The Big Move

In September 2008, I took a three month leave of absence from Gorilla Nation to move from New York to Australia. During October I traveled back and forth between New York, Chicago, and Vegas tying up loose ends and preparing myself, my pup, my apartment, and my life for a global change-up.

And then on October 26, 2008, I took the first step of my move by traveling to Hong Kong for a one-week stay with Jay before continuing on to meet my good friend and future roommate Meredith in Sydney. I should note that at this point I only knew one thing about Hong Kong: it was where Cabbage Patch Kids came from. While this was true for me (my dad had made trips to Hong Kong when I was young and brought my sister and I back the coveted Cabbage Patch dolls as they were sold out in the US), it was not what one would typically consider to be the most important thing for to know about Hong Kong before visiting the country.

When I arrived in Hong Kong, Jay had only been there for a month and most of that month was spent at the office. As he was working the day I arrived, I made my first memories of Hong Kong all by myself. My first experience was walking out of the airport with my driver only to be hit with a thick wall of hot air. It was October and it was 85F with 100% humidity.

My second experience was severe jetlag; a jetlag like I had never experienced during all of my travels to Europe and the Middle East. I struggled to stay awake and used the television show “Lost” as my device to do so; the show was so intense and addictive that it forced me to stay awake waiting for the next exciting episode so that I would not fall asleep too early or nap midday.

My third experience was discovering that wearing makeup in Hong Kong was oftentimes pointless. On my first night in Hong Kong, the plan was to take a taxi to Jay’s office and we would go to dinner from there at a highly recommended, fancy Chinese restaurant (which would turn out to be my fourth, and most odd experience yet). Of course I had not seen Jay in about a month, so I wanted to look good. I spent an hour and a half ironing a dress, straightening my hair, and carefully applying my nighttime makeup look…only to have my hair frizz, makeup melt, and dress get sweaty as soon as I walked out the front door. The fourth experience, which is actually part two of the third experience, was ordering hot and sour soup at the Chinese restaurant only to discover that it came with a special treat: tongue. I don’t remember which animal the tongue came from, all I remember is that I decided then that American Chinese food was clearly NOT authentic Chinese food.

Throughout the remainder of my week I acclimated to the humidity, ate more Chinese-Chinese food, and started to like it, and explored the expat neighborhood on Hong Kong Island (and watched a lot of Lost, a LOT of Lost, all of Season 1 as a matter of fact). We went with some of Jay’s colleagues to watch the major fall rugby tournament, which was an annual competition between the Australian and New Zealand national teams. It was a fun week.

But by the end I was very excited to leave and start my new life in Australia. My first trip to Hong Kong was fun, but watching Jay create his new life there made me more eager to do the same in Sydney. I hopped on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Hong Kong to Sydney (after paying over $300 in overweight baggage fees – Virgin is the WORST!), and met up with Meredith at customs in Sydney the next morning.

Arriving in Sydney was very exciting! The sun was out and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Meredith and I had booked a hotel room for a week in a neighborhood called “King’s Cross,” which I would soon discover was the red light district of Sydney. While that may have a negative connotation, it was a fun place to spend the first week because there was always something going on.

Our first week consisted mainly of navigating the mobile companies of Australia, which were a nightmare compared to the US as customer service is not a concept there. It took us days to get phone plans and even then, we had glitches. We were homesick for American telecoms, but still blinded by the beauty of Bondi Beach and the Sydney Harbour so nothing really phased us too much.

Our second project was to start looking for apartments. We soon discovered that Sydney in summer is a tough place to find a short-term lease! We were basically in a competition and race to find an apartment. We quickly learned to bring our documentation with us to each viewing and to flirt with the real estate agents. After looking at no less than 25 apartments, we were accepted for a flat in the CBD which was close to Darling Harbour and the QVC Shopping Mall. It was a massive apartment compared to NY standards, which meant that our next escapade would be a trip to Ikea (or three trips).

And then, after we had settled in and made a home for ourselves in Sydney, the fun finally began. I still had one month left on my leave of absence to hang out and be a beach bum. Meredith and I visited Bondi as much as we possibly could, explored Sydney and all of its surrounding areas, and made ourselves known at the local hot spot The Ivy. We had done it. We were living in Australia, all on our own, and were having the time of our life.