Last Day at Work

Time off for Good Behavior...

So, Thursday, July 15 was my last day at work, and I have to tell you I have some really mixed feelings. I have never not worked since I got my medical degree in 1993 other than maternity leaves, and those were certainly no vacations! Practicing medicine is such a part of my self identity, that being "unemployed" is throwing me for a bit of a loop. Part of me already misses my patients and my wonderful colleagues with whom I spend so much of my time, and I am glad I was able to see so many of my patients for check ups before I left. Of course, on the other side, I am so excited about the upcoming adventure. To have the opportunity to bond as a family, live abroad, and experience different cultures and philosophies is a gift we couldn't pass up. I'm a little anxious about getting everything done in time, but, hey, I'm used to working under stress! Now if I could just whittle down the "to do" lists. It seems like I keep adding as much as I check off! A major accomplishment this weekend is getting the kids' duffels mostly packed. I'll try to complete mine this week. Poor Evan is on his own. Once we are packed, this trip will seem "really" real. So, Friends, keep your fingers crossed for me, and if this lady of leisure seems to be losing it, just remind me that it's only temporary, and life as I currently know it, work, and reality all return in May, 2011.
Signing off to go sit on the couch and eat bon bons,
Tamara

Some reading

Medical Economics recently posted an article about a physician who spent a year doing a locum tenens position in Australia that I thought I'd share.

http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Modern%20Medicine%20Now/Globetrotting-medicine/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/674933

There seems to be some progress on my license and visa as someone at Port Macquarie hospital has taken my paperwork under her wing and is personally working on getting my things submitted. I'm optimistic that we'll finally hear something in the next week or two.

We're also close, we think, to getting our train from Sydney to Port booked...waiting for an email confirmation.

Just One Month 'Til Departure !!!

It's hard to believe, really. We started fantasizing and planning this trip at least 4 years ago. We needed to be tenured at our work, we needed the kids old enough to carry their own way and be able to negotiate the rigors of travel. We needed them to be able to understand, appreciate and remember at least some of what we'll see and experience. And yet we didn't want to wait too long where the kids had school activities that were hard to miss or be at a level in school where we really couldn't provide the educational experience they would need.

About 2-3 years ago we began saving money--a key component so that we'd be able to maintain our mortgages and home expenses and to be able to afford the expenses of traveling with 5 people for 2-3 months without income. A year ago I started the job planning for Australia in earnest--after my initial plan fell through in Harvey Bay. Through a friend I'd worked with at St. Johns I found a great job in Port Macquarie. We've planned the itinerary. We've made and extensive "to do" list for home.

And now we sit here a month away from the day we leave home for a solid 9 months!

While there are still a few loose ends (my license is held up b/c my Aussie employer has yet to send in paper work, and I can't get a Visa until I have a license), a Skype call yesterday has, hopefully, got the fire lighted under the proper derrières to get those items resolved.

Tamara has done the HUGE majority of the hard work here on the home front for planning. Every time I think of some little, but important item I'm sure we've never talked about, she has it written down on her official "Aussie Planning" list that she has slowly but steadily been working her way through.

The reality of the trip is really hitting us all. The kids are, maybe, more ready and less apprehensive than Tamara and I.

Today I've been attaching patches to our travel packs that show some of our prior travels. We've talked about what clothes, electronics, books and other essentials that we can't live without...and what has to stay behind for reasons of practicality.

Yea--The excitement is palpable here. The things left to do loom ominously, but I have no doubt we'll get everything done. Tamara is working just half the month so she can spend the final 3 weeks before we leave tying up loose ends. I'm going to work 17 more shifts in the ER b/w now and right up to the day of departure to try to maximize our income and give us some buffer until I start getting my salary from the Port Macquarie ER. Yep...we're excited, and almost ready...just one month--almost hard to believe.

Meet our House Sitter Crew!!

