The Three Effs

Family, Friends, Finnegan--we miss you! We miss you very, very much! Philip asked us the other day what, besides the 3 effs, we miss the most about the US. Hmmm. It was food for thought. And speaking of food...

More than one of us misses a good old Brooklyn bagel. I miss good, quick, spicy Mexican food. Oh we can make it here for sure, but we're just not that good at it. Mind you, avocados here are perfection itself--never a bad one. I tend to skip making guacamole and just dig into the delicious green softness with a spoon.

Walking everywhere. More than one of us misses the fact that, in Brooklyn, we could walk just about everywhere we needed to go. Sure we walk a lot in Australia--mostly on the golden beaches under the blue, blue sky, next to the sparkling water. Ok, I digress. We cannot walk to the grocery store, to squash lessons, to work (oh right, we're working from home), to school...driving is a drag, let's face it.

PK misses skiing. We could probably hit the slopes in New Zealand before we go, but there's nothing like the Rockies--American, Canadian, various subsets of the Rockies in Utah--for powder, vertical, overall thrills. For the record, I'm happy to skip this year of skiing for beach walking (see above). Do I hear strains from the world's smallest violin?

Our own home. Our rented house here is to die for. It has spectacular views of the Pacific and Whale Beach. There's a pool, a two-car garage, lots of open and airy space. Sigh. But we do miss having the power to change a few things and make it our own. I still hear that violin playing.

Aspects of school. We do find ourselves missing the chaotic creativity, free-thinking, premium-on-intellectualism groove of St. Ann's. The schools here are much more rigid and structured--notebooks must be covered in polypropylene; each Times Table must be recited in under 10 seconds; students must form lines and wear uniforms, etc... But this year will be so beneficial for our kids to see other ways of learning, to live like Virgos, to be held responsible for mistakes. Pushing the margins when we're back at St. Ann's will mean so much more for having had to learn inside the margins.

Too bad I won't be blogging when we're back in Brooklyn. I fear my list of things we miss about Australia will be very long indeed--a sampling might include, oh, I don't know, robust female representation in politics, free health care, gorgeous weather, views of the Pacific, breaching humpbacks. I might even miss the school uniforms when we're back--just think of the money we've saved on clothes alone this year! And first and foremost, we have family and friends here in Australia we will miss terribly. But that's only two effs.

Here's to you, family, friends in the US and Australia. And here's to you, Finnegan (who, for the record, is happy frolicking in the Virginia hills with his cousin Buttons).