How to help Australia

We've been following the news of our beloved Australia.  Some of you have asked whether the area we were in has been affected by the bushfires, so I thought our blog might be a good way to answer that question.

As a reminder, we were in Adelaide, in South Australia.

I was going to include a map of AUS showing all the burning areas, but apparently there have been several fake and misleading maps circulating on social media (click here for an article on this). So I will refrain from spreading inaccurate information.

If you click here, it will show you Adelaide and where the current fires are burning (I believe the map is updated frequently). Looking at the map, our apartment was in the city center, right around the "A" in Adelaide. The fires are in the hills, which one of my Aussie friends said is about a 30 minute drive from our apartment (in a car. . . we only took public transit so it would have taken us a lot longer to get to that area).

One of our favorite places in Australia is Kangaroo Island. This island is about 1 1/2 hours from Adelaide, and we spent a weekend there on a bus tour of the island. KI is home to 1 million kangaroos and wallabies, 750,000 sheep, and a variety of species that are only found on the island. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, an echidna, Australian sea lions, New Zealand fur seals, and a host of exotic birds on KI. Kangaroo Island closely monitors what comes on and off the island, so they are able to have a lot of control over their animal populations and their health. For instance, the koalas on KI are the only koala population in the country not infected with chlamydia (who knew koalas could get STDs. . . but that's clearly another conversation :)

Unfortunately, the bushfires have been devastating for Kangaroo Island. At least 1/3 of the island, mostly the lush west side, which is mostly national forest, has burned.  Here is a picture of Remarkable Rocks, which I took, when we were there in Sept 2018:

Here's the same place now, from a slightly wider angle:

Click here for more pics of Kangaroo Island (some are quite graphic of burned animals, FYI).

And if you've seen this video of a fire tornado, this is also Kangaroo Island.

Anyway. . . if you feel led to donate to the recovery in Australia, below are some charities suggested by one of our Aussie friends. The Australian people would be most grateful :)

CFS Foundation: Supporting Volunteer Firefighters

https://cfsfoundation.org.au/donate?fbclid=IwAR1CHuAU7QISeh0qxEckCgt_pdlkDdrxO0BkXi3rfHrpBjPDUCL5dk38qhg

Australian Red Cross:

https://fundraise.redcross.org.au/drr?fbclid=IwAR0T-xcNdzGKZyzEJi3phd_YtNO8NS0-xqFPmJZGdO4SJpNnaZsgxPGoXFU

Kangaroo Island Relief and Recovery:

https://au.gofundme.com/f/mayors-bushfire-appeal-fund?satcMcId=87570903276168574023558377731948309118

Salvation Army:

https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/donate/make-a-donation/donate-online/?appeal=disasterappeal&fbclid=IwAR0CsLucK9AwSN0RIpzZ2ij-0CPKDbMcsZUj0h4nT9gjKsoRpwBf_OTamXA

Everyday Australia: A typical Sunday

In Adelaide, we typically spent Saturdays visiting someplace new: a beach, a parkland, etc. And with so much to do, we rarely did the same thing twice!

On Sundays, though, we had a fairly consistent routine.

We'd start the morning with church, at Trinity City Church. This church building is the oldest church in South Australia! 

One of the things I really miss about Adelaide (and Australia in general) is its multiculturalism. Our church, for instance, had simultaneous services in English and in Mandarin. After the service, there was 'tea time' where you could mingle with those from the other services. It was fun to meet people from other countries on a regular basis.

We usually went to the late service, so it was lunch time when we got done. Frequently, we'd stay in town and have lunch in Rundle Mall. There were tons of places to eat. I grew quite fond of this gyro place. . . not sure how authentic it was, but it was very tasty!

The boys. . . well. .  they just wanted to eat at McDonalds. Some things never change.

Anyway, after lunch, we'd usually hang out in Rundle Mall for a little while until Lego time at the library started. Did I ever mention the pig statues in Rundle Mall? It was just like we were in a bronze version of Iowa. . .

 Every Sunday, for an hour, the library hauled out their huge supply of Legos for building. Amazingly, there were always enough Legos for everyone! Here are some of the boys' creations:

We loved the library and visited there frequently! We brought maybe 4-5 books from home, and with the way the boys read, we needed to keep our apartment stocked with a fresh supply of books at all times. 

All the libraries in the state of South Australia were connected. Your library card would work at any of the libraries in the entire state! And, the BEST part. . . if you checked out a book from one library, you could return it to another! It was just like Redbox!

