DSGamer Down Under (Australia) and back

This was just kind of the tipping point, though. I'm going to have to shift my commute or something because clearly it's getting to me, cumulatively. Overall people here are great. But I think as commuters everyone has kind of just got in the habit of being pretty rude. Probably because you have to. When I'm walking through a subway tunnel, hugging the left side as the entire tunnels is filled with people walking 10 abreast what else is that? It feels rude. It sure looks like it's hundreds of people giving zero f***s that someone might need to walk the towards the train station.

Same with those stairs yesterday. The reason that happened, in part, was because the entire sidewalk, wall-to-wall, was filled with people exiting the platform. They couldn't be bothered to leave one lane for people entering the platform. Whether or intentional or not it's just kind of a thing. I'm not even saying it's a Sydney thing or an Australian thing. It's probably a giant city thing.

Buying a bike this week. I'm still doing well here, but I'm over trying to fight my way up a subway where everyone is going the same direction with no room given for people going the other way. I don't get it, it just makes me angry and I'm over it.

DSGamer wrote:

Buying a bike this week. I'm still doing well here, but I'm over trying to fight my way up a subway where everyone is going the same direction with no room given for people going the other way. I don't get it, it just makes me angry and I'm over it.

Perfect solution. You start swinging that bike frame around as you walk that congested subway and people will clear out of your way in a heartbeat (or get struck in the process).

Spoiler:

Or, you could just ride it to work, I suppose...

DSGamer wrote:

Buying a deadly treadly this week. I'm still bonza here, but I'm over having a blue with the galahs in the subway where everyone is going the same direction with no room given for blokes going the other way. I don't get it, it just makes me mad as a cut snake and I'm over it.

Corrected for grammar.

EvilDolphin wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

Buying a deadly treadly this week. I'm still bonza here, but I'm over having a blue with the galahs in the subway where everyone is going the same direction with no room given for blokes going the other way. I don't get it, it just makes me mad as a cut snake and I'm over it.

Corrected for grammar. :wink:

DSGamer wrote:

t's probably a giant city thing.

You ever take the tube in London near peak times? :Thousand yard stare:

There's a reason I live in Canberra.

Random question. Does PAX Australia ever sell out? I was wondering if other GWJers in Australia were interested as an excuse to get together.

Three day tickets sold out a few months in advance, Saturday a bit after that, and Friday and Sunday closer to the actual day, iirc.

I didn't make a flag for nothing! That said, it's an expensive trip for people in other states, and not everyone is interested in PAX. But there's no other national gathering that's likely to pull a lot of goodjers.

We didn't have a lot of meetings outside our camp in the tabletop area last year. I was busy with working the convention, and everyone is pretty exhausted after

I'll be there again. Probably with some form of ambassador role in the Tabletop area.

Another update. Not much has happened in terms of events, but then a LOT has happened in terms of just thinking about the experience. I've been sick for the last 3 weeks (it turns out SE Australia has real winter) and have been really busy with work. So there hasn't been much to report on. Nothing new. In fact I've kind of existed between my flat and work, spending hours on the weekend coding while sick. Yesterday the code I wrote entered a security review phase I have no control over so I took today off. I finally saw the outside of my apartment during the daytime. Read my wall of text if you have the patience / are still curious how I'm doing.

Moving here has been, amongst other things, a lesson in what it's like to live as an immigrant, of sorts. I know I'm not one in the strict sense. And I do realize that a white guy coming from the richest country on the planet is playing the game of life on "easy mode" relatively speaking, but there are still lessons. The one that's hit me the most lately is how much your future is out of your control.

My wife and I, if we want to stay beyond 4 years, have to make the choice at some point to apply for permanent residency. If we want the money I've put into Super back (in retirement or as money) we have to make that choice within 2 years. So it's starting to hit us that we're being pressured, in a manner, to make up our minds and make up our minds fast about whether we want to be permanent residents of Australia. And we're not ready for that, frankly.

We still love it here, but that pressure, along with the realities of the job market and how I'm shut out of jobs (not many, but enough) for not being a citizen or because the company is concerned I'm just passing through, have made me concerned that unless we choose for the PR it'll be hard for me to find sustained work for any period of time. My current contract is up at the end of the month and they don't have any more work for me. They're hoping to get another project for me to work on, but if that doesn't work out then I'm back looking for work again.

