A Venezuelan wacky guy living his Australian dream

Well something I must start doing before actually get to Aus is to adapt my thoughts to the Aussie thinking style, and what better to accomplish it rather than watching TV programs?

As I don’t get any Aussie signal in my TV set, I decided to start looking at some shows through youtube. Thanks to a blog that I like very much I was able to find this hilarious TV show called The Gruen Transfer. The point of the show is to find funny a pitch for a ridiculous situation... how to sell an idea which is unsellable by conception.

Here you have some videos. Enjoy it.

Well, this post isn’t related to the TV series if that was what you wanted to look out.

The time goes by and we do not have any answer from the migration department. We do not know if our case is being on the scout or if is going to take a little longer… In any case, July isn’t over and we might get the visa to the end of this month.

Anyway, here is a sum up from the previous post up today. Since the last post I have been full day on work stuff (thankfully this helps to get a little bit distracted), my mom’s b’day happened and today is my b’day… Cool isn’t? hahaha, big sum up.

Anyway, the last couple of days (last two or three weeks really) I have realise my mom’s feelings about me moving away and this kind of anger which really is unmanaged frustrations. The problem is that for your parents, you are the little kiddo whom is trying to forget about them moving away, even if you are not... My mom took things pretty bad although she stays cool and quite, trying to avoid no matter what the moving issue. Sometimes it is easy to forget that they are trying to defend their point of view such as “why to move that far away?” or “Don’t you have everything somewhere closer?” because they just try to vanish the idea behind the illusion of “if I ignore the reality isn’t going to affect me”.

Since then I've tried to involved them more into the situation and trying to expose them how others have handled the distance and the fact that there is 14 hours of difference between Australia and Venezuela (or 10 hours the other way around) and I have notice a better reaction. since then. So, as the time goes by there is a bigger need from my family to ensure we will keep in touch and the distance isn’t going to matter that much.

As time goes by you also have to finish up the final arrangements (even though you do not have the visa granted) in order to avoid running from one spot to the another trying to solve last minute issues. This is a suggestion I haven’t followed. As for my wife and I, the world has just stopped spinning with the day to day activities and the hundred and one issue to solve with our family members before the departure day becomes our present day.

That’s the sum’ up to the present (July 11).

I hope you have found pleasant the Frank Sinatra song.

C’ya around cyber mates.

What else could I do? The Department of Immigration And Citizenship so doing its part and we’re doing ours… But I must confess, this phase is kind of horrible… you know you already did what you had to do and all it rest is wait.

The worst thing is, I know my visa isn’t going to come yet… because they haven’t called to my jobs, nor my case manager gave me some feedback, and to be honest I am expecting my documents on July, maybe August.

What are you going to feel at the same stage of the process?

Well… sort of exasperation, depression, hatred and stress. Not all at once, but at least for the Venezuelans these are the feelings most of the people had told me before I felt it.

Why Exasperation? Because want to go away from the situation and reality which, at the moment, isn’t yours anymore. My mate Raul said this mood is called bubble moment stage… you feel some sort of barrier between the reality around you and what it really matters to you… awful.

Why Depression? Well, you can imagine what to feel when you are on this train for two years now and all of the sudden you are quite ready to go… but… not yet… is like we have walked so much but there is a few steps to get to the finish line; you can’t see it but knows its there… so you ask your coach how far the goal is… and you receive a “dunno dude”. DIAC has a web site to give you updates of your case, but the update is a big sum up, which doesn’t tell you much.

What to hate to? Why Hatred? The entire process, it should be shorter or at least with much more feedback.

Why Stress? Because you want to buy new furniture, but no, we’re gonna move soon, isn’t necessary… we wanna move to a nice apartment… but again NO, because we cannot invest the money in something silly… we are going to be moving soon, right???..... right???

Anyone, blogging helps me to set the emotions to the lowest, let the soul to rest and resist for a little longer.
Talk to you later guys. Thanks for reading such a useless post.

