We got the keys for our swamp place!
And we got a very detailed six page protocol in tiny font mentioning every detail of every room in the house, that we need to read, comment if necessary and send back within a week. Great, it looks like someone thinks we have a lot of free time these days! But well, I imagine it will be easier when moving out and less discussions about what looked or worked how at what time.
So, furniture shopping tomorrow?!
Since we can’t do much until we get the keys to our new home we might as well go to work. So I went to Campus earlier than expected.
The university campus in Newcastle is quite big. This isn’t really a problem but the jungle like vegetation. It looks like someone took a large piece of bush and put a couple of buildings into it. There are so many trees, bushes, plants, flowers and more tress again, that I find it very hard to find my way around the place.
You can hear birds and insects twittering, chirring and humming everywhere. Not only students live here but a ton flees, mosquitoes, saurians and even snakes and small kangaroos! So far I only saw students, flees, mosquitoes and saurians. You’re attacked eaten alive by the mosquitoes even in the morning but I still love it. It’s absolutely beautiful and would be even peaceful without the vampire mosquitoes.
Yeah, one application, one accepted! It can be that easy! Today we already got a call from the agent that our application was approved by the landlord and that we can get the keys this Friday!
We’ll move into a nice little house right next to a nature preserve with marsh, lots of birds, snakes and flies. Just behind the house there is even a little visitor centre with a restaurant and a small exhibition. We call it „the swamp place“.
Our new address is:
45 Kestrel Circuit
Shortland NSW 2307
Australia
So we not only got a new address but even one with a zip code!
Now that we’re here Florian and I had to start to look for houses for rent. In contrast to Maynooth you can’t just ask an agent to show you all their available premises, but there are only mass appointments for everybody who is interested at once for 10–15 minutes for everybody at the same time.
The best bit, however, is that you have to apply to rent the flat or house. Our first application was 19 pages long and included standard forms with personal data, copies of our passports and drivers licences, three personal references (basically three friends writing a letter about how amazing people and tenants we are), a reference from our previous landlord, proofs of income and two old gas and electricity bills to proof your old address. You can also fill in how much you are willing to pay for the rent (above the asked price of course).
It’s absolute madness! Well, if I wanted to steal someones identity, I would just tell him I had a place to lease…
But with only 0.5% of rental vacancies in Newcastle the landlords and their agents can make the rules and as tenants there is not much you can do about it. It just annoys me that filling out all these sheets of paper still doesn’t mean you’ll get the place!
After being in Australia for three days we thought we really deserved a break from all the stress and decided to spend a morning half an hour at the beach. (On Sundays you can’t do much to look for a place anyway.)
Newcastle has several beaches at the city centre. Even though they might not be as idyllic as a lonely laguna beach it’s easy to find and therefore perfect for noobs like us.
We walked along Newcastle Beach and watched some surfers. Sophie didn’t feel to keen on touching the sand or the water and therefore we stayed only for a bit. When we were just leaving a van with speakers arrived asking everybody to leave the water due to dangerous conditions. I assumed it must be because of the winds or currents but later Ruth told me that a surfer has been attacked by a shark at this very day at this very beach. But of course this was the very first time it happened in years, this really NEVER happens. Wow, that really helps to calm me down! I think I shouldn’t complain about my tiny sunburn (despite sun screen!) than.
First before starting all the rest Florian and I got new Australian mobile numbers to make it easier to find places to rent.
If you haven’t got our new numbers yet, please send me an email because I wont post them here!
We’re there/here! Everything went alright!
It really could not have been better (only shorter perhaps). We checked in all our luggage without any problems, the flight was on time, Sophie slept or played, the second flight was on time, Sophie slept again, we slept, our luggage arrived well, the visas are valid and in the end we didn’t even have to go through quarantine!
And now the jetleg…
Just in case one of you is moving to Australia:
You can open an account with westpac online and without any charges before going to Australia. Even if you haven’t identified yourself yet, you can transfer money onto the account easily. As soon as you arrive in Australia go into a branch with your passport to prove your identity and from there on you can withdraw the funds easily. We found that service very handy and hope that it will ease of the stress and shorten the to-do-list once we have arrived in Australia.
Another thing that we can recommend for transferring money is the website xe.com. When using a normal bank it is often hard to find out what the fees will be in the end (at least we had trouble finding them) and they differ a lot between the banks. So in the end we decided to use xe because their fee structure is either and transparent. Also, so far all the money we’ve sent arrived fine.
From now on it’s only transit. We moved out of our apartment in Geraldine House today (got our deposit) and will stay with our friends for three days before going to Germany.
It feels rather strange not to have any kind of room or apartment for your own and to live out of suitcases and a lot of plastic bags. Also, I decided to wear all my old clothes and to throw them away afterwards. That also feels a bit strange but saves a ton of washing!
So far, everything went alright and I’m positive that we’ll be fine for the next two weeks. Still, I do look forward to have a place to live in Newcastle!
Time is ticking away and there are less than ten nights left in our old apartment. At the weekend I sorted through bed linen and towels, packed and weighed our luggage and got rid of more stuff. Since the changing table is also gone we can also hear the echoes in Sophie’s room, in our bed room and in the living room. It is getting extremely empty and it feels colder in there every day.
Next weekend we’ll say goodbye to most of our friends, on Monday we move out and on Thursday next week we go to Germany to say goodbye there.
Slowly I’m realising that we are really going to leave Ireland, that we are really going to move to Oz, that we are really going to move out of our apartment, that all that is going to happen soon! I packed so many boxes, suitcases, weighed my luggage, cancelled insurances, gave away a lot of stuff. Slowly I’m realising and the more I do, the more it feels somewhat strange. We are still looking forward to Newcastle but the feeling of anticipation gets more and more mixed with the feeling of farewell.
The the last times start again: the last Sunday in MCC, the last time in the office, meeting friends for the last time, the last pint, the last time in Maynooth — for a while anyway.…
