Pumping Petrol

One of the things that still baffles me about Australia is the process of putting "petrol" into a car. Fortunately we rarely drive our car, so we only have to fill our tank about once every 4 to 6 weeks. However, when that time rolls around, I am quickly reminded of the differences between here and the States.

Signage at our local servo

"Petrol" is what goes in the tank. This is the same stuff that is called gasoline in America. However, "gas" in Australia is propane, or what you would use for your grill (barbie). Some cars here actually run on "gas" (also called LPG), which you can also get at the "petrol" station. Are you confused yet?! Therefore, because people are generally not putting "gas" in cars, the place is not called the "gas station", it is called the "service station". Of course Australians love to shorten words, so it is actually called the "servo".

A gas tank in Australia

The things I've described so far are just formalities, so while it may get a bit confusing, those differences in terminology do not actually affect the process of filling up the tank. The next two oddities, however, can be annoying.

Most servos are not equipped for us to pay at the pump. Therefore, we have to pump the petrol, wait for it to finish, then walk inside to pay. I cannot remember the last time I had to walk into a gas station in America to pay! Also, while pumping, there is no latch to lock the handle while the tank is being filled, so people actually have to stand at the pump and hold the handle the entire time. I really miss the handle lock in winter when it's cold, rainy, and windy outside!

Look mom, no hands!!

I haven't even mentioned the fact that petrol is in litres here due to the use of the metric system, so we have to do a complex conversion to try to figure out miles per gallon if we want to look at the mileage like we are used to in the States. On the bright side, our local servo has free air for our tyres (yes, tires are spelled differently in Australian English!), which almost makes up for all of those other crazy differences.

Professional Life

Over the last few months, I have occasionally mentioned my "new" job, but I thought I would expand on what I am actually doing for work and how I got to that point. If you have been reading the blog for a while, you might remember that I struggled A LOT to find work when we arrived in Oz. I applied for numerous teaching roles without even getting interviews, though it turns out now that I realize my applications were incomplete, because here in Australia instead of just sending a cover letter and resume, you are expected to respond to something called "selection criteria", which I did not do! Slowly I started piecing together work here and there in various different roles. During our first 2 years here, I taught the "Sports Trainer" course for Sports Medicine Australia, worked as a Sports Trainer for a local footy team (which I am still doing now), taught a few courses at the Australian College of Sports Therapy, worked as a lab instructor/tutorial teacher for Human Physiology at the university where Erik works, and finally worked as a CRT (causal relief teacher - substitute teacher) for physical education and other subjects at a variety of schools. I was appreciative of the work, but I was yearning for a permanent role so that I could really "settle in" to this country professionally. 

My goal all along was to get a job at the Sports Academy that happens to be very close to where we live. I had done some temporary work there last school year and found that it was the closest thing to my job "at home". To briefly explain, in Australian schools, there are no sport programs like they exist in America. In the States, I worked as a certified athletic trainer, caring for injured athletes at various levels but predominantly high school-aged kids. I also taught Sports Medicine and a few other classes, as I have teaching certification in addition to my athletic training certification. Athletic trainers cannot practice in Australia. The profession does not exist here, and the closest profession to it is Physiotherapy, which I would be required to go back to school for, a 3 year process. No thanks, I'll stick with the 7 years of education that I already have! Anyway, this academy where I wanted to work actually has school-based strength and conditioning and some school-based sport, making it an ideal location for me to use my skills and knowledge!

Professionally, I have always put an emphasis on networking, but having moved abroad and looked for jobs here, I now realize how ridiculously important it is to "know" the right people. I ended up getting an "in" at the Sports Academy thanks to a former UNC soccer player who I worked with about 10 years ago. The High Performance Manager (Head of Strength and Conditioning) at the time put me to work (just based on my soccer player raving about me!) and also made sure that I was the preferred substitute for PE at the school. This was great, but I was still getting thrown in to different classes every day (and often it was not teaching PE, but Italian or Wood Tech or Science). Towards the end of last school year, I applied for a role there (within the Sports Academy, not the school...I will explain in the next paragraph) for the new school year. I was able to convince the Head of Sport to hire me, however, it was only 3 days a week. I had hoped for full time but I took what I could get and tried to make the most of it. I started that role at the end of January, and continued to teach Human Physiology at the uni one day per week, just leaving me with Fridays off (which was not a bad gig, actually!!). Around May, another staff member wanted to drop down in time fraction, so I was offered the chance to go full time and I jumped at the opportunity! Though my contract is over at the end of the school year, I am optimistic that I will be hired for next school year, as I have really fit in well with the current staff and students.

