Margaret River Photo Book

Here is a Shutterfly book of our recent adventures in Western Australia.  We spent 5 nights in Margaret River, and it was wonderful.  There is so much to discover in that region, even in the rain!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo Book Tip: Create an adventurous travel photo album at Shutterfly.com.

McKinlely Answers Your Questions!

Hi everyone it is McKinley again with another question from a friend. Lindsey has written a letter to me and here is what she wrote:

Dear McKinley,
I miss you sooooooooooo much! How was your move? Have you made any new friends? What's your school like? What's your favorite thing about Australia?  Do you like living in Australia? Does Hagen have an Australian accent? 

Dear Lindsey,

I miss you so much too! The move went pretty smooth except for some broken and lost things. We sure had a lot of paper and boxes all over the house one month after we got here. Because of shipping by boat, our things took 8 weeks to arrive!

Yes, I have made some new friends such as: Emma, Nadia, Katrina, and Tia.  I even met two kids from America,  but sadly they do not go to my school.  I miss all my friends in the U.S.A. so much!

My new school is super great except for the uniforms. They are so plain!!! Even though it is much easier to choose what to wear! Similar to the way Dapplegray has a tennis theme, our school has a ship theme. Ship horns blair instead of school bells, we have cabins instead of courts, we eat lunch in the quarterdeck, and the office is called the bridge!  We also learn German instead of Spanish. An example of what I can say is, "Ich bin zehn Jhare alt" which means, "I am 10 years old."

Here are more differences I compiled once, but never posted:

Differences between Ocean Reef Primary School and Dapplegray

• We only have 4 pages of homework per week at Ocean Reef instead of 4 pages per night... it's awesome! 
• We have 4 terms and get a two week break inbetween each one.
• The age cut off for starting school is different here, so I'm going to be in 6th grade in January! 
• The school year here goes from January to December, so we are just about to start summer break again! 
• We have assemblies every week on Monday and sometimes even Thursday!!
• We have to wear uniforms.
• We learn German instead of Spanish
• We have to say, "Good afternoon" to our teacher in unison before she excuses us at the end of the day.
• We have morning fitness everyday.

My favorite thing about Australia would have to be the national anthem which is very unique.  The version they play at my school starts with aboriginal music and drums that make me feel as if I'm trekking across the outback. Also, the words are interesting and my favorite line is, "our land abounds in nature's gift with beauty rich and rare."

Click this link to see all the lyrics and to hear the anthem:
http://www.imagesaustralia.com/australiannationalanthem.htm

Yes, I really like Australia! It is definitely less crowded and there is more space here! It is about the same size of America but has about 290 million less people than America!!!  Like it says in their anthem, "for those who've come across the seas we've boundless plains to share." Australia is the size of the United States, but only has 7 states!  So driving to another state can take days!

Finally, Hagen does not have an Australian accent yet, but he has said a few words Australian like, "Momaye" and "Dadaye" for "Mommy" and "Daddy" and it is really funny. 

        
Bye for now, 

                   McKinley  

I miss all of you and keep sending the letters!

McKinlely Answers Your Questions!

Hi everyone I have been receiving some questions from my friends in America. My first two letters were from Gillian and Annalise, here is what they wrote:

From Gillian- what kinds of different food do you have there and what's your favorite? Have you eaten kangaroo?

From Annalise - what kind of animals have you seen and which is your favorite? Have you seen a platypus yet? that's my mom's favorite

Dear Gillian,

Some of the different foods we have here are:

White cheese. Only white cheese. Mozzarella, cheddar, colby, all white!!!!! No orange cheeses here! I’m sure American cheese would be white too, but they don’t have that here. 

Sausage. I know there are sausages in the US, but down here we have sausages instead of hot dogs, so we always have what are called "sausage sizzles” everywhere we go.  We have them at school events, church parties, and even outside the hardware store on the weekends. You have a choice of "with" or "without", meaning onions.  I usually like mine “without” and plain.

Some people eat lamb brains, eww! I'm not kidding they sell them in stores and it's disgusting!

Otherwise most of our foods are the same.  Some foods we do not have here are Pop Tarts, and Runts. Junk food is very expensive, and so is Fast Food, so we usually do without. 

My favorite food here is probably the fruit.  It is always so fresh because they do not put preservatives in it which makes it more natural. You have to wait for some fruits to be in season to buy them so their prices go down. For example, grapes can cost $18.00 a bag, or bananas may cost $10.00 a bunch!

As far as kangaroo meat, no I have not eaten it yet, but my mom has seen it in the stores and she says it looks very lean.

