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.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Wednesday 28/08/10
Since yesterday had been a bust with actually going to job referral agencies, today was the day. We asked the people in the office what to wear, and they said a nice shirt and nice jeans would do. David and I both got dressed and went out to breakfast since we had momentum to get things done. Right around the corner at a place I’m not sure what it’s called has a $5 breakfast. It was two eggs, two pieces of toast, bacon or sausage, and an extra .50 cents for wedges. David got sausage and I got bacon and we split as we usually do. The bacon here is different than the bacon at home and it is so delicious. It is thicker width wise and also height wise. I will have to take a picture of the bacon and post it to show. It seems to be prepared the same way everywhere so I never have to worry about getting bacon that is too crispy since I hate crispy bacon. On the TV I saw that there were Australian troops in Afghanistan. I am nowhere near politics and I don’t usually even like reading the paper or watching the news because it’s all sad and stupid. But the news was on in the breakfast place and we hear that, and were both a bit shocked. Who knew? Maybe everyone, just not David and I.
David and I both printed out 15 resumes hoping to go to that many job referral places. It ended up costing us $18 a piece because there is no where to print for free. That kind of sucks, considering when we went out most people didn’t even take our resumes or told us to email it to them. But at any rate, when we were waking to Pitt street where a lot of the places are one of the hookers in Kings Cross was telling a guy that she just returned today from Bangkok. Hahahaha! I don’t think he got the metaphor and maybe she didn’t even mean it but there was definitely an innuendo in there. Three steps later we see a girl wearing a legitimate Michael Jackson outfit. Glove and everything. We continue or walk just another 3 minutes or so and there is a belligerently drunk man on the street (mind you it is about 12 midday) and he’s homeless. He tries to stop a woman who was pretty tall and a full weight, and the woman tries to ignore him and get around him. He doesn’t take that for an answer, and keeps getting in front of, being absolutely ridiculous. At this point it is like a train wreck, you don’t want to watch but you have to. I half wanted to help, and half realized that I was way too small to do anything helpful. The homeless man went too far, and the woman shoved him. He was insane. The walk continued, and I noticed that anytime I see people eating and walking it is an apple. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else eating while walking unless it is an apple.
We were outside walking to the referral agencies which were only about a 20 minute walk from the Cross. We saw some awesome sights we haven’t seen before, mostly a huge cupcake store that had big top sized cupcakes.
The first place we walk into was qube. I am really glad now that we did that place first, because they took our resumes and made us fill out two papers and gave us interviews. The lady I had, Shannon, was very nice and we had like a 4 minute interview. David said his girl was nice too. That however, was the only place that actually gave us interviews. Every other place told us to call them and set up an appointment, but honestly most places didn’t even take our resumes which we had spent so much money making. Everyone we talked to though was incredibly nice. I don’t think I’ve met any mean people in Sydney. Some referral places didn’t say what they referred for, so we just walked in and ask. The one place refers for IT stuff, so we said, oh no that’s not us, and the guy gave us a list of places that did referrals to go to. We also talked to a girl in another referral place who was awesome who loved food and told us to go to the Sydney tower restaurant that is a 50 dollar buffet for lunch (which is an amazing deal) and they serve so much food.
We came back to the hostel and met our new roommates, Jodi and Laurie. They were looking for the Coles grocery store and since David and I were going we offered to take them. They seem like a couple of really nice people. We ended up finding out they have been traveling for 11 months all over the world. They are from England but went through Europe and Asia and then to Melbourne for 6 months and up to Sydney for 6 months. David and I checked out food prices at Coles, but remembered we saw a litre of olive oil at Woolworths half off for $4.50 which even in the states is a huge deal. So we bought half of our food at Coles, and walked down to Woolworths for the other half we were pretty sure we saw cheaper down there. We also bought some chocolate looking swiss roll from the bakery for 5 dollars which will last us probably 4 or 5 days. So much for getting skinny over here!
For dinner we ended up getting 5 correctly portioned steaks for 9 dollars, plus a head of cauliflower and broccoli to roast. The meal ended up being really good and I enjoyed myself. We just hung out that night, getting to know Jodi and Laurie better and the more I get to know them, and everyone else in the hostel, the more I like them. Love to you all back at home though. Even though I am gallivanting all over Sydney right now, I think about you all often and think about how much I want everyone to come to Sydney so I can show them the amazing things I have already found and enjoy. If you’re even thinking about coming to visit, please do so. I would love to have you and I know you would love to see it here.
David and I both printed out 15 resumes hoping to go to that many job referral places. It ended up costing us $18 a piece because there is no where to print for free. That kind of sucks, considering when we went out most people didn’t even take our resumes or told us to email it to them. But at any rate, when we were waking to Pitt street where a lot of the places are one of the hookers in Kings Cross was telling a guy that she just returned today from Bangkok. Hahahaha! I don’t think he got the metaphor and maybe she didn’t even mean it but there was definitely an innuendo in there. Three steps later we see a girl wearing a legitimate Michael Jackson outfit. Glove and everything. We continue or walk just another 3 minutes or so and there is a belligerently drunk man on the street (mind you it is about 12 midday) and he’s homeless. He tries to stop a woman who was pretty tall and a full weight, and the woman tries to ignore him and get around him. He doesn’t take that for an answer, and keeps getting in front of, being absolutely ridiculous. At this point it is like a train wreck, you don’t want to watch but you have to. I half wanted to help, and half realized that I was way too small to do anything helpful. The homeless man went too far, and the woman shoved him. He was insane. The walk continued, and I noticed that anytime I see people eating and walking it is an apple. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else eating while walking unless it is an apple.
We were outside walking to the referral agencies which were only about a 20 minute walk from the Cross. We saw some awesome sights we haven’t seen before, mostly a huge cupcake store that had big top sized cupcakes.
The first place we walk into was qube. I am really glad now that we did that place first, because they took our resumes and made us fill out two papers and gave us interviews. The lady I had, Shannon, was very nice and we had like a 4 minute interview. David said his girl was nice too. That however, was the only place that actually gave us interviews. Every other place told us to call them and set up an appointment, but honestly most places didn’t even take our resumes which we had spent so much money making. Everyone we talked to though was incredibly nice. I don’t think I’ve met any mean people in Sydney. Some referral places didn’t say what they referred for, so we just walked in and ask. The one place refers for IT stuff, so we said, oh no that’s not us, and the guy gave us a list of places that did referrals to go to. We also talked to a girl in another referral place who was awesome who loved food and told us to go to the Sydney tower restaurant that is a 50 dollar buffet for lunch (which is an amazing deal) and they serve so much food.
We came back to the hostel and met our new roommates, Jodi and Laurie. They were looking for the Coles grocery store and since David and I were going we offered to take them. They seem like a couple of really nice people. We ended up finding out they have been traveling for 11 months all over the world. They are from England but went through Europe and Asia and then to Melbourne for 6 months and up to Sydney for 6 months. David and I checked out food prices at Coles, but remembered we saw a litre of olive oil at Woolworths half off for $4.50 which even in the states is a huge deal. So we bought half of our food at Coles, and walked down to Woolworths for the other half we were pretty sure we saw cheaper down there. We also bought some chocolate looking swiss roll from the bakery for 5 dollars which will last us probably 4 or 5 days. So much for getting skinny over here!
For dinner we ended up getting 5 correctly portioned steaks for 9 dollars, plus a head of cauliflower and broccoli to roast. The meal ended up being really good and I enjoyed myself. We just hung out that night, getting to know Jodi and Laurie better and the more I get to know them, and everyone else in the hostel, the more I like them. Love to you all back at home though. Even though I am gallivanting all over Sydney right now, I think about you all often and think about how much I want everyone to come to Sydney so I can show them the amazing things I have already found and enjoy. If you’re even thinking about coming to visit, please do so. I would love to have you and I know you would love to see it here.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tuesday 24/08/10
I never want to stop being amazed by this city. I love this place. It is weird being away from friends and family, but I am making friends here and it is just a really different experience. I never really went away to college. I mean, I did, but I knew people there. I had Amy show me around before I started so I knew where everything was. I felt prepared going there. I had no preparation for this place. In the beginning it was just a tiny bit scary and very exhilarating, and every day from that first one I love this place just a little more.
I got up and immediately got ready for the day. I was planning on going to referral agencies once I put together a sufficient resume. I already had one, but I wanted one that was general enough for a referral agency that needed office work. David and I were making breakfast, and a magpie was sitting on the window ledge of the kitchen. It was so close, but I knew that if I went to get my camera it would fly away. David told me to run and get my camera and I did. In the meanwhile, he was feeding it bread to insure its stay. We got some pretty sweet pictures of the magpie in the window. When would that ever happen at home? No bird will get in 100 feet of you, let alone so close to the window and just hang out for awhile. While finishing breakfast, my phone rang. It was a little weird since David was the only person who really had my number, but it ended up being one of the places I had emailed. It was for a Café is Surry Hills, it is called Toast. Sophie, the owner, asked if I could come in around 2pm for an interview. Of course I could! I told her I would see her there. The girl, Connie, working the reception area told me that what I was wearing was fine, they just want to see that you’re dependable and on time. I think I’m gold!
When I was getting ready I had a short chat with two girls who just got to the hostel from Norway, and a boy who just got here as well from the Netherlands. He is here on an internship in Surry Hills and is just staying in the hostel until he finds an apartment. He seemed very nice but a bit awkward.
David and I both went to the library to work on our resumes. I had to go to the bathroom and went downstairs to do that. A woman walked into the bathroom before me but I couldn’t really see her, it wasn’t close. But she refused to close the stall door for whatever reason it might be. So with the mirrors in front of the stalls, so walking into my stall I got a front row seat to her using the toilet. Which is another interesting thing about Australia vs. the USA. In the states, we sugar coat everything. We use the bathroom, go to the restroom, etc. Here in Australia, they go to the toilet. Any sign for bathrooms are just for toilets. As an American, I think it’s something we would never do in the states, too abrasive.
Around 1pm I left the library and got ready for the interview. It takes about 25 minutes to walk to the café, which I don’t think is that bad. I would much rather be active and walking than have a 10 minute drive but sit in a car (not that I have a car currently). Trying to relate Sydney to another big city would be very hard. This was the first time David and I split up basically at all because of what we have been doing. I walked all by myself to Toast, with my headphones in the whole time. Think about walking around New York City with headphones in, or even Philly. I wouldn’t do it, I would be too afraid that I couldn’t hear anything going on around me. But the city, is just beautiful and I feel very safe here, even in the Cross. I only got lost twice too, which for me is a big feat. I didn’t get lost per say, I just took a different, possibly longer route.
