On the following pages you will find the weekly e-mail updates by Jamie and Laura.
If you would like to be added to this mailing, send a note to Jamie at .
If you are one and want to be removed, do the same.
Take care,
Jamie
From: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 9:21 AM
To: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Subject: Those daggy chooks!
Aussie words of the day:
Daggy (adj.): grungy, yucky; from dag (n.): the stuff that collects on an unshorn sheep’s hindquarters; related form dag (v., as in “to dag about”): to hang out in grungy clothes
Chooks (n.): chickens
Life here continues to be interesting and enjoyable. Sara (May) is still in her glory at school. Her current favorite subjects appear to be Italian and the monkey bars. In Italian, her class is studying an Italian folk tale and preparing to do a dramatic performance based on it in a couple weeks. She’s undaunted by coming into things midstream and is enjoying teaching us new vocabulary and songs.
Joanna is settling into her school schedule of two full days and two half days per week. Her teacher is also the assistant principal, so she gets called out of the classroom fairly frequently when the principal is in meetings. The lack of continuity’s been a bit tough on Joanna, but she’s getting there. Joanna and Laura have been spending Wednesdays together going on outings, most recently to the Collingwood Children’s Farm, where Joanna enjoyed bottle-feeding a lamb and petting the more docile chooks.
With Joanna’s school schedule what it is right now, Laura’s not yet made it to meet any biologists. She has, however, begun helping out with “maths” in Sara (May)’s classroom twice a week. She is learning all about the local footy teams (seems there are at least half a dozen of them), their colors and mascots, and which team each child “goes for.” From Sara (May)’s teacher, a fellow migraine sufferer, she got a referral to a local naturopath, whom she’ll see August 31st for the first time.
I (Jamie) am having lots of fun in the lab. As with any physics lab in the world, it has a wonderful mix of cultures. I am working very closely with three Aussies, one Dutch visitor, and one German. In the extended Optics group, I have gotten to know students from Africa and India. English is the common language in the lab. I find the English with a Dutch accent and the English with a German accent considerably easier to understand than the English with an Aussie accent. I have spent most of last week tuning up a few diode lasers. I have jumped into a project that I have been wanting to work on for years now which involves a two-photon absorption. I am tuning two different IR lasers and shining them into a rubidium gas cell. Out pops a deep blue glow. (If that doesn’t excite you, your loss.)
For the past two Sundays, we’ve been attending an Australian Uniting Church, where our neighbors with the three boys go. (When describing the neighborhood before we moved in, our landlady remarked, “… And there’s a Christian family. They go to church every Sunday, and everything.…” -- apparently more of a novelty here than in the States.) The Uniting Church was formed through a union of Australian Presbyterians, Methodists, and a third Protestant denomination that we don’t remember. It’s a small, friendly congregation. The music is all contemporary, and singing is a bit rough for us, as the bulletin contains only words to the songs and no music. We’re hoping that their repertoire is very small and we’ll soon start recognizing some reruns. The girls like Sunday School (although it’s not as good as at Stone Church, reports Joanna). Sara (May) was thrilled because her class went to do the monkey bars today.
The weather continues to be springlike. It’s getting very difficult to stifle hoots of laughter as big, macho blokes bemoan the bitter weather day after day. They have NO IDEA… Interestingly (or unfortunately), because the weather’s relatively mild, the house where we’re living was built with single-pane windows and no weather stripping, so it’s not very energy efficient. The rainy season’s been living up to its name more recently. We’re still trying to get into the habit of taking our rain gear with us absolutely every time we leave the house. Cloudbursts come out of nowhere. One day, Laura and Joanna got caught in the rain three separate times (with bright sun and blue sky in between each time). No sooner do you slather on the sunscreen than you whip out your “slicker.” Luckily (or unluckily, for the sake of drought abatement), the showers often pass within five or ten minutes, so we’re learning to wait them out.
Yesterday, an uncharacteristic day of solid rain, we took a train to a science museum and planetarium. The planetarium show (an animated thing geared to 5- to 8-year-olds) featured the constellations of the southern hemisphere. We were amused to learn that Orion the Hunter is referred to as “the saucepan” here, the stars of Orion’s belt forming the bottom of the pan.
On that poetic note, we wish you “G’day, Mates!” and go off to watch more Aussie Olympic athletes on the telly. (Is Australia REALLY winning gold in every event?) We miss you and welcome all news of home!
Love,
The Whites
P.S. You can find any previous mailings that you might have missed (3 previous ones in all) on We apologize that some of you haven’t received all of them directly; we’re still working out the kinks with our distribution list. (As always, if you’d rather be removed, PLEASE let us know. We WILL speak to you again.) In time, we hope to get some photos up on this page, too.
