Good things

Just this year I counted seven flights that I have been on. Five of which were purely for immigration purposes. Now, I'm not writing this post to hate on the immigration policies or  the people working for that part of the government in any way but gosh how happy I am to be out of it for now! Yes you got it my visa has finally arrived and my last mandatory trip, this time to Singapore, has come to an end. In order to get a second tourist visa after staying in Perth for three months I left for bali just over three months ago. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on how different two countries so close to one and other are. Bali, while hot and humid just like Singapore was definitely less urbanized, clean and organised. Although both countries smelled a lot like the pungent sweet and sour fruit durian. While I was in Bali I tried the creamy smelly fruit and decided it wasn't my cup of tea, but then walking through Singapore you get confronted with the smell wherever you go, except on public transport. Singapore's public transport was absolutely fantastic. There were signs all around stating the amount of the fine you would receive if you would eat or drink in any of the public transport station and trains. Just FYI it ranged from S$500  to S$1000. This, no doubt, contributed to the cleanliness of the stations. The cleanliness and the asian feel, smell and shops reminded me more than just a little of Japan and in particular Tokyo. The tall buildings and the large amount of people on their perfectly timed public transportation made me feel homesick for a country I haven't been to in years. This all compared to Bali where public transport was pretty non-existent and all transportation was done with taxis and illegal rides on the back of scooters.  Scooters which flooded the streets and were a big part of the scenery on every road. As a place to stay in Singapore I chose a Hostel for Backpackers on Lavender street. The room had four beds and was only meant for women. The WiFi was included and there was free toast with jam and coffee available in the mornings. The nightly fees were very reasonable and the city was only two train stops away. All around the city there were massive malls filled with restaurants, for me it wasn't difficult to pick Japanese cuisine often but for anyone else the choice could be overwhelming. All in all I would say Singapore has been a positive experience and I even met some people who I could consider friends.

However, I must say, the best part of all was coming back to Perth after five days and having received my partner visa. As soon as I got back I started applying for jobs, I got a bank account now and once I get the bankpas I can get my drivers license changed to a Western Australian one. Ah how good it is to be a recognised resident as I'm sure Nombeko could relate although her case is much more extreme.

Immigration is always so intimidating.

On a different note I would like to introduce you all to our new friends: Ajax and Emma (cats). It's been so nice to have them around in our very own apartment. I have a lot of things to be happy and grateful for lately and I couldn't have gotten here without the help of the people I love. My mind has gone to some dark and pessimistic places in the last year or so but right now I really can't complain about much (I'm sure I can find something if I try really hard). Let's just hope things will only get better right?

Ajax is white with a ginger tail!

Also one last anecdote I would like to share, I had a dream last night where my boyfriend got a new job and they were making him sign an agreement where he would have to pay 50 dollars a day to have his uniform cleaned. I thought this was absolutely unacceptable so I had an argument with his boss which ended with him punching me in the face. I reported it to the police and decided to sue them for millions of dollars!  Ha! I didn't know I had turned into an American.

Lots of Love

Flux

This may or may not come as a surprise but getting a visa is a lot of work and a lot of money. Not because you don't fit the criteria or because you did shady things in the past but because there are a lot of fricking forms you need to fill in. And by forms I mean 26 page mountains you need to climb. One of the questions in my visa application asks me to write down all the countries I've been to in the last ten years! Ten years! This may not be such a task for some people but for someone who loves to travel and when ten years is half of the life you've lived it's a LOT to write down. They even wanted the specific dates of when I visited each country. I don't know about you but when I like a certain country I return to it more than once so I had to make a list:

• Iceland - because well I have family there and I used to go there every year when I could still afford it
• Germany – I've been to Germany many times because I have friends there who I met in Japan
• Japan – As you know I went here as an exchange student in High School.
• Australia – Because, you know...
• Belgium - Just because it's right there!
• England
• Northern Ireland
• France
• Croatia
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Spain
• Denmark
• Jamaica – It has been a long time since I went to Jamaica and it has probably been more than ten years ago.
• Italy - Also think this was more than ten years ago. 
• Czech Republic

 They wanted to know all the names and birth-dates of my family even my stepfamily, at least two statutory declarations of Australian citizens who know us and can verify our relationship, multiple pass photo's of both of us with our name written in the back, a written statement of how we met and with proof of our relationship, a certified copy of my birth certificate and my passport, – don't even get me started on what 'certified' means – a certified copy of my partner's birth certificate and passport and then another copy of his birth certificate for his 20 page form.

It was highly confusing and stressful!

We decided to start and IndieGoGo funding project to try and cover some of our moving costs. We have had a few backers so far so I'd like to remind everyone how awesome the stuff is that we have left. We have a lot of things we can't take with us that I would love to give away to our helpers: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fund-our-love So please help us out even if it's just a little bit it really means a lot to us.

After all this I had decided to be excited about Australia: I could probably start studying again. My boyfriend would have more chance to find job and I could go diving in one the most beautiful diving spots on earth. I looked around and even found a diving club I would like to join and a University that had some studies I was interested in. I talked positively about Australia because it made me feel better about the decision and I hoped it would make my boyfriend happier about it too. But the more positive I was the more negative he became. He didn't want to go back he wanted to stay and then he got a job offer from the interview he had a few days earlier. I wasn't happy, I wasn't unhappy. I was confused. I thought the universe wanted us to move to Australia but now it was giving us all these mixed signals. My boyfriend was very happy. He got what he wanted. We could stay. Yet all I could think about was that now I had to find a job too and I wouldn't be able to go to university until my boyfriend had a steady job. I did want to stay but suddenly staying meant that I couldn't study, or dive. My boyfriend would go from contract to contract hoping he could stay here for at least five years so he could get citizenship and not worry about being deported. Five years. I don't want to wait five years before I can start my life. It would've been nice if everything had worked out but it didn't and now we seemed to be stuck on this ledge of insecurity and uncertainty. If I looked more than a few weeks ahead my mind would go blank on where we would be or what we'd be doing. Nothing seemed certain. And then they called again a few days later saying they weren't sure whether they could actually afford him, they were going to have a meeting about it and they would know by 12^th November 2013. When they didn't call we called and found out his recruiter was on holiday. He wouldn't be back until the 24^th. So the 24^th came and we called again, he said they hadn't made a decision yet and that he would call the next week. I wonder if people ever consider whether their actions mean making life-changing decisions for other people. It feels like being stuck in an endless state of flux.

But even job offers have an expiry date, especially when your visa has one too. We still haven't received an answer to this day and we're going to accept that we never will. We have finally sent off our visa application, we canceled our house, sold our car and we're getting ready to move on the 10th of January.

A few nights ago I had a very interesting and scary dream. I had grown old and so had my boyfriend. Regardless of our age we went rock climbing. In the beginning there was a pretty clear cut path and although it was steep and difficult it wasn't that bad. There were two lines of rope on each side showing us where to go. But after a while it got more and more difficult so much so that we started tying ourselves to the rock. Then after a while the ropes stopped and there were only islands of rock sticking out that we needed to jump to, and you couldn't look down because we were above the clouds. That's when I woke up.