The “interview” was really short, maybe 10 minutes, and Sophie told me she liked me and asked me to come back for a trial on Thursday at 9. She told me that Australian coffee was very different than coffee in the states so I probably wouldn’t be a barista but they did need a waitress. I don’t know specifically what a trial means or what it consists of but it’s definitely better than not having a job at all. She had asked me if I drank any Australian coffee yet and I told her no. The reason being that the two most expensive liquids are alcohol and coffee, and I would feel completely awful if I ran out of money and had to come home to Sydney because I drank too much alcohol or coffee. So until I have a job I can’t afford coffee.
Since I had a trial and felt pretty good about that, I decided to get myself a coffee. I went to an espresso place right around the corner of the hostel, Froth Espresso and got myself a long white. It was described as steamed milk and a shot of espresso, so a latte. But latte was on the menu… I’ll have to do more trying. The barista asked me if I wanted sugar, and I said, “Sure?” He asked me one or two, I said two because I haven’t got a clue. It was very good, it tasted like a latte with a little sugar. It was also very small. The menu said 3.50 for a regular and 4.00 for a large. I got a regular and he only charged me 3.00, and the cup was probably 8-10 oz, definitely not 12 oz.
David was still working on his resume, but finally finished up and we came back to the hostel. The French boy who is in our room, Alexander, does absolutely nothing. He just got to Sydney, and he goes to bed around 10pm and sleeps until 11am or even longer. When he’s not sleeping he is watching stuff on his computer. It is really bizarre. How can you come to a new city and stay in the hostel the whole time? It hurts my feelings.
We left the hostel because David wants to look at purchasing a bike, and part of me wants to do the same. I’m half-sies on it right now. Maybe if I find one I like that is super cheap I will. I’m still confused about gas prices, I think I need to ask someone about that. I know they measure in Liters, but 126.9 per liter? That doesn’t seem right.
Before leaving the hostel we were told that the hostel gets free food from a restaurant called The Gaff every Tuesday night. I’m in! Since the bike place David wanted to look at was on Oxford and The Gaff is on Oxford we met people from the hostel there around 730pm. While waiting, we did some awesome people watching. There was a couple that met right in front of us, and they were a gay couple. Walking towards each other, David thought they were twins, but it turned out that they were gay lovers. He had a real kick out of that. Boys also wear their shorts really short, much shorter than in the states. David got a picture of two dudes from the waist down that you can’t tell they’re dudes.
The food at the Gaff wasn’t incredible by any means, but it was free. And I never say no to anything free. David and I split ours of course, but I got the sausage and mash (mashed potatoes), and David got the chicken curry. Beer was $3 during dinner, and 2 free beers from 9pm to 10pm. After being there for a short time, I’m really glad we went. The people we sat at the table with are just incredibly fun and interesting. It was a 6 person table with David and I, Josh and Rich, two English boys, then Leo the boy from the Netherlands that I met earlier, and Henry, a kid from Germany. The conversation never lagged and it wasn’t uncomfortable. I think I may have been flirting a little with Josh, the cute boy from England. I don’t know how I feel about flirting with him, but it was kind of fun. It has been a really long time since I have had to flirt since I went from one relationship to another one with someone I knew for awhile, I haven’t been forced to flirt in forever. I wasn’t forced, but I’ll admit it was fun. David was on the opposite side of the table and I don’t think he even noticed because it was pretty subtle. I wonder how he would feel if he knew I was flirting with someone. He is hard to read sometimes. But currently, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if he were flirting with a girl, so while it’s a catch 22 for him, he broke up with me so he’s just going to have to deal with it. Honestly, he’s usually pretty oblivious so I’m not worried, not that I would be in the first place. And luckily he can’t even keep up on his own blog let along reading mine so we’re good.
There was another kid from the hostel who sat with us on and off during the night. He is another boy from England, and from what I’ve seen and heard, he’s not exactly the kind of person I want to be around. He hits on any girl that moves and that really pushes my buttons. We were all sitting at the table and I said something, and he looked at me and said, “I don’t think your boyfriend would like that.” I replied with, “Well it’s good I don’t have one then.” He immediately put his hand on my back and said, “Oh really? Cause everyone in the hostel thinks he’s your boyfriend.”
Thank you for telling me what I already know. I know that everyone thinks we’re together but no one asks. I’m not really worried about it, people are already starting to find out since we told Forrest. He’s just got a stick up his butt about everything. He feels like he’s entitled to things which I hate, and he just wants to show off. Most of this hostel is really awesome, so if only one or two stink I’m really okay with that.
Whoever from the group rounds everyone up to go to The Gaff, they get a wristband which gives them free drinks all night. Rich got the band, so he and josh switched two went up for beers and shared the beers with the table which was just so great. I don’t know if anyone in the states would do that, I’ve never seen it, but then again I’ve never seen anyone get free beer in the states other than at parties in E courts basements. When Josh an Rich left, we went they gave the wristband to Henry and Leo who continued to share with me, even though I told them I didn’t need anymore. At one point I got a whole beer. How? Leo went and got one but didn’t need anymore and neither did Henry. So great. The first night that I drink I am not paying, for any drinks.
Every Tuesday night there is a wet T-shirt contest and the winner won 200 bucks. The boys tried to get me to sign up, but I told them I wanted to feel it out first. Yes, I watched my first live wet T-shirt contest. Dad, aren’t you proud? =) I’m glad I didn’t sign up, I wouldn’t have won. Not because I wouldn’t have been the best (not to sound cocky, but go to facebook and see the pictures.. =/) but all the girls took their shirts off. I will get a t shirt wet, but I will not take my shirt off in public. All of them were either chubby with small boobies or grossly big with big boobies. Definitely wonderfully hysterical to watch but not something that I would want to be in.
While watching the wet t-shirt contest, I realized that there was a gargoyle sitting on the bar. It is also cowgirl night every Tuesday night. So workers are dressed in plaid, and there at one point were “coyote ugly” dancers that wore tiny cow printed outfits and did routine dances on the bar. The watching of my coyote girl was interrupted shortly after they started by a boy. I think his name was Jack but I’ve honestly got no clue. Somehow, even though I’m surrounded by 5 guys and then 3 still I end up getting hit on. He was really cheesy at first, I told him I was watching the girls on the bar and he said that he was watching me cause the show was better and bah bah bullshit people say to get a girl to sleep with them. We chatted for awhile and somehow he was from Sydney but almost went to Villanova College? I don’t know if I believe it, but it was funny to have that happen. He also had an eyebrow piercing. Eh..
Ending the evening off right at The Gaff I noticed in the girls bathroom there is a condom vending machine. I’m not sure if I have seen them around or not, but this was big and blatant. My favorite part was that David said there was not one of those in the boys bathroom.
I’m really glad I got to experience the night life here in Sydney, I had an awesome time.
I got up and immediately got ready for the day. I was planning on going to referral agencies once I put together a sufficient resume. I already had one, but I wanted one that was general enough for a referral agency that needed office work. David and I were making breakfast, and a magpie was sitting on the window ledge of the kitchen. It was so close, but I knew that if I went to get my camera it would fly away. David told me to run and get my camera and I did. In the meanwhile, he was feeding it bread to insure its stay. We got some pretty sweet pictures of the magpie in the window. When would that ever happen at home? No bird will get in 100 feet of you, let alone so close to the window and just hang out for awhile. While finishing breakfast, my phone rang. It was a little weird since David was the only person who really had my number, but it ended up being one of the places I had emailed. It was for a Café is Surry Hills, it is called Toast. Sophie, the owner, asked if I could come in around 2pm for an interview. Of course I could! I told her I would see her there. The girl, Connie, working the reception area told me that what I was wearing was fine, they just want to see that you’re dependable and on time. I think I’m gold!
When I was getting ready I had a short chat with two girls who just got to the hostel from Norway, and a boy who just got here as well from the Netherlands. He is here on an internship in Surry Hills and is just staying in the hostel until he finds an apartment. He seemed very nice but a bit awkward.
David and I both went to the library to work on our resumes. I had to go to the bathroom and went downstairs to do that. A woman walked into the bathroom before me but I couldn’t really see her, it wasn’t close. But she refused to close the stall door for whatever reason it might be. So with the mirrors in front of the stalls, so walking into my stall I got a front row seat to her using the toilet. Which is another interesting thing about Australia vs. the USA. In the states, we sugar coat everything. We use the bathroom, go to the restroom, etc. Here in Australia, they go to the toilet. Any sign for bathrooms are just for toilets. As an American, I think it’s something we would never do in the states, too abrasive.
Around 1pm I left the library and got ready for the interview. It takes about 25 minutes to walk to the café, which I don’t think is that bad. I would much rather be active and walking than have a 10 minute drive but sit in a car (not that I have a car currently). Trying to relate Sydney to another big city would be very hard. This was the first time David and I split up basically at all because of what we have been doing. I walked all by myself to Toast, with my headphones in the whole time. Think about walking around New York City with headphones in, or even Philly. I wouldn’t do it, I would be too afraid that I couldn’t hear anything going on around me. But the city, is just beautiful and I feel very safe here, even in the Cross. I only got lost twice too, which for me is a big feat. I didn’t get lost per say, I just took a different, possibly longer route.
The “interview” was really short, maybe 10 minutes, and Sophie told me she liked me and asked me to come back for a trial on Thursday at 9. She told me that Australian coffee was very different than coffee in the states so I probably wouldn’t be a barista but they did need a waitress. I don’t know specifically what a trial means or what it consists of but it’s definitely better than not having a job at all. She had asked me if I drank any Australian coffee yet and I told her no. The reason being that the two most expensive liquids are alcohol and coffee, and I would feel completely awful if I ran out of money and had to come home to Sydney because I drank too much alcohol or coffee. So until I have a job I can’t afford coffee.
Since I had a trial and felt pretty good about that, I decided to get myself a coffee. I went to an espresso place right around the corner of the hostel, Froth Espresso and got myself a long white. It was described as steamed milk and a shot of espresso, so a latte. But latte was on the menu… I’ll have to do more trying. The barista asked me if I wanted sugar, and I said, “Sure?” He asked me one or two, I said two because I haven’t got a clue. It was very good, it tasted like a latte with a little sugar. It was also very small. The menu said 3.50 for a regular and 4.00 for a large. I got a regular and he only charged me 3.00, and the cup was probably 8-10 oz, definitely not 12 oz.
