I know, it’s been almost 5 weeks since I updated my blog. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to. Life started, and it became evident that I could no longer keep up with my blog in the kind of detail that I would like to, and had done in the first week. I’ve got things written down, and have pictures, but that still doesn’t do justice to my surreal life in Australia. While sometimes I am sure I will be happy to read that first week, the next blogs to come for me, and everyone else, will be full of short and less in depth descriptions of my days and experiences. Now that life has calmed down quite a bit, I think it will make blogging much easier.
From the last I wrote, I was going to go to a trial at a café in Surry Hills called Toast. I went on that next day, Thursday the 26th of August and spent some time there, but it was too slow to tell if I would be able to work there full time. I met some nice people there, but I didn’t get trained at all. Hugo was the coffee maker and assistant manager who was kind and asked me lots of questions about American and why I was there, but didn’t really help me in the café. They had me read over the work manual which wasn’t helpful to the job at all, and then get on the floor. The woman who trained me, Marie, didn’t even show me how to take orders on this little palm pilot that they used she just gave me one and told me to go do it. I left there after 4 hours with $66 and another trial on Saturday, but I was skeptical. Not sure I really wanted that job considering that I didn’t feel comfortable. That night David and I went to the famous hot dog place in Sydney called Harry’s Café de Wheels. It was pretty delicious, I got their hot dog de wheels but it had some seriously hot chili sauce on it which made my mouth go numb. David and I went and got some ice cream from Woolworths, and had a bit before going out to the Mansion for Hannah’s (a girl in our hostel) birthday.
The next day was the 27th of August and a Friday. That day I was up early to talk to my parents and I talked to Alex a bit which was really nice. After all that David, Leander and I went on an adventure to the Sydney Aquarium. We stopped for lunch at this little place off of Castlereigh Street where we got an awesome lamb and gravy roll, a burger with a fried egg, and wedges with sweet chili and sour cream on them all for $14.50. We then walked to the aquarium, and got the 4 pack pass for Sydney. It was the aquarium, wild life park, the Sydney tower, and the aquarium in Manly. It cost a little bit, but I saved so much money because I am doing or did all of the 4 things on the list. The aquarium here in Sydney was not like the aquariums back in the States. In the US we try to get as many different sea animals and creatures from everywhere in the world, but this aquarium showed off all the cool fish and creatures only native to Australia. We spent maybe 10 minutes by the cuddle fish, because David loved them so much and there was a guy there who knew more about cuddle fish than I think anyone in the world. He was telling us about how smart the cuddle fish are, and showing us how they were changing colors awesomely. The aquarium was pretty mediocre until we hit the tunnels. I went down these stairs and into a tunnel underwater. The only not clear part of the tunnel was where I walked, and I had sharks, dugongs, turtles, fish, stingrays, and more swimming all around me. The view was incredible. After the aquarium David, Leander and I just went back to the hostel and hung out with our friends from England, Laurie and Jodie, and our friend from Germany, Hendrik. I then skyped with Britt for a little bit that night, and then Henry, Leander, David, and I walked to the Scary Canary (club) which was ironically almost right beside the aquarium. It was a little bit of a hassle getting in, especially because of being there at like 1130 at night, but the kid who stays in our hostel who does promotions for bars got us in. He’s kind of a douche, but I am going to just ignore it and him as well. It was pretty nice outside, so David and I decided to walk home. Hyde Park was there, and the view at night with the lights was beautiful. David asked me on the way home in the park where all the birds go at night. As silly as it sounds, he was right. There were no birds to be seen in the park. There were a few people walking behind us (at 1am) and David stops and asks them if they know where the birds go at night. The two girls and one guy were really nice, and said that maybe they go into the botanic gardens because it is protected and people can’t go in at night. We chatted for a bit, and then all went our own ways. Another check for random nice people we’ve met.
