We made it to Canberra!

We made it to Canberra!  After a long, long journey we arrived at the airport in Canberra and met by a guy named Darren Mitchell. (Turns out he is also Mormon.  Small world...)  We weren’t expecting anyone to pick us up, so it took us by surprise when some random guy approached us and said, “Hey!  You must be the Larsen’s.”  That we are indeed.  I guess he is here on a 3-year assignment and will be working with Sterling.  We had a ton of luggage, so it was nice to have his help and not to have to deal with a cab!

We had a 12 hour layover in San Francisco.  Cora was obviously not into the whole idea either. 

Here we are after over 36 hours of traveling.  We had so much stuff to lug around.  Glad that's over :) 

The view of Canberra from our balcony.

When we got to our apartment, we were pleasantly surprised with how great it is.  Most importantly, there is no bad “hotel art” on the walls, no nauseating color combinations, or bad couch patterns.  There are tons of windows, so it feels very open and bright.  Other highlights include a dishwasher, disposal, and washer/dryer.  Our place in Arlington didn’t have any of these things, so I am very excited about the whole situation.  What am I going to do with the time I usually spent washing dishes??!  Oh, I’m sure I’ll find something to do J 

After Sterling and I showered, we got a call from Darren, inviting us over for dinner.  We took him up on the offer, and he came to get us.  On the way to his house, he showed us the US Embassy (and we are apparently invited to the big American Halloween party), the Australian Parliament building, and other things here and there.  He also took us to Floriade, Canberra’s annual spring celebration.  So beautiful! Flowers were everywhere!  It reminded me of being in the world-famous tulip garden, Keukenhof, on my mission in the Netherlands.    

Here is a photo of Floriade, Canberra's annual spring festival.  Flowers were everywhere!

Poppies

Sterling and I at Floriade. (I don't totally love this photo, but I am posting it for memory's sake.)

Darren’s son, Will, was making dinner when we arrived at their house.  (It was one of his requirements for his Duty to God award.)  Darren and Ivey have 5 kids, the youngest being about 2 weeks younger than Cora.  It was fun to ask the older kids about school and stuff.  They teach cooking and gardening in elementary school here!  How awesome is that? 

After dinner, Ivey took Sterling and I on a kangaroo hunt.  Just behind their house, we came across a huge mob of kangaroos.  (We learned that mob is the correct term for a group of these lovely marsupials J)  There were seriously about 30 of them just hanging out in a empty lot in the middle of a neighborhood!  We were able to get pretty close to them.  I guess most people see them a little bit like deer are in Utah—as a pest.  

Isn't crazy how close they are to the houses?!

Kangaroos up closer.  See the cute little joey!

Darren and Ivey were so kind and let us borrow their coats for our kangaroo hunt.
Apparently, it isn't quite swimming weather...yet!

Right now Cora is sleeping.  I’m getting all anxious to go exploring, but I don’t want to wake her up.  These past few days have been rough on her—and us—sleeping and eating-wise.  Monday night, Sterling and I had plans to explore our neighborhood.  But after dinner, around 7 pm I just had to lay down.  Sterling joined me and somehow we didn’t wake up until after 11 pm!  Whoops!  We’ll try again for FHE and our walk again tonight J 

Living in a hotel is going to ruin me in the cleaning department.  Every day around 10 am I get a loud knock with the announcement,  “Housekeeping!” They make the bed, take out the trash, wipe down the counters, and fold the toilet paper into a nice little point.  Yesterday, when they came, they even flushed the toilet for me! (I hadn’t flushed it because I was worried about waking up Cora, in case you were wondering… ) And today I discovered that the housekeeping people will even rinse my dishes.  I had every intention of rinsing the breakfast dishes in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher.  Really!  But, now that I know I don’t have to, that may change things… 

So, yesterday I went to the chemist.  Yes, the chemist.  Apparently, that is the pharmacy.  I got some lotion.  It was my first purchase in Canberra.   Sterling got some things the day we got in, but I stayed home with Cora, so that doesn’t count.  He came back from the store telling me how crazy expensive things were.  He was so right! 

Yesterday my and Cora’s big outing was going to the grocery store, Supabarn.  Now, I have no idea where this place falls on the continuum of grocery stores, but I do know that green peppers should not be $11.99/kilo.  I guess a kilo is 2.2lbs, so that is about $6/pound.  That is so not okay.   And yes, I bought 3.  Before I get all huffy about the prices (which I am sure will happen again sometime soon), let me just say that the produce at that store was breath-taking.  Now, I do not use that adjective lightly, but that is the most accurate word I can think of.  I don’t know if it is that breath-taking across the board here, but Supabarn knows what’s up. 

Here's Sterling after he went to Aldi.  For the record, he bought the Choco-rice cereal :)  

 Well, we are hopefully going to get cell phones in the next day or so.  We are going to set up our phones so they are wi-fi hotspots.  Then we will have internet and I can e-mail and blog without having to go to the McDonald’s.

For all of you DC-ers out there, here is a photo of rush hour traffic at 8:30 am.

Needless to say, things are a lot chiller here!  

Well, I need to go, but I will post more very soon!  We love you and miss you all.