it's about life, my life, quilts, midwifery, and whatever else occurs to me.

30 September 2008

The new normal

We've been here 10 days now. I'm still running around doing errands -- looking into health insurance, signing up at the video store, the gym, opening the bank accounts, etc. At the supermarket, Woolworths (yes, same company as our old Woolworths but here they seem to be just supermarkets) I take forever because almost nothing there is anything like what I could buy in the States, with the possible exception of some types of produce. Also, this Woolworths is located inside a massive 4 story shopping mall, along with Target, Kmart, a department store and many, many small shops selling everything from...well, pretty much anything you might need.

Yesterday I made my first visit to the local quilt shop. It appears that fabric is quite expensive here, if I'm interpreting the prices correctly; at the top of each bolt it said $24 or sometimes $23, which I interpret as the price per metre. Now that is $AUS, and the exchange rate is such that the $US is worth a bit more, but I'm accustomed to prices more like $US 9 or 10 per yard, and a yard is only a little bit smaller than a metre. Ergo: my visits home will include fabric shopping!

On Monday I met with my school advisor to start my education and employment process. I chose mid-February to start my school (and scholarship) clock. It works out to the beginning of fall semester, and it gives me time for some preliminary preparation and investigation. My part-time job is set to start next week, 1 day a week doing various odd jobs around the School of Nursing and Midwifery (hereafter SONM).

In order to get to know midwifery in Australia, I've set myself a task of writing a piece for the JMWH, in 2 parts: clinical practice, and education. Our landlady is, this very day, being induced at 41 weeks ('I really don't want it, but my doctor doesn't want to wait any longer') and I hope to add some spice to the piece with interviewing her after she's had a chance to recover and settle in with babe #2.

2 comments:

jmbcraig said...

Sounds like you are slowly settling in.... I remember having a similar problem in Dublin, where food shopping was just the most bizarre experience - some things are called the same thing but are totally different, and sometime you just even need to know different names for things! We tried to buy/eat as much as we could from the moore st market (outdoor farmer/city market with everything!) but that still doesn't quite cover all your bases... (also our cooking set up was pretty small and student-y, we only had 2 burners, etc...)

G and C say that pretty much everything is more expensive there, soft goods wise, (this was before the exchange rate got so close, but i think still more or less true) and that the fam always asked them to bring jeans and basic clothing things even from the US on visits.

Super cool on the article, I look forward to reading! And I also like the sidebar with things you do and do not miss :) We miss you!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.