If you can dream it, you can do it

On 24 of January 2006, for the first time I put my foot on the driest continent on Earth. What an amazing and bewildering day it was, such a mix of emotions. No words can describe how excited I was to see my dreams come true, to travel to the exotic country I new only from some TV shows, not to mention to be joining Andy in the country of our dreams. I couldn’t wait to see him after so many months of separation. On the other hand, however, there was some apprehension, some fear of the unknown. What if things didn’t go well with Andy? What if he broke up with me again? Who would help me? I didn’t know anybody there, I didn’t have any money or job or contacts, I was fully depended on him… All I had was a tourist visa, without work permit and with “No Further Stay” condition. Nonetheless deep inside I knew coming here was the right decision, I knew everything would be all right. I could sense it wouldn’t be easy, many things wouldn’t go to plan and I would go through a lot of difficulties, but I knew at the end everything would be all right. In this foreign and unknown place I felt home, I knew it was were I belonged.

To give some background to this story. Though with Andy we lived together for a few years and we talked often about visiting foreign continents together, when he got visa to Australia, he actually broke up with me. With Polish citizenship there wasn’t any chance for me to get work-and-travel visa to this country. I also didn’t have any money, so even if with a lot of luck I would get tourist visa, I wouldn’t be able to support myself for any period of time. So Andy left for Australia and I was absolutely devastated.

Two weeks later, however, he called me and crying on the phone said it was a mistake to break up with me, and he asked me if I wanted to join him and live with him on the red continent. Of course I wanted! I was over the moon! Immediately I started organizing my visa, which was everything but easy. As I mentioned before, because of my citizenship getting even a tourist visa to this country was bordering with a miracle. There were so many things I needed to prove to convince the Australian Emigration officers I wasn’t planning to stay in Australia and I would go back to Europe.

One of the requirements was that I had to have permanent employment in Europe. I spoke to the management of the company I was doing my internship with and told them about my plans. I mentioned I wanted to visit my boyfriend in the Land Down Under, but I needed a proof I had a full time job I need to come back to. Therefore I wanted to ask them if I could have 6 months off, and when I came back I would continue working for them. They asked me if all these was only for the visa purposes, or I was really planning to come back and work for them. This was the only time in my professional life I had to lie – I said I would come back, though I never planned to do so. I knew, if I said the truth they would never sign the papers, and I would never get the visa. It's a bit strange, but to be honest until today I feel bad about that lie. Since then I have never lied or broke any of my work-contracts.

Finally, 3 months later, my visa got approved. It had an additional restriction – “No Further Stay”, which meant under no circumstances I would be able to apply for any temporary or permanent visa while I was in Australia. And, obviously, if I left the country, the chances of coming back here were zero. Nonetheless, for me all the restrictions didn’t matter. I was happy and excited, grateful I had the visa and I could join the ‘love of my life’ in the country of our dreams.

The last few days in Europe I stayed with Andy’s parents. Friday early morning (or rather middle in the night as we had to get up at 2am or something like that) Andy’s father drove me to the International Airport in Frankfurt. It was very cold day, -13 degrees Celsius and everything covered with a white blanked of snow. I was wearing… full motorbike leather suit. Yes, I know, it sounds a bit strange, but… I love motorbikes and I knew it was only question of time and I would be traveling on a motorbike through the Australian Outback. If I tried to pack the leather suit in my luggage I wouldn’t be allowed to take anything else. This type of suit is quite heavy. I also had my helmet with me! I knew the helmet wasn’t legal in Australia, but… This was the best helmet in the world and… To make the story short, I knew in a case of an accident this helmet would protect me much better than… just a sticker on some cheap Australian one (I wouldn’t be able to effort a helmet of such good quality as my was, at the end I spent all my money on a flight ticket to Australia.)

