Saturday, September 15, 2012

We have been together in Australia for 5 years!

 


We arrived 5 years ago, today, from the US and  started our life together down-under.  It is two anniversaries in one, really.   Sept 15 2007 was the date we landed in Australia.  We also started living together from that day on!

The trip to Australia was grueling physically.  Flying from the East coast of US to Canberra, we had to change flights four times.   Yet, the 30-some-hour-journey was also uplifting, simply because there is a new country (at least for me) and a new life waiting ahead. 

We each started our trip at our home city and merged at Chicago airport.  I still remember the happiness bursted into my chest when I finally spotting Mr Hippo.  He was looking out of a window at the time, still, it took me no time to pinpoint him from the crowd--apart from the fact that he is tall, you don't see many people carrying an umbrella in an airport terminal either ("I cannot fit it in my suitcase," explained Mr Hippo).  

I patted him on his shoulder and greeted in a mixed American and Australian way, "What's up, Mate?!"

From that point on, our miserable long-distance relationship ended and a new page of our life began.  Here are the top three achievements in the past five years.  

  1. We got married in Feb 2008! 
  2. We each secured a permanent position (Mr Hippo in 2011 and Ms Hippo in 2012, and we both like our jobs.  
  3. We had numerous adventures together, Australia and aboard.  We camped at Kakadu national park and cruised the Great Barrier Reef.  I took Mr Hippo to China in 2008 and introduced him to my family.  In 2010, we toured 10+ countries in Europe and Asia, including visiting Mr Hippo's family in Israel.  Last year we had Authentic Korean food in Seoul, and early this year we visited New Zealand.  
Looking forward, here is a list of what might happen for the next five years.

   1.   Buy a Hippo house
   2.   Start a family?
   3.   Make significant progress in our career
   4.   Continue our adventures and visit places we haven't been to, Africa, for instance...




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