It is extremely frustrating to be educated at one of the world’s most highly regarded academic institutions, have done extremely well against a body of your peers, have significant academic or work experience in a demanding and complicated field, and still be rejected out of hand from dozens of jobs.
We have all seen the type of applicants for jobs in Alberta. Handwritten resumes, poor spelling and grammar, declarations of homelessness and dubious past activities, interviewees dressed in tattered jeans who cannot answer you without lying and who will not look at you in the eye. Our employers often look for weeks, months even, for a suitable candidate to stand alongside us on the workline, only to settle on some ne’er-do-well who is much less qualified and experienced than you, if such a thing is possible, yet makes the same wage or higher, and does his work at a fraction of the speed and accuracy that you already achieve.
These are the people we see apply for the very jobs that we hold, and then when we, the supposed good employees with proven records of success, apply for different jobs, and we are rejected out of hand, for any one of a million reasons, none with which I am privy. I guess it’s possible that there are just that many awesome people who are better than us for all these jobs, but if that’s the case we shouldn’t have struggled to get these university degrees and should have just started working our way up from the mailroom in these organisations, since all of our bosses went that route and promote that way, regardless of the efficacy of the method.
There are university degrees that lead to jobs directly, and they are listed thusly: medicine, law, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and engineering, to some extent. The remainder of the undergraduates, probably a good 70%, do not have jobs for which they can directly apply and reasonably expect placement. Technical schools provide direct skills application, often provide you with an employer upon graduation, have work experience built into their education, and charge a lot less and take a lot less time to finish. The technical graduates often make as much or more money than our 70% of graduates and some of our nurses, pharmacists, and lawyers.
The only solace is that regardless of how broken or frustrating the system is, we brave many, we band of brothers, can win this ridiculous war. It may take much longer than we would like, definitely longer than we were led to believe, but with tenacity and perseverance, we can navigate this horrid system and come out the other side...into a worldwide recession caused by bankers. Awesome.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sydnicity
Hello again! I know it’s been a while since we’ve updated, but we are still without internet…at least until tomorrow, when I am assured that our connection will be re-established to the World Wide Web.
Things have been progressing in the world of Andrea and Chris, albeit a bit slowly. I am not 3 weeks into my internship with the Queensland Government and I like the people I’m working with. Everyday I walk about 8 minutes to the train, pay $2.70 on my Go-card, hop on for a short 15 minute ride, get off at Central Station in the city business district (CBD or downtown), and walk another 10 minutes until I arrive at the office. I’m on te 10th floor of a 24 floor building and my view looks right into another building. I am in a pod of 4 cubicles in the Capital Raising group. Our job as a team is to secure funding from the government or investors to help businesses in the biotechnology industry get funding or get attention from international community. Functionally, our group is a catalyst for the biotechnology industry. We are trying to speed up the reaction and get the industry booming, similar to the results and efforts seen from Melbourne and Sydney. Queensland, and Australia in general, actually has a very high quality life science program and is very well regarded internationally, even above the University of Alberta. There has been lots of success in Melbourne and Sydney governments in starting and growing their industries, so there is a role to play and it has been successful. Hopefully we can recreate it here in Queensland.
Andrea is furiously looking for work. We’ve been handing out and sending out lots of resumes so hopefully someone bites and she can start work. She’s getting a bit frustrated sitting at home all day, but this has the good side effect of focusing her efforts on exploring our new cook book each night. Although I shouldn’t get used to it, it certainly is a nice treat to come home to a fancy meal each night. Given the choice though, I’d rather have money coming in than food on the table. On that note, it should be mentioned that the minimum wage in Australia is $15/hour, which would help to explain why everything is so bloody expensive here. So that is both good and bad news. There are plenty of jobs down here, not like in Alberta, or Canada in general, so we are quite hopeful.
This weekend we were fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Canadian and University of Alberta MBA alumnus, James Lam. It was great to see him and sort of trade war-stories about the trials and tribulationg of getting used to Australian life. The lifestyle is actually easy to get used to, but the bureaucracy is not, but that's the same anywhere. I have great respect for all the international students that come to the UofA each year...you are indeed strong people. Crazy, for purposefully exposing yourself to 8 months of winter and -40 degree temperatures, but strong! We talked of visas and working and of Canada...all in an Irish pub! Why aren't there Canadian pubs? Is there a 'Canadian' styled pub? Maybe something like Molson Canadian Brewhouse or Hudsons, but those are all Irish rip-offs anyhow. Maybe one of us can look into that. Let's for a subcommittee to review the potential of the space...uh oh...government is rubbing off on me! Where's the Alberta in me? Forget it, let's START a pub! There, that's better.
James is based out of Sydney and has been in Australia now for two years. It’s actually quite a funny story because when I heard that James was leaving Canada and going to Australia to work for free for a non-profit organization I thought he was out of his mind. When he graduated in 2008, times were still rosy job-wise in Canada so I thought for sure he’d end up working for big bucks for an oil company or some such position. When I heard about his choice I thought to myself, “Ha! Well, that’s not the path for me!” You could cut the irony with a knife…But after my time abroad in France, something I thought I’d never do, and coming home to worldwide depression, something I thought I’d never see, it seemed only appropriate to choose another unlikely scenario for myself. So I chose it, and here I am, and I’m having a great time too.
