Sydney is a much hillier place than we had anticipated.  We mean this both literally and figuratively.  Some days the topographical ups and downs of the neighborhoods we’re walking both invigorate and exhaust, other days the emotional ups and downs of having moved to a new country do the same.

There’s a definite difference between traveling to a new country on holiday versus picking up and moving there.  On vacation, you exhaust yourself with adventuresome activities.  When you make a big move like this, you run the risk of exhausting yourself with the daily details of starting over.

You miss your family and friends (note the empty social calendar), you miss having a smoothly running household (note the need to get new phones, new internet, new utilities), you miss the old ease of daily activities (note the need to establish a new bank, new credit, and new stores for groceries, q-tips, and coffee), and if you’re Gina, you miss having everything in its proper place.

It’s been a struggle at times to strike a balance between letting ourselves experience this new country while at the same time start establishing a new life here.  Some days we have to tell ourselves to relax, everything will fall into place, we just need to be patient and give ourselves time to adjust.  Friendships will come along (per Gina’s count, we now have four), as will phone numbers and direct deposits.

We are not in the U.S. anymore, and part of this adventure is to experience – and embrace – what living outside of the States is really like.  Despite being a first world country and a first rate city, there are definite differences between here and there.  Some days we find ourselves railing against these differences, saying why can’t this be like that or why does it have to be so difficult or, in the lowest of moods, what were we thinking.

Recognizing these low moods and not acting on them is an important lesson we are both trying to learn.  We’ve discovered that moving 10,000 miles from home is apparently the perfect classroom.  Our first week here, we definitely spent some time hanging out in the valleys between the hills.  Without naming names, one half of us was particularly explosive about the things she didn’t like, while the other half of us was thinking that perhaps the 457 visa we’re on is called 457 because you will either last 4, 5 or 7 days in-country before deciding to go home.

Over the past two weeks, these emotional outbursts have subsided a bit, which isn’t to say that everything is perfect but rather that we are starting to better understand – and work toward fully embracing – our new surroundings.  Time moves more slowly here and sometimes even appears to move in reverse (case in point:  Guns and Roses is still playing on the radio).  This can both frustrate and reward, depending on how you look at it.  We are practicing adjusting our eyesight.