Freshly Arrived in Brisbane

And I'm glad the 30-hour trip here is finished, because it was long. Long long long. Granted, the Qantas flight from LAX to here was about as smooth as can be and had great stewards (and, dare I say, great meals!). And sure, I had a 9-hour layover in LAX where I could shower and relax and regroup beforehand. But still, it was long, and kind of uncomfortable, and I am glad to be done for now.

I should also note right now that I am beyond jetlagged as I write this, and am feeling sleep tug at my brain with a whimper and a whine. I think this excuse should exonerate me from any gripes about my griping.

Fortunately, my flight landed here about 45 minutes early, letting me take my time while I got through customs. I'm sad that my luggage was significantly roughed up by airport staff, and have some major cracks in the hard casing of both of them...but hey! they both arrived! My stuff is here after being separated from me for so long, and for that I am grateful.

I exited customs a bit confused, and felt like I must have done something wrong. That's because I didn't get any stamps in my passport. No stamps! I looked around just to make sure no border officials were running after me with a rubber stamper in hand before I got through the sliding doors. There was no such scene. I was surprised, and I'll admit a bit dismayed. I mean, what is the point of the passport booklet if I do not get stamps plunked onto the pages? So my new passport remains a bit empty. I should applaud Australia for moving beyond the mildly archaic system of stamps in a book...but I really wanted a stamp.

Anyways, leaving the airport I looked around for my ride that was arranged for me by the school. The other drivers struck up a conversation with me and nicely told me the guy picking me up would be a bit late. That's fine, I was early anyways. The cab driver guy was super friendly and talked with me about NYC and snow. And I decided to pick up a SIM card from a nearby kiosk, so I could let my family know I was alive and in ridiculously nice summer weather. Because I am a nice person.

The guy at the Optus booth was also very pleasant with me and chatted for a while as he got my phone number set up. Being an impatient New Yorker, I drummed my fingers a bit and interrupted him mid-sentence to ask if my phone was ready yet. But he patiently dealt with my impatience and finally sent me away happily with a phone blowing up with messages from home. People here are, so far, living up to the stereotype of being incredibly friendly. That encourages me.

Just FYI, I love smelling new places as soon as I get there. Brisbane, so far, smells like flowers. Fresh, blooming, subtle yet flagrant flowers. I was kind of surprised; Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia, so naturally I assumed it would have a bit of a steely smell. It doesn't, though! Clean and flowery.

I showed up at my Airbnb place under some pretty intense morning sunlight and got dressed for a long day ahead of me - because, you know, you shouldn't go to sleep until the end of the day after a long-distance travel (hence this meandering and wordy blog post right now!), and it was only 10am. Luckily, the hosts are very helpful and informed me that the house is about a 5 minute walk from a very large shopping mall, where I could get groceries for myself. So of course I trotted on over to this place - the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre.

The problems of moving to new countries (or even just new places in general) is having to start over again. But I'm not just talking about how I have to re-accumulate big things like furniture and little things like pens and an umbrella (though, that, too). I'm talking about things like starting over with the English language and my daily routine. Maybe this is the jetlag talking, but as I walked through the shopping mall, I realized that words in my normal vocabulary would have to get swapped out for more locally appropriate words. Like how light bulbs will now be called globes. And how elevators are now lifts. My mind was putting together a vocabulary list for me to review later, once I have had some sleep.

Most upsetting at the time, though, was when I was looking for face soap. I had forgotten to pack the foam soap brand I've used religiously for a couple years - I hadn't really thought of it. However, as I stumbled around the stores (a KMart here, a Target there...), I realized that I might have to start over with my face cleaning routine. With a new brand. And a new soap that would have a different interaction with my unreasonably fragile ecosystem of a face. And then I thought about the other sensitive routines I have finally tamed and balanced to keep my body functioning normally. And all of the things for which I would have to find alternatives.....and I got emotional. How would I be able to figure it all out? Am I really staying in Australia for at minimum a year?? Would I be able to survive this little educational experiment of mine?? That's about the time I realized I was getting overwhelmed and overstimulated and sat down on a couch lounging in the middle of this shopping place (it's a very nice mall). I'll tackle those questions and adjustments another day.

Though, despite these changes, I do feel like I have moved to another state in the US, and not across the planet in a very far-off land of kangaroos. I mean, sure there are major differences like driving orientation and very colorful currency. But many of the stores are the same, as well as the language. Sometimes the accent even sounds a bit American. It's almost concerning, this feeling. Granted, I haven't seen much of this country yet. I'll report back on this later.

This seems to be a bit of a suburban city. Lots of cars. Lots of sprawl. Not a lot of high rises, and a lot lot lot of houses bundled together in neighborhoods. I recall hearing someone saying that Brisbane/Queensland is like the Florida of Australia - the weather is always tropical and warm, and the city is still sleepy and a bit backwater. Having driven a while to get to this apartment, and passing by a lot of shopping malls and strip malls, this is one of my biggest concern about living here. I am really, really hoping that that analogy was not very accurate, and that this place has a lot of offerings and fun things to do. Maybe not like NYC, which will be an super hard one to beat, but have some amount of culture and activities to try out. I mean, it's 2 million people, I'm sure there are things to do here, right? Right, guys? Right?!

Yeah, alright, I should get some shut eye.