I’d like to think that with the right mindset that I’ll have a great time wherever I am. Even though I became a bit disillusioned with Alberta and Canada over the past couple of years I do miss home very much. Especially in the summertime I am sad to miss Ultimate Frisbee in Hawrelak park, golfing with friends, barbeques with the family, watching the NHL playoffs or just grabbing a beer on a patio or back deck…those are all great things and I am very sad to be missing them. We knew that moving away would be a bit of a struggle and that we’d miss all the best parts of home, but we also felt that it was time to throw a few monkey wrenches into the mix to push ourselves a bit and so far we aren’t regretting it. Although, we do wish there were a few less monkey wrenches lying around…
Things have been progressing in the world of Andrea and Chris, albeit a bit slowly. I am not 3 weeks into my internship with the Queensland Government and I like the people I’m working with. Everyday I walk about 8 minutes to the train, pay $2.70 on my Go-card, hop on for a short 15 minute ride, get off at Central Station in the city business district (CBD or downtown), and walk another 10 minutes until I arrive at the office. I’m on te 10th floor of a 24 floor building and my view looks right into another building. I am in a pod of 4 cubicles in the Capital Raising group. Our job as a team is to secure funding from the government or investors to help businesses in the biotechnology industry get funding or get attention from international community. Functionally, our group is a catalyst for the biotechnology industry. We are trying to speed up the reaction and get the industry booming, similar to the results and efforts seen from Melbourne and Sydney. Queensland, and Australia in general, actually has a very high quality life science program and is very well regarded internationally, even above the University of Alberta. There has been lots of success in Melbourne and Sydney governments in starting and growing their industries, so there is a role to play and it has been successful. Hopefully we can recreate it here in Queensland.
Andrea is furiously looking for work. We’ve been handing out and sending out lots of resumes so hopefully someone bites and she can start work. She’s getting a bit frustrated sitting at home all day, but this has the good side effect of focusing her efforts on exploring our new cook book each night. Although I shouldn’t get used to it, it certainly is a nice treat to come home to a fancy meal each night. Given the choice though, I’d rather have money coming in than food on the table. On that note, it should be mentioned that the minimum wage in Australia is $15/hour, which would help to explain why everything is so bloody expensive here. So that is both good and bad news. There are plenty of jobs down here, not like in Alberta, or Canada in general, so we are quite hopeful.
This weekend we were fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Canadian and University of Alberta MBA alumnus, James Lam. It was great to see him and sort of trade war-stories about the trials and tribulationg of getting used to Australian life. The lifestyle is actually easy to get used to, but the bureaucracy is not, but that's the same anywhere. I have great respect for all the international students that come to the UofA each year...you are indeed strong people. Crazy, for purposefully exposing yourself to 8 months of winter and -40 degree temperatures, but strong! We talked of visas and working and of Canada...all in an Irish pub! Why aren't there Canadian pubs? Is there a 'Canadian' styled pub? Maybe something like Molson Canadian Brewhouse or Hudsons, but those are all Irish rip-offs anyhow. Maybe one of us can look into that. Let's for a subcommittee to review the potential of the space...uh oh...government is rubbing off on me! Where's the Alberta in me? Forget it, let's START a pub! There, that's better.
James is based out of Sydney and has been in Australia now for two years. It’s actually quite a funny story because when I heard that James was leaving Canada and going to Australia to work for free for a non-profit organization I thought he was out of his mind. When he graduated in 2008, times were still rosy job-wise in Canada so I thought for sure he’d end up working for big bucks for an oil company or some such position. When I heard about his choice I thought to myself, “Ha! Well, that’s not the path for me!” You could cut the irony with a knife…But after my time abroad in France, something I thought I’d never do, and coming home to worldwide depression, something I thought I’d never see, it seemed only appropriate to choose another unlikely scenario for myself. So I chose it, and here I am, and I’m having a great time too.
I’d like to think that with the right mindset that I’ll have a great time wherever I am. Even though I became a bit disillusioned with Alberta and Canada over the past couple of years I do miss home very much. Especially in the summertime I am sad to miss Ultimate Frisbee in Hawrelak park, golfing with friends, barbeques with the family, watching the NHL playoffs or just grabbing a beer on a patio or back deck…those are all great things and I am very sad to be missing them. We knew that moving away would be a bit of a struggle and that we’d miss all the best parts of home, but we also felt that it was time to throw a few monkey wrenches into the mix to push ourselves a bit and so far we aren’t regretting it. Although, we do wish there were a few less monkey wrenches lying around…
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Long time no posty!
Sorry about the wait guys, but we have been without our crappy free wireless internet for some time now and have been unable to post. Now that I'm at work for the government, though, I'm wide open to post as much as I like! lol
Last weekend we made a trip down to the Gold Coast to hopefully catch some sun and possible some surf! We weren't disappointed in the availability of either. Surfers Paradise is kind of like the Miami of the Gold Coast. There are tons of skyscraper-style buildings, but it's not for commerce. It's all for housing! The night scene is pretty bumpin' and the hostels there are great. They pick you up at the bus stop and they'll run you back as well. Actually, for all would-be backpackers, it's a job you can actually have...driver. Such a sweet gig and it pays better than waiting tables. We ran into a Canadian Vancouverite at the local tourist booth and she's a pharmacist and her boyfriend is an electrical engineer, who is working as a server. Nice to know we're making a contribution to the local economies.
We were pretty diligent about putting on our sun screen, so we didn't get too tanned, but we had a great time at the beach. In the afternoon we'd usually pick up a six pack of stubbies and head back to the beach to sit and relax. At night we'd usually opt for wine and lay down a blanket and watch the moon rise over the ocean.
On the second last day we went for a surfing lesson, and we were really lucky because we were the only ones who signed up that day so we basically got a private lesson. Andrea started off pretty tentatively but then just started heaving that board into the water and jumping into the surf. Both of us got up on the board several times (me practically every time), but after a while Andrea got pretty tired from fighting the waves, which were good that day, and her progress was stifled. I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this, but she did describe her swim suit situation as "I feel like I have the entire ocean in my bottoms." You can imagine why she was a little...ornery.
