Happy Holidays!

This country is ALL about Christmas. I find people don't really understand when I tell them I don't celebrate Christmas, even less when I explain further that I'm not Christian (like, what does being Christian have to do with celebrating Christmas?). People ask me what I'm doing for Christmas, where in the US they would ask what I'm doing for the holidays - recognizing that people at least have some time off, though rarely the entire week like here (but then, four weeks per year is standard... and that's a whole other can of worms. Go see "Sicko"). There is also no religious diversity - people don't even attempt to pretend like in the US, where store employees are instructed to wish everyone "happy holidays" for fear of a lawsuit or something.

That being said, the housemates and I had a lovely Christmas dinner last night. After a full day of scrubbing the house (which was badly, badly needed - I barely recognize the living room anymore), we had a snack of meat pies (or "poy" if you're Australian, which amuses me - and therefore Alex - to no end) and then set off to the store for supplies. We started cooking around 5:30 and didn't finish until 10:30. We had mulled wine, roast potatoes and pumpkin, various chocolates, Hungarian dessert I didn't catch the name of, and ham (well, the rest of them had ham).

The next week or so I'll be up at the folk festival, so there won't be any posting going on. In the meantime, I leave you with a bit of trivia: What is the Australian national anthem? (And NO cheating by looking it up!)

Oh, and a follow-up to the Hamper entry: turns out "hamper" just means a gift basket, the kind that's all done up in cellophane and tied with a bow.

The Brissie Chrissie Hamper

I went into the city yesterday after working for a couple of hours at Place B, for Place A's Christmas party. When I got to the office, a coworker informed me that I should check out my "hamper." "What the heck is that?" I wondered as I followed her down the hall. Apparently it either means suitcase or is the name for Christmas baskets that the company gives out. The reason it's hard to tell which is that in this case, it was both. I certainly wasn't expecting anything, since I had only worked for them for about six days, but sitting on my desk was, apparently, a hamper. It was a rolling suitcase, covered in cellophane and tied with a big bow. I undid the cellophane as quietly as possible (which is to say, not at all) and opened the suitcase. Keep in mind the suitcase itself would have been gift enough - I have been wanting a rolly one for a while, and this is the perfect size for all the extra junk I have that won't fit in the backpack, plus it won't make my arm fall off carrying it! But anyway, I opened the suitcase and it was filled with goodies - mostly chocolate, much to my delight, but also crackers, a bottle of wine, and some other things. Yay Christmas!

(By the way, Aussies like to abbreviate everything in some way or another... hence the title of the entry: Brissie is Brisbane, Chrissie is Christmas.)

Peanut, peanut butter... (and jelly)

How people think peanut butter is disgusting is beyond me. Leaving aside for a moment that this is a nation of people who eat vegemite like it's going out of style (which is not so much gross as just really really salty) because Dan the Hungarian is grossed out by peanut butter, too. Grossed out - seriously - this is a guy who taste-tests his raw meat (to see if it needs more paprika, no doubt), and suddenly I'm the wacko? Riiiiight. (Though he did donate some celery to me and was so amused by the fact that I went straight to the cupboard and put peanut butter on it that he actually tried it, so I'll give him credit for bravery.)

In other news, my two places of employment have been duking it out for the pleasure of my presence in the new year. Place B was supposed to only have me for December and then give me back to Place A, but I am filling a gap made by a person on vacation and another one who quit and they are slow on the hiring uptake. The agreement they came to in the end was that I would go back to Place B for the rest of the first week of January just to hand things back over to the person who was on vacation, and then I'd go to A for a few weeks, until they run out of things for me to do, then back to B... sounds like a lot of bouncing. We'll see how it goes.

This is all in the midst of making preparations for my big camping trip between "Chrissie" and New Year's. Those of you who know me know I am not big on camping. However, this is a big music festival and a lot of people I know are going, so I think it might be fun. More fun than staying home and being bored out of my mind, anyway. I think I also have found a ride up and back from the festival - if this girl would ever email me back! I'm getting a tad antsy. I'd really rather not have to take enough things for a week of camping with me on a train and then bus.

Ok, I'm off to work at Place B for a couple of hours, then it's Place A's Christmas party and then I don't have to think about either place for a week and a half! Yay :)

Right - the Weekend

Sorry, got distracted by housemates. The weekend was good and low-key. Tried out a new synagogue, which consisted mostly of six people about my parents' age, including two Americans and a "Pom" (Brit), who were just thrilled that I was there. I got home just in time to swing by the Saturday Farmer's Market, on the way to which I ran into Alex and his friend Juliette, who were on their way back from buying supplies for a massive meal. I got my basics for the week and hurried back to help. It turned out to be, instead of the promised ratatouille, a tuna-couscous salad, which was excellent. (It was a hot day, so no one really felt like cooking ratatouille.) When Juliette left, Alex and I agreed to go into the city and run some errands together - but laze about first, of course. He went off to take a nap and I went off to lie on my bed and read - I ended up with the nap and he ended up watching a movie. But we successfully avoided the hottest part of the day and by the time we got into the city, it was getting a little chilly.

I think it's safe to say that Alex is my favorite cooking buddy. I try to hold off on making anything for dinner until he's home because he usually has a better idea and many ingredients to contribute. Sometimes we get the rest of the kids in the house in on it, too. Last night he and Mia made pumpkin soup that I also got to contribute to and which was sooooo yummy. Sunday we made breakfast burritos - and the tortillas. He's (almost too) willing to try making every part from scratch, as much as possible, an adventuresome spirit which I appreciate, even if it does mean it takes hours to make anything! To top it off, he doesn't mind much if I laugh at his accent "like it's the funniest thing you've ever heard," as he described my unbridled amusement ;)

All's Quiet on the Home Front...