David was still working on his resume, but finally finished up and we came back to the hostel. The French boy who is in our room, Alexander, does absolutely nothing. He just got to Sydney, and he goes to bed around 10pm and sleeps until 11am or even longer. When he’s not sleeping he is watching stuff on his computer. It is really bizarre. How can you come to a new city and stay in the hostel the whole time? It hurts my feelings.
We left the hostel because David wants to look at purchasing a bike, and part of me wants to do the same. I’m half-sies on it right now. Maybe if I find one I like that is super cheap I will. I’m still confused about gas prices, I think I need to ask someone about that. I know they measure in Liters, but 126.9 per liter? That doesn’t seem right.
Before leaving the hostel we were told that the hostel gets free food from a restaurant called The Gaff every Tuesday night. I’m in! Since the bike place David wanted to look at was on Oxford and The Gaff is on Oxford we met people from the hostel there around 730pm. While waiting, we did some awesome people watching. There was a couple that met right in front of us, and they were a gay couple. Walking towards each other, David thought they were twins, but it turned out that they were gay lovers. He had a real kick out of that. Boys also wear their shorts really short, much shorter than in the states. David got a picture of two dudes from the waist down that you can’t tell they’re dudes.
The food at the Gaff wasn’t incredible by any means, but it was free. And I never say no to anything free. David and I split ours of course, but I got the sausage and mash (mashed potatoes), and David got the chicken curry. Beer was $3 during dinner, and 2 free beers from 9pm to 10pm. After being there for a short time, I’m really glad we went. The people we sat at the table with are just incredibly fun and interesting. It was a 6 person table with David and I, Josh and Rich, two English boys, then Leo the boy from the Netherlands that I met earlier, and Henry, a kid from Germany. The conversation never lagged and it wasn’t uncomfortable. I think I may have been flirting a little with Josh, the cute boy from England. I don’t know how I feel about flirting with him, but it was kind of fun. It has been a really long time since I have had to flirt since I went from one relationship to another one with someone I knew for awhile, I haven’t been forced to flirt in forever. I wasn’t forced, but I’ll admit it was fun. David was on the opposite side of the table and I don’t think he even noticed because it was pretty subtle. I wonder how he would feel if he knew I was flirting with someone. He is hard to read sometimes. But currently, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if he were flirting with a girl, so while it’s a catch 22 for him, he broke up with me so he’s just going to have to deal with it. Honestly, he’s usually pretty oblivious so I’m not worried, not that I would be in the first place. And luckily he can’t even keep up on his own blog let along reading mine so we’re good.
There was another kid from the hostel who sat with us on and off during the night. He is another boy from England, and from what I’ve seen and heard, he’s not exactly the kind of person I want to be around. He hits on any girl that moves and that really pushes my buttons. We were all sitting at the table and I said something, and he looked at me and said, “I don’t think your boyfriend would like that.” I replied with, “Well it’s good I don’t have one then.” He immediately put his hand on my back and said, “Oh really? Cause everyone in the hostel thinks he’s your boyfriend.”
Thank you for telling me what I already know. I know that everyone thinks we’re together but no one asks. I’m not really worried about it, people are already starting to find out since we told Forrest. He’s just got a stick up his butt about everything. He feels like he’s entitled to things which I hate, and he just wants to show off. Most of this hostel is really awesome, so if only one or two stink I’m really okay with that.
Whoever from the group rounds everyone up to go to The Gaff, they get a wristband which gives them free drinks all night. Rich got the band, so he and josh switched two went up for beers and shared the beers with the table which was just so great. I don’t know if anyone in the states would do that, I’ve never seen it, but then again I’ve never seen anyone get free beer in the states other than at parties in E courts basements. When Josh an Rich left, we went they gave the wristband to Henry and Leo who continued to share with me, even though I told them I didn’t need anymore. At one point I got a whole beer. How? Leo went and got one but didn’t need anymore and neither did Henry. So great. The first night that I drink I am not paying, for any drinks.
Every Tuesday night there is a wet T-shirt contest and the winner won 200 bucks. The boys tried to get me to sign up, but I told them I wanted to feel it out first. Yes, I watched my first live wet T-shirt contest. Dad, aren’t you proud? =) I’m glad I didn’t sign up, I wouldn’t have won. Not because I wouldn’t have been the best (not to sound cocky, but go to facebook and see the pictures.. =/) but all the girls took their shirts off. I will get a t shirt wet, but I will not take my shirt off in public. All of them were either chubby with small boobies or grossly big with big boobies. Definitely wonderfully hysterical to watch but not something that I would want to be in.
While watching the wet t-shirt contest, I realized that there was a gargoyle sitting on the bar. It is also cowgirl night every Tuesday night. So workers are dressed in plaid, and there at one point were “coyote ugly” dancers that wore tiny cow printed outfits and did routine dances on the bar. The watching of my coyote girl was interrupted shortly after they started by a boy. I think his name was Jack but I’ve honestly got no clue. Somehow, even though I’m surrounded by 5 guys and then 3 still I end up getting hit on. He was really cheesy at first, I told him I was watching the girls on the bar and he said that he was watching me cause the show was better and bah bah bullshit people say to get a girl to sleep with them. We chatted for awhile and somehow he was from Sydney but almost went to Villanova College? I don’t know if I believe it, but it was funny to have that happen. He also had an eyebrow piercing. Eh..
Ending the evening off right at The Gaff I noticed in the girls bathroom there is a condom vending machine. I’m not sure if I have seen them around or not, but this was big and blatant. My favorite part was that David said there was not one of those in the boys bathroom.
I’m really glad I got to experience the night life here in Sydney, I had an awesome time.
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. =)
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. =)
Sunday 22/08/10
With 4 new roommates, David and I couldn’t eat breakfast in the room like we had done the day before. It was 8:40 AM, which was awesome because it was a normal time to be waking up. We both came into the kitchen of the hostel and prepared our yogurt and muesli like we had done the past few days. It is very hard finding bowls and plates, and silverware. It says that we have to put down a $10 deposit but if we can find stuff here, not that we won’t return it, but it is just a pain to get it.
David and I came to Kings Cross library to work on my journal and also get on Facebook to keep in contact with my life back in the states. I am pretty sure I spent about three or more hours in the library doing these things, and then came back to the hostel for lunch. David and I are trying to spend as little money as possible, although it doesn’t always work that way. We some of the vegetables we had left from the salad the night before and called it a day. It is very difficult sometimes to find clean utensils in the kitchen which can be a bit frustrating. Somehow though we manage everyday to get done what we need to do and it all works out okay.
Today we decided to go to the town of Manly in north Sydney, because Forrest told David and I that the best seafood in all of Sydney was at a place there. He didn’t remember the name, but told us that we couldn’t miss it. So the venture began. We walked out and around, and explored more of the city that I had never seen before. A road just across from our hostel started it out with these pretty hanging things from the buildings in the middle of the road. Once off the “main road” of the Cross there are a lot of very good restaurants and beautiful things to see. Continuing on our walk, we came to a HUGE set of stairs. They are called the Butler stairs and are just beautiful. We continued walking and went through the botanical gardens. We walked around and came to the pond where we saw the eel the first day and the English kid trying to catch one, but there were a plethora of eels this time. There are so many eels that live in this pond it is unbelievable. They are also mesmerizing, considering I probably spent at least 15-20 minutes trying to find eels and just watching them. David somehow continues to stumble upon dead birds, and we found one in the pond with the eels. After seeing that I began to wonder what eels eat since there was a dead bird untouched and also a dead fish untouched in the water. We also stumbled upon two of the coolest trees I have ever seen. One was a fat tree at the bottom and falling to one side so much that strings have to hold it up. There are all pictures on facebook of this. There is also a tree that looked like the tree of life from the Lion King movie. At the corner of the park is a big castle looking building. It is absolutely beautiful with character and it has a black fence around it. It ended up being a government house. How wonderful that their government buildings look like castles, and the ones in the states look like just big white blank buildings. I also noticed that people sit around in the parks and just talk or eat or hang out. It’s like a movie but I love it. I want to (once it’s warm of course) take a picnic there. It would be a perfect place especially at the one hill you can see the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera house.
We continued our walk out of the botanical gardens and walked past just rows of palm trees. I’m not sure why but I am really amazed that there are palm trees here. It does get warm, but the winters get pretty cold in my opinion even though it doesn’t snow. It is still crazy to see.
To get to Manly we had to take the ferry since it is across the Harbour. I’m sure there is a bus that runs but it is probably more expensive and not as efficient as the ferry. Right before where the ferries were was an indigenous man playing a didgeridoo. It is the really long instrument that you make noises into. It is like the size of a person if not bigger and it sits on the ground. He had on face paint and really got into it which was pretty awesome. I also stopped into the toilet before leaving and there was a futuristic looking sink that was like a pig trough.
The ferry to Manly had 3 different levels and most of the seats were inside, but there were a few benches every level for people to go and see the view. David tried to run in quick and steal us some seats, but there ended up being so many people coming off and on the outer deck that while the things we knew were going by I couldn’t really see anything. Upon that, it was freezing. It was already a little cold that day, but then to add water and moving across it was too much. I went inside after a few minutes to stay warm but David stayed outside the whole time. I surprisingly did not get sea sick at all though which I think is pretty impressive. The view, from what I could see, was beautiful. There were these rocks flying into Sydney on the beaches and when seeing them I thought about how beautiful it was. Well we passed quite a few of those beaches on the way in and the rocks become even more breathtaking the closer I get to them.
When getting off the ferry, there was definitely more than one restaurant, and all of them had seafood. David and I walked around a few places, and saw some chefs eating. One of them had a pasta dish that looked delicious, so David went up and asked him where it was from so we could get some. He said that it was from wherever he worked, and that they are closed again until 6 pm for dinner. It was 5pm at this point, so David and I decided to get a little snack to hold us over. No other snacks around were actually warm, so we got Asian. We had two spring rolls and some other stuff. Everything ended up being really good so that was a plus. Since we had a possible hour to kill, David ans I jut walked around. Manly is cute and it has just a few shops and places to eat but still just a nice place to walk around. We checked out every menu on the way to the beach, and every menu back. The beach was very nice but by the time we got there it was a little past dusk and it was too dark to really see everything. On the walk back around David noticed a food place with roasted Pumpkin. Pumpkin seems to be really big around here and neither of us have really had pumpkin in anything other than a dessert. We pulled out our change and bought one piece of roasted pumpkin, which ended up being delicious. Pumpkin has this subtle but sweet flavor and it was warm and a little soft and really good.