Saturday the 28th of August I had my second trial at Toast. I was up at 7am, and David got up and made me breakfast, which was very nice of him. My trial was at 9am, and it went very poorly. Although Sophie, the owner, told me she didn’t mind training people and knew I had no experience in Australian waitressing, she lied. She wanted someone who was perfect on the palm pilot and knew the menu even though no one ever actually showed me a menu. I left two hours later with twenty bucks in my pocket. I was actually pretty relieved it didn’t work because I wasn’t enjoying myself. I met up with David and Jodie who were in Circular Quay (pronounced key) where they were waiting for an inspection for a 3 bedroom apartment. It was beautiful, but was going to be expensive. And the bond was going to be astronomical. The three of us left and were going to go back to the hostel and meet up with Laurie and Leander who went to another inspection at the same time. We sort of got lost in the city, not lost like directionally, but there was live music everywhere and the hustle and bustle of the city kept us there. There was a dude playing bottles at one point. We also walked by Adidas to look for running shoes for me because my feet had been hurting. We saw people queuing (waiting) in line around the corner, so we asked what that was about. It was the promotion “if the shoe fits, wears it.” It was 15 minutes before it started with maybe 10 people in line in front of us, so we stood in line. They were giving away 2 pair of boys shoes and two pair of girls. We did not get the shoes, but it was totally worth a try. We apartment shopped all day and laid down because it was pretty exhausting. After that David and I wanted to go get dinner, but ended up hanging out on the 3d floor of the hostel for two hours talking to some other Americans who were visiting from New Zealand on their school holiday (vacation). After that, David and I went out to dinner, just the two of us, at a thai place down two shops from the hostel. We had roasted pumpkin and a duck dish that was delicious. Afterwards we came back to the hostel, put on sweats, and watched football with Laurie.
Unfortunately, even though worn down, apartment shopping isn’t over. It is a long haul. Sunday the 29th of August David and I took ourselves to the library where we worked on our blogs and played and talked to friends on facebook. We were there for quite a bit, but once we got back to the hostel we had lunch and spent another 3-4 hours grocery shopping. If you want to play smart, might as well find out what grocery store (since there were two right by our hotel, Coles and Woolworths) has what cheaper and split where we get our groceries. Mostly things are cheaper at Coles, but Woolworths had a few things that were better. Earlier in the day Laurie had text David saying that he had good news. Apparently he had found a place from a telephone pole ad that had 3 bedrooms open and was only $170 per week which was pretty good. At 8pm, we went to see this place in china town. Whatever was happening in this apartment was not legal, at all. There were only 3 bedrooms in the whole apartment, one bedroom had 2 people, one had 4, and the girl was trying to put 3 people in another bedroom which was not big enough for even two people to live in, and then one in the living room. All of the girls were Chinese except for the one black girl who was from Manhattan. It was awful living conditions and the place was not meant for the 6 people already living there, not including another 4 that she wanted to stuff in. It was a pretty big bummer for all 5 of us since Laurie really thought he had gotten a good find.
Monday the 30th of August continued the 3 bedroom apartment search, but also 2 bedroom and 1 bedroom. It was becoming more and more apparent that Jodie and Laurie may not be able to live with us because of their tight financial situation. It is awkward though to bring up money to people, especially people you like. So David and I went to real estate agencies that day asking about every type of housing and getting listings from them of places that were available and the prices. It was probably 5 hours of apartment shopping, and then finally we went to the National Australian Bank and opened up checking accounts. It was nice to have that open because then I could transfer money in and stop using my credit card for everything. We then walked back to the hostel where we applied for tax file numbers which is needed to actually work in Australia. Going back into the dorm room was a little weird because we knew Jodie and Laurie were there and we didn’t want to bring up money or tell them we might not be able to get a place with them. Sort of lucky for us, before we said anything they let us know that since they can’t find jobs and Sydney is way more expensive than Melbourne, where they came from, they were going to go back to Melbourne. Jodie could get her job back and Laurie could find a job easily, and they were leaving the next night. I was sad to see them go because I really enjoy them as people, but I was also glad the weight of finding a place and finances were working out for everyone. David and I then left to go to a place down in waterloo that was called Re-cycle. It is a bike thing that goes on every Monday night where you can get free recycled bikes. We went and met Leander there, and all got bikes. We had to fix them up ourselves but there were people there who were more experienced to help those of us who had no experience. Another girl and I fixed my bike and put it in working order!! I fixed a bike!! David’s bike was a mess, and he ended up not getting anything done with his bike, and Leander got one that was working too. We walked the bikes home, but I didn’t realized how heavy my bike would be. Working order also for this old bike was pretty sad. The front wheel squeaked so badly every time it moved and I couldn’t even carry it up the stairs. It ended up in the next 3 days that Forrest didn’t want our bikes in the hostel anymore, and we didn’t really want them either. We left them unchained outside and hope that they went to a good owner.
