Tuesday 29 May 2012

A little levity...

Holy Dooley

We will cease to exist for this day next month.

The countdown is on.

Holy crap, er, no, I mean Holy Dooley (need to retrain my brain for Australia).

I can't write anything more right now. My brain is pretty much consumed with the content outlined above.


Tuesday 15 May 2012

Psychologically speaking...

We had our pre-departure psychology session last week.

"What is that?" you might ask.

Well, it's a 4 hour visit with a psychologist. For reals. And it was interesting, but in a good way. Alan and I had joked about this because being the emotional creature that I am*, I was worried that I might cry during the whole thing. And at the end of it, you are given a colour that represents how much support you may need whilst abroad (green, yellow, orange and red). Don't get me wrong, my personal belief is that "Red is Best" but in this case, Red is most certainly NOT best. And so the running joke was that Alan would be green and I would be red, as in "Code Red - She's not going to make it!". Haha. We joke about this, but I was a little concerned about our impending psychoanalysis. And I most certainly did make good on the promise of tears. We talked a lot about me, which was rather strange at first, I kept hoping the focus would shift from me to Alan, and it really didn't. It did foster a lot of awareness for both of us. We talked about culture shock, and dealing with homesickness and the pros and cons of going on this assignment. We talked about our families, and their plans to visit us. We talked about our hobbies, and whether we can pursue them down under (and yes, we can curl!). We talked about me, and what I plan to do, and how I plan to combat loneliness. (Apparently laying in the fetal position on the couch watching movies alone is not an appropriate way to help myself.) We talked about how Alan will have an easier time, given that he has his work and his colleagues and a ready made network, while I don't have that. And my lovely husband surprised the psychologist because he was so aware of this. We also talked about the impact that this could have on our relationship. In that, we will become more independent ourselves, but we will also become more dependent on each other. What I mean by this is that instead of us having our girlfriends and guyfriends to do stuff with, we will have each other. For example, Alan will come to yoga classes with me, and I will go to rugby matches with him.

You know, I was really dreading this part of the process, but in the end I really see the value in it. It validated us, and how we communicate, and it's good to hear someone say that our communication skills are good especially before we embark on this adventure. And we discovered a few things about ourselves, and each other, which is important. For instance, I think that I'm quite a shy person at first, and until I get to know someone, I tend to stay inside my shell, however Alan thought that this wasn't entirely true, and that I'm more outgoing than I give myself credit for.

The funny thing is that I went out to a movie right after we finished. I saw "The 5 Year Engagement" which was eerily applicable to our situation. Quick synopsis, a couple moves from San Fran to Michigan so that she can pursue her education. He quits his job in the culinary hot bed that is San Fran to move to the culinary cool bed that is Michigan, and needless to say, he goes a little mental. Here's a picture of him at rock bottom. Good thing I don't have a pink bunny suit or the ability to grow facial hair...



Visa application has been lodged. The household goods people will be coming soon to survey our house and see if our life fits into a 40 foot shipping container. I'm going to work on my nursing registration this week. We've found a property management company. And we've decided to bring the dog. More on that later.

So long for now!

*I just have to write a little sidebar to this... Yes, I am emotional and I cry (sometimes a lot, and sometimes for no big reason), but when we went to see "Up", the Disney movie, one of us cried, and it wasn't me.