As we walked back to the place around 6 pm, we saw that their prices were a little expensive and we thought about just splitting a meal. David was in the mood for seafood, but I was really just in the mood for pasta. I think seeing that dude with the awesome looking pasta made me really hungry for it. David wanted to go back to this one place we had passed earlier cause their prices didn’t seem too bad so we went. After searching the menu David really wanted this seafood dinner for two, and I told him I would split it with him as long as we substituted the ‘chips’ (aka fries) for pasta. It all worked out and we got this huge platter of seafood. Prawns, lobster, muscles, oysters, battered fish, the works. It ended up being by far the worst meal I have eaten in Sydney, let alone maybe one of the worst meals I have had in a really long time. Our waiter ended up being from the Czech Republic and was in Australia currently to take classes to learn English. Most of his English was very good, but when I was asking to have pasta instead of chips he became very confused. He asked me, “You want pasta in a bavel?” uh..? I said that I was sorry, but a what? And instead of realizing his English wasn’t particularly good and making a new word, he just continued to use the word ‘bavel’ and cupped his hands. After 3 times of this I just said okay yes. I thought that my pasta would be coming out in a bottle, until it came out and I saw that bavel = bowl. Not close.. but okay.
There are also these heaters that most establishments have that sit outside to keep the people outside warm. They look just like gas flames enclosed by some metal grating. They are actually really warm but I still would not want to sit outside.
Since dinner was all David’s idea and it ended up being pretty bad, he paid for dinner and I just paid for dessert. We went to a place called “Choc late” We ended up ordering the chocolate fondue for two which had milk and dark chocolate with marshmallows, bread, strawberries, and bananas to dip in. We left and saw that the ferry back to Manly wasn’t until 8:05 but David’s watch said it was 7:45 so we had some time. We walked around just for a minute until we figured out his watch was off and we had two minutes to catch the ferry. Luckily we ran and they let us on.
Through the trip so far I have met a lot of people from a lot of different nationalities. English mostly, but also French, Asian, German, Irish, and plenty of other places. However, I have not run into any Americans. I realized that when we heard someone who we thought was American. She was speaking loudly so it wasn’t hard to hear her conversation. For quite some time I thought she was American, until she said she went “aboot” somewhere. Canadian, not American.
After the ferry David and I looked at the map and walked home. Somehow, we got walking on a road that I don’t think we were supposed to walk on. It was a tiny almost non existent sidewalk inside of a tunnel. Luckily, we made it safe and sound and home in one piece. =)
David and I came to Kings Cross library to work on my journal and also get on Facebook to keep in contact with my life back in the states. I am pretty sure I spent about three or more hours in the library doing these things, and then came back to the hostel for lunch. David and I are trying to spend as little money as possible, although it doesn’t always work that way. We some of the vegetables we had left from the salad the night before and called it a day. It is very difficult sometimes to find clean utensils in the kitchen which can be a bit frustrating. Somehow though we manage everyday to get done what we need to do and it all works out okay.
Today we decided to go to the town of Manly in north Sydney, because Forrest told David and I that the best seafood in all of Sydney was at a place there. He didn’t remember the name, but told us that we couldn’t miss it. So the venture began. We walked out and around, and explored more of the city that I had never seen before. A road just across from our hostel started it out with these pretty hanging things from the buildings in the middle of the road. Once off the “main road” of the Cross there are a lot of very good restaurants and beautiful things to see. Continuing on our walk, we came to a HUGE set of stairs. They are called the Butler stairs and are just beautiful. We continued walking and went through the botanical gardens. We walked around and came to the pond where we saw the eel the first day and the English kid trying to catch one, but there were a plethora of eels this time. There are so many eels that live in this pond it is unbelievable. They are also mesmerizing, considering I probably spent at least 15-20 minutes trying to find eels and just watching them. David somehow continues to stumble upon dead birds, and we found one in the pond with the eels. After seeing that I began to wonder what eels eat since there was a dead bird untouched and also a dead fish untouched in the water. We also stumbled upon two of the coolest trees I have ever seen. One was a fat tree at the bottom and falling to one side so much that strings have to hold it up. There are all pictures on facebook of this. There is also a tree that looked like the tree of life from the Lion King movie. At the corner of the park is a big castle looking building. It is absolutely beautiful with character and it has a black fence around it. It ended up being a government house. How wonderful that their government buildings look like castles, and the ones in the states look like just big white blank buildings. I also noticed that people sit around in the parks and just talk or eat or hang out. It’s like a movie but I love it. I want to (once it’s warm of course) take a picnic there. It would be a perfect place especially at the one hill you can see the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera house.
We continued our walk out of the botanical gardens and walked past just rows of palm trees. I’m not sure why but I am really amazed that there are palm trees here. It does get warm, but the winters get pretty cold in my opinion even though it doesn’t snow. It is still crazy to see.
To get to Manly we had to take the ferry since it is across the Harbour. I’m sure there is a bus that runs but it is probably more expensive and not as efficient as the ferry. Right before where the ferries were was an indigenous man playing a didgeridoo. It is the really long instrument that you make noises into. It is like the size of a person if not bigger and it sits on the ground. He had on face paint and really got into it which was pretty awesome. I also stopped into the toilet before leaving and there was a futuristic looking sink that was like a pig trough.
The ferry to Manly had 3 different levels and most of the seats were inside, but there were a few benches every level for people to go and see the view. David tried to run in quick and steal us some seats, but there ended up being so many people coming off and on the outer deck that while the things we knew were going by I couldn’t really see anything. Upon that, it was freezing. It was already a little cold that day, but then to add water and moving across it was too much. I went inside after a few minutes to stay warm but David stayed outside the whole time. I surprisingly did not get sea sick at all though which I think is pretty impressive. The view, from what I could see, was beautiful. There were these rocks flying into Sydney on the beaches and when seeing them I thought about how beautiful it was. Well we passed quite a few of those beaches on the way in and the rocks become even more breathtaking the closer I get to them.
When getting off the ferry, there was definitely more than one restaurant, and all of them had seafood. David and I walked around a few places, and saw some chefs eating. One of them had a pasta dish that looked delicious, so David went up and asked him where it was from so we could get some. He said that it was from wherever he worked, and that they are closed again until 6 pm for dinner. It was 5pm at this point, so David and I decided to get a little snack to hold us over. No other snacks around were actually warm, so we got Asian. We had two spring rolls and some other stuff. Everything ended up being really good so that was a plus. Since we had a possible hour to kill, David ans I jut walked around. Manly is cute and it has just a few shops and places to eat but still just a nice place to walk around. We checked out every menu on the way to the beach, and every menu back. The beach was very nice but by the time we got there it was a little past dusk and it was too dark to really see everything. On the walk back around David noticed a food place with roasted Pumpkin. Pumpkin seems to be really big around here and neither of us have really had pumpkin in anything other than a dessert. We pulled out our change and bought one piece of roasted pumpkin, which ended up being delicious. Pumpkin has this subtle but sweet flavor and it was warm and a little soft and really good.
As we walked back to the place around 6 pm, we saw that their prices were a little expensive and we thought about just splitting a meal. David was in the mood for seafood, but I was really just in the mood for pasta. I think seeing that dude with the awesome looking pasta made me really hungry for it. David wanted to go back to this one place we had passed earlier cause their prices didn’t seem too bad so we went. After searching the menu David really wanted this seafood dinner for two, and I told him I would split it with him as long as we substituted the ‘chips’ (aka fries) for pasta. It all worked out and we got this huge platter of seafood. Prawns, lobster, muscles, oysters, battered fish, the works. It ended up being by far the worst meal I have eaten in Sydney, let alone maybe one of the worst meals I have had in a really long time. Our waiter ended up being from the Czech Republic and was in Australia currently to take classes to learn English. Most of his English was very good, but when I was asking to have pasta instead of chips he became very confused. He asked me, “You want pasta in a bavel?” uh..? I said that I was sorry, but a what? And instead of realizing his English wasn’t particularly good and making a new word, he just continued to use the word ‘bavel’ and cupped his hands. After 3 times of this I just said okay yes. I thought that my pasta would be coming out in a bottle, until it came out and I saw that bavel = bowl. Not close.. but okay.
There are also these heaters that most establishments have that sit outside to keep the people outside warm. They look just like gas flames enclosed by some metal grating. They are actually really warm but I still would not want to sit outside.
Since dinner was all David’s idea and it ended up being pretty bad, he paid for dinner and I just paid for dessert. We went to a place called “Choc late” We ended up ordering the chocolate fondue for two which had milk and dark chocolate with marshmallows, bread, strawberries, and bananas to dip in. We left and saw that the ferry back to Manly wasn’t until 8:05 but David’s watch said it was 7:45 so we had some time. We walked around just for a minute until we figured out his watch was off and we had two minutes to catch the ferry. Luckily we ran and they let us on.
Through the trip so far I have met a lot of people from a lot of different nationalities. English mostly, but also French, Asian, German, Irish, and plenty of other places. However, I have not run into any Americans. I realized that when we heard someone who we thought was American. She was speaking loudly so it wasn’t hard to hear her conversation. For quite some time I thought she was American, until she said she went “aboot” somewhere. Canadian, not American.
After the ferry David and I looked at the map and walked home. Somehow, we got walking on a road that I don’t think we were supposed to walk on. It was a tiny almost non existent sidewalk inside of a tunnel. Luckily, we made it safe and sound and home in one piece. =)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday 21/8/10
With the window closed last night, the room was just a bit warmer than it was the night before. Unfortunately, I woke up at 7AM which was a little early but I did have like, 11 hours of sleep that night. From the grocery store yesterday, we had breakfast purchased. It was the Muesli and Yogurt which tasted fantastic. Muesli is this sort of granola/oatmeal but it doesn’t need to be cooked and goes awesomely over yogurt. It had fruits and nuts in it and I don’t know what name brand tastes like but the home brand from Woolworths was pretty awesome and half the price. The yogurt was peaches and mangoes so I was sold on that.
