Melbourne

The last day of work on Friday was very nice. They put on a special morning tea, like they have done the past two weeks for other staff members who left, and everyone signed a card. I even got relieved of reception duty for the last half hour so I could join the happy hour early! That definitely put a smile on my face. I brought my camera to work and took photos of the walk to work and of my coworkers, so those will be up... uh... eventually. (Don't hold your breath!)

Saturday, I woke up early and I was up. I just had all these things running through my head to do and couldn't make them shut up, so I just got up and got started. It was a good thing I did too, because I was running around crazy until the party at 3. I had a little get-together in the park where we played cricket and ate cookies and had a little barbecue. Photos from that will also be coming... later.

Finally it was me, Alex, Dan, and Haidee left at the park, and we headed back to the house. Matt rejoined us after his dinner commitment, and Chris dropped by too and we played poker. (I also packed - only took about an hour.) When Chris left, we headed out to one of the local bars in West End and got home late.

Dan took me to the airport in the morning. Brisbane airport is very small. There was no line for security - but that might have also had something to do with the lack of actual security there. No one looked at my boarding pass or ID. I discovered later this is because the riff raff are allowed inside to meet people at the gate! How old-fashioned.

Anyway I'm in Melbourne now, safe and sound, and given the lack of sleep for the past two days it's high time I hit the hay! More later!

Kangaroo Point!

Trivia answer: Unfortunately, Rachel, the answer is actually (a), but bonus points for the reasoning out! (Mmm, flecks of coal...) Manchester refers to the section of a department store (or Target, or whatever) that sells linen and towels and things. I learned this the hard way when I tried to buy a new shower curtain for the house and ended up giving the saleslady the look of blankness ;)

New trivia: What is the capital of Australia? (Bonus points if you can name which state/territory it's in!)

Sunday the book group had a barbecue. We were there for probably three hours and talked about the book for maybe 15 minutes, but it was all good fun. Meg and I walked there and then back to her house together, so she could lend me a blanket. March 1 marks the official beginning of fall here, and the weather has changed a bit. It's still hot during the day (well, as hot as it was this summer, which is to say, not so much - it was an extremely unusually cold and rainy summer, so they tell me) but really cool at night. So cool that with my windows closed and winter pajamas on, my sheet was not enough to keep me warm. So Meg lent me a heavy wool blanket and I have been sleeping like a champ!

The barbecue was at Kangaroo Point, which is one of the peninsulas formed naturally by the Brisbane River's winds and twists. I think it's almost directly across the river from the part of downtown where I work. There is also a fairly substantial cliff face (not exactly sure what from) in the park that is very popular with the rock climbers. I took a few photos down there, they're on the "Photos on Picasa" link to the right.

We've also had a couple of people interested in the room, and one came by last night. She's already friends with a few of Alex's friends (that's how she learned about the room - she just dropped in) so I have high hopes. After she finally left, I rounded up the kids and we took off for Ray's mom's restaurant where we had a full-on feast as a little going-away party for me. It was a good time. Here's a photo of us housemates (and Mark, who also happened by last night and got swept up in the group):

L-r: Mark, Mia, Alex, me, Ray, Dan.

Happy Leap Day!

It's sort of too bad that my last two weeks here will be filled with flatmate interviews. For some unknown reason, I need to be involved in the interviewing process, although as I pointed out to Alex, I would probably choose very different people than he would. His rationale is that ultimately the choice is Mia's, since we are looking for a girl to keep the male/female balance (otherwise she'd be fending for herself among four boys!), and if he can't make it to the interview for some reason, Mia needs someone's help in conducting the actual interview as she doesn't feel comfortable enough to do it on her own. I'm irked about the whole process on a number of levels, but it's not that big a deal, really, so I will sigh and get over it.

For some reason, the travel agent has sent me all my info separately - flight info in one email, hostel info in another, tour info in another, etc. And they're all PDFs. So I had a grand time the other night trying to consolidate all of it into one document for easy reference, because otherwise I will get to a city and realize I have no idea what hostel I'm going to or how to get there! It's great fun, really. This is, incidentally, how I realized that I don't have a hostel booked for Melbourne yet!