Tuesday the 31st of August, the apartment search continues. Bah. Even writing about it reminds me of how not fun this experience was. David and I got up early and made phone calls to about 7 different real estate agents looking at furnished apartments anywhere from 2 to 1 bedroom to studios. Just one called us back and we set up a time to meet with them at 1pm that day. It was in the Manning building on Pitt Street, much farther down than anticipated. Since our appointment wasn’t until 1, David and I decided to go on part of Forrest’s walk which went through Kings Cross, the Botanic gardens to feed the cockatoos, and then to the bridge and opera house. We started the walk at the big water fountain I have pictures of which is circular and has water coming out of all places. Forrest told us about a TV series called The Underbelly, and how there are three seasons, and the second is called The Golden Mile and focused solely on Kings Cross in the 90’s. He said about how it was filled with drugs and hookers (illegal ones I presume because they are legal here) and how back in the 90’s the Cross was a bad place to be. Since then they have cleaned up the mile quite a bit and it is now a very safe place to be because police are always patrolling and there are cameras on every street with people back in the station watching. We then walked to Harry’s Café de Wheels where Forrest bought some bread for people to feed the cockatoos, but David and I got lunch. I got a hotdog with mash and peas. It was huge but delicious. The group of us went then to the gardens and the talk began. “Take a tiny piece of bread in your hand. Hold your hand to the ground. The cockatoos will land on you. To get them up your arm just move the bread closer to your shoulder and move your arm down. Be careful, they will bite at your ears and earrings or jewellery (the aussie way to spell it) and can get a little aggressive.” David, who has been to feed the cockatoos before told me not to worry, he made it sound much scarier than it actually was. He told me that the cockatoos realize that you won’t feed them if they are not nice so they take the tiny bread from you very nicely and just hang out. Yes, I was a little terrified. Who willingly lets wild birds land on them? Me I guess. So I lure one in, and holy shit, it lands on me. Ahh. The craziness of the weird adrenaline running through the body is thinking half of how freaking cool this is, and half of how scary and ridiculous this is. I get to be more comfortable, and the next thing I know the cockatoo is on my shoulder. Then another other lands on my other shoulder. Now I’ve got two cockatoos! Last but not least, during this experience I had 3 different cockatoos land on my head. There are pictures that David needs to put up on facebook of me with 3 cockatoos on me. It was incredible. Once or twice when they were on my head they pecked at me, but it didn’t hurt it was just annoying. So I’ve got 3 birds on me, and I say to Forrest, “You didn’t tell us how to get them off of me! How do I get them off?!” “Oh well mate, you just let them.” Um.. the birds aren’t getting off. One has pecked at my shirt and another at my head. Logically, how do I get birds off of me? I think, or maybe I didn’t think, and then I made a choice. I ran. I ran and hoped that they would fly off. They did fly off, but it was a pretty long run but they left. Every time I wanted a cockatoo to leave me for the rest of the time, this is what I did. Maybe I looked silly, maybe I looked stupid, but I got those cockatoos off of me! After this experience the group walked to a look out point to see the Bridge and Opera house. On the way there was a bird on the wall in between the harbour and the walk way who was drying it’s feathers. It’s wings were in full span and he was basking in the sun. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen a bird do in real life. We took pictures of the bird and the opera house and bridge and were just hanging out. The walkway we were on has a drop off right into the harbour. There is a wall about waist high of stone to keep a person from falling into the harbour. While relaxing with the group on this huge rock and looking at the amazing view that I still can’t believe is my life, Forrest decides to try and hop over the wall. Now the drop is probably 20 feet to the harbour from this wall, so we’re all wondering what he is doing. He hangs onto the wall with his feet hanging, and to the first group of passers by that hadn’t seen him climbing in he says while panting, “Excuse me! Have you seen Nemo? I’ve been looking for him all day!” Hysterically enough, the first group was old Asian who didn’t see it as funny as we did, but that added to the ridiculous hilarity of it. He did this two about two other groups of people until he quit. After that David and I had to run away to meet the woman about apartments. We thought we had enough time, but the further down Pitt street we went the more we realized how far it was and had to run by the end of the time. We got there right on time and talked to the lady. Unfortunately, the two bedrooms that were available were too far out of Leander’s price range. He didn’t budget knowing what Sydney would cost, he budgeted what he thought he could afford, so Siabon (pronounced seh-bohn) showed us two one bedroom apartments both on Chelsea St. It was funny getting into her car, because it was the first