The Next Chapter in the Book . . .: Chapter 117: G'Day Mate!

Hi Everyone! I know it's been a while since I posted but we've been busy generatiung blog material!

As some of you know, last week we hosted an Australian teacher that came to our school as a student chaperone. Emily was an awsome visitor and we enjoyed comparing/contrasting our cultures. Emily was very excited that we were expecting snow since she had never seen it before and waited eagerly for it's arrival...something she would later come to regret.

Finally the long-awaited snow arrived! Yay! We picked out clothes for Emily to get her dressed, but since she had never worn so many clothes before, she didn't know to put her boots on before her gloves so Bob helped her with her with this important missed step.

Emily had never seen snow before. She just stood outside and watched the snow with the eyes of a child, it was as much fun for us as it was for her.

On the Gold Coast of Australia in the dead of winter, the temperature is not below 50 degrees so Emily chilled easily and came inside to watch the snow with Nitro. I submitted this pic to the KING 5 site and they posted it on the news.

As the snow got deeper and Emily got used to being colder, she went outside again. First she made a "personal-sized" snowman...

...and after a bit of practice, Emily moved on to a larger specimen that reflected her mood.

"I'm holding a real icicle!"

The required snow-angel. Of course we did this last so we could come in and get dry right afterwards.

Emily clowning around in front of Auburn High School.

We were throwing snowballs at the tree trying to knock the snow off the branches. Emily plays does a lot of "sport" in Australia and was a much better shot than I.

One of my efforts to show Emily "the American way" was to stage a full Thanksgiving dinner. Kyanne called it "Mocksgiving". It was very yummy and Emily couldn't believe we served that much food for one meal, even if it were a special one. Afterwards, the "children" all went to Seattle for a night on the town.

While we were snowed in all week, Emily was missing her non-refundable activity tours so when the weather looked like we could get out, we hopped in the car and made whirlwind tours of the area. We took a very QUICK look at Snoqualmie Falls but it was soooo cold and windy. It sure didn't take us long to see what needed to be seen and move on.

After Snoqualmie Falls we went to Seattle and drove around to see the sights. It was too cold and rainy to get out and do much, but we covered a lot of ground in the car. After checking out Century Link and Safeco Fields, we went to Pyramid brewery for lunch. We each ordered a different color beer that made for a nicely composed photo.

We also took a southern tour around the Tacoma Waterfront, Tacoma, Pt. Defiance then across the Narrows Bridge to Gig Harbor and back up through Fife. Here's Emily at Skansie Park. A place, thus far, I have only visited in my shorts while sitting on a blanket snacking on apples.

Here's Emily having her first BBQ. We bought the sampler and Emily gamely tried it all. She admitted it was not her favorite American food, but then she didn't try Mike's 4-Star BBQ that catered Carissa's wedding.

Although Emily was not particularly a cat-lover (nor even much of a cat-liker), she and Nitro bonded instantly. She fully subscribed to my theory that Nitro is here for my entertainment and had to subscribe to a bit of risk while doing so. Emily enjoyed picking Nitro up and watching him do his full-body stretch. This picture does not give the impression that Nitro is enjoying himself although he really was. Rather, it appears that Emily is dismembering him or ripping him apart as if he were a wishbone.

While Bob was BBQing burgers for our dinner, Emily said "That's funny, we only BBQ in the summer in 'Stralia." If we only BBQ'd in nice weather, we'd NEVER get it done.

Emily turning Bob's snowy burger into rubble. To Emily's credit, she tried everything put in front of her.

At last it was time for Emily to return home. To our surprise, she had a quilt made by her Special Ed students just for us. It's truly awesome. It includes handmade blocks with the Australian and Aboriginal flags, Aboriginal art, a picture of their school, the student's names and other school scenes. I'm surprised the weight of the glitter and feathers didn't put Emily's suitcase over the weight limit!

10 Things I learned from this cultural exchange.

1. Oreos with peanut butter on them sounds gross, but tastes AWESOME!
2. McDonald's will heretofore be referred to as "Mackers".

3. Oreos with peanut butter on them are AWESOME!

4. Americans pronounce "Aussie" wrong. It's "Ozzie".

5. Whining will now be refered to as "whinging".

6. After Emily talked to my students and referred to skipping as "wagging", that's their word of the day.

7. Oreos with peanut butter on them sounds gross, but tastes AWESOME!

8. American food portions are grossly huge.

9. Positive affirmations are now "Right-o".

10. It was so cold we really had to "rug up" before we could go out.

11. Although cranberries look like "beet root" they do not taste like them.

12. We drive on the wrong side of the road.

Thanks for the visit, Emily!

Like everyone, I took lots of snow pictures during this weather. In the words of our beloved Matt Hagen "pixels is cheap" and I used a lot of cheap pixels on this storm. Below are some snow scenes that I took around the Ol' Homestead while we were snowed in, or as Kyanne calls them, "obligatory snow pictures".

This is a section of chainlink fence after the ice storm.