This Sports Academy is unique in Australia. It is essentially a government-funded sports school that has just finished being built this year. It is within a secondary school (years 7-12 in Australia) with a total school population of about 1200 students, 500 of which are within the Sports Academy. Students who are at the school for sport take their classes within the regular school, but then they have special classes in their day called ADP (Athlete Development Program). Years 7/8 have 3- 45 minute periods of ADP per week and Years 9/10 have between 5 and 10 ADP periods per week. Years 11 and 12 are a bit different because they have a tougher academic timetable and they might be coming in before or after school to complete workouts. During ADP, students undertake a physical preparation program where they learn and perform basic lifting techniques, Olympic lifts, and maintenance exercises designed to prevent injury. My role within this Sports Academy is as a Rehabilitation Coordinator, primarily for athletes in grades 7 and 9. Every morning, physiotherapists from a local clinic visit our school for an hour. We schedule 5 minute time slots during that hour, so students who are injured can book in to see the physio, either for a new injury or for a review of an old injury. The physios do not perform treatment or rehabilitation during that time, they only make a diagnosis. After athletes have a diagnosis, they (hopefully) come to see me for rehabilitation exercises, and I progress them as tolerated. In addition, I might have to modify what they are doing in ADP because of their injury. There is also A  LOT of documentation and paperwork involved in the job. We use a computer program to keep track of the injuries, though it is hard for us to track things like time lost due to injury because unfortunately most of the injuries we see actually occur in the sports played outside of school.

The "physio" room"

Hot and cold tubs (or "spas" as they call them here!)

There are advantages and disadvantages of my current role compared to my previous employment as an athletic trainer/teacher in the USA. Here, I don't have to stay until 11pm covering a high school football game, which is obviously an advantage! However, I do miss the acute injury evaluation part of my job, which is why I have remained working for the local footy club on the weekends. Because so many of our students play sport outside of school (since most Australian sport is club-based), we have little control over what they are doing, which can be frustrating. I realize that this can also happen at high schools in the US (and it did happen to me a few times), but more often than not, injuries I was caring for occurred on-site at my school during a practice or game. Ironically, rehab is something that I struggled to do in my US high school athletic training rooms because it was often pushed to the side due to athletes needing to be taped before practice or needing to get to practice at a certain time. I have always believed that rehab is a crucial part (arguably the most important part) of injury management, but I haven't always had the time and/or resources to implement rehabilitation programs like I am able to do in my current role.

It took nearly 2 years for me to settle into ONE job that I love, but it was well worth the wait. Even though I cannot "work" as an athletic trainer, I feel fortunate to be able to use most of my knowledge and experience in my current role. I even get the occasional chance to teach different year levels about things like injury management, which brings back memories of teaching Sports Medicine classes in the US. I always thought (and stated!) that I could do any type of job and be happy, but after months of working at jobs that were only slightly satisfying professionally, I have realized that I have a passion for my work and I NEED to be doing something in my field in order to be happy. After all, going to work every day to a job that you enjoy is not really "work" at all, is it?!

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".

Tradies

I'm not really sure if we have a word for "tradies" in America. Typically we'd just use the specific name of the tradesman we were looking to hire, like plumber, electrician or carpenter. Sometimes we might refer to people in those professions as blue-collar workers, people who perform some type of manual labor. This would be the opposite of "white-collar" employees, who tend to spend most of their workday at a desk.

In Australia, the term "tradie" is used to refer to an Australian tradesman. It gets better than that though, as many of the tradies have a nickname. A carpenter is known as a "chippy", an electrician is a "sparky", and someone who does mason work is a "bricky". If you drive a truck, you will likely be referred to as a "truckie". Not really in the tradesman category but professions still deserving of nicknames are that of a firefighter (firey) and a paramedic (ambo). Quite a few boys on the footy team that I work for and that Erik plays for are tradies, so when asked their profession, they obviously respond with the slang terminology. Needless to say the first time that one of the boys told me he was a "chippy", I was a bit confused.

