Living on my own..

It's about almost two months since I left the nest and venture in the great and scary unknown. Equipped with my tiny laptop, a massive backpack and suitcase and virtually no plan, I went to tempt lady luck and moved to Australia. A few weeks down the line, I'm blogging (could have been doing it on my work macbook) in a huge house, with amazing flat mates, working with great people. It all sounds nice and dandy, but this is the first time in my life that I have lived on my own, and it's been a big eye opener on how spoiled I was back home.

The first biggest hurdle was food. I love food, and I hate eating frozen/instant/microwavable food (I do have my weakness for microwavable burritos and frozen pizza though!). However, there are days that after a long day of work, all I feel like doing is sit on the couch (or this great beanie bag we have in our flat) and drink a nice glass of wine (or beer). Before I would come home, and dinner would be served on the table, all I had to do is sit down, open my mouth and chew. I also have a lack of inspiration in terms of variety. I have so much to learn (my mom is a great cook who knows how to cook virtually anything).

Grocery shopping is another challenge I'm trying to master. The fact that I don't have a car makes things harder since I have to carry everything, but I realized how expensive (and difficult) it is to buy food for just ONE person. I can't buy too many because food has an annoying ability to go bad. I can't buy premium ingredients because it's expensive (so far, generic brand taste not too bad).

But the biggest and hardest hurdle that I have yet to overcome is technology, mostly the WORLD WIDE WEB. I used to go home, and download my tv shows (heaps and heaps of it) and watch them after dinner, not having to worry about how long it will take (20 minutes tops for a 45 minutes show) or how many I can download. I can just click, wait and watch. As simple as that. Over here, I don't have a broadband connection. I'm surviving on a prepaid (and incredibly slow) internet, with a limit. No TV shows, limited youtube streaming (and not to mention an attrociously slow speed). I admit that I'm addicted to the Internet, I'm still trying to find a way to get over this one.

Who said moving out is a fun and amazing experience, then again, if it was easy, I wouldn't be enjoying it ;)

age

We meet people everyday, some younger, others older. When I meet people (individuals or group), I don't  discriminate the age; as long as I can have a decent conversation, I'm happy. But I have noticed that I have a much harder time to connect with younger people, especially when they are about a decade younger than me. I am still very young at heart and I can find common subjects to talk about, but sometimes their attitude turns me off. For example, today I have been hanging out with this group of british "kids" (I call them kids because they are 18). They are very fun and energetic group of people but I can't relate to drinking in public area and get hammered. I have done that 10 years ago, that behaviour is idiotic. Somewhere down the line, I lost the desire or will to get drunk just to get drunk.  Obviously to every rule, there is an exception. In the rare occasion, I get to meet "kids" that are wise and mature beyond their year, to the point that I forget their real age.

Since when does growing up makes me feel so damn old?

Australia, week one: Technology in Australia

It has already been a little more than a week since my departure from the land of beavers, slush and cold. So far, the transition has been somewhat smooth. I obviously had to adapt to the different culture and technological differences, mostly the world wide web. In Canada, we are spoiled to have "unlimited" internet and more importantly, FAST internet at a somewhat affordable price. It is true that our market is bottle necked by the monopoly of Videotron and Bell, but at least each common house has a DSL connection or a Cable one. In Australia, it is very hard to come around a decent internet connection. Even with the free wifi, I can't seem to get a decent connection (read: 5 to 10 k per second if i'm lucky). Thankfully, the Australia government has injected billions of dollars to upgrade their infrastructures. If all goes as planned, in 5 years, Australia will be as fast as Europe.

However, what impressed me the most are the cell phone carriers, especially the prepaid. First of all, they are not controlled another monopoly (ie the Big 3: Bell, Telus and Rogers), there are about 3 main carriers, and at least 5 or 6 saller ones.  So for only 30$ a month (yes it sounds a lot but wait until i explain how it works), I get a 300$ balance (each call costs about 1.20 per 30 seconds.. expensive but with 300$ it comes to cheaper than the fido prepaid) AND 500 megs DATA PLAN, plus, the most amazing part is ALL CALLS ARE UNLIMITED INCOMING. I might have have 10 pennies left, and I can still receive calls. That is only one option. Each carriers have their own "prepaid plans" so it takes a bit of searching to find the Goldilocks package.

