Friday Follies - My Sweet Sixteen Aussieversary

Sorry, this is a long one.

I arrived in Australia on 16th October 2001 which means that on Monday I will have been here 16 years.  Technically I left Canada on the 15th October, but there is that dateline thing to contend with.  I once travelled to Australia from Canada the day prior to my birthday, missed my birthday and arrived the next day.  I asked if my birthday still counted....they said yes.  Very disappointing indeed.  I could be a year younger now if I could just find someone to back me up on that one.
In celebration of the anniversary, I thought it might be nice to share 16 things that have happened or that I have learned since I moved overseas.

1.  Learning the language.  Moving between English speaking countries has it's challenges.  I still sometimes don't understand the slang or say something that I realise is 'Canadian' and get blank stares.  I had to learn to slow down my speech.  I'm not sure if I was a fast talker in Canada, but I had enough comments here that I had to slow down how speak to be understood.  I can tell you some Aussies speak really fast too!  The other big downside to moving countries was that I lost my ability to be 'anonymous'.  Not only handy for practical jokes on the phone, sounding like everyone else is also good when you have to call a business with what is considered to be a stupid question.  I can still ask my stupid question, but I can never call back because they will recognise my accent.

2.   Driving.  Driving on the opposite side of the road is not as bad as you imagine.  The hardest things to conquer are getting in the correct side of the car (yes, sometimes I still go to the wrong door), and turning on your windshield wipers instead of your turn signals.  However I STILL have the odd panic moment driving down the highway - my heart speeds up as I get the feelingthat I am indeed on the wrong side of the road and we are all going to die.  Palpitations anyone?  Surprisingly, the easiest part was switching hands to change gears in a manual car - that was easy, and I was expecting it to be difficult.

3.  Different Date Structure. Not a big thing, but in Canada it is month/day/year, and in Australia it's day/month/year.  You would be surprised how often that trips you up when you are asked for your birth date for identification purposes.

</ 4.  Different Financial Year.  In Canada, the financial year runs from January to December.  In Australia it is July to June the following year.  I still can't get it straight. 

Crazy Canadian Box Cats

5.  Moving Pets.  Naturally, the decision to move to Australia involved moving my cats.  Pets are not disposable, so I had to be sure that I could get Nip and Tuck into the country with all of the quarantine laws.  It was a very involved and expensive process (x 2 cats, or course), but possible.  As I am an Australian citizen, I had to do no immigration preparation to move here.  The cats were another story.  It took slightly less than a year of paper work, vet visits (which needed to be signed off by government vets), blood tests and the organisation of transport and quarantine.  We got through it in the end, and I had 9 more wonderful years with them.  For all of my anxiety, they adapted well to the whole thing and had a happy, rich and spoiled life.  It was the part of the move that caused me the most anxiety, and also the thing that I am most glad I did.  RIP Nip and Tuck, you were great Canadian/Australian cats.

6.  Different Seasons.  With summer at a time when I was used to winter, and vice versa, it is still odd to have Christmas when it is stinking hot outside.  A white Christmas is probably one of the things that I miss most.  The cats had an adjustment period too.  Even though they were indoor cats in Canada, both got thick winter coats.  Their first summer in Australia, the got their thick winter coats.  Poor things!  Their bodies seemed to sort themselves out the next year, and all was good.

How it should be

7.  Gain Some Confidence, Lose Some Confidence.  Nothing will give your ego a boost more than planning and executing a move overseas by yourself.  Fortunately I had my parents here so that I wasn't venturing into the complete unknown.  On the opposite side of the same coin, nothing makes you lose your confidence more than giving up almost everything that you are used to - jobs, house, social life, friends and routine.

8.  Getting Rid of Possessions.  A move overseas and the deep intake of breath that accompanies the quote for moving your prized possessions is great motivation to cull almost everything you own.  It was a great time to clean out, and the cull became more vicious as time progressed.  And as happens in life, I have more stuff than ever...it's surprising how quick the void fills up.  Shockingly (and embarrassingly), I still have some clothes/jackets that I moved down with....sigh.

9.  Sense of Belonging.  Even as a kid, every time we flew into Australia when I was growing up, I had this overwhelming sense of belonging, like I had come home.  I still feel like that.

10.  Treasuring Friendships.  As with possessions, a move overseas will clean up any social 'clutter' in your life.  True friends will still be true friends no matter where you are, and the ones that weren't are shed like yesterday's undies.  And thank goodness for things like Facebook, which make keeping in touch easy and fun.

11. Appreciating the Climate.  What can I say, moving from the Frozen North to Tropical Queensland has been amazing.  After 16 years, I still do not take the weather for granted.  Despite droughts, floods, storm season and blistering heat, I love it all and cannot imagine having to deal with the bitter cold every again.

12.  You Can Never Go Back.  Well, you can go back, and when I was hyperventilating prior to my move, I did have to remind myself that nothing was permanent, and I could always go back.  But in reality, I have been back twice, and while I miss the people, my life is here now and I would never move back to Canada.

13.  Learning to Deal with Loneliness.  I'm not someone that tends to get lonely, I'm sure I was a hermit in a previous life.  I like being alone and don't need a lot of social contact.  However, moving to somewhere that you have no friends will be a challenge in even the best of loners.  You quickly realise that at an older age, it is much, much harder to make friends than when you were a child.  Of course, you get friends in the end, and you realise that you don't need many, and that some friends will come and go, and that's okay too.

Ahhh, clover.

14.  Missing Some Things.  Things I thought I wouldn't miss or actually never gave a thought to, I miss more fiercely than I expected.  It's mostly the little things, like the crunch of fresh snow underfoot, the special quiet that envelopes the world after a big snow storm, everything covered in pillows of white sparkles, or the smell of the autumn leaves on the ground.  On one trip back to Alberta, the smell of clover in the field knocked me off my feet and almost brought a tear to my eye.  I never really noticed it when I lived there, but wow, it's a part of my psyche. 

15.  Time with my Parents.  One of my big motivations for moving to Australia (other than escaping the cold while the rest of my family basked in the warmth of their home countries) was that I actually enjoyed the company of my parents.  It was important to me to spend time with them.  I like to think we are very close, and to be honest, all of this time with them that I wouldn't have had otherwise is very precious to me.  Besides the fact that they are great pet sitters and that Mum regularly pops homemade meals into our fridge!  And definitely not least of all, I had so much extra time with my last living grandparent.  I made some great memories with Grandma and feel very blessed to have known her as an adult rather than just as a grandchild.

16.  The Husband.  Well, what can I say, I met the man that I am going to spend the rest of my life with (unless I kill him first or he kills me first....it's still all a bit up in the air and depends on the day) after I had been here for only 6 months.  What they say is true - when you aren't looking for love, that's when it happens.  For better or for worse, my ever-suffering husband is stuck with this crazy Canuck.

So Happy Aussieversary to me!