As always, you can click on the pictures below to see a larger version. Also go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsohigian to see more photos.

Happy Holidays

Every year (for the past 4 years) we have taken a “shirts-off” holiday picture around Thanksgiving. Most of the time this picture has to be taken indoors (having your shirt off in Portland in November is a bad idea, for several reasons) like last years picture:

This year we have the backdrop of the Australian Bush in the Thora Valley where we are staying:

Celebrating Christmas and the New Year in the Southern Hemisphere is bound to be a little strange. It is likely that Christmas will include hanging out by the river to avoid the heat. We are not sure where in Australia we will be come Christmas, but is almost guaranteed to be hot.

A Home away from Home

When we were in Sydney and mentioned that we were headed up north to Bellingen, most folks said “where is that?”, so if you are reading this from the US you can be excused for not knowing where Bellingen is. For those of you living in Portland, Eugene, or in the Bay Area, then you are actually quite close to Bellingen, at least culturally speaking. We remember living in Springfield, Oregon (the inspiration for the Springfield in the Simpsons) which is right across the freeway from Eugene. Springfield is an old logging town, very conservative and Eugene is a crunchy granola University town. The freeway that divides the two (I-5) seemed like it was 400 miles wide given the cultural divide of the two towns. And by that measure, Bellingen is just around the corner from Eugene, Portland and the Bay Area.

The locals call the place “Bello” and it is a cute little town right next to the Bellinger river. It is the center of activity for this rural area, known as the Bellinger Shire (no Hobbits so far though). The whole area is very artsy with several galleries and plenty of little cafes. Parts of it are a little contrived, but the locals are very friendly and welcoming. And they have the best Gelato and Swiss pastry shop ever.

We have quickly found ourselves becoming part of the local scene – we share values with most of the people that we encounter here. Dave has been reading a book called “The Cultural Creatives” by Anderson and Ray about how there is a new subculture in the US that thrives on diversity, ecology and building relationships. From our experiences here in Bellingen it seems to exist in Australia as well. Although much of our activity has centered around the School, we have found most of the locals have the same open attitude that we have taken for granted back in Portland. It really is a home away from home.

A special thank you for our hosts here in Bellingen: Kathy, Bob, Darryl, Carol, Stephan, Christoff and Kimberlee. And of course, thank you so much to the staff at Chrysalis School, especially Caleb and Anna’s teachers: Pete, Gail and Carol.

Last weekend was the monthly Bellingen Community Market, where you really get to experience the local crafts in full. The market is huge – covering more than a football field with stalls and entertainment. You can get anything from meat pies to felt hats and everything in between (we are not actually sure what comes between a felt hat and a meat pie). The weather was fairly poor (it was raining in the morning) so the crowds were not as big as they usually are right before Christmas. We had planned to do some busking shows but it turned out that we would need 10 million in liability insurance to be able to do shows – although kids were allowed to busk without insurance. So that meant that Caleb would be doing some busking on his own for the first time. Caleb did not mind since that also meant that he would not have to split the take from the hat.

So what do you get when you combine an Aussie market with an incredibly cute American kid juggling and unicylcling? About $30 Australian – at least on a rainy day. We think that Caleb may be hooked on busking from now on and Dad may be out of the picture.

After more than a month in Bellingen (we actually live in the nearby area of Thora) we are getting ready to get on the road again. Caleb and Anna finished up school on Friday. Caleb had his school play on Thursday, called “Iduna’s Apples” which is the Norse tale of how the God’s immortal power was taken from them. Caleb played the drums

at the start of the play with some accompanying chorus dialog and did some juggling at the end.

Chrysalis Steiner School

Dave finished up his short teaching stint for the 4th grade at the school. About half of the class was able to learn to juggle in just over a week of lessons. Dave made juggling balls out of sand and balloons for the entire class so they have something to practice with over the summer.