That's fine. I knew that would happen to some extent. What I wasn't prepared for were the number of people who either ignore my job applications, never respond or outright say that they don't want to consider non-citizens. This is definitely a thing in the US as well. And I understand why. With exceptions like the company I just worked for, where they had 2 months of discrete work to be done, most jobs want some kind of assurance that their investment in you will be worth it. And I can't give them that assurance. In part because, once again, my future is completely up in the air due to us not being sure if we're ready to commit to Australia. It's still early days and this is our first expat experience.

Wish me luck finding work coming up soon. I'm probably going to go back to America to visit family for a week or so as it takes a while to find a job here. I'd like to stay busy, but there is a reality that I am seen as passing through or taking other people's jobs. It's funny to be on the other side of that. All I can do is do the best work possible and prove my worth. Everything else is outside of my control. If I get to a point where it appears finding work I want to do will be impossible I suppose I can move on. Thus the "easy mode" part of all of this. It's still early, once again, but something that got me down a bit today. How all of this is so temporary. For good and bad.

If you apply for permanent residency can't you just leave whenever you want and come back to the US? Seems like not applying will shut more doors than open, while the opposite is true for applying.

Good luck! Are you holding off on applying because of the cost? Depending on which visa you came over on, could you broach something like a 457 skilled migrant visa with potential employers? That would imply a certain level of commitment.

garion333 wrote:

If you apply for permanent residency can't you just leave whenever you want and come back to the US? Seems like not applying will shut more doors than open, while the opposite is true for applying.

This is what I want to know as well. If PR opens certain doors and doesn't cost you too much, either monetarily or otherwise, it might be the smart play regardless of y'all not knowing yet what you want to do.

Good luck!

garion333 wrote:

If you apply for permanent residency can't you just leave whenever you want and come back to the US? Seems like not applying will shut more doors than open, while the opposite is true for applying.

I believe that's the case. But I didn't want to start that process if we weren't considering staying, basically.

Sonicator wrote:

Good luck! Are you holding off on applying because of the cost? Depending on which visa you came over on, could you broach something like a 457 skilled migrant visa with potential employers? That would imply a certain level of commitment.

Just not sure if we should yet, basically. It's not the money. Initially the idea was that my wife would take the job here and we'd reassess how we felt and decide if we were going for year 2, 3, 4, etc. But we were open to staying indefinitely and also open to being transferred again by her company or trying out another place to live like Singapore or Hong Kong. In other words we were fairly open to the adventure of just living abroad and because my wife's company only ever intended for her to be here for a year we never made plans beyond that. In that sense we're exactly where we thought we'd be, but we hadn't thought through what that would feel like to have no sense of what comes tomorrow.

So far I like it here and would like to stay longer, so perhaps I should apply for the PR. The problem is my wife's career and what she wants to do. She likes it here well enough, but I think she's afraid her company won't let her keep her job here past a year and that she'd have to switch jobs to stay here. Right now she's not keen on that quite yet. Mostly because she's concerned about upward mobility and the ability to stay with a company with future expat potential.

If the only thing adding to the immediate pressure is "losing your Super" then I'd say don't worry about it. It's a bit of a blow losing some of your income, but if that is the only pressure being applied to you to make a decision in the 2 year window, instead of your planned 4, then blow it off as an "operartional loss" that you don't really miss.

I'm not sure if it's different for you from a "foreign worker" perspective, but most Aussies see Super as something their employer has to do anyway, so we don't really rely on it, or count it as "income". Sure, that will bite most of us on the arse when we come to retire, but for now, that's decades away...

Oh totally. I get that the Super, while considered part of your overall compensation package, doesn't actually bite into your salary in practice. At least, I don't feel like it works that way. I think the thing as an American is that you're working at somewhat of a discount because of the exchange rate. So it would be nice to get that Super money back if I'm going to be forced to leave at the 2 year mark. That's all. My understanding is that the Super, functionally, is similar to Social Security in the US. Meaning that it will probably run at a deficit in the end. Even if we decided to stay here forever and become citizens we'd still be paying in less than we'd get out as I understand it.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. Like I said in an earlier post a lot of this rests on my wife and what she wants to do. If she doesn't see herself staying or doesn't see an upward mobility here I don't know if it matters trying to get the PR. I'll look into the costs, though, just in case.

I think what I'm expressing (badly) is that while it's great to have your future wide open it also means that your future is wide open. Especially if you and your spouse might disagree. I can't say for certain that I want to be here forever, but I really like it here. The weather suits me, people are really nice and I'm continuing to heal here which is pre-eminent to me. But if my wife doesn't feel that outweighs her career options that's something we'll have to discuss.

We'll probably have to move in 2.5 years for my partner's career and definitely have to move again two years after that (and very likely a third time two years after that) so I can definitely sympathise on that front. It does have a funny effect on your outlook on a lot of things, particularly when a lot of our friends are having kids, buying houses, and so on.

