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

SueSue's visit part 2/2

The trip to the Whitsundays.

When originally trying to figure out something to do, we thought about driving some portion of the north eastern coast.  That quickly dropped out due to time and money limitations.  But in its place, Ruthie came up with a 2.5 day sailing trip in/around the Whitsunday islands.  Shortly after I got here, the Whitsundays [iconic for their white sand and vibrant blue waters] were quickly recommended and flagged as a place to go and see.  And so arrangements were made.  We were to fly our way to Airlie Beach [well, fly to Proserpine [via Brisbane] then bus to Airlie Beach], clamber on board a boat and then sail around for two and a half days.  Upon our return, we’d make our way into a hotel for the evening and then fly our way back to Melbourne.

First off, it was wet season off the shore of Queensland.  Granted, our timeline was forced a bit by fitting it into SueSue’s visit, but we either went to the Great Barrier Reef during Shark Season, Jellyfish Season, Wet Season, or Tourist Season.  I think [cyclones aside] wet season might’ve worked out just fine for us. 

Second, I think Queensland’s version of cold is 60°F.  I’m too lazy to look up the details, but really, it’s the land of warm winters and hot, sticky summers.  [From what I understand the reason Tourist Season exists is because southern Queensland has those perfect 80°F days and bright blue skies for multiple days in a row.]  This meant that despite the fact that it was wet season, the temperatures were still fairly high.  This also meant that the water was quite warm.  As in the air temperature would be 26°C and the water would be 28°C – so you were better off in the water while it rained anyways.

The downside to it being the rainy season: lack of brilliant light illuminating everything. 

The upside to the lack of sun, we didn’t immediately turn into lobsters.  This silver lining was further supported by the fact that when the sun did eventually burn off the clouds on the last day as we were headed back, it also managed to burn us despite our sunscreen.

So let me get the whinging over with first.  At this point in time, I no longer feel the urge to spend multiple nights on a boat in weather that produces choppy water.  While I didn’t actually get sea sick, I came close, and it wasn’t fun.  And Ruthie got even closer when she made the mistake of going below deck to our room for a bit while we were passing through some waves.  Also, I ended up with a pretty sleepless night the first night on the boat.  It was hot and humid in our room with little ventilation.  I don’t particularly remember there being a lot of rocking motion to the boat, but I definitely had my first insight into what it’s like being an insomniac.  The rainy season also meant everyone was crammed into the little tiny sections of the boat that were covered.  So after dinner, while everyone was being social, it also meant hot and sticky confines.  Which, combined with the lack of sleep [I also slept very little the night before we left due to nerves] meant that I ended up missing out on the drunken bonding that happened the second night we were anchored.  Oh well.

So that said, everything else was pretty awesome.  The adventure started with Ruthie and me riding the netting of the catamaran through the first “storm” we hit.  Mainly it was just rain and wind [or the speed of the boat].  We ruined our books by doing this and because of the high humidity it also meant one set of our clothes were unusable for two days, but it was well worth it.  The first mate prepared all our meals for us, and I have to say that I was quite impressed with the food choice and quality.  I don’t know exactly what I expected, but for being on a boat with 10 other people, it was quite the spread. 

The second day we snorkelled, did some stand-up paddle boarding, and snorkelled some more.  When we finally anchored for the late afternoon / evening, Ruthie and I took out the clear-bottomed canoe and tried to see things.  We were fairly unsuccessful in seeing much more than water, rocks, and some reef life [this is where the lack of bright, direct light comes in], but it was still worth the effort.  The stand-up paddle boarding was pretty exciting.  It was something I’d wanted to attempt for a while, and it was the captain’s mandate that we all give it a go.  After a fair amount of complaining from some of the other passengers about fears and possible lack of ability, in the end, everyone got out, and we had quite the parade along the coast of one of the islands.  The second day also had us set foot on land for a while.  We hiked up to a lookout, and then back down to the squeaky white sand of a beach while the tide was out.  While traipsing through the forest to the lookout, I managed to spot the biggest spider [sorry Mom] I’ve ever seen – like the size of my hand fully stretched out or even bigger.  We were later informed that it was called a golden orb, and while it was creepy, I wouldn’t claim it was particularly scary.  The furry ones are scary.  This one was just a skinny body with amazingly long legs. 

