The first few days

Our first few hours in Australia went surprisingly well. All of our luggage made it through. We were able to get sim cards at a kiosk in the airport, so we immediately had Australian phone numbers and access to mobile data (more about Australian phone numbers later). Our airport pickup was actually available earlier than we originally arranged, so we weren't stuck waiting around for an hour. We got to our Airbnb and were able to get in without any issue.

You know when you are single -mindedly working for something to happen? And then once it happens, or you get there, you are like... well now what? That was very much the feeling when we got to our AirBnb. 30 hours of travel + only plane sleep + the heat = not being able to figure out what to do next.

When we were on our Terrifying European Adventure (TEA), we quickly realized how overwhelming it can feel when you are in a beautiful place with lots to see and do, but you only have a limited amount of time. Our solution was the 'one thing a day' rule. Each day, we would endeavor to see or do one thing. Anything else beyond the one thing was bonus. Once we saw/did our one thing, there was nothing else we were obligated to do for the rest of the day. We could just lay in bed and play candy crush (which we sometimes did). For our early days in Australia, we have decided to re-vamp the one thing rule. Except instead of touristy stuff, our obligation is to only do one adult task per day.

On arrival day (Monday), our adult task was getting some very basic groceries. On Tuesday, it was getting bank accounts. Today (Wednesday) its organizing our stuff so it doesn't look like our luggage exploded all over the Airbnb. Full play by plays of these very mundane tasks will probably be very boring, so here are the highlights, roughly in the order of occurrence.

- We had a 10 minute walk to a grocery store on Monday. It was around 5 pm, but the sun still felt so strong Justin & I both questioned whether or not we should have worn sunscreen

- We ended up getting a half liter of spf 50+ at the grocery story for good measure. It has a pump top, and is produced by their cancer society. The sun is Serious Business over here.

- Their 'high UV' times last from about 9:30 am to 5:30 pm. That is 8 hours. Eight hours of high to very high UV! Justin is a ginger and I have this weird sun rash/allergy (polymorphous light eruption). Why did we move here again?

- I'm going to guess that Australia offers pretty hefty farming subsidies, because seemingly everything available at the grocery store was plastered with 'Made in Australia' (not kidding when I say everything - their Coke had labels stating the bottles were made with Australian plastic).

-TimTams live up to the hype

- The food here is so good! Even the stuff we bought at the grocery store. I don't know if its the climate, or because its all relatively local, but even things like eggs and cheese are super tasty.

- Still haven't adjusted to the sticker price including tax. That one is going to take me a while.

- Australia seems very technologically savvy as a country. Our visas are attached electronically to our passports. there have been multiple occurrences already where we are doing something official that requires ID. They will scan our passport, and take a picture of us. Then some magical AI facial recognition happens and suddenly permission is granted. Which leads me to my next point...

- I'm very concerned that somewhere on an Australian Government server there is a file full of truly terrible pictures of me (coming through customs after 24 hours on a plane, Jetlagged at the bank while opening an account, etc)

- Opening up a new bank account is surprisingly labour intensive. They need an invasive amount of information

- Two separate Australians have already told us about how they are planning to visit Vancouver within the next year, and asked us for recommendations. Justin has never been to Vancouver. I have been once, in 2016 for 3 days while visiting universities. Does anyone have any recommendations of things people can see/do in Vancouver & area so I don't feel like such an idiot when this question inevitably comes up again?