That night we tried to chill out at one of the three Irish pubs in Surfers, but got rebuffed by the first one because I wasn't presentable enough to get in. To get in to an Irish pub. What was my gaffe? No shoes, only flip flops. These bastards had the worse 'live band' in there, which was basically a one man karaoke show, and a paltry band of customers on a slow night, and I got rebuffed. Not an Irish bloke amongst the lot of 'em, you can imagine. So we ended up at an even crappier Irish pub, but no music. Aww shucks! :P
That night the hostels in Surfers have what's called the "Big Night Out", BNO for short, with which they take you to 4 different bars on a pub crawl. It's a bit legendary, but after surfing all day we were surprisingly tired, and we're also 26 and a couple...not really pub crawl material. We are 'grown ups', after all. That night we were treated to the spectacle of two of our roommates in the dorm celebrating their newfound mutual attraction. I'm SO glad we saved that $10 by not getting a private room. We had a good laugh the next morning over breakfast, that's for sure!
This week we've settled down a bit more and got a lot of stuff done. Andrea arranged someone to deliver and install a previously owned washing machine, we bought some more kitchen stuff and living stuff, and today she's heading out to get a vacuum cleaner. Andrea's main priority in life is to make sure the world around her is clean, so today her mind should be satiated.
We've learned a few big tips on moving house and starting anew, and I will repeat some of them here:
1. Buy a good knife for cooking. You'll be replacing those crappy knives in about 2 days anyways.
2. Buy a good iron/ironing board if you are a professional. Used irons are a great deal, but that $10 you save on a used one will cost you the first time that thing overheats and burns your shirt to pieces.
3. Always leave early. You can never trust a map to determine how long it will take you to walk somewhere. Maps don't include hills!
4. Everything is transient. Just because you had nice, stable, free, wireless, broadband internet yesterday, doesn't mean that your girlfriend won't download 2GB worth of television shows and get that connection shut down until the end of the billing period.
5. Never underestimate the value of a contact, friend, neighbour, or family member. We have been blessed with great support while we've been here and all of that help would not have been available if we'd moved to Sydney or some other such place. Take people up on offers when you can if you could really use the help. Life's too short to learn everything the hard way.
Well, hopefully we can secure internet in the next couple of weeks. I could write several posts on the crappiness that is Australia broadband...but I'll save that for later.
Cheers!
Chris
Last weekend we made a trip down to the Gold Coast to hopefully catch some sun and possible some surf! We weren't disappointed in the availability of either. Surfers Paradise is kind of like the Miami of the Gold Coast. There are tons of skyscraper-style buildings, but it's not for commerce. It's all for housing! The night scene is pretty bumpin' and the hostels there are great. They pick you up at the bus stop and they'll run you back as well. Actually, for all would-be backpackers, it's a job you can actually have...driver. Such a sweet gig and it pays better than waiting tables. We ran into a Canadian Vancouverite at the local tourist booth and she's a pharmacist and her boyfriend is an electrical engineer, who is working as a server. Nice to know we're making a contribution to the local economies.
We were pretty diligent about putting on our sun screen, so we didn't get too tanned, but we had a great time at the beach. In the afternoon we'd usually pick up a six pack of stubbies and head back to the beach to sit and relax. At night we'd usually opt for wine and lay down a blanket and watch the moon rise over the ocean.
On the second last day we went for a surfing lesson, and we were really lucky because we were the only ones who signed up that day so we basically got a private lesson. Andrea started off pretty tentatively but then just started heaving that board into the water and jumping into the surf. Both of us got up on the board several times (me practically every time), but after a while Andrea got pretty tired from fighting the waves, which were good that day, and her progress was stifled. I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this, but she did describe her swim suit situation as "I feel like I have the entire ocean in my bottoms." You can imagine why she was a little...ornery.
That night we tried to chill out at one of the three Irish pubs in Surfers, but got rebuffed by the first one because I wasn't presentable enough to get in. To get in to an Irish pub. What was my gaffe? No shoes, only flip flops. These bastards had the worse 'live band' in there, which was basically a one man karaoke show, and a paltry band of customers on a slow night, and I got rebuffed. Not an Irish bloke amongst the lot of 'em, you can imagine. So we ended up at an even crappier Irish pub, but no music. Aww shucks! :P
That night the hostels in Surfers have what's called the "Big Night Out", BNO for short, with which they take you to 4 different bars on a pub crawl. It's a bit legendary, but after surfing all day we were surprisingly tired, and we're also 26 and a couple...not really pub crawl material. We are 'grown ups', after all. That night we were treated to the spectacle of two of our roommates in the dorm celebrating their newfound mutual attraction. I'm SO glad we saved that $10 by not getting a private room. We had a good laugh the next morning over breakfast, that's for sure!
This week we've settled down a bit more and got a lot of stuff done. Andrea arranged someone to deliver and install a previously owned washing machine, we bought some more kitchen stuff and living stuff, and today she's heading out to get a vacuum cleaner. Andrea's main priority in life is to make sure the world around her is clean, so today her mind should be satiated.
We've learned a few big tips on moving house and starting anew, and I will repeat some of them here:
1. Buy a good knife for cooking. You'll be replacing those crappy knives in about 2 days anyways.
2. Buy a good iron/ironing board if you are a professional. Used irons are a great deal, but that $10 you save on a used one will cost you the first time that thing overheats and burns your shirt to pieces.
3. Always leave early. You can never trust a map to determine how long it will take you to walk somewhere. Maps don't include hills!
4. Everything is transient. Just because you had nice, stable, free, wireless, broadband internet yesterday, doesn't mean that your girlfriend won't download 2GB worth of television shows and get that connection shut down until the end of the billing period.
5. Never underestimate the value of a contact, friend, neighbour, or family member. We have been blessed with great support while we've been here and all of that help would not have been available if we'd moved to Sydney or some other such place. Take people up on offers when you can if you could really use the help. Life's too short to learn everything the hard way.
Well, hopefully we can secure internet in the next couple of weeks. I could write several posts on the crappiness that is Australia broadband...but I'll save that for later.
