Olympics

So, I've never really been one to watch the Olympics.  Hell, I barely make an effort to watch any sports.  Granted, I'll watch them if they're on, but I honestly can't remember the last time I actually made an effort ... anyways, the point is I've actually spent some time watching the Olympics this year.

I have to say, it's a bit of a novelty to watch the sports in a different country.  First, it feels like there is much more Aussie-centric coverage.  Sure, that's expected, right?  But I feel like even in the US, there's much more objective commentating and reviews.  Here, if the Aussies are doing something in a sport, they're going to be covering it.  Ruthie and I only have the free-to-air coverage, which is one channel [as opposed to the multiple channels of live coverage available on cable], thus leading to a bit of erratic coverage.  Erratic as in someone else is doing the channel swapping between the sports you're watching instead of you. 

So this means that we've seen a bit of Aussie basketball, rowing [crew? sculling?], slalom kayaking, swimming, gymnastics, water polo, and something involving a fancy horse [really? how is showing a horse considered an Olympic sport??].  Frankly, it's a bit like watching amateurs - especially with the basketball and gymnastics.  Ruthie managed to catch some highlights of the US basketball game and said it was an obvious difference in the game play, speed, and level of competition. 

Most entertaining, however, has been the enthusiasm the commentators have for their athletes.  Sure, Aussies love their sport, and they readily admit to it.  But for example, we were watching some of the rowing and the US was way out in the lead.  However, it was fairly close for second and third with AU in second.  The commentary went something like this:

In hum-drum, matter-of-fact voice: The Americans are out in front.  That's pretty expected.  But ...
In a much more excited, enthusiasm building voice: ... look at the Aussies go!  They're just half a length ahead in second place.  SOME GREAT ROWING OUT THERE! 
Americans in first, AUSSIES IN SECOND ...

I can't say it's enough to keep me watching the rest of the games, but at least it's been fun so far.

-EP

A year in review, part 2

So this blog is called Two Fools and a Bike on the notion that we’d be spending a fair bit of time on the motorcycle down under.  However, it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve spent more time on another two-wheeled vehicle instead.  When we got to this city, it was pretty quickly obvious that bicycles were a bit more accepted.  [Though, as time has gone by and I’ve learned a bit more, I’ve learned that there’s still the cultural triangular war of bicycles vs cars vs pedestrians that’s present in any location that “welcomes” bicycle traffic.]  We actually purchased me a bicycle before we purchased a car.  Ruthie specifically found us a place at a pretty close proximity to work so that I would have an easy ride to work: a whole four kilometres. 

While it’s very easy to say I’m a fair-weather rider when it comes to the motorcycle, I’d like to say that I’ve done my part to prove [to myself mostly] that I’m less of a fair-weather rider on the bicycle.  This has happened for a couple reasons.  One, Melbourne weather is crazy [see above] and while it might call for rain during the day, you just are never quite sure when it will hit.  Two, it’s only 4km.  Three, contrary to riding the motorcycle, riding the bicycle in cold or poor weather still requires exertion on the part of the rider – meaning my legs are pumping and my body does a better job of staying warm.  So if you combine all of those with the likes of my orange parka, and I reckon I can handle just about whatever cold rain Melbourne has to offer.  [I have yet to get caught in hail, though, so I bite my tongue on making that a more general “bring it on” statement.]  In looking back on the year, I’d like to take a moment to be proud of the fact that my ability to ride in poor weather has gotten better over time.  The first time it was bucketing while I had the bicycle, Ruthie came to get me from work.  The next time it was bucketing, I started my ride while it wasn’t, but then lost my ID along the route; an hour later, it had been found, I had taken a hot shower, toweled off, and Ruthie drove me to work.  Then the orange parka arrived and I learned of the driers at work – it’s been pretty easy since then, rain or no. 

As far as work itself goes, while I won’t discuss what I’m actually doing, it’s worth pointing out a few things.  First, there have been quite a few times where Ruthie’s been way more qualified to do my tasks than me.  To that end, there was a time when we tried to get Ruthie a job as a contractor here, but that never panned out.  Second, the nature of my work is pretty good.  I’ve had moments on both ends of the spectrum, where I’ve spent time wondering why I’m even necessary on to actually trying to get my head around the month’s challenge.  Through all of it, I’ve got a pretty love/hate relationship with my colleagues.  One, they’re awesome.  I generally have a good time at work because of them.  The level of camaraderie and good-natured jesting is really high, which means I find myself laughing with or at them at least once a day.  Two, I hate them because they all make me feel dumb.  Without going on too much of a tangent, the R&D nature of the work combined with the education system in this country, almost everyone has a PhD.  Generally it’s like being Walowitz on Big Bang Theory: I’m *only* an engineer *without* a PhD.  Third, while looking back, I can say work here was good and I learned a few things, but I have a hard time looking forward and guessing what I’ll be doing when I return.  Lastly, speaking of returning, I’m pretty sure the work culture here has ruined my ability for the 9-hour grind that I once knew.  In addition to most people here only working 8 hours in a day [fortunately due to their in-house system called Flex, I still try to observe a SDO schedule] with a 30-minute lunch break, they stop for tea at 10a and 3p.  I’m really going to miss those breaks when I get back to working for Uncle Sam. 

