Kids had an easier day today. Short walks to a couple of local shops and a small playground up the street. Whole Foods Market is just three blocks down P Street. Has organic / good food focus for bit more $ but get what you pay for. Donna bought the orange roughy fish that Olivia wanted for dinner tonight. We had some on Good Friday and both kids liked it, just surprised to see it locally. I picked up some wine on the way home. A Yalumba Viognier which we were drinking at home was only $8 here which I think is probably a bit cheaper than at home. Also paid around $14 for a Devil's Lair Pinot Noir - assume Tas wines are still well over $20 at home?
I've been to the Embassy and picked up medical insurance info etc. They are arranging an appointment with a bank tomorrow for me to open an account and credit card etc. May also need to get a social security number as this is required for most credit checking purposes. Had a day without work email access which they are now working on so should be ok tomorrow - hopefully. Will be good to actually do something productive tomorrow ...
Malcolm
Monday, April 30, 2007
Settling In ...
We survived the flight on Friday. Kids were pretty good. Nickelodeon and Disney channels on the long flight were a big help. They slept most of the flight across the States. We then had a wait of 90 minutes for our luggage so arrived at our apartment around 7pm on Friday night. Louise from the Embassy had bought some basic food items which made things easier. Although we took the kids up to McDonalds for dinner on Friday night as a bit of a reward for getting here.
The differences in the Macca's menu and the food / laundry items in the Safeway opposite mean that even these basic things take way too long sorting out what are things you hardly think about back home. Things like what is the equivalent of Radiant laundry liquid and Finish dishwasher powder? Still have to find a cheese that the kids will eat as well - even the macaroni and cheese was rejected on Sunday night ...
Spent Saturday doing some of the DC sights. Started at the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur skeletons etc. Although the kids were less impressed than we were. We then went down the National Mall, past the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument to check we were on the right planet and the apes hadn't taken over again. Then back home via the White House. Think we walked at least 7 km. Kieren was very tired by the end but did a good job for a four year old. Think picking dandelions and other wild flowers out of the grass near the sides of the paths was the highlight of the kids' day!
Went down to Pentagon City to do some shopping on Sunday for the basics we need here. Turned around in Best Buys to find both of them asleep curled up on the floor in front of a big screen tv! Olivia was totally exhausted and had to carry her asleep back to the Metro station. Kieren was only slightly better. Hoping that a big sleep on Sunday night will help get them back on track and into the local time zone. They are still getting up too early and not making it through the day. A late start on Monday and an easy day at home would help.
Our apartment is on the top floor, level 9 but called the penthouse level. Have some views across town but not of anything spectacular.
We had a talk to the phone companies today about a sim card for Donna's mobile. Need to work through plans but likely that we need a social security number to get a decent plan which requires a credit check. Not sure how long it takes to get a social security number - need to start with a local bank account and credit card which Malcolm will talk to the Embassy about in the next couple of days. So Donna will keep using her Australian mobile for the next few days when she needs it.
Malcolm & Donna
The differences in the Macca's menu and the food / laundry items in the Safeway opposite mean that even these basic things take way too long sorting out what are things you hardly think about back home. Things like what is the equivalent of Radiant laundry liquid and Finish dishwasher powder? Still have to find a cheese that the kids will eat as well - even the macaroni and cheese was rejected on Sunday night ...
Spent Saturday doing some of the DC sights. Started at the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur skeletons etc. Although the kids were less impressed than we were. We then went down the National Mall, past the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument to check we were on the right planet and the apes hadn't taken over again. Then back home via the White House. Think we walked at least 7 km. Kieren was very tired by the end but did a good job for a four year old. Think picking dandelions and other wild flowers out of the grass near the sides of the paths was the highlight of the kids' day!