Cheers!
Chris
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The hard week
Our trip to Australia started off a bit slowly, but after 5 days here we really kicked it into gear. I think the only fair way to retell the story now is retroactively, day by day. It’s pretty chronological since the week itself is worth telling about.
Monday
When we decided to come over here I told Andrea several times that it would be easy to find a place to live, and we’d only have to see a few apartments before we found one we liked, and the rest would be easy peasy. After searching online for apartments all weekend and writing down our favourites, we headed out on Monday to the real estate agents to book appointments. It’s a bit different down here in that real estate agents are plentiful and act as the property managers for the apartments in the area. Usually you can’t book an appointment to view the apartment online, so you have to go to the office in person. This wouldn’t have been a problem for us in Edmonton, but it’s a lot harder when you don’t have a car and have to run around in 26 degree heat and 80% humidity.
We intended to see 4 apartments today, but we had to miss one appointment and we avoided another. The apartment we avoided was textbook ghetto, with location right next to a busy road, bombed out houses on the block, and with a pair of shoes thrown up over the power lines. Since we didn’t travel 18 000km to live on Stony Plain road, we moved on. The other apartments we saw were in our price range, but they were dark, odd, and unclean. Searching all day to no avail left us a bit demoralized, but we booked 6 viewings for Tuesday so we were hopeful.
Tuesday
The big day is here. Andrea and I spent Monday night printing off google maps and devising a clever transit schedule to move from place to place today. Make no mistake, every appointment will be tight, and since Brisbane is a lot hillier than we anticipated, I try and mentally prepare Andrea for a day filled with rushing and sweating. The day starts similar to Monday, with dive after dive. We start to think we might have to raise our price range a bit to avoid these dodgy places, but we soldier on. Finally we move a bit north of the city, what they call the Central Business District (CBD) but what we would call downtown, and we finally find a place that isn’t half bad: good neighbourhood, clean apartment (staged, for a change), and close to shops and transit. With our spirits lifted, we book it across town to the North East of Brisbane to see some apartments that I found online when Andrea was asleep. I had been telling her all day that these would be the places to see. Andrea was a bit sceptical, but hopeful as well.
As soon as we get out of the train station and realize our map is much too narrow to get us to the appointment, so I had to make an educated guess about which way to turn, left or right. Using all my powers of deduction I choose we go left, and we go left. The appointment is at 4pm and it’s about 3:40pm when we arrive, so we are feeling confident we can make it. After walking about 10 minutes we realize that we must be in the wrong area. We ask another real estate agent for directions, which takes about 5 minutes, and she tells us we went the wrong direction. Fantastic. We are faced with missing the only appointment I wanted to make all day, but I told Andrea I could make it the 2km if I could run without our backpack. So we loaded up Andrea with both our backpacks and I started sprinting. If I thought I was sweaty and tired before, I really was now. I finally make it to the place and I look across the street and see a car from the realtor. I mosey on over there real cool like – think Steve McQueen – all sweaty and panting, and I beckon her out of the car. A bit of small talk fills the gaps where I’m catching my breath and apologizing for being late and she shows me the place. It’s by far the best one we’ve seen and is definitely a ‘must have’ kind of deal. Andrea finally shows up just dripping sweat and loves the place. After a bit of talking back at the hostel we decide to make this our final decision and file an application.
It’s our last night at the hostel and life has been good to us here. We have gotten free meals for the past two nights and pitchers of Victoria Bitter are only $12. And these aren’t 12 Euro bucks either, but are actually cheaper than those in Canada! (actually they are about the same price after the banks take their cut from the exchange). Luckily Andrea met some people on her cruise to Greece she said we can stay with for a few days. Just a little forewarning to all those people who make the claim that, ‘if you ever come to visit you can stay with us,’ that Andrea and I are taking you up on that offer. But you could have worse houseguests.
Over here they want you to have all this documentation to support every frickin’ contract you sign. They want references from everyone you’ve ever had a contract with, letters and receipts to support it, the whole nine yards. These buggers won’t even let us sign up for a postpaid cell phone without about 6 pieces of identification and proof of prior contracts. It’s ridiculous. I can’t wait to stiff them for a huge cell phone bill. :P
Wednesday
Today is the day to meet the strangers and impose ourselves on them. Bob and Rhonda are Andrea’s friends and they agreed not only to let us stay at their house for a few days, but also agreed to come and pick us up from the hostel! Amazing! It’s immediately clear that Bob and Rhonda are fun, funny, generous, and great hosts. They have 5 kids who are all married and only one without kids of their own. Bob is an avid rugby union fan and also a fan of the wine, red, in particular. Although I have adopted Australian Rules Football as my sport of choice, Bob agrees not to make fun of me too much as I’m new to the country and don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground.
We submitted our application and we were ensured that the apartment would be ours and that we could move in by Friday! How incredible is that to go from total morale devastation on Monday after seeing dive after dive to having a great place to live on Friday? It’s also incredible what looking presentable and showing someone your bank account will get you in this town. The location is just great too since the Toombul shopping centre is close by and is not up or down a huge hill like all the other units we saw. Fresh seafood and fruit markets are about 2 minutes walk away, along with many yoga studios, pizza places, Maccas (McDonalds to the Auzzies), and Racecourse road, which has tons of shops and restaurants. It’s not the trendiest of neighbourhoods, but for a couple of homeless Canadians, it’s home sweet home.
