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St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 Please submit any changes to the guide to See You in St Louis! ADS(W) Note: The information in the guide is strictly local. Any N. American general information has been removed and put into the G’Day guides for the benefit of people across N. America. None of the information in this regional guide is endorsed by ADS(W). Dear Prospective St Louisan, Congratulations on your upcoming assignment to St Louis. A long term assignment in North America offers the opportunity to appreciate a different culture and enjoy a whole series of new personal and professional experiences. No doubt however, the administrative overhead of getting yourself and your family (if applicable) from your present location to St Louis is a reasonable burden. Fortunately, the Department of Defence has a reasonably well established process to give you the best chance of arriving in St Louis relatively unscathed, and although you will come to doubt the truth of this statement at least once between now and when you are established over here, the level of support provided by Defence is an order of magnitude better than that which is provided by most private sector organizations for overseas relocation of executives. At this point you are feeling both excitement and trepidation about moving to the US. You can expect to go through all sorts of emotions over the next few months and this is likely to continue for some months after you arrive. Moving to a new country for a period of time is a big change, and although you kind of expect the US to be similar to Australia it is quite different in many ways. Many people expect that things in the US will all be bigger and better than Australia and are surprised to find that this is not always the case. That notwithstanding, your time in St Louis will be an excellent opportunity to see and experience new things and also to appreciate Australia in a new light. Before getting too much further, by way of background for those we haven’t met yet – Judy and I were posted to St Louis in Jan 2001. This is our second time in St Louis, as we had 14 months here in 1994/95. Our family situation has changed somewhat since then, as back in 94/95 we had only been married a year, and there were just the two of us, whereas now we have a lively 2 year old daughter, Ashleigh. Judy is also a member of the RAAF, and at the moment is in the fortunate situation of working from home for the RAAF. When we were here last time Judy was on leave without pay from the RAAF and worked in the commercial sector, but more on that later. The intent of this “letter” is to provide some words of (dubious) wisdom based on our recent experience in transitioning to St Louis. As such, it is not intended to replace more authoritative briefing material that you will receive from the Department, particularly the G’Day USA guide, but rather to provide a reasonably subjective adjunct to that material. We have particularly tried to look at issues from a spouse’s (or significant other’s) perspective as most of the departmental literature seems to be focused on the serving member, and does not answer a lot of the questions that spouses have. The letter was originally written in two “halves”, encompassing both the member’s (he‐said) and spouse’s (she‐said) perspective on relocating to St Louis. In the interest of providing a more all encompassing viewpoint we then decided to combine the big half (i.e. Judy’s) with my miniscule offering on finance, cost‐of‐living and St Louis attractions into one document, which hopefully will provide a more rounded family perspective on some of our experiences in relocating to St Louis, and which we feel may be of benefit to you and your family as you prepare to move. Singles need not 1
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 despair, although a lot of the information in here will not be relevant, hopefully there are enough snippets of useful info for you also. Also enclosed is an article written by administrative staff in Washington, which provides a more generic perspective of life in the USA and some of the cultural differences you may encounter. We have tried to segment this letter into the various phases that you will go through in the moving overseas and then discuss some things about living in St Louis that you might find interesting. So here goes. Pre‐Departure Enclosed with this letter is a checklist that we (read: Judy) put together for our move. Whether you choose to use it or not is obviously up to you. We tried to combine all the various checklists that you get in the different briefing packs into this one, but you will need to amend it where necessary to reflect your own situation and any policy changes that have occurred. Jude has also put together some supplementary thoughts on some of the considerations in deciding what to bring, getting from Point A in Australia to Point B in St Louis, and the process of setting yourself up once you arrive here. To Store or Remove? One of the many things to work through is to decide what you should bring with you. The major point recommendation we would make is not to skimp – if in doubt, bring it! You are going to be living over here for 2‐3 years and you want your house to look and feel like home (more than ever in fact). We brought just about everything with the exception of furniture (which is not allowed to be brought across in any case), and truly believe that is the way to go. We did not worry too much about glassware breaking, reasoning that it is just as likely to break when doing a removal within Australia. In fact, on the overseas removals that we have done, we have never had anything break (now I have probably jinxed our next removal!). Some points you may want to consider: • Single Beds. American single beds (or twins as they call them) are wider than they are in Australia so your Australian sheets and doonas (or duvets as they call them here) will not be big enough—you will probably want to bring them for that interim period until you buy new stuff, and it can be useful for guests later. • Pantry Items. You will find that the Removalist will pack dry foods as long as the package is sealed. Hence you can bring spices, rice, pasta etc (handy to know that you do not need to throw it out). You can also bring canned items. Now you do not need to go out and do a big shop specifically for your move across as this is America as you can get most things, but there are a few things that you may want to consider stocking up on and shipping over in your removal. For example: o Thai spices. It is hard to find any of the Thai curry pastes so you may want to bring them with you i.e. the ones in cans only. o Indian curry pastes. As above, except insert Indian. o Vegemite (naturally). o Milo (naturally). o Tim Tams (lots and lots of). o Mint Slices (if you are a fan—I’m not). 2