Went down to Pentagon City to do some shopping on Sunday for the basics we need here. Turned around in Best Buys to find both of them asleep curled up on the floor in front of a big screen tv! Olivia was totally exhausted and had to carry her asleep back to the Metro station. Kieren was only slightly better. Hoping that a big sleep on Sunday night will help get them back on track and into the local time zone. They are still getting up too early and not making it through the day. A late start on Monday and an easy day at home would help.
Our apartment is on the top floor, level 9 but called the penthouse level. Have some views across town but not of anything spectacular.
We had a talk to the phone companies today about a sim card for Donna's mobile. Need to work through plans but likely that we need a social security number to get a decent plan which requires a credit check. Not sure how long it takes to get a social security number - need to start with a local bank account and credit card which Malcolm will talk to the Embassy about in the next couple of days. So Donna will keep using her Australian mobile for the next few days when she needs it.
Malcolm & Donna
Moving and Packing
Full details to come but basically had a very difficult couple of weeks getting organised to leave Australia. Had many doubts as to whether the last two months are worthwhile in terms of effort and stress to get to the US for only 12 months.
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Uplift
Chess Removals were here yesterday to pick up all the stuff we're having removed to the States. They took 10 cubic metres, leaving around 75 cubic metres in the house / garage for the other removalists to pack on Monday and remove on Tuesday.
So far we've found some clothing that we didn't intend to go that has. Including one of Donna's jackets that she had taken off and left in the front room. We've also discovered that some soft bags we intended taking baggage in were also in the front room. We've probably got enough other bags to cover this, else it will be back down Fyshwick to buy some more before we go.
Also starting to discover the things that we're supposed to go that are still here, like Olivia's mattress underlay. Nothing major but just what happens when you're trying to do too much in too little time.
The effort it has taken over the past couple of months is starting to look excessive for only a year posting. No doubt we will have similar hassles at the end as well. One that I particularly enjoyed was the 5 page US Customs declaration that turned up in the post on Thursday night which required copies of my passport photo page and my US visa. My passport is currently at the US Embassy in Sydney getting my US visa. Fortunately the removalists didn't require this on Friday but I can fax it next week. Well, I can once I get my passport back and can get to a fax machine ...
Sigh
Malcolm
So far we've found some clothing that we didn't intend to go that has. Including one of Donna's jackets that she had taken off and left in the front room. We've also discovered that some soft bags we intended taking baggage in were also in the front room. We've probably got enough other bags to cover this, else it will be back down Fyshwick to buy some more before we go.
Also starting to discover the things that we're supposed to go that are still here, like Olivia's mattress underlay. Nothing major but just what happens when you're trying to do too much in too little time.
The effort it has taken over the past couple of months is starting to look excessive for only a year posting. No doubt we will have similar hassles at the end as well. One that I particularly enjoyed was the 5 page US Customs declaration that turned up in the post on Thursday night which required copies of my passport photo page and my US visa. My passport is currently at the US Embassy in Sydney getting my US visa. Fortunately the removalists didn't require this on Friday but I can fax it next week. Well, I can once I get my passport back and can get to a fax machine ...
Sigh
Malcolm
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Cherry Blossom Festival
I left DC just before the cherry blossoms bloomed, will have to do this in 2008! However the Washington Post has a good webcam page showing the daily changes along the Tidal Basin in 2006 at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/webcams/cherryblossomtime2006.htm
Malcolm
Malcolm
Friday, April 13, 2007
Our Year in Washington DC
Second of my email retro fits to our blog. This one summarised what we will be doing in DC:
For those who we haven't managed to catch up with yet, we are leaving at the end of April for a 12 month posting to Washington DC.
Malcolm has been selected to a Tax Office position outposted to JITSIC (Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre), which is a US, Canada, UK and Australian revenue authority operation. This has been in operation in Washington for three years now. For those who are interested, the broad objectives are set out here: http://www.ato.gov.au/print.asp?doc=/content/mr2004029b.htm. Malcolm is just back from two weeks working there and is very positive about the work he'll be doing and the people he will be working with. For those who know DC, the office is at 1099 14th Street NW.
