Leaving Brisbane

When I returned to Brisbane, I was surprised with the challenges I had with readjusting. I had major jet lag from the flying, and people commented for a week or two that I seemed flat or unwell. I’m not really sure what was going on, but I was hurting for a little bit after returning from SE Asia. Either I missed the lifestyle I had grown accustomed to in Phnom Penh, or I was recuperating from months of being sick off and on there. Either way, it was hard.

I do know that I was struggling to adjust to the bus system in Brisbane. In most of my adventures through SE Asia I was used to hailing a tuk-tuk driver with a simple nod of my head and for small denominations of dollars get carried to anywhere in the area I desired to see. In Bangkok, there’s a transit system that operates regularly, much like the NYC subway system only above ground. In Brisbane, on the other hand,  I lived in a place where buses were maybe every 30 minutes normally needed at least one transfer somewhere to get where I wanted to go. There was a lot more planning that had to happen for me to get anywhere.

Brisbane, after all, is a very large suburban-urban area. Or, as many people told me time and time again, Brisbane is a big country town.

Which meant I was at the mercy of the usually-late TransLink buses that would take me from Point A to Point B..with about 20 points between the two. During Brisbane’s cool winter time. With shops closing at 6pm every day (as opposed to SE Asia’s “open late” culture). Being a famously impatient and cold-adverse person, I did not take to these readjustments easily.

Most of my first four weeks of being back emphasized finishing my piece de resistance – my Final Project for the Masters of Integrated Water Management! I am pretty good at time and project management, so I was ahead of schedule and was able to calmly hunker down and polish my 70-page paper over and over again until I could submit it several days early. I booked several health appointments during this time (I wanted to check everything before I left since it was cheaper there than in the US), where most professionals remarked how calm I seemed considering how close my deadline was.

Admittedly, my calm demeanor and confident project management did not prevent me from stress eating. And I did have a hospital run a few weeks after returning…but that was mostly because I had had my medication adjusted just before and my health insurance told me I needed to make sure I was not reacting adversely to the change. Unfortunately, I had another infuriatingly bad run with the public hospital system in Australia (with a doctor yelling at me about how we are all going to die someday while I was asking him if I was okay) that may haunt me for a while to come. Don’t worry – I am still fine, just angry at a cocky doctor who was less than helpful with a simple concern.

Also, one week before submitting my paper there was a full-time conference on WASH in Brisbane. This was a huge week, as I was wearing several different hats every day at the conference, depending on the audience and time of day. I was working my consulting job a few hours during each day of the conference while I also represented my masters program…while trying much as possible to network for my own emerging WASH career. In some ways, the week was overwhelming because of the amount of people I talked to, but I also felt in my element. I am a social person who is hungry for learning and likes to network, after all. It was also very fun to see those I met in Phnom Penh and throughout my consulting/education come together and weave in and out for a few days.

And then, I submitted my paper.

I submitted it early, and it was anticlimactic. I was expecting some kind of little trumpet announcing my completion, or maybe a hug. Instead, I simply got an email saying, “Assessment Received”. And that was that. A few days later my friends from the class got together to celebrate our completion of the program – only then did I feel like I was really done.

Of course, my six weeks back in Australia included reuniting with friends and seeing people I had met throughout the last year and a half. I met up with friends as much as I could before I left – for dinner, for lunch, for festivals, for walks.

Some of my closer friends and I took a few days to rent a cabin in the Bunya Mountains and enjoy some relaxing freedom with each other before we started to return to our own countries. On our trip, we stocked amazing amounts of food that we cooked between long hikes around the mountain trails. There were wallabies carpeting the landscape with little joeys poking out of pouches everywhere! The air was clean (and COLD!) and smelled like trees and wooden stoves. At night, we’d go outside and gaze at the Milky Way in the darkness of a quiet, lamp-less place. We talked about funny and serious things over wine and movies. We fought off red-bellied black snakes before munching on trail mix. The retreat was a lovely respite from the rest of the world.

I worked until I left to return to the US (I am still consulting, too) so I did not have a lot of downtime before leaving. But that’s okay, because it meant I was busy and productive, which I like. 

A few days ago, I got on a redeye plane that took me out of my Australian Chapter of Life and placed me soundly back into the US for the next chapter that I have yet to open. I got a bit emotional while I left, but by now I have moved back and forth so much that it's become almost standard procedure for me.

In reflection about Australia, people asked me if I would take a job and live there. The answer is, I’m not sure.

