Rebuilding

From You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe:
For he had learned some of the things that every man must find out for himself, and he had found out about them as one has to find out- through error and through trial, through fantasy and illusion, through falsehood and his own damn foolishness, through being mistaken and wrong and an idiot and egotistical and aspiring and hopeful and believing and confused.

So, this little quote really hit home for me earlier this morning as I read it. All over here continues to go well, but I feel like the reality of this move is really starting to sink in. I had a bit of a discouraging day out looking for apartments yesterday. Wasn't I just saying like 2 weeks ago how excited I was to get out there and see all kinds of different options for living again??? Amazing how taking public transportation and walking around a large city equipped with a map book, only to arrive at a rather dingy apartment, followed by another dingy apartment 2 hours later can so quickly get old and discouraging. On the bright side, however, at least there is a wonderful public transportation system available in this city, at least Andy and I had the foresight to invest in a detailed Melbourne map book our second day in town, at least we have the money for a deposit and rent as soon as I find that perfect place that I just know is out there waiting for me to come see it......maybe tomorrow. Oh, and wait- actually, we don't have the money because it is impossible to transfer money to yourself from your own United States bank accounts to your own Australian bank accounts without physically being in the US to sign to wire the money. This is a detail that would have been exceedingly helpful to know prior to both Andy and I boarding that very large plane taking us from LA to Melbourne. For future reference for all of you :)

Before we left, we had the discussion/joke a few times with various people about how our 2 years over here would probably be like one long vacation. Let me just tell y'all- we are definitely not on vacation! More precisely, I feel like we are attempting to rebuild huge chunks of our lives over here- establishing Australian credit, considering leasing a car, trying to find somewhere to live, starting and looking for new jobs, estimating how much we think we should spend on rent, etc. As I joked with my mom on the phone earlier this morning, I do none of those things while on vacation!!! I haven't even interviewed for any jobs over here yet, and I'm already looking forward to my first Australian vacation :)

Here's a few recent funny/weird things that have happened to us:
*We went to see The Bourne Ultimatum movie on Saturday night- the movie theater we went to had assigned seating. Amusing to us that the back 3 rows are entirely full, but every other seat in the place is open. I wonder- do people ever revolt once the movie has started and move seats??
*You have to pay for ketchup at most of the places we've eaten so far! The first time I went to get some off the counter and came back to the table, Andy asked me if I had paid for that. I said no, was I supposed to? He said he thought so- I went back in and asked the guy working- he laughed it off and told me to go ahead and take it. But sure enough, I had to pay $1.00 for some at the fish and chips place we ate at on Saturday night.
*There are meat butcher shops (yes, plural) at the mall!
*The bacon is really, really good! Bill Bryson was right.

Ok- enough for today. Cheers!

Christy