Not too much to report this week, it's been a quiet one. Had a Christmas cocktail party for work on Tuesday - it was actually really easy to follow directions and mingle with lots of people because I didn't know anyone! However, I did feel really silly ostensibly "networking" because I only have another week to go. Oh well. They're nice people, anyway. Other than that, work actually kept me pretty busy for the first couple of days. But in general I spend all day online so that's why I'm not terribly eager to hop online once I get home to post on here... sorry :(

We've had some guests at the house in the evenings - Alex's friend Juliette, from France, came over on Wednesday and I made more latkes. Right now his friends Mark and Angie are visiting and they are having a jam session, which is pleasant to have in the background. Mia graduated from her program this week so we all celebrated a little with her last night. There's been lots of general hanging out and group cooking endeavors, which are always fun. I should come up with something new and interesting to do this weekend... check back in a couple of days ;)

Koalas and Kangaroos and Cassowaries... oh my

All right, for all those who have been badgering (kangarooing?) me for photos of native Australian animals, here you go! Kay (the girl from Nebraska that I had Thanksgiving pizza with) and I made it to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on Sunday. It was great! They have the day organized into informational talks all over the little park about every half hour on the different animals. First we went to the koala talk. Afterwards the ranger brought out a koala so we could pet it - it was softer than I thought it would be. His name was Monacle because he was blind in one eye (from birth). Then we went to the kangaroo talk. The most notable thing about the kangaroo talk was that an emu wandered up and just sort of stuck his beak into the gazebo that we were sitting in. There are some pretty funny photos of that - emus are hilarious-looking to begin with, and this guy had his beak parted and he looked really excited and curious and almost like he was laughing! It was great. All of the talks also addressed the issue of the impact of humans and the danger that the environment is in, and what we can do to help preserve the habitats (like planting eucalyptus trees) and ways to avoid accidentally killing the animals in the wild (ie by being more alert when driving, especially in the bush and especially around dusk and dawn - like deer). Then, since Kay is really into birds (she was a fisheries and wildlife major in college, I think, and went on to work at a zoo for 6 years), we went to the Birds of Prey flight show. There are some photos of a couple of the birds in there. Finally, we went to the Lorikeet feeding, where the ranger put out a bunch of different bowls and you could hold one and have these beautiful birds flock to you - that was cool. In between the talks, we wandered around, petting what you could pet and taking photos and reading about the rest. You can go right into the kangaroo area and even feed them, so there are a million photos of them - they are so cute. These ones are really docile, I'm sure because they're used to it. I wouldn't go up to a completely wild one and try to pet it! There are also photos of other animals - tree frog, wombat, cassowary... All in all, a good day trip (about an hour from the center of the city, where we met up).

Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/amy.horning/LonePineKoalaSanctuary
Enjoy!

Lost in Translation

No, not about words, but about weather. Specifically, cold weather. It's one thing to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, it's quite another to explain what 10F feels like to a city of people who do not know temperatures below 40F (-12C and 5C, roughly). They get the general idea - that it's COLD - but don't have anything to attach that to, or any experience with it. (Speaking of cold, my office is FREEZING. This is not new - I'm always cold - and at least I'm not sitting under a cold vent in the middle of winter like I was at one place... but still! Brr. Sort of feels like it's actually winter!)

What's weird about the date is not actually that day and month are switched (so December 5 becomes 5/12/07), but that when they read it out loud, they say "the fifth of the twelfth" as in the twelfth month, instead of "fifth of December."

Book fun

Last night I went to the first meeting of the book group I joined! It sounded like a perfect way to meet new people, and this is a good group. I enjoyed our conversation - which flowed from the book to various tangents, and back again, and was just the right amount of intellectualism and socializing. The only problem was the choice of location. We met at a pretty swanky bar in the city, where even in my nice work clothes I did not feel sleek enough to be there, and where I way way overpaid for a small bowl of veggie curry. It was also pretty loud and I had trouble hearing everyone, even though I was in the middle of the table! But that aside, it was a very nice evening. We read The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, which I had read this summer and which was perfect because I didn't have my library card yet when it was decided! At the end we decided on the next book and somehow got to talking about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I said I loved it and someone said we should make it our next book, but really I would rather read new books, not ones I've read dozens of times! Anyway, the next book turns out to be A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I've also had my eye on for quite a while, so I'm happy as a nerdy little clam :)

New photos

Ok, I'm giving Picasa, gmail's photo service (they also run Blogspot), a try this time for a supplemental photo fix ;) Try:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amy.horning/BrisbaneHousemates1

Let me know of any problems...

Housekeeping re comments

I just realized that in order to leave a comment, you had to have a gmail or blogger ID - I changed that to "Anyone" meaning you don't have to sign in to leave a comment. This also means you could actually leave a totally anonymous comment by accident (or even on purpose) - but please don't! I want to know which of my friends or family (or strangers) are posting some love on the site - please also include your last name because I know a bunch of people who share a first name. Thanks!!

Mealtime and Roadway Fun

On Saturday afternoon, Dan and I were drafted into going to a barbecue going-away party for Mia and Alex's friends Jen and John. They had come over a couple of times and are very nice - they are moving to Thailand for at least a year to teach English. I met Jen's parents at the barbecue which explained Jen's wanderlust - her parents are these totally hilarious hippies who have traveled everywhere, mostly by driving and/or camping along the way. They had just gotten back from a six-month trip all around Australia so I picked their brains for a long time about where to go and what to see and do (but not how to get there or where to stay, don't worry!). They also regaled us with tales of their adventures in Europe, which were fascinating. I admire them for their courage.

(Disclaimer: Mom, and anyone else who worries excessively, you should probably not read this paragraph...) After the barbecue, Jordan (another friend of the group) let me behind the wheel of his car. Now, let me explain something. This was a manual car (they were intensely amused by the expression "stick shift," by the way), which I have only ever driven, joltingly, around parking lots, most recently under the direction of my very patient friend Andrew. I know the mechanics of it but had never tried to actually get anywhere, and certainly not on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. But there weren't many cars around and it was a quick 5-minute drive back to the house. Also, Alex was sitting in the front passenger seat, doing the actual shifting of the gears for me - I was just operating the pedals and steering wheel. All in all, a totally funny and bizarre experience! (By the way - the pedals are NOT reversed. I agreed to drive before I thought of that and had a moment of panic, but it was fine. More complicated was remembering the turn signal was on the other side of the steering wheel...)

On Sunday I wandered into the city and killed some time at the Botanic Garden, which was lovely as usual. On Monday I arrived home after work to find all of the housemates home - including the elusive Ray of Batman fame. Matt and Jordan came over and we ended up all cooking and eating a big meal together, which was very nice. I also got to have a long chat with Ray, mostly about books, which was great. He lent me one which I am reading right now, called The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, on top of everything else I'm reading (what can I say, I'm a book hog!). To round off the mealtime fun, I made latkes for Mia and Dan tonight to kick off Hanukah!