Meet Kristi (mom), Kelsey(purple), & Kinlan (pink)! They'll be holding down our fort for us while we're away. They came by the house today to inspect the new digs and to get an idea about how things work here. I think the girls are excited to have their own room and lots of room to play. Amarra and the girls made fast friends. Kristi got a quick tutorial on using Skype, where the circuit breaker is located and how to add salt to the water softener. I'm pretty sure there will be a million things we'll forget, but hopefully our local friends and family will be able to help her out if any issues arise.

We received our amended itinerary, now sans China, but extended time in Europe and elsewhere. We now have e-tickets, which will make changing dates, if necessary, much easier. We're pinning down plans to get from Sydney to Port MacQuarie--we'll probably take the train b/c baggage fees alone for the flight option was going to run us close to $1200! There's a great deal on train tickets in the area from Melbourne in the South all the way to Brisbane in the North that's good for 6 months and costs just under $400 each for adults, then the kids get tickets for $1 each every trip! Tamara's been very busy getting the finer details of travel at least researched and we've done some purchasing.

It appears that my application to the Australasian Medical Council for my temporary license has been accepted, though I have not yet gotten word that I've been approved. Once I get that things should move pretty quickly on finalizing our Visa and my work contract. It's a relief to know that all the paperwork is pretty much done. It's also convinced us that it's not worth it to go through all this for Tamara to be able to work part time...way too much trouble.

Our August 5th departure day is officially just 53 days away now! I have 29 ED shifts left in those 53 days. And we have a TON of packing, and last minute items to finalize..are all the bills set up for auto pay? We have to suspend cell phone and home phone. We have to "winterize" the lake house. And some minor, but important, "something" seems to crop up every day. But it's close, and we're ready!

No China :-(

Well, we're still going to Hong Kong, but b/c of the goofy 'Round-the-World' ticket rules and lack of available seats we had to add a segment in Tokyo (literally cost a segment b/c we arrive in one Tokyo airport and fly out of a different one...we can't go to China b/c of a 15 minute taxi ride!)

The kids are really disappointed as am I...it is/was the number one country our family chose that we most want to visit.

On the positive side, they are going to be able to convert our paper tickets to e-tickets so we can make itinerary changes ourselves without going to an airport with the tickets. And, we were able to extend our time in India, Greece and Spain!

When we told Amarra this she asked if we would be able to "eat 100 crab legs" in Spain? I said, "What"? She said, I mean "Lobster legs, will we eat a lot of lobster legs?" Still confused we pushed her telling her we didn't understand why she was asking that. Finally she said, "Just like last time we were there, we at lobster at Dr. James' house." We said, "Oh! That was in Maine!" It was great for a laugh, they sounded a lot alike to her and she still can't quite comprehend the geography. But she understands enough to be embarrassed at the error.

Apparently...it's a hurdle marathon!

Holy Cow! In our last episode I'd finally submitted the multiple materials for the Australasian Medical Council so I can be temporarily licensed to practice in Australia...or so I thought.

Last week, while out of town and away from my computer of course, I got the e-mail stating that my application was incomplete. And there were no fewer than 10 missing items!! To be fair, most they just considered insufficient, unclear, or didn't quite understand. But some of the stuff they wanted was actually different than what the materials said they wanted...for instance, they originally said I need a letter of good standing from my current employer--I sent that....but what they really wanted was a letter of good standing from my current licensing organization--namely the Missouri State Board of professional registration!

They also wanted my exam scores for tests I had to pass almost 20 years ago! I can get those, but it would set me back almost $200 to get them.

Anyway, I've collected, amended, and supplemented my data. I've paid the ADDITIONAL AU$110 necessary as a fine for my original AU$210 application being incomplete and am praying I've dotted all the "i's" and crossed all the "t's" now.

