Time Flies

It has been a while since I wrote something on here. I think the reason I haven't is because I always feel the need to write about something interesting that's happened in my life and until now the definition of interesting was challenged by my activities. It has been a little over 6 months now that we moved here to Perth and my visa still hasn't come through at the time I'm writing this post. Unfortunately while my isn't here yet I'm only in the country on a tourist visa and I'm not allowed to work. Yay forever holiday! You might think, but after about a month or so or perhaps even sooner you'll start having trouble finding things to do and become bored, a couch potato and grasp at things that are even remotely interesting. I have always liked having hobbies and I've had a fair few sports related, arts or music related, tv or game related hobbies. However I've never had the chance to completely immerse myself in my hobbies and do them full-time instead of just on the side. In the first few weeks I went through a phase where I would buy some cheap wines, take off their label and stick them in a scrapbook where I wrote down how the price-quality was and whether we should buy this one again. Of course I realised that I didn't drink enough wine to keep me interested in this particular hobby unless I took up a whole different type of 'hobby'. Luckily I decided to take up painting again, learn a new instrument (ukulele) and learn how to knit. These are the things that have been keeping me busy as well as going to family events and (trying to) keep the house clean.

Something's that's kept me going was looking forward to going back home. Just about a week ago my boyfriend and I came back from our trip to The Netherlands where we stayed for almost three weeks for my cousin's wedding. It was nice seeing my family and friends again. The time spent back home went incredibly fast, it was so enjoyable that it slipped through my fingers. Of course it helped that I constantly had something to do, somewhere to go or someone to meet. It gives you a sense of purpose. And I think that is what I need, I need a sense of purpose. I have been trying to find it in my hobbies and even trying to make some friends but it's hard to make friends without something equivalent to a job or a study. Of course I thought about volunteer work but it's darn harder to find than you'd think. In fact I thought volunteering at Greenpeace would be fun only to find out you need a work visa to volunteer! I found a few other things but nothing I particularly wanted to do or had any chance of meeting people (like waking up at 5 to walk the seniors to the mall). I mean I guess I'm not such a noble person that I didn't want something out of volunteering, social contact (preferably people around my age). One thing I am immensely grateful for (sheer luck) is that I get along with my boyfriend's family quite well. I always enjoy the weekly get-togethers which give me a nice shot of social contact.

I have sent the final paperwork just over a week ago for my visa so all we can hope for is that it'll be here soon. And even better sooner than the 10 days I have left on my current visa. I'll keep you updated.

Glorification

The other day I had a pie for the first time since coming to Australia. I remember really liking pies and enjoying especially the barbecue sauce, which is very different from the weird barbecue sauce back in the Netherlands.  

Although that's tomato sauce.

It's batter filled with meat and sauce. Perhaps I bought the wrong brand or the wrong kind but it just didn't taste as good as it was in my memory. It got me thinking about all the things I glorified in my mind. I read quite a good article about this concerning culture shock and how when you move somewhere else you glorify your own country and when you move back the opposite happens. I guess having been in Australia before I didn't have the culture shock as much as I could have. But things here are different - shocking right? Clothes and shoes can be very cheap but food and electronics are incredibly expensive. Everything is very far away and it can take up to two hours to drive from one side of the city to the other - luckily I'll be getting a bicycle in a couple of days, too bad you have to wear a helmet here even though it doesn't help at all! Of course the weather is very different here. We've had a few high 30 degrees weeks now and even one week while the air conditioner was broken. I feel a little stuck because I can't do much on my current visa but I hope my actual visa will come through in not too long.

My boyfriend somehow managed to get a job within a week of us arriving here and not only got it within a week he started within a week as well! As long as he gets through his three months trial period it'll be a permanent position, so I very much hope that everything goes well.

In about 2 weeks I will be starting a short photography course for fun and maybe try and make some better photo's. - and perhaps make some friends.

Moving In with him

Usually you move in with someone because you've known them for a while, you are engaged, have been together for a while (months, years) or you want to take it to the next step. And then there's moving in with someone out of financial trouble, necessity or just because it seemed the logical thing to do.

Moving in with someone you only met the month before might seem a bit rash but to me it felt like moving in with someone I had known for a long time. After talking to each other for over a year we decided to take the risk. At least that's how it feels like in hindsight. At the time I had no idea what I was doing. Things really just happened. I was starting to run out of money and I had been trying to get a job. Staying with my newly acquired boyfriend seemed the logical thing to do. Suddenly months past and I was starting to get really desperate to find work. I quite literally - literally? Yes. Literally. - called up every café in Brisbane I could find online and asked if any of them were hiring. Then I would go to the ones that said they were and hand in my resume. None of them responded, sent me an email or called me. Eventually I ended up getting a job which I found through a recruitment website (seek.com.au) at a pawn shop in one of the dodgier areas of Brisbane. Or as the Australians would call it an area filled with bogans. It was great working there. Even though the hours were long and it was a 45 minute drive every morning and evening, the pay was good and the people were friendly. I didn't have that much trouble fitting in. I knew how most things worked and was actually the number two salesperson from when I started until I quit. 

My boyfriend had all the while started on his third job in Brisbane which was unfortunately only a contract job and had no possibility of growth within the company. Being quite young he had his university degree but barely any experience so he couldn't get a graduate role and no one would hire him for a senior position. So although the job wasn't stable he didn't complain.

When I left for Australia I had every intention of going back. I was always planning to go to University and even bought my ticket home before I left. My boyfriend lived a six hour flight from his family and didn't have many close friends in Brisbane and even his job was something he wouldn't be doing long term. Taking all this into consideration and the fact that we are madly in love with each other it didn't take him long to book a flight to Amsterdam with the intention of moving with me. Living together and having a job was so pleasant I nearly forgot that my reason for coming to Australia was to travel. So I housesat in Alice Springs for two weeks, I went to Cairns to dive in the Great Barrier Reef and went to Tasmania to visit a far removed family member that I'd never met before. As a final destination we went to Perth to meet my boyfriend's family and say his goodbyes before we left for Amsterdam. More than being sad at the idea of a family member moving to the other side of the planet my boyfriend's family was happy that he had found someone to be with.

The plan seemed simple enough. I would start studying Cultural Anthropology and my boyfriend would first have 3 months to find a job that would sponsor him and if that didn't work out he would apply for a working holiday visa so he could stay for a year longer while he continued to look for a job that was willing to sponsor him. We would be staying at my mother's place because I was still living with my parents and finding an affordable place to rent in Amsterdam is extremely difficult. 

In case you didn't know what Cultural Anthropology was.

The current (social) renting situation in The Netherlands is that in order to be allowed to rent in a certain city you must be in some way connected to the city or area by work or school. Then there is a priority system in place where the waiting time for an apartment in Amsterdam is at least nine to eleven years. There are possible emergency transfers possible for extreme cases like being pregnant and being kicked out of the house by your abusive drug using father. Anything less will not be seen as an emergency. There are of course student housing but they're mostly small rooms, with sharing bathrooms and legally only one person can live in such a room. 

Or rent privately but then the only thing we could afford was a parking space...

So we decided that staying with my mother - My parents got divorced when I was five. My father married my stepmother a few years ago and she brought her two children to the household. - was the most practical thing to do.