Personal 31 Mar 2004 09:12 pm
The Far Side of the World
In a way, you can say I am going after the Oscars. Or, at least, close enough. This year, most of the Oscars went to either New Zealand (Lord of the Rings) or Australia (short animation, Master and Commander…), and that’s where I’m headed to, also: specifically, Australia.
So, those are the big news. Our visa has been approved, and we are moving as soon as humanly possible (which probably means some time in May). We were accepted as permanent residents of Australia, after a long process that started with a skills assessment and an English test, in mid-2002, and ended with an e-mail informing us that the visas had been granted.
I received the news on Feb. 29th, Oscar night. And, to be honest, I think I felt just like the people who went on-stage in LA to get their statues and thank everyone they know. And I guess there are a lot of people I should be thanking, too. This is going to be a big step, and it is something that we’ve been planning for since 2001; many people helped, before and after we started working on this, even without knowing. But I won’t list them here; when they read this, they will know who they are. To you, we say: thank you.
And, to the few people who knew about our plans but thought we were going to Canada instead, I apologize. The Canada trail had one disappointment after another, and eventually we decided to set our sights on some place where we didn’t feel like we were going in uninvited. The Canadian rules changed again when we were mid-way through the Australian process, and we could’ve got in easily under the new terms, but by then it was too late. We may go visit you someday, and now at least you have an excuse to go check out what’s hidden down under.