Another interesting tidbit about these professions is that the workers always wear high visibility (known as "hi-vis", of course) clothing. In the States we might see these on road crews along the highway or in a few other chosen jobs, but here they seem to be everywhere. Everyone from police officers to postal workers (see the picture in my post from last week!), from garbos (garbage/rubbish collectors) to parking inspectors are wearing hi-vis clothes. The one that is most surprising to me is the truck drivers. All truck drivers (not just the guys that drive the big semi trucks), even those that drive small delivery trucks that are probably more like minivans, are wearing hi-vis vests while driving. Not sure if those high visibility clothes are worn to avoid accidents or if they are meant to make the drivers visible when they get out of their trucks to make deliveries.

Sorry for the blurriness of the photo, but I quickly snapped this picture in food court of the mall (referred to as a shopping centre here...I get made fun of when I call it the "mall"). Nearly every single person down there is wearing either yellow or orange hi-vis clothing!

There is so much more Australian lingo that I hope to share with you at some point. The scary part is that I am now commonly using these Aussie words on a regular basis! :)

Post

No, not the blog post type of "post"...I'm talking about the good old fashion send a letter in the mail type of post. In Australia, if you mail something to someone, you are "posting" a letter rather than mailing a letter. The equivalent of the United States Postal Service here is called Australia Post. My first encounter with the system of mailing things in Australia was quite amusing to the locals.

When we first moved into our house in Australia there were a few items I needed to post for various reasons. Like we do in America, I placed stamps on the letters and put them in the mailbox for collection. The next day, I noticed that the items were still there, however, we had not received any mail either. I assumed that our "postie" (short for postman, of course) might have had a day off and he would pick the letters up the next day. This went on for several days, except that eventually we were getting mail and my letters were still not getting picked up. I asked Erik if maybe I hadn't placed the proper amount of postage on the letters, but he assured me that they were okay.

Mail was sitting here for days not getting picked up.

Finally, after a week of the mail not getting picked up, I mentioned the "issue" to one of my colleagues at work. She stared at me with a very confused look and kindly explained (after a bit of a laugh) that posties do not pick UP mail, they only drop it off! Who knew how lucky we have it in America to simply walk to our mailbox and put up the little red flag to make it known that we have mail to send out? Instead, here in Oz, we must find the closest Post box and mail our letters that way. Obviously this is not a difficult task once you realize how the system works. I can only imagine what our postie was thinking when he kept seeing my outgoing mail in the box day after day?!

The big red box, where you must take your mail to get collected!

In fairness, our posties travel on motorbikes and therefore do not have as much room as a USPS worker to carry mail.

 VS

There is no mail delivery on Saturday here, something that I think the States is leaning towards and I think it is probably a good idea to save money. We certainly do not miss our Saturday mail delivery.

My only real complaint about the system here is that our "mailboxes" (at least the ones in our neighborhood) are not completely enclosed and therefore when it rains, the mail gets wet. When mail is placed in the box, the lid does not close completely (as seen in picture above). Mail can also be placed in the front slot (see below), but then part of the mail sticks out resulting in mail still getting wet.

At least only part of this letter was wet. We have had mail completely soaked on a bad day!

All in all, the post situation is a very minor inconvenience, but perhaps something that Americans take for granted when they only have to walk down the driveway to have their outgoing mail collected. Could posties on motorbikes be a thing of the future for Americans in order to save the USPS?

A Year in Oz

On Wednesday August 15th 2011, we arrived in Melbourne after the long trans-Pacific flight. We were tired, scared, nervous, excited and filled with anticipation about what life would be like in Australia. The first few weeks were spent learning to navigate our city, looking for a place to live, and wondering if we had just made a crazy decision to move to the other side of the world! Now, a year later, we can state with confidence that we are happy with the decision we made to move to Oz. However, it was not always easy, and of course there are still times when it is hard to be so far away from the majority of our family and friends. While reflecting on our year abroad, I thought about the things that I love most about living here and the things that I like the least. These are mostly my opinions, though Erik did chime in on a few.

Nighttime along the Yarra River

 I'll start with the things I don't really like about living in Melbourne:

1. The weather. Many Americans might be surprised to learn that it is not always warm in Australia, particularly in the Southeast. In addition to cooler temperatures, it rains quite a bit, and even though the rain does not usually last very long, we still have to be prepared for rain by bringing a rain jacket everywhere! As if the rain was not enough, it is often very windy here, so with the combination of rain and wind, it makes 50 degrees F feel "bloody" cold!!

