Monday 23/08/10

Plan for the day: go and find out if Fruit picking is actually legitimate and find out how to sign up.
It is difficult currently to take a shower, because it is all glass and is see through. When it was just David and I it wasn’t really a problem because the honor system of “please don’t look” worked well. But with our German and French roommates I feel pretty uncomfortable showering in there. David used another open shower and found out that these other showers were not see through, so I went to use those. Forrest was cleaning them at the time, so I waited for them on the couches closest. While waiting, Forrest asked what was wrong with our shower, and we found out that there is supposed to be a long curtain in between the glass of the shower and the glass sliding door. Either the people before us didn’t care that it wasn’t there, or they are the ones that stole it. Either way, I had a very nice shower and didn’t worry for one minute that someone could see me naked.
After getting ready, David and I came down to reception and finally told Forrest our “story.” He knew that we had a different sort of relationship from the minute he met us, and was thrilled to hear. It was interesting to tell, and the minute we finished he looked at David and called him a dick. It was pretty hilarious. Walking back into the hostel later Forrest yelled, “what an awesome story!” and made fun of David a few times, asking him how he could give me up cause I am very hot. Ahhhhhah. So good.
So we left the hostel and walked to the US consulate which is in the MLC building. This building is in the central business district of the city. It was our first time in the CBD, and it is definitely amazing. Just to name a few stores around there was Lacoste, Gucci, and Jimmy Choo. The reason that we were going to the US consulate was because Donna suggested going there to find out more about fruit picking. Walking in, David and I made complete jerks of ourselves. Why neither of us thought that the US consulate would be a ridiculous idea is beyond me because the lady working looked at us like we were crazy. And rightfully so, we needed to go to the Australian consulate if we were going to go anywhere. But walking into the MLC center was one of the biggest food courts I’ve ever seen, and it smelled so delicious, I was hungry, and on a mission. Looking around at everything, I settled myself on a muffin made of spinach and feta. It was warmed up and I was given cream cheese. It was one of the most interesting but delicious muffins I’ve ever had.
After the little snack, David and I walked down Pitt street towards the Australian immigration building. Looking around, I noticed that I hadn’t seen any obese people. Overweight yes, but not obese like we have in the USA. Standing in line at the department of immigration was my first obese sighting. It sounds really mean, but it is more fascinating than anything else. They have McDonalds here and lots of fattening foods like the states do, why do we have so many more obese people? Laziness? I honestly don’t know. Once I was done marveling at the first obese person I saw, we were called to a counter in what seemed like a very long but fast paced line. Here’s where the curveball was thrown. A swing and a miss. The lady at the desk told us that we are not on the correct visa for fruit picking. There is a working holiday visa which is for England and a few other countries, but we are on the work AND holiday visa, which means that we cannot fruit pick for another year extension. Bah.
Both David and I had a gloomy walk back. Trying to decide what to do with life when we thought we had a plan kind of blows. It was actually weird because probably for the first time I saw David get frazzled that the plan was not what we thought it would be. That isn’t him usually, so he and I were both on edge that night, brainstorming of what to do with our lives now that fruit picking is out of the options list. However, we did see homeless people digging in the trash cans in the CBD on our way back. I don’t know if I don’t go to New York City, Philly, or DC enough or what, but that is the first time I saw someone digging in the trash can for food. It was pretty ridiculous. I was feeling hungry, so on our way back we stopped at Coles to pick up some food, apples, bread, eggs and… vegemite. We’re getting more comfortable cooking in the hostel and being around and finding everything so we’ve started to pick up food to actually eat here. Coles had a very small can of it, and it was a mutual decision since it wasn’t too expensive to get some. I’m not sure if I explained this previously, but vegemite is not what my dad said it was, which is smashed up vegetables. It is basically yeast. We didn’t know how to prepare it, so we were going to put in on some bread. As we pull it out to try it, Forrest walks into the kitchen and eats a big glob of it just from a spoon. He tells David to not do it, but he can because he has been eating vegemite since he was 4. Well, when you tell David or I to not do something, we want to do it even more. So David took a little bit and put it in his mouth raw. His face looked very displeased. So of course I had to try it too. I wish that I could explain the taste of vegemite, but a few words come to mind for a starter. Potent and abrasive being two of them. David said he think it tastes like beer because of the yeast taste, which might be why he REALLY hated it and I thought it was kinda gross but could totally eat the rest of the can because we paid for it. If vegemite was the last thing on the world to eat with bread and butter I would do it. But we also didn’t know that the best way to prepare it is to toast bread and then put a lot of butter on it, and just a little vegemite. Next time we’ll do it that way. You know me, I’ve got to try something at least twice, if not three times to decide I don’t like it.
