Hello, Melbourne
Well, it seems fitting that since I posted a Farewell, Charleston post, I should follow it up with a Hello, Melbourne one, yes? Right? Right.
So here we are. I’ve been in Melbourne a little over a month and so far have managed to do several very boring things like get an Australian phone number, open an Aussie bank account, find a permanent rental home (with beach views in a beach block!), and purchase a car.
By some crazy manner of serendipity, the car is the exact same car I had in the States right down to the (rare) color and it happened to be arriving at the dealership just as I was moving, and my phone number has the same assortment of numbers and several in the same sequence as my US number despite being completely randomly selected.
Despite it all still feeling like a very vivid dream, all signs point to this as meant to be.
I’ve been settling in well (although, there are still a few more trips back to the US to get everything completely settled), and the house we’ve landed in for our first home in Melbourne reminds me of a combination of the apartments D and I lived in back when we first were together, as well as the first home we had in Charleston which was also B’s first home. I kind of love it as we hit “reset” on our entire life.
Although, I am looking forward to finding our permanent-permanent place that can be my new favorite house after leaving my dream home in Charleston. I’m hoping to find a lovely terraced city house (white, of course, because I love white houses) with just enough backyard for a patio, a bit of grass and plunge pool, and a front yard with a gate, another bit of grass, and small porch we can decorate for the holidays. We’re a bit of a ways out from that right now, though, so this place will do just fine in the transition.
As I leave Charleston behind and look ahead to Melbourne, I’m not just closing a chapter here. There is so much changing in my life right now that I’m finishing an entire novel. But I’m ready for Vol. 2.
And to kick it all off, here are some photos of my first month as a resident of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia:
