Goodbye Australia

It's time to say our final Good Bye Mate and write our last blog entry. As Jakob says, "I can't believe it's been a whole year already". It is such a bitter-sweet time for us as we say our final goodbyes through teary eyes yet we are anxious to say hello to our friends and family at home. We have had a couple of send off parties or maybe they are "get rid of the Americans" parties. The first was a seafood feast dinner with all of Mike's math collegues. He worked with great people which made his time at work a little better.

We also had a big party with families we have met through our kids. It was an outside, evening party. There was a bonfire as big as a house, a one-man band, dancing, heaps of food and many cuddles (hugs).

We had been putting all of the stuff that we didn't want to bring home into a box. I took the box to the party so we could give away the stuff. I didn't realize Mike had thrown his old underwear into the box. Here is a picture of the woman wearing Mike's undies!

Mike wrote a poem that I read at the party. Here is a copy of the poem:

Old to Old Bar
Little Old Bar, town that barely makes the map,
Of which our prior knowledge didn’t amount to a pile of crap.
We couldn’t even find it till we went to ‘Google Earth,’
Little did we know how much it would end up being worth.

The town’s people were so helpful, generous and kind,
Lending us bikes, clothes and advice and they didn’t seem to mind.
We learned so much from these kind-hearted folks,
We just hoped we weren’t the butt of too many ‘ugly American’ jokes.

The town has a climate Washingtonians would die for,
We repeatedly woke up to sunshine and thought ‘what a score!’.
When it did rain, it came down amazingly hard,
267 millimetres overnight, enough to flood our backyard.

Our community, school and child sponsors helped in so many ways,
Especially when we were having those difficult transition days.
You made the tough days so much easier and better for us all,
You invited us to many barbeques, we had such a ball.

The schools were welcoming to Kyle, Mariah and Jake,
They had to wear hats outside so they wouldn‘t bake,
The teachers and students spoke with such confusing slang,
They worked hard to try to understand a damn thang.

Fosters and Shrimp? How wrong were we?
Toohey's Extra Dry and snags, we were more likely to see.
Good on ya, how ya going, fair dinkum, vegemite,
Tomahtoe and rissoles, started to sound just right.

Swimmers and sunnies, slip-slap-slop,
Rellies, oldies, utes and beauts, now we can’t stop.
Dirty weekends, lollies, nibblies, G’day mate.
Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi, it’s all sounding great.

Jake made new friends and loved his soccer team,
They won the Grand Final which was everyone’s dream.
He loved having sleepovers, and to play computer games,
He’ll never forget Jye, Aidan, Andrew, Joe or James.

Mariah felt right at home, making friends as quickly as can be,
Wonderful 6th graders like Pat, Jess, Liam, Tim, Bec, and Emily.
She ran, she kicked and played all types of sport,
She loved being on the oval, the track and the court.

Kyle went to Taree High on a bus each day,

His girlfriend on his lap, turning his parents' hair prematurely grey...
He loved trying to surf the green waves each morning,
He went day after day without a single shark warning.

Mike drove to Chatham, just a bit further down the road,
He taught all types of maths like median, mean and mode.
He golfed two or three times a week with my new found mates,
so for his wife Karen, there was very little time for dates .

Karen was the ‘events coordinator extraordinaire,’
She did her job well, always finding the cheapest fare.
She ran in the mornings and played tennis with the Mermaid mums,
So many of you have become her memorable chums.

We’ve loved Old Bar-the beaches, the sun, the casual lifestyle,
But it’s time to go home now, since we’ve been gone quite awhile.
We’ll miss so much about this town, that much is true,
But without a doubt what we‘ll miss most, is all of YOU…

It is time to leave the Land of Oz from "Down Under". I believe my family found the courage to leave our familiar surroundings and become new kids on the block. They had the brains to learn to survive in a new lifestyle and the heart to thrive. As Dorothy said "There is no place like home". It is time for us to click our heels three times and and return to the land "Up Over". We left Olympia with a finacial dept but we will return much richer than we can ever imagine thanks to the people we have met. We want to thank those of you who took the time to read our blog and and came along with us as we traveled Australia. It really has been an adventure and an opportunity of a lifetime.

We are signing out................................

Mick, Kaz, Kyle, Steen Train and Steenie (Aussie names)