After breakfast we got together and went to McDonalds to get the free WIFI to facebook and Skype. It is seeming, for right now at least, I spend the morning checking up on my updates back from home and talk to everyone who is available. I’m glad that the McDonalds has it simply because I don’t feel stupid sitting in McDonalds talking on my head set but places like the library that has internet is not really appropriate to do. I also noticed that McDonalds over here has a dinner package, 4 burgers, 4 fries, and 4 cokes for 20 bucks. I think, though it is a good marketing and money saver idea, it is kind of gross to think of a whole family bonding around the dinner table with McDonalds.
Leaving McDonalds, David and I walked back to the hostel, which is right around the corner, and talked to Forrest about an AFL match. It’s a football league that is kind of like rugby but kind of different. It was at the Sydney Cricket Garden and we looked at a map that would take us there. After putting our stuff away and getting situated, we left to get some lunch since it was around, 1:15pm.
We ended up at Coles. The fresh bread there is so cheap (45 cents a piece) that David and I each picked up one of those, expecting to make a sandwich. Looking around, the deli meat is really expensive. Most are around 18 dollars a kg, so that would be 36 dollars a pound. However, there was a whole roasted chicken for $10.80. I can’t seem to understand how prices for meat get figured. Three tiny chicken breasts are around 20 bucks a piece, but a whole chicken is only 10.80? And chicken prepared on a stick is only maybe a dollar and a half for one. But at any rate, David and I got fresh bread and a chicken for lunch. It came out to be around 13 dollars which is awesome. We sat inside the building of the store by the “burger joint” and ate our food. The chicken, to our surprise, even had stuffing in it. Score.
After lunch, David and I started walking towards the Sydney Cricket Gardens. On our walk, we stopped into the chocolate place because knowing me, I cannot live without chocolate. =) It was simply amazing. The people there decorated them in like intricate flower patterns and everything you can think of. Not decorated with icing but almost like screen printed this stuff on. If it weren’t 13 dollars for 5 pieces I would have totally gotten some. But as David described, we are trying at some points to live as “punk rock” as possible, and today we totally did that.
The walk to the SCG was not as far as anticipated. Talking to Forrest he said that the Aboriginals were playing at 10 to 5 and the Australian team was playing after that. David and I got to the SCG around 3:00 pm and saw this beautiful pond right beside it and since we thought we were early, we went and walked around. It was incredible, and we saw this awesome looking black swan. David also spotted what seemed to be a dead bird in the water, and had to take a picture of it because it is an experience…yeah. After our little walk around the beautiful pond we decided to look into times and prices for the AFL game. The gentleman working the ticket booth informed us that the Aboriginals had already started playing around 2:50. Unfortunately, tickets were $39 which was a little bit out of my price range considering I’ve got no idea what AFL actually is and I had no idea if I would like it or not.
So off we went, to do more exploring and walking around. Right past the SCG was fox studios Australia! Woooo. If only Heath Ledger was alive I’d be all up on that. It was amazing to me though how much trust Australia puts in itself and its people. My example being that two of the gates to fox studios were not for public access, and it clearly stated so. But the gates to the studios were wide open. No one tries to get into those gates, they know it is off limits. I think that incredibly awesome. In the US we would have those gates closed and locked with security guards at all times. I love that the people really are trusting.
Next on our walk we saw a ton of tennis courts and a big open field for cricket. I thought it was really awesome, and I even stopped to watch for a bit, but I have now realized that I don’t know anything about cricket. Watching, I saw a group of people in white standing on what seems to be a small field. Someone pitches, something? Maybe a ball, I’m not really sure, and another person takes a cricket bat which looks like a flattened wooden bat at the top, and tries to hit whatever the pitcher is throwing. Very confused, David and I took pictures of this event (because who doesn’t need a picture of a game they’ve got no idea how to play?) and continued our walk. Without knowing where we were going, we just walked. And since we did not want to walk down a street we had already been down, we decided to walk down a different street and cut over eventually. We walked longer than we thought we would, and at some point ended up in Surry Hills, from what I have heard is a nice neighborhood surrounding Sydney’s Central Business District. It was a cute neighborhood from what I saw and I really liked it. The houses around this area are just simply beautiful architecture. They are just incredible to look at, and I will have pictures posted on facebook of them soon.
We then were not in Surry Hills anymore, but in a really poppin’ place. I can’t tell you specifically where we were because I sincerely don’t know, but I could take a wild guess. While Australia is full of Asian people because they are so close, the town I was in had a ratio of probably 95% Asians to 5% everyone else. I believe I was in China town. Now, for the ignorant like me, I thought once in my life that there was only a china town in New York City. Not true. There are China towns in almost every major city, including Sydney. There were also stores that I had never heard of around, but when David saw Footlocker, he was in to see how shoe prices compare.
Now first, I’d like to say that while prices here I assumed were more expensive because I wasn’t really sure how to convert KG to pounds, but going into the footlocker they are about twice as much. A $40 pair of converse back in the US is $99 here. $100 Nikes are on sale for $199. Absolutely crazy.
The next thing I want to mention about the footlocker is something off the wall that I noticed. It wasn’t until our third day in Australia that we saw a black person. I say black because when having this conversation with David, he asked me what the politically correct term for them was, considering they are not African Americans. African Australians? I’m not sure. It seems a little weird to notice that, or count them, but trust me, there is a reason. On our walks yesterday David and I saw two black people. Walking into the footlocker, there were three more. I don’t mean to be stereotypical, but really?
As we continued walking towards Kings Cross without a map, we just imagined where our hostel was as compared to where we were. We walked around through a busy place, and around the city are always random people around doing something musical for money. An emo looking young man was singing under the bridge we walked into. He had an acoustic guitar and an amplifier, along with a microphone. No, he was not singing anything we knew like every other song we have heard here so far. Everything so far that we have heard on the radio, or even seen on TV has been American. I can’t count how many times I have heard Eminem, from his old school stuff to the newest song to date, Eminem with Rhianna. No, it was a song that this young man had written. While I applaud anyone who has the creativity to write music and is willing to play it in front of people, he maybe should have rethought his decision to do so. Just while walking by his lyrics were this, “woman like a man, woman like a man, woman like a man but I need you like a woman.” After the shock of hearing this, and the half terrified looks David and I gave each other, we both burst into full laughter. That was one of the most bizarre, amazing, hilarious, and ridiculous things we had heard so far.
Just a bit later on the same walk, there was a man who was playing music from a CD player for money. I do not think that deserves money, especially because I could do the exact same thing. While I feel bad seeing homeless people on the streets with cardboard signs, David pointed out that we cannot afford to give them anything, since we are in fact, homeless too.
One of the last amazing things we saw on our walk back was the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mazarati, and Bently stores all in close proximity. I am not in any means a car person, nor would I ever claim to be able to identify the simplest cars like a Honda or Ford, but those cars are really nice. And the only way to get them out of the store? Drive them out the front door. They were incredible to see especially because it may have been the first time in my life seeing any one of those really expensive cars.
The second most amazing car I have never seen in my life passed right before me this day as well. While marveling at the “futuristic monorail,” there was not one, not two, but three Rolls Royces right in a row. Two regulars, one a limo. Now, I remember seeing a Rolls on the TV before, and I’ve got no idea how much it costs, but I’m pretty sure it was past a million. They were white and marvelous.
We finally got back to the hostel around 530, and David and I were both feeling a bit tired. We decided to take a power nap, and I set my mobile phone alarm for 30 minutes from the time we laid down. To my surprise (and I’m not sure why) the alarm either didn’t go off, or I didn’t put the sound on my phone like I thought I did, and slept through the vibration. The only reason I woke up was because one of our new roommates came into the room. We had seen 4 bags when we walked in, but no sightings before then. One of our new roommates was the French guy we had briefly seen when he was checking in. I definitely slept too long, and that nap put me in a daze for the rest of the evening. It was now 7:30 pm, and David and I walked to Coles again for some dinner. Since the food that we have been eating has been delicious but not exactly nutritious, we decided to get some salad. Instead of getting a prepared salad which wasn’t very big and didn’t have much in it, we picked up things to make our own. Lettuce, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, cauliflower, bacon, and cheese all for 14 dollars. We added a chocolate cake which looked absolutely delicious for another 5. The bill ended up being less than 20 bucks which means that both of our meals all together today were around 39 dollars, or 20 dollars a person. Suck it Rachel Ray and $40 a day, we did it in half that!
Coming back to the hostel with all of our goods, we took them into the kitchen. I didn’t realize until that moment that the people here, who are really nice, don’t give two bits about cleaning up after themselves. I would kill to find clean silverware, or bowls, or plates, or really anything. Thank goodness we’re not doing any heavy cooking yet, because finding clean pots and pans could be a nightmare. I would say that is the only complaint that I have about the hostel. David and I use something and we automatically wash it and put it to dry for other people to use. We walked in to a really full industrial sized sink. It wasn’t full of pots and pans, it was full of dirty nasty water and all of the pots and pans were sitting around the sink. With that said, we made due getting our salads together which were pretty delicious. The lettuce was weird to me, but I don’t know if that’s because my head was groggy or what. David thought it tasted fine, so I’ll have to trust him and try it again. We then ate a piece of our 5 dollar 8 inch round chocolate mud pie cake which was absolutely delicious and I know will give me many more happy times before we finish it all. During our dinner we sat in the lounge with a few other backpackers and finished up “I Love You, Man” with Paul Rudd. Part of me loves that I know everything these people want to watch, and part of me wants to see new and exciting Australian TV.
After the movie ended, David and I walked our food upstairs to the fridge in the room so we could go explore the night life. Our new roommates were in the room when we got back. Three German kids, just graduated from Gymnasium (high school) planning on backpacking the east coast of Australia from 3 days ago when the arrived through May or June. I never wondered where Europeans went to back pack. Americans go to Europe to backpack, but rightfully so, no one wants to come to the US to backpack. Why? Because there isn’t a really good path to do it, plus we don’t have hostels anywhere. So I found out that the 19 year old Germans were doing their backpacking in Australia which is pretty sweet. When we got in the room they were playing cards and drinking. I asked them if that was what they were going to do all night, and their reply was no, that they were just pregaming to go to the pub. That indeed. They asked us if we were going out and we talked a little about it, and it came up that David does not drink. While I thought the conversation was normal, David actually thought it was pretty uncomfortable because people from other cultures don’t really understand the hardcore/straight edge scene that can be very popular in the US. The first question they had was if he had a bad experience with alcohol. No, not that. The second was if it was a religious thing... not that either. I don’t think they understood but they accepted it and moved on.