New photos

Check out the Flickr link on the right for new photos! Here's the deal: Flickr only gives me a certain amount of bandwidth each month, which affects how many photos I am allowed to put up. I already hit the limit for December today, uploading 36 photos! I also hit the limit for number of albums, or "sets" I'm allowed to have. So what I did was, I put tags on all the new photos. When you click on the link, there is a link called "Tags" under my name and photo near the top left hand side of the page. Click on that link and then click on either "Sydney" or "Brisbane December" to see either group.

Disclaimer: in the Brisbane set, I used the low-light/nighttime setting for the first time, which is where you really notice the slow shutter speed. A lot of the nighttime photos are really blurry, which is not my fault! It requires me standing absolutely still for four seconds, which is very hard to do (especially if your subjects are moving!). So, sorry they're blurry.

Also: They are probably not in any real sort of order. Sorry about this too, but there doesn't seem to be too much I can do about it. I tried to be as specific as possible so you would know what you were looking at, and what other photos were taken at the same place.

That being said... enjoy! And let me know if you have any trouble. :)

Day 1, Take 2

So, I had my second first day of work on Thursday. It's gone okay so far. There's a lot to learn and it's hard to keep it all straight, lots of details, but I will get it. They also have a happy hour on Fridays, like the law firm, so I stopped by for a little while. It was nice to chat with and meet some of the other people there, plus I was killing some time before heading into the city for the tree lighting. It was pretty nice, they had some different performers singing Christmas carols and Santa came onstage for a little bit and then they lit the tree. I took some photos of it and of the ride into the city on the ferry, so those will be up asap.

This morning my housemate Dan the Hungarian and I went to the farmer's market, which was a lot of fun. There was a lot of food: fruits and veggies, honey, jams; plants; clothes; random guy cutting people's hair; massage table; musicians; etc. I got two enormous mangos the size of your head; Dan got a bunch of vegetables and swears we're going to make a vegetarian feast tonight. I said, "with meat on the side, right?" because every meal he makes has meat; he just laughed. He made kangaroo the other night and I tried some - he cooked it rare, which is not how I prefer meat anyway, but that aside it wasn't bad. It tasted a lot like beef, actually. I'm sure I'll have it again, so stay tuned!

Some notes:

• Australian women wear a lot of sundresses - or just dresses in general, like to work. It makes them look really dressed up, at least from an American perspective.
• Tobacco products have enormous warning labels that say things like "Smoking causes cancer" and "Smoking while pregnant harms your baby."
• Light switches are on the outside of bathroom doors.
• The drugstore is called the "chemist" (or pharmacy). They sell nothing but drugs - none of this random stuff like notebooks and Hallmark cards and food, like CVS.
  

More soon!

"Do Australians Dream of a White Christmas?"

asked my cousin Erin. Turns out, they do! Most Australians I've talked to so far have a completely romanticized view of snow (spoken like a true jaded Midwestern girl), and have all the idea that it would be so wonderful to have a whole winter of it, or at least Christmas. They know (and sing) the song. They also sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. They do have their own Christmas songs, too, but Christmas is so commercialized, and culture in general so American-bent, that they know all of our traditional songs. A very Australian thing to do on Christmas is to go to the beach and have cold foods (like pasta salads) and/or a barbecue. And they've never heard of "It's a Wonderful Life" (which took some explaining as I only saw it myself for the first time two years ago!).

The tree is up in the Brisbane Square; a huge fake furry thing reminiscent of my aunt and uncle's fake tree, only nowhere near as pretty as they make it with the gold bows. I watched them putting the branches in the other day on my way to work. I think there are lights on it, which probably get turned on at night. The lighting happens tomorrow night but I'm not sure if they'll light it regularly since they just turned off the weather lights for wasting too much electricity. (The weather lights were these lights on top of a building downtown that flashed different colors and patters - basically red or white, flashing or steady - to indicate different types of weather. The only useful-sounding one to me was "rain coming" since it's often cloudy for a long time before it actually rains - all the rest seemed like, if you could see outside to see the lights, you could probably tell if it was actually raining or sunny or cloudy, which are basically the only changes in weather... But I digress.) Anyway, thinking about going to the lighting makes me feel like I'll be standing there sipping hot chocolate and wearing mittens, which I know won't be the case!

Election Madness

First, a bit of housekeeping: I took some time the other day to add tags to most of the entries, at least the ones after leaving home. They appear at the end of entries and help describe what was in each one, so theoretically you click on a tag and can see all the entries that deal with that subject. As you can see, some of my entries jump around a bit and so have many tags. Anyway, go nuts... or not.

Now, on to the election. Saturday was the big federal election. If you are familiar with the Parliament system, like England, this will make sense. (If not, join the club - I'm already Prime Minister... I think...) When someone runs for Prime Minister, they are essentially running for a seat in Parliament. If their party has a majority of seats, they as the leader are then Prime Minister. If not, they are just another Member of Parliament (like a Congressman). The candidates for Prime Minister do not run against each other but are put in "safe" electorate areas - ones that traditionally vote for their party. Then the other party tries to run a strong candidate against them. That is what happened on Saturday - the current Prime Minister, who is in the Liberal party, ran for his seat against a good candidate from the other party, the Labor party, and lost. The rest of the country elected mainly Labor candidates too, so not only did he not become Prime Minister, but he lost his seat too, which was a huge upset. So the new PM is Kevin Rudd, and the old, John Howard, has a week or two to get the heck out. Oh - another interesting thing is that everyone 18 and over must vote or they will get fined about $150. It creates a much different atmosphere around voting, I think.

So that was the big excitement around here on Saturday. Sunday, I wandered out on a wild goose chase for a farmer's market. (Turns out I was just on the wrong side of the bridge/main drag - dang!) Instead I stumbled upon the anniversary celebration of the State Library of Queensland in West End. They had a bunch of activities but what caught my ear was a concert by the Birralee Blokes, who I guess won the national choir competition last year and get to record a CD. They did a few songs a capella, including Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and a traditional Kenyan Christmas song, and then a few songs with keyboard accompaniment, including some funny sea shanties. Completely delightful!

Pizza, pie....