The other thing I noticed in the grocery store is that they do not keep eggs cold. They were in the breakfast isle beside the cereal and muesli. Okay.. so our eggs aren’t refrigerated because I am scared to mess with the regular temperature vs. cold. Getting sick from eggs would be really awful, especially since I love eggs.
After all of this David and I had to put our thinking caps on for jobs, so we went to the library for the free internet and started researching. I emailed the two cafes in Sydney that told me to contact them when I got to Sydney. I also looked around for jobs but we were both really burnt out from the day. The one upside to the library’s free internet is that there is a small table right when you walk upstairs and it is perfect size for David and I to fit all our stuff but we can talk without bothering people. Once a man’s phone went off in the library and the librarian yelled at him for having his cell phone on, and someone had on music quietly and the girl across from him said, “excuse me this is a library turn that off.” IF I HAD A DOLLAR for every time some one played music obnoxiously or answered their cell phone in the Millersville library I would be a bazillionare. There are also 4 plugs around where our table is. David and I both plug our computers in but that still leaves 2 plugs underneath the table. A very nice, squirrelly looking man asked if he could plug his phone in under our table. David described him as some character from Harry Potter but I had never heard of him. At any rate, this guy was about 45 or 50 years old. He plugged in his phone and then asked us if it was charging… how do I know? We apologized, and told him that we weren’t really sure. He bumped his poor head maybe 3 or 4 times getting in and out of underneath that table. About 10 minutes later he came back and said, of course it isn’t charging, I forgot to put the battery in! Knocked his head two more times getting to the phone and putting the charger in. It was pretty great.
When we got back to the hostel, Craig and someone who I have never seen before with a red beard were working. We asked them about how to find referral agencies in the city since to find them on the internet is really difficult. We chatted for a few minutes, and red beard got up and gave us 4 pages full of referral agencies and their addresses off the computer. It was definitely a picker-upper from the day. David and I decided that tomorrow we will go to the referral agencies and sign up for as many as we can.
When living out of a bag, it can get really crowded and messy very quickly. Our part of the room was kind of a mess, so we decided to clean it. Since we were both on edge about the job thing, things heated up pretty fast. It’s weird, it was the first time I got really pissed off at him. How ironic that now that we’re not in a relationship was the first real time we got mad at each other. There was no real reason other than we were both frustrated. It lasted about 5 minutes, and then I laughed because of how petty and stupid it was, and we hugged it out and were fine. We cleaned sufficiently but I don’t know how long that is really going to last living out of a suitcase.
After picking up eggs at the grocery store, brinner (breakfast for dinner) sounded really good. So we decided to make brinner. It was the first time that we really cooked in the hostel and I think it was good to do cause it was an easy but delicious meal. Two eggs over hard, bacon and cheese that we had from a salad earlier in the week and Toast. We finished it off with the last half of the chocolate mudcake and watched some of inglorious bastards. We started the movie right where Brad Pitt is telling his men that he is part Cherokee and wanted 100 Nazi scalps a piece. We then quickly get to the part where the bastards actually scalp some Nazi’s, and the Irish kid says, “Why are they doing that?” So I start to explain to him that Brad Pitt said he was part Cherokee and back when the Brittish came to America the American Indians scalped the new Americans.” And so on. David thought I was talking like the kid was two years old, but after it happened the guy said thanks and that it was interesting.
We’ve been making friends in the hostel and enjoying spending time with them. Since they’re backpackers they’re all a really fun group of people who are super accepting. I have a really good time hanging out with all of them. Most of the kids here are English which makes it impossible to understand at times. At one point it was David and I with 6 or 7 people from England. Once you don’t understand one thing and try to think about it, you lose the pace and then get lost from everything everyone is saying. It is getting easier by the day but pretty hysterical. There is one cute English boy. He’s very dry and sarcastic and seems like he likes to have a good time which is awesome. I think I’m going to be just fine here.
I decided to go to bed because I was exhausted from the day and needed to sleep so I went to sleep. When getting into bed the Germans were actually there since they had to get up at 3:30am for their flight. David and I had a really good chat with the Germans that night. We talked about everything from the differences in our cultures to David getting one kids name to facebook him so we could go to Germany and he could drive on the Autobahn. I would love to go back and visit since I loved it. For now, I love Sydney and am very happy where I am. =)