David and I left to go enjoy night life because we were both feeling up to it. We didn’t find a pub to go to, I think that we need to be led to the right one with a group of kids. Most of the pubs seem to be too loud to actually enjoy anyone else’s company. I enjoy drinking, but have not had a drink here so far. The biggest reason is that drinking is expensive, probably around $8 a pint of beer, and with such little finances I don’t want to have to come home because a lack of money and say, “I could have potentially stayed longer if I hadn’t gotten drunk so often.” Kings Cross definitely is the party town of Sydney. I can tell not only because of the people, but the vomit all over the sidewalks once 10pm hits. Once off the one block of Darlinghurst st., everything got quiet. The night life dress is in a league of its own. All the women wear the tiniest things they own with the biggest heels they own. If they are wearing skirts as big as band aids in 40 degree F weather, I can’t wait to see what they wear in the summer, or maybe I can. If it is not a tiny skirt, it is the tightest pair of jeans or pants they own, still with the heels. My favorite of all of the attire so far for the night life is the sequins. I’m sure that soon in the US sequin dresses will be in because Australia is so closely linked to England who is a leader in fashion, but right now I am in shock. So much sequin. Most outfits were all sequins. The women don’t wear coats either, and high heel boots are very big. Even manly looking boots are in style.
Another thing that I have noticed is how green Australia is. Green as in environmental. The first thing I noticed was that some places have pre-measured toilet paper. It is probably two sheets of toilet paper, but never enough in my opinion. I always need to take two. I have also noticed one other major thing. Getting off the plane and every other toilet there has always been two buttons on the top. For no logical reason at all, David and I had always pushed the button on the right. One toilet I saw had a half full circle on the left button and a completely filled in circle on the right. Naturally, I pushed right, and watched the toilet water go in straight but ever so slightly spin in the opposite direction. It is not fake my friends, the Simpsons were correct, the toilets DO spin the opposite way down under. David finally asked one of the guys working in the hostel what the two buttons were. The left button was for a half flush, or for when you pee, and the right was a full flush, for pooping. Who would have thought to only half flush a toilet? The Aussies, that’s who. How awesome.
I still can’t figure out the temperature either. It said today was 19 degrees C which is 66 degrees F but I was freezing. Explain that.
Around 12 midnight David and I both hit the beds, with our new French roommate on his computer doing who knows what since we don’t get the internet. At 4 in the morning, two of our German friends arrived, so very drunk. One must have lost their step on the way in and wracked our bed. They tried to do that drunk quietness which never works. One even turned the light on even though we had left the bathroom light on for them. It only bothered me in the moment, but I quickly went back to sleep. The last German came in at 8 in the morning.
The sleep was good and it prepared me for day 4, which will be coming soon.
After breakfast we got together and went to McDonalds to get the free WIFI to facebook and Skype. It is seeming, for right now at least, I spend the morning checking up on my updates back from home and talk to everyone who is available. I’m glad that the McDonalds has it simply because I don’t feel stupid sitting in McDonalds talking on my head set but places like the library that has internet is not really appropriate to do. I also noticed that McDonalds over here has a dinner package, 4 burgers, 4 fries, and 4 cokes for 20 bucks. I think, though it is a good marketing and money saver idea, it is kind of gross to think of a whole family bonding around the dinner table with McDonalds.
Leaving McDonalds, David and I walked back to the hostel, which is right around the corner, and talked to Forrest about an AFL match. It’s a football league that is kind of like rugby but kind of different. It was at the Sydney Cricket Garden and we looked at a map that would take us there. After putting our stuff away and getting situated, we left to get some lunch since it was around, 1:15pm.
We ended up at Coles. The fresh bread there is so cheap (45 cents a piece) that David and I each picked up one of those, expecting to make a sandwich. Looking around, the deli meat is really expensive. Most are around 18 dollars a kg, so that would be 36 dollars a pound. However, there was a whole roasted chicken for $10.80. I can’t seem to understand how prices for meat get figured. Three tiny chicken breasts are around 20 bucks a piece, but a whole chicken is only 10.80? And chicken prepared on a stick is only maybe a dollar and a half for one. But at any rate, David and I got fresh bread and a chicken for lunch. It came out to be around 13 dollars which is awesome. We sat inside the building of the store by the “burger joint” and ate our food. The chicken, to our surprise, even had stuffing in it. Score.
After lunch, David and I started walking towards the Sydney Cricket Gardens. On our walk, we stopped into the chocolate place because knowing me, I cannot live without chocolate. =) It was simply amazing. The people there decorated them in like intricate flower patterns and everything you can think of. Not decorated with icing but almost like screen printed this stuff on. If it weren’t 13 dollars for 5 pieces I would have totally gotten some. But as David described, we are trying at some points to live as “punk rock” as possible, and today we totally did that.
The walk to the SCG was not as far as anticipated. Talking to Forrest he said that the Aboriginals were playing at 10 to 5 and the Australian team was playing after that. David and I got to the SCG around 3:00 pm and saw this beautiful pond right beside it and since we thought we were early, we went and walked around. It was incredible, and we saw this awesome looking black swan. David also spotted what seemed to be a dead bird in the water, and had to take a picture of it because it is an experience…yeah. After our little walk around the beautiful pond we decided to look into times and prices for the AFL game. The gentleman working the ticket booth informed us that the Aboriginals had already started playing around 2:50. Unfortunately, tickets were $39 which was a little bit out of my price range considering I’ve got no idea what AFL actually is and I had no idea if I would like it or not.
So off we went, to do more exploring and walking around. Right past the SCG was fox studios Australia! Woooo. If only Heath Ledger was alive I’d be all up on that. It was amazing to me though how much trust Australia puts in itself and its people. My example being that two of the gates to fox studios were not for public access, and it clearly stated so. But the gates to the studios were wide open. No one tries to get into those gates, they know it is off limits. I think that incredibly awesome. In the US we would have those gates closed and locked with security guards at all times. I love that the people really are trusting.
Next on our walk we saw a ton of tennis courts and a big open field for cricket. I thought it was really awesome, and I even stopped to watch for a bit, but I have now realized that I don’t know anything about cricket. Watching, I saw a group of people in white standing on what seems to be a small field. Someone pitches, something? Maybe a ball, I’m not really sure, and another person takes a cricket bat which looks like a flattened wooden bat at the top, and tries to hit whatever the pitcher is throwing. Very confused, David and I took pictures of this event (because who doesn’t need a picture of a game they’ve got no idea how to play?) and continued our walk. Without knowing where we were going, we just walked. And since we did not want to walk down a street we had already been down, we decided to walk down a different street and cut over eventually. We walked longer than we thought we would, and at some point ended up in Surry Hills, from what I have heard is a nice neighborhood surrounding Sydney’s Central Business District. It was a cute neighborhood from what I saw and I really liked it. The houses around this area are just simply beautiful architecture. They are just incredible to look at, and I will have pictures posted on facebook of them soon.
We then were not in Surry Hills anymore, but in a really poppin’ place. I can’t tell you specifically where we were because I sincerely don’t know, but I could take a wild guess. While Australia is full of Asian people because they are so close, the town I was in had a ratio of probably 95% Asians to 5% everyone else. I believe I was in China town. Now, for the ignorant like me, I thought once in my life that there was only a china town in New York City. Not true. There are China towns in almost every major city, including Sydney. There were also stores that I had never heard of around, but when David saw Footlocker, he was in to see how shoe prices compare.
Now first, I’d like to say that while prices here I assumed were more expensive because I wasn’t really sure how to convert KG to pounds, but going into the footlocker they are about twice as much. A $40 pair of converse back in the US is $99 here. $100 Nikes are on sale for $199. Absolutely crazy.
The next thing I want to mention about the footlocker is something off the wall that I noticed. It wasn’t until our third day in Australia that we saw a black person. I say black because when having this conversation with David, he asked me what the politically correct term for them was, considering they are not African Americans. African Australians? I’m not sure. It seems a little weird to notice that, or count them, but trust me, there is a reason. On our walks yesterday David and I saw two black people. Walking into the footlocker, there were three more. I don’t mean to be stereotypical, but really?
As we continued walking towards Kings Cross without a map, we just imagined where our hostel was as compared to where we were. We walked around through a busy place, and around the city are always random people around doing something musical for money. An emo looking young man was singing under the bridge we walked into. He had an acoustic guitar and an amplifier, along with a microphone. No, he was not singing anything we knew like every other song we have heard here so far. Everything so far that we have heard on the radio, or even seen on TV has been American. I can’t count how many times I have heard Eminem, from his old school stuff to the newest song to date, Eminem with Rhianna. No, it was a song that this young man had written. While I applaud anyone who has the creativity to write music and is willing to play it in front of people, he maybe should have rethought his decision to do so. Just while walking by his lyrics were this, “woman like a man, woman like a man, woman like a man but I need you like a woman.” After the shock of hearing this, and the half terrified looks David and I gave each other, we both burst into full laughter. That was one of the most bizarre, amazing, hilarious, and ridiculous things we had heard so far.
Just a bit later on the same walk, there was a man who was playing music from a CD player for money. I do not think that deserves money, especially because I could do the exact same thing. While I feel bad seeing homeless people on the streets with cardboard signs, David pointed out that we cannot afford to give them anything, since we are in fact, homeless too.
One of the last amazing things we saw on our walk back was the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mazarati, and Bently stores all in close proximity. I am not in any means a car person, nor would I ever claim to be able to identify the simplest cars like a Honda or Ford, but those cars are really nice. And the only way to get them out of the store? Drive them out the front door. They were incredible to see especially because it may have been the first time in my life seeing any one of those really expensive cars.
The second most amazing car I have never seen in my life passed right before me this day as well. While marveling at the “futuristic monorail,” there was not one, not two, but three Rolls Royces right in a row. Two regulars, one a limo. Now, I remember seeing a Rolls on the TV before, and I’ve got no idea how much it costs, but I’m pretty sure it was past a million. They were white and marvelous.