“Looking for fellow ex-pats to share a turkey sandwich with on Thursday,” my posting on gumtree.com.au said. Kay from Nebraska took the bait and we met up in her neighborhood of Bulimba, not for a turkey sandwich after all, but for pizza. It was delightful to share our memories and talk of our families’ traditions surrounding this most American, and least commercial, of holidays. Then we headed back to her house where her roommate Kendra, also from Nebraska, was making pumpkin pie – from a pumpkin! They don’t sell canned pumpkin here, so Kendra actually roasted a pumpkin, which no one here thinks much of because they eat it as a vegetable like that all the time! Who knew? Anyway, it was delicious and tasted exactly the same, so kudos to Kendra and her mad baking skills. It’s just not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. I did buy some potatoes today to make mashed potatoes though, which I have been craving for a few days now ;) I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!

Oh, there’s so much to share! I had an eventful past couple of days. Let’s see… Kendra gave me a ride home Thursday night, which was a bizarre experience. I kept thinking cars were going to come right at us! I also sat in the front seat, left side, and it was weird not to have a steering wheel in front of me. Ernie, the American at work, said that you get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, but the weirdest thing is biking in the road because it seems like you never know where the cars are going to come from.

Speaking of transportation, I took a ferry for the first time yesterday. Let me back up for a minute. On Thursday, I was contacted by someone from a company with a connection to the law firm I’m working at, because my boss had suggested maybe I could pinch hit over there while one of their employees took a month-long holiday. So we made a plan for me to head over there Friday morning. As it’s based at the University of Queensland, which is across the Brisbane river to the west of me, I took a bus to the ferry and then it was just a quick 5-minute ferry ride down to UQ. On the way back, I just took the ferry right into “downtown,” which they call the CBD here (Central Business District, also known as “the city,” all other neighborhoods are called the suburbs). That second ride was half an hour and did not sit so well with me, but I can handle the ferry for five minutes. It was actually rather pleasant and peaceful. The river is not very wide, maybe half a mile. So I’ll be working at that company for about three weeks, starting Thursday. Both the company and the law firm are closed over the week from Christmas to New Year’s, so I’ll have to find some way of entertaining myself.

Speaking of holidays, yesterday, and entertaining myself… I went to a synagogue last night. It was definitely a very Orthodox service and I probably won’t be going back there, even though it’s right in the CBD and very convenient from work (well, for now). There is another synagogue in Coorparoo and a third one in Camp Hill, which are other “suburbs” nearby, so I’ll try those out.

It is raining right now. It rains really hard and with virtually no warning, for about half an hour and then stops completely. There is no wind so my windows have been wide open all this time and nothing has gotten wet. One of my housemates did have laundry outside that got soaked, though. You take your chances, I guess. The summer here is the rainy season, which is not what I expected. I expected warm, even hot, and sunny all the time and really it’s mostly hot, humid and overcast if not actually raining. But apparently March and April are good times to travel, so that’s good.

For Tom, who asked about the supermarket – I went again and paid a bit more attention, but yeah, it’s basically similar to a US supermarket. The one by my house is not as big as your average Safeway or Meijer, but it gets the job done. They don’t have weird things, at least not that I was paying attention to (I didn’t go looking for kangaroo meat, for example, though it might be there), but there are fewer things in general, just less of a selection. Fewer fruits and veggies – oh and apples are awful and mealy here, fyi. Mangoes are excellent, though, to make up for it. If I have an occasion to get to a supermarket elsewhere in the city I will let you know how it compares. The one by my house is a Coles, which is a chain, and they sell their own reusable bags for just $1, so I got two for lugging my groceries and probably one will follow me back home, which is fun because it says “Australia” on it.

Oh, and just to clarify, I called my 50-person office “small” because I was comparing it to the last place I worked, which had 200+ people. The new place has about 70 people.

One more thing about the water-saving: there are two buttons to push on the toilet, one for a half-flush, usually designated by a half-filled circle, and the other for a full flush. Use at your discretion. What a great way to save water!

Day 1

My first day of work went pretty well. It's a fairly small office, maybe 50 staff members, and they're pretty nice. I was given a few different tasks during the day and it passed quickly. The company is going to a new database so I need to import all the information from the old one and make sure it's all up-to-date (it's mostly contact info), which is the hard part. I was also given a stack of business cards of contacts someone made at a conference, with chicken-scratch notes on the back to decipher and enter into the database as notes along with the people's contact info, so that was a lot of fun. On the plus side, I can listen to my iPod at work, which will help keep me from going too crazy ;) They are going to rent me out to a company they do business with who needs some help right before Christmas as two employees go on maternity leave, so that should spice up life a bit - I'll get to ride a bus for three weeks! The excitement never ends...

One of the highlights (besides learning that the ladies in the office gather for tea every day at 11am) was that an American coworker stopped by to chat with me. Turns out he's from Grosse Pointe Woods which, relatively speaking, is close to where I grew up, so that was exciting. Also turns out we lived in many of the same places: Detroit, Ann Arbor for school, DC, Washington State. He gave me some tips on living here, which was nice. All in all, a good first day.

Like Water for Foreigners

In my first hostel in Sydney, there were a couple of very polite signs in the bathroom suggesting ways to save water. There was nothing in the second hostel or the Brisbane hostel I stayed in, about saving water or Australia being in the middle of a drought and, therefore, under some pretty severe water restrictions.

I guess each household takes the restrictions with their own grain of salt. Turns out, as I was given a gentle introductory lesson on doing dishes in a drought last night, my house is on the more conservative side in terms of water use. The recommendations include not rinsing your dishes after soaping them up; I find this incomprehensible, not to mention disgusting. I will do my best – already on my way to taking a four-minute shower – but it will take some getting used to.

But what amazes me is that there is virtually no instruction for tourists on water restrictions. The sign in the first hostel merely made it a suggestion to save water if you can, but gave no indication of why. Have tourists given them reason not to waste their time educating, or are the hostels just too lazy? It is a sad state of tourism when we go to another country expecting to conform it to our level of comfort instead of opening our eyes to another way of life and really getting to know the place we have entered and their struggles. I know that’s how tourism works, unfortunately, and probably especially for American tourists, but it’s still sad.

Master's in Australian Culture

(Re: photos - apparently there is a max per month and I have hit it. More photos in a couple weeks.)

After moving in on Saturday morning, I started right away on my goal of learning about Australian culture. There is an election coming up so a lot of talk has been focused on that. Alex and I got into a whole conversation on the differences between American and Australian elections and federal government. There are lots of ads for the election on tv, and we've watched a lot of tv. We watched a show called Rove, which is kind of like the Daily Show only about 2-3 hours long, with many guests. We watched some cricket on tv and I got a crash course in the rules before Alex deemed it too boring and changed the channel. We watched Kath & Kim, which is an awful show about a mother and daughter who are both pretty crazy and detrimental to the other and sort of white trashy. We also played some Euchre, because somehow Alex knows Euchre, and we will teach our other housemates one day (we played a two-player version).

