First Day in Melbourne

Our first night I was up from 3am-5am but was able to get back to bed and sleep for a few hours. Sean had training in the morning so he'd be leaving the apartment pretty early. My plan for the next day (Friday) was to go and visit Brady in quarantine, play fetch with him and bring him some of his favorite things from home (his girlfriend, his blanket and some bones). At around 10 am, when I was just waking up, I heard the phone ringing and jumped to attention. Sean had driven to work and driving on the opposite side of the road isn't as easy as it sounds, so I was automatically concerned. Luckily it was Sean and totally uncharacteristically (insert sarcastic smile) he had forgotten his driver's license and debit card when he went to training that morning. He needed me to meet him at lunch time so that he could finish his training course which required photo ID.

Since we only have one car I would need to figure out how to get from Alphington (the equivalent of Watertown in relation to downtown Boston) into Melbourne CBD. I looked up the route I'd need to take on Metrolink.com (best trip planner I have ever used) and realized it was going to be super easy. The train has a stop less than a half mile from our apartment and I wouldn't even have to transfer. I packed my backpack: kindle, cell phone, wallet, gloves (no idea why), scarf, keys and felt pretty excited for the adventure. I also looked up the route I'd need to take to go and visit Brady after meeting Sean and was happy to discover I could catch the train at the same station I was meeting Sean at - Easy Peasy!! I felt so efficient and independent.

As I was walking to the train I was in a great mood - despite my lack of sleep. I literally stopped to smell some flowers that were growing on the side of the street. I was taking it all in and feeling very much at home, which is strange considering how far away from home we are and that we'd been here for less than twenty for hours. I got to the train station in less than five minutes and went to the machine to buy my metro card. I tried using my debit card but it was denied, so I used it as credit instead.. still denied. I had Sean's credit card in my wallet so I tried that one - denied again. This had gone on for a good minute or so when a beautiful Australian girl came over to offer some help (I had noticed her putting on mascara when I walked up to the machine). "It looked like you were having trouble there, do you need some help"? I had no idea how to react at first- What?! Someone who didn't work there, who wasn't a total weirdo (from what I could tell) was offering to help me, just because she noticed I was having trouble. I didn't know what to say, but I just started talking, I explained that I had just landed from the US & possibly my bank thought my card was stolen so the machine wasn't accepting it. I only had $20s and they could only give me $10 in change so I asked if she had two tens for a twenty & she did. I literally thanked her about a million times and walked in a daze to the bench to wait for the train to come.

The thing is that this wasn't a truly shocking or novel interaction. It has been my experience that Australians are extremely nice, bubbly, helpful, funny, I could go on forever with positive adjectives but you get the point. Everywhere I've been people have been so willing to help and in a way that I haven't seen before. Maybe I can explain it better later but right now I'm feeling a bit jet lagged (it's 8:30pm on Sunday) and foggy. This post will be To Be Continued.. There is so much more to tell about this past weekend (hint: I saw a kangaroo, koala, Tasmanian devil & more)!!

The Journey

I don't even know where to start. I wish I had started writing about the journey from Boston to Australia back when we first started planning, I meant to but I didn't. So now we are here in Melbourne and I wish I had been taking notes because so many things have happened and I want to remember them all. In the future I'd like to have real blog posts (more narrative) but for now I'm going do do a "catch up" with lots of bullet point snippets because a lot has happened in the past few days that I don't want to forget.

Disclaimer: I am jet lagged and have been up since 3am local time, it is now 5am. If my grammar, punctuation is off please cut me a little slack.

Some of the highlights include:

Lots of Good bye for nows

• Visits to Norwich & Hingham: SO much fun, I have amazing friends and family.
• Last Hooray at Longview: Ed and Johan are amazing, Ed luckily came over at 10pm the night before we left and taught me how to clean an oven and realized our freezer was still full! Johan, thank you for taking all of that food, I hope it wasn't all freezer burned.
• Second to last hooray at Longview: I have worked with some fantastic, fun people who are true friends. I will miss you all and extend an open invite to the Care.com crew! RV trip is already in planning mode!
• Two games in a row at Fenway: Woo Hoo! Fenway park is such a special place for Sean and me so it was amazing to be able to enjoy it with friends and hopefully we can catch a game when we're back in July.
• Dunkin Donuts: I miss you already
• TJ Maxx: It's too hard to talk about right now, the feelings are too raw, but I will be back in July and plan to browse your aisles endlessly.
• Last trip to the vet before getting Brady on his first flight (at this point I'm a nervous wreck)
• And to my favorite trash TV friends: Real Housewives of NJ, NYC, OC, pretty much everyone on Bravo, I don't know how I'll survive. I also miss: Gossip Girl, The Hills, The City, 16 and pregnant.
• Target: Even though I can't enter your doors without spending $100 at least I will miss you and your amazingly inexpensive paper products. Sean will miss your frozen pizzas.