The third morning we woke up to sunshine peeking between the clouds and the rocks [Butterfly Bay was pretty enclosed – maybe 80% land and just the one way in and out].  We departed for another bit of the islands for our tactical turtle drop.  “Tactical turtle drop” was a phrase used by one of the other captains as he returned to his boat via dinghy from dropping his passengers in the water.  Apparently turtles frequented the area we were snorkelling, and so chances were high we might spot some.  Backing up a bit, we’d managed to see about 5 turtles or so from the boat.  A couple of times we sailed right over them.  And when we stopped for the second night, we spotted one surface a couple times about 15 yards off to one side of the boat.  But our tactical turtle drop was specifically geared to spotting some whilst snorkelling.  Ruthie and I started off by swimming one direction along the shore and seeing lots more fishies, but it was apparently the wrong direction because some of our co-passengers informed us they’d seen one down the shore in the other direction.  Before we made it that way, though, we went across the sandbar to the really shallow water and watched several little sharks swimming about. 

Let’s pause a moment and revel in that.  Sharks.  Granted, not great white sharks or man eaters by any means, but we were swimming right next to a handful of small reef sharks. 

I’d also like to take this moment of pause to discuss Ruthie’s [ir]rational fear of jelly fish.  On one hand, I can almost agree with her – or at least I can see where she’s coming from with her fear.  They are pretty bizarre looking, and in this section of the world, they are lethal.  On the other hand, it was very entertaining to watch her freak out, so I could help but laugh and mock her slightly.  Seriously, I think if we’d seen more than one jelly fish coming our way at once, she’d’ve gotten up and run on the water back to the boat.  [Fortunately, we only saw them one at a time … although at one point, two of those one-at-a-times came pretty close to each other, and Ruthie nearly broke plane swimming back to shore.] 

Back to our tactical turtle drop.  Not only did we see some turtles, but we swam with two of them.  I can only describe them as little and big.  And awesome.  And much to Ruthie’s pleasure, we watched one of them eat a jelly fish, only furthering her love for these fantastic and dinosauric creatures.  Let me point out that while we were snorkelling in Hawaii, we missed out on seeing turtles.  Apparently one was spotted, but it was a bit further away, and only a silhouette was observed.  So a turtle spotting was high on the want list for this trip.  So, heeding the advice of our co-passengers, we tried swimming in direction B from our tactical turtle drop, and before we knew it, we were swimming right over two of them.  They only stayed together for a few minutes before they split and went different directions.  But in that initial time, I managed to grab a few pictures [thank you GoPro], and Ruthie swam down close to them, and actually touched one on his/her shell.  After they split, Ruthie followed the big one, and I followed the little one.  I had passed off the camera to Ruthie before this happened, and I kind of wish I had gotten it back [but there wasn’t time].  Ruthie was having a hard time keeping up with her turtle, but mine was just being pretty leisurely as s/he swam away from me.  In the process, the sun managed to break through the thin clouds that had formed just at the same moment that the turtle surfaced.  So right in front of me I had the classic picture of a turtle with all his/her appendages out, brightly lit so all his/her colours were showing, on a brilliantly turquoise blue background. 

It’s hard to follow up with the excitement of the turtles, and so I won’t ramble too much longer.  But, we managed to set foot on shore again safely, get our shoes and flip flops back [the first mate took them from us as we got on the boat the first day], and head to our hotel.  For being something that Ruthie found on the cheap, we were all floored with how awesome it was.  One, it was an apartment style, so separate bed rooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a washer/dryer.  Two, it was up high enough that it provided a fantastic view out over the little bit of land that was between us and the water, and then out off past Airlie Beach.  Even after SueSue complained about the height of the hill we had to climb to get to the hotel, she had to admit it was worth the hike.  The washer/dryer was a blessing in their own because while we had all done fairly well to keep at least one set of clothes dry for our return trip, most of our stuff stunk something awful.  Clean sheets, clean clothes, delivered pizza, a hot shower, air conditioning, and a great view combined for a perfect way to wrap up our Whitsundays adventure.

-EP

SueSue's visit part 1/2

So SueSue has come and gone, and I totally failed to write anything while she was here.  Whoops.

But I like doing recaps anyways.  I’m well aware that I have a tendency to ramble on about minutia sometimes, and I always look at recaps as a way to force myself to condense.

