2 Years in Oz

This Thursday will mark 2 years of living in Australia. On August 13, 2011, we departed LAX with nervousness and excitement about our adventure. On August 15th, we arrived in Melbourne on a cool and cloudy winter day. August 14th, 2011 never existed for us, and that holds true each time we fly back from a visit to the States...we skip of day of life! On the flip side, when traveling from Australia to the USA, we get to re-live a day over again. On my most recent trip back from the States with Qantas, there was a little girl who was missing her birthday due to crossing the international date line, so the flight crew wished her happy birthday via an announcement...quite a nice thing for an airline to do!

I occasionally check to see who has been reading our blog over the past 2 years and there have been almost 10,000 views from all over the world. Some of our earlier blog posts get a lot of "views", and recently I realized that might be because I've never discussed HOW we ended up in Oz. When Erik was close to finishing his PhD at the end of 2010, he started looking for jobs. He knew he wanted to do a post-doctoral fellowship, something that most PhDs in the Exercise Physiology field choose to do. Erik and I had many discussions about places we would like to live, and we also discussed the potential of living abroad. Erik tried to sell me on a few different European countries, but the thought of having to learn another language was too daunting for me. Australia, however, we had a consensus on. Though I had never traveled "Down Under", I became acquainted with many Australians in 2004 on a Contiki tour of Europe. I became slightly obsessed with the people and the country, and decided that one day I would visit Oz. Erik traveled around Australia for almost 2 months in 2002 (though he did not make it to Melbourne!), and he had nothing but positive memories of the place.

Graduation Day!

Erik applied for a few different post-docs and some faculty and/or research positions within our desired locations. Ultimately, after applications and interviews, it came down to two offers; one in Melbourne, Australia and one in Denver, Colorado. The thing is, Erik received the Denver offer before the Melbourne offer. We were not optimistic about the Australia option because Erik was expecting to hear back from them and had not heard anything. He sent some emails to try to follow up but did not hear anything after that either. So we (well, "I") started getting VERY excited about moving to Denver! I was picking out neighborhoods for us to live in and started looking for jobs. We had not said "yes" to Denver yet, but they needed to know by Friday and it was Wednesday. Interestingly, Erik came home from work on Wednesday and said that he had to talk to me. He had gotten the Melbourne offer and we had less than 48 hours to decide whether or not we would be moving across the world to Australia or across the country to Denver. At first I was anti-Australia because my heart had already moved us to Denver. Then, I came around and Erik was anti-Australia because he didn't know what kind of move it would be for his career. We called one of my childhood friends, Brian, who had been living in Sydney for about 8 years, to ask questions. That call helped calm our nerves and we ultimately decided that we had nothing to lose, taking the Melbourne option!

You can't find burritos like this in Oz!

That was in April and they wanted him to start as soon as possible. We had to sell our condo, get rid of our cars, pack and ship a container of our stuff across the world, etc., etc. It was a crazy time to say the least! We ended up settling on a mid-August start date, which allowed us time to take care of those important tasks but also to travel and spend time with family and friends. I went to New Orleans for the athletic training convention and Erik went to Denver (ironically) for his professional conference. We spent a few weeks in Alaska with Erik's brothers, followed by time spent in Minnesota and Maryland with our families. Our container shipped during the first week of July, leaving us with nothing but a couple of suitcases to live out of for the next 3 months. We sold our condo 5 days before leaving and fortunately my brother-in-law purchased one of our cars.

NOLA. The hand grenade really is a powerful drink!

Erik and his buddy Matt hiking at Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado

Morning view from our tent in Denali National Park.

Brothers

Leaving our condo for the last time

Family going away dinner with my side of the family

When I reflect back, I think about how scary it was for the first few weeks and even months. For the first 6 months I was probably counting the days until it was time to move back to America. Once we started meeting people and forming friendships, I found life more enjoyable. Now that I have a job I find fulfilling, where I can utilize my skills and knowledge, I have settled even more in this wonderful country. Erik and I love living in Australia for many reasons, but we did not always feel this way. Certainly there are times where we miss our family and friends back in the States, but we are happy here in Oz and feel fortunate that we are getting the chance to live in the "Lucky Country".