I’ve spent the last week humming to myself, sometimes I pause for a minute and smile when I realise that I’m humming “if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” – it seems silly.

A week in, a stressful week and I’m humming about being happy.

It’s a new feeling – this excitement of everything.

This everything being new thing.

This new life of ours!

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands… CLAP CLAP!

I can’t explain it really. It’s a special kind of magic that I’m feeling. The thought of all the new adventures, the possibilities, the things we get to do our way, together in this new place.

So far, so good!

We got really excited about the reliable and efficient public transport. We took busses and trains all over the city and then suddenly it wasn’t so new and fun anymore it was exhausting. Walking around carrying a toddler trying to find places in the rain is only charming for so long. And then it isn’t.

So we bought a car.

A Holden – a brand I’m not familiar with. Between the husband and me, I’m the car person. I did a bit of research, spoke to some people and we drive off with our brand new previously owned car. I love it. It’s so pretty. “My grey car” Oden calls it. I love everything about it.

I love how it takes us from place to place – mostly we’ve been house hunting.

We got one hell of a fright I must be honest, we looked at some places and we though WOAH – no way – and so we changed our strategy and decided we’d rather live closer to the city and use the travel budget on increasing our rent budget. Of course this now means we can’t send Oden to the MOST PERFECT school ever.

We knew we wanted him to go to Little Farm before we even arrived here – The kids ride a horse DAILY and there are all kinds of animals integrated into the school yard. I fell in love. We went to see it, we decided it was perfect and then we realised that it was just too far out from the city. So now we don’t know where he will go to school. We can only really figure this out once we find a place to live.

We have applied for one house so far.

Though we’ve seen some cool places. I don’t know if we will get it but tomorrow we look at a million more places! It’s quite hard it seems, to find a place to live with no job 😛 Who would have thought! But we aren’t letting that get in the way.

The PARKS!!

OMG, they are so damn amazing here. We go to a park almost every single day. We moved here saying we want a life where our son can play in the park and we sure came to the right place.

It doesn’t matter the weather (which for the record is cold freezing). We really love visiting the park and watching him play. Yesterday he cried at 8pm to go to the park. I think he’s enjoying it too hehe!

This evening on the way home he cried to go to a coffee shop. I’m like kid, you’re two?!

Seriously though, things here have been pretty smooth sailing so far. It took me MINUTES to get insurance for our car. We walked in, asked for it, walked out with coverage. They didn’t even ask for our ID or drivers license, nothing. Which was weird.

CLAP CLAP!

Have I mentioned how much I love it here?

The people!! They are LOVELY!

From Janet and Simon, whose airbnb we are staying in to the bus drivers, train conductors, waiters, people on the street, shop keepers, petrol pump attendants – everyone is so willing to help you and show you how things work.

For the record, you ring your own stuff up in a supermarket – that’s a new thing for us!! We are learning SO much!! Everyone is just so welcoming and nice! You don’t get the feeling of being a foreigner in their country. It’s lovely!

I miss people though. I miss my dogs and my family and my friends but I feel in every single part of my heart that this move was the right choice.

That being said, we are one week in and we still have no home so maybe in a week from now I’ll think differently.

I am thankful to the South African friends who have moved here before who offer tips and advice (did you know a baby chino is called a fluffy? no, no I did not – Thanks Claudz!) There have been so many lovely people who have connected me with their friends and family over here. I don’t feel alone even though we are. So thank you for being there for us!

My in laws arrive in three months and my mom and step dad for Christmas so we have the thought of family visiting to keep us positive when we start feeling home sick!

Anyway, this was just a little update on the first week.

CLAP CLAP!