Around the World and Back

Saturday, June 22, 2013

My Life is Kinda Boring

Wah wah... I'm kidding you guys… but only kind of. All I mean when I say my life is boring is that our 8 months in Melbourne hasn't been as adventure-packed as our 8 months of traveling New Zealand. Perhaps coming to an expensive city such as this one to "save up money for traveling" wasn't our best-laid plan. Perhaps we got it right the first time (NZ); being a bit broke for long periods of time but having the freedom to travel and be out in nature before settling in a city to work. But, what's done is done, and we're going to have to work with what we've got when we finally get back on the road again in 6ish weeks.

Although living abroad has been an amazing challenge, full of personal growth and other cliches, it hasn't been without its struggles (as you all know). Our time in Melbourne is a good representation of that sentiment, which is what inspired the title of this blog post. Life here in this city is not much different than life back at home, especially as we haven't had the time or funds to get out much. Hopefully things will come together in the next month or so for us to have a great time seeing a bit of this massive country before we get the boot on October 3! I guess what I'm trying to express is, although it's pretty cool to be living life on the other side of the world, you shouldn't be TOO jealous of our life here (in Melbourne, specifically), because it's really not much different than your life at home. That being said, hopefully the traveling segment of our year here will be something to inspire you. Until then, on with the daily grind.

However, there has been time for a bit of fun! 97% of our life here is made up of working, commuting by train and tram, budgeting, watching movies in bed, physiotherapy (for me, that is), and drinking coffee, and the other 3% of it is made up of daydreaming (me again) about Wellington. And for Brian's birthday we were able to spend a week there! In the contest for which city wins my heart, Wellington beats Melbourne by a long shot, which may seem strange to those who have been to (or lived in) both places. Melbourne seems potentially like a better city in many ways: it's waaaaaaaay bigger so technically has more to offer, has about a million cafes and restaurants with a very high standard for coffee (ahem) and cuisine, has great diversity (which is one factor where Melbourne wins in my mind), has an amazing art and music scene, and has an extensive transportation system. My two main reasons for loving Wellington? 1. The size, which for me is perfect, and allows for easy walkability all over the city, and 2. Urban hiking/BEAUTY. The restorative power of mountains, hills, water, and a wild coastline cannot be underestimated. Maybe it's just the Pacific Northwesterner in me. Whatever it is, I need more of it in my life! I'd love to be able to step outside and be on a hike within minutes, without having to sort out transportation there and back/make a whole day of it, etc. Wellington makes that all possible!

Our time in Welly was sooooooooooooo good. The weather even cooperated while we were there and we got plenty of sunny days! We ate at most of our favorite places, drank coffee at our favorite cafes (uh oh… I'm a snob now? Melbourne wins), had some nights out, walked to the top of Mt Vic, ran on Oriental Parade, walked the Southern Walkway for stellar city views, and of course caught up with great friends. Part of the reason I found myself crying all the way from WLG to MEL was because fate has brought so many of our close friends to Wellington all at once, where they are all happily living (I wanted to stay!!!). We had a Store reunion with Ian, Craig, and Amelia, who we hadn't seen for over a year, a Circa reunion with Geneva and Tim, and saw our old gang from Wellington: Mark, Jemma, Caitlin, and Sean. On our last night we had a big dinner at Siem Reap (just like our last night when we moved to Australia) and everyone came out, including some of Brian's Recovery Room co-workers. It was all just… so much joy. So much. We rented a bach at Waikanae beach on the Kapiti coast for Brian's birthday weekend, and ate lots of food, played at the beach, hiked, and relaxed. It was pretty much the best week ever.

So yeah, when we came back to Melbs I had a bit of a freak-out, along the lines of: what-am-I-doing-here-if-I'm-not-happy… but I've thought a lot about it in the last two weeks and I'm feeling better. And now that I'm back in the swing of things I remembered that I AM happy. We have great friends and co-workers, a nice apartment (even though it is infested with ants), and an exciting trip to plan for. We've started to view the next 6-7 weeks as a challenge; the end is in sight work-wise, but until then there is a lot of work to be done and some hard-core money saving. I have a personal goal to appreciate this city and take advantage of all its musical offerings as much as I can in our last time here. Better late than never! I need to debunk my myth that you can't have fun in this city on a budget, because I know the real truth is that I'm not going out and having fun because I'm lazy. So lazy! But anyway, that's what goals are for.

