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…