"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!