Surprisingly similar...

So now I've officially settled into Sydney. I've got a full-time job. I'm registered for classes next semester. I've figured out (and grown to hate) the public transportation system. I think I'm fitting in pretty well.

Work-wise I'm waitressing. I'm working full-time at a place called Jamie's Italian. It's Jamie Oliver's restaurant. No I haven't met him. But yes I get free food. People keep asking if I make tips here. I do. It's about $150 a week in tips and I make $17.23 an hour. Not too shabby. The people I work with are really nice and I like it. Obviously I don't want to wait tables forever but for now it's just fine.



I've officially registered for school. I'm a grad school student now. I'm studying International Law and International Relations. Should be interesting. I'm hoping the hybrid program will give me a one up on other people.

Sorry this time around with the blog isn't as interesting as last time. In London, I was traveling a whole lot. Here, it's basically the same life that I had in Chicago. (I didn't blog in Chicago because I'm not interesting enough). But, I promised people I would try to keep up with it so this is my best effort.

For those of you who remember, I have to leave the county to apply for my student visa. So Matt and I are going to New Zealand for 2 weeks in February. We're going to hire a car and road trip around the north island. It's going to be amazing. That should make for some more interesting blog posts.

Basically that's all I got going on now. I just work a lot. It's not very interesting. If anyone has anything they want to do vicariously through me, let me know and I'll give it a try.

First Week Here

So people keep asking me what I've been doing. And the reason I haven't been keeping everyone posted is because what I've been doing is a lot of really boring things. Basically, since I've been here I've unpacked, looked for jobs, opened a bank account, gotten a phone, and taken a class on the responsible service of alcohol so that I can wait tables. Nothing super interesting. Since I'm not here on vacation this time everything is much slower paced and average. But I guess I can tell you about a few of the average things I've been up to.

I'll start with saying how lucky I am when it comes to flights. I'm not sure how far Australian news travels but this past week their national carrier Quantas grounded their entire fleet. Literally ALL of their flights were canceled. There's this big labor dispute and strikes and all sorts of messy stuff. They say over 10,000 passengers were effected. Now the reason I'm lucky is because I flew Quantas to get here. I flew out 5 days before the CEO grounded all the flights. First I manage to get out of Heathrow last year and now I squeak past the grounding of an entire fleet. The travel gods must really like me.

I got a job, sort of. I was hired by this company that supplies wait and bar staff for events. So essentially I'm a temp waitress for them. I've worked one event so far. But I only made around $85 for the shift. That may seem like a good start but I had to buy a uniform for $43 and take a certification course for $120 before I could even get started. So as of right now, I've made -$78 with this job. They said November is their busiest time so hopefully they give me a lot more shifts.

I do have a couple of interviews lined up. I have one on Friday and one on Tuesday. They're both for clothing stores though. I really didn't want to have to work retail but a job is a job. Also, they're in the city center which is really good location. Hopefully that means the people aren't quite as destructive as they were at Wet Seal.

Other than that, nothing much has been going on with my life. I went to a Halloween party. We were Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. And we went to this really nice Indian restaurant for my birthday. Sorry I don't have as many stories as I did in London but I'm still working on getting friends and money so I can start entertaining you lot.

Blue Mountains

Before I got here there were a few things that Matt told me that we were doing and there were a few things he left as a surprise. I knew that we were going to go hiking in the Blue Mountains because he had to warn me so I could pack for it. What he didn't tell me ahead of time was that he booked us a room at the Katoomba Mountain Lodge in this ADORABLE little mountain town to stay the night up there.

The drive up to the mountains was of course beautiful. They call them the Blue Mountains because they look blue on the horizon. Must be something to do with the sky or the water or something. Either way, it was so pretty driving up. They reminded me of the Smokey Mountains. Once we got into the town (Katoomba) we went straight to the place where we were going to hike. We went down the entire mountain on stairs and into the valley. It was really cool and I got to see a lot of plants I'd never seen before. The valley was really pretty and it had been raining the previous days so the waterfalls were really big. The only problem is that what goes down must come up. And so we did. We trekked up the stairs back to the top of the mountain. We ran out of water once we hit the valley so coming back up was a bit rough. I get cranky when I'm thirsty. Matt handled it pretty well though and once I got some water in me I was just fine.

