My Life Journey – Part 16:
Starting a new life in Australia….
Our flight landed in Sydney on 16th August 2015…. We were very excited and stressed, I had all the papers and passports ready in handbag to avoid any issues at the airport, to be frank we were shocked with Sydney arrival terminal comparing to Dubai or Doha airports. Anyhow things went somehow smoothly, and we stepped out to breath Sydney air for the first time in our lives, it was a moment when I saw one of my dreams became reality. We were in Qatar few hours ago with in the middle of the summertime with temperature of more than 48 degrees, and now here in the other side of the world in the winter with freezing cold temperature. We hired a bus to our rented house in an area called “Lewisham” I have no idea where this area is and how it looks. I rented the house based on some criteria: it is close to the city and close to the areas where Arab community usually stay “as was written on several websites” Also, I wanted the first accommodation to be good enough to give my family a good first impression.
We reached home around 11am, the kids were very happy as the house was nice and has small, beautiful backyard. It was long trip; we were very tired, but I did not allow anyone to sleep trying to control the jet lag impact. After some cleaning and unpacking we decided to go out to find something to eat. Walked and walked then found a Turkish kebab, we had our dinner and went back to sleep around 8pm. We were supposed to meet that online friend of my wife “the Syria lady” but something had happened at her home, and we could not contact them for the first few days.
Before coming to Australia, I prepared a list of the suburbs where Arab and Muslim communities are.
The next day, I told my family that we are going to Auburn as it has some Arabic restaurants and shops, and we have to use the train for the first time in their lives. Everything was new and every step was a new adventure for all of us. We reached Auburn and wow many places have Arabic text on their signs, Yes Arabic and many Muslim people many wearing hijab like my wife, we are not strangers ……
We spent great time, had tasty lunch, and made yummy food shopping.
At home, I prepared my To Do list, the major tasks were, searching for home, contact and visit the Islamic schools, look for job and many other stuffs.
I contacted my ex- sub-contractor to inform them of my arrival, they invited me for a business lunch in few days.
The other major task was to look for a place to live in, which area? What budget? What is good house and what is bad house? What is good neighbourhood and what is bad? Which direction is better than other and endless number of questions with no answers ….