We finally got back to the hostel around 530, and David and I were both feeling a bit tired. We decided to take a power nap, and I set my mobile phone alarm for 30 minutes from the time we laid down. To my surprise (and I’m not sure why) the alarm either didn’t go off, or I didn’t put the sound on my phone like I thought I did, and slept through the vibration. The only reason I woke up was because one of our new roommates came into the room. We had seen 4 bags when we walked in, but no sightings before then. One of our new roommates was the French guy we had briefly seen when he was checking in. I definitely slept too long, and that nap put me in a daze for the rest of the evening. It was now 7:30 pm, and David and I walked to Coles again for some dinner. Since the food that we have been eating has been delicious but not exactly nutritious, we decided to get some salad. Instead of getting a prepared salad which wasn’t very big and didn’t have much in it, we picked up things to make our own. Lettuce, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, cauliflower, bacon, and cheese all for 14 dollars. We added a chocolate cake which looked absolutely delicious for another 5. The bill ended up being less than 20 bucks which means that both of our meals all together today were around 39 dollars, or 20 dollars a person. Suck it Rachel Ray and $40 a day, we did it in half that!
Coming back to the hostel with all of our goods, we took them into the kitchen. I didn’t realize until that moment that the people here, who are really nice, don’t give two bits about cleaning up after themselves. I would kill to find clean silverware, or bowls, or plates, or really anything. Thank goodness we’re not doing any heavy cooking yet, because finding clean pots and pans could be a nightmare. I would say that is the only complaint that I have about the hostel. David and I use something and we automatically wash it and put it to dry for other people to use. We walked in to a really full industrial sized sink. It wasn’t full of pots and pans, it was full of dirty nasty water and all of the pots and pans were sitting around the sink. With that said, we made due getting our salads together which were pretty delicious. The lettuce was weird to me, but I don’t know if that’s because my head was groggy or what. David thought it tasted fine, so I’ll have to trust him and try it again. We then ate a piece of our 5 dollar 8 inch round chocolate mud pie cake which was absolutely delicious and I know will give me many more happy times before we finish it all. During our dinner we sat in the lounge with a few other backpackers and finished up “I Love You, Man” with Paul Rudd. Part of me loves that I know everything these people want to watch, and part of me wants to see new and exciting Australian TV.
After the movie ended, David and I walked our food upstairs to the fridge in the room so we could go explore the night life. Our new roommates were in the room when we got back. Three German kids, just graduated from Gymnasium (high school) planning on backpacking the east coast of Australia from 3 days ago when the arrived through May or June. I never wondered where Europeans went to back pack. Americans go to Europe to backpack, but rightfully so, no one wants to come to the US to backpack. Why? Because there isn’t a really good path to do it, plus we don’t have hostels anywhere. So I found out that the 19 year old Germans were doing their backpacking in Australia which is pretty sweet. When we got in the room they were playing cards and drinking. I asked them if that was what they were going to do all night, and their reply was no, that they were just pregaming to go to the pub. That indeed. They asked us if we were going out and we talked a little about it, and it came up that David does not drink. While I thought the conversation was normal, David actually thought it was pretty uncomfortable because people from other cultures don’t really understand the hardcore/straight edge scene that can be very popular in the US. The first question they had was if he had a bad experience with alcohol. No, not that. The second was if it was a religious thing... not that either. I don’t think they understood but they accepted it and moved on.
David and I left to go enjoy night life because we were both feeling up to it. We didn’t find a pub to go to, I think that we need to be led to the right one with a group of kids. Most of the pubs seem to be too loud to actually enjoy anyone else’s company. I enjoy drinking, but have not had a drink here so far. The biggest reason is that drinking is expensive, probably around $8 a pint of beer, and with such little finances I don’t want to have to come home because a lack of money and say, “I could have potentially stayed longer if I hadn’t gotten drunk so often.” Kings Cross definitely is the party town of Sydney. I can tell not only because of the people, but the vomit all over the sidewalks once 10pm hits. Once off the one block of Darlinghurst st., everything got quiet. The night life dress is in a league of its own. All the women wear the tiniest things they own with the biggest heels they own. If they are wearing skirts as big as band aids in 40 degree F weather, I can’t wait to see what they wear in the summer, or maybe I can. If it is not a tiny skirt, it is the tightest pair of jeans or pants they own, still with the heels. My favorite of all of the attire so far for the night life is the sequins. I’m sure that soon in the US sequin dresses will be in because Australia is so closely linked to England who is a leader in fashion, but right now I am in shock. So much sequin. Most outfits were all sequins. The women don’t wear coats either, and high heel boots are very big. Even manly looking boots are in style.
Another thing that I have noticed is how green Australia is. Green as in environmental. The first thing I noticed was that some places have pre-measured toilet paper. It is probably two sheets of toilet paper, but never enough in my opinion. I always need to take two. I have also noticed one other major thing. Getting off the plane and every other toilet there has always been two buttons on the top. For no logical reason at all, David and I had always pushed the button on the right. One toilet I saw had a half full circle on the left button and a completely filled in circle on the right. Naturally, I pushed right, and watched the toilet water go in straight but ever so slightly spin in the opposite direction. It is not fake my friends, the Simpsons were correct, the toilets DO spin the opposite way down under. David finally asked one of the guys working in the hostel what the two buttons were. The left button was for a half flush, or for when you pee, and the right was a full flush, for pooping. Who would have thought to only half flush a toilet? The Aussies, that’s who. How awesome.
I still can’t figure out the temperature either. It said today was 19 degrees C which is 66 degrees F but I was freezing. Explain that.
Around 12 midnight David and I both hit the beds, with our new French roommate on his computer doing who knows what since we don’t get the internet. At 4 in the morning, two of our German friends arrived, so very drunk. One must have lost their step on the way in and wracked our bed. They tried to do that drunk quietness which never works. One even turned the light on even though we had left the bathroom light on for them. It only bothered me in the moment, but I quickly went back to sleep. The last German came in at 8 in the morning.
The sleep was good and it prepared me for day 4, which will be coming soon.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday 20/08/10
Friday morning, we started our day by slowly getting ready. I felt pretty good waking up around 8 AM with 10 hours of sleep. The window had been open all night, and it was a bit chilly outside. I ended up wearing a long sleeve shirt, putting a cardigan over it, and then trading the cardigan for my coat. As we left, we talked to Forrest who pointed us in the right direction for some free internet at the Kings Cross Library and we then walked to Coles, the supermarket.
At Coles, we learned a lot of things about Australian food and pricing in the grocery store. I knew that things would naturally be more expensive because of being in a city, but I did not imagine how expensive it all would be. For example, a small personal sized bag of chips was around 2.50 a bag. We also found that beef is not the most expensive meat over here, it is actually close to the cheapest. Chicken is the most expensive. I am guessing that is because they do not have chicken farms here and have to import them over. Coffee is really expensive too. A bag of normal sized coffee is around 15-20 bucks, not the normal in the USA around 6-8. Goodbye coffee addiction. The other thing we noticed and it was just especially about bread is that fresh is much cheaper. A foot long sub roll was probably .75 cents to a dollar as compared to a loaf of imported bread at $5. Things are also in kg which is, at some point, confusing the shit out of me. I know kg is a little less than half of a pound, but then equating that into what prices would be in the US is crazy. 1 kg of apples were 4.50, so I’m thinking a pound of apples in the USA would be 9 bucks? Anyone want to help me with that math?
In the grocery store, David and I were so hungry we left and went to find some breakfast. At this time it was around 11 AM. We found that most places don’t serve breakfast, and if they do it is just pastries, not real eggs, bacon, the works. We ended up stumbling upon a place called Una. I’m pretty sure they were German for the fact that the menu had an array of meat schnitzels and one dish had Spatzle. Going into and sitting down, the menus were on the table. No one came to help us until we looked ready. David ordered the big breakfast and I ordered a chicken schnitzel sandwich so we could share breakfast and lunch. We asked for glasses of water, and were told that there is a water jug in the middle of the place and that’s where it comes from. I was sitting closer to the doors, and they were open and a breeze was coming in.
Seeing that, I noticed that most establishments are built open (open windows) or they keep their doors open during business hours. It is more welcoming indeed, but when it’s 10 at night and like 10 degrees C it can be a little too cold for that in my opinion. We were also warned about the American sized portions vs. the Australian sized portions which were much much smaller. I have not run into that yet. David’s big breakfast came and we realized we didn’t even need to buy the lunch sandwich but ate it anyway. It was two eggs, two pieces of bacon, two huge pieces of sausage, hash browns, and two pieces of toast. That was not a small portion. The sandwich, while it didn’t come with chips or fries, was a normal sized sandwich.
We then left to go to the library. The library does have free internet, but it is restricted so we could not check out email or facebook. I pulled out my laptop to post my first day on my blog and found that I could get wireless internet from the McDonalds. So at the library, since we only brought my computer with us, I checked email and all of that while David looked for jobs, and then we switched until the computer died.
The book bag was getting heavy, so we came back just around the corner to Brado’s and talked to Lawrence about fruit picking. Yes, you heard it right. We found out that in order to renew your work visa for a second year you have to spend at least 3 months on a farm picking fruits and vegetables. Obviously, this is very different from the population in the United States that does fruit picking.. =). We actually had him call up a contact about an hour outside of Brisbane and we are calling him on Saturday to see if he has work for us for sure. From what Lawrence told us it is $800 a week, which means we could bank at minimum 400 a week. Sounds like a sweet deal to me. More to come about that.
We walked outside to look for phones. But I want to take more time to elaborate on the town of Kings Cross. We were told by Forrest that there is technically no Kings Cross anymore because it used to be the slimiest town and the city has pushed three other towns into it, destroying the Cross. Well, there is still one street of the cross still intact. Coming out of our hostel, turning to the left, and the street in front of us is pretty awesome. There are about 10 titty bars, 5 adult video stores, different clubs and right across from the windows of the library is the adult risqué boutique which has about six mannequins wearing bondage like assless chaps. All in all though, it is very very clean.