From,

McKinley

Dear Annalise,

I've seen many different animals here in Australia such as, kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, Tasmanian devils, and emus.

Kangaroos are surprisingly very soft and are sometimes shy when you want to pet them. But not this time (below).

Koalas are also very soft and usually sleep during the day.  Their noses are so oddly flat and their teeth look like hamster teeth! I got to pet a koala a couple of weeks ago.

Wallabies are pretty much mini kangaroos that hop around the outback. Wombats are chubby, small animals almost like a giant guinea pig. 

Tasmanian devils are carnivores (meat eaters) that are black and sometimes have a white stripe across their backs. Below is one we watched at feeding time at the zoo. He was eating a rat!

Finally, there's the emu, an ostrich like bird that makes a drumming noise in its throat. One time I went in an emu pen and the emu almost pounded on top of me when I tried to pet it. They are much more vicious than they look!!!!

My favorite animal would have to be a Tasmanian devil because of their strange roar and lifestyle of fighting and scavenging for food.

Sadly, I have not seen a platypus but I do hope that I see one soon!

From,

McKinley

Keep sending in the letters because I love reading and answering them!!!!!!
(Do you have a question for McKinley?  If so, please send them to fishielish@y7mail.com)

In Pieces

I apologize ahead of time for the weirdness of this post! 

McKinley and I were going through last year's Christmas cards.  We were recycling them by cutting the fronts off and using them to make cards for all the kids in her class.  (By the way, they exchange Christmas cards at school here much like Valentine's Day cards in U.S.A.)

Here's where it gets weird....

My creative, brilliant, art driven daughter found a stack of our photo cards we sent out last year.  She cut the features (eyes, lips, hair, noses) of her and her brothers' pictures and created new little people.  It was crazy how much these new little people looked like they could be members of our family.  So, if Mark and I ever created more little people, here is what they might look like:

The last one looks so much like one of my nephews, it freaks me out!  

The moral of this story...

Have fun while making your Christmas cards this year, and remember to recycle!

By: Alisha

"I miss my friends and family more than Disneyland!'

"I miss my friends and family more than Disneyland!'

Hi it's McKinley with the scoop of what I think of life in Australia so far. 

School is going good I've made  some new friends, but i miss all my old friends.  my new friends don't seem to laugh at my jokes, I don't think they "get" them. 

My teacher Mrs.Stilitano is kind of strict, but once you get to know her she is nice.  I don't blame her for being strict because the kids in my class are a bit rowdy.  Not to mention there are 32 of us for her to look after!

We have to wear uniforms to school everyday.  It is a white shirt with an emblem with navy blue bottoms. They are quite boring, but it's easier to pick out what to wear.  I definitely miss wearing all my funky socks and hats. All the kids here at school were so amazed we had "free wear".  

In our new home,we are doing good! We've unpacked almost everything and my room is great. I still have my peace daybed, my white desk, and all my Justin Bieber stuff. 

Everest is still super annoying, with all his odd noises but what would I do without him?  Hagen wakes up at the crack of dawn but think i know why. It's practically sunrise at 5:40 a.m! That's what wakes me up!

Our house is 2 story and has a huge backyard. The backyard has a garden that mom is trying to grow, tons of grass to play on, and a trampoline!  Hagen, Everest, and I love to play outside!  Well life is going good so far. Next time I'll write about fun games and Aussie slang! Bye for now!!!

By: McKinley

Everest's First Impressions

I have been trying to keep the kid’s minds working since school would have been in session for them if we had stayed in the states.  I have them reading, writing, and practicing math every day.  Not to mention the cultural lessons we encounter just from being here!  Here is what Everest has written about:

September 9, 2011

There are many fun parks in Perth.  My favorite park so far was Synergy Park because it had a pond, two slides, ducks with ducklings, and 10 poles.  Another park I liked was Kings Park.  It was special because it had realistik things like a fire truck that had a bell, a hose, a steering wheel and a wheel that unraveled the hose.  Most of the parks have information signs that teach things about nature.  I learned that some bugs live underground and the female song bug sings a song to call the male. 

My First Post

Hello,

My name is McKinley, and I am starting a blog about my adventures in Australia.  You see, I just moved here from California, and things can be a bit different here.  I thought it might be fun to write about my adventures!

I'll start with some footage from our very long over the ocean flight.  We flew on a huge plane called an Airbus 380. 

Here was a rainbow we saw while looking for houses one day.

When we first arrived we were so tired all of the time. Every night I was ready for bed by 5:30 pm.  For me, it felt like 2:30 in the morning!

by: McKinley