Thursday
You never realize how great it is to have a proper bed to sleep in and home cooked meals when you are traveling. We are definitely missing our families, but we are being treated as family by Bob and Rhonda, and that act is just so comforting when you are surrounded by strangeness and without a home, furnishings, phones, internet, vehicles…All that stuff gives you a lot of security when you have it. You feel established, ready for the challenges you regularly face and even those you don’t anticipate. When you have none of these trappings to fall back on you feel quite naked and helpless. Now, obviously, we have savings and resources to call on, but they are not so extensive that we can say that money is no object. Once you can do that life is without challenge, and I think we call that heaven, or a wealthy retirement. A huge part of this trip was to push ourselves and put ourselves outside our comfort zones. Well, consider us there, and consider us succeeding. We picked up our keys today and Bob heartily suggested we celebrate with a drink. That of course led to more drinks, and after several bottles of wine later, a great day concluded.
Friday
Golf is cheap in Australia. That might not mean a lot to some of you, but it means a lot to me. I’m sick and tired of paying +$80 for a game of golf on an overcrowded and poorly kept golf course. Golf memberships here can be so cheap, as little as $500 a year, and you can golf all year long and each course looks like you’re golfing in South Africa. Well, technically it looks like Brisbane, but I didn’t realize they looked so similar before.
Bob took me out golfing to his course today, which was a pretty good day weather wise, about 23 degrees at 9am and a few clouds in the sky. From the first tea I debated which club to take, but then realized I hadn’t picked up a club in 7 months and hadn’t practiced, so what did it matter. The hangover from the night before wasn’t treating me so well either, but I lined up and swung and lost total sight of the ball. Not a great start to my day. Luckily it was in the fairway, as were many of my shots that day, and I did quite well…on the course, anyways. By about the 8th hole I was about to vomit from the hangover combined with the heat and the sun, but we only played 10 holes, as Bob needed to get to his dentist appointment, so I narrowly escaped heaving into the tropical bushes.
After recuperating at our adopted home, Andrea and I took the car our for an afternoon at IKEA. Andrea had the whole trip google-mapped out and assured me that we could do it. Naturally, 3 turns into the trip we took the wrong road and were lost, heading for the CBD of Brisbane. We’ve developed a rule from traveling that if you think you’ve gone the wrong way, just got a bit further just to make sure. Be confident. So I ambled along the road hoping that Andrea would pull a rabbit out of her hat, so we pulled over to see where we had to go and we looked up and saw the overhead sign that pointed us directly to Logan (IKEAs location) on the Pacific Motorway! Score one for beginners luck.
IKEA was fruitful, and after weighing the pros and cons of shopping for furniture in Brisbane at the Salvation Army, Gumtree (Auzzie version of Craigslist or Kijiji), or garage sales, we decided that the allure of having the furniture delivered to our house in good condition was very advantageous on our minds, our time, and even our wallets. We headed home as victors. Place to live – check. Furniture – check. Naturally, upon our arrival, Bob suggested this was cause for celebration and time for a drink! I still can’t believe they were insistent we use the car to help us around town. I’m not sure I’d be so trusting in their place, but we were very thankful.
That night Bob and Rhonda had one of their sons and their daughters over for supper and we all had a great time. After the wine got into us, Andrew forgot Andrea’s name and started calling her “Stranger girl,” which we all thought was pretty funny. We watched a bit of rugby union and called it a night, but Bob told me about the Pittsburgh/Ottawa game on FOX at 1:30am and set it up for me to watch if I was interested. Obviously I was so I woke up and watched the third period and the sped up overtime (as the game was a replay). What can I say, I miss my hockey.
Saturday
The day of the big move is at hand. We are so fortunate that Bob’s son Andrew has a truck and is willing to help us move. We are even more lucky that Andrea’s uncle is lending us his old fridge and TV for the apartment. I knew there was a reason we chose Brisbane over Sydney. Starting off is hard, but starting with a bit of family around makes it loads easier, which we are terribly grateful for. Moving went off without a hitch, delivery guys eventually showed up, and we started building. We got finished the bed and sofa before we tired out, and then we headed to Uncle Errik’s for a fantastic dinner and a bit of footy. Sadly, the Brisbane lions took a real shit kicking, ruining their undefeated record. That’s alright, we’ll get ‘em next time.
Sunday
Today is Sunday, which is ANZAC day, so it’s a huge holiday in Australia and almost no one is working, which means nothing is open, which means we have to live off the meagre groceries we picked up on Saturday. We have been so busy it’s crazy, but it feels good to get this first mega hectic week out of the way. I think this will prove to be the hardest week we have to suffer here, and it has been great. We’ve made new friends, had great times, and feel truly thankful to all those who have helped us get started in Brisbane.
It’s a pretty lazy day today. We spent most of it building our table and chairs, bar stools and computer chair. Did a bit of exploring and a bit of surfing the net on our pirated wifi connection, made some supper and generally chilled out. Like Andrea said our lights are out, but the rest of the power is on, so it looks like we’ll have a bit of work to do tomorrow before we head to the Gold Coast for a few days.
Tomorrow we would like to arrange for some dry cleaning for my suits, since I start my job next week, take care of some more paperwork for my internship agency (argh!), do some shopping, book our hostel, and maybe see about buying a used washing machine. Maybe the hard stuff isn’t over yet…
Also, read Andrea's first post below this one!
Monday
When we decided to come over here I told Andrea several times that it would be easy to find a place to live, and we’d only have to see a few apartments before we found one we liked, and the rest would be easy peasy. After searching online for apartments all weekend and writing down our favourites, we headed out on Monday to the real estate agents to book appointments. It’s a bit different down here in that real estate agents are plentiful and act as the property managers for the apartments in the area. Usually you can’t book an appointment to view the apartment online, so you have to go to the office in person. This wouldn’t have been a problem for us in Edmonton, but it’s a lot harder when you don’t have a car and have to run around in 26 degree heat and 80% humidity.
We intended to see 4 apartments today, but we had to miss one appointment and we avoided another. The apartment we avoided was textbook ghetto, with location right next to a busy road, bombed out houses on the block, and with a pair of shoes thrown up over the power lines. Since we didn’t travel 18 000km to live on Stony Plain road, we moved on. The other apartments we saw were in our price range, but they were dark, odd, and unclean. Searching all day to no avail left us a bit demoralized, but we booked 6 viewings for Tuesday so we were hopeful.
