From there to here...

As my dad pointed out, we didn't update our blog or leave any closing remarks before we left, so for those of you who want closure, here it is. We spent the last few days in town cleaning, packing, selling off the remainder of our stuff (most of it to a grateful American just beginning her year and a half adventure in Oz- who knows how grateful she is now after realizing all of the crap we unloaded on her- good news is we did tour her around a bit before we left), and visiting our favorite spots for the last time. The whole experience was pretty surreal and hard to put into words. I took a lot of pictures of everything, which I think was my way of trying to hold on to things. Mark, on the other hand, accepted and even embraced the idea of moving on, though I don't think it really hit him until we set our keys on the counter and closed the door of our apartment for the last time. We flew out at 6 am, so we decided to just spend the night at the airport rather than try to catch the bus from our apartment at 3 am or pay 120 AUD for a hotel room nearby. We left our apartment around 9-10 pm Wednesday night, dropped off our rental van, arrived at the airport around 11 pm, stacked our luggage on one of those push carts (all 110 kilos/220 lbs of it), and then passed the time reading, playing games, showering, etc. At 3:30 am we wheeled our luggage to the ticket counter and prayed that we wouldn't have to pay an arm and leg to get it home. Fortunately because of when we booked our tickets, we had a greater baggage allowance. Luckily, we pushed the limits of that allowance without going over! After a brief sleep, we boarded our plane and headed to Brisbane. We had a short layover in Brisbane and then took off to LA. When we got to LA we found a place for breakfast/lunch, which anybody who has spent any time in LAX knows is quite a task, and then I took a nap until we left for Seattle. I have no idea what Mark did while I napped because I was pretty much dead to the world for a couple of hours. I do know at one point he grabbed his passport and boarding pass from the Qantas pouch hanging around my neck and I didn't even budge. From LA we flew to Seattle where our friend Karl picked us up and took us back to his place for dinner. I can't even begin to explain how nice it was to leave the airport and step outside in the fresh air. Then it was back to the airport for our final leg to Billings. We arrived in Billings at 11:30 pm, after what we calculated to be 43 hours of travel- needless to say we were exhausted!!! Fortunately we had a really good night of sleep in a comfortable bed on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to make up for all of the sleep we lost. I have to admit that I was pretty stupid on Friday- those who know me well know that I don't function well on little sleep. It started in the morning when I basically tore apart all of our luggage looking for some of my toiletries that I later remembered throwing away in Melbourne. Then I really struggled reading the menu at lunch, it was just a bunch of words and none of it was making sense (though in my defense, the Staggering Ox menu really is a bunch of words that probably don't make much sense). A little while later I nearly left my favorite water bottle at City Brew (an afternoon caffeine boost was necessary if I was to make it through the day) and then even accused the guy behind the counter of hiding it from me only to find it hanging from my finger. I could go on and on, but I think I've succeeded in getting my point across. The good news is that I got a little more sleep last night and was feeling much better (and smarter) today. The bad news is that my mind was clear enough to start thinking about all of the stuff that we have to do in the next few weeks to resettle into our US lives- a bit overwhelming, but sure to be yet another adventure!

A litle more detail

Nichole is a bare facts kind of gal. I, on the other hand like to go on and on. This is why her posts are a paragraph and mine blather on and on. I am a bit bored so I thought I'd elaborate on her last post. As she said we are trying to take care of the last few things we want to see in Melbourne. She is digging it. We go for walks and you can see in her eyes that she is really going to miss it. Me, I figure this is the same path I walk to the grocery store 3 times a week for the last year. Yeah, I'm gonna miss the place, but sauntering down the sidewalk isn't what does it for me, I need a destination. The good news is, we balance each other well and no one totally wins. So, we have been pretty touristy in our town. Like Nikki mentioned before we stopped in to a Aboriginal culture center, followed by the immigration museum. Both were interesting. The immigration museum was like a scaled down version of Ellis Island. They had very cool displays on how people got to Australia just a short time ago. As much as an 18 hour plane ride sucks, it sure beats a boat that sailed along the coast of Antarctica where 1/3 of the people died, or a steamship that took months and went through the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Southeast Asia... well actually that would've been a cool trip.
As for the Dali exhibit, like Nikki said, this was some cool art and a weird dude. I learned more than I ever thought I would want to know about Salvador Dali. On Friday night we went to Circus Oz. This was distinctly Aussie. After the show they invite you to hang out after be proclaiming: "see yuh fo' a be-ah!" Speaking of the glorious amber concoction we did the tour of Carlton Brewery where we learned VB is Australian for beer... not Fosters. Actually we already knew that but it was a clever way of saying it in the blog. We also learned that Foster's was actually created by a couple American brothers, it was huge in Australia until about the '70's and now VB (Victoria Bitter) is the suds of choice.
As for the home life, the apartment is pretty bare. We sold all seating within the first day of posting it (a week ago) and now sit on the floor. For Nikki, this is good reason to get out and about and for me it was a good reason to move the TV into the bedroom. As for the packing... suspense builds as we find out whether all of our crap will fit into 4 suitcases.

Wow, only a week to go...

