Another American in Australia

[tmrei]

Hello there. Forgive the rambling nature of this it's late and I'm eager to talk...if you read it it might mean you get it...

Dolly, I have cut and pasted your 'before and after' stickies into their own document's--Dolly's list and Dolly's once you arrive. I then edited away some parts, like the UK references to create my own special To Do list that has been more helpful than I could ever express. wow. what a wonderful service you most certainly have earned some special Karma points.

I'm an American psychologist going to Melbourne for a job. It has been a crazy overwhelming process. My husband is staying here for now due to various visa challenges and this is very distressing. Some days I feel highly productive other days fear, insomnia and the flu have beat on my eager to pack create lists and organize body down. I have been reading the various posts and remain so very confused on the whole shipping thing. I'm bringing NO furniture and very few personal items. The big thing for me is books lots of them. I thought UPS or similar company would be safer...i'm afraid of losing them like someone else is afraid of losing precious family heirlooms, these are part of my livelihood...but I have got to let go. So tomorrow i WILL make a decision between the one quote and the second quote and I will send my little shipment of about 12-15 boxes (and 1 or 2 filing cabinets if I can) on a boat across the sea. The company is giving me 3,000 AUD and I'm hoping that will be enough so I can protect my tiny cushion --(more tiny because a recent family crisis depleted much of our savings) that will be necessary to rent a livable apartment and buy a car.

I have questions--lots of them, but I will narrow it down to ___

1. Communications--Dolly suggested a phone card. I'm imagining I won't be able to use a phone card with my current cell phone as it does not have the global SIM card (God knows whether I'm saying that right). But since my husband is going to remain here with his Verizon account I'm trying to figure out if I should buy a phone here or wait till I get there since an Australian phone does not charge for incoming calls. Yet how do I then communicate with him. I'm thinking about SKYPE, but then I need an internet connection. How quickly could I set that up and will I have a problem being that I'm a Mac person.

2 and the million other questions are going to wait for now.

if you read this far wow...that was very nice of you.

I'm scared, excited but very hopeful that my husband and I will find that in a year from now this was all worth it.

Thanks,

Tiffany---with a y

[Tiffani]

Hi Tiffany with a 'y'

After we found our place to live, it took about a month to have our internet installed but we are very happy with the service. We have wireless broadband and it's $50/month flat, including all service fees and taxes etc, it really costs $50. We use iinet (iiNet - Broadband Internet - Phone - VOIP - ADSL) and we're very happy with it. We also have a bundle with them for broadband telephone (you just plug the regular telephone into the modem instead of the phone jack) and all local and national calls are free, and calls to the US are about 7cents a minute, so it's really cheap to call home.

While we were waiting for internet/phone to be connected, we bought a phone card so we could call home cheaply.

Sorry to hear your husband can't come immediately. That must be tough

For what it's worth, Melbourne is a great city (I live here and so does Dolly -- well, she lives in Mornington Peninsula which is close to Melbourne and even nicer than...) and apart from the COLD winter -- I'm telling you now so that you will know it's not always 85 degrees and sunny in Oz -- we're very happy here. The quality of life is significantly better than in the US, and you'll find the work-life balance very refreshing, once you get over the culture shock of not being crazy busy all the time

As for the other questions, fire away! My partner is like you about his books; they were the only things he really cared about in our shipment. They survived the journey though!

Take care,
Tiffani (with an 'i')

[tmrei]

Hello Tiffani, thanks so much for responding. It is reassuring and nice to make Australian contact when my current life is in chaos.

I don't even know when I'm going because I'm still waiting to hear from the shipping companies. This is their busy season. It is all pretty overwhelming. I can't do anything including fly to Cleveland to say goodbye to my family or buy my tix to Australia until I've got this piece covered, so it is all very limbo like. And then the knowing I'm leaving my husband it is all pretty tough...okay here are some of my questions...

I know I've read your other posts but nothing is sticking in my head right now. Please feel free to redirect me to the information if it is already there somewhere---just because writing soothes my nerves doesn't mean everyone wants to do it. And forgive me if I am inundating you with questions...

How much luggage were you able to take with you on your flight, what did you fly? did it seem like an interminable flight...

Where in Melbourne do you live? do you like the area. Are there areas you would avoid? how did you find apartment/house searching? are you renting or did you all buy? any major differences between us and melbourne accomodations? I am doing what Dolly suggested and collecting lots of letters here from landlords to financial establishments etc. did you have any challenges in this area. like opening a bank account?