I boarded China Airlines aircraft and some time later we took off. It was the first time ever I was on a plane, everything was so new and foreign to me. My English was poor and I couldn’t understand a word they said. I was very nervous. My motorbike leather wasn’t the most comfortable outfit for this type of a journey, so I went to the lavatory and changed to T-shirt and track-pants. Somehow I figured out how to operate the on-board entertainment unit and for the entire journey I watched movies (they had movies in German, so I could watch something). I was also positively surprised with the yummy food they had. I heard everybody always complains about the meals on an aircraft, but… I couldn’t understand why? The food was excellent, so much vegetarian stuff, they were bringing free snacks and drinks all the time. I don’t drink alcohol, but they had juices as well, so I enjoyed them. During the flight I probably managed to watch about 7 or 8 movies, if not more. From all the stress and excitement I couldn’t sleep at all.

About 13 hours later we landed in Singapore. My next flight would be in 14 hours. Security officers carrying guns approached me asking some questions I hardly could understand. To be honest I had no idea what they wanted from me. I knew in my leathers I looked a bit… different, but… that's life. Like a parrot who learn to speak just one sentence, I was repeating I was waiting for my next flight. But they didn't want to leave me alone. From their point of view even the fact I would spent 14 hours at the airport seemed suspicious. Who books a flight with 14 hours waiting time and stays at the airport? Yes, people have stop-over, they visit the towns or stay overnight at various places, but at the airport? Oh well, didn’t they understand that it was my first flight ever! How should I know how to book a flight ticket? All I cared about was it was cheep and I could leave Germany as soon as possible. Not to mention, actually it was them who wouldn’t give me a visitor visa to explore their town. Why not? Because I was "second category" human being, because I had Polish citizenship! If I was born in Germany, or the US, this of course would be different story. But no, I was born in Poland, so... there had to be something wrong with me, and I wasn't allowed to leave the airport. Fair enough, but why keep asking me why I'm spending 14 hours at the airport? Silly.

And so I was wandering through the airport, which was of a size of a town, trying not to catch too much attention from the security guys and other travelers. All I wanted was to be left alone.

I found a hotel with sauna, gym and lounges. The rooms were very expensive, so I couldn’t afford one to have a nap and relax, but I found out that if I used their sauna I could stay in the hotel and enjoy the other facilities. This sounded reasonable. I paid for the sauna and spent the following 7 to 8 hours in their lounges, sitting on a very comfortable armchairs, drinking free tea and filling myself with biscuits, while making the most of their internet.

About 2-3 hours before my next flight I was getting a bit anxious I could miss the flight, so I started looking for the gate from which I would depart. I had no idea how the information boards on the airport worked, and asking someone was a challenge in itself, as nobody there spoke Polish or German, and I couldn’t speak English.

Finally I boarded my next flight. They let me in, so I assumed (or hopped) it would be the right one. The flight itself was nice. It was also China Airline, with good food, plenty of snacks and drinks, and above all movies in German. And again the sleep was far away from me and I watch all the movies they had.

We were about couple of hours from our destination when the cabin crew started handing out some fliers. I had no idea what it meant, so I was just… Putting crosses into boxes, hoping to perform well in this new exciting game. I looked out of the window and…”That’s it? Is this Brisbane? This little village they call a city?” There were just a few high-rises, couple of hundred of houses with blue dots next to them (Later I got to know these were swimming pools), the ocean to the east and ‘wilderness’ everywhere else. This was a shock.

I got out of the plane, from the conveyor belt picked up (what I believed was) my suitcase and walked through the little mall they called an airport. Suddenly two officers approached me and asked to follow them into a room. They started asking questions why did I come to Australia and if I was planning to stay permanently (as if I was going to tell them the truth, so they could put me on the next plane back to Europe). I said I was just visiting my boyfriend. The interrogation continued. They couldn’t understand why I had Polish citizenship while I lived in Germany. I explained I was only studying in Germany. “Studying? You have been living there for 9 years! Are you jumping countries? Who is looking for you?” – they asked me. “I’m not ‘jumping countries’, you can check. I went as Au Pair to Germany, then studied for 6 and half years and now I am working there, but it doesn’t mean I need German citizenship” – I said in a very broken English, wondering what actually ‘jumping countries’ could mean. They called the Interpol, the BKA, the police in Poland, as well as some other organizations, but they couldn’t find anything against me (They treated me like a dangerous criminal wanted by international warrant). Finally an hour later they let me go. I was exhausted.

