This has nothing to do with Australia, but it’s on my mind: a literary review!

So, some of you may know that I occasionally enjoy me some girly classic literature, and in the last couple of years I made an effort to read or reread all the Jane Austens, and the Anne of Green Gables series, and now I’m reading/rereading Little Women. I say reading/rereading in that ambiguous way, because while I read Little Women as a kid, I didn’t quite completely – I read a bizarre, corrupted, demented, “abridged” or something version of it that I guess came from the same philosophy as Phoebe from Friends’ childhood movie-watching experiences: her TV was turned off before Old Yeller died, my book ended before Beth died. I know, right? What is that? And before you judge me and say “oh you must have just got tired of reading it and didn’t finish” – no. I did watch the Winona Ryder movie version back in the day and after I got through my shock – “Beth dies? Laurie marries Amy?? – (OMG, spoiler alert!) I do remember going back to my version of the “book” to double check and going “Seriously, what a RIPOFF!”

So I’m technically reading the full actual book for the first time, and while I’m enjoying it, I have just gotten through the section where Beth was sick for the first time – no, not the time she dies, just the fake-out – and while it got me a bit choked up when things were looking dire, I knew it was the fake-out, and on this occasion of reading the full book for the first time, it struck me as a little cheap. Because, you know, it is dire, and they do get you all worked up and worried even when you KNOW she’ll be OK this time, but I also know that she’s gonna get sick and die for real later, and I feel like if I were reading this for the first time when I got to that point I’d be like “oh, Beth’s sick again? A little boring this time. Been there, done that. Oh, it’s bad? It was bad last time; she’ll pull through. She didn’t pull through????” Way to yank my chain for an emotional reaction, Louisa May. The first sickness is a total fake-out just so you get all comfy and confident that everything will turn out okay if this stuff happens again, and then it DOESN’T. Cheap! Manipulative! But otherwise a good read. (And to be honest, it's been a long while since I've even seen the movie, so I don't really remember how similar the circumstances of the second illness are supposed to be, but right now, I feel jerked around!)

And now time for something completely different: so in my apartment, it’s a “serviced” hotel style apartment, where someone comes once a week to clean and refill my freebies like detergeant. Some of those freebies are the little hotel-style toiletries. Except, while those can be handy while on vacation, in general I prefer my own toiletries that I go and pick and choose from the store. So other than that first day when I got in and needed a shower and hadn’t been shopping yet, I haven’t been using my min-toiletries. But they keep bringing them! I now have like 4 sets of the stuff that hasn’t been touched! I’m running out of room for them! Why won’t they STOP?? Does anyone want mini-toiletries for Christmas?? I appreciate the free refills of my tea and coffee, but QUIT IT with the body wash!

Also, yesterday it was starting to feel superhot; today it is back to freezing. I wasn't dressed for this!

Being slowly poisoned

The building staff painted my door and I think a bit out in the hallway today, and I've been home for about an hour and still haven't adjusted to the smell. I'm inhaling toxic fumes!

Also: my parents may recall how a couple weeks ago on the phone with them I told them to "hang on ... it sounds like a pack of screaming monkeys outside!" Well, after my little trip to read in the park in the sunshine yesterday, I've discovered the source of that sound: birds. Crazy, crazy birds. So bizarre.

So happy it's the weekend

So last night was Friday night drinks after work again. This time we went straight from drinks at the office to a bar, skipping dinner, which didn’t sit well with me so I ended up home early again! Oh well, it was fun while I was still feeling good. And I really needed it; it’s been a hard week at work. I don’t really want to spend too much time discussing work on this blog, but it’s just generally been a week of struggling to figure stuff out, disagreeing with people, and me having to send out emails that I swear make people think I’m annoying, controlling and bitchy, which is not a good feeling.