Oh, and for anyone who's been wondering about my arm/hand, it's recovering quite nicely. I've been going to physiotherapy 2-3 days a week and exercising it at home, and it's strong enough now to carry things and do everything almost as well as pre-accident. The best part is that my hand is a freak wax hand (still, which I kind of hope lasts forever), and turns almost completely purple when cold! Great party trick. The only thing that's still not great is that my wrist doesn't bend back barely at all, so I have quite a bit of work to do there. Oh and the asshole who doored me has FINALLY (FINALLY FINALLY) agreed to pay me a bit of money to make up for the deductible I had to pay for my medical bills. The day I finish work at Top Paddock will be the day I am finally free of all ties to this accident and my constant phone calls and monitoring by the TAC. That will be a happy day :)

What other fun things have we done since I last blogged… Oh, Top Paddock was named 'Best New Cafe' in Melbourne by The Age about a week ago... pretty crazy. I can't believe out of the bazillions of cafes in this city somehow we are working at the "best" one. Also funny because, well... it's not the best place to work, haha, ok I'll leave it at that (I won't get too Negative Nancy over here, Brian, if you're reading this). :) Our Store friend Ian came to visit for a few days, and we had a great time playing tourist with him here. We even stumbled upon a DELICIOUS hot pot place in Chinatown, which has put me back on the hunt for dan dan noodles (I'm reaching max capacity for length of time I can be away from 7 Stars Pepper). But really, most of the fun times these days are staff hang-outs after work, dinners out with friends, and our weekly coffee/trip-planning meetings that Brian and I have at one of our local cafes. It's the small things!

Are you asleep yet? I told you my life was boring! For those of you who stuck it out and read this whole post, a treat in two forms: photos, and the official announcement (if there's anyone who missed it on fb) that we'll be back home in SEATTLE on December 3, 2013. That's less than 6 months, people! Clear your schedules, please. I'll probably be heading straight for 7SP, followed by the Noc Noc for 80s night, and of course the Yen Wor for hours and hours of karaoke (lots of lost time to make up for). It's gonna be so great to see you all again! MUCH LOVE xoxo

I went on a weekend road-trip with Abbey through country Victoria to where she grew up on a farm near Mt. Beauty. It was so gorgeous out and all the fall leaves were putting on a show.

homemade kombucha and sundried tomato-basil cashew cheese, my latest culinary venture

Ian and Brian on the Naked for Satan rooftop (Melbs)

Ian and me at Shebeens cafe in the laneways (Melbs)

more of Melbourne's impressive street art

a nice city shot by Brian

first day walkabout in Welly <3 p="">

so, so happy to see Mark again :)

new food truck in Newtown, sooooo good

playing with Boo at Caitlin and Sean's

walking the Southern Walkway (followed by lunch at Maranui!)

a pic from Brian and Mark's hike

love these peeps, at Meow in Wellington

brothers

the big 3-0!

North Island life

Kapiti Coast

family read-aloud (note the wax hand)

goodbye NZ *sniff sniff*

Monday, April 22, 2013

Tasmania and the Death of Trusty Rusty

A few weeks ago I started to write a post about our trip to Tasmania (or more specifically, my misfortune leading up to the trip). But because it was a little too sarcastic and detailed, I deleted it. Being away from work and most social contact for 6 weeks did not find me in the best psychological state. Now that the type of prospective that only time (and physical healing) can bring has set in, I'd like to start again.

Allow me share the revised, concise version of the lead-up to Tasmania: I had a bicycle accident. A car door opened onto me as I was riding on a busy street and as a result I was thrown off the bike and landed my arm. I got scratched up and my bike is dead (RIP!). There's a long, complicated saga following this event which I have edited out of this post for your sanity... So let's just stick to this: I had 1-3 fractures in various parts of my arm (add another chapter into the book of 'My Life with Doctors Who Can't Possibly Have Real Credentials' (sub-title: 'Am I Being Punked?')). To this day I am still fairly unsure of the original diagnosis of my injuries, but my left arm (from elbow to hand) was broken in some way, and I've been unable to return to work as a waitress.