After the hike we were able to check into our room. The place was adorble. Our room was entirely pink. Pink walls, pink curtains, pink bedspread. It was amazingly tacky and wonderful. Once we got settled in the room we went out for dinner. The town was a really cute little town with a hilly mainstreet that we walked up and down. We ended up at this little pizza place for dinner. The pizza was really good. It was so cute at the restaurant. They had a woodburning stove and couchs. Very quaint. After dinner we were so full and tired from our hike that we just went back to our room. We hung out for a bit enjoying the no phone service, computer, or tv. We just ate TimTams and talked. It was a great little vacation from my vacation.

The next morning we walked around the little town again to find breakfast. As we were walking we came across this cafe that seem to have half the town inside so we bypassed that one. The next cafe that was literally next door was completely empty. We picked that one. Not sure why it was empty though because the food was great and so was the service. Also had a woodburning stove so...

We walked around the town for a bit more after that. They had a couple of thrift stores (which they call op shops). I found a very cute pair of sunglasses which was great because mine had just broken. Once we finished with that we drove further into the mountains. It was so pretty and the weather was wonderful. On the way home Matt let me drive back down the mountains. I don't want to toot my own horn (get it...?) but I think I did pretty well at picking it back up. No crashes or anything! All in all, it was a pretty good non-weekend get away weekend.

Wildlife!

On Monday, Matt took me to the Koala Park. It was basically a mini-zoo where they take care of only Australian wildlife. Most of the animals were either injured at one point or they were orphaned as babies. Basically, this park is the cutest place on Earth. I got to see kangaroos, wallabees, wallaroos (yes they exist), wombats, kaolas, cockatoos, and sheep! I got to actually snuggle up to a koala. They're REALLY soft and adorable. Apparently the leaves they eat make them a bit high though so the one I was snuggling up to (named Sean) was visibly "relaxed". He was SO cute though. I really need one as a pet.

After chilling with some Koalas we went to see the birds. There was one pretty cockatoo and I asked Matt to take a picture of me with it. What Matt failed to tell me is that they talk so when the bird said hello and whistled at me it scared me half to death. We then had a little chat with the bird about crakers. It had an English accent. It was the funniest thing.

Once we finished with the birds we went to feed the kangaroos. Basically you just buy a little paper bag of hay and walk right into the enclosure. They're really friendly. I got to see a little Joey crawl back into the its mother's pouch. Only he went in the wrong way so he was all folded in half and it was quite possibly the most adorable thing I've ever seen. One kangaroo decided that the hay in our hands wasn't enough so it puts its face right into the bag that Matt was holding. Matt informed the kangaroo that that was very bad manners but all that resulted in was a small tug of war. Matt won.

Life Down Under

I left my apartment in Chicago at 12:15 pm on Friday the 18th and got into Sydney airport at 8:30 am on Sunday the 20th. 4 and a half hours from Chicago to San Francisco, 12 and a half hours from San Fran to Auckland New Zealand, and another 3 and a half hours from Auckland to Sydney. While I hit a few bumps on the way (like not realizing I needed a visa until I tried to check in but having my amazing sister figure out that I could get one electronically)the trip went pretty smoothly. The best part was that the other person who was supposed to be sitting in my row never showed. I had three seats to myself. I literally laid down and slept. I was quite refreshed by the time I landed in Auckland. So step one of proving I'm immune to jet lag went very well. Matt was more tired than I was. I managed to stay awake until ten o'clock or so. Once I got into sydney I was just very anxious to get out of the airport. I had to go through customs though. The drug dogs went over my bags twice. Now this is not because I was trying to smuggle anything in or had any sort of residue. No. This was because my sixty year old down stairs neighbors smoke SO MUCH weed that everything close to our carpet smells like weed including my suitcase I keep under my bed. But I made it through eventually to find my wonderful boyfriend waiting for me with a hand picked bouquet of Australian wildflowers. I will put pictures of the bouquet up because they were flowers I had never seen before.