Yesterday was my supervisor's last day, so tonight we had an extra special happy hour (supposedly we were all going to a bar after but they were still in the office at 6:45, when I started getting hungry and made a beeline for home). One week left!

Visaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Trivia answer: (d) Australia is home to 17 of the 851 World Heritage Sites (see the list here). I will leave Australia having seen four of them (I think).

New trivia: To what does "Manchester" refer, to an Australian?

a) a department store section

b) an ice cream flavor

c) a town in Queensland

d) an ABC (PBS) television show

Visaaaaaaaaahh!

After too much stress, I finally determined that today would be the day I would head down to Immigration and try to sort out my application for a tourist visa. My program recommends that you give the government 2-3 weeks to sort themselves out and approve your visa change. I, of course, dared to be different and marched my manila envelope of papers into their office myself. There were so many variables to take into account and I just hoped that this being the wonderfully laid-back Australia I've come to know and admire, that there would be no snags and all would fall into place my way.

First up was the question of the timing - if I went too early, they could revoke my work visa entirely and leave me up a creek for a couple weeks with no work. If I went too late, they could not grant it in time, leaving me here illegally. They could also ignore my request to work until the end of my visa and give me the travel visa as of today, putting the kabosh on any more work. They could not accept the ATM printout as proof of funds and demand a full-out statement (for which I'd have to stand in line and pay at the bank - argh). They could tell me I needed to present myself at an office or be able to receive something in the mail after March 9, the day I fly out of Brisbane. They could be picky about the fact that I hadn't gotten their name exactly right on the money order and send me away, having wasted $10 on a worthless piece of paper. I could have bungled the application. The line could be a million people long and take all day. The office could have moved. It could not be the right office for my particular question... the list goes on and on.

Miraculously, none of these things happened! It was all smooth sailing. I did get a little anxious waiting in line to get a number, and then waiting for my number to be called, but once I found Cubicle 26 in Cubicleland, the girl was friendly as could be. She told me I could work through next Friday, and that on that day they would email me my new visa information, which I could then print out and keep with me as proof, and that's it! The entire process took about 45 minutes and I sauntered in a whole 15 minutes late to work (I'd called to remind them today was the showdown), which I easily made up at lunch, and was so giddy and relieved the rest of the day! It's amazing how you don't realize how stressed something is making you until it's suddenly resolved and you feel TONS better and happier.

Phew! Now on to the next tasks: finding a new housemate to replace me (Alex and I already collaborated on the ad tonight, and they're ready to be put up on the way to work tomorrow), and make sure all the details are in place for traveling!

Lost in Australia

Actual conversation overheard between Alex and his friend Martek:

M: "I finally saw the Lost episodes."

A: "Oh yeah? How'd you find it?"

(Since I only caught that bit, I didn't realize they were talking about the tv show Lost and thought Alex was just being sassy ;))

Alex had "The Lost Kids" over for dinner and the season premiere last night. He had warned me on Wednesday that he was "booking" the kitchen from 8:30-9:30, and the lounge room (living room) from 9:30-10:30. When I got home, he was cooking up a storm, with sous-chef Mia chopping madly to keep up. Upon approving my request to be admitted to the party for dinner, he promptly sent me out to the store in search of more vegetables to be added to the cold rolls (Korean - think Chinese vegetarian spring rolls, only not fried), kangaroo fried rice, and soup. I forget what the soup was called but it was some sort of Asian cuisine where you put a bunch of stuff in your bowl (rice, potato, lettuce, cabbage, carrot, etc) and then pour just enough soup over it to get everything soaked and mushy. Delicious.