We will rent our house out for the year we're gone (had two interested in it within three hours of listing on Thursday!) and our furniture etc will be put into storage. We've also found homes for Molly and Sasha for the year we'll be gone.
Malcolm has found a recently renovated / extended house to rent in Maryland, about 30 minutes commute to his work, and we are currently working through the 18 pages of the lease before signing it. We will rent furniture etc there and are still working out what we are going to do about a car. Public transport in the area is very good but the locals get confused when you talk about not having a car in the land of the automobile!
Olivia will be catching one of the big yellow school buses you see on American tv shows to a very good elementary school about five miles from where we will be living. She's not happy about having to go back to kindergarten for a month or so at first because their school year is effectively six months behind ours (starting in August rather than February). We're working on this! Kieren will be able to go to pre-kindergarten at the same school once their new school year commences. We haven't worked out how he's going to get there yet, buying that car looks like it may have to happen!
Donna is looking forward to having another year as a stay at home mum, with lots of quilting and volunteering at the school planned. The wife of one of the UK guys, who teaches batik and other courses at the Smithsonian, has already planned a tour of the fabric and quilting shops with her …
Sorry we don't have time to catch up with everyone before we go and thanks to all those who have helped and provided invaluable advice on how to survive moving overseas with two young children. It has been hectic with confirmation of the posting happening only the Monday before the Saturday when Malcolm had to fly to Washington for two weeks. We're now flat out getting the house and everything organised to be gone in three weeks. So unless we see you in Washington, parties will have to wait until we get back …
Kind regards Malcolm, Donna, Olivia & Kieren
For those who we haven't managed to catch up with yet, we are leaving at the end of April for a 12 month posting to Washington DC.
Malcolm has been selected to a Tax Office position outposted to JITSIC (Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre), which is a US, Canada, UK and Australian revenue authority operation. This has been in operation in Washington for three years now. For those who are interested, the broad objectives are set out here: http://www.ato.gov.au/print.asp?doc=/content/mr2004029b.htm. Malcolm is just back from two weeks working there and is very positive about the work he'll be doing and the people he will be working with. For those who know DC, the office is at 1099 14th Street NW.
We will rent our house out for the year we're gone (had two interested in it within three hours of listing on Thursday!) and our furniture etc will be put into storage. We've also found homes for Molly and Sasha for the year we'll be gone.
Malcolm has found a recently renovated / extended house to rent in Maryland, about 30 minutes commute to his work, and we are currently working through the 18 pages of the lease before signing it. We will rent furniture etc there and are still working out what we are going to do about a car. Public transport in the area is very good but the locals get confused when you talk about not having a car in the land of the automobile!
Olivia will be catching one of the big yellow school buses you see on American tv shows to a very good elementary school about five miles from where we will be living. She's not happy about having to go back to kindergarten for a month or so at first because their school year is effectively six months behind ours (starting in August rather than February). We're working on this! Kieren will be able to go to pre-kindergarten at the same school once their new school year commences. We haven't worked out how he's going to get there yet, buying that car looks like it may have to happen!
Donna is looking forward to having another year as a stay at home mum, with lots of quilting and volunteering at the school planned. The wife of one of the UK guys, who teaches batik and other courses at the Smithsonian, has already planned a tour of the fabric and quilting shops with her …
Sorry we don't have time to catch up with everyone before we go and thanks to all those who have helped and provided invaluable advice on how to survive moving overseas with two young children. It has been hectic with confirmation of the posting happening only the Monday before the Saturday when Malcolm had to fly to Washington for two weeks. We're now flat out getting the house and everything organised to be gone in three weeks. So unless we see you in Washington, parties will have to wait until we get back …
Kind regards Malcolm, Donna, Olivia & Kieren
Impressions of Washington DC
I'm currently doing a bit of a retro fit of what were originally emails to add them to this blog. This was my summary of Washington DC after the first week of two that I spent there in late March 2007:
Malcolm
- I have 32 channels available on my hotel room tv but there's nothing to watch.
