Waking Up in Oz

The following may or may not have occurred where I work. The good part doesn’t happen until about a minute has passed. I know this is probably old news for anyone living in Australia.

I almost peed my pants twice this evening. The first time was when I spotted Goya black beans at the Metro Grocer in the Marrickville Shopping Centre (make a note of that, fellow Sydney black bean enthusiasts). So yes, I nearly peed myself over the sight of can after can of that glorious blue label I thought I wouldn’t be seeing for another 9 months. I barely blinked at the $3.49 price tag and ended up buying 4 cans, then squealed to Mandi for the next hour about it. It’s the little things, people.

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Incident number two of almost peeing my pants happened while we were walking home from the above-mentioned shopping centre, swinging my bag full of black beans, when a dark SUV pulled up next to a car right in front of us and four guys in bullet-proof vests jumped out. All four of them had huge automatic weapons which they pointed at some poor guy in his car. It appears it was the wrong dude though (10 to 1 odds that guy shit himself), because as soon as we processed what was going on, they jumped back in the SUV and sped away. Mandi and I just stood on the sidewalk making uneasy noises while we watched this whole thing happen. We were the only other people on the street. We didn’t run, we didn’t duck, we just stood there being completely useless in the face of danger. All I could think was, “I THOUGHT SHIT LIKE THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN IN AUSTRALIA!” When we got home, Mandi called the police station and they were just running some sort of exercise (!!!!). I’m gonna be so pissed if I get shot before I eat these black beans.

Mandi and spent our first Australia Day participating in the age-old Australian tradition of going to the movies. What? I know, we’re lame. I spent my day off from work watching a Meryl Streep movie instead of participating in any sort of  activity in the sun with the rest of the country. Oops. No one we knew really had concrete plans and since Tuesdays are known as “tight ass Tuesday” here in Australia, movies are only $10. Sidenote: Speaking of barbequess, it seems like there’s a common rule of “bring your own meat” to a lot of  these gatherings. I find that odd.

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Now that we have jobs and are getting paid (so nice to see money going IN my account and not just out of it… at one point I had $2.78 in my Aussie bank account. Yes, the decimal is in the right place.), we’ve started planning trips around Australia. We just booked a flight to Melbourne for a weekend in February. We’re going to try and cram in as much stuff as we can in 2 days. I seriously know nothing about Melbourne, so I’m sure I’ll be researching like crazy for the next month. If any of you living in Melbs have some “must do/must see” recommendations (particularly involving food!), send me an email or a comment.

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We’re also looking into a weekend getaway to Gold Coast in March. I keep hearing it looks exactly like Florida, and after looking on the Gold Coast tourism site, I can definitely see the similarities. Between the high rises and canals, it looks a lot like Fort Lauderdale. I don’t plan on doing much there other than laying around on the beach.

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I also went to my first cricket match last weekend and saw New South Wales play South Australia. Mandi and I enjoyed it way more than we were expecting! It’s so much easier for me to understand a sport after seeing it live. I had tried watching it on TV a few times but always zoned out within 3 minutes and had no idea what was going on. Granted, the match we went to wasn’t the traditional 5-day match and was only a few hours. Not sure if my attention span could handle anything longer. Also, one of the interesting things about work life in Australia is they have sports on in the office. The sound isn’t on, but every day there is cricket on, and the past week the Australian Open was on. The TV is right in the middle of the office positioned so everyone can see! Work life in general is really laid back, totally my speed.

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As far as the latest Bollywood drama…he’s gone for good! His departure included our flatmate getting home last Sunday  at 8 a.m., seeing him sitting out on the couch with a possible hooker and drinking red wine (sooo random), and yelling at him when she saw how badly he destroyed her room. Turns out he stole about $100 worth of change she had on a bowl on her nightstand and has yet to pay rent. I’ve never met a bigger loser. He’s certainly not missed… which means we’ll most likely run into him somewhere around Sydney.

I’m employed! Oddly enough, Mandi and I were both offered temp gigs yesterday and we both start tomorrow. My bank account was rapidly depleting and I was afraid I’d have to return home if I didn’t get a job before the end of this month, so it was definitely perfect timing. Adjusting back to 9-to-5 life is going to be a kick in the ass after more than 2 months of being a lady of leisure.The best part is our offices are walking distance from one another so we can have lunch dates and meet for after work drinks, woo hoo! Which reminds me, in one of the job descriptions of a job ad I saw online, one of the job duties listed was “organising Friday drinks.” Only in Australia. Unfortunately I was already interviewing for the job I just got when I saw that ad, otherwise I would have sent my resume.