Dave also attended one of the school’s board meetings to compare with Cedarwood. Meta spent time visiting the school library and having conversations with the librarian about how they do things. She also expressed interest in what they called the Rainbow Tuckshop which provided a meal to the kids who sign up for it. So every Wednesday, Caleb brought his money to school ($4-$5) and signed up to receive the days meal of a pasta dish, stuffed potatoes, or nachos all with salad and fruit. It was so convenient to send him off to school without making the usual lunch knowing that a good meal would be provided for him. They even included an ice cream or icey on a couple of occasions. I think Portland Waldorf School does something like this which may be worth looking into for Cedarwood if there’s enough interest (and volunteer support). We attended the end of year celebration in Anna’s Kindy class and enjoyed singing some familiar songs including “It’s a Gift to be Simple” and “Kuake” the Native American song from Sacha’s class. Our time here has also been marked by Anna loosing her first two teeth. Caleb helped remove the first one and she managed the second on her own. It’s amazing how far those tooth fairies will travel!

So what’s next? We still have about one month left in Australia and so far we have mainly stuck to the Coast. We have considered heading to the Outback, but the heat this time of year will be oppresive and a drought for the last few years has made it less attractive. We will probably head down to Sydney via Dubbo which is inland and has the best Zoo in the Southern Hemisphere. We will also stop at a popular observatory and do some stargazing. We’ll head back to Sydney from there for our final 2 weeks and hopefully stay somewhere with a pool. Selling the car will also be on the agenda.

Meta and I have decided that we will probably come home in the Spring in the US, likely returning the first week of April during the kids spring break. Five and half months on the road will be enough for this trip and the kids will enjoy seeing their friends back at school before the Summer. This will mean leaving out Europe from our travels this time around. Our current itinerary is Thailand on January 15th for a month or more. Then we will head to Egypt (probably in February/March) for a time. From Egypt we will fly on to London for a few days before flying back to New York at the end of March.

Ophidiophobics Don’t Belong in Australia

One of the neat things at the Bellingen Market was a presentation on Australian Snakes by Steve McEwan, a local “reptologist” (or something). He showed various snakes (including the deadly Taipan and a 6′ long venomous Brown Snake) and described the ways to deal with them. He demonstrated that if you stand still a snake will pretty much ignore you (they can only really track moving things). He also said that although he often hears stories of people being chased by snakes in Australia, he had never seen it happen (even though he catches snakes for a living). He showed what you should do when bitten by a venomous snake (wrap the injury with elastic bandage to slow the movement of the venom through the lymph). We found his demonstration very interesting and ended up buying a small book that is used to identify snakes in the wild. The big lesson was not to get too close to any snakes in the wilds of Australia – almost all of them will bite and many of them are venomous. If you back away slowly you are probably fine.

On Tuesday we went up north a bit to a little retreat in the country. Dave went walking with Anna and a local kid, Sam, to the nearby Orara River to have a look around. The river is smaller than the Bellinger that we are staying near, but very nice. As we were walking along the bank we encountered a HUGE snake – at least 7′ long.

It was under some roots on the bank and it struck in the direction of Dave’s leg as he was walking by, coming short by at least a foot. Sam and Anna had already stepped past and Dave went back on the path. The snake was not immediately satisfied with how far Dave had backed up and it came towards him a few feet to warn him back. Dave took the hint and backed up and then got some video and photos of the snake.

The snake remained on the path because we essentially had it cornered – it could not go up the hill and we were on the path both before and after it. In addition, one part of the snake was bulging from either a big meal or pregnancy, so it was probably hard for it to move fast.

It stayed, ready to strike, on the path and eventually Dave went down into the river to get around it. The snake was almost certainly a Carpet Python – not venomous although it will bite with razor sharp teeth if threatened (which would leave, in Aussie terms “a rash”). Dave definitely understood why people sometimes think that they are being chased by snakes – it moved several feet towards him when he did not back away fast enough. Once he was far enough away it stopped and just held its ground, but if he had turned at that pont and run it would have appeared that the snake had chased him (when your back is to the thing you never know).

Wishing everyone a safe and wonderful holiday filled with light, laughter, and song.

Peace.