After getting all settled in we decided to go to the beach. We couldn't actually swim because it was all rainy the day I got in. So instead we got some fish and chips on the shops near the beach. We met up with Matt's friend Rohan who was one of the other guys he backpacked with in Europe. After our fish and chips we went down to the beach to looks at the waves. They were quite big. I walked around a little in the water. It was my first time in the Pacific ocean and it was cold as hell. But it was still fun.

When we got got home we mostly just chilled out. Matt's mom made dinner. It was very good. I really like his parents. They're very nice. We had an early night. We were both worn out. But all in all my first day in Australia was really great.

Ich bin ein Berliner

So Carmen and I wanted to go to Germany but we didn’t have a lot of time or money left at the end of the semester. To save both, we only went for two days. But two days was enough to get in a god dose of Berlin. We got there very late on a Wednesday night. Neither of us speak German but we somehow managed to figure out the trains from the airport. We actually got kicked off the one we were  supposed to be taking. Luckily, not all of them stopped running at midnight and the system was really similar to both the Tube and the L. It was also snowing a lot in Germany. But unlike the UK, not everything shut down so we were able to make it to our hostel just fine.

The next day we went out to explore. We found this restaurant and I got a German breakfast (the healthy choice). It had three types of cheese, three types of fruit and three types of meat. Also scrambled eggs and a whole basket of rolls. They know how to eat. One of the meats was raw minced pork. For those of you who know my eating habits you’ll know that I really like raw meat. I know it’s weird but there was no judgment in Germany. I also had a beer with breakfast. Beer and raw meat. Yum.

After that we went to find the Berlin Wall memorial. It was really neat. The area they have it on was originally a graveyard and graves were moved to put up guard towers. They have a bunch of memorials for that and the people that died at the wall. Next to it is what’s left of the graveyard. It’s very eerily pretty.

On our walk from the Berlin Wall, we found a big patch of untouched snow. So of course we had to make snow angels. It was SO cold. I got it down my pants and Carmen found my jumping around just hilarious. Also on our walk we saw so many little German kids in snow suits being pulled on toboggans by their parents. I wanted  to die it was so cute.

After that we walked through the main town area a bit and went into some shops. Then we went to the Holocaust memorial. It was night time by then and it was really intense. We walked around amongst the stones for a while. It’s intense the way they rise above you. It was a good experience though. It’s a wonderful memorial.

After that we went back to the hostel for a bit where we met a guy from Louisiana who was traveling by himself.  He ended up coming out to dinner with us. We went to this ‘Mexican’ restaurant. It was good food but it was weird seeing the menu for Mexican food all in German. At the end of our meal they gave us tequila shots. I hate tequila and don’t usually drink it but I was peer pressured into it. It’s still as disgusting as I remembered.

After that we went to a pub for a few drinks. As we were walking there we passed about three girls with these really distinctively ugly snow boots. At first I thought it was maybe a fashion trend in Berlin. Until we passed one of them who had a corset on outside of her giant puffy winter coat! It was at this point that I leaned over to the other two and asked “Do you think they’re prostitutes?” At which point Carmen said “Well I didn’t before but now I do.” It was later confirmed by the really nice, English speaking, Australian bar tender that they were in fact prostitutes.

The next day we did some more walking around. We went to the museum part of the memorial which was shut the night before. It was a little depressing but I’m glad I went. After that we walked around the American sector. Then we found a Christmas market! I had the best German bratwurst of my life! By the time Carmen got to take a picture I only had a bite left. It was SO good. That market was a little dead so we walked to another one. This one was much bigger. There I bought a couple of presents and ate a schnitzel. Again, delicious! After that we found pub to wait in until we had to go back the airport. I got traditional German beer and Carmen, of course, got hot chocolate.

A trip to the great white (sort of) North

Our second big out of England trip was to Scotland. We left for Glasgow the night of Thanksgiving. I was EXHAUSTED because I had been up all day cooking and we had to go straight from dinner to packing to our bus. It came in handy though because we were trying to sleep on the bus. I passed right out.

