Feast your eyes upon my whiteness. If I had some blue I could make my arms into a tribute to America!

Hey, check out my hot tan!  Chicks dig tan lines, right?

NO???

Damn!!

Lets get to now already!

I think it’s time to finally catch you up to “now”.  I am tired of posting about the past and anxious to start wasting your time with the irrelevant events of the present!  Lets see if I can get you caught up nice and quickly!

 

In the past week no large spiders have killed me.

 

I love my new house.  I have a wonderful private balcony (which is where I am right now) and the biggest grill I have ever seen in my life.

 

I am slowly starting to get used to the heat.  Instead of my entire body being soaked with sweat after a short walk I only get dampness around my arms, down my back, and in the “private” areas.

 

I have a flatmate from Slovenia who I get along with very well so far.

 

I’ve been told several times that I seem very nice for an American.

 

People here think Americans and Canadians hate each other.

 

Spinny the fan is doing well and is still on 24/7.  I’m toying with getting a larger fan and naming it Rotary McCooly

 

Paddy’s Market is the biggest collection of random crap I have ever seen and I love it.  You can buy a shirt, a new muffler for your car, swords, a wig, computer speakers, a basket of fruit, deodorant, bulk watch batteries, and get a message without walking more than 10 meters.  When I went I bought an Australia shirt, an Australia oven mit (so funny), a new luffa, and dried pineapple slices.

 

The live crabs at the fish market are very cute, and also probably very delicious!

 

Chicken doesn’t taste like chicken sometimes.

 

The  Simpsons and Futurama are on TV almost all the time and I love it!

 

The busses are the cheapest, easiest, and fastest way to get around, but prefer taking the trams (light rail) because it makes me feel like I’m at an amusement park!  There is also a monorail, which I am anxious to ride.

 

The air smells better here.

 

People are running or relaxing in the parks 24/7

 

I’m still a bit sun burnt

 

I bought herbs from a local garden and can't wait to cook with them!

 

Cockatoos are annoying.

 

That is all for now!   It makes me so happy to hear from people that actually took the time to read these posts!  It means so much to me that you would let me waste so much of your time, and it makes me even happier to know that so many of you enjoyed it!  You are all wonderful!!!

Mexican fiasco and my new home sweet home!

1/31/09

Today I wanted Mexican food so I walked to the mall food court and ordered myself a very bland and unsatisfying burrito.  I should have gone to the Japanese restaurant next door with all of the food traveling around on conveyor belts!  It hardly seemed worth the walk to the mall, so I decided to make it worth it by walking into every store in the entire mall (excluding ones that would obviously have nothing I need, like jewelry and barber shops).

Some of the most significant discoveries were made in the grocery stores.  They have almost everything we have (including Heinz ketchup and….Mentos!), but everything is different!  It’s so freaky!  The people there probably thought I was crazy because I was walking slowly around the store getting excited celebrating the discovery of simple things like peanut butter and frozen pizzas!  

2/1/09

Today I moved into my new house!  I can’t wait to get settled in!  Hopefully a bit later on I will have some pictures to show you.

To move all of my stuff from my dorm room to the house I had to call for a taxi, which I did.  I arranged to be picked up outside at 11am.  11am came and went.  No taxi.  I called a few times and they kept assuring me a cab would be there shortly.

Still, no taxi.

Finally about an hour and a half a small taxi driven by a very VERY old man came speeding up to me.  After abruptly stopping in the middle of the road he shouting something I couldn’t understand out the window. 

I decided it would be best to just yell back “Yes!”

This pleased him! He started turning the cab around to face the different direction which involved scraping the back of the cab into a large curb, forcing the entire rear axel of the car (which was almost unwilling and defiantly not fit for such a task) up the curb and into the grass, then smashing it back down onto the road.  This abuse was repeated with the other side of the car and the curb running on the other side of the street.  I cringed as the car banged and scraped it’s way around.  Why he didn’t drive a few meters farther and turn around in one of the many open parking spots I do not know.  In a sick way I enjoyed watching it the same way people seem to enjoy slowing down and looking at car accidents.  Then I remembered that I had to actually get into this car and go for a ride!

I wasn’t sure if I should be terrified by his obvious lack of concern for his vehicle wellbeing or impressed by the dedication he put into turning his car around.

He stepped outside of the cab and started saying more things I could not understand.  I think it might have been English, but I am not sure.  If you’ve seen Hot Fuzz, think the old man with the guns but more Australian (if you haven’t seen Hot Fuzz stop reading my journal and go rent it.  NOW!)