Flight from Boston to LA

• We discover Brady's travel bag has a slot on top that he can jump out of and won't keep shut. Luckily Sean (the engineer) is able to rig it so he can't escape and create a "Snakes on a Plane" situation starring a maniacal min pin.
• The people at Virgin America are the BEST and block off our middle seat so that nobody is forced to deal with a min pin on the floor below them.
• The drugs our vet gave us to give Brady to calm down really work! AMAZING relief, he is like a tired little baby with glossed over eyes.
• I still keep checking to make sure Brady is breathing, he is soo quiet. We put him on the middle seat between us and have a really stress free flight.
• Wireless on an airplane is pretty amazing and Virgin America has the best entertainment options ever. TONS of TV, Movies, etc. I also like that you can order snacks, drinks right from your seat.

LA

• All of our bags arrived and getting rental car is a breeze until we realize we didn't pick up one of my bags (it was a last minute addition) and have to go back to the airport. Sean stays outside at active pick up with the hazard lights on and I take Brady with me.
• A big, burly (possible former marine) security guard tells me Brady is not allowed in the airport so I run to give him to Sean. As I approach the car I see the same security guard telling Sean to move the car. In the end we get the lone bag and devise a system to never forget a piece of luggage again.
• Our hotel is pet friendly and they let us check in early! Nap time!
• Our hotel brings in a pet bed and bowls that are for a Great Dane sized dog, Brady had to lift his neck to get into the bowl to drink water.
• So nervous about going to USDA in the morning to bring Brady's paperwork, what if something is wrong? This is the second to final step before he is allowed onto his flight. The USDA has to stamp everything and meet us at the airport to seal Brady into his crate. I have triple checked everything and sent it all to Australia to be looked over but am still nervous!!
• In N Out Burger for dinner - YUM
• I go to sleep, Sean goes back to In N Out Burger for a late night snack, we are only in LA for a few days so we have to take advantage!
• USDA stop one is a success. I meet people in line who are taking their dogs to Italy and Japan, I'm jealous because their dogs don't have to go to quarantine.. I am also jealous they pay $45 for their certificates and I pay $500+
• The man at USDA hears me raving about sedating Brady and hands me a piece of paper talking about sedatives being the leading cause of death for traveling pets, granted it's over sedation but still, I meet Sean in the car and need to be talked off another ledge.
• Sean and I decide Brady is more likely to die of a heart attack than the vet approved, mild sedative we gave him on the way to LA so the plan is to give him another dose before he gets on flight to Australia since he's forced to fly cargo this time (Australian Government Rule).
• I call our vet to double check that we can give him the sedative 24hrs after he had the first one and to make sure it's okay to bring Brady to the beach and get him tired out, I'm worried he'll be too sedated.
• Vet is not surprised to hear from me because I had already called her that morning to double check on something else (this woman is a saint) and she reassures me that he will be fine, I'm pretty sure if she could she would have given me a sedative too.
• We spend the day in Santa Monica with Brady where we disrupt a photo shoot (Brady running in the background), get kicked off the beach (No dogs allowed), then head back to hotel to get him ready for his flight
• Tears and Fears (Too many to mention)
• We take Brady to Qantas cargo to meet the USDA vet (Mr. $500/hour) to seal Brady's crate and hand him over
• The vet shows up wearing Ray Bans and dressed like a cable TV star, he's very "cool". He starts drilling into Brady's crate so he can seal it and we do the hand off. Sean's hands are shaking but I don't cry. When we get in the car I see that Sean's eyes are watery, this is the worst part.
• Dinner with Dan & Lauren, a godsend! So much fun and we're not worrying too much about Brady. Lauren is the best and I promise to never friend dump her.
• Because we were so stressed about all the Brady stuff and the fact that he's on a 14 hour flight to a foreign land gives Sean and I an excuse to drink lots of wine so we take a cab home, the cab is a Toyota Prius that literally goes 90mph and gets us back to our hotel in about 10 minutes flat.
• The next morning since we are jet lagged and up early we decide to take the city bus to pick up our car at Dan & Lauren's apartment in Santa Monica.
• We spend the morning/early afternoon walking around Santa Monica, shopping, and taking two trips to Pinkberry.
• At this time Sean becomes convinced his new, fancy, camera is broken and decides to go mail it to his dad so he can send it back to the company and hopefully get it repaired.
• While Sean is dealing with the camera I meet up with Lauren to walk around, I get a color change (not a full manicure) and eyebrow wax - of course they suggest I get an upper lip wax and the guy doing my nails is really annoyed I'm not doing the full manicure so he's very snotty. I don't leave a tip.
• I almost buy sunglasses but cheap out (I just spent a gazillion dollars on vet bills, pet airfare,etc.) but I do buy a t shirt from American Apparel.
• Sean and I say our good byes to Lauren and begin our journey to the airport, get luggage, return rental car, etc.
• We get checked in to our flight and realize we have a ton of time before it takes off (I thought it was 8pm but it was actually 8:50pm) and unfortunately there are not many food options in the terminal so we decide to eat at "Encounter" the restaurant that looks like a space ship, high above LAX. We walk all the way there (three terminals away) and it's closed (even though the 80yr old customer service guy told us it wasn't) so we decide to get a cab to In N Out Burger (Sean's last treat). We wait in line for the taxi only to get kicked out when he realizes we won't reach his $17 minimum since In N Out is only about 2 miles away.
• We decide to eat at the terminal which was fine.