Anyway, it’s been a fairly pleasant Saturday in Sydney, weather-wise. Thanks to my drinks + no dinner last night, I did wake up feeling a bit off and headachey, and couldn’t focus on my homework assignment and ended up turning on the TV instead, and apparently the lineup for Saturday morning/early afternoon is a Nick at Nite kind of deal, so I ended up watching an episode of Bewitched which made me cringe – it was one of those “dealing with hard-hitting social issues” type episodes that I’m sure everyone thought was very PC and forward-thinking in the 60s, but nowadays – I kept covering my eyes, jaw-dropping and exclaiming “Oh my God, that is so offensive!!” Motivation to get off my butt and get out of the house, saving homework for later.

I started feeling a little bit better but needed a proper lunch better than what I had in the apartment, so I decided to head out to the market at The Rocks because I’d seen some pretty tasty-looking street food the last time I went there but had already eaten lunch, however the moment I got out of my apartment today I noticed that the Kirribilli market was going on (I can’t figure it out; it seems to switch between Saturday and Sunday at random), so I just got some of their street food – samosas and a smoothie – which made me feel instantly 100% better so I headed into the city for shopping and finally got myself some sneakers that won’t give me monster calves with all this walking around and uphill business.

Then responsibility called so I am now in the internet café where I finished up and submitted my homework, and I’ve also downloaded my TV shows from the rest of the week, so I’m all caught up!

Tomorrow’s supposed to be sunny and warm, so I think I’ll end up finding a spot in a park in the sun to read for awhile, since I don’t have much else to do.

My course finishes Wednesday and then I have 2 months off, woohoo!

And a question for Tufts/TDC people! Did anyone ever do a “Murder on the Dancefloor” dance with me? I remember that that song was used in TDC, but I can’t remember if I was in it (my memory, I swear; I’m getting old!). I ask because that song has played twice since I’ve been sitting here and my mind went “Hey, TDC!! I remember those days, when I was young…”

THIS post is coming to you from the solution to my wifi problems

So, remember how I mentioned last week I tried going to an internet cafe after work but after walking through unfamiliar and kind of sketchy streets for 20+ minutes from the train station, I started to get nervous about how safe I'd be coming back later? Well, I'm currently at that internet cafe, because I found out which train station is actually closer to it and involves less walking, and my downloads are FLYING by! This is awesome. My ipod software update that was saying at the apartment "10 hours remaining" - five minutes pass by - "oh woops, network error, timed out!" downloaded in five minutes here!

It's not the classiest of internet cafes, but it is super fast and it smells clean (like windex!). So I'm currently subject to sharing a table with a guy having a Skype conversation in Russian, but they're also playing Dido's old CD that I used to own over the speakers, which is kind of fun and nostalgic. And it has options of using your own laptops or their computers, so I can take in my laptop or not depending on my needs for whatever day it is. And did I mention the FASTNESS? :)

What's that smell?

So today I learned the difference between the different settings on my voltage converter thingy, when I was using my hairdryer and noticed a slight crackling sound from the direction of the outlet, followed by a little smoke.

Lesson learned! But don't worry, I react fast - no damage done, just a lingering smell in the general area of the bathroom/bedroom. No fires. And once I switched over the converter settings, I was even able to resume drying my hair!

The answer to my problems? Maybe? Possibly?

This post is coming to you from the potential solution to all of my wifi-related troubles: the library! Which has free wifi, is only a few blocks from the office and a slight detour on the way to the train station, and is open for part of the day on Saturdays and until 7pm on weekdays, which means I could probably watch at least one episode of TV while downloading another at least a few days a week. I think I’ll still fall behind on TV, but not absurdly so. And while they also have free internet computers, I think I’ll be bringing my laptop and using the wifi more often, just cuz when computers are set up for research purposes, I don’t think it would be very appreciated for me to hog one while plugging in headphones to watch Glee.

So anyway, I came here to download some stuff faster and complete and hand in my (third to last for this course!) MBA homework assignment, and try to catch up on some emails. But I also want to do some shopping today because since my shopping attempts of last weekend, I’ve been seeing some stores around that look more in my price range so I’d like to try them out. One major thing I need is new sneakers. I needed new sneakers last spring and I thought it was a brilliant idea to buy these ones that are built to ‘burn 5x more calories with every step’, but when you’re walking freakin’ everywhere, including uphill, the additional incline is not appreciated. It burns, and I’ll have monster calves by Christmas. And I got sucked into a commercial the other day for someplace in Sydney that was talking about how they have the most comfy walking shoes EVER, however I have no idea where that store is, so that’s something I’m hoping to figure out today. And, since I don’t particularly want to carry my laptop around shopping, that means I have to go home after this to drop it off, and then come back into the city (and yes, this time I took the train instead of walking across the bridge, even though it’s Saturday).