The whirlwind 18 months have been so incredible and eye-opening that I feel it really gave me a chance to learn about my adult self and become more me. Australia was definitely a key piece to my transformation and incredible experience. It’s definitely a beautiful and peaceful place with more adorable and fuzzy animals than you can shake a stick at. And the people I’ve made friends with in Australia are outstanding and supportive friends. I am so glad that they are in my life and I wish I could safely bottle them up and take them with me wherever I end up. 

That said, I’m used to a different lifestyle that lets me be more mobile without a car or worrying about early business closing hours. I’m not used to watching TV in the evening - I'm more about  exploring interesting social events in random parts of the world. In some ways, the Australian culture is perfect and family-friendly and relaxed and secure…but I don’t think it’s for me. I like messy, adventurous, buzzing, aggressive places and cultures…like what I've experienced in NYC and Phnom Penh. I like dirt and tightly-packed streets where I can escape for a weekend. I like knowing that I have a small patch of city I can walk around and get everything I want without taking a 45-minute bus where I will feel carsick. 

I think if I was a quieter person with a lot less demands on a place (i.e. free and diverse activities, late-night options), and with a family to care for, I would jump on the opportunity to stay in sunny Australia. For now, I think I will love my Australian Chapter and look forward to visits back for friends and vacations.

A Quiet New Year

About a week ago was the Khmer New Year. Most of the foreigners (aka expats) fled the country for holidays in cooler climates, and locals headed into the provinces to visit family over the holiday. I, on the other hand, opted to stay in Phnom Penh and work on my research project, furiously coding transcripts and trying (with tired eyes) to interpret my codes into a tangible story. I’m still working on making sense of the data and putting together my analysis, so I’m glad I stayed behind.

People here asked me what the city was like during the week everyone was gone. Honestly, I didn’t venture out too much because of my research, but I did go outside here and there. Simply put, it was hot and empty.

Firstly, it was hot. Of course, this is not an interesting observation; it is consistently in the 30s C / 80s-100s F. But that week was exceptionally hot – most days wavered between 39C / 102F to 40C / 104F (and that is not including the increased degrees for the “RealFeel” measurement). I hid in my bedroom with the aircon  nonstop in order to avoid melting; going outside seemed extremely unappetizing.

Also, Phnom Penh was silent and empty. The quiet meant I could sleep longer into the morning, which I found rather pleasant. And the streets were free of parked cars and people; only a couple cars would be driving down the main roads, whereas normally it’s packed and congested traffic nonstop. The reduced number of people made it easier to walk down the streets because there was no competition for space.

Actually, this walking around on the street was short-lived. Whenever I tried wandering more aimlessly up and down the street, I would get some tuk-tuk drivers’ attention. Normally, this attention includes someone shouting, “Hey lady want a tuk-tuk ride?! Where are you going??”, trying hard to make a transaction. Over the New Year, though, the attention was more tuk-tuk drivers’ adamantly yelling for me to get back on the sidewalk and put my phone away. It seems that some people take the week’s emptiness as an opportunity to speed down empty streets recklessly. Also, someone mentioned that theft goes up in the New Year because people want nice things like smartphones and will ride down the street on their motorcycles to snatch your belongings if you’re too close to the street.

The tuk-tuk drivers weren’t asking to give me rides, they were just genuinely concerned about my wellbeing. Which was a strange change of pace for me, being used to politely declining constantly as I walk down the street.

Despite the emptiness, I did have a little bit of a social life. There may not have been very many things open or people around (every restaurant I like to go to was closed), but I had a few friends who stuck around as well, and we'd go out to enjoy each other’s company over cold beverages (Brown Coffee was open, of course).

One friend had a dangerous allergic reaction to some strange ingredient in a meal while in the city that week. I tried to help that friend find an EpiPen or some allergy help so that they could figure out what happened to them. Just to let you know: Cambodia doesn’t have EpiPens. Try all you might, you will not be able to successfully source EpiPens in this country (and if you magically can, I am going to guess it’ll cost a lot). Luckily, this friend went to an embassy and sourced an EpiPens that way, but otherwise was looking at having to go to a clinic for a stab of adrenaline if anything else happened. This medical mishap was alarming for me in some way. I wonder, if someone has a child who is allergic to some food, what do you do? If someone is deathly allergic to some kind of insect or surprise allergy (and is a baby?!), what happens? It reminded me how some things that work in countries like Australia and the US are far cries from how things work in countries like Cambodia.