How do people respond to you as an American? I'm not too worried I've traveled and know about that one. Like anything in time you become a person not a ____. But my husband is Mexican and as far as I can see he will be in a very (maybe very very) small minority. I don't see much of a Latin community there. How about you, have you run into any Latins or even Mexicans in your journey there? And part of why we even considered Australia is because there is a thriving salsa community. but the thriving salsa community, while very multicultural, is not very Latin from what I can see. (I'm wishing my husband was a good cook because I saw lots of posts of people bemoaning the lack of a a good mexican restaurant...I'm thinking I might bring my mother-n-law over and become a billionare


What about spiders? any big horrible ones (or little horrible ones?) are there ways that an obsessive person can use some home remedies (i don't know mint, clove, pictures of big animals) and put them in the corners of every room to keep them away. You're from NC perhaps you have less spider fears...but me....no no no.... i don't want to wake up in the middle of the night and find in the dark this furry thing as big as my hand either underfoot or near my hand or worse...yikes!

iVerizon said I needed to buy a global phone to use in Australia, Yet from my reading it sounds like it it would be better to buy a phone in australia because incoming calls in their system are free. I think I'm going to use your exact system but I have to figure out how I'm going to manage for the month before I get the internet. did you use a u.s. cell phone when you first got there.

did you all buy a car. Cars are crazy expensive there from what I can see. was it tough getting used to the right side steering wheel. (did you keep walking to the wrong side of the car?) I lived happily in NYC without a car, but having been in LA for 13 years I don't know if I could do without now. I'm sad to be saying goodbye to my little blue civic---I loved that car...sigh, I also loved the GPS. It was funny, I didn't even want the darn feature, thought it was too complicated and unnecessary, and now well, they must have GPS in Australia...

The company is going to put me up for a month while I'm looking for a place. I've started looking at the sites. but since I have no furniture and my husband's not coming yet...my ideal would be to rent a small furnished until my guy comes and we can look together. that's the hope anyway.


goodness this was long. It was truly rambling I know. Kind of journalling. It is all so exciting. all my friends are in their own crises (it's not a great time in this country) and so I cannot bother them with all these immense quantity of thoughts so you gave me a forum for putting some of them down.

thank you for that. oh and...

I loved Silver's blog, besides being handsome he's quite clever. My hope is that we too someday will have a dog (although don't hate me I'm a small poodle kind of person)

Thanks again,

Tiffany

[Dolly]

Hi there Tiffany (with a y ),

Moving halfway around the world is a daunting prospect. You will go through a whole gamut of emotions - not helped by you and your husband having to be separated for a while. I am sure it will all work out for you.

Which area of Melbourne is your job situated? And do you have an area you'd like to move to? If you have a look at Real Estate, Property, Land and Homes for Sale, lease and rent - realestate.com.au there's heaps of properties for rent or sale. It will give you an idea of what's out there and how much it will cost. Of course, bear in mind that the further out you go from central melbourne, the cheaper the rent will be. Also, do a search on the forum for melbourne suburbs, there's been a few threads recently on the subject.

The phone card I suggested is used via a landline, not mobile. You are given a choice of numbers you can call, you then key in the pin number you would have been given (which is a kajillion digits long!), then the phone number you want to call and hey presto..cheapo phone calls. We use it all the time to phone the UK and Switzerland.

If there's anything else you want to ask (and I'm sure there will be), just fire away. There's always someone on here who can help.

So, when are you moving over?

Spiders: well, they are about and they can be huge. The huntsman is the biggest. I have seen a few but not close up and we've only had a very small baby one in the house (the size of my thumbnail). We do get a few daddy longleg spiders but I leave them alone as they supposedly keep the huntsmen at bay. They are not everywhere. We did an an 'incident' in a car park a month or so ago (have a search on the forum for the thread I posted and you'll see what I mean) but other than that, it's been OK. I actually went on a course at London Zoo before we came over to help with my phobia but all things considered, they are a part of life and I've come to the conclusion that I've just got to get on with it. If I can...anyone can!

Dolly

[anj1976]

Hi Tiffany,

The questions you asked are probably what everyone one would want to know/ask. Great, let me put things together and will reply back. not tht i know too much but as much information that i collected from the net, i will let you know.

Wish you luck
Anj

[kaz101]

Hi Tiffany,

As Dolly said there is always someone around to help out so just ask away.
There will be light at the end of the tunnel and no it won't be a train either

Regards,
Karen

[anj1976]

One thing, please relax, you are going there for good, if it is such an ordeal then i dont think you should move from your current location. Dont take offence but i think you should stop panicking.

Trust me, after these initial hiccups your life would be much easier an dbetter then what it is. at times we have to give some to get some and in your case you will get loads.

I love writing too but somehow I have never been able to open up as much as you have managed here. so hats off.