And you also know that Saturday means cupcakes. Now, if I told you that other than my occasional cupcake and Krispy Kreme indulgences, I have been eating no junk food at all since I got here, would you judge me less when I say that my breakfast this morning was a cupcake and a Rock Star energy drink? How about if I told you that before that fabulous breakfast, I started off my day with Ab! Ripper! X! (I hate it! But I love it. ... No, I really just hate it) ? See, what happened was, I decided to cheat and go to the cupcake place by the train station yesterday so I could try their red velvet and compare it to my first cupcake from the first cupcake place (the first place is better, btw), and once there I noticed that they also have dulce de leche flavored cupcakes, so I had to have one of those too, but of course, having two cupcakes in one day is a bit much so I had to save one for breakfast. And I know Rock Star is an American drink, but I’d never had one before and I’ve been seeing them around all over the place here so I decided to try one but I bought it at a weird time so it’s been sitting in my fridge until today. And honestly, it will be my first and last. Far inferior to Red Bull.

So tomorrow, I was planning on going to the little market thing they do in my neighborhood on Sundays, because I hadn’t really paid much attention to it before and then I stumbled upon it last Sunday but it was just when they were packing everything up. So I wanted to go earlier this time but apparently there is a marathon going on tomorrow, and I think it may interfere with the market. It may actually interfere with me getting absolutely anywhere, so I might just end up taking my book and sitting in one of the pretty spots from the photos in my very first post. We’ll see.

But wherever I am, I will be thinking of you all in Bermuda and wishing you the best of luck dealing with the menace of Hurricane Igor. Stay safe!

And, honestly? I’m beginning to question my thoughts that the library is the solution to all my problems. I’ve lost the connection a few times through the duration of this post, and even while it’s been working, my MBA website refuses to load, although all others do fine. I’m going to relocate to a more central location that might have a better connection (I’ve found myself an isolated corner), but if this keeps up for much longer, I think I might have to return to the stupid café that closes at 5 on weekdays, because at least it’s open right now…

EDIT: So I'm now at the cafe. I'm not sure the library is a total lost cause, but for today I was impatient. And one thing that made me a bit more uncomfortable with the library on my way out. On the bottom floor, they have this spectacular see-through glass floor thing that looks down onto a model of the full city of Sydney, which catches your eye the moment you walk in the door. Catches your eye so much that you don't notice what I noticed on my way out... that closer to the door, in the floor tiling, there are... what appear to be... several... swastikas. Um. I don't know what to think about that. I think I'll be asking some of the locals about it...

Super fun happy mosquito! Super fun happy mom! Super fun happy mode of transportation! Super fun happy moment in time!

Sick of pictures of the harbour/bridge/opera house yet? Well this is the first time for harbour/bridge/opera house after dark!

So. Fall TV is starting up again. And before I came here I was under the impression that I’d be able to keep up with TV via the internet, however, since my internet in the apartment takes about five minutes to load a basic page, and half an hour to load a 2 minute youtube video… my mission this week has been to find either a café with convenient (preferably free) faster wifi, or an internet café that already has computers I can log into and use headphones at. Wifi is better because I can actually download onto my computer and then watch anytime, but computers would mean I don’t have to drag my laptop anywhere.

However, internet cafes are surprisingly few and far between, and those that are convenient and close to work seem to close by 5 or 6pm, and unlike Bermuda where I’m happily out the door at 5:01, in Sydney I have to work until at least 5:30 every day or be shunned by my coworkers, so most places do not work. Yesterday I tried hiking down to a way out of the way internet café after work, and once I’d taken the train and then walked twenty minutes and got to the point where I was almost there I decided to turn back instead of going the rest of the way because the walk was already making me feel a little nervous at 6/6:20 with people around and I figured if I sat down to watch a TV show and then walked back long after rush hour with less busy streets, I’d be constantly in fear of getting stabbed or mugged or something, so safety took precedence over TV.