Mailing 3
From: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 9:24 AM
To: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Subject: Joanna on the 6 o'clock news!
Well, we’ve been here less than three weeks and Joanna’s already been on the telly (albeit very fleetingly). A camera crew visited her class today to cover a vision screening program that’s getting started in area primary schools. She and a number of classmates were captured “reading” books. (Of course, as Joanna pointed out, “We didn’t actually have to READ them, really – just look at them.”)
School continues to go well. We’ve ended up reducing Joanna’s schedule a bit, to help her ease into things more gradually, after she dissolved into tears without warning around noon Friday and wanted Mom. Mom came. Joanna left. Now, she’s going two full days (M, Th) and two half days (T and F) per week for awhile, at her teacher’s recommendation. Mom thinks it’s a good plan, too.
With the help of our landlady and her car, we moved this past weekend. The furnishings of the house continue to dribble in daily, as do pieces of abstract art for the walls. (There’s now a huge yellow X over our couch, so Jamie knows where to lie down.) Laura got her first gardening lesson today and can now identify the weed whose white juice you should rub on pre-cancerous skin lesions – knowledge she hopes never to use. She also got the low-down on recognizing the two kinds of spiders that “you absolutely must kill” -- one of which, the landlady confided, had somehow appeared in the bathroom one time. More knowledge Laura hopes never to use.
With the new neighborhood, we’ve gotten new neighbors, whom we’ve been meeting a few at a time. Across the street is a family with three boys, ages 7, 13, and 15. They’re wonderful boys, reminding us a lot of the Dowdys (Dowdies?). Sara May (“Sara”) regrets the lack of an 8-year-old girl, but she and Joanna have really hit it off with the boys. While we moved in and unpacked, the five kids were dashing back and forth from house to house, climbing the almond trees out front, playing computer games, wrestling with each other, and generally having a great time. The youngest boy attends the same school that the girls do, so they enjoy seeing each other there, too.
I (Jamie) have started in earnest at the University. Although I was going into the lab last week and worked on a few small things, the professor who actually invited me here just came back from a conference in the States yesterday. We met and have hit it off well. I have begun working with a few of his students on projects that are already underway, and I have started thinking of a few extensions that I may take on in time. At this point, I’m just feeling proud that I’ve managed to get in and out of the lab each day without tripping the door interlocks that turn off all the lasers at once if you forget to deactivate them. (Not all of the grad students can say the same.)
Last night, the skies were clear. Despite the nearly full moon, we managed to “see the Southern Cross for the first time,” and now we can’t get that darn song out of our heads. We think of you all often and regret that we haven’t been able to send too many personalized e-mails yet. We were off-line for awhile around the time of the move, but now we’re back in business, so we hope to get better about replying to messages.
Cheers!
Laura, Jamie, Sara (May) & Joanna
Aussie word for the day: yabbies (crayfish)
Mailing 2
From: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 10:17 PM
To: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Subject: We have an address!
Aussie wordfor the day...windcheater (sweatshirt)
This Aussie word of the day was discovered while buying school uniforms for the girls. Yes, Sara May (a.k.a. "Sara")and Joanna started school today. The school is named North Brunswick Primary, and their color is green. So...thegirlsnow have green shirts, green polo shirt, and two pairs of black pants each. We resisted buying the green rain jacket, windcheaters, hats, backpacks, etc., all with the North Brunswick Primary name stylishly stamped on them. Only the shirts and pants are required each day for the uniform.
The school is very small -- just 130 (now 132) students in the equivalent of K-6. Most of the students apparently live within walking distance, and the school has a real community feeling, akin to what we'd observed at Jackson-Miller. Despite its small size, its student body is quite heterogeneous. Italian is offered as a second language to those who speak English at home, and home language maintenance instruction is available in Greek, Turkish, and Arabic. Sara is in the 3/4 grade class (the youngest member of it, we think, as they have an April 30th cut-off for school admission), which is full of girls,and Joanna is in the Prep class. We had the choice for Joanna of either the Prep program (which is equivalent to an all-dayU.S. kindergarten) or Kindergarten (which is part-time three days a week and very much like our own Early Childhood Ed Center). After visiting both, Joanna lobbied heavily for the Prep program (in part, we think, because the purchase of new clothing was involved -- a novelty for her! -- and, of course, because Sara May (er, Sara) would be at the same school). We (okay, Laura) was a little reluctant to have her go full days right off the bat, butJoanna was adamant that she was ready, and the teacher concurred after this first day. Both girls were beaming at the end of the day and bubbling over with stories for a good three hours. Sara May (oops -- Sara) claims that she has found paradise, and this is it!