2. Graffiti. There is SO much graffiti around the area where we live and it bugs me. Some of it is talented artists showcasing their work, but most of it is "tagging" and it is just plain ugly.

3. Birds. Loud birds! There are a few species of birds here that have very loud and complex calls. You'll have to visit us to enjoy these calls for yourselves. :)

4. Household appliances lack power. Tim the Tool Man Taylor would make millions over here giving "more power" to our appliances. Our vacuum cleaner struggles to actually pick debris up off the floor. Fortunately we don't have that much carpet in our house! The washing machine sounds like a rocket taking off, however, it does not actually get our clothes clean.

5. Time zone differences suck. It is difficult to chat with our families and friends because we are always somewhere between 14 and 16 hours ahead, depending on daylight savings time and which US time zone we are trying to call. However, we are thankful for Skype and FaceTime, which would not have even been options for communication ten years ago.

6. Costs. This is one that we have come around on, as we've decided that when you are making Aussie dollars things aren't really that expensive. On our visit to the States we recognized that some things are actually cheaper in Oz. However, if you want a brand name item made by the likes of Nike, Asics, North Face, etc., it will cost you twice as much or more here. Many Australians have figured this out and have started ordering online from the States to save a significant amount of money.

7. Lack of good Mexican food. We have found a few places that have good South and Central American cuisine along with a few restaurants that serve Mexican food, but we really miss the authentic Mexican food found in the USA. Also, coriander does not equal cilantro, and cilantro is nowhere to be found in Oz.

8. Bag checks. Nearly every store that you go into (Target, grocery store, etc.) will check your bag when you leave. I find this annoying because I am often stopping by these stores on my way home from work, so of course I have a backpack filled with stuff that must be searched because I have walked or biked to work and I have everything with me. I guess they have a problem with theft and perhaps this method helps with that problem.

9. The internet. It is sllllllllllllllllow. And it stops working A LOT. This happens at home and work, and while being a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, is annoying.

10. My employment situation. I am still struggling to find a full time job and it is frustrating that I cannot practice the profession that I am educated and certified in because it is not recognized here. I am certainly thankful that I have found some work, but ideally I would like to find a position where I can utilize all of my knowledge and skills, and I am not sure if the chances of that happening are very good.

Enough of the "whinging" (aka whining for you non-Aussies)! Here are my favorite things about living in Melbourne:

1. Owning one car and rarely driving anywhere. It is glorious to be able to walk, ride a bike, and/or take public transport nearly everywhere we need to go, including work.

2. Markets. Markets are an excellent way to get fruits, vegetables, and meats at fantastic prices. They are found all over Melbourne so you don't have to go far to find a market close to wherever you live.

3. Biking/running trails. These are found in abundance here and obviously we use them often!

4. Footy. Having never even seen footy before arriving here last year, we have grown to love this game and Erik has gotten quite good at it, actually. This season is nearly over, but next year I might have to shoot some video of him playing for you loyal blog readers. In the meantime, you can watch this video to see what happens when the footy team wins.

5. Feeling like a superstar because you have an "American accent". When the grocery store clerk tells you she "loves your accent", you cannot help but smile. Also, being called "love" by the Aussies will never get old.

6. Travel. Living on this side of the world means that we get to explore many new places. Our Christmas trip to Thailand has been our biggest and most exciting trip so far, but we also loved our trips to Sydney, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, and our drive along the Great Ocean Road. There will be many more trips to come, so stay tuned for reports about those!

7. Animals. We had a koala bear in our campsite. Enough said. :)

8. Cafe culture. Melbourne is known for this, and it's for good reason. Every neighborhood has several cafes that serve delicious coffee drinks (no drip coffee here, they only serve the real stuff) and unique food options. The menu often changes seasonally and sometimes even daily, and usually cafes strive to use local ingredients. Friends often meet for brunch on the weekends at cafes, and the best thing about no tipping in Australia is that you can enjoy your meal and your company for as long as you like, as there is no rush to "turn the table" like there would be in the United States. Also related to cafes, I love the fact that there only a few "chain" restaurants here in Oz, which makes going out to eat much more of an adventure.

This is how Melbourne does coffee!