Good company too - I got to meet the famous Kate, sister of Jen (you may recall I met Jen and Kate's parents who drove all over Australia (and Europe) in a van - see "Mealtime and Roadway Fun," Tues Dec 4, 2007 - on the righthand side under "blog archive"). At one point Kate and I were talking about her childhood, and she said that for about three years (she was 11-14, her sister was 13-16), they moved around from Adelaide up to Darwin. I must have looked completely unfazed by this, because she said, "Wow, you really did meet my parents! Most people don't believe me!" Also present were Matt, Alex, Mia, Dan, me, and Jordan and Jill. Instead of crowding the eight of us around the kitchen table, we took everything out back (next to the turkey pile) and had a little picnic on what Mr. Turkey had left us of the patio furniture that was out there!

I am currently reading Bill Bryson's Australia book, called "Down Under" (the US title is "In A Sunburned Country"). Anyone who hasn't read any of his stuff, I highly recommend it. Start with "A Walk in the Woods," his account of hiking part of the Appalachian Trail. Absolutely hilarious. Anyway, I started this book, lent to me by a coworker here, a while back and it was so upsettingly dry and unfunny that I actually abandoned it for a while. I must've either lowered my expectations or picked up again just as it got funny, but now it's back (almost) to the Bill Bryson I've come to appreciate. I think I pulled a muscle laughing the other night!

Today's high: 28 C (about 82 F). Tomorrow's high: 36 C (about 97 F)! (For more temperature conversion fun, see the link on the righthand side!)

To do this weekend:

1. Go to pool.

2. Go to beach.

3. Try not to die of over-sweating/sticking-to-couch-itis.

Looking forward to the heat for a change - it's been cool and rainy here!

Housemate News

Interesting weekend... I got home on Friday to hear from both Dan and a note left in my room, that the girl I'm subletting from, B, had been by to start getting her things in order as she has signed another lease and is not moving back in. She also wanted to let me know that she would be by at 9am Saturday morning and could I please be around to move my stuff out of the room so she could get her furniture out. How nice of her to give me, oh, 14 hours' notice. Luckily I don't have that much stuff and I didn't need to pack it carefully, but still. So I threw it all into my bags and put them out in the living room, since I already had plans for Saturday morning.

I was a little annoyed and therefore grateful that I already had an excuse not to be there when she was there. The book group met for breakfast at a little restaurant, so unobtrusive in the tiniest strip of stores I've ever seen that they all looked closed and I walked right by without seeing the sign for the restaurant. I eventually found it and we had a delightful meal. After we ate, we realized we hadn't really talked about the book at all, despite its physical presence on the table, so we adjourned to a nearby park to discuss it without having to shout at each other over the din of the restaurant. It was a good time, and here is a photo of my fellow bookworms (minus Lauren, who had to leave early): l-r Meg, Megan, Damien, Haidee - pronounced Heidi - and me.

Then a bunch of us wanted to go on to the farmer's market, so I walked over there with Haidee and her sister (who took the photo) who then had to leave, and then met up with the Megs. Later, Meg called to invite me out for a beer, and I pointed out to her that usually we get to catch up with each other on the bus or car ride to wherever we're meeting, but we met in our neighborhood this time, so I walked and we didn't get to catch up. It was nice to get out and about, especially since I live right off the main road here.

B came back today for her bed and my room was quite sad and lonely-looking for a while with no furniture and just my stuff piled in a corner, till Ray helped me drag in the spare (twin) mattress. Alex said he might soon have a superfluous dresser, which would be very helpful! Turns out the person Dan is subletting from also is not coming back, so he can stay in the house as long as he wants.

Today being Alex's birthday, I made chocolate chip cookies. (Please see entry from Sept. 17, 2007 called "Australian cooking measurements" for a detailed description of why this was kind of an ordeal...) I basically ended up guesstimating on a bunch of stuff, but it seems to have worked out, except that they're flatter than usual, but still good. I also had to guess on the oven temperature, since my conversion chart gave temperatures for electric in Celcius, and gas ovens in numbers 1-9, but we have a gas stove that has Celcius on its knobs. But they taste pretty good (well, Dan and I had to try one, to make sure they were okay...), so I'm just waiting for Alex to come home from his birthday celebration with his parents so we can eat them!

He also had big plans last night, going from dinner to karaoke to a club with a group of his friends, and in preparation he had Mia shave his head in a funny pattern, so I will leave you with that image:

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way...