The silver lining: Australia has this AMAZING insurance company called TAC which has granted me the most unbelievable assistance. Not only do they cover many of my medical bills, but they've given me partial wage compensation and have set me up with an occupational physiotherapist to help me get back to work. All this as a non-resident of this country and without involvements with the man who hit me (well, I do have some business to take care of there but I'm ignoring that for now...).

After getting things a bit more squared away and with the healing of my injuries, I've come back to the more positive side of life and am trying to enjoy, plan, and keep motivated in my life here. I meet with the O.P. on Wednesday and will probably be returning to work shortly thereafter, so I'll have a bit more structure in my life again, which I've learned is extremely important to my day-to-day happiness. Ok, enough with the boring stuff... Tasmania!

We spent the first two nights in another amazing airbnb apartment, right in downtown Hobart. Our hosts were warm and generous, and their apartment was so, so sweet. While in Hobart I had some arm stuff to take care of, so one day was mostly taken up in the hospital. Afterwards I needed to visit the whiskey distillery where I forgot all about my injuries. :) We made a delicious dinner and chatted with our hosts about how wonderful Tasmania is.

The next day we rented a car and drove down to Murdunna to our next airbnb location, which was a dreamy beach-cottage/cabin with a lot of land and plenty of marsupials running around in the yard. In case you haven't taken my advice yet, please please PLEASE use airbnb.com for your next vacation so you can experience the magic for yourself. For far cheaper than a hotel, we had a room in the cottage, full access to the house (complete with breathtaking water views), an art gallery/reading room in the woods to relax in, and a lovely host who set up a spread of locally produced breakfast foods for us each morning. After arriving and getting settled in, we drove down to The Coal Mines Historic Site to see the ruins at sunset. This was the first of two components of Port Arthur, a world heritage site that is a former penal colony.

The grounds at Port Arthur were so stunning and tragic, and the tour there was definitely a highlight of the trip. We walked all around the grounds and got to take a ferry and walk onto the 'Isle of the Dead' which is a cemetery island where up to 2000 prisoners are buried. I enjoyed this moving part of the tour very much, as our guide walked us around and told stories of some special individuals who were buried there. The whole experience was really somber and thought-provoking; I think it's a must-do for any Tasmania trip.

After a reluctant departure from Naomi's haven, we headed back to Hobart for 2 nights. On Saturday we ventured out to the Salamanca market, a massive 300-stall street market. It was a treasure trove of goodies, produce, arts and crafts, and clothing, but we had to rush slightly to catch our ferry to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). I was excited about another little market happening outside MONA on the lawn that day, but it was a torrential rain storm that day so we didn't get to enjoy the lawn from the bean bag chairs. The museum was really cool; a little something for everyone and just the right size (for me, that is).

The next day was spent mostly bumming around Hobart, finding special little cubbyholes to relax in in the charming Battery Point district. We had planned a bunch of hiking for the trip but unfortunately I wasn't too up for it after the bike accident. I really regret not pushing through some of the soreness because Tassy is likened to New Zealand when it comes to hiking and beauty.... But here's hoping we'll make it back someday! We ended up driving (instead of hiking) up Mount Wellington and nearly blowing away up there! Such stunning views through the fog.

We also visited the Farmgate farmers market in Hobart which left a little longing ache in my heart to relocate to Tasmania... All throughout the trip we had felt much more relaxed and in our element (I know that's kind of a vacation mentality but it was more than that). Size-wise and nature-wise Brian and I felt more at home there than we do in Melbourne, and the idea of living there seemed a bit more romantic. We actually tossed around the idea of moving there but ultimately felt like looking for jobs and trying to settle in again might be more trouble than it's worth. But the farmers market was so comforting to me; Tasmania has some amazing produce and many people there seem to embrace that island mentality that can be so intoxicating. Ultimately I know that's a quality we're more aligned with but in the meantime we can enjoy Melbourne for the short term. :)

Other activities of note included celebrating St. Patty's day in an Irish pub on our last night, eating multiple meals at a really good Indian restaurant, and sharing a bathroom with my second huntsman spider. All in all, a great trip!

As for the rest of life, things have been EXTREMELY uneventful for me. But there have been some random fun things happening here and there, like a visit from our friend Caitlin, a dinner party, a wonderful surprise party my dear Brian threw to lift my spirits, and a soul-cleansing trip to Fairhaven, on the Great Ocean Road. Life is good. Here are pics of the last few months, hugs & kisses to you all!!