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After being offered the job, I immediately began fantasizing about planning a few trips now that I’ll be making money. First up, I’d like to make a trip down to Melbourne sometime in February to visit our American friend Kathryn who stayed with us over New Year’s. That’ll probably just be a quick weekend getaway since I may still be working then (the length of my temp assignment is kind of up in the air). Next up, our friends Bri* and Trout are gonna make the trip over from the States sometime in April. We’d like to go on one of the sailing trips around the Whitsunday Islands while they’re here. Has anyone done one of those? The boat we’ve heard is really good is like $450 for two nights which is insane, so I’d appreciate any suggestions on a cheaper boat. We just want to do a 2-or 3-night sail since they won’t have a lot of time here.

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Our flatmate gets back on Sunday so the countdown is on for Bollywood to be out of here. His new thing is smoking in his room (both cigarettes and pot), which is really pissing me off since the smoke smell is filling the apartment, not to mention our flatmate’s room is really gonna reek. I’ve been a straight up bitch to him all week and I’m on the verge of slipping a nasty note under his door telling him to stop smoking/go to hell. There is seriously a steady stream of smoke coming out of the room. I came home from an interview at 10 a.m. the other day and the whole apartment reeked of pot. I guess that’s an improvement from when he was sleeping until 4 in the afternoon, at least he is getting up at a decent time now. I’m pretty sure he was raised by wolves, and not very competent wolves at that.

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* We got awesome Christmas packages from Bri and Kelly. Bri even sent us Hidden Valley Ranch. The next day I ran down to the gyro shop to get some fries to dip in ranch, a favorite pastime of fat asses everywhere.

New Year’s Eve on Sydney Harbour was a blast. We spent the day/night at Yarranabbe Park in Darling Point, one of the only parks that allows you to bring your own booze. It was great to wear a tank top and shorts and not worry about looking like crap. Normally New Year’s Eve means buying a new dress and is the most dressed up I get all year, so this was a very welcome change for me. We celebrated with just about every nationality imaginable and only one Aussie (who was our visitor Brad from Adelaide). I guess the Sydneysiders want nothing to do with the chaos of trying to claim a spot around the harbour. There were tons of people wearing flags as capes… Ireland, Canada, Italy, Iceland. I can only imagine the shit we would get if we draped ourselves in American flags.

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We spent the rest of the weekend showing our visitors, Kathryn and Brad, around Sydney and doing all of the touristy stuff. It was weird playing tour guide, but made me realize how familiar I already am with the city. I’ve only been here 2 months but I feel so comfortable getting around. It’s starting to feel more like where I live and not just where I’m visiting. Of course, some people still look at me like I have two heads when I open my mouth, so I suppose I’ll always be a bit of an outsider.

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I think another reason I’m feeling more like a resident and not a visitor is we’ve made a few different groups of friends. Granted, only one of those groups are Aussies, the other two are Kiwis and American/Irish/Scottish. Our social calendar is filling up nicely, which is good and bad since both Mandi and I are still unemployed and a night out is easily $100. My New Year’s resolution is to make more girl friends. As much as I like hanging out with dudes, sometimes you just want to sit around and gossip with girls. The only girl friend we have here is Teneal, but she doesn’t count since I knew her before I got here. We have plans to meet up with fellow expat Kate this week, but that’s sort of cheating since she’s American. How the heck do you make female friends?

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In true Kerry and Mandi fashion, Murphy’s Law has continued to apply to anything we touch. My mom sent a care package a few weeks ago containing mostly practical things: dryer sheets (which you can’t get here!), a huge supply of Dunkin Donuts coffee, Reese’s peanut butter cups, an umbrella (not sure why she sent that, must think they just walk around in the rain here), and Downy wrinkle release (Kelly, this probably comes as no surprise to you). The day the package arrived, our dryer stopped working, rendering my jumbo supply of dryer sheets completely useless. We’ve had to line dry our laundry, which feels very Little House on the Prairie. The only plus is the entire apartment smells like clean laundry while the clothes are drying. Since EVERYTHING here shuts down for weeks over the holidays, we couldn’t even put in a maintenance request with our leasing office until yesterday when it reopened. Which brings me to our next problem…