Trivia answer: The five stars form the Southern Cross.
Next trivia question: So we've got seven stars on the Australian flag: five are the Southern Cross, one is the Union Jack, and what does the last star represent? (Hint: It has 8 points.)

Last week was a busy one, with book group and then preparing for the camping trip. After much hemming and hawing about whether to leave Friday right after work or Saturday morning. We compromised (mostly because we had decided on Friday and couldn't get our act together - and by "we" I mean "Alex") and left at 8:00 Friday night. With a half-hour pit stop for beer, two-hour drive, half-hour dinner stop and one-hour time change, we got to Byron Bay around midnight in the pouring rain. Thinking this did not bode well for the rest of the weekend, we hemmed and hawed a bit more when we got there about whether to bother setting up the tent or just sleep in the car! Eventually the rain let up a tiny bit so we threw the tent up (5 minutes - must have been a record), crawled inside and passed out.

We had stopped at a gas station to ask directions, partly because we were relying on Alex's stellar memory from the last time he was at the campsite, and partly because we couldn't see a thing in the pouring rain. We asked the gas station attendant when it had started raining and he said, "About a month ago..."! We'd been hearing on the news that northern New South Wales had been pounded with rain recently, to the point of flooding, and yet this had not registered with any of us. Luckily it knocked that off the rest of the time we were there and was absolutely gorgeous the entire time after that. The campsite was about a one-minute walk from the beach, so any time we got too hot we just ran down and jumped in the surf. We also bought a tarp and rope and Alex and Dan rigged it up to stretch from the tree to the car so we had a nice big shady area to lie under in the heat of the day.

Speaking of the Southern Cross, the nights were so clear that we were able to do some star gazing, and I did see it. I couldn't see the fifth star, but I did learn how to find south from it (there are parallel lines and perpendicular lines and intersections... don't ask me to explain it!). We could also see Orion and Casseopia and Pegasus and had a bonfire on the beach and singalongs, and much fun was had by all.

In my opinion, Monday was the best day. We took our time packing up camp (we were supposed to be out by 10am... rolled out about noon) and headed into the town of Byron where we picked up a picnic of fish and chips. After we ate them in the park, we headed out to the lighthouse. Most of my photos (which will be up soon) are from the lighthouse - it's apparently the easternmost point of mainland Australia. You can even take this path down from the lighthouse all the way out to the furthest rocks that go into the water, which the boys did while I waited (more or less) patiently in the shade and listened to the Portuguese and Spanish on either side of me.

On the way down from the lighthouse, we stopped at a very calm beach where it was actually possible to swim and cavort and play around in the very calm waves. It was a perfect way to cool off mid-day before jumping in the car and battling the mildest post-holiday-weekend traffic I've ever seen. Made it home safe and sound around 6pm yesterday and just finished cleaning up the disaster area that was the kitchen :)

Long Weekends

Dear USA,

Happy MLK Day!

Love,
Tuesday

I was talking to the other American here at work (the one from Grosse Pointe) today when another attorney informed him that yesterday/today was "some sort of holiday in the US". He said, "Really?" and I chimed in with, "Martin Luther King day, of course!" Oh, how quickly they forget :) It's a little weird not just because it was Tuesday here, but also because this coming weekend is the holiday here, Australia Day (observed Jan. 26 or next working day - in this case Monday). When I was talking to my mom this weekend I mentioned that to her and she asked me if people wish each other a "Happy Australia Day". Alex happened to be passing through the room so I asked him and he laughed at me! In fact, I believe he said something along the lines of, "You're usually too drunk to wish anyone anything." This seems to be the general pattern of an Australian holiday: head to the beach/camping ground, drink too much, and fire up the barbie!

Sunday was also a phenomenon called Big Day Out. There is some controversy among the housemates and co. about whether this used to be held on Australia Day weekend or not, but in any case now it is the weekend before. It is basically a coordinated effort in the big cities across the country to get as many people as sunburned, dehydrated, deafened and happy as possible in one big day of outdoor musical acts. I didn't go (see the rainforest entry :)) but Alex and Ray went and had a great time. Alex was a volunteer, which meant that he wandered around spraying people with water. I'm not sure how effective that was but he seemed happy.

