piehole with 100 Yen ($1) sushi from a conveyor belt, All three of us in front of the Golden Pavillion in Kyoto

[LtoR: Jodie tying a prayer at a temple entrance, Geisha at a temple in Kyoto]

After spending only three days in Australia, I got right back on a plane and headed to Tokyo to meet two of my childhood friends. My friend Jodie is living outside of Tokyo in a town called Yokosuka with her husband Joey and their dog Jack. Joey is in the Navy, and they have been fortunate enough to spend the last year and a half based in Japan. Joining us was our friend Kajal. Kajal came straight from India where she and her husband Brett had been visiting relatives and traveling.

Yes, three girls from Rome, Georgia can do just fine across the world in Japan!

Places we visited: Tokyo, Kyoto, Kamakura, and Mt. Fuji (only from the train!)

Observations about Japan:

1. Toilets - Japanese toilets are by far the best in the world. Seriously. Those of you that know me well can attest to the fact that I am very picky about public restrooms. They kind of freak me out. Any place we visited, including gas stations or metro stops, had immaculate restrooms. Not only were they clean, but they also came with a plethora of water flowing choices, cleansing mechanisms, and sound effects (the fake flushing sound was my favorite).

2. Customer Service - The Japanese are very focused on the customer. For instance you might go into a store and buy a toothbrush and a pack of gum. You better believe they are going to wrap it up nicely in paper, bow as they hand you the package, and repeatedly thank you. Dining service is no exception. Most restaurants will have a bell by the table that the customer is encouraged to ring when they order or request something. Can you imagine that in the U.S.?

3. Great ice cream flavors - Most of you know that I am going to try the ice cream in any country that I visit, and I definitely sampled my share in Japan. The most interesting Japanese flavors were sesame, green tea, and sweet potato. Let me tell you....One of the best desserts I have ever had was some sesame ice cream with fried sweet potato sticks. Yum!

4. English - A predominant amount of the Japanese population does not speak fluent English. A few pointers that Jodie shared with us and proved to be true were to just add the letter "O" to the end of an English word. Kajal and I found this to be extremely helpful when we took a taxi back from the train station near Jodie's house. We said "right", and the driver had no idea what we were getting at. We then said "righto", and it was crystal clear. The only problem in that ride was that "stopo" did not seem to resonate with the driver. He continued on and on, paying no attention to our ridiculous attempts to mix English and Japanese, until we were well down the road from our stop.

To view some additional pictures from my Japan trip, follow this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/schoen.julie/JulieAndKajalSTripToVisitJodieInJapan

G'day from the Schoens

The Road Traveled:
Mark and I have officially been expatriates for over a month now. Mark originally left the U.S. in late January but has already made one visit back to Atlanta. I spent four days in Australia after my departure from Atlanta on February 12th, spent two weeks with my friend, Jodie, in Japan, and am now back in Geelong (about an hour outside of Melbourne) getting settled into our new place. Our dog, Cash, just arrived in Australia on March 7th and will remain in Australian quarantine until April 7th. Poor Cash!


Initial observations about Australia:
Tastes like chicken – You would think that just because the Aussies are on the other side of the world, enjoy summer while we are hating the winter months, and encounter more animals on a daily basis that can kill the average human in less than 30 minutes (tiny bit of an exaggeration) that the country would seem very different from the States. It is quite the contrary. From the moment I stepped into the Melbourne airport, I had the strangest feeling that I was still in the U.S. but surrounded by people who talked funny (kind of like being in New York).

Pardon? - Aussies do claim to speak our language, but you could have fooled me. It is no joke that Aussies do say “G’day, mate” and “No worries, mate” among a ton of other phrases and words that entirely indigenous to their culture. For instance, say, ‘May I please have a 12-pack of Cooper’s Pale Ale?’, and an Aussie might need a moment to process. Say, ‘Can I have a slab of Cooper’s Pale Ale, mate?’, and you are in business. Southern English and Aussie English are a very interesting mix.

The Crocodile Hunter was not joking – And my first taxi driver from Melbourne to Geelong was quick to tell me so. The conversation navigated through the many dangerous animals in Australia, like the saltwater croc, the poisonous taipan snake, the many sharks and sea snakes, and the redback spider, that could ruin your day. You can imagine how much better I felt when he said those animal attacks or bites are only “rarely experienced in Victoria (the state of Melbourne)”. Thanks, dude. I won’t ever be getting in the ocean or, for that matter, leaving my house during my stay in Australia.

Sweet as Pie – Aussies are seriously the nicest people on the planet. I can absolutely say that I have not yet encountered one person that has been miserable. Makes sense when you wake up to the landscape that most of them wake up to every morning.

Note: No, we have not hit any pedestrians, poles, or other cars since driving on the other side of the road. Although, the windshield wipers have been turned on many times in search of the turn signal.