Some other things I've learned:

• Foreign language study was not compulsory until recently, but you can study Indonesian
• People expect you to walk on the left side of the sidewalk, like you're in a car
• The $2 and $1 are coins
• The game played at the World Cup is actually called soccer - Football means "Aussie Rules" - which is apparently soccer with its own rules unique to Australia
• Banks are only open 10-4 or so, and not at all on the weekends. Libraries keep odd hours (the one by my house is closed Sun-Tues, open Wed-Sat 10am-5pm and Thursday until 7pm). Lots of things are closed on Sundays. The green grocer is only open in the morning.
• I think the Bill Bryson book "In a Sunburned Country" has the title "Down Under" here. An interesting switch...
• Someone working in a store asking you "Are you all right?" means "Can I help you?"
• Our house is a typical Queenslander - up on posts to avoid flooding from the wet season and catch the breezes when it's hot, has a long hallway running straight through and verandahs front and back, with open areas over the doorways all to faciliate air flow. Guess it gets hot here ;) The toilet and kitchen are on opposite corners of the house and usually not connected to the other rooms (though our kitchen is).

Ok, I know there are more things I'm forgetting, they keep coming to me at inopportune moments but I will try to have paper handy when they do come to me, walking down the street, for next time ;)

L'Auberge Espagnole

For those who asked, I'm feeling much better. It's just a cold, I just don't get colds very often and this one is taking its sweet time. But I'm almost back at 100% :)

Anyway... I had a little "interview" on Thursday, in which B. basically offered me the job, took me around to meet some people, and declared that they could probably keep me busy for close to four months - yippie! So then I set to work on housing. There is a website called gumtree.com.au that is basically like craigslist, and it had some really good-sounding ads on there. I went to see two places Thursday night. The first place was very nice but it took forever to get there during rush hour and is not walkable from work. It is just off a busy road and there is not much around, even in the way of roommates, and no common room. One of my goals for being here is not to sit in a room by myself with a tv, but rather to make friends so that even if I do sit at home (which I do a lot of - I'm kind of a homebody), I am at least learning something. Yes, I realize I would learn things from tv, but still. People trump tv nearly every time.

The second place I saw was much better in terms of my goals. If anyone has seen the movie "L'Auberge Espanole" it was just like that. The movie is about a French guy who moves to another country (I think Spain - I am totally going to butcher this synopsis but you can check imdb.com) for a year and moves in with a mishmash group of people from all over Europe and they have wacky adventures. When he goes to see the place and meet the roommates for the first time, he desperately wants them to pick him and to be their friend, and I felt exactly the same way (especially after the seeing the first apartment!) I really enjoyed everyone who was there and never wanted to leave - they "interviewed" me for about 3 hours, which was mostly just sitting around chatting. There are four roommates, two guys from Australia (one of whom is never around and wears all black and a Batman belt - I have no idea), one from Hungary (he's new too), and one girl from Japan (Eriko, we bonded over the koala cookies ;)). And it's in a really cool part of town, sounds like a lot of fun, and is in walking distance to work. I just moved in about 20 minutes ago and since most people are still asleep, I am taking advantage of the free internet and communal computer :)

The house itself is in hippie central, aka the West End, and reminds me of 318 Catherine, the house my friends and I lived in in college, so it immediately felt homey to me - in a certain dirty, hardwood floor kind of way. I'm not going to sugar-coat it, it's not the Ritz, it's $90 a week with no dryer because apparently "it never rains here," except it's raining today so there go my big laundry plans! Oh well.

Ok, I'm going to work on uploading those photos now. More later!

To George Street, shall we?

Boy, they sure do like their monarchs here in Australia. Today, walking on Elizabeth St, I passed George St, Albert St, Edward St, and Queen St. There is also a Margaret St somewhere nearby. In Sydney, two of the main drags (they run parallel to each other) are George and Elizabeth. This is in addition to them still celebrating the Queen's Birthday. Yow.

So, the bus plan was not such a good idea. I don't know that it would've been a good idea even if I hadn't been sick, had been able to sleep, and didn't feel like a zombie when I got off the bus this morning. The interesting thing about traveling overnight on a bus, in case you were wondering, is that once the sun rises there's not a *whole* lot you can do about it. The bus did have little curtains, but they were pretty ineffectual. I did take a little nap after I had some lunch, and feel a little less zombie-ish, but I am looking forward to bed tonight - early!

I did meet one of my roommates at the hostel who is a German girl also looking for work. I helped her with her resume a bit today; she's off at some other internet cafe typing it up. I got myself a paper so I can look at housing ads; I'll see if she wants the Help Wanted section.

"How are you going" means how are you doing. Note to self. :)

BRIZ-bin, rhymes with Lisbon

So, after a lot of thought, I've decided to make my way up to Brisbane. I have a job lead up there that sounds pretty for sure, but even if not, I've decided that it sounds like a city that is more my speed than Sydney. I have also learned that it is important to be flexible and even more important to do what feels right to me even if it means going my own way, rather than sticking to what may be comfortable for now but in the end is not fulfilling my needs. There is not much program support in Brisbane, but plenty of people have gone there to work so I'm not worried. I have enjoyed my time in Sydney and am looking forward to coming back as I travel (I'm for sure flying out through Sydney at the end), but it is time to get out and get going on things so I can stop stressing about them! The next and hopefully last big hurdle will be finding a place to live. The other night, I met a girl from Scotland who had lived at a hostel the whole time she was working in Brisbane. Apparently the rates are comparable but I'd rather have an apartment and just a couple of roommates. We'll see.

Anyway, tonight I get on a bus to Brisbane and get there tomorrow mid-morning. It sounds a little ridiculous, I know, it's about 16 hours on a bus, but there were many reasons I decided to do it this way. First of all, if I'm really able to sleep on the bus, it's one less night of accommodation I'll have to book. I also won't have to worry about losing my bag, clearing security, or getting to and from the hostels (the bus stations are very close to both hostels). Finally, it's just plain cheaper.

