Changed Habits: Driving

It is a question -- how many of the Australia-inspired changes in my habits and perspectives will survive my transition back to DC?

I found Queenslanders to be better drivers than Washingtonians. They did not speed nearly as much as we do and they almost (no one's perfect) always let someone change lanes in front of them, even slowing down to permit that to happen. In DC, you are on your own if you want to change lanes and good luck!

I've done a fair amount of driving since I've been back. I can be quite the speed-demon driving west on I-66 to Manassas but everywhere else I am far more likely to be driving at or below the speed limit (in the far right lane, I promise!), much to the annoyance of the lead-footers behind me.

I like this. It turns out to be much easier on my nervous system. Also, maybe I'll stop getting tickets from the speed camera in front of Gallaudet University on Sunday mornings! That would be nice too.

Thank you Queensland for making a positive change in me.

Starting Over

17 days back and I'm feeling myself falling.....

Before-Australia, my days and nights had a rhythm. Sometimes I thought that rhythm would flatten me but it was familiar, known, expected. In general, it revolved around my work.

My work is....well, it's not there. I had one client on Monday. Two more on Thursday. Only one next week. I knew it would take a while to re-build. Now I don't just "know" it, I see it on my calendar (all those blank spaces!).

I am having trouble relaxing into the open spaces. I am facing a different economic truth from pre-Australia and from in-Australia. We're not destitute, we're not broke (OK, I kinda am), and we're fine. But....

The old rhythm isn't there. Is it a matter of patience? Of course it is. Is it time to crack my knuckles (metaphorically) and engage in some active marketing? Of course it is. Is this completely normal? Sure!

It still feels weird. Very weird. Ask me again in a week, it could be a totally different story.

Re-entry. It is never exactly what you expect.

We Have Re-Entry!

Well, we're back. Despite yet more fun fun times! with American Airlines, we are back in DC. Jeff arrived July 31, I arrived August 1 (it was 1:30 am when my flight finally got here).

After 2 weeks, I'm about 95% back on US time. I still have trouble remembering what day it is. Once I start seeing clients again (later today), I think I'll get back in synch with the calendar.

The heat and humidity hit me as soon as I walked out of the airport and it was oddly welcoming. "Oh yes, I remember you!" We haven't had the insane heat of July but it's been plenty hot and humid enough.

I discovered (remembered?) on that very first day -- after I woke up -- that heat smells different here than it does in Australia. I can only presume what I was smelling was the effect of the heat on both the plant life and the building materials of Washington DC and those aren't the same as Brisbane. Again, it was oddly comforting.

I spent one particularly hot and humid day running errands, which had me outside for most of the afternoon walking all over my half of the city. I was sweating like a pro football player and, um, loving it. It's not that I particularly love sweating but I was enjoying being on my feet and being in the outdoors. I fear the Queenslanders may have converted me into a fresh air fiend!

In some ways, Australia is beginning to feel like a dream. Did that really happen? Was I really there? The coupla-thousand pictures on my hard drive gives me some reassurance it really happened. Plus, I made my first deposit this morning into my Oz Savings account, which will (if all goes as planned) get me back to Australia in about 18 months.

The things I was dreading about returning to DC are still here. My mom is overjoyed to have me back and my sisters even seem pleased with it. My housemate is working hard to engage with us. I think more conversations need to ensue. My prison-bound friend is still prison-bound and I've visited with him twice and will continue to visit weekly. His larger circle-of-support is very glad to see me back and have wrapped me into their efforts to help him with this transition.

My return to Augustana Lutheran was pure joy. We hosted an Aussie-style bbq our first Sunday back and they loved it (particularly the grad students and 20-somethings who are always up for free food).

Got my first client tonight (and she's going to be a doozy!) and two more on Thursday. Got writing time scheduled in for Wednesday and Thursday. I'm getting back into "work" mode.

And DC? Just as intense (and sometimes angry) as I remember it. Beautiful and sad at the same time. Too serious most of the time. It's....DC.

And I'm back home in it.

Big or Little?

A few more thoughts on Australia before I tell you all about getting back to the USA.

Is Australia a big country or a little country? How would you vote?

Australia is a big country! It's the 6th largest country by land mass in the world (7,686,850 square kilometers). If you took out Alaska and Hawaii, it's pretty much the same size as the continental US. In fact, it's its own continent! That's BIG.

Australia is a small country. It has 30 million people. In fact, its population density is 3 people per square kilometer (the US has 317 per sq km; Canada has 3.5 but they have even more land mass!). They are 51st in the world for population but 235th (out of 241 countries) in the world for population density. (The US has 317 per sq. km) There is a lot of open space in Australia. They have 10% of the population the US does in roughly the same land mass.

They've got fewer people than the US, Canada, and the UK (countries they often compare themselves to) but more than New Zealand (and, trust me, that matters!).

This is a conflict the Australians live with every day. That big honkin' piece o' real estate gives them a sense of massiveness, of size, of bulk. And they start to expect certain things of themselves because of the size of the land. (I wonder if Canadians have the same challenge?)

Every so often, I would overhear a conversation about how the Australian people needed to start filling out this enormous land mass (ignoring the fact that most of those wide-open spaces are desert). The thought seemed to be that it was incongruous to have so few people in so large a space. I would overhear conversations expressing frustration that this or that thing wasn't happening despite Australia being a "big" country.

On the other hand, Australians also feel their smallness too, especially when it comes to their role on the world stage. I ended up feeling that Australians are not confident that their population could defend their landmass if they had to; there just aren't enough of them. Though they have the consumer expectations of larger populations, they don't have the economy to support it because they don't have the manufacturing. So, they pay for a lot of imports. They argue about whether they truly need a national broadband program because they are so large/small.

Part of the confusion, of course, is that the word "Australia" literally refers to something large and something (relatively) small -- a landmass and a people. We are the United States but we aren't North America. Neither is Canada. The UK isn't even all of the British Isles. It's something no other country in the world has to contend with.

I can understand the confusion.