1. Luggage.
As far as my knowledge goes, it depends on different flight carriers. Some allow you to carry 20 kgs and 7-10 kgs hand luggage. SOme allow you to carry 25 plus the hand baggage. You can check the respective flight sites, they have everything about the weight allowed. Some countries are allowed just one baggage of 20 kgs and some are allowed 2.
But all in all it wont be more than 30 kgs.

2. Melbourne as a city.
You can check www dot Citihobo dot com, (i am sorry but i can not type the site here), they have good info about melbourne and sydney. I have gone through it and it is a wonderful site, or simple type melbourne city on google and open as many sites as you can, they will give you plenty of information.

3. Rental
Most of people who migrate initially book a hotel / backpackers hostel, depending on their pocket, further they take up a rental accommodation till the time they are comfortable buying a property there. On an average the rental is anything between 250-500 for a single room accommodation for a week. again this depends on the area you rent the apartment.

4. Bank Account
There are several banks that open your account while you are at your current location. Banks like ANZ. They give you all details about your account etc, once you reach Australia, all you have to do is find the nearest branch of the respective bank and show your identification / passport and they unlock your account. From what I have heard any bank is more than willing to open your account while you are in Australia. Once you reach, within a given time period, which i think is a week or two, they dont ask for any other papers other than your valid passport and a visa stamped on it. So that is simple. Also you get a lot of initial help from Centrelink, you can check their site. If you do not have an internet connection, you can use their (i hope i am not wrong, a friend from Melbourne told me this). You can even take prints of your Resume from there.

5. People In OZ
Again, from what I have heard and read, Australians are very helpful. Just ask and they are more than willing to help.

6. Spiders
You dont see them in your day to day life. Animals in general are harmless if they dont have any threat from you. I myself hate lizards and my husband laughs when i run the moment i spot a lizard somewhere. But if i think about it now, i think they are harmless. Same is the case with spiders, they are busy in their own lives till you poke in their business and make it yours. . I think people have made it an issue that australia has killer spiders and the like. Truth is, they are there but not where you would be living.

7. Phones
Everyone uses a calling card, even people who have been living there for long. It would take you some time to get your own connection, till then you can use the calling card. You can use a global phone so that till the time you do not have your own australian phone, you can atleast be traced by those who want to be in touch with you, and once you have a phone you can discontinue using it and save your cost.

8. Cars
Most people I know who are in Australia, either in Melbourne or Perth or in Brisbane, buying a car is no big deal. People who are there on student visa are able to buy a second hand car as early as a month. The money is good and it allows you to spare some for the car, otherwise the public transport system there is good, you need not worry in case you are unable to manage buying one.

9. Right hand drive
I am from India, and here we drive on the left side of the road just like in Australia, It isnt difficult, we have some left hand drives as well, and those who own one are able to manage well. Its about getting used to it and once you do get used to it, you will be more than comfortable with it. So smile, nothing is difficult

You are lucky that you have company accommodation for a month, so that makes things even easier for you. Most of rentals in Australia are fully furnished. So dont worry about that bit too., and for a single person you will be able to manage in a studio apartment, they are loads available.

I hope this helps and i hope all the information i gave was right since all this is what i have learnt over a period of time after reading and reading and reading. :P

Cheers
Anj

[tmrei]

Good information abounds...it has been absolutely wonderful reading all of these posts...Bless you all...when I get home today I'm going to reread them..

.. and yes stop panicking... Believe it or not I'm not as nervous about driving, shipping, rentals, phones, and even spiders as I am about some other factors about this trip that actually are scarier. Yet, it is easier (and more fun) to focus on these things which actually have some easier solutions that people have managed....how was that for cryptic. Maybe when I get to Australia I'll try some of you for answers to those questions...But I am feeling better today after a good night sleep and all of this contact from a world that once upon a time seemed sooo sooo far away. Oh and I just put the Melbourne city skyline on my desktop---it is so lovely. LA's skyline is non existent, NYC's skyline-where I was before, sigh well that too is some extraordinary skyline, albeit changed...but this one..oh I don't know perhaps it is a bit fanciful...but this one seems to be calling....I can hear it


Tiffany

[Tiffani]

Hi Tiffany,

Anj's responses were good. now here's my two-cents as a fellow American (and a fellow "Tiffani" LOL)

The luggage requirements changed shortly after we moved, so I don't know. but if you check with the airline that will take you (likely Qantas) their website will tell you the rules. for what it's worth, the Qantas flight is easily one of the best flights I've ever taken as far as customer service and professionalism of the staff. You get lots of goodies too since you're going to be there for like 15 hours. The flight didn't actually seem interminable because eventually your body just gives up and you sleep. I am very high anxiety on planes (I hate flying) but after the stress of moving from the East Coast to the West Coast, changing planes twice, and going through security in LA, boarding the flight to Melbourne and leaving, it was 3am "my time" and I was exhausted. the flight took about 17 hours because we had to stop in Sydney to refuel, and I'd say I slept for about 10 hours of that. About 6 hours were straight, REM sleep complete with dreams. And it was a full flight.