It had been sort of a month and a bit from the physicals and this stage of the process is a silent killer. Awful…
Anyway, giving you an update of the process, the day when the physicals were sent to the immigration medical office my doctor told me to send the exams to the embassy of Australia in Chile… I wasn’t so sure but I said ok.
A couple of weeks later my case manager told me it was a big mistake… More than a mistake, an issue. So, I decided to write to the embassy of Oz in Chile querying some information about my medical examination status. Thankfully the response reached me no time saying my package was about to be sent to Oz.
Kind of silly, hun?
Anyway, if you are about to do the medical examinations, double check the direction and send it directly to Australia.
That’s all for now. Cya maties

The same day of the VA’s client cocktail we planned the farewell party of Melanie, David, Luisa and Roberto. The voted menu was Pizza and the provider was an excellent restaurant near the block’s corner… 14 pizzas was required to fulfill the appetite of the guests (and the hosts of course which is me, hehe) plus the common snacks and beverages… Soda, beer, some wine, water, etc.

After odd 2 hours I got the incoming call of Victor and the surprise was on. My close mate Raúl and I planned to start a video conference with him (which currently is living in Perth) to give some motivation to the take off… more hope and less sadness to the moment.

Sort of at the end, I made public the launching of the blog’s forum and old forum renovation into a single forum of Latin-Americans (for now, anyone is welcome). The forum is hosted on freeforums.org (excellent services) and the url is: http://aussieneighbor.freeforums.org. This forum is the product of new ideas with the old community GotoAu hosted previously on Yahoo Groups... Just on step closer to community.

I am not going to extend so much on chatting…
Images speaks better than words.

Everyone knows what a farewell party is. A couple of your closest friends gathering together to say goodbye / trip to those how are starting a new journey. As I said before (in other post named “meeting new people”) the idea of organize reunions are to meet new people; but in this parties the idea is to get even more close with those whom you want to become neighbor of.

When you start the migration process you start feeling a bit lonely and out of the planet, not many people share your same ideas and realities; so a way to deal with it is to find more friends, share your picture and open up your mind. But this isn’t enough, you need to find those whom fulfill you somehow, whom you feel comfortable with and as the time goes by you start to have some connection and friendship.

The same thing happened to us with other couples and families way ahead of us in the process and we could not let them go ahead without a proper reunion and “have a nice trip and see you soon…” the good see you soon.

Those with a path already walked invited us to share a night with them, something small but nice, just family and closest friends, it was our first farewell party, saying goodbye to Ricardo and his family as well to Jea, and it was so nice that we started the feeling to organized something alike. The first experiment was the Reinaldo’s farewell on hooters (also mentioned in other post). Everything was ok and another date was set to another reunion, another friend on its way (Victor and Betzy family).

The Victor’s family farewell party was hosted on my house. It started Sunday at 10 am and ended Monday at 1am, all day menus was subs sandwiches, beer, coke, snacks, etc. It was amazing the quality of the people… everyone took anything to the party, it didn’t matter so much what it was, but at least something to eat or to get distracted made the reunion memorable and thanks god the party showed exactly how I wanted to say goodbye to these dear friends. Again at the end of the party another reunion was set; same place, same channel (hehe, Spanish way to say same hour, location and conditions) this time was Moira’s family (my dear and liberated Moira, Alfonso and Guille).

The Moira’s family farewell was planed Saturday morning till Sarvo (Saturday afternoon) but again the night came, everyone chatting and having a great time. This time menu was meat and chicken skewers, “guasacaca pico e’ perico” (a sauce made with advocado, onions, tomato and parsley finely chopped and mixed with a little bit of pepper and salt) and cassava with milk cream sauce. It was simply magnificent and hopefully they liked it.

In the end, another party was on its way and the arrangement was to organize these parties once every month to say goodbye to our closest friend and those you are on its way to become close.

If you want to organize this kind of reunions all you need is.

• Proper clean location, not too cold, not to hot.
• Chairs… Unless you want to torture your guests you need chairs for them to rest. Tables are not required unless you’re menus requires it.
• Background music isn’t required and in some cases, will be not desired. In our case wasn’t necessary.
• Flexible menus… It means, if you are going to prepare food, make different flavors, variety is the key point to make everyone happy.
• Plenty of snacks… the people is going to be more distracted than hungry and need something easy to eat but constant. Snacks will do it. Bring some nachos, cheese balls and stuff like that. Try also some sweet but remember, sweet will be over first, so keep it out side of the stares until you know everyone invited has arrived.
• Plenty of drinks… this is vital, have sodas, water, beers, ice… everything needed to have a nice refreshing drink made in less than 10 seconds because people will talk a lot… and we you talk a lot you mouth turns into a hot and dry desert.
• Reservoirs. Other key points are the reservoirs because you don’t know exactly how much time the reunion will take (unless you start kicking out people out your home). Have anything for an emergency in case you ran out of food and your guests are a little at the expectation of something to eat.
  