Today I actually brought my laptop to the city and got to enjoy a little wifi at a café at lunch time, but was unsuccessful at finding one close by open after 5, so it was a failed mission. Not enough time to watch a full TV show at lunch once I’ve made the walk to the café.

So once I got home this evening I decided to go for a walk with my ipod touch searching for open wifi in the neighborhood, since there are quite a few cute little cafes around. I was constantly staring at the “searching for Wifi networks” screen – I felt like I was walking around with a metal detector – and found a lot of locked networks, and one miraculous unlocked “linksys” that magically appeared for a brief second when I was in the middle of crossing a street and then wouldn’t come back (even, yes, when I went back to stand in the middle of the street to look again – hey, there was no traffic!)

But at least I got the fresh air and a semi-decent walk, and in the few moments I managed to tear my eyes away from the ipod screen, I got the above photos. So not a total loss, even though this means I have to start camping out at internet cafes on weekends…

And if you are curious about the subject heading – the most intriguing network name I picked up on my walk displayed as “SuperFunHappyMo…” and I shall never know how the name ended. I can only imagine. Super fun happy molecular structure. Super fun happy motor vehicle!

My google account got hacked :(

If you got a weird email from me, please ignore it. It wasn't me. Don't open it. Account is now verified, password changed, reset on blackberry, bombarded with "Mail Delivery Error" emails (so hopefully not everyone actually GOT an email, because it seriously looks like it sent to everyone I've ever emailed, including professional and university administration type people... sheesh), but should be OK now.

Fun Sunday.

Do you know what day it is?? It’s Cupcake Saturday!!! :-D

And my confession: I had two cupcakes today! Because I’d intended to go to the same place, but before I got there, I stumbled upon another cupcake place that had teeny tiny cute cupcakes, and they had cinnamon latte flavor, so I had to have one, but it wasn’t big enough to satisfy my cupcake craving for the day so I still had to go to the same place. And I got banana flavored there. Not posting a picture (even though I took one) because it wasn’t quite as cute as the red velvet. But still tasty!

And I don’t feel guilty about two cupcakes, because I seriously walked all of Sydney today and burned it off, but we’ll get to that later…

Yesterday I went to the park for lunch again and walked a bit further and discovered that just beyond where I’d been sitting are all these awesome water views, so more pictures from the park and the harbour:

And more bird friends! Duckies!

And I got pictures of the view from our conference room (there's a little bit of window reflection, but not bad; not sure why the first one is so much darker):

And yesterday the office did Friday night drinks after 5, so I did that, which was fun, and then some of us who had hung around till near the end went for Chinese food. That was all I did last night; after-work-drinks and Chinese food, and I somehow didn’t get home until midnight.

Today I was up relatively early and got my homework done early like a good girl (took much longer than it needed to due to my internet speed!) and then headed off after lunch to walk across the bridge and see about doing a bit of shopping. So, last week when I walked across the bridge, I got off the bridge’s walkway at the first staircase available, though the walkway continued. This time I decided to stay on the walkway to see where that ended up, since the first staircase had led me to a place that I’m still not so familiar with. Well, another opportunity to get off the walkway came along shortly afterwards, and I thought “no, I still want to see where this goes” – mistake. I ended up stuck on that walkway with no other exit opportunities for ages and ages, and it led right to my office – in a way that cut about 10 minutes off last week’s time due to not having to wait at crosswalks and wind through various streets but still significantly longer than the train – but today I had no intention of walking towards the office. Sigh.

So then I had to backtrack by land pretty much all the way back to where the original staircase was because I wanted to check out The Rocks – this cute little old fashioned section of the city which does street markets on Saturdays. It was pretty cool, had clothing stalls, food stalls, souvenir stalls, etc, and a fashion show when I was there; they might do more entertainment throughout the day. But anyway, all I bought there was my mini cupcake, and then I walked back towards the maze of malls, which is significantly south from there, walked around there a bit but again, didn’t buy anything (everything’s so expensive!! There was one store having a clearance where everything was $5-$20, but their stuff was pretty hideous; everywhere else cost an arm and a leg) except a cupcake and tea and juice.

