I thought that I would start a new page here and talk about how a we are going living in Sydney and how our relationship develops now that I have my wonderful wife here in beautiful Sydney Australia.
Xia has been here since 21/6/2011 and for the first couple of days I think that she was bewildered by the whole pack up and move to another country idea. Do not get me wrong she has no regrets what so ever for coming but it is just a culture shock more than anything I would say. I can completely understand as I just think what it would be like to just bring a couple of suitcases of clothes and move to China.
Currently we are living in my brothers house whilst we save up the last bit of money for a mortgage deposit as it was my intention to wait to purchase a house for after she moved here and we could pick out a design together if we decided to build a new home or find an existing home that we both liked. But Xia has decided that she likes "downtown" more, with all the tall buildings around it looks a lot more like Shenzhen and she feels more comfortable. After explaining that it is too expensive to buy an apartment in the middle of Sydney we are currently looking to rent an apartment whilst we save up the rest of the deposit to buy as close to downtown as possible. So maybe another year until we get purchase that. But we are prepared to wait and Xia understands this and is happy. Luckily I did not go ahead with my original idea of buying a place in the suburbs and then have her come here and say I do not like it, I want to move.
We are currently about 20km's from downtown and although by Sydney standards this is just in the suburbs Xia feels like we are on a farm with not many people walking around, shops shutting earlier and so different from the hustle and bustle of a city that most Chinese are used to, this is another reason for moving downtown. Also as a train driver I work in the city and with the daily commute it takes about an hour each way to go to/from work, so I will save time there and Xia will also have the oppotunity to be able to go to Chinatown whenever she wants to go shopping or to meet and talk with people.
We also went on the ferry across Sydney Harbour and Xia loved how clean everything is compared to say Hong Kong harbour and she loved going to Manly beach. I will post some pictures soon.
lessons that we both have learnt after one week living together:
a. the difference in how cultures do things, I do not mean big things just little things we just take for granted - be patient and explain everything and then come to a half way point so everyone is happy
b. grocery shopping - in Sydney we generally go food shopping once a week - this took a little explaining that we do not go everyday unless to buy bread/milk that sort of perishable thing and everything else goes into a cupboard or the fridge/freezer until needed (I am sure once we get an apartment downtown that she will go everyday anyway)
All in all no great problems just a difference in what we are used to in the way we lived our lives before and how we are going to live our lives after living together. The adventure has surely started, is full of suprises and will never end. Please feel free to ask anything if we can help we will.