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 Lollies ‐ Australia tends to have a larger range of lollies (or candy) and we don’t have the same propensity to lace our lollies with cinnamon and other regrettable flavours—hence if you are a big lolly fan you may want to throw some in. o Aussie breakfast cereals just to tide you over. Obviously there are cereals over here, but Americans add a lot of sugar to things so you may want to include some until you get acclimatised—but you are going to have to find some you like sooner or later. ***Make sure you declare on the customs documentation form that you are bringing in food items. Educational Things. Other options to consider are the Australian things for educational purposes: o Pictures for your walls. (We bought a couple of pictures of Australian scenery and really appreciate the little touch of home, plus it is a good advertisement for Australia when you have American visitors) o Books (scenery, animals, etc) o Some Aussie money to show people o Kangaroo stick pins, aussie stickers etc – dubious educational value but good as bribery items or thank‐you gestures o An Aussie flag o Sports equipment – e.g. football, cricket bat Electrical Items. As you no doubt know the US operates on 110V hence your Australian electrical appliances will not generally work here. Some things you may consider bringing however, although you will need to buy a converter (you can buy converters over here for about US$40) o Sewing Machine (if you sew) o Small TV and VCR (if you have one for viewing videos from home) o Computer and peripherals (most newer ones have dual voltage power supplies and should work quite happily without a converter) o Stereo (maybe—see section about furniture rental) o
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If you have teenagers who listen to music in their own room you may also want to consider bringing their stereos and getting them their own converter. •
Baby Items. If you have a child who is still in a cot, you are allowed to bring the baby furniture with you (at least that was the case for us). Unaccompanied Baggage We sent a few of our items (e.g. Ashleigh’s car seat), as unaccompanied baggage thinking that it would be here by the time we arrived (we took about seven days to get across here as we went via Hawaii and San Francisco.) Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. It did arrive eventually (about a week later) and we had to do all the tracking of our luggage ourselves and also complete the paperwork to allow the unaccompanied bags to clear customs in St Louis. Therein lie a couple of tips. Firstly, it came as a bit of a surprise to find out that even though we had been given a Qantas Air Freight “chit” by Overseas Travel section in Canberra, that unaccompanied baggage isn’t something that you can take with you to the airport and check in at the same time as the rest of your “accompanied” bags. Your unaccompanied items are treated as freight and will be collected by Qantas Air Freight (which actually subcontracts to a company called Jupiter Air), or alternatively you can drop off your items at their depot in Fyshwick. 3
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 If your unaccompanied baggage contains items that you will need as soon as you arrive in St Louis, it is worth arranging for it to arrive in St Louis before you do. On arrival in St Louis, your unaccompanied items will be held in store by one of the airlines in the Cargo section of the airport until you are able to clear them through customs (which is located about a mile from St Louis airport). The US customs office is not open on weekends, so if you arrive on Friday, or over a weekend, it is likely to be the following Monday until you and your unaccompanied baggage are reunited. Secondly, expect to be self‐sufficient in tracking your items and clearing them through customs. It is really ADS(W)’s job to look after this, and although they are generally pretty good, in some situations it is better to just get on with it and do it yourself. This was not a difficult process but if you expect to have to chase up your unaccompanied baggage yourself then it will be an extra bonus if ADS(W) does it for you—hence ensure that you have all the necessary records i.e. Airway Bill Number, date of departure and Airlines involved (Qantas Air Freight/Jupiter can advise these). On Arrival When we arrived in St Louis, after we collected our “accompanied” luggage, we split into two “groups” (for want of another term). Andrew collected the rental car and drove that to our temporary accommodation and Ashleigh and I took the hotel shuttle bus (which will be dispatched after you call the hotel). We did it this way as we had too much luggage to fit in the rental car. I would expect that one of the existing members of the project team will meet you at the airport, but you will probably still need to use the shuttle due to the luggage involved. We were staying at Summerfield Suites in West Port, which is about 15 minutes from the airport, and is reasonably handy to many of the suburbs in which you will be looking for housing. We had a two bedroom apartment which was plenty large enough for us for temporary accommodation. It had a fully equipped kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living/dining area, plus three TVs and three phones! ADS(W) has now established a “direct billing” arrangement with the Summerfield Suites (i.e. they pick up the tab for the accommodation directly) and hence this is likely to be the accommodation of choice when you arrive in St Louis also. Cars You will only have one to two weeks of allowance coverage for a rental car, hence one of the first things you need to do on arrival in St Louis is to buy/lease a car. Thankfully this is not difficult, and you can have your own wheels in as little as 1 to 2 days. St Louis is a car‐driving town ‐ there is very little public transport and generally you do not have any shops in walking distance of your house—