Don’t get me wrong! Cambodia is progressing and evolving at lightning speed. There are so many developments happening here, even for the 3 months I’ve been here! And so much is happening that it’s very exciting to be here and watch it change and morph into a new kind of society. That said, I do miss the immediate healthcare of other places. 

What I Like Here, Today

I never thought I would ever feel homesick for the US, but right now I am. I have not been silent about this, I know, but I feel that it bears repeating because it is so surprising. I have been meeting up with classmates over the last week who are sharing the homesickness with me - it is nice to know I'm not alone.

I think it is mostly because we are on holiday from school, and Brisbane is (as I have pointed out) a pretty quiet city for broke, car-less young non-married folk. A bunch of us come from louder cities that never close down, and we share our new-found appreciation of the busy-ness of our towns We also share how we are trying to cope with the quietness until schools starts back up. Some of us have taken up baking and crocheting. I myself have bought a coloring book and am practicing bike riding on the bike my CT Lawyer got me. I still ache sometimes for the impromptu and last-minute performance or festival NYC offers at almost all moments of life.

While I am currently fighting the homesickness of being down under for a long time, I thought I would motivate myself by noting some of the local things I have come to love here.

• Vegemite: Well, really, I love Ozemite, which is the gluten free version, but I am still shocked that I can honestly see what Aussies enjoy about salt-lick goo. What is it? Basically yeast paste from the dregs of brewing. Delicious sounding, I know. But if you toast up some bread and spread a lot (a. lot.) of butter on it, and put a pinch of Vegemite on top, it is a tasty toast with a kick.
• Cheese: Alright, I have always loved cheese, but Aussies do cheese really well, guys. Their simple grocery store cheese is scrumptious, and I've discovered Persian Fetta, which is kind of like if soft goat cheese and Greek Feta had a child together. If the world decided I must be vegetarian forever and always, I would be fine with it as long as I can still consume my cheeses.
• EFTPOS: It is probably not a great invention if you lost your credit card or get it stolen, but chips in cards here make shopping much easier, as you simply tap your card on the screen and you're good to go - called EFTPOS. I don't have to sign for things anymore, which really isn't that big of a deal but it can be obnoxious.
• Pawpaw Ointment: Aussies ferment papaya and make it into an ointment that is a less greasy version of Vaseline or A&D gel, and it is awesome. I can put it on almost any kind of discomfort on my skin, and it starts feeling almost immediately better. Even the label states it's for "boils, burns, chafing, cuts, cracked skin, gravel rash, splinters, open wounds, insect bites, and nappy rash." I am not sure I have ever used anything as multi-functional before, and if you know me you probably know how much I love that.
• Quiet Nights: It is nice to come home and know that more often than not, I will be able to fall asleep with only the noises of nature rustling outside of my window. There is something very satisfying about falling asleep not worrying about the downstairs bar releasing the bloodhounds at 2 AM. And there is not even a bar near me, so I am really set on this front.
• Patient Passerby's: While I have been practicing my bike riding, I have really come to appreciate just how patient people here are with me on the road. The cars patiently slow down or stop while I panic and swerve off of the road to avoid impact. And observant pedestrians have walked around me in large arcs onto grassy knolls when I am barreling down park paths (whimpering). I know if I was in NYC practicing, I'd be chewed out by impatient walkers and hit by at least a handful of cars by now, both parked and in motion. I know this because it has happened to me before. Thank you, Brisbane, for having immense patience and compassion for those of us sorry souls who are still learning basic life skills as adults!
• GF Industry: Australia, my CT Lawyer proposed, has a robust gluten free food industry because there is so much wheat in most foods in stores and restaurants. We have posited that it is due to a larger wheat industry comparable to the booming corn industry in the US. Whatever the reason is, though, it means Celiacs like me can get a delicious meat pie for lunch, and lots of decadent chocolate desserts. Well, maybe too many desserts....
• Meat Pies: Also known as pot pies in the US, the Aussies are really big on meat pies. The nice thing that they have mastered pies beyond the American standard chicken pot pie - and really there are very few times over the years I have really wanted a chicken pot pie. But Australian meat pies could be a regular thing for me! Today I had a beef and pale ale (gf) pie at a local bakery, and I would get one again tomorrow if I lived closer. 
• No Snow: Winter here is like a crisp fall in New England. I am not complaining.