I struggled to write today. I was not sure what to write about. I have a lot of stories in my life and they are all personal. So it is hard to pick one.
But what I will share today is our journey to Australia. Both my husband and I were doing well in india and I was not excited to move abroad but he was keen. The only thing that lured me was the fact that I will be able to give a better life to our future generation as I could see the struggle for parents in india around school, career etc.
We applied for PR and once we got it, we started planning to move here. We knew no one but we researched and having no idea about Sydney, we found a place called Newtown which was close to the city and the cost was cheap.
Little did we know that we were signing up for a backpackers accommodation. We landed at around 10 pm on a Saturday night, 2 people who had never seen the country, and went to our booked accommodation. The address was a pub with patrons spilling on the street. My husband asked me to hold on to the taxi while he went in to confirm If we were at the right address.
For the 5 long minutes, I stayed in the taxi when he came back and said the accommodation was above the pub. We trundled our 3 suitcases up the stairs and fell asleep on 2 very soggy mattress beds. The only saving grace was that we were given a separate room rather than the dorm.
The next morning, as we discovered our living arrangements, we realised we will be sharing the common areas, kitchen and bathrooms with people from across the world.
It was the best 2 weeks of our life and an introduction to this wonderful country we call home. We learnt so much about the way of living, shared our food and jokes with random strangers, laughed as they helped us explore Sydney in a fun way, went around the city on foot (we walked from Newtown station to broadway everyday to shop at Coles) and just immersed ourselves in the new country.
After 2 weeks, we both had jobs and we decided to settle in our own apartment and moved out. But this time we were no longer strangers. We had been initiated in this wonderful country we now call home, by some amazing strangers, who gave us the gift of their time to help us feel included.
We have completed 18 years here now and the memory of those first few weeks are still fresh in my memory. It is the story I love telling as it speaks volumes about the Australian way of life and why we laid our roots here!