Waking Up in Oz

If you know me, you know this much: I don’t like to be hot and I sweat like crazy. This has been a slight issue in the land down under because air conditioning (aka “air con” here) is a luxury and temperatures have been hovering in the high 30s some days (that’s in the high 90s F). I have spent many a night tossing and turning because I’m so freakin’ hot. I know since I’m from Florida and we are crazy A/C dependent there, this has been a bit of a shock to my body. Maybe I handle the heat even worse since I’ve been able to cool down in the A/C my whole life? Maybe the Aussies have just adapted better. Don’t get me wrong, air conditioning exists here. Most nicer places have it, they just don’t use it much. As I type this I’m sitting directly in front of our A/C unit basking in a glorious 18 C/64 F breeze. The problem is the A/C is only in the living room and none of it makes it into the bedroom. Ugh.

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But hey, if I’m sitting in front of an A/C unit in a living room, that must mean I’m no longer homeless! We moved into our new place this past Saturday. Right now we are waiting for my room to be vacated, so Mandi and I are sharing a room and we have two roommates until next Saturday. After that it will be just Mandi, me and another roommate. I don’t want to give away my exact location on this blog as I realize roughly 1 out of every 5 people reading this is a serial rapist and/or killer, but  I will say we’re in a less than desirable inner west suburb. The pros are we are a 10 minute train ride into the city, our apartment is the penthouse, and we have about 5 dollar stores on our street. I know a dollar store doesn’t sound like a selling point, but believe me, after living in this freakishly expensive city for more than a month, anywhere selling paper towels for $2 is my new favorite store. Another perk is we’re only like a 5 minute bus ride to Newtown, the much cooler suburb near us. Hopefully I haven’t given away our exact location, but I’ll let all you murderers know you need a key just to get onto the floor of my apartment so good luck to you.

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I’ve noticed Australia sucks at being obnoxious. America thrives on all things obnoxious, especially Christmas. There is no mistaking in the U.S. when it’s Christmas time, between the annoying music on every radio station, tacky inflatable reindeers in people’s front yards, feeling obligated to buy people you don’t like presents, and that crazy black dancing Santa in every department store. But here, there’s a somewhat unsettling lack of Christmas decorations/music/lights. I seriously forget it’s almost Christmas. There are decorations in the malls but they aren’t very in your face and done in tasteful colors like white and silver. Even the mall Santa I saw was oddly thin for Santa (is Santa only fat in America? I know it’s fitting and all, but I thought he was universally fat). I do kind of miss the obnoxious spectacle of Christmas in America, and yet at the same time I rather enjoy not being subjected to Christmas music everywhere I go.

Tags: apartment search, holidays, moving to Sydney, things I miss