Is the honeymoon over?

After a rollercoaster day of housing-search highs/lows as well as sobering news from potential schools for Mika, Dan thought it might be good for me to vent my spleen on the blog rather than continuing to bang my head against the brick walls of our apartment.  : )  Only kidding.  I ate lots of ice cream and pouted.  But even that cannot continue as the coping strategy of choice, so here I am.

First, the housing thing.  We have now seen upwards of 20 houses in the inner south and north areas of Canberra.  Initially, I was pro-North, but then we were placed into the inner south area upon our arrival due to housing shortages in the north.  Familiarity, good local shops, and effusive comments about the area school, Telopea Park, caused me to quickly tip to the south as our area of preference.  Even though housing prices run about $100/week more expensive "just for the address" as one of our property managers wryly observed.  I feel like a tree in a windstorm being whipped one way than another...realizing after several days that our choices were limited in the inner south with so much of the housing actually being really expensive "executive housing" or out and out apartments, neither end fitting with the lifestyle we envision for ourselves.  So we are back to broadening our focus on a wider housing area, which means more driving and readjustment of our future view.

Today's recap...

1:00pm:  We find out that one of the houses we applied for had already gone to contract because we were several hours too late posting ours.  Not that we wanted the house, really, but losing it made it the Holy Grail of homes.

2:00pm:   We get a call, saying we'd been approved for property #2 in the inner south!!  Yay!  Except, just like the saying goes, I suddenly had no desire to join a club that would accept me for membership.  We persuaded the property manager to give us another look at the property since they were all pretty much running together in my mind, and sure enough, it...just...didn't...suit.  Living area was small and bedrooms were, too.  But did we dare look fortune in the teeth and turn down an actual opportunity to be in a house?  And why in heaven's name had we applied in the first place?  Ever the embarrassed pessimist, I relied on Dan to look me in the eye and tell me that he felt lucky enough to walk away.  And so we did.

5:00 and 7:00pm we look at two other totally inappropriate properties (think microscopic, then frat house) and I am in despair thinking we blew our big chance.  Dan was able to take the long view and remind me that we've only been here a week and change, so not to worry.  At least we have a roof over our heads.  And our health, at least physically, right?

Second, the schooling thing.  I happened to run by the Telopea Park School on my morning jog, and thought I would just check to see if someone was home, so to speak, even though the website said that no one would be available til 2/4.  Sure enough, a kind admin opened the door to me and we had a lovely conversation about the possibility of Mika going to the school.  Of course there are many hurdles including clearance from the country's Department of Education, evidence of residence in the catchment area (our serviced apartment manager was going to print up something letterhead to that effect), an academic review of credentials, since Mika would either have to jump up or down a half year to accomodate the mismatched start date of Aussie versus US schools.  So yay!  Then I receive an email from the assistant principal saying that an address at a serviced apartment would NOT suffice as evidence of residence since it was usually a short-term situation.  Curses, my plan was spoilt!!  But what is a long-term home-less US family to do??  Now I was feeling really stupid for having turned down the opportunity to have signed the valuable long-term lease when I had the chance.

Of course we still have a whole week before the term starts and a bunch of new homes to examine.  Dan is good at reminding me of those facts when I start to get a little crazy and imagine home schooling Mika because we can't prove residency anywhere in Australia.  : )  Yes, I can get a little dramatic at times.  So, it is with these balanced thoughts that I sign off and hope you don't stop visiting our blog after this entry!