time I have sat in the passengers seat of a car who has everything backwards. To sit in my usual drivers side as the passenger felt really funny. It felt really weird driving too being on the wrong side of the road feeling so completely lost and out of control because I can’t even understand where the traffic is coming from. The first one bedroom we were showed really wasn’t impressive. It had a balcony and was $500 a week but I just didn’t get a good feeling from it. I wish there was more to explain, but it didn’t feel homey or even like it could one day be comfortable. We decided to see the second place right down the street. The previous tenants had just moved out the day before and the place had yet to be cleaned. It was dirty inside, but had a homey feel that the first one didn’t have. We talked to the lady about how we wanted to look at other places the week and could we let her know Friday. That’s not how it works here in Australia. It is so different from the states. She said most likely by Friday it would be leased out already. We pondered and debated. It was $525 a week which was 25 more a week than budgeted, but we liked it. It seemed like a good location that was far from the city but very close at the same time. We also realized we couldn’t take Leander with us which weighed heavy. We decided to go see a studio in Kings Cross that was $400 a week and see how we felt about it since these were the first places we had seen. We go to the inspection for the studio, and were not pleased at all. I realized at that point that I did NOT want to spend any time living my whole life in one room. There was no counter space in the kitchen area, but also no actual oven. The stove was two portable burners. There was a teeny tiny dining room table but it just wasn’t enough. I do want to live cheaply, but there are just some things I couldn’t live with. We’re trying to start lives here for at least 6 months to a year, and I knew there was no way to live there. We called the Furnished Apartment Properties back and told them we wanted the second place we saw on Chelsea St and quickly went back to fill out the paperwork. On the walk home, David saw his delicious looking pork buns again in the window of an Indian place and we got those to celebrate putting in an application for an apartment. It was more of a celebration for him than me because I thought the pork buns were kind of eh. The walk back was a little somber trying to figure out how to tell Leander that we had gotten a place without him. We decided we would let him sleep on our couch for however long he wanted until he really searched and found a place of his own. The talk with Leander actually went really well and he was excited for us. Since it was Tuesday, we all went to The Gaff for our free food and chatted with the Americans and their friend from Sweden who was with him as well named OJ.
Wednesday the first of September I woke with anticipation and a little worry. While David and I had filled out our application for the apartment the day before, we were supposed to hear today whether or not we were approved for the apartment. Part of me wasn’t worried, but part of me was because we were both unemployed. David and I had slept in because we had been up early and to bed late the past few days. On our way to the kitchen to make our usual breakfast of eggs, muesli and yogurt I got the phone call that said, “Hi Cathryn, you’ve been approved for the apartment.” Yay! =) At first I thought maybe David and I would live in the hostel for much longer and possibly work there. We love hanging out with everyone and knowing there are always friends around or people to talk to. But by the two week mark which was this day, we were ready to get out. I still love to hang out with everyone, but was in desperate need of my own space, my own dresser or closet or really any place other than my suitcase to put my clothes. I was ready to cook in a kitchen that was my own where the only dirty dishes there were mine and I didn’t have to clean any dishes before I wanted to use them. David and I both spent hours that day looking for jobs and were really unsuccessful and that was sad. In the afternoon around 5pm we walked to a bike shop down on Oxford Street. About 10 shops before the bike store David sees outside a pawn shop a black men’s Paul Frank bike. It was for $350 dollars. He loves Paul Frank, a lot. So he talked to the guy in the shop really fast and the guy said the lowest he could go was $300 cause of how much the lady who was selling wanted for it. David still had a bike frame from the re-cycle so we walked to the bike shop to see how much it would cost for them to fix it up for him. They gave him the cheapest number which was just parts not including labour at $350. So it would have been probably $450 by the time he was finished. On the walk back we stopped at Puma right on the corner to look for running sneakers for me, but ones that would look good with my skinny jeans too. Although unsuccessful, we talked to a nice guy who said he was the manager looking for people to do casual work and would love to have Americans work for him. We said, okay, we’ll bring our resumes back tomorrow. The prospect of a job even if casual is better than no job at all. We finished the evening with dinner and watching The Dark Knight (a movie I love!) and getting a piece of cake from the café right near the hostel called Froth.
