Monday, January 12, 2009

New Beginning

It is barely six o'clock, but I am wide awake. Today is the first day of a week of orientation for the batch of new interns. The mix of nervous energy, expectation, and anticipation swirl around my head as I head to the auditorium of the hospital. It is exactly the same feeling as the first day of medical school four years ago. We gather in the foyer, introduce ourselves to one another, and make the obligatory "Hi, where are you from? What uni did you go to? What made you come to Wollongong?..." small talk. There's a buzz of energy in the room; I can feel the excitement in the air. After all these years of putting our noses to the grindstone, it really is exciting that we are finally going to take the first real step toward a lifelong career, and for me, a second career. I am finally going to have a real job and a regular income again. The cynic in me knows that, as time goes by and as we go through the trials and tribulations of post-graduate training, the enthusiasm and idealism we have today will seem naive sometimes. But today, I feel like my whole life is laid out before me and the possibilities endless. Today, I feel like an adult again.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

In the Nick of Time

After a somewhat tense and suspense-filled two days, I logged onto my email this morning for the nth time to check my visa status.

It turned out that the only sure way to get things moving was to get on the phone. So, for example, when things like the person assigned to your case got moved to a different section of the Department of Immigration and your file ended up sitting on a desk without anyone looking at it for a month happen, you can get someone to maybe give a sideway glance at the big pile of paper with your name on it. And when they call you back saying that they can't process your paperwork because of some technicality, you can get the hospital sponsor to call them back and tell them to stop being ridiculous. After a bit of back-and-forth like that, I was finally promised that my visa would be finalized yesterday afternoon.

This morning, I logged onto my email, only to find that the notification for my visa's approval in the spam folder. Maybe it was the word "approved" in the subject line or that the text of the email sounded too much like one of those get-rich-quick come-ons, the email filter had decided that it was too good to be true.

That must be the best piece of spam I have ever got.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Sydney Tour

Today I am on a whirlwind tour of Sydney. But it doesn't involve the Harbour Bridge; there's no visit of the Opera House; nor am I getting anywhere near any of the beaches. Today is a day dedicated to satisfying the Australian bureaucracy.

I got back to Brisbane early yesterday morning. I went over to the med school to pick up my diploma, had coffee with a good friend who is heading back to Canada, went back to the place I last lived and re-packed my bag - I needed to dump out my travel gear and pack some work clothes - and headed back to the airport for a night flight to Sydney.

The flight was delayed - first by twenty minutes, then it became half an hour, then it stretched to forty-five minutes. At the end, the flight was one-and-half hours late. I flew on Virgin Blue, another budget airline - well, you got your hits and you got your misses. My housemate picked me up from the airport. By the time I got to Wollongong and settled into the hospital quarters, it was well past midnight.

Which brings us to this morning. My housemate is taking me on a tour of the backstreets of Sydney, but mainly to visit two places: the New South Wales Medical Board and the Department of Immigration. I am supposed to start orientation for work next Monday, but I don't have my work visa sorted yet. Besides the mountain of supporting documents I had submitted, Immigration wanted to see my diploma and registration with the Medical Board. The New South Wales Medical Board requires that all interns coming in from out of state to register with them in person.

With my diploma in hand, I walk into the Medical Board. Registration itself is actually a pretty painless affair, it takes all of ten minutes; the most difficult part is getting to their office. Then next step is to drive to Immigration and convince them that I have in fact graduated from medical school and am now a registered doctor. It is one of those take-a-number-and-wait affairs, not unlike what one would do at the supermarket deli, except in this case, my fate - whether I will be able to work in Australia or be packed off onto the next flight out of the country - is firmly in the hands of the person behind the counter. With my paperwork handed over to them, my day is finished. The only thing I can do now is to wait while my paperwork churns through the mysterious workings of the innards of the Australian bureaucracy. Perhaps the planets will align and the person processing my paperwork will come back from holiday in a good mood and I will get my visa on time to start my orientation next week. At this point, I kind of wish that I can grease some palms and get things sped up a bit.

Or maybe I will occupy myself with the next task - looking for a place to live.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Back to Oz

Vacation is over; I am heading back to Australia. I am flying the no-frills Tiger Airways from Macau to Singapore. After a seven-hour layover, I will be flying the red-eye on Qantas from Singapore to Brisbane.

Macau International Airport is a shiny and modern airport built on reclaimed land. With only a few small airlines operating out of it, the airport feels deserted when I check it. Within ten minutes, I have checked in, cleared customs, and am sitting in the departure hall. With almost two hours to kill before my flight, I occupy myself on the free internet terminal by the boarding gate. The sun beams in through the glass-and-steel eastern facade of the terminal, casting a warm glow on the lounge chairs, the shops, and the waiting passengers in this brisk morning. With a cup of coffee in hand, I stare out onto the single runway that appears to be floating just above the shimmering South China Sea. It is still close to an hour before my flight. My eyes look out toward the horizon; the outlying islands of Hong Kong seem to be faintly visible. My mind wanders here, there, and everywhere. This has got to be the most relaxed I have ever been when waiting for a flight.

A seven-hour layover is just too long to spend inside an airport, even for an excellent one like Singapore's Chang-I Airport. My friend Vignesh, who is a local, has the afternoon free. He meets up with me at the airport. We head into Orchard and the waterfront for a few hours. The tropical afternoon heat hangs heavily over the city; it takes extra effort to just walk along the street, as though we are trying to walk underwater. To revive myself, I have my fill of kaya toast washed down with that most delicious diabetes-in-a-cup: teh tarik. Before long, it's time for me to get back to the airport. I say goodbye to Vignesh, head into the terminal, and get ready for the eight-hour flight ahead.

I'd better get some sleep on the plane tonight. Tomorrow will be a full day of running around Brisbane, capped by a night flight to Sydney.