Then, I'll meet with this lady, Barbara, about the job on Thursday. She's been so helpful and patient with me through all of these struggles (most importantly, I didn't get my cell phone until today, which made our original plan to talk on Monday a bit difficult, especially since she wasn't available when I called from the pay phone), so I'm hopeful.

Oh, one important note about Brisbane: Apparently the whole state of Queensland just elects not to do daylight savings (since it's summer here), so it's an hour earlier there than Sydney. If you're using the world clock (::cough, cough:: Mom) just select Australia: Queensland: Brisbane.

An exciting discovery: my iPod has an alarm feature! Handy, since I managed not to pack an alarm clock. Although someone pointed out that you'd have to hook it up to speakers, but luckily I have them! Just not terribly practical for a hostel.

Monday morning in the big city

Yesterday, I took it easy, partly because I have a sore throat (must've picked it up on the plane - darn it!) and partly because I had to switch hostels mid-morning. I actually really like my new hostel, more on that later. When I did finally venture out, I headed for Darling Harbour, which is basically a big promenade. It was a bit much for me, so then I took a roundabout way of getting to Wentworth Park, which was not terribly exciting, but I did see some of a pickup game of "footy" (soccer). I got a little turned around heading back to pass by Paddy's Market and managed to get there just before their "official" closing time, although people were still buying like crazy when I left at quarter after.

Paddy's Market is the most intense market I've ever been to. Think of a big flea market, but with all Chinese people, all yelling "one dollah one dollah" at you, people everywhere shoving. I'm sure someone was making announcements, probably about the market closing, but you couldn't really hear anything over the din. I had read about Paddy's Market in my guidebook and it said you could buy fresh fruit and veggies there for really cheap. Part of the culture of my new hostel is that there is a huge kitchen and most people buy food at the supermarket to cook there. I managed to get enough veggies for two dinners, plus two apples and a banana, all for about $3 (maybe $3.50 US).

Walking around the city is a little exciting sometimes because it seems like you never know where the cars are going to come from! Seriously, though, it's a good thing they've painted instructions "Look Right" on the crosswalks so you remember to look the correct way for turning traffic. The crosswalk signals are interesting too, they make a funny noise when they change to "walk" (it's a little green man though). I wish you could hear it, it's really odd sounding.

About the new hostel. There is one medium-sized common room, right next to the kitchen which is very open, so it feels all connected. There are tables for eating and lots of sofas, mostly pointed towards the big screen tv. Last night, tons of people gathered down there to make dinner and watch tv. The channel it was on showed a bunch of episodes of Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, but there was also an ad for Maury, on later (oy). Amazing. It just has a much friendlier, more intimate feel than the other, enormous hostel (although this one's name is The Big Hostel, ironically). My dormmates are nicer and generally seem more considerate - I think because they tend to be longer term than the other hostel. All in all, a good switch.

Right now it's Monday morning and I am at the IEP office waiting for orientation to begin. Later I will get my cell phone and call the woman in Brisbane about working there, and go to the bank to open my account. It's supposed to get to about 25C today (about 80F) and it's been mostly gorgeous clear blue skies so far :)

Sydney adventures!

Last night I didn't have energy for much more than finding an ATM and some food and taking a quick shower before bed. But I did venture out into the big city on my own! I thanked Becca in my head last night, and again today, for teaching me as we traveled together in Poland a few years ago, to bite the bullet and get the heck out of the hostel. What I did manage to get for dinner was promising-sounding falafel, but it was about as good as you might expect Australian falafel to be, even though the guys who sold it to me looked and sounded Middle Eastern. Oh well.

Today I walked my poor little feet off! I meant to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens but got distracted by the Harbour (Harbour Bridge; Opera House) and climbing the Harbour Bridge. Well, I didn't do the whole bridge, as you will see as soon as I can post the photos - the real climb is insane, so I might do it later :) But you can go up to a lookout tower thing, which was cool. Then I grabbed some lunch and finally made it to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were amazing. I spent a while just sitting, listening to music, soaking in the scenery, people watching, and getting sunburned (oops).

I took my time coming back, partly because my feet hurt and partly because I kept getting distracted by things. On the way back, I passed the public library (I refrained from taking a photo... although the building is beautiful), St. Mary's Church, the Great Synagogue, and went through most of Hyde Park, which is also amazing. I also managed to secure housing for tomorrow and Monday nights, which was making me a tad nervous (the program puts you up for two nights and then you're on your own, and my hostel was booked for Sunday night) but it's all set now.

Dappled and drowsy and ready for sleep...

4:45 a.m. Hawaii time (when I got up) was a long time ago. Safe and (mostly) sound in Sydney, just a tad jetlagged. More later.

Snorkeling

Many moons ago, my grandparents gave my cousin Kate a book called Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answers. It got passed down to me and my sister, and I saw it recently on the bookshelf of Kate's daughter. In it, among descriptions of many plants and animals, and the Peanuts characters and their little speech bubbles, is a whole little section on sea cucumbers. So when Jay picked up what looked like a huge slug (about a foot long, several inches in diameter, and black - the bottom photo on that page looks most like the one we saw) while we were snorkeling, that page flashed in my mind, although I don't remember the picture in the book (if there was one). Jay also pointed out many other things, mostly fish (unicorn fish, trigger fish, and a sea turtle - almost). A diver in the Navy and an avid surfer and snorkeler, he is a wealth of knowledge. Despite banging my knee on some coral (which really hurts, in case you were wondering), it was a delightful afternoon at the beach, and a nice way to wrap up the week. Thanks Jay!

Paradise Found!

There it is! It got nice out the last two days. Unfortunately, my cousin Laura wasn't feeling well, but her husband Jay kindly took me around Tuesday afternoon. We walked on Waikiki Beach and then hiked up Diamondhead. Then today, since the kids had a half-day of school, we went to the beach! It was pretty cloudy so we didn't take a lot of photos, but Jay did take me snorkeling, which was awesome. Being a diver in the Navy as well as an avid surfer and snorkeler, he knows a lot and it was really fun. Laura and I went to the swap meet, which is a big outdoor market that encircles the University of Hawaii football stadium with gobs of cheapo touristy junk, but I did manage to get a new bathing suit and a sarong. All of these activities are featured in the album "Hawaii Part II" under the Flickr link to the right.

Jay and Laura are going to lend me their big packpack so I should go make sure all my junk fits in there. Then it's off to bed and up early for 10 and a half hours on the plane!

