A year in review, part 3

Ruthie and I have discussed the pros and cons of roller derby in our lives a couple times since we started down that crazy path back in 2009.  What’s come up again recently in conversation both with her and with a couple co-workers of mine is the positive side effect of derby that comes in the form of an instant social network.  Savvy as she is, before we even left, Ruthie did some research into roller derby leagues in the Melbourne area in hopes that we might find and join a league.  Fast forward to now and not only have we found a league we like, but we’ve, once again instilled ourselves into the operations of the league.  Fortunately, this time, it’s much less draining.  The biggest relief to our system is that it takes 15-20 minutes to get to practice as opposed to the 55-65 it took at home.  With practices here running from 7-9p [as opposed to 8-10p], this means that even on a derby night, Ruthie can be in bed by 9.30p.  The other big non-stressor is the fact that this league has enough people who are actually interested in keeping it running [as well as very level-headed president] that it takes the stress off of any one person.  So even though I’ve recently accepted a nomination for the role of Head Coach of WestSide Derby Dollz, I can actually rely on a handful of people to help me get the job done. 

But all of that isn’t the point I’m trying to get at.  Instead, it’s the social side of roller derby.  It’s a hobby that provides quite the mixture of personalities, abilities, jobs, and socioeconomic statuses.  To that end, it’s pretty easy to find friends in such a mixed group.  And thus it’s of no surprise that we’ve become good friends a number of people on the league [although, let’s be real – as awesome as we are, not everyone can handle us, so we’re not friends with *all* of them].  It is this added benefit of derby to which I am most grateful.  Sure the exercise is good and all, but exercise won’t cook you a good dinner.  As it stands, we’ve currently ingratiated ourselves to two fantastic cooks.  So, with pretty regular frequency, Ruthie invites us over to their houses for a good meal.  Say what you will about her only working at riding the couch for months, she’s worked pretty hard at kindling some good friendships. 

Derby isn’t our only hobby though.  I managed to find a pottery studio.  I took a class, and lo and behold, it’s taught by a hippy.  While she’s pretty cool, it quickly became apparent that the thing I actually need for me to get better at my pottery is to find a more advanced session or something resembling more of a tutor.  After the first class, I’d fully intended to take the raku session since they are only allowed to have fires for certain times in the year, but due to being on a budget combined with being lazy, I never got around to it.  Maybe now that we’ve got a good hold on our budget and the winter is [supposedly] on its way out, I’ll sign up for another class.  Meanwhile, Ruthie’s found herself a pretty awesome sewing teacher.  Thursday mornings [if not Thursday afternoons and/or Tuesdays], Ruthie finds herself in the shed that’s been converted to a studio at the house of a fantastic Australian.  Ruthie’s also managed to become rather friendly with the other ladies in the class, which might mean that we’ll have even more cooks we can con into feeding us.  And, although I say this with hushed tones for fear of jinxing it, we might even have an in to the Australian celebrity scene through the wife of a Neighbours [daytime soap] actor. 

Since video games count as one of my hobbies, I’ll use them as the first example of the economic differences.  Currently, the average retail game opens in US markets at $59.99.  Here, it’s usually $100.  So take that one data point and extrapolate.  Don’t forget to factor in that for the majority of the time we’ve been here, the US dollar has been valued lower than the Australian dollar.  While we [meaning Ruthie] researched this before we left, we were still shocked by just how much of a difference existed the cost of living.  I’ve got two more examples.  Movie tickets here start at $18, unless it’s Tight-ass Tuesday, then it’s $11.  The cost differential between eating out and buying groceries back home is steep enough that if you’re on a budget, you rarely eat out; here there’re barely a difference, probably only about 10%. 

I think we’ve spent roughly three weeks to one month of total time with the American dollar being stronger than the Australian dollar.  This turns out to be a double-edged sword because I get paid in $US, but it’s based on a formula that reflects the differences in exchange between $US and $AU.  So in the times that the $US gets stronger than the $AU, my pay check drops a little.  Conversely, when the Australian market is doing better, my pay check goes up a little.  The fluctuations in the market also affect us when it comes to our rent.  We’ve been lucky enough to have the $US be stronger than the $AU when the rent was due once.  For that month, it was fantastic to look at the bank transaction and see less money than we paid actually withdrawn. 

Does travel count as a hobby?  We were lucky enough to spend the whole first week of being in Oz working our way from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra and the inland route.  It was fantastic to get ourselves acclimated to the time difference, driving on the opposite side of the road, and the change in general environment.  Since our first night in Sydney, we managed to get back once when Lorraine visited.  That same trip to Sydney with Lorraine also involved a road trip along the south eastern coast of the continent, providing some lovely scenery of the countryside. 

We’ve also been out and about in the lovely state of Victoria to do some exploring of the country side around here.  A couple trips up to the Grampians as well as to the closer Dandenong range have provided us with some good motorcycle trips, hikes, and lovely views.  We lucked out in befriending a couple with a “country house” in a rural town about an hour outside of the city.  This has provided for a weekend or two of escaping to live in the country for a night. 