I walked through the gate and saw Andy. He was wondering what took me so long to go through the security and actually he thought I missed my flight and didn’t come at all. I was lucky he waited, as otherwise… I have no idea what I would do. I didn’t have a mobile phone, no credit card or Australian cash, I didn’t know anything about this foreign country, and I didn’t even know Andy’s address… Andy looked at me and said: “You don’t look particularly happy to see me”. I couldn’t believe this. I was over the moon I could finally be with him, how could he not see it? I was just… A little tired as at that point I was close to 40 hours without sleep. We exited the airport and… It felt as if we walked into a glasshouse without an exit. It was close 40 degrees Celsius and humid like in sauna. You can imagine the climate-shock. When I left Europe just couple of days earlier, there were -13 degrees Celsius and snow. I got off the plane and suddenly there is humidity and heat I knew only from… sauna.

We walked to his big 4×4, which I knew only from the few photos he sent me, and we drove off. Everything looked so exotic. The sky was so very blue, much bluer than in Europe, the architecture so different from anything I knew, trucks were enormous, actually everything was huge, including all the insects I came across, which made me feel as if I was on a scene from ‘Jurassic Park’. And the most fascinating sight were the endless signs advertising “Pies”. I was wondering why would they so passionately advertise dogs, not to mention the adds were in Polish (in polish ‘pies’ means ‘dog’).

We arrived home. A small cottage Andy rented on an eight-acre property middle in a bush. The landlord was living in the house on the same property. They had a swimming pool, and a nice garden, chickens, a pet cockatoo Casper (which got shot in a wing and couldn’t fly anymore, it was how it became a pet), and above all they had dogs! (Yes, two "Pies") I loved this place. Later I got to know that it was one of the worst areas in the South-East QLD – poverty, drugs, crime, and so on – nonetheless at that time for me it was the best place on earth. To be honest, despite the fact that a few month later we had to flee the place and we had to get a police escort to get our stuff back, I still have fond memories from there – at the end it was the moment when I started turning my dreams into my reality.

So we arrived home, I opened my luggage to give Andy the gifts I had for him and… It was when I realized I picked up a wrong suitcase… It wasn’t mine. We drove all the way back to the airport and luckily I found my luggage. I don’t even want to think what would happen if the suitcase I carried with me through the customs had some illegal substances in it. I already had so many trouble with the customs… They would never believe me the suitcase wasn’t mine…

This was my first day in the Land Down Under. A lot of happened since then. Of course things didn’t go to plan. At some point Andy left me and from day to day I found myself homeless, in a foreign country, without money, family or friends, waiting for my work visa to be approved.

Things were very tough and there were moments nobody believed I would get through. Nonetheless, also a lot good happened. I met wonderful people, I had unforgettable experiences, and above all I learned a lot, learned about myself and about life, about the power of kindness and about the goodness in average strangers, I became a stronger and wiser person, and I became free, free of fear, anxiety and worries, for I know whatever happens in life, I will be fine, I just need to keep going and have the faith and the hope that I will get through.

And if you are curious about my visa and work permit. Well, it wasn’t easy, but I managed to get the “No further stay” condition waived from my passport and I could apply for an “Occupational Trainee Visa”, before I finally found a wonderful lady, an amazing entrepreneur who sponsored my visa and so I had work-permit. I found not only a job, but I had a job which I loved and which gave me excellent opportunity to grow, to learn and to develop in my professional and personal life.

Now I am ‘Australian by choice’, I live on a farm I love, I have a job I enjoy, I traveled quite a bit, and… I simply live my childhood dream. It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely worth it.

I can only say… Micky Mouse (or Walt Disney) was right when he said: “If you can dream it, you can do it”, everything is possible, it depends only on us and our passion to succeed.