Tuesday
The big day is here. Andrea and I spent Monday night printing off google maps and devising a clever transit schedule to move from place to place today. Make no mistake, every appointment will be tight, and since Brisbane is a lot hillier than we anticipated, I try and mentally prepare Andrea for a day filled with rushing and sweating. The day starts similar to Monday, with dive after dive. We start to think we might have to raise our price range a bit to avoid these dodgy places, but we soldier on. Finally we move a bit north of the city, what they call the Central Business District (CBD) but what we would call downtown, and we finally find a place that isn’t half bad: good neighbourhood, clean apartment (staged, for a change), and close to shops and transit. With our spirits lifted, we book it across town to the North East of Brisbane to see some apartments that I found online when Andrea was asleep. I had been telling her all day that these would be the places to see. Andrea was a bit sceptical, but hopeful as well.
As soon as we get out of the train station and realize our map is much too narrow to get us to the appointment, so I had to make an educated guess about which way to turn, left or right. Using all my powers of deduction I choose we go left, and we go left. The appointment is at 4pm and it’s about 3:40pm when we arrive, so we are feeling confident we can make it. After walking about 10 minutes we realize that we must be in the wrong area. We ask another real estate agent for directions, which takes about 5 minutes, and she tells us we went the wrong direction. Fantastic. We are faced with missing the only appointment I wanted to make all day, but I told Andrea I could make it the 2km if I could run without our backpack. So we loaded up Andrea with both our backpacks and I started sprinting. If I thought I was sweaty and tired before, I really was now. I finally make it to the place and I look across the street and see a car from the realtor. I mosey on over there real cool like – think Steve McQueen – all sweaty and panting, and I beckon her out of the car. A bit of small talk fills the gaps where I’m catching my breath and apologizing for being late and she shows me the place. It’s by far the best one we’ve seen and is definitely a ‘must have’ kind of deal. Andrea finally shows up just dripping sweat and loves the place. After a bit of talking back at the hostel we decide to make this our final decision and file an application.
It’s our last night at the hostel and life has been good to us here. We have gotten free meals for the past two nights and pitchers of Victoria Bitter are only $12. And these aren’t 12 Euro bucks either, but are actually cheaper than those in Canada! (actually they are about the same price after the banks take their cut from the exchange). Luckily Andrea met some people on her cruise to Greece she said we can stay with for a few days. Just a little forewarning to all those people who make the claim that, ‘if you ever come to visit you can stay with us,’ that Andrea and I are taking you up on that offer. But you could have worse houseguests.
Over here they want you to have all this documentation to support every frickin’ contract you sign. They want references from everyone you’ve ever had a contract with, letters and receipts to support it, the whole nine yards. These buggers won’t even let us sign up for a postpaid cell phone without about 6 pieces of identification and proof of prior contracts. It’s ridiculous. I can’t wait to stiff them for a huge cell phone bill. :P
Wednesday
Today is the day to meet the strangers and impose ourselves on them. Bob and Rhonda are Andrea’s friends and they agreed not only to let us stay at their house for a few days, but also agreed to come and pick us up from the hostel! Amazing! It’s immediately clear that Bob and Rhonda are fun, funny, generous, and great hosts. They have 5 kids who are all married and only one without kids of their own. Bob is an avid rugby union fan and also a fan of the wine, red, in particular. Although I have adopted Australian Rules Football as my sport of choice, Bob agrees not to make fun of me too much as I’m new to the country and don’t know my ass from a hole in the ground.
We submitted our application and we were ensured that the apartment would be ours and that we could move in by Friday! How incredible is that to go from total morale devastation on Monday after seeing dive after dive to having a great place to live on Friday? It’s also incredible what looking presentable and showing someone your bank account will get you in this town. The location is just great too since the Toombul shopping centre is close by and is not up or down a huge hill like all the other units we saw. Fresh seafood and fruit markets are about 2 minutes walk away, along with many yoga studios, pizza places, Maccas (McDonalds to the Auzzies), and Racecourse road, which has tons of shops and restaurants. It’s not the trendiest of neighbourhoods, but for a couple of homeless Canadians, it’s home sweet home.
Thursday
You never realize how great it is to have a proper bed to sleep in and home cooked meals when you are traveling. We are definitely missing our families, but we are being treated as family by Bob and Rhonda, and that act is just so comforting when you are surrounded by strangeness and without a home, furnishings, phones, internet, vehicles…All that stuff gives you a lot of security when you have it. You feel established, ready for the challenges you regularly face and even those you don’t anticipate. When you have none of these trappings to fall back on you feel quite naked and helpless. Now, obviously, we have savings and resources to call on, but they are not so extensive that we can say that money is no object. Once you can do that life is without challenge, and I think we call that heaven, or a wealthy retirement. A huge part of this trip was to push ourselves and put ourselves outside our comfort zones. Well, consider us there, and consider us succeeding. We picked up our keys today and Bob heartily suggested we celebrate with a drink. That of course led to more drinks, and after several bottles of wine later, a great day concluded.
Friday
Golf is cheap in Australia. That might not mean a lot to some of you, but it means a lot to me. I’m sick and tired of paying +$80 for a game of golf on an overcrowded and poorly kept golf course. Golf memberships here can be so cheap, as little as $500 a year, and you can golf all year long and each course looks like you’re golfing in South Africa. Well, technically it looks like Brisbane, but I didn’t realize they looked so similar before.
