Bounce back

This week was better than last week. Not only were we both in better spirits, but we finally got some good news. Early this week we heard from the Australian health professional licensing board. They deemed Justin to have 'substantially equivalent' paramedic education. This means they recognize his Canadian paramedic education and credentials, and he is eligible to apply for registration as a paramedic in Australia. This news was a massive relief to both of us. If I'm being honest, while I expected they were going to honor some of his education, I assumed he would have to do a very expensive and stressful competency assessment or written exam before they he would be eligible to register. Neither of us realized how heavily this was weighing on both our minds until after we got the news. We both feel like a weight has been lifted, and are sleeping better.

I should note that this doesn't mean Justin is officially a paramedic in Australia yet. He still has to apply for registration with the Australian licensing body. But his Canadian paramedic education and credentials have now been verified so he is able to apply for that registration. Confused and stunned by the red tape & bureaucracy? Yes, you will notice that this is an ongoing and significant part of moving to another country.

Thankfully, the application for registration as a paramedic should take less time to process. However, there are still a bunch of documents Justin needs to submit. A lot of these are things he has already submitted (eg. passport & drivers license). Since all of our documents are Canadian, they have to be 'certified' before the college will accept them. I'm sure you are all curious what exactly 'certification' means. Don't worry, there is a whole pdf guide for that. Essentially, his documents have to be signed off by an upstanding person: a member of a registered health profession, lawyer, police officer, judge, public official, teacher, etc. This is one more example of the challenges of being in a different country. If we were at home, this would be super easy. There would be a bunch of people we could ask. But in Australia, its a different story. Luckily, teacher is on the list, and my supervisor kindly agreed to sign off on everything. So this week Justin got to meet my supervisor, which was kind of fun.

In the midst of all this, a few more exciting things happened this week. Mostly to Justin. All I did this week was read papers. Justin got his Australian license. They reciprocate Canadian licenses as long as you have had 3 years with a full license. I go in to get mine later this month. This is one of those things that had no reason not to go smoothly and without issue, but still can be nerve wracking (what if they recently changed the policy and didn't update the website? What if he didn't bring the right proof required? etc). Thankfully it all went smoothly.

Then finally, the last bit of excitement for the week is that Justin got a job at a brewery! Since we didn't know how long it would take to hear back from the college, he applied at a couple of places nearby, including a brewery. They called him back this week, and has worked two shifts so far. The place is called the Kaiju Cantina, and is easily bike-able from our place.

We went out for drinks on Friday to celebrate the week, but other than that we have had a very chill weekend. On Saturday we had planned to go to a pastry festival in the CBD, but by the time we actually left the house and made it there it was pretty much over. So instead we found another urban garden to explore, and then had burgers in this crazy restaurant where you sit in and in-between train cars that are on the top of a building.

I finally got around to joining a gym this week, so all of my random Australian observations are going to be sports related.

So you know how American football is a totally different sport than British football? Yea, turns out there is a third football. Australian football. I wish I was kidding.

The football league here is called the AFL (Australian Football League), but they commonly call it Aussie rules. When I first heard people talking about this, I thought it was like a national pride thing, you know, like Aussie RULES!

Nope. Turns out their have their own version of football. We haven't been to a game yet, but it is on our list. In Melbourne, games are played at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds aka the MCG, aka The G. Apparently, Melbourne is an AFL crazy place. there are more Melbourne teams than there are teams from all other cities combined. Its so popular, the G holds something like 100,000 people. And there are multiple games per day on weekends at the G. Since we haven't seen a game yet, we aren't totally clear on the rules, but here is what we have picked up so far.

- the ball looks very similar to a rugby ball

- the field is an oval

- there isn't a net, instead there are 4 poles just outside either side of the oval, the outside two are shorter and the inside two are taller (Yes, it does kind of look like a quiddich pitch)

- Its apparently a contact sport?

- The jerseys look like British football jerseys (lots of stripes), and the fans are always decked out in team colours and scarves

- We have decided our team is the Melbourne Demons. Because we like the colours (navy & red) and the mascot (demon, obviously)

- Yes, there is a team with a kangaroo as a mascot. There is also one with a Magpie

I have no idea when we will get a chance to go to a game, but I'm sure it will be a wild experience.