-EP

A year in review, part 1

As I begin to write this [any more this is a necessary preface since my writing has become very piece meal], it was one year ago today that Ruthie and I left the United States.  Well, technically, we’re in that magical zone of time where if you wanted to calculate it out to exactly a year, it would actually be tomorrow, by our current date scheme, we left on the afternoon of the 23^rd and that’s today. 

My grand design for this blog was that there would be routine postings about insights to Aussie life and how it was different from American life.  And then at the half-way point and the end of the trip, I’d come up with some sort of recap.  Obviously, the former has fallen a bit short of routine.  So this is my attempt to not fall short on the midpoint recap.  After my second afternoon of hacking away at the keyboard, I realised just how long this entry has become.  So I've made the decision to break it into installments.  Bonus: I just figured out how to write an entry and backdate it!  Thus this entry will be dated on the one-year mark.

Looking at the big picture, what’s changed?  In the US, we both had jobs; here, I work full time, and Ruthie kinda sorta has a part time job.  In the US, we lived in a two-story townhouse in suburbia; here, we live in a 4^th floor apartment at the border of a beach and the very fringe of a city.  Ruthie took one sewing class in the US; here, she’s taking classes every Thursday and occasionally on Tuesdays.  I regularly took pottery classes in the US; here, I’ve taken one.  We played on and practically ran a co-ed roller derby team back home; here we play on and I help coach a co-ed roller derby team [in this case, I coach more than I play].  In the US, we had two cars and a motorcycle as our primary means of transportation [with emphasis on the two cars]; here we regularly use one car, a bicycle, public transit, and a motorcycle [well the motorcycle gets used much less presently on account of it being winter].  A week-long snapshot of life in the US would consist of work, derby, video games, and being social; here it’s really not much different. 

It’s that last sentiment which I find pretty amazing.  We’ve travelled 10,000 miles away, and we’ve more or less continued on with the life to which we were accustomed.  Work, derby, video games, friends, hobbies.  Naturally, there is a fair bit of blending between some of those categories, but that’s okay.

If I’m honest, I’ll admit that we’re homesick.  It’s not an overwhelming feeling where you can’t focus on anything else, because if that were the case we wouldn’t still be here.  Instead, it’s more like a low grade ache kind of feeling, where things come up to distract your attention, but in the quiet minutes of nothing between closing the book you’ve been reading and actually falling asleep you realise you hadn’t thought about it all day, but it’s still there.  I’d say most often it comes up when Ruthie and I are driving in the car to or from derby, and most commonly it comes in the form of “I miss my mommy” or “I miss our girls.”  While those are Ruthie’s words, I can’t deny the sentiment. 

With that little bit of unpleasantness aside, I have one more whinge: the weather.  Having been raised in a region of the United States that’s supposed to have four seasons, this winter has to be the longest winter I’ve ever experienced.  It’s become pretty apparent that neither of us would survive places like London or Seattle where it rains frequently.  Winter isn’t particularly cold down here.  [This is actually a bit of a relief, since we expected it to be fairly warm most of the year and didn’t pack many heavy winter clothes.]  But I’ve decided that’s part of the problem.  At home, when it gets cold, temperatures drop to close to freezing or below.  In order to ward off that cold, you bundle up with your heavy coat, scarf, gloves, hat, what have you.  Here, though, it’s not quite as cold, so you’re in that weird place between not having enough layers and having too many.  Add on top of that the threat that it could rain on you at any moment.  Look, Ruthie and I have come to accept it for what it is [“weird” comes out of our mouth more often than not], but that doesn’t mean we’re all that comfortable.  I, for one, strongly dislike wind.  It makes my extremities cold, which I then torture Ruthie with, so she’s learned to be not so much a fan of wind either.   But all of that whinging also means that I’ve also procured myself some pretty cool new duds including a water resistant dark lime green hoodie and a traffic cone orange light weight parka. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum of cold rain is the sunshine.  During the summer [also weird to have the 4^th of January be so blazing hot like it was this year], you can barely spend time outside without risk of getting a sunburn.  All thanks to the lovely hole in the ozone that exists in this part of the world [apparently it’s worse over NZ].  This year, Ruthie managed to get a sunburn on her hands through the windscreen.  One doesn’t really think to apply sunscreen when just going for a drive.  Apparently application at all times truly is necessary.  Now that it’s winter and I miss the heat, though, the sun feels fantastic.  It’s not quite as burny during the winter, which is nice.  No, now that it’s winter, the sun is quite a welcoming thing.  Not only for the break in the dreary weather, but the literal warmth felt from it despite the cold air.  Sure, it’s lovely to see the sun on a cold winter’s day back home – but not like this.  Even on a sunny day, you’ve got to remain buttoned up against the cold winter’s day.  Here, though, you need layers.  Which is really the lesson learned for living in Melbourne: wear layers at all times.  During the summer, despite the heat, and now that the drought is over, you never know when the blazing sun will go away and you’ll need a light jacket for the evening or if it rains.  During the winter, they might call for rain, but it’ll be sunny up until, and sometimes even during, and immediately after, the rain.  So you’ll need an umbrella, or coat to don, and then back down to whatever was keeping you comfortable during the bright sunshine in 45°F.  Layers.

-EP