9. Diversity. I mentioned that we had people from several different countries in attendance at our Cinco de Mayo party. Since then, our group of friends has become even more culturally diverse, as  people have arrived from Hong Kong and Great Britain. The school where I often teach is like a mixing bowl of different ethnic groups, and I've taught students who have come from Sri Lanka, Iraq, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, just to name a few. I guess the fact that Melbourne was named the world's most liveable city for the second straight year helps to lure people here from all over the globe.

10. Pace of life. We live in a slower, more relaxed and laid-back environment here in Oz compared with the hustle and bustle of life in the Baltimore Metro area, at least in our chosen professions. I think that Aussies tend to be better at maintaining a work/life balance, and that is certainly something we are enjoying while living here. Also, nearly every work-related gathering seems to involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and usually the workplace is paying for them!

It will be interesting to see if our perspectives change at all in our second and/or third years of living in Australia. That is the beauty of keeping a blog, I suppose, so that we can reflect on how we felt a year ago and how different that feels now that we are settled into our new "home" country. Even though there are rarely comments on our blog, I know from visiting the States that we have many loyal readers, and I appreciate you joining us on our journey!

Laundry

Sometimes it is the little changes to life in Oz that tend to be the most noticeable. Laundry is something I never really thought twice about in the States. I did a few loads over the weekend and I didn't mind washing, drying, or folding laundry. Now, however, that has changed!

The first major difference between doing laundry here compared to the U.S. is that the size of washing machines are much smaller. At home I would generally be able to get away with putting a LOT of clothes into one load of laundry, but that does not happen here. Technically the weight capacity of our washing machine is 6 kilograms, which works out to about 13 pounds. Seems like a lot, but the size of the machine is so darn small that it always seems like I cannot get all of our dirty clothes inside the machine. In addition to the size of the machine, it just does not seem to get clothes all that clean, though perhaps that is because I'm still overloading the machine with too many dirty clothes?!

The second and most challenging difference is that we are dryer-less. I realize that many people live life without a dryer (pretty sure my in-laws did for many years), but it seems much more common in Oz to not have a clothes dryer than it is in the States. Nearly every house/apartment here has a built-in clothes drying rack, something that would be rare in the US of A. The issue of not having a dryer comes into play for several reasons. Melbourne has ridiculously unpredictable weather. It will sometimes be a gorgeous sunny morning and then by afternoon it is cold and rainy. Twice now, I've done laundry when the forecast was for nice weather, left clothes out on our clothesline, only to return to find them soaked. A few weeks ago when the days started getting a bit chillier and the daylight hours shorter, I noticed that even on beautiful days, the laundry was just not drying. Enter: indoor clothes drying rack. I started using the indoor rack, which was nice because I did not have to check the weather forecast before putting in a load of laundry. However, the clothes still seemed to take days to dry. The rack is also a bit small, so I literally have clothes hanging in various places all over the house.

A few weekends ago at footy, one of the "moms" on the team told me her strategy for drying clothes. She told me that she puts the clothes on drying racks in one of the small bedrooms, closes the door, and turns up the heat in the house. Many homes here seem to have gas duct heating, and this method of heating warms up the house much quicker than the electric heating we used in the States. According to a few of my Melbournian friends, it is actually not uncommon to have a dedicated "clothes drying room" in the house! Anyway, I did this in one of our bathrooms, and while it helped to dry the clothes a bit faster, it also made the bathroom smell like mildew. Not exactly success. Erik suggested we open the door for a bit, which helped with the smell and the clothes still seemed to benefit from being placed under the heating duct.

Yes, the drying rack is set up in the bathtub!

It does help that many of our clothes are dri-fit material, so they dry rather quickly. On the other hand, I do have to think twice if I'm going to wash a pair of jeans or a sweatshirt, because those items might take 5 days to dry completely! Another thing I miss about having a clothes dryer is the absence of wrinkle release. I am not good with a clothes iron, so previously if my clothes were a bit wrinkly I would just toss them in the dryer for a bit to get the wrinkles out. I believe I've used an iron more times in the last few months than I have in my entire life! We have considered buying a clothes dryer, but now that we have sorted out a few strategies to assist in drying the clothes, I believe that life will go on without one. :) In fact, I think that after this experience of not owning a clothes dryer, we might look at having one in the future as a luxury!