It was twenty years ago today…
I misrepresent the fact when I say twenty years ago today as this was true on the 4th of June.
More correctly, it was twenty years ago this month that I first step foot on the continent and country of Australia as I arrived in Sydney, wearing a red shirt I remember was once a favorite. It was only just still fitting me as I was already five months pregnant with Game Fanatic. It was short-sleeved, which wasn’t exactly ideal for the early days of winter, but it was comfortable for travel. I don’t really recall much of that first stop now but we took another plane to Adelaide where there were only about four terminals. It was much smaller than I might have imagined, even for 1994. We then flew from Adelaide to Perth and arrived on a rainy, cool day at Perth domestic airport. There were a bunch of people at the airport to greet us, mostly people I’d never met before.
I will say now that making a move to the other side of the world is quite a big deal and can be quite stressful. Add the fact I was pregnant with my first child and had certain family members trying to keep me home, and it was much more so. The one aspect of those first days I remember well was how much it rained and rained. But then the sun would come out and we’d see rainbows. It was a pretty regular occurrence that first middle of the year winter and it still happens reasonably often during the rainy winters here. I was very homesick at the start but I think that kind of disappeared in October when Game Fanatic entered our lives. I really didn’t have time for any of that homesick business and managed to get through his first six months in a bit of a blur. I do remember some of it but not all. I had to get a driver’s license a few months after he was born as the Scientist had procured a job and it was pretty useful to be able to drive places rather than depend on assistance from family or do without car travel. It wasn’t really that hard once I started driving as it was all essentially opposite to the way I had driven in the US, right down to the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car. I got my license and I remember one time I was driving  and had the baby in the backseat but had put a plastic rocker chair from a swing in the front and the police stopped me…I think it appeared I had the baby in the front seat but once they saw him firmly buckled into his seat in the back, they waved me on. At least I assume that’s why I was stopped and waved on.
It took quite a few years before I felt like this was home. Well, it’s not totally home because the US is still my native home and always will be. But I did eventually feel settled here and got my citizenship in late 1999 before travelling home the first time with the kids in early 2000. And now it’s twenty years later and it seems so long ago and yet not so long ago either that I arrived here.