the concept of a corner store is unknown here, hence it is likely that you will require two cars to get by (though we are still surviving with one). If you haven’t been to the US before, you’ll find a plethora of unfamiliar looking Oldsmobiles, Saturns, Chevrolets and the like, as well as the more familiar Japanese and Korean cars that are also sold in Australia (called “imports” here, even though most of them are actually manufactured in the USA). By law, children under four are required to be in a car seat. Australian car seats work just fine—though you may need to get an anchor bolt fitted in all but the newest model cars (i.e. earlier than 2000). 4
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 We paid cash for our car, having wired the funds across to our US bank account (more later) a few weeks prior to arriving in St Louis. Rob Bell was able to obtain dealer financing at a reasonable interest rate (< 7%) for one of his cars, a possibility which we hadn’t considered, thinking that we wouldn’t have a credit rating and hence would find it difficult to attain financing. We also briefly considered leasing, which significantly reduces your upfront payment obligation and generally includes a warranty/maintenance package that takes the worry out of car ownership. Although leasing is quite common among the locals, overall it seemed to us to be a lot more “dead money” than buying and selling a late model used car (time will tell I guess!) If you wish to do a pre‐departure appraisal of the range of cars available and the likely asking price, the Lou Fusz car dealership network (which has about 20 caryards in the St Louis area) has an excellent web‐site at http://www.fusz.com. To get an idea of how close the dealer’s pricing is to reality, the Kelley Blue Book (accessible on‐line at www.kbb.com) provides an exhaustive database of new and used car values. To smooth the process of obtaining insurance at less than the cost of Sydney waterfront land, you should make sure that you obtain a copy of your current insurance records and driver’s licence records from the relevant issuing authority (e.g. NRMA, NSW RTA etc). The American Automobile Association (AAA) is one company that will recognise your Australian driving record and sell you an insurance policy at less than the maximum premium. Our insurance (on a ’97 Mazda 626) is approximately US$600 per six months). If you haven’t experienced it before (or even if you have but it was a long time ago), the prospect of driving on the right side of the road sitting on the wrong side of the car can be unnerving. The only way to do get used to it is to practice, and the sooner you practice the sooner you will get familiar with the whole concept. Just remember: ‘Passenger to the curb’ and take everything slowly. We both found that we became most dangerous after we had got over the initial adjustment period, had a bit more confidence and started driving on auto‐pilot without really thinking—until suddenly realising that we were on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully I was able to get back to where I was supposed to be without further incident (it did shake me up however). You can drive on your Australian license when you first arrive but you are expected to get a Missouri license within three months (if for no other reason, your car insurance company is likely to require you to get a Missouri licence). You need to undergo a written and a practical test to get a Missouri driver’s license. House Immediately following (or concurrently with) finding a car, you need to find a house. This takes a little longer, and you are allowed to stay in temporary accommodation for six weeks (or longer if necessary) so you do have some breathing room. Nevertheless, finding a house is extra important for those with school age children, as the location of the house determines the “school district” that you are in, and hence defines the schools that your children can attend (more on school districts later). Expect to have to look at a lot of houses (we drove by and/or looked in 25‐30 homes). As all Real Estate Agents operate a multi‐list system in St Louis, any Real Estate company is able to let you look at any house regardless of which agency the house is listed with. That said, each real estate company appears to have a single “branch” which looks after rental properties, unlike the situation in Australia, where all agencies generally handle both sales and rentals. 5
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 We used the services of Tracey Newton at Coldwell Banker Leasing Services Ph 314 514 1500. We called a number of different Real Estate Agencies for assistance, but Tracey was the real stand‐out as far as going to extra mile to find us a house. After finding out our requirements, Tracey put together a list of houses for us to look at and took us through each of them. We also looked through the paper and on the internet to find any houses that were listed privately. Your rental ceiling will vary depending on rank level and family structure (ADS(W) can further advise on your likely ceiling). To get an idea of what is available before you arrive, you can check Coldwell‐
