Everything Old in New Again

We've been in Melbourne for five days and already so much has happened. The most important being that Jake turned 7 on July 10th. He also started school that day. Matt spent the early morning prowling Rathdowne Street, which is full of bakeries and cafes, buying up all the cupcakes he could find so that Jake could celebrate his birthday with his new classmates. I put the boxes of treats in a duffle bag and Jake and I rode the tram to school. He was so nervous about starting a new school, in a new country, in a new hemisphere, but he was also very brave. The school looks great; it is relaxed and informal and the kids seem creative and eccentric in that sweet, unselfconscious way kids can be. On the first day Jake helped put on a play about spies (I think Jake had a lot of input on the production's theme). The students call the teachers by their first names. It reminds me a lot of my grade school in Claremont, Sycamore, which its graduates still credit with nuturing the best parts of themselves. When I picked Jake up from school and his teacher told him how glad she was that he was in the class, he told her that he had loved it. But the bravery that the day required (coupled with jet lag) took its toll, and in the middle of his birthday party at home that evening, Jake curled up on the couch and went to sleep.

My small act of bravery was driving our car. Matt and I kept begging each other to pick up the car because neither of us dared drive on the left. I lost that battle. And to my surprise I discovered that we'd bought a manual transmission car, so I also had to drive with the stick shift on my left, which turned out to be much harder than driving in the left lane. I made it home without running anyone over or driving headfirst into another car, but it must have looked like a classic comedy scene to the other drivers on the road. Every time I went to signal, I turned the windshield wipers on and I was concentrating so hard on driving that it took some effort to turn them off again.

Its funny being in a place that is so familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It makes the most ordinary acts, like going to school or driving a car or grocery shopping, novel and interesting. It is one of the gifts of being here that we are given the opportunity to reflect on so many little things that we have long since taken for granted.