NASCAR and Indy oval racing is boring and very hard to follow.
It is currently 'March Madness' here which is code for the playoffs for the basketball series. Yet to work out who the teams are or why anyone cares!
Petrol is up 6c this week to $2.61 a gallon (think a US gallon is around 4 litres??)
Many of the cars getting around the city are more mid sized rather than the SUVs that we're led to believe everyone here drives. Although don't think I've seen a F250 yet, instead they are all F350s and fairly common!
Nissan is apparently pronounced Neesson. Well on one of the ads anyway!
Scone rhymes with phone. The blueberry scones at Starbucks are worth getting the pronunciation right for!
My mental arithmetic is improving as I constantly convert Fahrenheit to Celsius so I've got some idea of what the temperature outside is. Max in early days I was here was down around 8 degrees, less with wind chill. Forecast for Tuesday is 75 deg (or 27 Celsius)! Was about 20 today though felt warmer - glorious sunny spring day. Contrasts with the cold foggy day we had yesterday.
Walked down to the Tidal Pool yesterday. Coming into cherry blossom festival here but think I'm about a week too early. Have to wait until next year! Looks spectacular from the postcards etc I've seen.
Intended doing a Segway tour today but was closed when I got there. Phone message indicates they stopped sometime in 2006 and start again on 1 April. Found that their opposition actually has an office about 3 doors around corner from where I'm staying! Just hadn't walked there before today and their official tour starting place is miles away. It is $65 for a 2.5 hour tour around the highlights of DC but it was just for the chance of having a go on one that I was interested in it for!
Shop names in Washington tend to be on the top of awnings above the windows. So hard to see what shop you are standing in front of. The shop windows are also darkly tinted so hard to see what's inside or even if they are open. Many shops only have one smaller entrance working with the larger 'main' doors closed permanently. Not sure if this is due to security reasons or what.
Many of the 'shops' where I'm staying in downtown are takeaways, cafes and restaurants. And yes, there are at least three Starbucks within a couple of blocks of both my hotel and my work!
Doesn't seem to be a great range of shops in DC but I think that's more a reflection of the area covered by the local DC telephone book. For example there isn't a big toy store here in DC but suspect there would be one over the border in Maryland or Virginia. Kind of means you need to rely on the Internet more to find places. In fact most of the big shopping centres are over the border.
Lots of homeless living out on the streets / sleeping on the park benches. One lady just down from the hotel has converted her bench with plastic tarps into a larger domicile. Saw her checking her mobile phone yesterday, can't even guess how she charges it / pays for it - or at least I guessed it was her phone …
I've been wandering around this area, the Metro and out to Bethesda (where we want to live in Maryland) from early morning until about 10pm. Felt totally safe.
Prince George County (known as PGC and is actually more like a town or suburb despite the name) is the problematic crime / drug area where the black on black crime is pretty bad. Suspect it makes the news every Sunday for what happened there on the Saturday night.
While PGC is nowhere near any of the areas we could possibly be living (even a totally different Metro line) it is also the area where Wal-Mart has opened its first store 'within the Beltway'.
The Beltway is a highway that circles the greater DC area. Used for things like my rental allowance decreases if I rent outside the Beltway. Can't see any reason why we would even contemplate going that far out - it is basically outside all the main residential areas. In comparison to Canberra, some of the outlying areas of Gungahlin / Tuggeranong / Hall / Bungendore would be 'outside the Beltway'.
I love the Bethesda / Chevy Chase area where we want to live! Wouldn't be much you couldn't buy within the area. Has supermarkets, sports gear shop, restaurants, Barnes & Noble, gift shops, Apple shop, Hyatt hotel, B&O, etc, etc - oh, and the Metro station of course.
The streets where the houses are where we want to live kind of translates as living in Red Hill within walking distance of Manuka for those who know their Canberra geography. Shopping area probably a bit bigger than Manuka but much more diverse.
