Clear the sidewalks

Not only does he have a house - he also has a set of wheels! A blue Mitsubishi Mirage.

Ben's also done a great job of getting some of the other basics: a bed, a refrigerator, a bike, a table, some chairs. He's practically settled!

Move-in Day!

Woohoo! Ben finally got all 2 of his bags moved into the house!

Now he gets to go shopping for the bare minimum: a pot, some utensils, food, a refrigerator (no - most places don't come with those...). Oh, the joys of starting with nothing.

Ani is still in quarantine - over 1/2 way through!

Kerry is still running assays...

Apartments

So, as Ben found out the hard way, real estate is a little different in Sydney than elsewhere in the world. In the mid-90's, house prices jumped up and have been rising steadily ever since then. A 3-bedroom home in the Sydney suburbs (not even the expensive northern burbs along the coast) could easily cost a >750,000 AUD (australian dollars). So if you got into the housing market before the mid 90's, you probably own your house, and if you got into it afterwards, you probably rent. Ben's advisor was recently looking for a house and the mortgage would be 1200/wk; he decided to keep renting for a while. As a result of the high prices, there's really high demand in the rental market, too, so prices are not cheap.

And the process of going about getting an apartment is different, too. Realtors schedule these 30-60 min "showings" at random times of the day, and if you're interested in the apartment, you have to be present at the showing. It's a first-come, first-serve basis, so there's this mad rush to get in, and then a drag-race over to the realty office to get your paperwork submitted. Places frequently go within the first several minutes of the showing. And they require a ton of paperwork for your application. One of Ben's lab-mates just submitted a 19-page application for a little apartment!

So now that you have an idea of the time and money that this entails, you'll appreciate it even more when we say:
"We have a home!!"

It is a 1 bedroom, brick house, with a nice size yard. It is ~3 miles west of the uni and about 1 mile from downtown Epping, which has some shopping, restaurants, and a city rail station (Epping to downtown Sydney is about 25min). Unfortunately, Ben cannot move in until July 18th.

Kerry continues to run assays...

Fun times in Quarantine

Yes, I'll admit the title is a total oxymoron. But Ben finally got to visit Ani for the first time - 9 days without either of her people. So that's at least more fun for Ani than a normal day in quarantine!

Ani's caretaker, Susanna, is really great - she knew exactly who Ani was when Ben showed up. She said that Ani was doing fine and is a "sweetie." She noted that at first Ani did not seem as perky as we indicated... until today. She said that this morning was the first time Ani gave her the full-body wiggle and was more energetic. She is getting the routine down and has gained a little weight (no, not our little food-a-holic!), so they will start regulating her diet some.

Anyways, it took a second for Ani to realize who Ben was, but then she went into a full-body wiggle and whine...so cute!!! Susanna locked Ben in the cage and they played with her toy and went through her tricks. She got "kitanda" (her command for bed) right away...went straight for her cot. Smarty pants! They spent an hour together (the whole trip took ~5 hours for Ben!).

But here is the sucky part. When Ben got up and called Susanna to let him out, he looked down and Ani was shaking. She was so afraid that he was leaving her...totally knew it. It was hard for Ben to sneak out - Ani was not happy about it. Susanna thinks that the dogs that get visited definitely do better. She thinks that Ani will be completely fine.

One visit down, several more to go. She does have almost 6 days done. I know that she will be out before we know it.

Light Switches

For those of you familiar with our favorite trick of Ani's (turning off the light after we're done reading in bed), we have bad news. The light switches here aren't so conducive to that trick.

However, we have a month to figure something out. Ani arrived safely in Sydney today, where she was immediately whisked off to Quarantine for 30 days (the minimum time). The soonest Ben can go visit her is in 5 days. So we're each on our own, now, taking care of our separate things.

Ben has been working on getting settled in Sydney - figuring out bank accounts, cell phones, apartment searching - all those fun things. Oh yeah - and figuring out his thesis.

Kerry is busy running assays.