Oh by the way, I am aware that the world clock link on the right ("Sydney Time!") is not working. I'll fix it as soon as I have time. In the meantime, you can go to www.timeanddate.com/worldclock and look it up.

Paradise Lost

Greetings from Hawaii! This is a photo of the sunset from the plane, shortly after takeoff from LA. The sun was setting for about an hour as we followed it west.


My friend Paul referred to Hawaii as Paradise the other day, but the weather here has been uncharacteristically grey and rainy, which has proved finding activities difficult. On Saturday, my cousin Laura, her husband Jay, and their boys Keegan, Brendan and Collin took me on a driving tour of Oahu, which included the Heiau, Laniakea (Turtle) beach, and Byodo-In Temple. On Sunday, we were rained in most of the day but did manage to drive to Ford Island and see the base and Pearl Harbor from the west. Today (Tuesday), Laura and I took the kids to school and then went to the USS Arizona Memorial. We had lunch with Jay (who got out of work early due to sewage overflow in Pearl Harbor from the rain) and Collin at the Rainbow Bay Marina, and then hung out at their house.


The weather is supposed to get better the rest of this week so maybe I'll have photos from the beach and other outdoor activities later! In the meantime, check the Flickr link on the right for the album "Hawaii Part I"!

T-1

It still hasn't hit me yet. I just got home from my weekly potluck dinner with the girls (and Julie's fiance, who gamely puts up with our chatter and tv show). I still feel like I'll be there next week to watch and talk and eat with them, instead of halfway around the world. My friend Becca once told me that the first time she went to live in France, it didn't hit her until the plane took off that she was not going to be back for six months. I think it's partly because there are so many unknowns: I don't have a job, I don't even have a really good idea of what my job might be since there are so many possibilities. I don't know what the city will be like or even which city I'll be in. I have no idea who my friends and coworkers will be, what my day-to-day routine will be, how my free time will be spent, or even what my apartment or roommates will be like.

In a way, that's sort of stressful and frustrating and makes it all seem unreal. And in a way it's liberating: Australia is a blank slate. It can be whatever I want it to be.

Wheels up in 12 hours!

Procrastination...

I figure, since I was super productive yesterday and earlier today, I deserve a little break... right? I have really taken care of all the urgent stuff. The rest is just tweaking or icing on the cake.

It is funny, though, how your last days in a place, even somewhere you grew up or spent a lot of time, even somewhere that you're coming back to, can make you try new things. This week I find myself having dinner with friends, trying new restaurants, trying homemade Indian food (finally giving in to Manisha!), seeing art exhibits, dropping in on old friends I haven't seen in half a lifetime, exploring new bookstores, and trying to make it all fit before I take off.

Sigh... okay, back to the list...

In honor of new readers...

Since I will soon send out an email to everyone I sent the link to before (most of whom did not recall receiving it) and to my new ex-coworkers (so sad leaving a job, no matter how often you do it!), and since I have only posted once this month instead of every week, and since I did actually change the URL.... here's a little welcome and update! (Of course, you can read all the preceding posts, if you really want to.)

In the list of links running down the right-hand side of the page (under the wallaby picture), there is one called "Sydney Time" (which answers the question, "What time is it, Mr. Fox?" - anyone remember playing that game? Elementary school? Anyone? Bueller?...), useful for being able to tell what day and time it is where I am. (Also useful for not accidentally calling me at 3am!)

Also, thanks to my friend Becca, you can now see my photos! Below "Sydney Time," click on the link that says "Photos on Flickr." There is also a map feature where I can click and drag the photos to where they were taken - this will help you keep the big picture when I am traveling (starting about March 9th). When you get to the Flickr site, just go to the link under "Ames1649's Photos" that says "Map". (You do not need to log in to Flickr to see either the photos or the map.)

I guess that's it. Take a look around, enjoy, leave a comment if you feel inspired, I'd love to hear from you! T-8 days and counting!

Notes on going awol...

So things around here have been ridiculously crazy, to the extent that I haven't really been able to do anything in moving forward on Australia. I did talk to a friend here who is interested in coming to visit / join my traveling plans in April and May, which will be exciting. It's forcing me to think through what I'm going to do and when, which is probably a good thing, though I'm going to try not to plan too much before February and be open to creating travel plans with new friends. I'm having dinner with my friend tonight and we're going to talk more concretely about where we're going to go together and what we're going to see, expectations and all that.

Other than that, let's see. I got my visa (by which I mean I was awarded one according to BUNAC), which is exciting. I also got all the preparation materials and, being the incredible nerd that I am, read the handbook cover to cover (it was my only reading material one day at work). They also sent me a Lonely Planet Australia book, which is very exciting and useful.

My Australia notebook is filling up with lists: things to buy, things to do before I leave, and ideas for itinerary for traveling! Speaking of which, I should really get on that last one before I have dinner with my friend, so I can bounce ideas off her!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So, the first major change is, I'm changing the url to just www.kangarooamy.blogspot.com. Since I still think it's hilarious, the name at the top will still be Kangaroo Amy and the Wallaby Kid, but I figure this way people might actually remember the site name, and come visit more often :) I won't change it until I send out another email, just before I leave, to "remind" people of the address and that I'm leaving.

The rest of the changes are related. Not only will other people be able to remember the url, but I will also be able to get there quickly from internet cafes, which will be useful as I use it to hold all of the links currently held by my bookmarks, which I won't have with me. For these changes, please look to your right! -->

Most notably, I'd like to point out the very first link, under "What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?" The website shows a real-time world clock, with any two locations. That link is set to US Eastern Daylight Time and Sydney time; I'll try to pay attention and adjust it if need be when daylight savings ends and if any changes occur in Australia.

Wahoo! :)

UPDATE: I am still in the US! You will know when I've left. Trust me. No more freaked out phone calls, please! ;)

Book recommendations?

I'm putting out an all-points bulletin looking for book recommendations. Here's what I'm looking for: One long book to take to Australia to tide me over while traveling.

Long ones already read include: War and Peace, Gone with the Wind, Anna Karenina, Brothers K, Don Quijote, East of Eden, most John Irving, all Harry Potters (you can see more at goodreads.com).

Thinking about: Crime and Punishment, Hunchback, Les Miserables, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dickens?

Any recommendations?