We started to look for phones. We were told to go to the post office, which had them for $50 but we didn’t feel comfortable just buying a phone with a prepaid package. We wanted someone to set everything up for us. Then we went to Woolworths grocery store which we were told has cell phones as well. We also wanted to compare prices from Woolworths to Coles. Looking at it, there aren’t as many home brands (like Giant has their own brand) as the states do, but in Woolworths the home brand is half the price of the cheapest anything else. While in Woolworths, I found Vegemite which the ingredients say it is like a yeast base, no vegetables, and I also found a kangaroo steak. AMAZING. I want to eat Kangaroo, but I think I want it prepared in a restaurant for me, I don’t want to get food poisoning from my own undercooked Kangaroo. We purchased breakfast in Woolworths, we got Muesli (which I believe is kind of like oatmeal that you don’t have to cook) and yogurt. David picked up two fruits we’ve never heard of too, a Persimmon and another one that is currently slipping my mind but I feel like if you wanted to you could find it in the US. It’s greenish and spiky. It starts with a k. kiwano fruit or something of this nature. We brought that all back to the hostel where we have a fridge in our room that we can store it, and we still don’t have any roommates yet.
We left and got ourselves cell phones. I’ll be putting that up on facebook, not here because of the openness of anyone who can look at it. I’ll also be asking everyone who wants to talk on the cell phone to call me, simply because of price. I can’t imagine I will use this phone half as much as I use my cell phone at home, and I don’t want to. Using the cell at home, I know everything and I’ve seen everything. I don’t want to miss one second of this city because of texting so both David and I got the most minimal plan as possible. When I get phone calls and text messages it does not count against the $30 dollars I put on. From what she said, $30 is about 30 minutes of calling, and sending a text is .30 cents a text. So I can recharge 30 dollars however much I want, but I’m hoping to spend as little money on that as possible. The woman who helped us at Optis (that is the name of the store) had the most awesome fingernails ever. She was Asian with really long fake fingernails that were barbie pink and had gems and beads all over them. It was incredible.
David and I then went and got dinner at a Japanese place. Walking the streets, I’ve noticed a few things about the diversity. While there are a lot of Asians, and that makes sense to be considering location, there are a lot of Spanish restaurants. Mad Mex being one of them (I guess it isn’t only in Philly!) I have also not run into or by ONE black person. Every other ethnicity, even a few latinos, but NO black people. It is pretty insane, and I don’t know why. There are also rainbow flags all around and stores for gay boys. The store I think is called hot aussie boys. Wonderful. There are also zebra stripes which are crosswalks in the case that you HAVE to stop if there is a pedestrian waiting to cross, different than the united states to where only the nice person stops.
After cell phones we had our Japanese dinner. We got a bento box with 4 pieces of sushi, white rice and chicken chili. We also got seafood Udon soup which was really good but the flavors started to blend together. I did however eat my first tiny octopus from that soup. And the biggest muscles alive. They were honestly like 4 or 5 inches long.
Then we walked back to the hostel and it was freezing but a lot of people dress in an array of clothing layers. As I type the rest of this blog in a mcdonalds with free wifi, I am here with a sweatshirt winter jacket and a long sleeve shirt, jeans, and sneakers. There is a boy across from me on his mini is wearing a t shirt. I’ve seen people here wearing t shirts and shorts when it was around 75 degrees F and people wearing coats. It is a variable city.
Coming back to the hostel, I wrote a lot of this, but around 8:45 pm I was finished. I’m hoping that getting to bed around that time will ensure that I am finished being jetlagged. I haven’t yet experienced nightlife in Sydney and I want to do that tonight. I have noticed everything revolves around drinking, even more so than the USA. Tomorrow I will explore night life!
At Coles, we learned a lot of things about Australian food and pricing in the grocery store. I knew that things would naturally be more expensive because of being in a city, but I did not imagine how expensive it all would be. For example, a small personal sized bag of chips was around 2.50 a bag. We also found that beef is not the most expensive meat over here, it is actually close to the cheapest. Chicken is the most expensive. I am guessing that is because they do not have chicken farms here and have to import them over. Coffee is really expensive too. A bag of normal sized coffee is around 15-20 bucks, not the normal in the USA around 6-8. Goodbye coffee addiction. The other thing we noticed and it was just especially about bread is that fresh is much cheaper. A foot long sub roll was probably .75 cents to a dollar as compared to a loaf of imported bread at $5. Things are also in kg which is, at some point, confusing the shit out of me. I know kg is a little less than half of a pound, but then equating that into what prices would be in the US is crazy. 1 kg of apples were 4.50, so I’m thinking a pound of apples in the USA would be 9 bucks? Anyone want to help me with that math?
In the grocery store, David and I were so hungry we left and went to find some breakfast. At this time it was around 11 AM. We found that most places don’t serve breakfast, and if they do it is just pastries, not real eggs, bacon, the works. We ended up stumbling upon a place called Una. I’m pretty sure they were German for the fact that the menu had an array of meat schnitzels and one dish had Spatzle. Going into and sitting down, the menus were on the table. No one came to help us until we looked ready. David ordered the big breakfast and I ordered a chicken schnitzel sandwich so we could share breakfast and lunch. We asked for glasses of water, and were told that there is a water jug in the middle of the place and that’s where it comes from. I was sitting closer to the doors, and they were open and a breeze was coming in.
Seeing that, I noticed that most establishments are built open (open windows) or they keep their doors open during business hours. It is more welcoming indeed, but when it’s 10 at night and like 10 degrees C it can be a little too cold for that in my opinion. We were also warned about the American sized portions vs. the Australian sized portions which were much much smaller. I have not run into that yet. David’s big breakfast came and we realized we didn’t even need to buy the lunch sandwich but ate it anyway. It was two eggs, two pieces of bacon, two huge pieces of sausage, hash browns, and two pieces of toast. That was not a small portion. The sandwich, while it didn’t come with chips or fries, was a normal sized sandwich.
We then left to go to the library. The library does have free internet, but it is restricted so we could not check out email or facebook. I pulled out my laptop to post my first day on my blog and found that I could get wireless internet from the McDonalds. So at the library, since we only brought my computer with us, I checked email and all of that while David looked for jobs, and then we switched until the computer died.
The book bag was getting heavy, so we came back just around the corner to Brado’s and talked to Lawrence about fruit picking. Yes, you heard it right. We found out that in order to renew your work visa for a second year you have to spend at least 3 months on a farm picking fruits and vegetables. Obviously, this is very different from the population in the United States that does fruit picking.. =). We actually had him call up a contact about an hour outside of Brisbane and we are calling him on Saturday to see if he has work for us for sure. From what Lawrence told us it is $800 a week, which means we could bank at minimum 400 a week. Sounds like a sweet deal to me. More to come about that.
We walked outside to look for phones. But I want to take more time to elaborate on the town of Kings Cross. We were told by Forrest that there is technically no Kings Cross anymore because it used to be the slimiest town and the city has pushed three other towns into it, destroying the Cross. Well, there is still one street of the cross still intact. Coming out of our hostel, turning to the left, and the street in front of us is pretty awesome. There are about 10 titty bars, 5 adult video stores, different clubs and right across from the windows of the library is the adult risqué boutique which has about six mannequins wearing bondage like assless chaps. All in all though, it is very very clean.
We started to look for phones. We were told to go to the post office, which had them for $50 but we didn’t feel comfortable just buying a phone with a prepaid package. We wanted someone to set everything up for us. Then we went to Woolworths grocery store which we were told has cell phones as well. We also wanted to compare prices from Woolworths to Coles. Looking at it, there aren’t as many home brands (like Giant has their own brand) as the states do, but in Woolworths the home brand is half the price of the cheapest anything else. While in Woolworths, I found Vegemite which the ingredients say it is like a yeast base, no vegetables, and I also found a kangaroo steak. AMAZING. I want to eat Kangaroo, but I think I want it prepared in a restaurant for me, I don’t want to get food poisoning from my own undercooked Kangaroo. We purchased breakfast in Woolworths, we got Muesli (which I believe is kind of like oatmeal that you don’t have to cook) and yogurt. David picked up two fruits we’ve never heard of too, a Persimmon and another one that is currently slipping my mind but I feel like if you wanted to you could find it in the US. It’s greenish and spiky. It starts with a k. kiwano fruit or something of this nature. We brought that all back to the hostel where we have a fridge in our room that we can store it, and we still don’t have any roommates yet.
We left and got ourselves cell phones. I’ll be putting that up on facebook, not here because of the openness of anyone who can look at it. I’ll also be asking everyone who wants to talk on the cell phone to call me, simply because of price. I can’t imagine I will use this phone half as much as I use my cell phone at home, and I don’t want to. Using the cell at home, I know everything and I’ve seen everything. I don’t want to miss one second of this city because of texting so both David and I got the most minimal plan as possible. When I get phone calls and text messages it does not count against the $30 dollars I put on. From what she said, $30 is about 30 minutes of calling, and sending a text is .30 cents a text. So I can recharge 30 dollars however much I want, but I’m hoping to spend as little money on that as possible. The woman who helped us at Optis (that is the name of the store) had the most awesome fingernails ever. She was Asian with really long fake fingernails that were barbie pink and had gems and beads all over them. It was incredible.
David and I then went and got dinner at a Japanese place. Walking the streets, I’ve noticed a few things about the diversity. While there are a lot of Asians, and that makes sense to be considering location, there are a lot of Spanish restaurants. Mad Mex being one of them (I guess it isn’t only in Philly!) I have also not run into or by ONE black person. Every other ethnicity, even a few latinos, but NO black people. It is pretty insane, and I don’t know why. There are also rainbow flags all around and stores for gay boys. The store I think is called hot aussie boys. Wonderful. There are also zebra stripes which are crosswalks in the case that you HAVE to stop if there is a pedestrian waiting to cross, different than the united states to where only the nice person stops.
After cell phones we had our Japanese dinner. We got a bento box with 4 pieces of sushi, white rice and chicken chili. We also got seafood Udon soup which was really good but the flavors started to blend together. I did however eat my first tiny octopus from that soup. And the biggest muscles alive. They were honestly like 4 or 5 inches long.
Then we walked back to the hostel and it was freezing but a lot of people dress in an array of clothing layers. As I type the rest of this blog in a mcdonalds with free wifi, I am here with a sweatshirt winter jacket and a long sleeve shirt, jeans, and sneakers. There is a boy across from me on his mini is wearing a t shirt. I’ve seen people here wearing t shirts and shorts when it was around 75 degrees F and people wearing coats. It is a variable city.
Coming back to the hostel, I wrote a lot of this, but around 8:45 pm I was finished. I’m hoping that getting to bed around that time will ensure that I am finished being jetlagged. I haven’t yet experienced nightlife in Sydney and I want to do that tonight. I have noticed everything revolves around drinking, even more so than the USA. Tomorrow I will explore night life!
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