Banker’s web‐site at http://www.coldwellbankerleasing.com. The enclosed map will give you an idea of the relative locations of some of the suburbs in St Louis. As with most US cities, the St Louis metropolitan area is dotted with both good and bad areas to live. The downtown area has been particularly neglected since the 60’s and as a result has a number of definite “no‐go” areas. Generally speaking (and with a few notable exceptions on the east side of this area), the band of suburbs stretching west from Forest Park (University City) between Olive Blvd and Clayton Rd are well maintained, are in good school districts, and are within a reasonable commute time of the Boeing Company (the Hornet Upgrade Project Resident Team Office is indicated with a “star” on the enclosed map). Many Boeing employees also live in St Charles, St Peters and points further west, however you will find that the traffic across the Missouri River slows to a crawl during morning and afternoon peak hour, making the commute to and from those areas a long and drawn out process. We wanted to live fairly centrally to be close to the city amenities and close to Boeing, hence we tried to focus our search around the central metropolitan area (Clayton, University City, Ladue and Olivette), though we did look further afield to gain an appreciation of the wider real estate market. We eventually found a place in Olivette that we are very happy with. When you look at houses you will find two storey houses are more common than one storey (which Americans call a “ranch” style house). Most houses have a basement, which generally houses the laundry appliances. (I have only ever seen one American house with a laundry sink—why they do not have sinks in their laundries I do not know.) The basements may be finished or unfinished, which essentially means that they can be used as a living area, or alternatively just for storage. Basic home security does not seem to be as good here as what it is in Australia as most windows do not have window locks (I only mention this as I found it a little surprising—I feel quite safe here (touch wood)). Fenced yards are not common here, and neither are clothes lines. Most houses will include the fridge and generally the washer and dryer. All houses seem to have dishwashers, and central heating and air conditioning are standard. It also seems that the majority of garages have automatic door openers (very civilised). Window treatments may or may not be included (most include venetian blinds as a minimum). This is worth keeping an eye out for, as window treatments are not something the ADS(W) will reimburse you for if you subsequently lease a house without them. When you find a house you like, concurrent with putting in the application for the house (both to the real estate agency and ADS(W)), you also have to put down one month’s rent as a sign of good faith. ADS(W) will generally provide you with this money upfront, though it is probably worthwhile having enough cash to cover any lead time if you are able. One strange (and slightly annoying) thing here is that you are able to only apply for one house at a time. Hence, you have to put in an application on your first choice, and then hope you get it, or if you don’t, hope that your second choice is still available by the time you find out. (It takes about five days to process the application). 6
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 Do not be afraid to negotiate; we ended up paying $300/month less than the advertised price. Similarly, ADS(W) will encourage you to negotiate the house lease to include the major white good appliances. You will do all your negotiations through the Real Estate Agent, but once you come to an agreement and sign the lease the Real Estate Agent steps out and you deal directly with the Landlord. The one month’s rent that you paid previously as a sign of good faith is then used as the bond—there is no interest paid on the bond here. Rent is paid monthly directly to the Landlord, and ADS(W) will arrange to have the rent deposited in your US bank account a few days prior to you having to pay the landlord. Furniture Shortly after arriving in‐country, but before you find a house, it is worthwhile making contact with the company that you will lease your furniture from. We leased ours from Executive Furniture Leasing, which is owned/operated by Bill and Lois Payne, (who make their entire living leasing furniture to Australian Government employees!) Executive is one of several companies with which ADS(W) has a standing contract, whereby the monthly lease payment is made directly by ADS(W) to the furniture company. The purpose of making contact with the furniture rental company before you select a house is to find out what arrangements they want to use for you to select your furniture and also to give them advance notice that you will need furniture soon. You cannot actually select any furniture until you find your house and determine your requirements. A couple of points on Bill and Lois. We used Executive Leasing last time we lived in the US also, and on both occasions we have been very happy with our furniture, and would recommend Executive. That said however, they are a much laid back “Mom and Pop” style business (though I would not describe Lois and Bill as resembling Mom and Pop) and their business practices are not always as polished as one would expect for a company that does the turnover that they do. Once you find your house (and assuming you are leasing your furniture through Executive), you call Lois, who will either fly up to see you with her pictures and swatches or she will send them to you through the mail. We have used both methods, and both work quite well. Essentially, it is like going into a furniture store and picking out all the furniture that you want to fill it with. In most cases, it may be a little different to what you had chosen if you had a whole store to choose from, but you should be able to find something that you are happy with. You need to have a good idea of your requirements, so make some notes of what your house is like when you are looking through it (try and work out a mental plan of where you would like to put furniture). You may also want to take a tape measure along and measure the width of the smallest door frame, as Lois may ask you this to ensure that the furniture they provide can actually be brought into the house—it sounds a little silly but it can happen that the furniture cannot get through the door. Another point to note, Lois may not offer you everything she has available, if you think you need more lamps, or another chair, ask for it. (For example, Lois does not routinely offer two night stands for the guest bedroom, however she will readily give you two if you ask). Similarly, if you have hardwood floors ask for rugs. Lois and Bill also provide the majority of the electrical appliances. You will be given the choice of three major electrical pieces i.e. a TV, stereo and VCR. You can make up the combination however you want, for instance, we brought our own stereo across from Australia hence we got two TVs and a VCR. You will also be asked to make up a list of the small electrical appliances that you want. This may include: iron, clock radio/s, kettle, coffee maker, mixer, blender, food processor, electric frypan 7