Update: Apparently Big Day Out is not all on one day, but is like a big tour of bands, so each weekend they hit different cities.

'Strayan

At work's happy hour on Friday I got to meet the lovely family of the partner here who got me the job. His wife is very nice and we spent a long time talking. She asked me how my Australian ('Strayan') is coming, and I told her pretty good! In light of that, some anecdotes:

At book group on Thursday, in addition to mispronouncing the bookstore name, I also was trying to spell Carlos Ruiz Zafon's second name to Meg. She kept spelling it "Louis," partly because she couldn't hear me very well and partly, it turned out when another girl "translated" for us, because I kept saying the last letter as "zee" instead of "zed." When they say "zee," I can suddenly hear how it sounds funny - mostly because they giggle as they say it!

Vocabulary lesson

"Chase up" (as opposed to chase down - must be the whole south-of-the-equator thing - also means "follow up on") Ex. I'd like you to chase up an answer to this question.

"Bogan" - white trash. Also Bevin (though that has more of a car-obsession element, I'm told) - this also made the recent election of Kevin Rudd intensely amusing to some, due to the rhyming factor.

Unrelatedly, I have also been asked my opinion on all the election hoopla, often by people I barely know just because they know I'm American, and have given more crash courses in US election procedure than I care to count. Dan the Hungarian asked me why we were having an election now and one in November; that was a fun one. I have found it confuses people to no end that, even if I had a ballot, it wouldn't matter if I voted because of the Democratic response to Michigan's primary. It is a very interesting time to be here - having been here for the Australian election and getting a crash couse in their system, and now having the tables turned.

The house is in a bit of an uproar right now - we roasted Bunya nuts (Alex brought home an entire "cone" and it was quite a project - I took some photos which will be up as soon as my battery charges...) and people kept dropping in: Mark, Chris (who lives here and from whom Dan is subletting, so we're not quite sure how that'll shake out), Joe and his cousin, Ray's girlfriend Greta, and we're all making plans for our camping trip over 'Straya Day (Jan 26). I'm going to go rejoin the "bogan/bevin" discussion I sparked and eat some more Bunya nuts!

In Which Amy Finally "Gets" Surfing

Family trip to the beach on Sunday! We were up at the crack of 6:30 and out the door by 7:15, which is pretty impressive. Two hours up the coast later, we arrived at King's Beach and piled out of Dan's "new" '91 Mitsubishi Magna. After snagging a prime shady spot on the busy beach, arranging our towels and having a quick sunscreen-drying session, we hit the waves.

A few years ago, when I was in Guatemala, a friend of the family who lives there took me and his daughters to the beach. It is these infrequent trips to the beach that make me realize, not only why these trips are so infrequent, but just how spoiled I was growing up around so much calm water. I don't really do waves. Five minutes in Guatemala's Pacific and it chewed me up and spit me out. It wasn't quite as bad yesterday, but I did still have salt water coming out of my nose at one point and beat a hasty retreat to the shore.

As I sat on the sand, I watched the never-ending, man-eating waves. I also watched all the people who had brought all manner of floating boards and had a revelation of sorts: THIS is where surfing came from. You can only be tossed around so many times before it gets old and you need something else to do. You can't really be under the waves, so why not be on top of them and deal with the waves the easy way? And bango - you have surfing!

Even though we reapplied when we got back to the towels, we were all pretty pink by the time we got home and were able to evaluate the damage in fake light. We were at the beach for maybe three hours, through a couple of wave-fighting sessions, sausages and ice cream, and a little nap, until the sky clouded over and it got cooler. We took the scenic route home, going past the site of the folk festival, which I'd never really seen in daylight. It was beautiful and pictures will be up shortly. Sunburn excepted, it was a lovely day at the beach.

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.

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 ;)

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!

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!