Harboring Feelings for Sydney

For most expats abroad, the main reason that drives them to live and work abroad is better opportunity.  Better pay, better work experience or perhaps better quality of life.  Fifteen years ago, working abroad was never on my to do list in life.  I was contented with the things are.  I have a good paying job, I can even do extra activities and I don't have to worry on what to cook or who should do my laundry.  Everything was in order.  Then I got married, not that marriage turned my picture perfect life upside down, let us just say everything changed.

My husband, who is based in Abu Dhabi took me with him after a few months after our wedding.  Though household chores was nothing new to me, it was overwhelming as I will be doing it everyday already.  It took some time to adjust to my new life, but I got the hang of it after a few months.  Before I turned one year in the city I found a job and added a career experience abroad.  After a few years in Abu Dhabi, I have learned to love this city.  It was not difficult to embrace as the city was a haven for different kinds of expats.  The city also continue to blossom and accommodate every aspect of a booming metropolis.

Then, another thing happened, a visa was granted.  My sister and her family have applied for an immigrant visa in Australia.  I was not really keen into following the same route because as I said, I am starting to root her and I am learning to love Abu Dhabi.  However, there are some circumstances that makes me think about our life here.  So half-heartedly started the process of applying the same visa for Australia.  I took IELTS, collate necessary documents, and prepared other required documents.  Next thing I know, we received an email that the visa was granted.  Wait what?! For some reason, I was beginning to lose hope as I made a huge blunder in filling out one of my documents.  So I was already expecting a rejection.  It was a pleasant surprise.  My husband and I panicked for some time before taking the plunge.

We did the initial entry during my birthday.  What a way to celebrate it.  It has been years since I celebrated it with a family member.  So it was a very good change.  We did a lot of tourist-y activities.  Roamed the city and spend a lot of time with my sister and her family.  I still don't feel like its home but close enough.  We stayed in Randwick a suburb a few minutes away from the the buzzling downtown Sydney.  It was an ideal place to a raise a family.  Hospitals, schools, church and groceries are just walking distances.  Plenty of playground to ran around and its quiet.  I hope I'll get used to the sound of nothing when the clock strikes 6 pm.  Abu Dhabi makes a lot of sound even in the wee hours in the morning.  I have grown to love the noise, but some things just have to change.

By the time we left Australia amidst a teary goodbye, my husband and I talked about how we feel about Sydney.  Honestly, it was a mixture of scared and excited.  Scared and excited of moving into another country without any work yet.  Scared and excited of having to adapt again to a new environment.  Most of all totally scared of not knowing anything what lies ahead for us.  But that is how you should live life I guess, you will never know strength if you don't know how to be scared.  Or something like that.