All that said, I have had no desire whatsoever to get back on a plane since then LOL

I live in the Outer South-East, about 16 km (10 miles) from Melbourne City. It's worth noting that Melbourne proper is only abut 1 square mile, so most people live in Suburbs which are equally tiny geographically. It'd be like saying my uncle lives in The Castro, Calif. instead of San Francisco, Calif. in the neighbourhood of the Castro. It's kind of weird that way.

All the suburbs have their own feel, so it's good that your company is putting you up for a month so that you have can explore the different areas and decide what you want. We work at Monash University which is about 20km out of the city, and we needed to live close to work. we also wanted a backyard and didn't want to pay fortune, so we're further out of town than a lo to of our contemporaries. We didn't have any trouble finding a place but apparently the rental market is extremely tight right now so be sure to do whatever you can to make yourself more attractive to landlords.

People in Australia are very different to people in Europe with regards to Americans. There is no knee-jerk anti-American reaction here like you can get with some people in Europe. Mostly, especially in Melbourne which is very cosmopolitan, people don't really care. I've met a lot of Americans and Canadians here too, and nobody has had a bad experience that I know of.
You will miss the Hispanic culture though; it is practically non-existent here and certainly not as apparent as it is back home. In fact, a guy I know from Georgia came by my office on Friday and said "well, we're going to try a Mexican place this weekend. Wish us luck!" and I demanded a full report from him LOL Gone are the days of only going to the taqueria where nobody speaks English for a really good meal... I miss that, more than I suspected I would.

There are spiders here but I haven't been harassed by them. I am more annoyed by the snails than any spiders. I also hate spiders but they are sort of part of life. I haven't seen any huge ones in the house (yet!) but have seen a couple of small ones. They don't invade or anything

Incoming calls in cell phones here are free, but if your husband wants to call you from America, it will be more expensive to call a cell phone from his end than it would be to call a landline. But i would recommend getting a cell phone here. There are some pretty good deals and staying with Verizon on the long-term would be a pain in the ass if you're not in the US. Better to use a company that operates here. I bought a prepaid phone two days after arriving here because my cell phone back home didn't work abroad.

We did buy a car after about two months. Public transport is comprehensive but it's not as convenient as having a car, so we got one. We have a 2004 Hyundai Getz with plenty of warranty left, but it wasn't cheap. it cost about $14K which is very expensive for a wheelbarrow with an engine LOL. But it's a good car. And yes, you can get GPS here A lot of people seem to have it.
Adjusting to driving on the left took about 5 minutes and after 2 weeks or so was completely intuitive. The only real difference, if you're in an automatic, is that the turn signal is on the right of the steering wheel, so the first time I tried to signal, I turned on the windshield wipers! I still occasionally make that mistake LOL

Try melbourne.gumtree.com.au for information on housing in the area. There are a lot of short-term rentals, fully furnished that you can go for while you're looking for a place of your own.

dont' worry about the long post. It's very stressful to move halfway across the world, so we're here to help you through it I think this is a probably good time to come though, since the US is about to hit a massive recession by the sounds of it. Australia seems a little more insulated from these troubles, at least for the short-term.

Thanks also for your note about Silver's blog. occasionally she steals my blog and posts LOL She gets more of a reaction than my blog posts do. My partner said it's because she's a better writer than me! LOL

[tmrei]

I love this forum. I can't tell you how fun it is. I just read Tiffani's post and could so see myself turning the wipers on while trying to turn. I do think my husband, when I get him over that is, is going to struggle with the lack of anything familiar. But he, like all of us, responds very well to warm charming people and from my brief visit here and to the people who have interviewed me for the job...I think we're going to do just fine! We will just have to get him other types of HOT food - Thai? I swear we need to consider getting his family over there to start a restaurant business...and I'm going to HAVe to work harder on my Spanish so he doesn't feel so alone.

Despite that though I have this lovely image of it being a year from now (my guy by my side in some great spider free home) writing similar messages to some one seeking to leave their home turf.

and yes it is not a good time in the US. There are many wonderful things about this country, and I will always be proud to be linked to those, but i'm afraid there is a lot that's broken and it's leaking...

My husband and I dance salsa (that's why we looked into Australia, I don't know if you all know but there is a large community there--did I write that already..sorry if I said that.) anyway we're going tonight...YEA. and if all goes as planned for a few hours I will be thinking about nothing but great music and good dancing and will come home so exhausted and satisfied that packing and airplanes and painful separations will be far away in the distance.

Goodnight...or to you all good morning (it is 12:40 am there). Rest well

Tiffany