The lead-up to traveling here was definitely organized chaos - we went from just talking about the "idea" of James applying to go to Physiotherapy school in Australia - to in June saying"why not just send in an application and see what happens?" From there, things seemed to just start rolling along. About a month later, James was accepted at University of Queensland in Brisbane, with the program beginning in November. A couple of days later, we gave our two month notice to our landlords and started the process of getting rid of things in our apartment in Kingston that we wouldn't want/need to store. That included throwing things away, leaving things on the side of the road and selling stuff on Kijiji. I must add that all the while that this was going on, I was working two jobs at Burts Greenhouse and Runway Bridal, the latter of which was an hours drive away in Belleville! James was also working at two jobs, one at Queens University and another with his family business Fred Bouma Painting, which was also an hour away in Belleville.
We realized that with both of our jobs in Kingston coming to an end (Burts closes up mid/end August and the Queen's job had been cut down in hours) that the best way to save money for our adventure to Australia would be to move back home with my parents in Consecon. It would also be closer to our other jobs, and enable us to spend more time with our family before we left.
Needless to say, the time flew by, packing up our stuff to be stored (my sister Robin was amazing - she pretty much packed up our entire apartment in one day! All with a one year old in tow!!) and making preparations with getting our Australian Visa, confirming details with the University of Queensland (referred to as UQ or uni by the locals), searching for the cheapest flights, finalizing finances, dealing with OSAP and closing up utilities. I being a person that doesn't like to be surprised by ANYTHING spent countless hours researching costs of living, where to live, what to pack, job prospects and where to stay when we first got to Australia.
It was relief to finally be moved back in with my parents at the end of August, although the preparations continued while we lived there. In the process of moving, we had to separate out our belongings to the things we were storing at my sisters house, the items we needed to take with us and the things we were selling at a yard sale. Moving is one thing, but moving out of the country really makes you realize and take stock of how much you have! It was a cathartic feeling to get rid of things that were cluttering up our lives. Thankfully my Mom didn't let me get too carried away with getting rid of stuff, or we might not have had anything left!
As our flight date of November 6th approached, we were a mixed bag of emotions - excited, nervous, sad to leave family and even a little scared about what we would encounter on the other side of the world!
The transition of moving to the other side of the world was all that we expected it to be and more. It was very stressful at times, but it was great to have James by my side. I was relieved that I had done research in preparation for coming here, that was very helpful for my peace of mind. (even though there was no way I could know everything - it gave me a bit of base knowledge about what we were getting ourselves into.)
We have accomplished a lot in the past year. In the first month our focus was to find an apartment and furnish it with everything we would need. This involved filling up many carts of items at our local Kmart, and taking multiple trips home with it packed into a taxi! James has transitioned into and is enjoying his program at UQ. He has been very busy and stressed out with exams and an intense year round masters program. I have worked at two florist jobs that ended up not being the right fit, and am now working at Kmart. We have done some traveling with James' sister Francine to Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef, a road trip to Sydney and lots of day trips along the coast. We went without a car for about 5 months, and finally decided to buy a cheap car to get around in (which has ended up being a great thing, but it was an "adventure" in itself looking for one!) We have made friends here and gotten used to the lingo and the climate as well. When we first got here, we couldn't believe how different it was in Australia! It's funny though, now that we've been here a year, things don't seem all that different from Canada - except for the weather and the fact that none of our friends or family from Canada are here. Maybe it's because we've adjusted. Maybe when we get back to Canada, we'll have to adjust back! But in the meantime, we're enjoying the time here, even though we miss our family dearly. The time here has been good for both of us to strike out on our own and experience living in another country!
Thats all for now! I'm planning on updating this blog on some of our adventures in more detail from the last 6 or so months in the coming weeks! And if you got this far in the post, thanks for reading!
Alexis
