Routines

It feels like I'm behind in writing, although I have been writing at least weekly.  We've been here more than six weeks now, and everything is finally settling into routine.  Those routines are what I want to write about.

Tim has settled into work.  Most workdays, he is awake and up for the first of his remote meetings at 4am.  Starting at 4am is not ideal.  However, on the bright side, his workday is over at noon!  The other downside to his work schedule is the fact that we're a day ahead of his colleagues in California, which means he works Saturday mornings, too.  But the bright side to that is he gets Mondays free!  It's like getting an extra day tacked onto the weekend every week!  And if I write with lots of these exclamation marks, I may be able to convince him how lucky he really is to have this great work schedule!  4am every Saturday every week!  Lucky!  Lucky work schedule!  No, we don't need marriage counseling!  Lucky!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tim takes the tram into the central business district just after noon for a Japanese lesson.  He is in a class with two other professionals, taught by Japanese natives.  Tim has been learning Japanese on his own for a couple of years.  It's nice to be living in a city with a large Japanese population, so he can study the language more officially.

Every afternoon, Tim picks up Jonathan from school.  Jonathan has been in school now for two weeks and two days, and he likes it.  He is starting to make a couple of friends and to settle in.  I asked Jonathan to tell me some of the differences between his school in the US and school in Australia.  First difference:  his school here is celebrating its 160th birthday.  In the US, his school was built in the late 1950s.  So here, a little more age and history.  Also, here, the school is much smaller.  The principal informed us that the school is overcrowded.  But Jonathan's class has only 20 students in it.  A couple of years ago, his class in the US had over 30 students. 

Jonathan says the students in his class in Australia are quieter, and more respectful of the teacher.  In the US, some students would interrupt the teacher, but that isn't done here.  Here, kids play cricket at recess.  They don't do that in the US.  I asked, and Jonathan says he hasn't joined in the cricket games.  Presumably, it's partly because he doesn't know the rules.  I asked if he had played cricket yet in P.E. in school, to learn the rules, and he said no.  They played lacrosse.  Lacrosse?  How was that?  Really fun!  Really?  Did you know there is a lacrosse club back near home in the US?  Eye roll.  So what else is different?  Larger eye roll. 

I guess that's all we're getting, folks, from the boy.

On Friday afternoons, Jonathan and Tim take the tram to St Kilda for Jonathan's French class.  Jonathan has been in a French immersion elementary school for five years in the US.  At his school here, they learn French for one hour every week.  Needless to say, that one hour won't help him maintain his skill.  The Alliance Francaise de Melbourne is a few tram stops south, near the beach, so we head there for extra lessons.  After five years of immersion, Jonathan placed into their francophone class -- for kids who are native French speakers.  And he is doing quite well there and seems to enjoy it. 

(Jonathan, do you like French? ... Yes.  Why are you asking me random questions?)

As for me, I wake up early.  But not at 4am.  I set up 6am remote meetings with collaborators and students in the US and UK.  After meetings, I run breakfast, and then walk Jonathan and Tim through the park over to school.  Back home, I either take the tram or ride a borrowed bike through the central business district and up to the University of Melbourne, where I work diligently the rest of the day.  (Busy busy busy.  See, Department Chair in the US, how productive I am?  Accomplishing a lot, here.  Please continue to fund us.)

The borrowed bike I inherited from an Italian woman who just moved away from Australia.  It is fun to ride it during commute hours past the traffic and the trams through the center of the city.  Unfortunately, the sister of the Italian is moving to Melbourne in March, and so I may have to give the bike up again then.  Meanwhile, I'll enjoy it while I have it. 

I think that's about it for routines, aside from various chores.  Life is good.  We are happy.  And lucky to be here.  Lucky!  Lucky lucky lucky!