February Pics

Hi Guys,

Time for another little blog update- this one will be mostly pictures so you can get a better feel for what we're up to and who we're hanging out with.

The pic above is our friend Britta with her baby Petra on the beach. We met Britta and her husband David and 2 kids at one of the churches we've visited here. They are from Idaho, USA and are working at the church here. We get together with them every few weeks. It's funny b/c people who hear us talk think we're related... Aussies can't tell the difference between Canadians and Americans!


It's been so nice to just come home from work, grab our surfboard, and hop into the ocean for a surf. Above are our friends Michelle and Zach who I was surfing with last week. Michelle works at Andrew's school (teaches grade 1), her husband Mark is a supply teacher (like me), and Zach lives in Brisbane and just comes up to visit and surf.

Speaking of work, Andrew is really enjoying teaching his grade 8s, 9s, and 12s. I have been getting 2-3 days of work a week, except this week has been slow: only 1 out of 4 days so far. But that's okay since when I'm not working at work, I'm working at home on both my website and my personal training course that I just started 2 weeks ago.

I try to stay on a pretty strict schedule, getting up early with Andrew and starting my "work" as soon as he leaves at around 7:30am. That way I get lots done and don't feel like I'm slacking. It also earns me a nice run, surf, or swim at around 4pm, "after work."


Here is where we dine most evenings... although most evenings don't include the wine... just on weekends usually!


Last Saturday we drove down to Brisbane to visit our friends Erica & Alan. You might remember that these are the friends we met in China... she's Aussie and he's American. They met and married in our church in Shanghai, and we sang at their wedding.

Anyways, they just had a baby boy last month, so we went to see him. His name is Ezekiel and he has SO much hair... it was like a cloud floating above his head- amazing! He was also born unexpectedly with Downs Syndrome, which is really sad, but if anyone is up for the challenge, it's Alan and Erica. They have a terrific outlook on it, and are so strong.

If you'd like to see better pics of the little guy and to hear more of their story, check out his birth announcement website that Erica created at http://www.west.reinosites.com/



A couple weeks ago we had our friends Dave and Nicki come up from Brisbane for a visit. These are the friends that we met at our church in Vancouver while Dave was studying at Regent College. He is now doing his PhD in Brisbane.


They have been amazing friends to us and we love them so much.

Andrew was lending Dave his rashie shirt for surfing... Dave had a nice surf and it was just about my turn when it started POURING... not that that matters when you're surfing, but it does for the rest of your friends on the beach, so we packed up and headed home. Soon after that the sun came back out and we walked to Mooloolaba for coffee, then had a swim in our pool, and then dinner on our patio. Great day!

Hope you're all doing well... stay in touch!

~Corinna for Team AC

Surfing & Work

Hi Guys,

Another little update from Team AC in Australia:

We are loving living here SO much... we feel so blessed to wake up every morning to sunshine and ocean views!


A couple weeks ago, after a lot of research, we bought a surfboard, which was really exciting for us. We'd taken lessons here and there before so thought we had a general idea of how to surf, but now that we're trying it without a teacher by our side, we are sucking! It is a REALLY hard sport!



But we are determined to keep going with it. The other day we chucked it in our pool and did a few drills, just so we could learn how to stand up on it a bit better. It was helpful for the next time we went out in the ocean, and today I had a great little surf session!

By the way, thanks to Mom and Dad Hiller and Oma Hiller for the surfboard... the Christmas money we got from them went towards buying this new toy!


Workwise, Andrew is really enjoying his new job. He is teaching Math 8, 9, and 12, as well as Science and Careers. Between that and working on his masters at night, he is really busy. He is also playing music with some guys, so that keeps him extra busy!

I didn't have any teaching work for the first 2.5 weeks of school, although I'd emailed my resume to nearly all the schools on the coast. Andrew then suggested I make business cards and bring them around to the schools and personally introduce myself to the principals.

At first I didn't think that was such a good idea as I didn't want to pester them after just having emailed them my resume, but he kept encouraging me to do it, so I set out and hit up 37 schools in 4 days last week! A LOT of driving and navigating and getting lost and keeping at it!



It was funny because I put on my best teacher-wear, but I was driving around in our old rust-bucket of a car (the free one). I always tried to park far away from the office so they wouldn't see the car and have it contribute negatively to their first impression of me.

To give you an example of how dire it is, as I rolled into the grocery store parking lot last week, a staff member came running up to me as I got out of the car, and handed me my hubcap that had come off the wheel! The car is in quite good shape mechanically, but just doesn't look too slick. :)

Anyways, back to the point of the story, after going to all these schools, I did get work this past Thurs and Fri, and hopefully it'll keep coming this week. If not, I guess I'll just have to work on my surfing skills!

On another note, happy 55th birthday to my mom today, and a happy 65th birthday to Gill on the 26th! Can't wait for your visit in April.

Love, Corinna

ps- in case you missed the video of our place, here are a few pics:

The main view from our living room:


If you turn 90 degrees (or look out our bedroom window), you see this:


And if you're looking up from the direction of the ocean, this is the view of our entire building. It is terraced as it goes up the hill, so each unit is 3 steps higher than the neighbor in front of them, which gives everyone a really great view- no one ends up with a view of the parking lot!

We are the top left unit, and the pool is at the very front (behind the fence and retaining wall you can see from this angle).


pps- the top pic is of Andrew getting ready to hit the beach... I know it's a bit different than what you'd wear to the beach in Vancouver, but the sun here is really THAT strong that you do have to wear a big fat hat (and a sun shirt is a good idea too), or else you'll get burned to a crisp in 5 minutes flat!