On Tamara's side of things we've hit more obstacles. We couldn't book our 'round the world' ticket for the actual dates we wanted to travel at the end of the trip b/c you can't schedule more than 330 days out. But we had the impression that all we'd need to do was pick our dates, bring in the tickets and they'd change the dates without penalty....well, not so fast buster! Turns out that there are not flights available for our dates! The 'Round the World' tickets are sort of like frequent flyer tickets and there are very limited seats available. We're hoping that one simple option will make the rest of the trip pretty easy to schedule (namely, we need a direct flight from Honolulu to Sydney to open up), but if not, we're going to incur at least one $600 itinerary charge and lose one of our destinations (maybe Beijing). That's very disappointing to say the least. So we need some finger crossing that our scheduling works out.

On a brighter note, Tamara has talked with all of the teachers that the kids would have had (and will for a few weeks) and they have all be super excited about the trip and very willing to help us with our home schooling. Most want to stay in touch while we're there and maybe even have some Skype conferences with their classes so it can be a two way learning opportunity. The kids will be basically virtual students with their Nixa classes.

Clearing more hurdles....

I just dropped 2 more big brown envelopes in the mail today packed full of enough personal information to create a brand new Evan E. Fusco, MD from scratch. This time it was to the Australasian Medical Council and the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine for my temporary licensure and specialty certification. On first glance, the paperwork for this looked quite simple, online application, pay a few, done.....well, it 'twasn't quite so easy. I had to also submit 4 "certified" passport type photos and copies of every diploma I've gotten, every license, my passport, a credit card, letters from my ER section chair, residency program, and 3 hairs off of each of my dogs and children.... (just checking to see if you're paying attention....it was just one hair with follicle from each).

By "certified", I had to have a notary public write the following on the back of every photo and photocopy of the paperwork...the stamp and signature wasn't enough, had to be hand written:

"I certify that this is a true photograph/copy of the original sighted by me of Evan E. Fusco", then they had to sign, put their title, license number and the date."

Some originals had to go to the emergency medicine people, but some originals to the AMC, some paperwork to one, other to the other, and sorting it all out was nerve wracking....and, honestly, I'm not sure I've got it all correct. And, if I screwed up anything, the AMC will charge me another $110 to tell me I screwed up and for the privileged of fixing it! I still don't have a formal contract with the hospital, I presume they want to wait until all the licensing and Visa stuff goes through. I hope to start working immediately upon arrival so that we have more time for travel in and around Australia at the end of my 6 month contract, but before we start on our 'around the world' swing.

On the up side, we now have contacts in almost every country we'll be traveling to! It's kind of amazing, as word of our trip has gotten around friends of our have friends or family living in most of the places we'll be going. We haven't made direct contact with some of them yet, but it's nice to know that in a pinch we could probably find someone who knows the terrain.

Let's see...

We have pretty firm commitments from friends to come down for a visit at Christmas and from family (Tamara's side) for Thanksgiving. My parents have started saving up and hope to make the trip down for a visit while we're there as well. Another relative may be coming down with her girlfriend for New Years. Wonder if the Australian Tourism council is going to give us a kick-back?

Tamara and I have taken our Typhoid vaccine (4 pills in 7 days), we'll get the kids theirs in a few weeks. That's needed mostly just for the Asian portion of the trip--it's good for 5 years so it's good to get that out of the way.

We've decided to put copies of all our crucial documents on a thumb drive in case our originals get stolen, lost or damaged. I'll also burn a CD or two to leave here in case the thumb drive is lost stolen or damaged too.

So, maybe not the biggest update, but I haven't posted for a while. The kids get out of school soon, so I may start encouraging them to post some of their thoughts--for posterity sake if nothing else. It's an interesting time, we've moved from the excitement of the reality of the trip to the more intense planning. Trips to the bank for financial arrangements, figuring out how to cut back expenses and pay our bills and keep in touch. Most people at work have stopped asking "I heard a rumor you're moving to Australia." to "When do you leave for your trip? How long will you be gone?" questions.

*edit:B/C someone asked, we leave August 5th, will be in Oz until mid-February 2011, and return to the US late April 2011.