We got to the bus a little late so we couldn’t all sit together. I ended up sitting in the aisle seat next to some man. I woke up in the middle of the night with him basically laying on me. Guess we were cuddle buddies. Now I didn’t really mind this because it sort of kept me warm but I kept thinking ‘if you were going to lean this way then why did you take the aisle seat?’ Eventually I moved though because he started stroking my arm in his sleep (or what I hope was in his sleep).

It was really cold when we got into Scotland and we had to walk about a mile to get to our hostel. After a short nap and some breakfast we went walking around our area. It was so cute! We found some really cute vintage shops (I got a scarf). We also found this used book seller and bought some books. (Which, in hind sight, may have been a bad idea as we had to carry our bags around for most of the last day.)

After that we went to this pub to get lunch. Our waiter was Scottish and he was so funny. He kept talking to us because the place was slow. He gave us ideas on where to go and helped Carmen with her Scottish accent.

Following our big walk around we went out with some Aussies we had met at breakfast in our hostel. We ended up at a place called the Orah Mar which is essentially an old church that they turned into a pub and club. There was stained glass windows and everything. It was really cool to look at. While we were there it started to snow. They were great big snowflakes which are the best kind but that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that the guys we were out with are from Sydney, Australia. They had never seen falling snow in their lives. They ran outside without their coats to play in it. They came back in pretty quickly though because clearly they can’t handle the cold. It was really cute though. Like watching kids get excited about the snow. It made me appreciate it more.

On our way home we went to get something to eat. We found this pizza place that was open late. While we were in there we became the center of attention for some drunk Scottish guys. They thought our accents were great. Also one of the Aussies has a beard and there were never less than three drunk Scots touching it at all times. One of the guys kept hugging me. He told me I couldn’t pat his back because it made it less ‘intimate’. He also told me that after talking to me he felt like he was swimming in a ‘sea of inspiration.’

Once we shook the drunk admirers, we went back to our hostel to build a snowman. That failed miserably because there was not nearly enough snow. Instead we had a snowball fight. I’m sure we were really loud and obnoxious and that everyone within earshot hated us but we had a really good time. Around four in the morning we finally managed to go to bed.

The next day we took it easy. Food, shopping and a little drinking at the end of the night. Our last day there was a bit more of an adventure. By this time there was about an inch or two of snow on the ground. We got kicked out of our hostel at 10 am so we had to walk around until our bus left at 11 pm. We ended up finding this river walk. It was BEAUTIFUL! We got to walk along the woods and the frozen river. There were little kids getting pulled on sleds by their parents and dogs playing in the snow. At one point, Carmen decided she needed to play Lord of the Rings and be Gandalf. She found a big stick and made us film her shouting ‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” This of course created a crowd of adoring fans on the bridge above us. One of them threw a snowball at us! Carmen tried to reciprocate but she has terrible aim.

After our walk we went back to the pub we had been to our first day to get warm apple cider. It was amazing. Our waiter friend was there again and he was really happy to see us. Actually what he said was “you three again?” but I know he missed us.

From there we walked around Glasgow some more. Backpacking is SO much easier when it’s warm out. We went to go see Harry Potter 7 to stay warm. It was even better the second time! I cried. Again. After that we went to dinner where we had a really awkward conversation with our waiter. We were trying to order desert. It was something none of us had ever heard of but apparently it was a ball of pastry that was fried and covered with chocolate and cream.  Carmen asked the waiter ‘how many balls you get?’. Then she blushed a little. I tried to make that question less awkward but didn’t think it through so I said “She meant how big are they?” Then our waiter started to blush and laugh a little. I tried to back peddle and say that I meant is it big enough to share but from that point on we couldn’t look each other in the eye. Our waiter thought it was hilarious though. Oops. Guess it made for a good laugh  and an awkward story.

We managed to catch our bus home to London. We were lucky to be going south because everything going east, west, or north was canceled because of the snow. My seat buddy on the trip back  wasn’t nearly as cuddly. He did however have the lovely scent of menthol cigarettes. Gotta love budget traveling.