As for me, I'm still adjusting to the Australia way of life, learning how to stay away from the sun and slop on heap of sun screen (the UV index in Sydney is constantly at 10 compared to Montreal where the average index during the summer is around 8). I've been looking for jobs (and start to look out for places to stay)  and explore the city.

Hopefully by the next post, I'll find a job and find a flat to live in and explain how expensive housing is in Australia.

End of a chapter, beginning of a new one

I did it. I mustered the courage to quit my job, leave all my friends, coworkers and family behind, pack up my bags and leave for Australia, the furthest point on Earth from home. Although I'm happy and proud of myself for undertaking a courageous move, deep down I'm terrified. For the past few years, I've been having doubts and second guessing my decision. "Am I doing the right thing? Are you sure this is the right thing to do? Will you find a job or burn through your savings and come back home broke?" I kept saying to myself. My mom's worries and ridiculous worst case scenarios intensified the butterflies and knots in the stomach. Thankfully, I being born as a Taurus (100%, no more cusp sign); I have a stubborn personality, which is my greatest strength and weakness at the same time. I want to prove to myself that I can live on my own, without a safety net. A former manager once told me that until I move out from my parents place and learn hardship, I will never grow in my career. As much of an narcissist he was, he was right.

Now here I am, at the airport, sipping on my last canadian latte ready to embark on this journey and start a new chapter of my life. Will it be hard? I hope it will. Will I grow and learn from this experience? You betcha!

“Live every day as if it were your last, because one of these days, it will be.” - Jeremy Schwartz

I intend on doing this every single day.

 

Dear 16 years old self

The Montreal Gazette published letters written by famous personalities where they wrote letters to their 16 years old self. I read a few and I thought long and hard about what to write, without being too harsh or judgemental (I really hated my 16 years old self...).

Dear 16 years old self,

I wish I wrote this letter to you when you were 13. There is so much I want to tell you. Those first few years of high school were quite rough, but things do get better though. Here is a piece of wisdom, be confident! You're a really strong kid, you just don't realize it. Believe in yourself and don't let those jerks in class get to you. Don't doubt yourself and do what you think is right. Although you are very loud (12 years down the line, you will still be loud, don't try to change it, it won't happen) and strongly opinionated (that will increase once you build up the confidence level) you will have a lot of friends who will appreciate who you are and value your opinions and friendship. And for the love of god, don't give up on your geeky nature. It's who you are, don't fight it, embrace it!

28 years old self.

End of a chapter?

I know I've been terrible at updating my blog. If my sole reader (you know who you are!) didn't update hers, I wouldn't be writing this right now. Ever since I came back from my trip from Asia, things went back to normal with a dash (ok more a slab) of disappointment an annoyance in the professional level (5 interviews later, rejection, massive overtime at work, realizing i'm at a dead end job), I had an epiphany and decided to drop EVERYTHING I have here and try my luck on the other side of the world (literally). Drop my current job, family, friends, everything. Going into a foreign country with no job waiting for me on the other side. Scary you say? You betcha. Exciting? Hellz yeah!

It took me a while to realize that I have always been "babied" all my life and had a safety net called "parents". If something goes wrong, ask parents for help. If something breaks, somebody was there to clean up the mess I made. I was never fully independent. This is an opportunity for me to have a taste of independence, a 6 months trial. If all fails, I'm going back home. GO BIG OR GO HOME, at least that's what they said.

Ottava rima

From wikipedia:
Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c pattern

I had to write one for a job application (don't ask)

a geek who loves to code and think

who designs, tests and debugs too

he also likes to play and drink

there are very little thing that he cannot do

strong are his skills in php, sql, and with r-sync 

weak his poetry and rhyming is but not his kung-fu 

before this ends, saying this he must:

all your bases are belong to us