Michelle in a Stranger Land-Part 1

What indeed can I say? What stranger land can you possibly think of than Australia?

Where the sun is hot, the animals are bouncy or poisonous- or a combination of bouncy and poisonous. The beer is watery, the wine is good- the ocean is warm and the vegemite is free flowing.

I'm just back from a three month stint in Sydney, as I am sure most of you know my grand 2010 plan was to move to Australia, and then it wasn't and just as quickly- it was. I was on a three month, let's try this out and see type of situation.

I had many posts written, and abandoned during my time there. Three months perhaps isn't enough time to suffer through the culture shock and get to just enjoying things. I've heard a year is about necessary, but I'm impatient and I wasn't waiting around for a year. Toronto beckoned!

So with a bit of distance between me and the land down under, I think I can post about it finally.

I arrived, sans my luggage (I have bargain shopping mojo at the expense of my travel mojo) in the dead heat of summer. And I mean HEAT. You have not experienced this kind of heat before, the oppressive mugginess of a billion degree heat.

Coming from -25 with wind chill and the dry dry blast of Ontario cold to +30 with at least 85% humidity is shocking to the system. SHOCKING.


On the whole I was ill prepared for the culture shock. I thought, oh well- I've lived in Britain, Australia is always touted as this quasi North American type of place. Well. Not so much. I can only give my eternal thanks to my friends Pili and Deb for trying to deal with me, not throwing me into the ocean and commanding that I leave immediately.

Pili's enfianced told me he was enraged for about a year, because let me tell you- Australia is much different to the world we live in. There are things that are just "different" and it definitely made me realize what a spoiled little first world cookie I am.

Now there is no way I would have made it through the three months without Pili and Deb. I have known these two crazy cats for years. I met Deb during Uni- we both worked at the SUB and we both were doing an undergrad in History in Art. My first real job after graduation I met Pili and we suffered the endless slings and arrows of the self publishing world.

Deb moved to Australia about 7 years ago and Pili followed 2 years later. Since they didn't know each other at the time, I took it upon myself to create more awesome in the world by introducing them to each other.

They have created a little wonderful bundle of ex-patness in Sydney with other Canucks, Americans, Armenians, Brits and who ever else you can find. The one thing about people in Sydney is they aren't very friendly. I'd had this perception of Aussies as being these ridiculously friendly lovable folk- but it's all area dependent I suppose. It is hard to crack into the Sydney crowd (much like it is hard to meet friends in Victoria). But what did I care? I had friends already!

A lot of the trip has been/was a blur. I definitely didn't do as much as I could have done- I will admit to spending a lot of my off time sleeping. It had to be done. I'm too old at this point to work ridiculous hours and have a social life.

That could be the one thing that Sydney taught me- maybe it is time to settle down. Maybe this gallavanting around the world has to stop and I need to focus and pony up a little bit. I'm still unsure of that part- but it was on my mind.