On the second of September, David went back to the pawn shop right when it opened and bought his Paul Frank bike for $300 bucks. He was very happy with that and was like a little kid in a candy store getting to ride it home, carefully though because if he was caught without a helmet (which he didn’t own yet) he would have been eligible for a $50 fine. After he brought his bike back to the hostel, we decided to walk all over the town our apartment was going to be in and try to find jobs. We passed Puma and put in our applications and then kept walking. When we got near the Central Station bus and train station, David had to pee really badly, so while he left me alone I snuck myself a coffee. I got a large which was only $3.50, but it was also only 8 oz. I couldn’t believe that larges are actually Starbucks’ Tall and their regulars are Starbucks’ Short. They also have buttons on the lid of the place like McDonalds has on it’s to go lids. You order a Flat White? They push the FW button down. Same buttons for Soy, Decaf, a Long Black, and so on. I got caffeined up and we kept looking for jobs. I put in my resume to tons of places, and asked tons of people if they were hiring, and to no avail. We also couldn’t find our apartment specifically. We walked all over the place, and finally asked someone for directions. Once we got to the apartment we got kebabs from a place within a stones throw of our apartment. It tasted good but made me feel like there was a really heavy rock in my stomach for the rest of the night. No more kebab for me. We kept walking around for places to work, and passed a day care. I didn’t know what daycare requirements were here in OZ, so I decided hey, why not ask. So I opened the gate to Moore Park Gardens Long Day Care and Preschool, buzzed in, and talked to a woman named Alice. She towered overtop of me, she had to have been at minimum 6 feet tall. She told me that there were no requirements to start working in day care but eventually if I wanted to keep going I had to get some sort of certification. She asked if I was looking for a casual position where I replied yes. How sweet. She said, okay! Here, give me your email and I will get your NSW working with children’s check. I asked her if she wanted any of my American clearances since they are far and wide but she said that wouldn’t help her. As I was leaving another woman, who I did not get her name, called out to me and said, I have a shift open on Thursday, are you free? Why yes mam, I am! Alice confirmed that my check would be done by then so it was no problem to start. I figured since I moved into my new apartment on Tuesday that would give me one and a half days to get the apartment put together before I had to work. Awesome! If nothing else I have one shift which will get me a little money. We also saw some pretty cool things on our walk. The street signs here for things like school crossings are not stick figures, but detailed little children walking. There was also a Japanese shop not far from our apartment that right in the front door has a 3 foot tall wooden penis statue. Not sure why, it’s just hanging out there. There’s also a restaurant near our apartment called “Strangers with Candy.” Another is that curb like on the street is spelled ‘kerb’. I am pumped that this place still amazes me day after day. After all of this, I got pretty tired of walking around and took a nap when we got back to the hostel. It’s funny because at home I don’t feel like I would be this tired, but it is not only more walking than I think I have ever done but it is mentally and emotionally exhausting. We got up and went to Bondi Junction where we were told was a Target. Awesomeeeee finally cheap stuff. Maybe not super cheap, but once we got to target in the Westfield shopping center which was huge we explored Target. David got himself a bike helmet and lock so he could ride his bike around. Right beside the register I saw two things that sincerely blew my mind. The first was a can of Pringles. Back in the USA, that is a regular can of Pringles that you can get for something like $1.50. Here, it is labeled the Party Size can of Pringles and the cost was around $3.50. Now mostly, the portion sizes are the same from here and the US when we go out to eat. Apparently it is just Pringles, pizza (I’ll explain that one soon), potato chips and coffee that size doesn’t equate. Then, I saw the biggest Toblerone I have ever seen in my life. David put it up to his body to compare for the pictures, but it went from the top of his head to the top of his pants. It was insane, probably a meter long. It was only $12 dollars. How insane. That much delicious chocolate for so cheap. We took the train home and just chilled the rest of the night.
Friday the 3d of September has arrived. David had a trial at a barber shop down in Maroubra which is about 6 miles from the Cross. It was his first job trial so that was really exciting for him. I went to the library and looked for jobs all day. I also got a chance to call home and talk to my mom which was nice. I started applying and looking for day care jobs. I put in applications left and right for jobs through day cares and also looked up day cares in the area to go see if they had causal positions. I applied to referral agencies for day cares and I think one or two psychology jobs. The prospect of getting a job in the field was looking thinner and thinner especially because I couldn’t find any. I saw one that was at a residential facility, and I almost laughed out loud at the thought of applying. Worst job of my life. It was drizzly and I didn’t really want to, but I walked all the way to Moore Park Gardens (45 minutes or so) to give them my NSW child care check. Once I did that David was near me so we met up. We walked to the NAB and got out check cards. His is black and mine is PINK. Ahhh. How cute. I was pretty pumped to get a pink sparkly check card. We needed some food for dinner, so we went to Woolworths which is right down the street. It must have been our lucky day because there were two workers standing there with maybe 5 or 6 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables and gave us one of those plastic bags people put fruit in at the grocery store (they’re the same size as the ones at home) and they said fill a bag for a dollar! Um, really? We got so much stuff for 1 dollar. We got apples and avocados, oranges, and so much more. I’m sure we got at least 15 dollars worth of fruit and veggies in our bag. I was stoked. We made dinner and wanted to go out on the town, but it was raining and we only got right out of the cross until we both decided it wasn’t gonna happen. We instead got a delicious $3 cheesecake from Coles and watched Ghost Busters 2.
