The last month in Melbourne was both a blur of busy but sometimes for me felt as we were moving in slow motion. Joel got extremely busy with his colleagues realizing all of a sudden that he was leaving, so he had some last minute business trips of course. They could never let him sit still in Melbs longer than a week or so without a trip somewhere. Meanwhile I tried to organize all of the elements of the move which became quite time consuming and difficult at times. My last day of work at the school was May 31st. I was not expecting anything from the school because I was only there a few months, but I wanted to bring something to share with them, so brought some Raspberry slices to share with them.. however when I entered the staff room to put it out for morning tea, I saw a massive spread of things on the table... Sooo I added mine. Then, the principal came over to tell me that I didn't have to go out for my morning playground duty.. Then my coworkers brought me to the staff room where the stuff was all for me! The principal gave a nice speech about how he felt like he didn't have enough time to get to know me well, but he could tell by the students that I was doing a great job and a pleasure to have around in the school. My co teacher also made a little speech about how she is a little bit mad at me for leaving because we had such a great time together in the class. The staff association got me a gift card to a nearby restaurant that Joel and I loved. So that was a huge surprise and the reactions of the students mostly, were indifferent. However one was really upset with me. Another family brought a box of chocolates for me. These photos are a really funny snapshot of the class dynamic and how the students were all in their own different worlds.
We really wanted to find someone who was moving and was in need of everything like Joel was lucky enough to find when he arrived, but we didn't have quite as much luck. In the end we did sell everything except our dining room table. It all slowly crept out of our apartment and the last week we had no appliances, and the last day we had no electricity. We wanted the shipping container to arrive as soon as possible so we had the movers come a few days before we left, however after the fact, we found out that the container could not leave Australia until the papers that Joel needed to sign in Portugal were received by the company in Portugal. Instead of our package taking 10 to 14 days to arrive as we were told, it took a month. I think I might have gone a little bit mad on the cleaning end of things trying to get our bond (deposit) back as it was a big chunk of change. In the end we got it all, so mission accomplished.
Instead of doing the usual dinner and drinks farewell, there was an outdoor ice rink set up in the city and we went skating with some friends and then a few came for some drinks afterwards. It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone again. I was really impressed with everyone's skating skills despite everyone warning me they had never done it before. We also had some great dinners prepared by friends.
A few weeks before our move, Joel and I were looking into houses online to see what the market was like, when we sent a few of our favorite links to his parents. They came and saw the house which was my favorite online and said it was absolutely incredible, and in a great neighborhood, and pretty much said it would be perfect for us with a little bit of room for renovation and space to grow into. We originally wanted to just buy an apartment for now, and later buy a house. However we changed our minds when we saw that for some reason in Aveiro, apartment prices were really almost the same or more money than just buying a house. Soo why not, just buy the house, with some extra space for now, and we shouldn't have to move again right? After long discussions, Joel's parents decided to put an offer on the house for us. It was a hard choice because as you can imagine it is a big decision to buy a house without ever having seen it before? But it would save us lots of hassle trying to find an apartment which would rent to us, only for a few months, then to move again. With lots of trust in Joel's parents opinion of the house and an opportunity not to miss, we said why not! When we arrived in Portugal the house was all ready for us to live in. Some furniture was included so we had enough to live, and the utilities and such were already switched on. Joel's parents had spent the weekend prior to us landing on Sunday night cleaning, and preparing things for us. More on the house to come in the next post!
My flight was at 2pm, (Joel's was at 10pm) and all of a sudden the emotions hit me. I had so many fantastic friends in Melbourne, and so many other transplants (and Aussies also) who became family. I was really sad to leave this super amazing country to live in and place to call home. Like I said in my facebook post, a part of my heart will always have a little green and gold in it. Thank you for all who were apart of my experience there.
xox
Nicole
We really wanted to find someone who was moving and was in need of everything like Joel was lucky enough to find when he arrived, but we didn't have quite as much luck. In the end we did sell everything except our dining room table. It all slowly crept out of our apartment and the last week we had no appliances, and the last day we had no electricity. We wanted the shipping container to arrive as soon as possible so we had the movers come a few days before we left, however after the fact, we found out that the container could not leave Australia until the papers that Joel needed to sign in Portugal were received by the company in Portugal. Instead of our package taking 10 to 14 days to arrive as we were told, it took a month. I think I might have gone a little bit mad on the cleaning end of things trying to get our bond (deposit) back as it was a big chunk of change. In the end we got it all, so mission accomplished.
Instead of doing the usual dinner and drinks farewell, there was an outdoor ice rink set up in the city and we went skating with some friends and then a few came for some drinks afterwards. It was a lot of fun and great to see everyone again. I was really impressed with everyone's skating skills despite everyone warning me they had never done it before. We also had some great dinners prepared by friends. |
| Moving some furniture with Lolo |
 | |
| Arepas, Empanadas, and Hot Choco with the South Yarra fam |
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| Vietnamese Spring Rolls with the Yeomans |
A few weeks before our move, Joel and I were looking into houses online to see what the market was like, when we sent a few of our favorite links to his parents. They came and saw the house which was my favorite online and said it was absolutely incredible, and in a great neighborhood, and pretty much said it would be perfect for us with a little bit of room for renovation and space to grow into. We originally wanted to just buy an apartment for now, and later buy a house. However we changed our minds when we saw that for some reason in Aveiro, apartment prices were really almost the same or more money than just buying a house. Soo why not, just buy the house, with some extra space for now, and we shouldn't have to move again right? After long discussions, Joel's parents decided to put an offer on the house for us. It was a hard choice because as you can imagine it is a big decision to buy a house without ever having seen it before? But it would save us lots of hassle trying to find an apartment which would rent to us, only for a few months, then to move again. With lots of trust in Joel's parents opinion of the house and an opportunity not to miss, we said why not! When we arrived in Portugal the house was all ready for us to live in. Some furniture was included so we had enough to live, and the utilities and such were already switched on. Joel's parents had spent the weekend prior to us landing on Sunday night cleaning, and preparing things for us. More on the house to come in the next post!
My flight was at 2pm, (Joel's was at 10pm) and all of a sudden the emotions hit me. I had so many fantastic friends in Melbourne, and so many other transplants (and Aussies also) who became family. I was really sad to leave this super amazing country to live in and place to call home. Like I said in my facebook post, a part of my heart will always have a little green and gold in it. Thank you for all who were apart of my experience there.
xox
Nicole
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