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 (skillet). We also asked for an electric wok but they said they could not supply it—notwithstanding still ask for one if you want it—maybe it will eventually convince them that they should supply them. The main point is, if you think you want it, ask for it. Moving In Utilities. As soon as you sign the lease for your house, you should start calling to get all the various services/utilities set up as sometimes the utilities take a few days to set up. The Real Estate Agent should have given you a listing of numbers for the different utilities. Call about getting the telephone connected first, as you will need to know your phone number, to be able to give it to all of the other utility providers. At this point you will probably discover, if you have not done so already, that everything seems so much more complicated in the US and that the great American adage: “it’s all about choices” comes heavily into play. There are different choices to make about everything. Just give yourself plenty of time when calling about the various utilities and ask plenty of questions so that you understand what you are getting. In most cases, it is best to just go with the basic option. They will always try to sell you something extra, and it always costs more, this is particularly so with the telephone. You will find that they will all ask for your social security number ‐ just tell them that you are an Australian citizen and do not have one. We didn’t have a problem using this approach, although it is sometimes dependent on who you talk too. If you do encounter difficulties ask to talk to the supervisor. Telephone. You need three different types of service, a local carrier – this is generally the same company who connects your phone—they are the ones that you get your free local calls through, a local‐toll carrier (for long distance calls within the state) and a long distance carrier (for interstate and overseas calls). The local carrier (e.g. Southwestern Bell) can act as your local‐toll carrier but they cannot provide long distance. When you connect up your phone they will ask who you want to have for your long‐distance carrier. If you know then you can tell them, if you don’t tell them you will call them back later. Once you have the local connection and the phone number you can call about the long distance carrier. There are various numbers in the G’Day USA guide for companies with good rates for calls back to Australia, and the major providers (Sprint, AT&T and MCI) all have international call “package deals”. Irrespective of the long‐distance carrier you choose (we chose Sprint), there are “long distance bucket shops” that you can dial on a per call basis (generally characterised by a 7‐digit prefix e.g. 10‐10‐502) which offer low rates back to Australia (i.e. less than 15c per minute). You can change your long‐distance carrier at any point, though there is a fee for doing so (I don’t think the fee is significant). It may take a day or two to get your long‐distance carrier operating, so it is worth buying a pre‐paid phone card to cover any calls that you want to make in the interim. Once you have selected your long distance carrier don’t forget to call back the phone company who connected your phone to let them know who you have selected. Do this even in the long distance carrier says that they will look after it for you. Delivery of Furniture and Removal. Arrange for the delivery of your leased furniture one day and your removal the next day—do not arrange for the deliveries to be done on the same day as you will find it takes most of the day to get your furniture set up. Finances One of the biggest questions crossing your mind as you contemplate your upcoming move to the US is undoubtedly how you will fare financially as a native from a land down under…The biggest 8
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 challenge in making the move is to manage your cash flow. If this is done well, it can take a lot of the financial heartache out of getting yourself established overseas – if not, it can take 3‐6 months to get back on an even keel. The principal financial issues to be aware of include: • the cash outlay for one or two cars • the effect of a partial or permanent loss in spousal income • budgeting your expenditure over the period between when you receive three pays in advance and when your pay resumes in St Louis You may wish to consider the following recommendations to help smooth the financial adjustment of a leap across the pond: • Travel with at least one (and preferably two or three) Australian‐issued Credit Cards (Visa is probably slightly preferred to Mastercard, and AMEX is good as well) – if possible get a card(s) that are linked to your Australian savings account, and which are connected to the “Plus”, “Cirrus” or “Star” systems (denoted by symbols on the back of the card) – this will enable you to make withdrawals from your Australian savings account once you are in the USA. • Ensure that you have phone banking and internet banking services for your Australian savings and credit card account, again to simplify the process of continuing to manage your financial affairs back in Australia. • Obtain sufficient US currency prior to your departure so that you can get from the airport to your hotel and tip the first few people that you meet ($200 should see you through until you find an ATM). If possible, avoid getting denominations higher than $20, ($50 at the outside) as they can be a bit difficult to pass, and you can never have too many $1 notes when travelling as they are very useful for tipping cabbies, luggage porters etc. Cost of Living Once