Missing Canberra

With Chaos & Nyx at the back yard in Canberra

I still can’t believe I’m in the States. It’s just another day, I’m sitting on the couch with my laptop, the dogs are sleeping in the same room… but I’m not in Canberra, I’m in Denver. I have to admit that I miss Canberra. On our second last day in Canberra, I spent some time with the dogs on our green lawn of the backyard. It was a lovely warm day.

I miss the familiarity. It took me a very long time to know Canberra, to be comfortable with it. It took me so long to be independent. I grew up in a small town where everything was a walk away, where every neighbourhood was easy to navigate in, where I know knew every shop. As a result I always had issues with travelling on my own to new places. My navigation skills are poor and I have a phobia of getting lost. My experiences of actually getting lost probably didn’t help. Coming to Canberra, a very spread town and much larger than the town I grew up in, was a real challenge for me. In Canberra you pretty much have to have a car to go places and after a very frustrating a year and a half of catching a bus I had to buy a car. It wasn’t easy, I pretty much had to learn to drive again, this time on a different side of the road with slightly different rules. Then I had to battle my own fears and slowly gain the confidence to drive on my own. I guess for most people it’s not an issue but for me it was a huge challenge, and yes, I am proud of myself as I came a long way.

And now I’m in Denver, a city so much larger than Canberra, but with public transport just as bad. So again I have to have a car and again I have to learn to drive on the other side of the road with very different roads and road rules and again I need to fight my fear of driving to new places. I hope that this time it will be easier…

I also miss all the friends I made in Canberra! It took me a long while to make friends and then it was time to go. Keeping in touch was made easy with emails, Skype and Facebook but it's nothing like catching up, especially if you used to see each other regularly. I also miss the Bowens, my Canberra family. You're the best! 

I hope it won’t take me forever to settle down in Denver, mainly in terms of getting around and making friends.

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I started writing a post about all the great things in the States but it will have to wait for a sunny day. The gloomy sky outside the window does no good to my mood.

Cheers,

Irena