The school is about seven blocks from what will be our new home:
c/ 17 Orient Grove
Brunswick
VIC Australia
3056
The houseclaims to be furnished... but theowneris still working on that part of it.With luck (and a little help from our security depositmoney),there will be one more bed and a few chairs acquired before we move in on Saturday. It is a unique house with lots of natural light,a small deck, and a garden out back, owned by an artist/landscape designer/ reuser of scrap materials who is temporarily living in northern Victoria. We bonded immediately with her when she asked whether we'd be needing her to purchase an iron and ironing board for us, and we respondedemphatically in the negative. She waseven more thrilled by ourenthusiasm for hercompost pails, buckets, and bin full of worms.The house is a block froma train station, a block from the tram(trolley) line,and a few houses from a major bike path. So we will be very mobile! I estimate that it is about three miles to my office. With the network of bike paths, it is a very easy ride. What the neighborhood lacks in cleanliness and charm it makes up for in cultural diversity and ethnic food options. Lunches to date: Indian, Turkish, Lebanese, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, North African, Malaysian; still to try: Nepalese, Fijian; to pass up with a shudder: KFC. (It's just not RIGHT -- you go halfway around the world and you STILL can't get away from the Colonel -- or 7/11, IGA, K-mart, and Safeway, for that matter.)
Since today was the girls' first day of school and we have not moved yet, we all rode our bikes up to the school (about 2.5 miles) and got the girls started. I (Jamie) then rode back to the University (3+ miles) in time for my first obligation. Of course, I have no real obligations yet...ah, isn't sabbatical great? I just wanted to get to a seminar and continue reading up on the work done in the lab. I think I might actually start doing something tomorrow. But if not, no worries!
Laura is still reeling a bit from the rapid and not-really-very-seriously-anticipated change in her status from full-time to pre-9:00 a.m. and post-3:30 p.m. caregiver. She spent todayobtaining officialimmunization (oops -- immunisation) certificates for the girls, prowling around local libraries (each of which has entire sections of books, CDs, and videosin at least eight other languages -- all in spaces no larger than our beloved Huntingdon County Library), exploring new bike tracks, and generally feeling a little lost, but in a promising sort of way. She's hoping to make some contacts with Univ. of Melbourne biologists soon and begin volunteering at the girls' school one day a week or so. She's also looking forward to helping our landlady reclaimthe garden at our house after months of neglect by previous tenants.
Mailing 1
From: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 10:47 PM
To: White, Jamie D (WHITE)
Subject: Lost: Tuesday, July 13...
... somewhere between Nadi and Papeete (South Pacific). If found, please return to the White family at this e-mail address....
Greetings! Wearrived safely inMelbourne, have gotten onto the Internet at last, and are finally adjusted to the local time zone enough that we stay up later than the girls do. (The day we arrived, we were all in bed by 3 p.m. and up again at 3 a.m.)
The trip went surprisingly smoothly (especially considering that the girls slept just eight of the 34 hours in transit). After scrambling to finish packing and cleaning up the house a bit for our tenant, we left Huntingdon around noon on 12 July for Dulles in a Juniata van with Dave Widman,seven checked bags, one bike box, two laptops, and backpacks for all four of us. We were a bit nervous about how we were going to get all ofit (excluding Dave) to the check-out. So, although we'd never before gotten help from one of the baggage guys at the airport curb, we did this time. He handily loaded all of our gear onto a single cart without even the help of duct tape and then used the excuse of having a big bike box to take us to a special line for people with oversized baggage -- a line with nobody in it. Lesson 1: Always travel with an oversized box. Or, the tip for the guy at the curb is worth it. Or, wow -- we got lucky!
An early supper, then off to the gate. Over supper, we realized to our dismay that, for the second of the threeflights of the voyage (the 14-hour one), they had changed our seating assignments at check-in without telling us. Joannawas nowto be seated by herself in row 52, with Laura in front of her in row 51 and Jamie and Sara May blissfully removed from it all in row 34. After enduring two full-length lines, Jamie found that no one could do anything about this until we hit Los Angeles. During the first flight, a man sitting next to us even called United on his cell phone to see if we could rectify the situation (since it looked like we weregoing to get into LAX late for an already tight connection) -- same answer. As it turned out, we did get into LAX in time to set things right (although we suspect that, had we not, the person sitting next to Joanna would have readily switched to a different seat). While the flights were long, the girls' excitement -- and lots of puzzle books, magnetic games, DVDs on the laptop, and refined sugar carried them through in good form. Laura munched nuts, drank gallons of water, chewedseveral packs of gum,slept with one of those goofy masks, did lymph drainage every few hundred miles, and miraculously managed to avoid all but the slightest migraine. (Thank you, Susan B.!)