in the USA you will quickly find that what seems to cost $1 at home, also seems to cost about $1 here, but as a result of the exchange rate means that things are more expensive here! (Rest assured that you will eventually get to the point of not mentally converting everything back to Aussie dollars). Your Overseas Living Allowance (OLA) is designed to compensate for this, and put you on an even footing with the cost of living in Australia. In my opinion (and it is only that) OLA seems to do a more than adequate job of compensating for the differences in living costs for a single income household – i.e. if you were on one salary in Australia you should find yourself with a bit more left over every fortnight in the USA versus your situation in Australia (notwithstanding Disneyworld holidays, Corvette Stingray running costs and other expenses you will incur “embracing the American experience”). Conversely, OLA was never designed to cover the effect of a spousal income, and if your situation is such that you go from being a two income family in Australia to a one income household here, you can expect you financial situation to be worse off than it was back home. You will also find that there are a number of expenses that you will incur (e.g. household utilities) that are reimbursable through ADS(W). Although you will eventually be reimbursed for these expenses, it can take 4 to 6 weeks following the submission of a claim for it to be processed, therefore an element of cash flow management is required to enable at least the initial round of 9
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 expenses to be met before you can get into a cycle where you are being reimbursed for last month’s expenses at about the same time that you are required to pay for the current month. If you add about US$1500 to the amount that you wire across into your US bank account before you leave Australia, you should have sufficient funds to get your gas, electricity, water and phone connected and meet the initial month’s bills. The main point to bear in mind is that you need to be a little conservative with your expenditure until you have got yourself established and you know your spending pattern. Schools The US has a very different system to Australia, and you will often see real estate ads that mention the school district as a selling feature for the house. Some of the better school districts (according to the locals) are Ladue and Parkway. Probably the best way to find information about schooling whilst you are still located in Australia is via the internet. To start take a look at the following site. This appears to be a site constructed by an interested individual, but it is one site that shows all the different school districts and gives a geographical perspective: www.interest.com.hugh/stl_schools.html
Then try this official site, which provides links to all the local school district sites: http://www.co.st‐
louis.mo.us/edlink.html
The local school district sites provide a wealth of information about the school district. Another site is the Missouri Government School site at: http://services.dese.state.mo.us
As we do not have school age children we are not in a position to really be able to recommend a school district to you, so do some research, talk to some people who have children in the school district if you are able, and go from there. Childcare As in Australia, there are basically two options for childcare, you can utilise family day care or go for a centre based care option. We chose centre‐based care for our daughter Ashleigh, because it is similar to what we used in Australia. Having not looked too deeply into family‐based care there is not much I can say about it, but when talking to a local St Louis mother she told me the best way to find someone who offered family day care was to look in the local paper. Another option is to utilise the internet. Centre based care is somewhat similar to Australia if you look hard enough. There are quite a number of centres around and I looked at a lot of them. They range from franchise based to small independent centres. The standard of care varies quite considerably. Essentially the same system applies as you would use in Australia, the only way to find a Centre that you are happy with is to look at them and spend some time there with your child. I really only found one Centre that I liked and fortunately we were able to get a place there. Finding childcare for children under 2 is a little more difficult, as some Centres do not offer places for children under 2. The cost varies, again depending on the Centre, but it generally ranges from $US150 ‐ $US180 per week and it varies depending on age—as the children get older the cost decreases. The fee generally includes breakfast, two snacks and lunch. You will find that you have to supply your own nappies (diapers) and wipes. There is often a waiting list to get a place, hence the sooner you are able to look at the various centres and put your name down the better. 10
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 Parents as Teachers If you have young children, an excellent program available in St Louis is called ‘Parents as Teachers’. This is a free program that is run by the school districts and essentially opens you up to a range of opportunities for you and your child(ren). A parent educator will come around to your house once a month and talk with you about your child’s development and things that you can do with them to assist. The parent educator brings different toys and sits down with your child and plays with them to see how they are doing and suggests educational toys that are suitable to their age group. They also will conduct a developmental assessment of your child and will arrange for a free hearing screen and eye test. At regular intervals you will get updates from the program which provide a list of events that they are holding—this ranges from lectures for the parents e.g. toilet training, coping with stress, to activities that you can do with your child e.g. craft, gym activities. It is a great service and I wish we had something similar in Australia—I guess the playgroups are similar but they are not as structured. Another added advantage is