And in the 7th month, they rested

We've now been back from Cairns for a few weeks, and have resettled into regular life. Justin has a couple of things happening on the paramedic front, so stay tuned for some potential news there in the coming weeks/months. There have been some fun highlights since we got back, include seeing the Barbie movie and attending the Monash Graduate Association's Annual Ball. But mostly for the past few weeks we have been resting.

We passed our official '6 months in Australia' milestone last week. I don't know if you guys realize this, but it has been a VERY busy 6 months. And if I'm being realistic, the time leading up to our departure from Canada was not exactly restful. Those days and weeks were also very busy and full of big feelings. I feel like we have been moving at a pretty breakneck pace since about December 2022. Its finally all caught up with me. Since we got back from Cairns I have been very tired. Its a full body kind of fatigue. I know its telling me that if I don't willingly slow myself down, my body will do it for me. So lately we have been doing a lot of resting. Justin had a head cold last week, that he has now passed on to me, so I suspect the resting will continue for at least another week or so.

Since we started the whole adventure, I've been telling myself that the first 6 months would be the hardest. I don't actually know if this will turn out to be true or not. But the first 6 months is when we were doing the most 'new' stuff. Not just in terms of tourism things, but in terms of daily life. In 6 months we moved countries, opened new bank accounts, learned how to navigate a new city without a vehicle, found a place to live, set up utilities, bought furniture & appliances, built new routines, found jobs, started a PhD, and made a bunch of friends. Its a lot. And when I list everything like that, what you don't see is all the missteps, false starts, or painstaking slowness and bureaucracy that surround some of these processes. All those moments of frustration when we thought to ourselves 'If I was in Canada, I would know exactly how to get this done'.

We knew going into this that there would be parts that were really hard. What we didn't really account for was how sustained some of the hard parts would be. As it turns out, loneliness and homesickness are pretty hard to get rid of when you are in a new country on the other side of the world. Talking & writing about it helps, and Justin & I have each other to lean on. But its more something you learn to live with rather than something that ever fully goes a way. Obviously some days its more present than others, but its always kind of there in the background. I have talked to some other international transplants about this, and they agree. You never really stop missing home, you just learn to cope with it while also enjoying your life here.

Despite the homesickness, overall the past 6 months have, on balance, been far more positive than negative. Sure, there were days when we asked ourselves 'what have we done?' by making this move. But there have been far, far more where we have felt like this was absolutely the right decision for us. So right now we are resting and taking a minute to catch our breath while we continue to build this new life.

Okay, on to more tangible things. I saw the Barbie movie a few weeks ago, which was amazing. Absolutely would recommend. I went to go see it by myself while Justin was at work one day, and I'm honestly surprised I haven't gone back to see it a second time with him. I didn't realize when I booked my ticket, but it was in one of those fancy theaters with the recliners for seats. Not only are they way more comfortable than regular movie theater seats, but they recline and their is a footrest. It all made for a very enjoyable self-date night.

We also attended the graduate association Ball was last weekend. It was a formal event, basically an excuse for grad students to get dressed up and party. It was held in the state library, which I loved! I believe I have a whole post about the state library from our early days in Melbourne. Still easily one of my favourite places in the city. A bunch of people we went to the ball with were from Melbourne, and had never been there before. I dazzled them with fun facts about the building while gently teasing them for not knowing their own city. The initial reception was actually in the dome, while the dinner and dancing was in one of the halls. We went with a bunch of fellow psychology students and had a great time. We drank (it was an open bar for beer & wine), we danced, we got sore feet from our impractical shoes (or I did at least). Pretty amazing that in 6 months we went from only having 2 suitcases full of clothes to having the resources (financial, social, and otherwise) to attend a formal ball.

Another strange thing that happened in the immediate post-Cairns recovery, occurred when I noticed my eyes were sore. I would wake up with swollen eyelids (just the eyelid, nothing else) and it felt like there was pressure/sand behind my eyes. This has happened to me once before. Pre-covid I used to wear contacts every day. Until I wore them for so long, and for so many days in a row that I actually scratched my corneas from over-wear. The doctor described them as looking 'like sandpaper'. Because of all the activities we were doing, I wore contacts every day in Cairns. I thought I was really carefully though - I now only use the super high end daily disposable contacts, and I have very expensive eye drops I also use. Luckily, I found an eye doctor that could get me in on short notice to take a look.

My corneas were not scratched this time. Nope, this time I took my contacts out 'too vigorously' and left fingerprints on my eyeballs. Not even kidding. The doctor said she could see 3 distinct fingerprint marks on one of my eyes, presumably from when I took my contacts out. Turns out not only are my eyes naturally sensitive and very dry, but I'm a partial blinker. I actually already knew my eyes were on the dry side. When I worked at the IWK, my eyes would start to uncontrollably water every day between 3 to 4pm. It was so common that when it would happen in zoom meetings, people used to use it as a sign that it was time to log off for the day. But the partial blinker part was new to me. It means that when I blink, I don't fully close my eye. I only go about three quarters of the way down. People who stare at screens all day also tend to blink much less than normal (guilty as charged). And Melbourne is a much drier place than Nova Scotia (I have noticed my skin is drier here than it was at home). The doctor recommended I start putting drops in my eyes at least 4 times a day on normal days. If I'm wearing my contacts, up to every 2 hours. Since I use the expensive, preservative free drops, there is no upper limit to how many times a day I can put drops in. I now feel permanently attached to my eye drops, the same way I am to my phone. Admittedly, my eyes are feeling much better. Now I just need this runny nose to clear up.