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I woke up in the middle of the night with a cockroach crawling on my arm. I’ve always heard there are all sorts of bugs crawling on you during the night and you just don’t realize it, which is bad enough to think about, but to be jolted out of slumber with a cockroach the size of a fun size Snickers bar on your arm is terrifying. We’d noticed cockroaches partying in our kitchen a few days ago and immediately launched an assault on them with a time-released bug spray. After seeing a few dead cockroaches the next day we thought it had done the trick it appears there are still roaches chilling in my room. Which is not only disgusting, but also reflects poorly on me and I’m sure you’re all wondering what kind of filth I’m living in to have cockroaches roaming on my body at night. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that since our nightmare temporary roommate moved in we’ve noticed roaches. We came home on New Year’s Eve to discover he’d apparently had a fiesta and made tacos, leaving uncooked and cooked ground beef all over the place and it looked like he used taco seasoning as confetti to ring in the new year. The mess sat there for 48 hours until Kathryn wrote him a note to clean up after himself. I think within those 48 hours an announcement was made to all of the roaches in the neighborhood that there was free Mexican food in our apartment. I’ll once again direct you to Mandi’s latest post if you want to catch up on the latest of Bollywood’s shenanigans. He committed the ultimate crime and stole our last roll of toilet paper. It’s war.

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EDITED: I have a special/somewhat desperate request. I’m dying to make twice baked potaotes but can’t find anything resembling a proper potato for making a baked potato. I can’t find anything with thick skin similar to a good old Idaho potato. Any idea what type of potato will suffice and where I can find it? I also need any tips on where to find black beans. This is clearly a major crisis and I’ll appreciate any and all help!

I’m bracing myself for the madness of New Year’s Eve in Sydney. Forecast says it’s gonna rain. Legend says we will need to get to our chosen vantage point along the harbour at about 10 a.m. in order to secure a spot.  My liver says it hates me. It appears the City of Sydney has really cracked down on allowing people to bring their own alcohol to the parks along the harbour. This very handy map on the city’s web site has been invaluable in scouting out which places (very, very few) allow BYO alcohol. The good news for those with bottomless pockets is most spots are selling alcohol and food. We’re still opting to go to one of the BYO places though, since we’re planning on being there upwards of 14 hours I can only imagine what kind of  bar tab I’d acquire in 14 hours. The first fireworks display starts at 9 pm and my goal is to still be coherent for that one. Not making any promises for the midnight fireworks.

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If you’re not following along with Mandi’s blog in addition to mine, I suggest you read her latest post about our temporary roommate. Our real roommate is traveling for 3 weeks and rented out her room to this complete freak in the mean time.  This guy is a goldmine for quotes and I’m sure he’ll be prominently featured in some of my future blog posts (example: last night he told Mandi he was still hungover from the night before because he was staring at titties all night in the strip clubs. EW!).

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*It’s always annoyed the crap out of me when someone says “see you next year!” right before New Year’s and think they’re being oh-so-clever.

Tags: New Year's Eve Sydney

It’s been brought to my attention Christmas Eve is one of the biggest drinking days in Australia. We’re spending the afternoon at the Opera Bar, which has kind of become our go-to bar. Our plans for Christmas Day include cooking up an Italian feast then going to see Avatar 3D. And what did Santa bring me this year? Mandi and I just had a used washing machine delivered (since the girl who moved out of our flat took the other one with her).

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This year will be nothing like the past 25 Christmases I’ve had. I think it’s good Christmas is completely different here. It makes me forget I’m not back home with my family and friends and makes it easier to celebrate in such a non-traditional way. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus!

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Expect a new blog in the next few days about Sydney beaches. Being unemployed has allowed me to visit 7 different beaches already so I’ll write up my opinion on each one.

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P.S. I’ve joined Twitter.

I fancy myself a bit of a Sydney hostel expert after my month-long stint of being homeless. Since one of my initial objectives for this blog was to offer helpful information to people thinking of doing a working holiday in Australia (but let’s face it… I’m not much for goals, as this has turned into an outlet for me to bitch), I’ve compiled my thoughts on the three hostels I stayed at.  I present to you, in order of best to worst, my guide to hosteling in Sydney. Note: We were staying in twin share rooms and using a communal bathroom in every hostel, not staying in dorm rooms.