I answered “Yes.”

I must have answered correctly because he opened the trunk and we started filling the car with all of my bags. 

Once we were all packed and ready to go I sat down in the front seat next to him and we were on our way!  Boy was he talkative!  He just talked and talked the entire way barely stopping to breath (and barely looked at the road)!  At one point he even pointed to my guitar and started singing!  This would have been great if I could understand what he was saying!

I spent the entire ride trying to guess what my response should be to his “words”.  After some remarks I would say yes, after other I would give a calm laugh, and after others I would disagree.  A few times he seemed upset with my responses, but for the most part he seemed to really enjoy our conversation!  When we got to the house I handed him a 20 hoping it was enough.  It was and he handed me my change, said a few of what I can only assume were kind words, and was on his way with a friendly wave out the window.

Finally, my new home sweet home!

The first half of week 2

1/27/09

 

Today was the first time I’ve seen a spider since getting to Australia.  I smashed it with a large rock.   Hopefully all of the large spiders watched and will fear me from now on!  That’s how spiders work you know.  You need to assert your dominance early in the game or they will walk all over you!  I AM THE ALPHA MALE!   *pounds chest*

 

I also ordered my first pizza since getting here.  It was awful!  On a brighter note I bought a card reader for my camera, so I can finally start taking pictures and transferring them to my computer!!! 

 

 

1/28/09

 

Today is my 26^th birthday!  Unfortunately nobody in this hemisphere knows that except for me.  To celebrate I was going to go visit the Sydney opera house and sight see around that area, but the weather is supposed to be crummy so as sad as it sounds I plan on spending my birthdays in my room watching movies on my laptop and reading.  My feet and brain are sore and I’m sun burnt.  A nice quiet motionless day might not be so bad. 

 

On a happier note I’ve already gotten several happy birthday messages from people that knew Sydney is a day ahead of the US!  I can only hope the friends I meet here are half as wonderful as my friends in the US!

 

For dinner I went out and ordered fish and chips at a small local restaurant.  They do not have ketchup here.  Instead they have “tomatoes sauce” which costs extra and tastes like garbage!!  I need to add that to my list of things I miss.  In fact, lets take a look at my top ten

 

1.       1.  The people I love and care about (that’s you!)

2.   2.  Kitty cats and doggies (even the stinky one)

3.    3.  The internets!!  Oh interwebs, how I miss thee!

4.     4.  Pizza and ketchup.  It is awful here!!  But I guess they make up for it with great Asian food!

5.       5.  My drums.  All I have to play on is my desk and the walls.  I bet my neighbor hates me.

6.   6.  Knowing where I am.  I am lost all the time.  I don’t even really know where I am right now.

7.       7.  Having a car.  As much of a pain in my ass as my car was (I will NEVER buy anything German  again!) I adored it and I miss driving.

8.   8.  Cold air.  It’s sooooo hooooooootttt…

9.       9.  Having an income.  Even if I get an amazing job and work the max hours I can by law I will still lose a considerable amount of money every day.

10.   10.   Understanding how much each coin is worth.  Some of the coins are very large and take up my entire wallet.  I wobble when I sit because my wallet is so fat with metal.  I like my butt to be symmetrical and these coins are totally messing everything up!

11.   11.  The gym.  I know I said 10 and this is 11, but I really wish I had a gym to go to.  I bought some stretching exercise ropes at Kmart and already broke all of them.  I need to find a place to work out!

 

 

1/29/09

 

I am aware my birthday was yesterday, but today is my birthday in the united states, and since that is where I was born I’m going to go ahead and consider today my real birthday, because I had a wonderful day!  I took the train into the city and walked around the domain, the royal botanic gardens, and the beautiful opera house.  I can’t wait to show it off to anybody who visits!  After that I decided to do a little more exploring on campus and discovered that there is a museum not too far from my dorm (however I did not go in it). 

 

Once I was finally exhausted and tired of the sun I headed back to my room for some water and muesi bars, but took a detour to watch some cricket.  I sat there for an hour and still have no idea what they were doing.

 

I can’t wait to show off my pictures!

Note:  Pictures can be seen by clicking here

What I look like in this weather

While walking around campus a few days after I got to Sydney I accidently took this picture with my cell phone.  I think it is a good visual aid for explaining the weather.

The sun feels and looks like it is about 30cm (~1ft) from my head but hidden behind those wonderful clouds!