The countdown has officially begun- we have exactly one week left in Melbourne. It's strange that even though we're sitting in a relatively empty apartment and saying goodbye to quite a few of our friends, it hasn't really sunk in that we're leaving for good. Maybe it's because we've left Melbourne so many times throughout the year that I feel like we're just leaving for another holiday. The reality of it is very different though and we've tried to acknowledge that by taking advantage of the many things that Melbourne has to offer. In the last week we've done a fair bit of walking around the city, made quite a few trips to the Queen Vic Market, eaten out a couple of times, visited an Aboriginal culture center, gone to the Immigration Museum, checked out the special Dali exhibit at the National Gallery of Art (amazing art, pretty weird guy though), experienced Circus Oz (probably not recommended for young children), and toured the Carlton Brewery. In between all that, we've been packing and cleaning. Plus, I attended the Australasian Association of Philosophy annual conference for a day and have been trying to rework my thesis into a publishable article. That's all for now, we'll try for a more interesting post later :)

It's all good

I have loved just about every minute of this year. All those other than the ones spent on that couch, and maybe the hour and a half a week spent at the evil place that need not be mentioned. I have made some friends that I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life. This week has been particularly reminiscent of the great times spent in Melbourne.
First off, we spent Tuesday evening touring the lane way bars of the Melbourne CBD (downtown). Amazing how much you walk by every day and don't even notice when you live in a city of 4 million.
On Thursday evening we hit the wine tasting down at Fed Square. Fantastic to have my carefree, wild, good timing chick back (I know that isn't the typical image most people have of her, but you ain't seen her at wine tasting!). The last few months for her were hectic to say the least. You could almost see the physical weight lifted off her shoulders when she pressed send to turn in her last paper, and it was just in time for our wine tasting. And she came out in full colors.
On Friday afternoon, I went down to the evil place to meet up with my old co-workers from the Jewish school. As much as most of those students were horrible little creatures, the staff were amazing. I don't regret working there even for a minute. The people I met there were among the finest I have ever met on the planet. There was John Wright, my Aussie version of my hero Uncle Hoz. A super cool old Aussie bloke that is phenomenal teacher and a better athlete than most people my age. Then there is Robert Field, a cantankerous Kiwi Jew that will speak exactly what is on his mind. He reminded me of Les Bennett from Fife. He has an absolute heart of gold that seemed pissed off a lot of the time. He is a big reason why I didn't develop a poor opinion of Jews. Speaking of, Ben Oliver was also the biggest stop gap from developing antisemitism. Another Jew that I worked with that was just an absolute sweetheart. Everyone that knows Ben loves him. He is very unassuming and gracious that can hold a great conversation. You can sit down with Ben an chit-chat for hours and feel like you've been best mates with him your whole life. Then there is Vince Curatore, the principal that runs the show. What a job he holds! He is essentially the liaison between the whack-jobs and the secular teachers and he amazingly holds the peace very well. But probably the closest friend I have made in this country is my mate Stuey. When I met him, he didn't really like Americans. He thought we were loud, obnoxious, insular a-holes. Which amazingly enough I changed this opinion. I have met a handful of people in my life (outside of family) that I know would do anything for me. Saggy, Nick, Cap'n Zito, Karl are a few that I would count as near brothers. I didn't figure in 1 year I would develop another here. But it kills me to think I won't be hitting the footy with this silly little Brit. Or drinking beers and watching the fire and listening to Brian play the guitar in his backyard. But the joy of the internet is that staying connected is not a difficult task in today's world. And Stuey has already decided he is willing to invest some money in the American economy to come see Montana.

Last night for the fourth we went to an American diner and had dinner with our American expat club. Just a few more people we'll miss. As much as we wanted to avoid making American friends over here (we didn't move to the other side of the planet to hang with people from around the corner), we just couldn't help hanging out with Marc and Alana and Angie and Kane. Their wit and sarcasm is just too entertaining to avoid, and Marc is a Kiwi so that helps justify it.
This is the reality of this adventure to me. Nikki said it best in her last post when she said: "We've learned that even though life goes on for our friends back home, it doesn't mean that they aren't in our thoughts and we aren't in theirs". It sucks to be away from friends and family, but I could never trade away the experiences and friends made here. And, along those lines, as much as it sucks to be leaving this place and all the great times had here, I can't wait to see my favorite Chicago Bears fan club; nephews Tyler and Wyatt, and niece Abby. As much as it sucks to not have a fire over at Stuey's, I can't wait to have a poker night with Whalen, McClure, and Shane Hosley, and all the other guys. As much as it sucks to not listen to Robert bitch in the staff room and John spout his words of wisdom in the staff room, I can't wait to discuss obscene topics in the lunchroom with Teresa, Nixon, and Karl. As much as I'll miss going to the footy with Stu, I can't wait to go to the a Seahawks game with Nick. As much as I'll miss fancy pants dinners with Tim and Carol, I can't wait to whoop Nick and Cara and Jeff and Dawn at some silly board game. As much as I'll miss gallivanting to some exotic Aussie locale, I can't wait to spend a school break going to Montana and building something in the shop with my Dad or building or fixing something for my Mom. Such is life, as one chapter closes another opens. If we focus on the the sad part of things we're losing we'd miss the great things unfolding in front of us.
So, to answer the question that is always asked: "what did you like best about Australia?" The easy answer is... the people. The sights were amazing, but people made it a home for us.