Bob took me out golfing to his course today, which was a pretty good day weather wise, about 23 degrees at 9am and a few clouds in the sky. From the first tea I debated which club to take, but then realized I hadn’t picked up a club in 7 months and hadn’t practiced, so what did it matter. The hangover from the night before wasn’t treating me so well either, but I lined up and swung and lost total sight of the ball. Not a great start to my day. Luckily it was in the fairway, as were many of my shots that day, and I did quite well…on the course, anyways. By about the 8th hole I was about to vomit from the hangover combined with the heat and the sun, but we only played 10 holes, as Bob needed to get to his dentist appointment, so I narrowly escaped heaving into the tropical bushes.
After recuperating at our adopted home, Andrea and I took the car our for an afternoon at IKEA. Andrea had the whole trip google-mapped out and assured me that we could do it. Naturally, 3 turns into the trip we took the wrong road and were lost, heading for the CBD of Brisbane. We’ve developed a rule from traveling that if you think you’ve gone the wrong way, just got a bit further just to make sure. Be confident. So I ambled along the road hoping that Andrea would pull a rabbit out of her hat, so we pulled over to see where we had to go and we looked up and saw the overhead sign that pointed us directly to Logan (IKEAs location) on the Pacific Motorway! Score one for beginners luck.
IKEA was fruitful, and after weighing the pros and cons of shopping for furniture in Brisbane at the Salvation Army, Gumtree (Auzzie version of Craigslist or Kijiji), or garage sales, we decided that the allure of having the furniture delivered to our house in good condition was very advantageous on our minds, our time, and even our wallets. We headed home as victors. Place to live – check. Furniture – check. Naturally, upon our arrival, Bob suggested this was cause for celebration and time for a drink! I still can’t believe they were insistent we use the car to help us around town. I’m not sure I’d be so trusting in their place, but we were very thankful.
That night Bob and Rhonda had one of their sons and their daughters over for supper and we all had a great time. After the wine got into us, Andrew forgot Andrea’s name and started calling her “Stranger girl,” which we all thought was pretty funny. We watched a bit of rugby union and called it a night, but Bob told me about the Pittsburgh/Ottawa game on FOX at 1:30am and set it up for me to watch if I was interested. Obviously I was so I woke up and watched the third period and the sped up overtime (as the game was a replay). What can I say, I miss my hockey.
Saturday
The day of the big move is at hand. We are so fortunate that Bob’s son Andrew has a truck and is willing to help us move. We are even more lucky that Andrea’s uncle is lending us his old fridge and TV for the apartment. I knew there was a reason we chose Brisbane over Sydney. Starting off is hard, but starting with a bit of family around makes it loads easier, which we are terribly grateful for. Moving went off without a hitch, delivery guys eventually showed up, and we started building. We got finished the bed and sofa before we tired out, and then we headed to Uncle Errik’s for a fantastic dinner and a bit of footy. Sadly, the Brisbane lions took a real shit kicking, ruining their undefeated record. That’s alright, we’ll get ‘em next time.
Sunday
Today is Sunday, which is ANZAC day, so it’s a huge holiday in Australia and almost no one is working, which means nothing is open, which means we have to live off the meagre groceries we picked up on Saturday. We have been so busy it’s crazy, but it feels good to get this first mega hectic week out of the way. I think this will prove to be the hardest week we have to suffer here, and it has been great. We’ve made new friends, had great times, and feel truly thankful to all those who have helped us get started in Brisbane.
It’s a pretty lazy day today. We spent most of it building our table and chairs, bar stools and computer chair. Did a bit of exploring and a bit of surfing the net on our pirated wifi connection, made some supper and generally chilled out. Like Andrea said our lights are out, but the rest of the power is on, so it looks like we’ll have a bit of work to do tomorrow before we head to the Gold Coast for a few days.
Tomorrow we would like to arrange for some dry cleaning for my suits, since I start my job next week, take care of some more paperwork for my internship agency (argh!), do some shopping, book our hostel, and maybe see about buying a used washing machine. Maybe the hard stuff isn’t over yet…
Also, read Andrea's first post below this one!
I give in
I guess it's about time that I wrote a post instead of relying on Chris to do it! I don't even know where to begin. We've been gone less than three weeks, but it feels like we've been gone so much longer. So many things have happened in the past little while and I don't think we've given ourselves much of a chance to sit back and really take everything in.
I know Chris already wrote about it, but Hong Kong was amazing. It far surpassed my expectations (even though I tried not to have any when travelling) and when I saw signs posted around the city saying that this train station or this public site was sanitized 'x' number of times a day, I felt like this was a place that I could live. A beautiful, vibrant city that sanitizes all the time...that's my dream! All jokes aside, all I can say is that you should take any chance you get and go to Hong Kong. It was well worth the 14 hour plane ride!
Brisbane has been great as well. And our (few) friends and family here have been overwhelmingly helpful and supportive. We basically spent the first week and a half running (at times literally) around the city from apartment to apartment trying to find a place we'd be happy to call home for the next year. Let me tell you, some places are less than desirable! But after long, sweaty days of searching, we found our place! We moved in yesterday (thanks to the help of some wonderful friends) and spent most of yesterday and today putting together our Ikea furniture. I love Ikea...really!
We had booked ourselves into a hostel in Fortitude Valley (the Whyte Ave of Brisbane) for a week and really loved it there. It was definitely a well run hostel! It was called BUNK in case anyone needs a place to stay in Brisbane. And, they had this great pub attached called Birdee Num Num...I think I took every chance I got just to say the name...haha! But it was great after a long day of apartment hunting to go down there and have some FREE supper and a taste of Aussie beer!
