Once Upon a Time…We Moved Offices

Life has been crazy busy as of late, and most of the busyness comes from work. Though it is time consuming, it is kind of fun to be apart of a start up. I laugh at the many “titles” I am sporting in my new job. Who would have thought that I could add: project manager, creative manager, marketing manager, executive assistant, advertising director, sales representative, and cleaner to the ever growing role that I play here. Right before Christmas we bid farewell to the small cramped office that the two of us were trying to work out of and moved into our partly finished new studio in Surry Hills. It is a work in the process. I feel as if I live in a half finished house, which life has prepared me for since my dad was constantly doing some sort of project on the houses I grew up in. I never lived in a fully completed one. They decided to try that after I was out of the house. 🙂

So here we are now working in a much more spacious environment, still waiting on things to be completed. Next big project is the new website that I am project managing and the video and photo shoot that I am putting together for our new product launch. Hence the new title of creative manager. Soon there will be parties to plan as we launch not only the opening of the studio, but also the launch of the new product. I guess I better add events manager to that ever growing list as well. It is fun to be employee number one, and its even more fun to work with a friend.

Also with the new job comes new clothes. I have never in my 29 years of life had to dress professionally, now I do, which means I had to purchase a whole new wardrobe. I feel like a fraud in my work clothes ;). A musician in a professionals attire.

Once Upon a Time…One Month Had Passed

I have been here in Sydney now for one month! It some ways it has been the longest month of my life. It is a quite a change from being busy all the time with work and a very active social schedule, to knowing two people and having no job. In many ways it has been a rather frustrating time. Everything so far has been quite the opposite of the life that I have led the past 9 years in California. I have gone from driving everywhere to relying on train schedules and me feet to get me from point A to point B. I knew my way around at home and now, I get lost all the time and need to account for my horrid sense of direction whenever I try to go someplace new. I never used to stay home on a Friday or Saturday night, and now I never go out. At home I had a church where I played on the worship team and was very involved, and now, I am at a different church every Sunday, just trying to find my place. None of this is bad, it is just different, it is transition, and it is growth. I know this will all change and hopefully by next month, a slight resemblance to my old life will reappear, and I will have a social life, a job, and a church. I have a feeling that it is all about to change. And though this month has been hard, it has been good. For I am learning patience, and most importantly I am growing closer to God. We have a lot of time together these days. He has become my number one site seeing pal ;). I may not have enjoyed the transition phase, but I am thankful for it, for it is helping me to grow. Hopefully someday I can use this rough time in my life to help someone else who is going through the same thing.

Once Upon a Time…There Were Some Frusterations

Signing up for my Bank Account

My New Bank

When moving to a new county a lot of starting over happens. I haven’t made a big move in over 9 years, so I had forgotten all the things that need to get done. It’s overwhelming. Setting up a new bank account, getting on a new cell phone plan, shopping, shopping, shopping. Moving is expensive! I have been here a week and yet I have been to the mall 4 times. I don’t even remember the last time I spent 4 days in one week at a mall. To much mall time. Setting up a bank account was no big deal. quite easy in fact. Yay for that! Obtaining a cell phone on the other hand has been quite challenging. Stupid me, I thought it would be easy. Just walk into a store set up a one year plan and be done. Easy right? Wrong! Not easy, a giant headache in fact. My being stubborn does not help things either. You see I am part of the elitist iPhone club. I love my iPhone. It helps to keep my sanity in tact. It does everything for me. And now that I am so far away from my friends and family, I feel like I need it even more. It is my lifeline. I know, it is a sickness. 🙂

The first two days of my time here was spent sight seeing. The rest of the week has been about running errands. So by the time I had reached day 4 we were off to set up a cell plan for me. Step one…I needed a band account. Easy, I don’t even have any money in it, but at least I have one. Step two sign up for a cell, or mobile, as they call it here, plan. After researching the best options I walked into the Vodaphone store all ready to sign up for an iPhone 4 plan. I have a 3gs and have spent countless hours trying to unlock the thing, but the software is to up to date and a jailbreak does not yet exist for it. We spent about 3 hours the first day in that blasted store. Their system was down, but they didn’t know that yet so we waited…and waited…and waited. Finally we were told to come back

Yay! I have a phone!

the next day and all should be fine. Well, it wasn’t and to my astonishment I was declined a plan. I have excellent credit in the states and have never been denied anything before, but here I have nothing, so no plan. At that point I was on a mission to unlock my iPhone 3GS…a stubborn stubborn mission. I figured well, if I have to have a prepaid plan, at least I will get to keep my phone. I spent hour trying to find some sort of loop hole and every time I thought I had finally found a solution, it wouldn’t work. After many days of trying I finally coincided walked into Optus and purchased one of their prepaid plans with a Samsung galaxy mini, android based smart phone. I don’t like the phone. It’s OK, but it is no iPhone.

That has been my first road block and frustration upon moving. I felt helpless and I know that is not the last time I will feel that way. I am so used to being on top of my game. Of having everything down, I’m not used to feeling so helpless and out of control. I know it is silly, it is just a phone, but when you don’t know anyone (minus Kelsey and Andrew) or anything, when just getting around town can be intimidating, that phone connects me to home. Starting over is hard, it is good, but it is hard. I look forward to the day when I feel like I understand, at a least a little bit, and no longer feel helpless and lost in this big city.

Once Upon a Time…There were Beautiful Beaches

Bondi Beach

Try as I might I could not avoid the jet lag of a 17 hour time difference and woke up the next day bright and early at 4:30 am. I can’t even remember the last time that I naturally woke up at that time and was ready to go. So for my second day in Australia Kelsey and Andrew decided to take me to the world famous Bondi Beach. The beaches here are gorgeous and much prettier than at home in California. The sand is softer, the water bluer, it is a much more tropical environment. I am really looking forward to exploring the beaches this next week and finding my beach. 🙂 I am so glad that God moved me to a place with beaches. The main difference here is that there are shark attacks and in order to prevent them, many of the bays have netting placed underwater to keep them at away. The seagulls here are smaller, but I still hate them. Below is a video of the beach, and the evil seagulls.

My room before unpacking

We were so exhausted from our two whirlwind days that by day three Kelsey and I decided to stay home to unpack and run a few errands while Andrew went back to work. Moving your whole life to another country is overwhelming. Moving in general is overwhelming, then add to it knowing nothing, and having everything be similar, but very different at the same time and you will begin to

My Unpacking Mess

understand how I feel. Day three brought with it down time, and that it turn gave me time to really sit with what I have just done. Poor Kelsey has to deal with my millions of questions, but it is comforting knowing that she has done this all before. Once I unpacked, it helped relieve some of the anxiety to have my stuff out of suitcases, but during the storm of unpacking, it just made my anxiety worse. It always gets messier before it gets better. 🙂 Now, though, I am all unpacked, toiletries bought and this next week I no longer am a tourist, but I actually live here. Ahhh! Thank you all for praying for me. If you think about it pray that I find a job quickly as well as a home church, especially a home church. Hopefully once those things are in place It will feel more like home and less like a foreign land.