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

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