As our week came to a close, we got in touch with some wonderful people that mum and I had met on our Greek tour back in 2008. My mum has stayed in touch with them since then, and when they found out Chris and I were coming to Brisbane, they were really excited to see us (though they'd never met Chris). They so kindly put us up for 3 days and really made some wonderful memories for us in that short time. We would sit out on their verandah (you don't say deck here) for dinner and be out there for hours talking, laughing, and drinking too many bottles of wine! It was wonderful!!!! During the days, Chris and I would be out finalizing details for our apartment. Once we had confirmation that we had our little place, Bob and Rhonda so kindly offered us their car so we could drive down to Ikea (~30 min from Brisbane) so we could shop for furniture and everything else you need for an apartment. It didn't seem to faze them at all that Chris had spent about a total of 5 minutes driving in Brisbane. They'd gladly handed over the keys and supplied ample information on how to get down there. I have to admit that I did grab onto the door handle a few times, but no disaster! And, no one even honked their horn! I take that to mean we could pass as Aussie drivers...well, at least Chris could!
After too many hours in Ikea, we bought a couch, table/chairs, bed, pots, pans, glasses...the list goes on. It really is like starting over again. We had nothing...we still don't have anything! But, we aren't complaining!
But, the journey hasn't been without some bumps. Right now we have no lights. We were cooking dinner tonight when all of a sudden all of our lights went out. We checked the breaker, but none of the switches are off...maybe a fuse busted? Oh well, our fridge, stove, tv, plug ins still work. Just no lights. We'll figure it out tomorrow! I told Chris we could have our dinner by candlelight (thanks to cheap Ikea candles), but we have no matches! So we sat by the glow of the TV.
Tomorrow we have a few more errands to run...I want to get cleaning supplies. Big surprise there! Plus we have to figure out insurance and hand in our apartment checklist to our agent. But hopefully we'll be able to make some time to book a few nights at a hostel down in Surfer's Paradise. We told ourselves that would be our reward for landing an apartment and getting ourselves somewhat settled. I think we could both use a few days of beach time. Our feet are tired!
Don't know if there is much more to add. Our apartment is lovely and we have an extra bedroom!!! Pack your bags and give us a call to let us know when you're coming to visit! Oh, and we have cell phones...which is funny because only my uncle calls us. Oh well...in case you want to know: (07)0466814551 to reach me and Chris is (07)0466814550. Hopefully we'll get a call soon with someone wanting to come visit! We haven't been here long, but we'd love to show you around...or at least explore the city with you!
Andrea
I know Chris already wrote about it, but Hong Kong was amazing. It far surpassed my expectations (even though I tried not to have any when travelling) and when I saw signs posted around the city saying that this train station or this public site was sanitized 'x' number of times a day, I felt like this was a place that I could live. A beautiful, vibrant city that sanitizes all the time...that's my dream! All jokes aside, all I can say is that you should take any chance you get and go to Hong Kong. It was well worth the 14 hour plane ride!
Brisbane has been great as well. And our (few) friends and family here have been overwhelmingly helpful and supportive. We basically spent the first week and a half running (at times literally) around the city from apartment to apartment trying to find a place we'd be happy to call home for the next year. Let me tell you, some places are less than desirable! But after long, sweaty days of searching, we found our place! We moved in yesterday (thanks to the help of some wonderful friends) and spent most of yesterday and today putting together our Ikea furniture. I love Ikea...really!
We had booked ourselves into a hostel in Fortitude Valley (the Whyte Ave of Brisbane) for a week and really loved it there. It was definitely a well run hostel! It was called BUNK in case anyone needs a place to stay in Brisbane. And, they had this great pub attached called Birdee Num Num...I think I took every chance I got just to say the name...haha! But it was great after a long day of apartment hunting to go down there and have some FREE supper and a taste of Aussie beer!
As our week came to a close, we got in touch with some wonderful people that mum and I had met on our Greek tour back in 2008. My mum has stayed in touch with them since then, and when they found out Chris and I were coming to Brisbane, they were really excited to see us (though they'd never met Chris). They so kindly put us up for 3 days and really made some wonderful memories for us in that short time. We would sit out on their verandah (you don't say deck here) for dinner and be out there for hours talking, laughing, and drinking too many bottles of wine! It was wonderful!!!! During the days, Chris and I would be out finalizing details for our apartment. Once we had confirmation that we had our little place, Bob and Rhonda so kindly offered us their car so we could drive down to Ikea (~30 min from Brisbane) so we could shop for furniture and everything else you need for an apartment. It didn't seem to faze them at all that Chris had spent about a total of 5 minutes driving in Brisbane. They'd gladly handed over the keys and supplied ample information on how to get down there. I have to admit that I did grab onto the door handle a few times, but no disaster! And, no one even honked their horn! I take that to mean we could pass as Aussie drivers...well, at least Chris could!
After too many hours in Ikea, we bought a couch, table/chairs, bed, pots, pans, glasses...the list goes on. It really is like starting over again. We had nothing...we still don't have anything! But, we aren't complaining!
But, the journey hasn't been without some bumps. Right now we have no lights. We were cooking dinner tonight when all of a sudden all of our lights went out. We checked the breaker, but none of the switches are off...maybe a fuse busted? Oh well, our fridge, stove, tv, plug ins still work. Just no lights. We'll figure it out tomorrow! I told Chris we could have our dinner by candlelight (thanks to cheap Ikea candles), but we have no matches! So we sat by the glow of the TV.
Tomorrow we have a few more errands to run...I want to get cleaning supplies. Big surprise there! Plus we have to figure out insurance and hand in our apartment checklist to our agent. But hopefully we'll be able to make some time to book a few nights at a hostel down in Surfer's Paradise. We told ourselves that would be our reward for landing an apartment and getting ourselves somewhat settled. I think we could both use a few days of beach time. Our feet are tired!
Don't know if there is much more to add. Our apartment is lovely and we have an extra bedroom!!! Pack your bags and give us a call to let us know when you're coming to visit! Oh, and we have cell phones...which is funny because only my uncle calls us. Oh well...in case you want to know: (07)0466814551 to reach me and Chris is (07)0466814550. Hopefully we'll get a call soon with someone wanting to come visit! We haven't been here long, but we'd love to show you around...or at least explore the city with you!
Andrea
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