First weekend and Australia day

First weekend

 

Life got a bit less exciting after the first few days.  I got a bank account and an iphone.  I met a few people, but no relationships got developed to the point where I would ever see them again.  I started dedicating all of my time to finding a place to live and worked on setting up my class schedule for the coming semester.

I looked at some really crappy houses.  Rent was cheap, but damn!  I have to keep reminding myself that I need an academic environment if I want to do well, so I’ve been declining “party” houses which are generally the cheapest.  I want friends that are fun, but not friends that will steal my laptop and sell it for drug money.  I don’t want to accidently step on a hypodermic needle while walking to get a glass of water late at night (I mention this because it was a story told at one of the houses I looked at).  No matter how much I tried, the cheap side of me just wouldn’t let me check out any expensive places.

Finally my father said it best.  How often do you get to live in Sydney?  Treat it like a long vacation and live well.  He was absolutely correct, although a bit out of character (how do you think I learned to be cheap?).  I don’t want to be miserable every day I’m here!  I decided to bite at a very expensive offer for a room in a suburb about a 20 min walk north called Glebe. 

I love this house!  I need to get pictures.  It was furnished and as soon as he showed me the open bedroom I was sold.  My entire life I’ve always wanted a room with a private balcony!  I had to have it no matter what the cost, so I decided to suck it up and throw all of my cash down the toilet to take the room.

The only problem was that he was still looking for people to take the other rooms.  I might end up with creepy people, but it’s a gamble I was willing to take.  I think I am an agreeable person and will hopefully get along with whomever else lives there. 

So yeah.  I will eventually have a place to live, but not for a week because it is still being renovated.  I can’t wait!

By the way, asian food is amazing and cheap here.  I got a a smoked eel sushi roll for ONE DOLLAR aud, which is about $.70 usd!!   After that I had a huge tub of Thai food for 6 bucks!  I love it!

 

 

Australia Day:

 

Today is apparently Australia day.  I took the train to meet one of my sister’s friend at a park for food drinks and Frisbee.  I’m still a bit overwhelmed by everything and I was probably boring, but it was really nice to be able to sit down and talk to people!  Everybody seemed very friendly and it was a great change of scenery!

It eventually started raining so I headed back to my room.  On the way I picked up some great cheap sushi and got totally drenched (for the first time not from sweat), but it was worth it!

When I got back to my room I looked in my mirror and noticed that I had an unusually long hair growing in my right eyebrows.  Now, I have naturally bushy eyebrows (thanks dad), and normally I wouldn’t waste my time writing to my family and friends about my body hair abnormalities, but daaaamn!  How in the hell did I not see this before???   It was seriously about an inch long!  It just amazed me.   Totally blew my mind!  I tried to get a picture but it really didn’t do it justice because it curled and looked shorter.  Seriously, how did I not see this before??

I also burnt my lip as a result of extremely poor judgment, but I won’t bore you with that story.

Next few days in Australia:

I know you are probably sick of hearing (reading) me say this, but I feel like I need to say it again.  It is WAY too hot for me here!  I never thought I would miss snow within hours of arriving!  While walking around in my adventures below I actually had people laughing at how sweaty and distressed I was.  One girl actually said to me, “it’s not THAT hot!”  Unfortunately I was too hot to think of a witty response so I snapped back with a very clever, “um, yes it is.”

 

Aaaaaanyway, I quickly exhausted the number of things I had to take care of on campus, so I eventually started exploring off campus.  On my first trip out I wandered around for a few hours trying to find something useful and eventually found a great multi level shopping mall hidden within a city block.  Upon entering I was greeted with a very familiar site…  Kmart!

 

I had never been so happy to see a Kmart!!  I ran in overjoyed, arms waving and sweat flying from my flapping limbs.  I started grabbing goods left and right!  I got shampoos and soaps, yogurt topped muesli bars (now the staple of my diet), a towel, a cup so I could drink water like a normal person, and some sunscreen which I desperately needed!  I also got what I consider my greatest investment to date.  A small electric fan!  When I am in my room it is ALWAYS sitting directly in front of me on full power (as it is right now).

 

I adore my fan.  I named it Spinny and so far it is my best and only friend in Sydney!  I’ve caught myself on too many occasions talking to my fan.  I think the heat may be getting to my head…

 

I’d like to point out that nothing is air conditioned the way it is in the states, so everywhere I go I am still disgusting and drenched.  It’s hot here.  Have you gotten that yet?