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1. The Strand Hotel, 99 William Street, Sydney

The Strand was the second hostel I stayed at, and considering how wretched the first hostel was, my expectations were pretty low. This hostel takes up 3 floors above a pub. It used to be a hotel but was renovated into a hostel within the last year. It’s walking distance to the city, Kings Cross and Darlinghurst, but it’s a 10-15 minute walk to the closest train station (we went back and forth between using Kings Cross or Town Hall for trains, it’s pretty much right between those two stations). The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The bathrooms were pretty clean, too, and there was a private shower and toilet on one floor which we usually used to shower in and there was also a communal bathroom with only 2 showers and one toilet. It had two kitchens, one of which was really nice. It looked like the kitchen in someone’s house and not the typical hostel kitchen. There was another kitchen on the top floor near the laundry room and roof deck. The pub downstairs had good food and beer at a decent price, so that was a perk. My biggest complaint is there was no common area with a TV, there was just a roof deck with picnic tables. We saw a sign that you could rent a TV/DVD player for your room, but didn’t look into that. If I was staying in a dorm room I would want to have a common area I could escape to, since we were in our own room I guess that wasn’t as bad. Also, this didn’t feel like a hostel experience. The “reception” area consists of walking up to the bar in the pub and having one of the bartenders check you in. That was fine by us, since we’re old maids and weren’t looking for a hostel partying experience. This definitely wasn’t a party spot. Overall, it gets my highest vote. OH! Huge bonus: one of the managers gave us a 50% discount for two nights when we booked here for the second time (we stayed here 4 nights, then came back for another 2 nights) AND it was for the nicest room, a twin share with its own bathroom. I think it was only because my gentleman friend knows him and tipped him off to give the 2 American girls top notch treatment, not sure if the guy gives people discounts on a whim.

2. 790 on George, 790 George Street, Sydney

This one is neck and neck with The Strand. If I was looking for more of the typical hosteling experience, I would have chosen this one. It would have been a good place to socialize but since this was our last hostel we were grumpy and ready to have our own apartment by that point. It was located right next to Central Station and walking distance to just about anywhere in the city (we walked to Darling Harbour one day in about 20 minutes). There’s a bar almost literally below the hostel, called Scubar, which we actually went to one night before we booked this hostel. I think it’s normally filled with backpackers, hence the really decent prices. This hostel was huge compared to the others we stayed at, it had 6 floors, 2 commons areas, laundry room, and huge kitchen. Our room was  pretty clean but the pillows were NASTY! Fortunately they provide sheets and pillow cases, but I was still skeeved out by the pillow. A huge perk is all of the rooms have air conditioning. The bathroom was decent, although one of the showers’ water pressure was enough to knock you off your feet. Judging by the amount of food being stored in the kitchen, there were roughly 5 million people staying here. The kitchen was always busy, we actually cooked dinner in there one night and had to wait our turn to use a stove top. We also did laundry here. It cost $4/load and they sold detergent at the front desk. Since it cost so much for one load (how I longed for the days of 75 cents/load in my college dorm laundry room), there was never anyone using the laundry machines. There was also an iron (with Japanese writing) and ironing board down there that I used a few times. My favorite thing about this place was the staff at the front desk. They actually knew what they were talking about and seemed like they enjoyed working there. They were always really friendly and would actually recognize us as we came and went, by the end of our stay they were asking how our job interviews/apartment hunting was going.

3. The Pink House, 6-8 Barncleuth Square, Kings Cross

This dump comes in dead last on my list. I would almost put sleeping on the sidewalk above this place. I’ve already written about it here and Mandi wrote about how we had to evacuate here, but there is plenty more to say. The only redeeming quality about this place is it’s location. There are tons of bars, clubs, cafes and restaurants right there, as well as the Kings Cross station. Upon checking in, we were greeted by a French guy at the front desk who either I couldn’t understand or knew absolutely nothing. The staff here are employed a few hours a day in exchange for staying at the hostel, and the woman who runs the hostel is extremely wacky.  Basically, no one knew anything, not that it matters, since there’s not much to know about this hostel other than it’s the most disgusting place I’ve ever slept in (and I’ve slept in a frat house or two back in the day). Not that I slept much here, since  people enjoy fighting outside at 4 a.m., the fire alarm likes to go off in the middle of the night, and a monkey lived outside our window (I later found out this was a kookaburra, a bird that sounds freakishly like a primate). The hostel itself is an old house that’s exactly what I would imagine the house of a crazy cat lady to look like. Seriously, every time I went down the stairs I wondered if the whole place was gonna collapse around me (please refrain from jokes about how that may be from the amount of McDonalds I’ve eaten). I cannot say enough bad things about this place. Don’t stay here.

