Well...we are on our way to a year of adventure.
Here we are in our home in with the Kelly family saying goodbye before our departure to the down under. We hope that they will enjoy the snow because we were glad to get out of the cold. The morning we left it was -15 degrees celcius.


The trip was off to a shaky start as Avery got motion sickness on the plane from LA to Fiji. He was certainly glad to touch down. They let us sit in business class for the last while so they could shuffle us off the plane quickly. But it was worth the trip because Fiji was beautiful.


We stayed in a resort north of Nadi (pronounced Nandi to the islanders). They treated us well. We visited Lautoka town and Bounty Island travelling through some pretty shaky water. Ginette was pretty spooked hoping we would eventually make it to Sydney. We could see the island beside us from the beach where they shot the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks. The snorkeling was fun. We saw many colourful fish and starfish.

We are now in Sydney safe an sound. We have been busy the last few days getting oriented around the city, checking out the beaches, shopping centres and getting the kids ready for school.


Today was their first day of school. Avery rolled out of bed in slow motion and Jocelyn, who was up at 6 am, practically kicked him out the door as she was so excited to get to school. Tom forgot to teach Avery how to put on a tie so he had to go without one on the first day.

Both had a great day at school. Avery liked language class as he is learning how to speak Japanese and Jocelyn liked meeting new friends.

Tom is liking his school. The people have been very friendly and helpful. The school is more like a University campus with many buildings. Ginette is learning how to get around on city transit as we only have one car here.

We are looking forward to going to our first exchange orientation barbeque this weekend and spending Tom's birthday at a outdoor cafe on the beach. Thanks for the many emails.

A bientot,
The Andress Gang