Howdy, as my family-to-be says. I have no idea why howdy, to me that's Texas, not Australia. In 3 days less than a month, I will be flying on a 30+ hour plane ride to Australia. Woot! Major excitement for being there, zero excitement for being on a plane that long. I am going to be an au pair for a family in Brisbane with two children younger than 3. The family seems really cool and laid back. I got the position about a month and 1/2 ago from newaupair.com.

Things I am doing/have done to get ready:

1. Got my visa- seriously, they must love Americans, they said it was going to take 48 hours...I got it back in five.
2. Ordered my plane tickets- God bless swine flu scares, instead of 1,000 bucks I only had to pay 550 for my ticket.
3. Weighed a ridiculously heavy suitcase to see how much extra I would have to pay to ship it
4. Changed my first..and second diaper ever
5. Looked up all sorts of Aussie slang- so far my favorite is saying "bring a plate" which means to bring a dish, not an actual plate
6. Found out that I will miss summer as I know it (90 degrees and sunny) but their weather will be like our spring (60 is normal)
7. Got told to try this dessert that is sort of like meringue with fruit in it-Povlovas (which as I read, looks and sounds delicious)
8. Tried to get a phone that will work over there- too expensive. Hellllloooo Skype! (but if your interested, vodafone or talk down under.com are two websites I was looking at)
9. Currently working on getting insurace- so far BlueCross and AAA (travelers insurace) look the best