Sonicator wrote:

We'll probably have to move in 2.5 years for my partner's career and definitely have to move again two years after that (and very likely a third time two years after that) so I can definitely sympathise on that front. It does have a funny effect on your outlook on a lot of things, particularly when a lot of our friends are having kids, buying houses, and so on.

In our case we were never having kids. And we loved a piece of property enough to be homeowners, although we do own a house we now rent out. So we already had a strange life where we could afford to live somewhat moment to moment.

Now that reality has simply intensified in a way I didn't think possible.

DS, what visa did you get to enter Australia. Subclass 600 is a visitor visa that grants no work rights; chances are you came in via a 457 or sponsored by your wife as she would have a 457 visa to work. No need to answer via PM or otherwise, just flagging it FYI (I'm a registered migration agent if you need help).

With permanent residence in Australia, you will need to stay at least 2 out of every 5 years to retain PR. So you can travel to and fro freely but minimum residence time is a factor to consider.

I'll post something on your super issue later. I kinda locked myself out of the house with my 2 kids and waiting for the CEO to bail us out.

It's my wife's 457. So in theory I don't have to work. I could go to the gym everyday and work on losing weight (I need it), learn to cook (need that too) and focus on my health. But I like working. I'm lonely when I'm not at least with colleagues. And making friends here is tough enough without at least having co-workers.

I'm on holiday in the US right now and I'm really regretting doing this. I came because my contract was up and I had a free ticket. I figured I should use it to visit family and friends and get a touch back with the states before continuing on with life in Australia. I'm really homesick right now, though, for Australia. Nothing here feels like home right now. My family visit is going fine, but I'm dropping in in the middle of everyone else's lives. Not many people have time for me and when I'm done with family I feel like I'm going to be spending most of my time on my own before heading back to Australia. I wish I'd just stayed and traveled around Australia. This is weird.

A stranger in your own land? Sounds like that Aussie assimilation has been more effective than you'd anticipated.

What are you missing the most, that you're not getting "back home", if it's not too probing a question?

Sorry to hear that you're not enjoying your visit, DSG. I was just thinking about you an hour or so ago, actually, because someone on Reddit suggested I check out a band from Sydney.

I assume you're in PNW?

Not uncommon at all in my experience.

m0nk3yboy wrote:

A stranger in your own land? Sounds like that Aussie assimilation has been more effective than you'd anticipated.

What are you missing the most, that you're not getting "back home", if it's not too probing a question?

Well. It goes really deep. So I'm not sure this thread (or any thread) is the place for it. Part of it is that I've just been really excited about the fresh start, my small complaints about community aside. Living in a new culture, for me, doesn't just represent a novelty. It represents a chance to escape a bit from my previous life. I grew up so anxious and often foggy-headed that it's been really nice to be the new guy in a new culture and put behind me a lot of my regret. Back here in the US my regret is front and center again. So much baggage.

I miss my Australian coworkers and talking to people about something other than American politics. But that's also not a terribly Australian-centric thing, so much as something I ran away from.

I genuinely think Australia suits me so far. The food, the weather (for the most part) and the people. You could say I miss the "vibe" too, I suppose. I just feel more comfortable there talking to people and interacting with them daily. That could just be where my head is at right now, though.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Sorry to hear that you're not enjoying your visit, DSG. I was just thinking about you an hour or so ago, actually, because someone on Reddit suggested I check out a band from Sydney.

I assume you're in PNW?

Actually right now I'm in Texas. I leave for Portland in 6 days.

Currently debating how much time to spend in Portland and I'm not getting much positive response from anyone. I don't know why I spent so much mental energy worried about what college classmates, coworkers, etc. thought of me if leaving didn't really matter. I should have left long ago.

You're in Texas? Can I recommend some good restaurants?

Frustrating time looking for a new contract or job lately. I literally had a recruiter tell me today that the company he was working with said I didn't have enough experience working with Java. I've done Java for 15 years... The company I worked on the contract with wants me to come back for a week next week and has two potential contracts to do similar work to what I just did on the back of that same work. Meaning that they're getting potential new business based on good word of mouth on the project I did. So somehow I'm supposed to stay available to them, but only on an as-needed or contract basis.

Back in the day I was told that I needed to have 5 years experience with Websphere, only 2 years after IBM had released the platform (maybe I was supposed to have been a member of the IBM Websphere dev team or something). Recruiters can be stupid, hope it doesn't get to you too much.

Good luck with the job search, DSG!