Haven't found a house to rent yet. Made an offer on Friday night but they already had an offer over their asking price which was also over my allowance rate! There is another house in the area I'm tempted to make an offer on. It currently is gutted and has to have new wooden floors, kitchens and bathrooms installed. Thought would be to push Rob to get it finished by time we get back in late April. Suspect he needs more time than this and haven't moved on it yet as it is a bit on the small side, although we could live there quite comfortably.
Style of house here is nothing like you would see in Australia. Leaving aside the designs, double glazing is common, as is both ducted heating and air conditioning. Many of the homes I've looked at have four stories. Basically living areas on the entry level, upstairs to bedrooms, then upstairs again to a converted roof space / attic (many quite large). The downstairs basement is often 'converted' and 'fully fitted' into a number of rooms - often with kitchen / bathroom etc to provide accommodation for an au pair or similar. Many houses would have a total of 4 bathrooms and 2 half bathrooms! Other than consumerism gone mad, I'm not quite sure why! although the land value of most homes I've looked at would be at least US$1 million.
House hunting is good entertainment. From the two story extension with raised area for the grand piano, mezzanine viewing area and heaps of storage for music etc in one to the 1927 home with the living area fully log lined and looking just like a mountain cabin! Some of the original art deco pieces like the basins would be collectable today.
Most of the other Aussies here live in Virginia. Tends to be cheaper there but have to be more dependant upon a car. Looked at a few houses there today. Could be tempted by one (which seems to have been taken off the market at the moment) but would be difficult to live there without a car to get groceries / get kids to school. Made me more inclined to push harder or compromise more to get a house in Maryland. Bethesda has the benefit of shops, school and Metro all potentially in walking distance, something I haven't found anywhere else.
Although I'm saying Maryland, now understand that we can live in DC in the Chevy Chase area that extends down from Maryland. Big issue is around the quality of the schools. Embassy tells me that the Elementary Schools are ok in that area of DC (ie comparable to Australia). Public school system here is quite strict that you have to go to the school that you live in the feeder zone for. Have to pay exorbitant amount otherwise so important to choose a house in an area that Olivia and Kieren can go to a good school in. So that gives me another area to look in and there's one house there I'll check out in next couple of days.
This area of DC is also where the serviced apartments are that the Embassy would book for us if we haven't got a house lined up when we come back in late April.
Have also found that many of the Elementary Schools in areas I'm looking offer pre-kindergarten. Kieren would be old enough to go to these when their new school year starts in late August. Would be good if they were both going to the same school but see what happens.
Work seems fine. Have an out of hours mill key etc so can get in whenever I want. Went in this afternoon to check my email and send a 'what's not working' email about my laptop errors. My office has a window but only looks over the access way between our building and the next. Think I'll enjoy working with the people there.
Just getting used again to how polite Americans are. Having trouble getting them to tell me if I mispronounce something or do something wrong as that would be impolite. Exception is if you invade someone's personal space or display discourtesy. (Not that I have of course!) So there's lots of horn honking if someone's holding up traffic that they think they shouldn't be. One of my friends accidently bumped a lady while looking on shop shelves. Next thing the lady was on the phone yelling at someone about how rude people were here and how she would be glad to be home!
Big problem is the 14 hour time difference to east Australia. I've arranged to talk to one of our computer guys at 8am Tuesday which is 6pm Monday here. Am looking for our home to have potential to have a good study setup as I suspect I'll have a few phone hook-ups in the evening here. While others have tended to stay back at work late, will try to do this from home in the evening when I can.
Frustration at our access to our work computer systems remains. While they blame it on the fact that I'm the only one working overseas so I'm a bit of a test case, I think the problem is more that the laptop is so tied down with security that it just doesn't work as intended. At least I'll be back for a month before we all head off over here to make some noise about getting that sorted out.
Malcolm
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