Tags: Sydney hostels

Being that I’m unemployed, I probably shouldn’t have spent $14 on breakfast this morning. Mandi woke up with the brilliant idea of having a Saturday morning breakfast in Newtown, so we hopped on the bus and scouted out somewhere along King Street that looked promising. We settled on Grub & Tucker after seeing their menu was slightly less expensive than the other cafes we’d passed. As a lover of a huge breakfast, I opted for their ginormous vegetarian breakfast (which, by my estimations, wasn’t all that vegetarian): eggs any style, baked beans, spinach, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, corn and potato hashbrown, sourdough toast, orange juice and coffee. Yes, it cost $13.90 but it was extremely filling and I justified the price by saying it would cost me twice as much to buy all of the ingredients and make the same breakfast at home. I have seen bacon and eggs for more than $12 at some places which is criminal. It was a fantastic and satisfying breakfast and it’s now 5 hours later and I’m not the slightest bit hungry. Bonus: our waitress was American. The funny thing is whenever I hear an American accent I don’t pick up on it right away. I assume the person isn’t American and must have a trace of another accent I’m not picking up. It’s been made clear to us asking someone if they’re American is an insult, so I hesitate to piss off any Canadians by asking if they’re American (although quite frankly, they can suck it). Anyway, out waitress was super friendly and lives in our neighborhood so we made tentative plans to meet up soon.

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The good thing about unemployment is when it’s a nice day during the week, you can head straight for the beach. We spent yesterday at Bondi Beach, which is surprisingly my favorite beach I’ve been to so far. I’d been told it’s super touristy and packed, but we went on a Friday and it was perfect. The sand is great, the water is beautiful, and it wasn’t crowded. It actually made us decide Coogee is a big pile of dog poo in comparison, so we’re glad we didn’t end up living there.  Don’t get me wrong, Coogee Beach is nice but the shops and buildings are kind of run down and any time I’ve been to the beach there it’s extremely crowded. Perhaps I’m just extremely bitter we didn’t stand a chance in hell at renting a place there. Yeah, that’s probably it.

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I don’t think I’ve mentioned here that we have visitors coming for New Year’s. We have a friend and her boyfriend who live in Melbourne (she is American, he is Aussie) coming to stay with us for a few nights and join us for New Year’s Eve festivities. We’ve decided to pack a massive amount of booze and food and join the thousands upon thousands of other people who spend the day along the water in anticipation of the ridiculous fireworks set off on the Harbour Bridge and all along the harbour.  Now that I think about it, this fireworks display sounds completely over the top, so I may end up taking back my claim that Australia does not do obnoxious as well as America. Apparently to claim a decent spot we will have to get there around 10 am. I’m not entirely sure how I will survive until midnight, but I do know I’m bringing deodorant. We originally thought we would shell out well over $100 to go out to a club for the night, but after thinking it through we think this will be a better time. For one thing, we won’t have to dress up. I’ve been dressing up for New Year’s Eve since I was about 15 years old so this will be a nice change of pace. Shorts and a tank top? Sign me up. I’ve already started to plan a picnic menu for the day. I figure we will need stuff that will travel well and keep for hours, so any picnic food suggestions would be much appreciated (I’m looking at you, Brianne).

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P.S. Speaking of food, I came across this awesome food blog a few days ago: Smitten Kitchen.

Tags: Americans in Australia, Aussie food, holidays, I heart food, Sydney beaches, Sydney neighborhoods, Sydney restaurants

Photo highlights from some of my touristy activities since arriving in Sydney…

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Under the Harbour Bridge looking at the Opera House

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Coogee Beach

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Three Sisters, Blue Mountains

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Petting a kangaroo at Koala Park Sanctuary

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All dressed up for the horse races at Randwick

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One of the best mullets I’ve seen: two-toned and permed