Also, everything was automated at the library. You just set your stack of books to check out underneath the scanner, and it could read everything perfectly. 

After Lego time, we'd maybe hang out in Rundle Mall a little more; especially if the boys could twist our arms into getting a 60 cent ice cream cone from McDonalds. There were always buskers (street performers) in the Mall, and on Sundays, the more unusual buskers came out. We saw not only musicians, but cup stackers, and even a unicyclist from Canada!

We'd usually head back to our apartment in mid-late afternoon, and then relax. We sometimes headed to a nearby park, or we'd catch up on our favorite Aussie show: The BLOCK! We really miss that show. There is nothing really comparable in the US. You can Google it if you're interested :)

Everyday Australia: #crazybuslife

One of the biggest differences about our life in Australia, versus our life here, is that we didn't have a car. We relied on public transportation (or our feet) to get everywhere we needed to go. Fortunately, Adelaide's public transit system was safe, clean, and (with the help of some apps) very easy to navigate.

Here are the boys with their Metrocards! We purchased monthly passes with unlimited rides. An adult pass was about $70 USD, and a child pass was a mere $17.50.

Fortunately, we didn't lose or misplace a single Metrocard in five months! Once you got on the bus, you had to tap your card to this:

Adelaide had buses, trains, and trams, and you could ride interchangeably with the same card. The trams were the smallest, and you could ride them for free within the city center. There was also one that went all the way to the ocean that we took frequently.

The trains were probably my favorite. They were the most spacious and generally least crowded (at least in non-rush hours). 

There were four train lines, all originating from the city center in this beautiful train station. Two trains went north; two went south. We took all four during our 5 months in the city.

Mostly, though, we rode buses. Here was a typical bus stop sign, telling you which buses stopped at this stop. Actually, this particular bus stop became known as "the unlucky stop" since we always had bad bus luck here. . .

Proper bus etiquette tip #1: Buses don't automatically stop at each stop, even if they're scheduled to. You have to hail the bus by holding up your hand. The boys got quite good at this. Then, when you boarded, you greet the driver and he/she greets you back. Adelaide bus drivers were generally friendly and helpful. If they saw a person running to the bus stop they would always wait (this was not true in Sydney. . . Adelaide is better :). 

A typical scene for us. We got a lot of reading done on the bus!

 Notice that the boys were sitting in the handicap accessible seats. This was allowed, but if someone came along who needed them more they did, they would have needed to move.

 This was a special bus called the O-Bahn. It had specialized guide rail tire things that allowed it to go on a track just for this bus. Once it got on the track, the driver didn't even have to steer!

Here's the O-Bahn track from above. Apparently these types of buses are common in Germany but were quite innovative in Adelaide. These buses moved faster than regular buses, since they were not competing with any other traffic.

We never got to ride on this (well, I think Ked did, with Ryan and Tiffany?). This was a special double decker bus that went back and forth to the airport.

There may or may not have been some naps taken on public transit. . .

 Bus etiquette tip #2: There were "stop" buttons throughout the bus. When you wanted the driver to stop at the next stop, you'd push one. The boys got very good at knowing when our stop was coming and signaling the driver. And when disembarking, it was common practice to holler a 'thank you' to the driver or a quick wave (again, not the case in Sydney, but always the case in Adelaide). 

Overall, we learned the transit system pretty quickly. Yes, we encountered some wackos on the bus (the worst was a rap-music-listening gentleman who Micah said should be named F-Bomb. . .), but overall, we felt very safe on the buses. I will also say, it was nice to be able to read, check emails, etc, while getting to your destination. I kind of lamented coming home to the US and having to pay attention while I drove!

#crazybuslife

Well, Australia has basically ruined playgrounds for us

This weekend, I took the boys to the park they've always loved that's near our house. 

After 20 minutes, they said they were bored and asked to go home.

I guess when you got used to slides like THIS,

. . . regular Iowa parks do seem a little boring now.

Everyday Australia: Street Art

As I've said in the past, I really loved living in the city. It was one of the fun surprises of this trip for me. And one of the great things about the city of Adelaide is all its great street art!

I could crop these pics better in my scrapbook than I can here on the blog, but here is a sampling of the great art found all over the city.

Kedron even found some street art that the boys (and 80's video game fans) could appreciate!

We saw this one every Sunday on the way to church:

This one was closest to our house, and was finished just before we left. I called it "Stylish 70's Lady Holding a Sheep For Some Reason."

What's your favorite?