We had to be at the hospital at 8 a.m to start with the examination and my wife and I thought we could be out and get a brunch at 11... Once there, the nurse gave us the examination order for the blood test, urine test and x-rays... Every order a big bold and red word "urgent". The nurse asked for the form 26, form 160, two pictures and passport copies and before everyone moved a finger remarked "you have to make the lab responsible to sign those papers before 12 pm else you will have to come other day... Once the results are done the doctor will check you up... hopefully at 4PM you will be done."

Wordless to say my wife face; we could not do anything else to wait. Went down to basement 2 (where the lab is) to pay for the tests and to wait till are finished. While in the line we started to have the nature call... and someone near us had a waterfall sound as ringtone... a total torture...

Anyway, at 10 am we had all the preliminary examination done, when to get the brunch done before the physical with the doctor Jacques Dennis, there the doc asked us for every disease or medical record... I was asked for a detailed report of my general doctor (I suffer of migraine) and my wife's gynecologist report.

My suggestion is, if you have had any medical record of anything persistent issue; ask for the reports before going to the physical examination.

As extra information, check the doctor panel allowed by Australia government to determine who’s near you plus; download all the information required by the forms (such as the office requiring the examination and so on).
Link to health requirements (here you will find forms, Panel doctors and other information)
Link to Panel Doctors

Triple check the given information, passport ID, dates and everything else to avoid any problem with your case (as explained in the DIAC’s web page). Everything cool? Hit the next button and you will see some abstract information of your case… It might take you a couple of minutes to understand what is being show.

In your final stage of the process, you can feel a little exasperated, stressed or disoriented but checking as often as you want might gives you a better idea of how everything goes and calm you a little.

This post is related to: "Check your case status (Updated)"

The criminal background check is a list of past crimes an individual has been convicted or accused of it or the free of charge letter if no crime has been registered.

Here in Venezuela there are several types of crimes similar to those in the United Stated... Such as drug possession/consumption, homicide, illegal weapon registration or porting, robbery (except for needing, which means that if you rob someone and take them food is ok… at least for this bizarre government), and the list goes on and on. Except here the people related to power figures or corruption usually gets out of jail for free or takes the guy who didn't do anything...

Saying for short, the Justice system doesn't work that much.... Anyway, isn't the time nor the space to be complaining about…

In order to get the visa, you must probe you had been an excellent citizen by not committing any crime or being accused of committed one or what so ever. These are extremely important because are your credential for the Australian government that according to your file is clean and you aren’t going to be a trouble for your soon-new nation.

So, the journey started late in December last year, when I called the Ministry of Justice (currently called differently but is too long and I don’t want to make any reference of it at the moment) just to get an unpleasant,

“we are too busy this days and it is appropriate to tell you don’t come here till January…”

which means,

“we’re talking holydays vacations, do not bother!”

So, I decided to back off during holydays and call again at the beginning of the year 2008, just to receive another excuse

“sorry Sr. but we got to tell you the vice minister was changed… again… The request will take a little more than 8 days for you to get your background checks, it may take 1 full month till the minister consign another candidate for the position, who is the responsible for signing the paper.. We’ll call you back once your file comes out, ok?”

Thanks goodness, it only took 15 days (again Venezuelan government isn’t effective or efficient… and this has been since always) and by now the only thing left are the medical examination and I am done and ready to get my case reviewed by an officer and get the expected visa.

One good thing about these checks is you can request ‘em a couple of months before introducing your file in the department of immigration of Australia, and doesn’t make any harm to your timing or review if you make the request a little before is required. Remember that governmental departments may take a while to give you the file meanwhile they check and recheck every source of information.

Next post I will be showing a sample of the document you have to take to the law authority in order to get your papers.