Photo attempt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/horninga/

Comments? Questions? Concerns? If anyone wants to give it a look, feedback from another user (yahoo ID or no) would be much appreciated - I don't know how things look to an "outsider"! (If you're not familiar with flickr, it's run by yahoo so if you have a yahoo ID you shouldn't have any problems accessing the photos.) Thanks...

UPDATE: Thanks to Becca for helping me!

Australian cooking measurements

According to allrecipes.com, Australia has its own cooking measurements. Who knew?

I was baking my yummy chocolate chip cookies recently when it occurred to me that I might like to have that recipe with me in Australia, and wouldn't it be convenient if I converted all the measurements ahead of time. My magical cookbook (whence comes the magical cookie recipe) only gave conversions for liquid measurements for some reason, so I started poking around online, relatively sure that Australia uses metric like the rest of the world. In addition to some nebulous term called "Australian Standard", which no one ever explains, all conversion charts I've seen give you large and small liquid measurements (1 teaspoon of vanilla or two cups of water, for example) and large amounts of drys (1 cup of flour), but no small measurements. I couldn't figure out how to convert small dry amounts to metric (like a teaspoon of baking soda - do you really measure baking soda in mL?). I think the librarian at my friendly local public library and I determined that it's kind of a crapshoot because it's all based on weight, so a cup of flour is different than a cup of sugar in metric (150g vs. 225g). She directed me to a website for help with conversions, but I don't know. Might just steal one of my mom's measuring spoon sets! If anyone's ever baked in metric and wants to offer tips, please share!!!

In other news:
The USPS apparently came through this time, because BUNAC sent me the Step 2 (visa application) information. I filled it out, got the passport photos and certified check for the insurance, and finally sent it all out yesterday. Phew!

I recently met a British ex-pat who's spent the past 30 years living in Australia who kind of rained on my parade. He said that lots of companies promise you a visa and take your money and don't get you the right thing because it's really difficult to get a visa "unless you're under 30 or are skilled" - which I am. Luckily my friend Rachel, who went to the UK with BUNAC, reassured me that it was a very reputable company and besides, I am under 30! So that made me feel better. He also warned me about the animals, but I already knew that. I'm not touching anything down there; it can all kill you.

Also: if anyone has advice regarding electronic adapters, please share! I know I need to buy something but I'm not sure what.

Also: apparently the different provinces in Australia pick and choose which holidays they want to celebrate. For example, they all have their own Labour Day, and one celebrates the Queen's birthday (but no one else does).

I'll be playing with the photos section of this site soon to see how well that works. If the answer is "not well," I may be changing servers. I'll keep you updated with any new site info...

I can apply!

I called BUNAC yesterday and asked the nice lady a bunch of random questions, the first being "when do you think I'll be able to apply?!" She said, "Oh, we just got clearance from the Australian government." Never mind that they were going to send out an email to let me (and presumably others) know that it was time to apply. But I can send in my application - or as soon as I drive up to Waterford to get my reference form from Stuart, since apparently the US Postal Service can no longer be trusted to get a simple envelope thirty miles. We'll see if my application gets to Connecticut...

I also asked the BUNAC lady if I should get my plane tickets now or wait till Step 2, the visa application step. She said to wait. I'm getting antsy. The student travel agency helped me find a really great set of flights for cheaper than I'd found on my own, plus a two-week stay in New Zealand on the way back AND my one-week stay with my cousins in Hawaii on the way there! So I'd really like to nail down that flight... Sigh.

It also occurred to me to ask about the medical insurance. She said it covers basically emergency care but not preventative. So, no check-ups, no teeth cleanings, no pre-existing conditions (like allergies). Then we got into a discussion of whether ragweed grows in Australia (it sounded like she'd never heard of it, which made things more difficult). We determined that it did, so I've got to remember to get more allergy medicine before I go!

Austramerica

I've started having the headlines of the Australian newspaper Herald Sun emailed to my inbox, just like the New York Times and Washington Post have been for a couple of years now. It's very interesting to me how America-centric the Herald Sun is, with stories about Wall Street, Naomi Watts, the Minneapolis bridge, and an Australian musician who left for LA to "break into the American music market," all in today's headlines. As an American Culture major, I'm very interested to learn how America is viewed by another English-speaking country.

On another note, apparently this season of MTV's The Real World is taking place in Sydney. I missed last week's episode, which was the first, but hope to catch it this week. I don't have high hopes though; it is still the Real World, but I'd be interested to see what they show of Sydney and Australian culture.

Ah, logistics...

So I finally got around to looking up flights online... and eyeing my bank account... and crying a little... Okay, it's not that dire. $1,500 (not including airline miles that I will probably also use) is a lot of money, it's true, but it's better than a lot of what's out there. Plus, the cheapest flight configuration that will also allow me to visit my cousin Laura and her family in Honolulu is about the same as the cheapest "direct" flight to Australia (without stopping for fun long-lost cousin time in Hawaii - but still including about 4 or 5 stops over two days), so that might actually be a possibility! It would be so nice to see her and her family, whom I haven't seen in probably four or five years.

I had been wanting to get a job before spending any big money (plane tickets, application fee, visa fee, etc.) but some things might be coming together on the job front, plus I have the time to mess around with these things now, so I figured I might as well at least start to look into them. I ended up spending the better part of Friday morning on the airline websites and then dug out the application, which I'd printed out a few weeks ago and which I need to send in at least 8 weeks before departure, which is actually coming up. Good thing I looked at it - I need an employer reference! Good old Stuart comes in handy yet again. I swear I abuse his brotherly love sometimes ;)

I also emailed an old high school friend, the one who told me about this program in the first place and got me thinking about it, with some practical questions. In my surfing for traveler's insurance, I came across the STA website. I'd been stressing a bit about booking these flights on my own since I might just try to cobble together three or four flight segments, without using a site like Orbitz - mostly because, by booking on the airline's actual site, you can get more flexibility and options if you have to change something, and also because it is sometimes cheaper. Booking separately would allow me to use my airline miles, too, for a segment of the trip. Those sites are incredibly handy for general research, though! Anyway, the point is that I might try to use STA for booking my flight, and might get an IYTC (like an ISIC), since I do still qualify. STA also offers to help you get a visa and find work, so I'm going to call them tomorrow and have a nice long chat!

It seems like things are starting to come together, at least a little bit!

Welcome!

It's such a precious thing, starting a brand-new blog ;) Hope you enjoy this one as you keep up with my adventures in Australia! Regular posting will begin in November.