that it gets you to meet other Mums and Dads with young children. To get into the program all you need to do is call up your local school district. (If you are in the Ladue School District you call the Ladue Early Childhood Centre). Spousal Work Authorisation As I said earlier, I am in the RAAF and presently in the fortunate situation of being able to work from home for the RAAF. I’m not sure how long this situation will last—we will see. When we were here in 1994/95 I worked in the private sector for almost the entire time, and so have some experience that may be of use to spouses seeking employment here in St Louis. There is a bilateral agreement between the Australian and US Governments that allows spouses of government employees to obtain employment whilst in the US. This process is not difficult, but does take about 6 to 8 weeks, and can only commence once you have attained a permanent address. The necessary forms can be attained from ADS(W) as soon as you arrive in the US. Another point to note is that the US government does not recognise de facto relationships for the purposes of granting employment authorisations under the bilateral agreement. For information about work authorisation and social security numbers, see the G’Day USA guide. Once you have a SSN and work authorisation, you are good to go. I am pretty sure that last time I actually started looking for a job before I got my Employment Authorisation and I just told prospective employers (if they asked) about the bilateral agreement. Everyone’s skills and experience are obviously different and will affect the type of work you are looking for. For what it’s worth however, I will give you a bit of a background about what I did to gain employment back in 94/95. My background is in logistics and I initially started trying the open market for a job. I did not have a lot of luck ‐ a lot of companies were not interested once I told them that I was only going to be here for 12 months (perhaps a lesson there). What I subsequently did, and would recommend as a possible course of action to those with office or clerical skills, is to utilise the services of Kelly Temp (or another similar temporary secretarial services agency). Within days of approaching Kelly Temp I had my initial placement at a client site. I started off with a couple of short term temp assignments (i.e. 1‐2 weeks) but ended up working for McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) for the remainder of our time in St Louis (about eight months). Once I got in the door I gave my boss a copy of my résumé and mentioned that I was willing to work in different areas from that which I was employed for. It all turned out very well, although my initial 11
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 starting pay was fairly low, once I established myself I was offered a pay rise, and for all intents and purposes worked as a permanent staff member. The arrangement outlined above worked out very well for me, but as I said it all depends on your experience and where and when you want to work. Kelly Temp (and other agencies like it) are also very good at tailoring your work assignments to your personal circumstances (e.g. full‐time/part‐
time/Wednesdays only etc) and you also have the flexibility to opt out of work (and pay too, obviously!) for those times when you have family or friends visiting or are heading away on family vacations. That brings me to the point that when deciding whether to work, and who to work for, it is worth keeping in mind that the US standard work practice is an uncivilised 2 weeks of vacation per year (plus about a week worth of public holidays scattered throughout the year). It can be a bit of a drag not to be able to take full advantage of the travel and vacation opportunities that present themselves when the rest of the family is on vacation and you have to work! Shopping As you can imagine, the consumer paradise that is the US of A has no shortage of shops! The shops here don’t open until 10:00am, although they are open until 9.00pm during weekdays so if you like late night shopping then you are made for the US. Shopping hours on Saturdays are from 10.00am to 6.00pm and on Sundays 11:00am till 6.00pm. The main shopping malls are ‘The Galleria’ in Clayton, ‘Northwest Plaza’ in St Ann/Bridgeton, Des Peres Mall in Des Peres (surprisingly). and ‘Chesterfield Mall’ at (you guessed it) Chesterfield. My favourite is ‘The Galleria’ which is just as well as it is the one we are closest too. Some of the malls are actually owned and operated by Australia’s Westfield company. There are two major supermarket chains, Schnucks and Dierbergs, as well as a number of smaller chains about (including the World Market chain which stocks Vegemite!). Schnucks and Dierbergs have your standard lines and you find them just about everywhere. Another option for serving or retired military members (remember to bring your ID) is to go out to the Commissary at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. It is about a 45 minute drive away, but the prices are a little lower than the regular supermarkets. We generally go out there once a month for a big shop. (They also have a reasonably stocked Base Exchange (BX) as well). Grocery shopping is a little interesting when you first arrive as you kind of expect most things to be the same as Australia, and there are a number of differences. For example, most cheeses are orange, milk comes in about a dozen different varieties, cream is available as half & half (to go in coffee) and whipping cream (most similar to Australian standard cream), corn flour is called corn starch, plain flour is called all‐purpose flour, neither the butter nor the bread tastes the same as it is in Australia (the bread seems sweeter), and I have previously spoken about the breakfast cereals. All I can say is expect an adjustment, there are differences and this is just part of the experience of living in another country. Eating Out There are loads of family restaurants in St Louis. Hence if you enjoy American food you will love it here. The Mexican food in St Louis is also very good – all of the authenticity of Mexico, but with US Dept of Health standards as well! Unfortunately, if you enjoy Thai food, (as we do), get your fill before you leave Australia—you can count the number of Thai restaurants on one hand! There are a couple of good Indian restaurants, but overall St Louis is a fairly conservative town and has not had a real influx of different cultures to bring the different taste sensations that we enjoy in Australia. 12