We’ve been down to Philip Island a couple times as well as to Queensland.  The problem is that this country is so big.  Ruthie and I have covered a good stretch of Victoria and New South Whales, and one city in Queensland, but that still leaves so much of the country untouched.  We both would love to traverse the centre of the continent [although Ruthie would rather do it in the style of Priscilla, just without the break downs] as well as getting up to the Northern Territory.  We quickly learned two things about travelling Oz.  One, Australia is the size of the US, so without a dedicated travel schedule and big budget to match, it’s hard to cover so much land.  Two, it’s expensive to travel around Oz.  More expensive, in fact, than travelling to some other countries, like Thailand. 

So while we’d both like to visit Tasmania [I mean, the ferry docks right outside our front door], the other states, as well as New Zealand … I just don’t know.  Time and money are now of the essence, and since neither grow on trees, I have my doubts we’ll be able to see a whole lot more before we leave this corner of the world.

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

Roobaix

Today I am riding the Melburn Roobaix, approximately 40km through the back streets and alleys of Melbourne.

Fortunately, the weather this morning, while cold, is mostly clear.  And the forecast has improved to no longer hail. 

I had almost talked Ruthie into doing it too, but then when it didn't promise to be sunny and 70°F, her dislike for riding a bicycle won out.  Instead she made capes for me and the guy who talked me into doing this.  [Yes, I know that sentence is grammatically incorrect, but I'm okay with it in this case.]

So I've got the GoPro set with an empty memory card with my fingers crossed that the battery will last long enough to run time lapse for the duration.

-EP

Earthquake

So Melbourne totally had an earthquake last night, complete with numerous aftershocks.  News. 

EDIT - And we missed it!  I reckon that a. we were too far away [on the west side of the city at the time] and 2. we were likely in the car at the time.

Naturally, the internet went crazy and like a million meme images sprung forth.  This would be my favourite.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled lack of writing [I promise I actually have been working on two or three more posts, I just haven't finished them ....].

-EP

Decisions, decisions

Well, really one big decision: to extend or not to extend. 

When we accepted this gig, I was very aware that there was the possibility to extend my work and our stay here in Australia.  What I didn’t know is that despite the impression I had that it was a six-month possibility, it was in fact the possibility to extend for a year.  I learned of this when I started to put out feelers back in late November last year.

So armed with the knowledge that we could possibly live here for another year, Ruthie and I continued to march along in our life away from life. 

Then Christmas break came up, with a full week and a half away from work.  If you had asked me the week before the break if I was going to seek the extension, I would’ve said Yes with barely a hesitation.  But if you asked me a week after, I would’ve said No with a slight hesitation.

I think it’s safe to say that Ruthie and I put a lot of thinking into the decision of “to stay or to go.”  We certainly had several conversations about it, discussing the pros and cons of both staying and going, as well as why I would’ve had such a severe change of heart in only a couple weeks’ time.

Honestly, I think it might be the toughest [and biggest?] decision we’ve made as a couple.  And I’m pretty sure it’s the toughest I’ve made in a very long time.

Ultimately we decided to stay here.

Lots of factors went into the decision.  Not all of which I will enumerate here, but I will take the time to discuss a few. 

The first and foremost thing we discussed was missing our US families and friends.  A lot will have happened by the end of the original one year term we were given; even more will happen in the second year.  Sure, technology [Skype] helps, but it’s not the same.  Two years is a long time to go without seeing some critical people in our little worlds, and there’s no guarantee that all of those critical people will be able to make the trip down under [and we definitely cannot afford a trip back home]. 

We also discussed work.  My job here in Oz versus what my job might be when I return home, as I have some thoughts about what might happen if I spend another year doing what I’m doing down under.  Ruthie’s at-the-time lack of job here and her honest evaluation of job prospects when we return, as she has some opinions and desires for how things might happen in the future.

Then we discussed our cost of living and the things we want to do while being here.  This was a natural progression after talking about Ruthie’s increased chances of finding a job, and the fact that an additional year provides more time to see more things. 

What it came down to was the fact that it was a hard decision to say “No, we are not going to go home and catch up with everyone we miss for another year.”  Instead, the notion that when looking at the big picture of life we can say “We will not regret an additional year in Oz [as opposed to regretting turning it down]” was what won out. 

UPDATE: I originally penned this entry in late January / early February, when the first word came back from the US that we’d been approved for the extension.  But then I found out that it the ESEP budget wasn’t fully approved, so there was still a chance that the decision would be made for us and we’d have to come home in 2012.  At that time, I originally concluded the entry with the following paragraph:

“And now that we’ve made the decision, neither one of us are super comfortable about it.  We’re still very torn.  But we know that despite what we might miss at home, we will definitely make the best of our finite time on the opposite side of the world.”

We’re still a bit torn about our decision, but now, it’s just ever so slightly different.  I think that Ruthie and I, just as much as our families, needed the extra time to warm up to our decision.  When the official memo came out from the US something like two weeks ago, Ruthie and I took the following weekend to sit down, create ourselves a budget, and force ourselves to make a decision.  [Since we’d learned that it was still ever so slightly up in the air, we’d come to the attitude of “we’re still not sure if we’re staying”.] 

Perhaps it was because the weekend we did all of this also happened to be a really good weekend for us [good weather, good friends], but the day after we’d made the decision, we agreed that we felt better.  It was a bit of a weight off our chest to have made the decision and be sticking to it.  And then when it came time to tell our families again, it was much easier, and the news went over much smoother. 

So now we’ve got an approximate return date of June/July 2013 and that’s it.

-EP