The learning curve

If you want to learn a thing or two about yourself - take yourself out of your comfort zone.  It's an eye opening experience, and it ain't always pretty.
I like to think that I have learned immensely from this experience, from the cultural climate to the natural beauties of this place.  But I wasn't expecting to learn about myself - I'm 40 after all, I should know myself by now, right?  So naive.


First, I think I grossly underestimated the impact of moving to another country, and one so far away from home.  My immediate reaction to the possibility of moving to Australia was YES!  YES!  YES!  It's gorgeous!  It's cosmopolitan!  It's beachy!  The accent...ohhhhhhhh the accent!  YES YES YES!   Well, it is gorgeous, that is for sure.  It's cosmopolitan as well - the city is amazing.  As for the accent, I'm sad to say that I don't notice it anymore.  So much, that I heard a little girl at the swim school talking to her mom, and I thought they were American.  And then I realized that they were Australian, but I've become so accustomed to their accent that it just sounded normal to me.  Side note - Australians LOVE American accents.  I have so many people tell me that they love my accent, and I always reply with the fact that we love Australian accents..and they always repond with "eww!  no!  we sound terrible."  It's like the gorgeous skinny girl who complains that she is fat...except that we love the Australians, but not the whiny skinny girl.


Anyway, I have adjusted.  Jeff has adjusted.  My kids have adjusted.  They have friends, they go to birthday parties and playdates, they have favorite restaurants here, and they use lots of Aussie-isms.  Jackson hates this, and complains, but hasn't yet realized that when he critiques us on the use of such words or phrases, we then kick into overdrive using as many as possible.  Hollie is the master at this, and she knows HEAPS (see, there it is) of expressions.  


But it wasn't without bumps!  


Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road...Flashback to "Oh NO, oh NO, I went the wrong way and I have to drive on Pacific Highway.  OH NO OH NO..." etc etc...that was with poor Jackson in the car with me.  I did make it through Pacific though, although I still hate it, but because of traffic now.


Undoing my learned driving etiquette..Jeff still doesn't have this one down yet.  When someone puts on their blinker to move into your lane, you let them.  If someone is turning from a road that meets the one you are on, you let them go in front of you.  I have never, not one time, waited for more than one or two cars to get over after turning on my signal.  It makes driving much less stressful when you know that if you are in the wrong lane and need to quickly get over - you can without any horns, yelling, finger lifting etc.  


Shopping...well I've said it all before.  Different brands, prices that feel exorbitant, different styles.  With that said, I will not, not ever, not ever EVER, wear those cutoff denim panties, err..shorts...


And most significantly, being friendless in a new place.  Wow, that is a big one.  It is a very isolating thing, and I learned that I am not naturally one to create opportunities to meet people.  I also found that people are not as friendly as what I am accustomed to, and it felt very cold for a while.  At the school functions at Hollie's school, there was some small talk but very little else.  And then, just like it always seems to go, there was a mom who went out of her way to introduce me to the others, to invite me to things, to give me tons of info on where to go for this and that.  At the same time, I started to make some friends through some of Brynn's activities and preschool.  


Now something occurs to me that I never anticipated.  I am really going to miss these people when I come home.  I may never see them again!  Coming here, I knew that I'd see my friends and family again since this is not permanent, but I never once thought about leaving here and going home, and what that would mean.  I'll just move on off of that topic because it feels depressing and all this rain is just making it dreary enough as it is.
But, let me just say one more thing - I found someone who likes to shop more than me, and it turns out that we have the same taste in almost everything.  And all this time, I thought it was Jeff that was my soul mate.


With this move, I realize that there are some things that are good to have in your life toolbox when you make a move like this.  Most importantly, I realized that I feel pretty good about who I am, but I'm also still learning and developing myself.  But hey - that's okay - even at 40.