Flight from LA to Melbourne

• OMG - Premium Economy on V Australia is HEAVEN! We get champagne when we walk in, presents on our seats, really warm, big blankets, our seats go way back, big TVs, noise canceling headphones, our own bar and two flight attendants to take care of about 30 people!!
• Sean spills his drink on his pants so the flight attendant gives him V Australia PJs from Business class - we feel like royalty!
• I watch a movie, some TV and get lots of sleep and so does Sean who never sleeps on flights.
• I drink about 2 liters of water and the flight attendant congratulates me!
• Before we land I go to the bathroom to put my contacts in, brush my teeth and freshen up a bit. When I get out a nasty woman seated in business class tells me "This bathroom is for business class only" I didn't even know what to say (my typical reaction when someone says something rude to me). As I walk back to my seat I am FUMING! It wasn't for business class only, it was for business class and premium economy!
• I tattled on her to the flight attendant but was so angry I wanted to go back, how did she know I wasn't in business class anyway, was she the mayor of business class?? I mean granted, I was wearing black leggings, blue socks and one of Sean's over-sized shirts but still!!! I wanted to go back and inform her that she was wrong and very rude and who did she think she is, ugh.
• I am angry over the rude lady for a good amount of time and come up with really great nasty and clever things to say to her.

We are in Melbourne

• We land in Melbourne, get our bags (all 7 of them), go through customs, get our rental car and head to our new apartment!!
• We realize it's 6am and we're likely not going to be able to check into our new place yet so we decide to go in search of a breakfast cafe. We find an amazing fancy little cafe near where we'll be living and kill the hour or so until the reception office opens. We also browse through Coles, the grocery store, to do some price checking. Prices don't seem too out of whack and they have lots of really fresh looking fruits. I get excited to come back to do real grocery shopping but note I'll have to bring a little conversion cheat sheet with me. I'll have to order meat in kilos, not lbs, etc.
• We check into our corporate apartment where we'll be staying until July when we move to Sydney.
• Pros: It was our only option because it's pet friendly, It's a two floor town house, it's clean, we have lots of space, two bedrooms, two and a half baths, washer/dryer in apartment w/actual laundry room, nice big TV, comfy bed with nice linens, soft pillows, dishwasher, they come to clean every day, we have a little yard/patio and a balcony off of the master bedroom. We are super close to all forms of public transit and I like the little neighborhood, it reminds me of Waltham/Arlington with lots of restaurants, etc. - In all it's great.
• Cons: I think my on campus college apartment was about the same quality. The furniture in the living room is pretty unreal. The couches remind me of "Nana's couch" (shout out to Marcell and Raj) with roses and in a true early 80s style. The carpets are very old and worn and the color is a faded teal. There wasn't much money put in to niceties and I'd be embarrassed to have company but other than that it's PERFECT!