Australia, revisited.

Three months in NZ was coming to a close so it was time to decide where to go next. Back to Australia with Windsor? Back to Florida alone with a failing economy and questionable job opportunities? Somewhere random to teach English? Apply to extend my tourist visa and stay in NZ a bit longer?

I applied for another tourist visa for Australia, because the idea of a 16-time-zone long-distance relationship didn't appeal to us. But given my past immigration interrogation fun, would they grant me another visa? I was on a time crunch, because I had to leave NZ in less than 4 weeks. How long would it take to approve/deny the visa?

It was a bit of a mission to get the crazy thing. I submitted my very lengthy application on line, since that was the quickest way to get it processed, only to have the internet connection I was using die, causing me to lose almost the whole thing. Bad omen? But I pressed on and finished the application.

A few days later I got an email, to my email address, yet addressed to some random person named Silviu something-or-other with a case file number that definitely was not mine. I emailed back saying that person wasn't me, but did they have questions for me, only to realize that they don't actually check the email address these things are sent from (either that or they were embarrassed about using an old form letter and not changing all the relevant bits).

As I re-checked the body of the email sent to Silviu, I realized the questions were actually addressed to my situation, so I then had to answer all their questions. They wanted a detailed description of the activities I planned to undertake, a detailed itinerary of my travel plans, what my intentions were, how I would support myself, and could I back up my assertions that I would return to the US later this year?

Phew! Where to begin? It was a bit hard to do since I haven't booked anything travel-wise, thinking they would reject me, and my activities basically involve hanging out. I have an open-return ticket but of course am not going to set a date until I know the visa outcome. But I persevered and wrote them a novel, explaining my reasons for going back, who I planned to visit (with phone numbers for character references), what I planned to do despite not yet booking anything, and attaching flight itineraries, emails stating the date change policy on said itinerary, bank statements, etc.

It was a fair bit of work for a simple tourist visa, but the work paid off as a few days later, I received an email: VISA APPROVED! Ohmygoodness. I had to sit down. I was surprised to receive a response so quickly, and surprised to be granted a year long tourist visa! I was expecting at best three months. But I got a year! So needless to say I was happy (and scared, I've never lived with a boy before, that is a very grown up thing to do!!!!! But most of all happy!!!)

So after the visa approval it was a mad dash back up to Auckland to try to sell the car, which had acquired a cracked windscreen right after we got our safety inspection done! There was lots of running around, cleaning, organizing, test drives, negotiations, and stress. We ended up selling Subi on to two nice Finnish backpackers, who will hopefully love him as much as we did. It all happened so fast, and we were sad to see him go. Then it was back to our friends' house for some crazy last minute packing (how did we wind up with so much stuff???!!!) and then a quick flight purchase and off we went to Melbourne two days later.

So I am here now, in Melbourne, doing a bit of couch surfing, until we find a place to live. It is strange being back, since I wasn't planning to come back for a while. But it's also business as usual, not too much has changed in the four months I was away. I am excited and nervous about moving in with a boy, but tons of people do it, and I can too! Haha. I will have lots of time to finish my book, so hopefully when I go pick it up again for editing I won't think the first draft is horrible! I just have to do it!

So that is about it from me for now. Wish me a good place to live and some book-writing ispiration.