Big Things are Coming

I spoke of being almost 6 years post transplant and in those 6 years I have done a lot of traveling.  It could be debatable that I have done more traveling in the past 6 years than my entire life before my transplant.  Always having CF I never felt that good to travel.  I would do some trips, often close by and when I did travel internationally it was usually to club med or to a tropical island. I never could go and travel abroad and live in another country because my health was never stable enough.  Since my last post on this blog  before I started writing again it was my FIRST of THREE trips to South Africa.  I just got back from my 3rd trip at the end of September from visiting my friends Alice and Chris in South Africa.  I think it is safe to say I have caught the travel bug.  Well in my planning of training for the 2017 Games I came upon a very interesting idea.  I had planned a trip to Australia already - my first international trip all by myself.  And I thought of this crazy idea to stick around and stay for 3 months to train for the games. I will borrow their summer and their 50 meter pools.  I am taking a leave from work, and my life here in California.  I am renting an apartment and doing it up like an Aussie for the first part of 2017.  I realized I will be in another country for the inauguration of our next president.  How bizarre - after this heated election.  Depending on how that goes, maybe i won't come back home! HA!  But I am doing it - I have never left the bay area for more than 3.5 weeks - let alone live in another country for an extended period of time.  I am so excited at this opportunity.  I am re-starting this blog to chronicle my experiences.  What is it like to plan for a trip like with with CF, Diabetes, Double lung transplant?  I want to share my preparations, my thoughts, my training plans,  my fears, my excitement.  This is an amazing and new experience for me.  I hope you enjoy the ride as I share my perspective of being a short term Expat in Oz