So let’s see.  First off, I worked most of the time she was here.  This was fine because it saved me from the multitudinous trips to the market.  And Target.  I’m pretty sure there were a couple trips to Target.  As has become pretty standard for our visitors, Ruthie took SueSue out to Healesville to see the animals.  Upon their return, never mind the “magic moments” with the baby wombats and the kangaroos, apparently the vet working with the wombats was HOT.  At least there are pictures of the two of them with the wombats if not the hot vet.  Also becoming standard for our visitors, there was also a trip along the Great Ocean Road. 

In true SueSue fashion, we sent her off in the evening in search of her own favourite pub.  After the first night being a failure [in Port Spraytan’s defence, it was a Monday night], I provided her with directions to the older, off-the-beaten-path pub called The Clare Hotel that I’d been to only a couple weeks prior with a couple of my local video game nerds.  After watching a few of the train wrecks there, I knew it would be up SueSue’s alley, and sure enough it was.  She went two nights in a row, quickly made friends with the barkeep, and was hit on by a local, who claimed to be a former footy player and true enough asked her if she wanted some Australian in her.  Seriously, the stories this woman inspires. 

Back in the pages of clean, wholesome fun, we also introduced SueSue to some more locals via a diner at J&J’s, where they provided us with some home cooked kangaroo - pretty tasty, but different.  I’ve often heard various things described as gamey and the like, but I don’t know how to apply those adjectives – I would simply describe the ‘roo meat as leaner and less juicy [not in a bad way] than a regular steak.  And on the page of entirely new things, we also went to a footy game.  It was the first game of the preseason, where they have a little round-robin type thing where three teams play each other over the course of the night in three, shortened games.  Apparently they also try out different rules and scoring during the preseason, but that didn’t impact us any.  What surprised me was just how many players were on the field.  I realised pretty quickly just how big a regulation AFL pitch was, but when watching on TV [and without knowing the players], you just don’t really appreciate how many people the pitch can fit.  I think we counted something like 16 players per team.  Then there were at least six referees on the field, as well as what looked like a few substitutes.  And to their credit, those refs worked hard to keep on top of the action. 

Well, I think that might roughly cover SueSue’s time spent in Melbourne.  That leaves the trip to the Whitsundays.

-EP

EDIT – a quick check on Wikipedia tells me that footy is to have up to 18/side. 

Manic weather

Okay, so let’s get down to the weather.  First let’s start with the fact that 1 March marked the beginning of autumn.  And with that in comes some colder weather, and ultimately “winter” on 1 June.  Much like fall back home, days are varied between warm and cool, but what [still] gets me is that an actual day can vary between warm and cool.  A couple weeks ago, we had a few days’ worth of nice, warm weather, reminiscent of the summer weather.  The forecasters called for a change one morning as I was getting ready [it was a Thursday], and change it did.  The morning was a sweaty ride in due to the warmth and humidity.  About nine o’clock or so, the breeze picked up, and due to the higher humidity, it actually felt good.  About eleven o’clock or so, the temperature started to fall, and so did the rain.  Then after roughly three hours of cold, windy rain, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone brilliantly again.  The cooler temperatures remained, and even the locals were commenting that we started that morning with summer, went through winter over lunch, and ended up in spring or fall. 

Then Easter Monday made me regretting not having my camera handy.  I have had the idea in the back of my head that it might be neat to put the GoPro up on the balcony set for time lapse shots, and just let it roll for a day.  However, one can never really tell when it’s going to be a manic weather day.  Easter Monday started with my gut feeling that it was going to be one of those days: by the time I’d rolled out of bed to sunny skies, gotten some clothes on [it was chilly in the flat], and gone to the bathroom, the clouds had rolled in.  But I second guessed myself, and I didn’t have anything ready for the GoPro.  Two hours later, it was clear that I’d made a mistake by not being ready.  The weather was truly crazy: clouds, sun, clouds, rain, clouds, sun, rain, sun, clouds, hail[!], gusts of wind throughout all of this, clouds, sun, clouds, rain, sun, rainbow [double!], clouds, sun, rainbow, rain, sun, rainbow, clouds, sunset. 

I’ve had conversations with some of my co-workers who are also imports, and they all say the same thing: even though they’d heard about the crazy Melbourne weather, it was nothing like they’d expected.  I think days like Easter Monday would be better defined as “manically insane”.  And I still wish I could get a good video of it … maybe I’ll be better prepared the next time there’s a “feral” [friend’s word for it] weather weekend day.

-EP