One Twenty Five

There were no guidelines, no rules, no list of tasks to follow when I decided to move from Toronto to Melbourne.  One day I was in Toronto. Then the next day I was in Melbourne. I even booked my Melbourne hostel four hours before my plane took off to show you how little planning I did.

Before I left home I had no idea what I was doing, I just knew I wanted to do it, and so I did.

As I’m sure most people would quickly figure out, and I did within hours of being here, I needed to get the following asap:

A local phone number (done!)
Open an Australian bank account (done!)
Find a place to live (done!)
Find a job (in progress…)

And then there was my secondary list

Find friends/company/people to entertain me
Learn the public transport system (done)
Find a running group

So yea… that was pretty much my entire “moving to a new city” list. Pretty simple, right? The past 17 days have been a whirlwind, I still remember the feeling of walking through the city alone on my first day here - I felt so little, so lost.

I was a nobody, who knew nothing.

But as the days ticked on, I started to learn new things; little and big:

where the best beaches are
who makes my favourite cup of coffee
the good areas.
the sketchy areas
where my local library is (even got a library card!)
how to set up Australian Internet (takes foreva)
how to get a tax ID number
how to get an Australian photo ID (pubs only take foreign passports)
the drinking age (18)
the driving age (18)
how an accent makes everything easier
that I can drive on the right side of the road
how it’s the law to wear a helmet here when riding a bike
what the good local newspaper is
what tv channel hosts all my fav American TV shows
which electronics work here,
and which don’t (blew out my blow dryer. tear)
where the cheap, but good clothing stores are here
to look right, then left when crossing the road (although I mess this one up daily)
catch phrase differences (saying “excuse me” here is rude, and “it’s alright” means it’s good)
where to find Internet in this city (harder than I would have ever thought!)
what’s open late besides McDs

So yup, there that all is. I also have to mention the kindess of people here have blown me away and made this transition smoother than I could ever have imagined.  I lucked out in the roommate and friends (I’m looking at you Maeg/Luke) department, and have been fortunate enough to have everything go fairly smoothly. I’m still learning, still putting pieces together (job search. job search. job search.) but slowly, and surely, my new little life is coming together, and what I dreamed of way-back-when is becoming a reality. (!)

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I don’t really know what the point to this post was, except that I wanted to share that I didn’t know anything on Jan 31 when I arrived here. Anything. I learnt it all, one day at a time. One mistake after another.

I often get emails from people telling me they want to travel, or move to a new city, but don’t have the courage, don’t have the guts, wouldn’t know where to start….  But I’m living proof that that doesn’t matter. You do it. Then it’s done. And then you learn. Little, by little, day by day, pieces will fall into place.

Actually, come to think of it I’m not sure anybody knows exactly what to do when they leave home, but they figure it out, and if that’s what you want to do, I promise you, so will you.