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 Most of the decent “ethnic” restaurants (as they are known) are located in University City and Grand Avenue (South St Louis). One thing that we found a little different is that Americans like to eat out a lot, and they like to eat out early ‐ the restaurants are full at around 5.30pm. Climate St Louis has an interesting climate, with four very distinct seasons. In winter is gets quite cold and is very dry, in fact, we have had to buy a humidifier as I found it uncomfortably dry. There is not a lot of snow, though you generally get three or four snow falls during the winter. Then comes spring—
beautiful, except for the occasional tornado warning! In summer time it gets extremely humid and hot—really humid, like North Queensland, which seems a bit strange considering where St Louis is (i.e. same latitude as Melbourne), but that is how it is. Autumn (pronounced “fohl”) is a very colourful time of year until it comes time to remove all of those beautiful leaves from your gutters and driveway, and then it’s back to winter again. You will find however that the houses are built for the climate, with both central heating and central air conditioning standard features in all homes. What to see and do in St Louis Since its humble beginnings as an 18th century settlement for French fur trappers, St Louis has been something of a cross‐roads of North American settlement. Part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase by the US Government from France, the small town of St Louis was a major staging post for settlers heading west to settle in the unexplored western US territory. Testimony to St Louis’ growing significance, the city played host to the 1904 Olympic Games, and the 1905 World’s Fair, which is credited as the birthplace of the ice cream cone and hot dog (and is also credited with establishing the business case for “Weight‐watchers”). During that era, St Louis’ Union railway station had more train movements per day than any other railway station in the USA (kind of a rail equivalent of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport). Today, St Louis is the headquarters of more Fortune 500 companies per capita than any city in the USA, including Anheuser‐Busch, makers of Budweiser beer (and providers of free beer samples as part of their brewery tour!). St Louis is a far better place to live than it is to visit. As a tourist, you could see the nationally significant highlights of St Louis in a weekend – the Gateway Arch, Union Station, and the Mississippi River. As a resident, you will find that St Louis has all of the amenities you would expect of a city of 3,000,000 people – shops, museums, professional sports (baseball, football and ice hockey), a major airport etc. Also, because the city is reasonably spread out, the millions of established trees which adorn the suburbs give the city a much greener persona than many people would expect to find in a city of this size. Many things close down for winter, when most people tend to hibernate, however come spring the place comes alive. St Louis has an excellent outdoor concert venue at Riverport Amphitheatre at Earth City and a range of really good bands come through there during the summer (or at least they did last time we were here). Another option is “The Muny” which is another outdoor theatre where they hold musicals during summer. Another regular event is “Party in the Park” at Clayton, which is kind of like a food and wine fest that happens every month during summer. The St Louis Zoo is well worth a visit, particularly if you have children. The zoo itself is free though parking costs $7. Grant’s Farm is also very good—it is another smaller zoo‐like venue—as well as the free admission you can also enjoy the free beer tasting (who’d have guessed that it is owned by Busch Brewery!) Similarly, Pilsbury Farm is supposed to be worth a look (it is still on our list of places to visit). For those with older kids (or who are just “older kids at heart”) the Six Flags Over Mid‐
America amusement park just south‐west of St Louis has the full range of roller‐coasters, and water‐
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St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 based rides. The Science Centre has a very good reputation for children, and if you have young children there is ‘The Magic House’ in Kirkwood. The Missouri Botanical Gardens in South St Louis are excellent—even if you do not really like gardens! This is only a small sample of the things to do—
spring, summer and “fall” is really very good. One further note, even though St Louis doesn’t have the tourist icons or cultural attractions of New York City, the historical significance of Boston or the jawdropping vistas of the Rocky Mountains and Grand Canyon, it is at least 2 days travel and $2000 per person closer to these and other North American attractions that you and your family (if applicable) have always wanted to see. St Louis is about five hours drive from Chicago, Memphis and Kansas City and within 1‐2 days drive (or about 2 hours flying time) of all of the east coast destinations (Washington, New York, Boston, Orlando etc). Once you arrive and get settled, my advice is to make a list of those quintessential North American sights and experiences that you want to check out during your time here, and then as leave periods allow, go out and embrace the experience! Well that about covers it for the unsolicited advice – hopefully at least some of it will come in handy. In closing, I’d like to say that we have enjoyed both of our stints in St Louis and look forward to meeting (or re‐meeting) you when you make it over here and sharing some of the sights and sounds of St Louis with you. Best of luck Judy and Andy (Note: see the O’Fallon regional guide for related information) 14
St Louis, MO Guide as at Feb 06 15