We've Hopped Hemisphere!

2009-02-08T13:31:00.015+10:30

First, about the blog...

While neither of us spends much time in the blog-o-sphere, we thought periodically writing about our adventures in this new period of our life would not only be a fun activity for us, but also a great way to keep our friends and loved ones up to date with what’s going on with us in Australia.

For days (ok, maybe an hour) we discussed possible blog names – it had to be something that captured what we were doing this year – and in the end we decided that keeping things plain, simple, and to the point would be best. Hoppin’ Hemispheres it is! (That is what we did, after all.) We look forward to sharing our experiences and (mis)adventures with you here, as often as we can.

The last three months, or so…

As far as keeping everyone informed, we’re off to a bad start, but hey, it’s been a busy three months!

After 10 years of EV engineering, Andrew left Tesla in October to take some time off and explore his interests before committing to another full time gig. He took some really nice trips to Laos, Italy and a roadtrip through the US southwest which he’ll share with you in separate posts. Alina, having decided her next step was going to be a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon, ended her two years at Tesla in a whirlwind in late November, and left just enough time to hang with friends and family and pack before leaving for Australia.

Thanks to our many wonderful friends and coworkers, the best roommate ever (Caitlin), and a fabulous family (especially Anna, David and Lyn), we had a really wonderful series of going away events. In the midst of some very serious packing and purging, we had a pot-luck party followed by the best night out possible in San Carlos – karaoke at the infamous Carlos Club. Since words can do the night no justice, we hope these pictures will.

Somehow, we pulled ourselves out of bed the next morning to finish up the packing, which of course, took way longer than we had planned. A few nice meals with Alina’s family and a tearful airport goodbye straight from the movies later, we were on a half-empty (yay!) 15-hour Qantas flight to Oz.

We arrived in Sydney on December 9^th and spent a few days at Andrew’s Aunt Margaret’s house, resting, recovering from jetlag, hanging with family, and soaking up the Sydney sights, before repacking (much) smaller bags, and jetting off to Bali for a 10-day Bali-day (haha)!

The Bali vacation was an adventure deserving of its own blog, so we’ll save that for later.

After the Bali trip, we grabbed our big bags from Margaret’s in Sydney and hopped on a flight to Brisbane, where Andrew grew up and his parents and sister still live. By some miracle (and with some major help from Lyn, Andrew’s mom, who is a Qantas Gold Frequent Flyer and who flew with us from the US after a business trip to help with luggage), we managed to pay a baggage excess of only $20 after transporting 14 bags (7 checked, 7 carry-on, well over 250kg/500lbs) across the Pacific! What finesse!

Brisbane (a.k.a. Brissie, Brisvegas) was relaxing! Finally, after months of traveling and what seemed like endless packing and unpacking and repacking and sorting, etc, we could rest. Andrew’s parents and sister treated us like royalty and we soaked up every second of it. Christmas came and went and, while for Alina it was different from Polish Christmases of the past (and not being with her family made her miss home very much), it was still very lovely. Alina also turned 26 – and got some great gifts and a specially-made Pavlova berry birthday cake! For the balance of our time in Brisbane, we took a few day trips, caught up with many of Andrew’s friends, and spent a weekend at the Simpson’s cabin in the Green Mountains.

Every trip to the mountains is too short, it seems.

And then, it was time to go to Adelaide.

University (Uni) orientation for Alina started on January 12^th, which meant we needed to get to Adelaide in time to get our bearings and look for a place before the 12^th – we gave ourselves five days. If any of you readers have ever moved to a completely new location without any understanding of where you’re going, and without knowing anyone there, you know what our five days were like. We had to learn how to get around, where to find internet access (what a saga!), which neighborhoods were good and which were bad, what the right cost was for the type of place we wanted, etc. Stress, stress, stress, and no fun!

Luckily, we were able to find fully-furnished temporary lodging in the neighborhood we wanted to live in after four days, so we did okay. In fact, we rented a granny flat from a really nice single dad who seemed to collect income by 1) renting his flat by the beach, 2) teaching yoga classes in his backyard studio, 3) keeping bees and selling honey, presumably to short-term tenants and yoga students. This was good, but we still needed to find a permanent fully-furnished place by the beach (critical requirement #1) and also near public transport (critical requirement #2) ASAP because Alina was about to start school. Also, without a place to put stuff, Andrew wouldn’t be able to go back to Brisbane to retrieve his shipment of belongings from the US (the story about that shipment could be a blog itself).

Alina started orientation and found her school to be even better than she thought it might be. Thirty-six students began this term with her, some policy students, others IT students, but all from different parts of the world. Represented in this cohort are Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Uganda, Singapore and 1 student each from Australia and the USA (Alina!). No doubt Alina will have more to share about school at a later stage.

Finally, after 10 days of searching for a place and after being jerked around by a realtor or two, we found an apartment that fulfilled ALL our criteria (including the 1 block from the beach bit)! We moved into our new place two weeks ago and despite a few hiccups at the start, it’s starting to take shape as our own place.

So, after three plus months of transient living, we’re excited to FINALLY get settled into the adventure we told you we were going to have in Australia. It’s a bit surprising to us that it’s taken so long to get “established” but, things always take a bit longer than you expect, don’t they?

We’re looking forward to sharing more soon…!

Hoppin' Hemispheres

We've Hopped Hemisphere!