3 weeks to Australia

Hey, so this is my first post.  I would like to show my appreciation of a trip I am about to embark on in the wonderful country Australia.  I have recently got a work-holiday visa for Australia and leave June 9th from Los Angeles, California.  I currently live in San Diego, California.  I moved to Oceanside (North San Diego County) 4 years ago, lived there for a year and then moved to Pacific Beach (City of San Diego, but north of the downtown area) where I still live.  I work in Carlsbad (North San Diego County) as a civil engineer at an environmental and geotechnical consulting company, EEI.  

I have been having second thoughts on moving to Australia in the last few weeks but decided I need to go there.  It has been a tough decision, having to leave my girlfriend, quite my job, leave my apartment, move further from my family, move away from my set of buddy's, sell my car, put my stuff in storage, and then do it all over again when I get back.  I have made a good place for myself in San Diego, California and it isn't easy to leave.

I have wanted to go back to Australia since I left there from my study abroad program in Wollongong, Australia back in 2001.  What makes me miss it so much?  Well there are several reasons but to sum up the Aussie lifestyle in one description is you don't have to wear shoes! That's right, people in my class would be barefoot; in supermarkets you see parents walking around shoeless, so it is very laid back.  It fits my personality, casual clothing, not overpopulated, friendly people, living on the coastline, pubs all over, basically a San Diego with 90 percent less people, cleaner ocean, and less populated surf breaks.  Basically a dream.  When I was there I said to myself, "If people knew about this place better everyone would try to move here".  But Australia does something the United States does not, they restrict the people that emigrate there.  I mean the U.S. does that too but come on, look at the illegal Mexicans that hop that border every day.  But I found my way to get back in.

So I will talk more about things but let's get a quick synopsis of my plan once I get there.  I have a friend Benny from uni (short for the university I went to) that lives in Sydney (Manly Beach) and a friend John that lives in Wollongong (still goes to uni).  I am going to crash with Benny for a week, feel out Sydney, get a vehicle, surf a bunch, look at jobs in the area, basically get oriented with the move.  Then I am going to drive to Wollongong (about an hour or more south of Sydney) and stay with John for a few days.  I applied to WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms), which allows you to work on a farm for a few hours a day and they give you a place to live and feed you, some even pay.  I am waiting on my book that gives a list of farms to work on. Hopefully I can find one in Tasmania near the beach, if so I will drive south after my stay in Wollongong, stop in the famous Bells Beach, and then take the ferry to Tasmania.  This is the plan for now.