And then I walked all the way back up north through The Rocks again to the original staircase to the bridge (and I had to do more backtracking to find that staircase!) and back across. My calves and back were hurting me by this point. That was 4 hours of walking! I’d say I earned two cupcakes, no?

And! OK, do you see this thing that I have highlighted in the below? This shows up on all my pictures. It's a pain. I tend to crop it out of most of the photos before I post them here. I've wiped my lens. It doesn't go away. I think I may need a new camera!

Gardens, birds, and evil miniature monsters

So this week I started eating my lunch in the Botannical Gardens. It’s very pretty.

(You can just in the distance see the bridge and one bump of the opera house’s roof)

I made some bird friends.

And another bird friend was a little guy who came along and just stared me down until I broke off a piece of bread from my sandwich for him. Didn’t get a picture because he was twitchy and fast.

I would have taken more pictures of the prettiness, but I figure everyone’s seen parks and nature before. Part of it makes me feel a bit like I’m in some grand estate/palace gardens in Europe – fountains and flower beds and nice walkways and gazebo things and statues – but I also took a stroll through part of it that felt like a jungle.

And yesterday I had an encounter with an evil looking spider thing on my bench. It was tiny, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t evil. I wanted to take a picture of it to take back and ask the Australians at work “What is this???? Could it have POISONED me???” but it was also a bit twitchy and fast and the people on the bench next to me were already looking at me strangely from the way I was leaning waaaay away from it and giving it the evil eye. I’m just going to go on thinking it could have killed me and I was just lucky I noticed it first. And it was behind me and silent but I just had this *feeling* like something evil was there watching me.

And then we had our first mini-meeting in the corner conference room, and I noticed that apart from the cool city view from where we are sitting, the conference room has a friggin’ fantastic view of the Botannical Gardens, the opera house, the harbour, etc. I haven’t managed to snap a picture of that view yet, because our meeting was towards the end of the day yesterday and it gets dark early here so a lot of it was in shadow by the time we were done with the meeting, and then today it was overcast and gloomy, but that picture will show up here sometime.

And my internet has been slow here, but I feel like ever since Monday it’s gotten much, much slower. Seriously, by the time Google loads up, I’ve forgotten what I wanted to Google. :(

OMG, you guys!

I have like a zillion hangers.

I got my Blackberry working.

I had a Krispy Kreme.

BEST DAY EVER!

:-D

Taking the long-winded route

So it might not be surprising, but walking will not be my commute method of choice. The walk across the bridge wasn’t bad, about 20 minutes from my door to touching land on the other side, but the walk to the office was still a 20 minute or so walk from there, and while I don’t mind the walk, I think I would mind leaving early enough every morning to still get into work on time. I think it’ll still be a nice walk for some weekends.

The journey actually went something like this: safely arriving at the other side and then: “Well, that wasn’t bad! 20 minutes. So now… where the hell am I?? Oh, street names that aren’t on my map. That’s great.” So I chose a direction to walk in by instinct and knowing vaguely where I was and vaguely the direction of the office, ended up going down some random little streets before I was somewhere recognizable. Also, it is extremely windy today. Nice sunny day, but very windy. Here’s how windy:

And those narrow little streets formed some crazy wind tunnels, the kind that if I was walking against the wind it could literally stop me in my tracks, and at one point I was about to head down a staircase and I had this feeling like “if I lift up one foot to take the first step, I will lose all stability and the wind will knock me headfirst down this staircase” so I had to scooch over so I could be holding onto the wall before I started walking down.

Anyway, once I got to the office I figured that the whole walk of about 45 minutes was probably longer than it would have been if I’d known where I was going, so I tried to time myself from scratch on the way back deciding to head straight along the road from work to the harbour and then along the harbour to the bridge, rather than taking random roads. Well, that ended up being even longer, and I should have realized that because the bridge touches ground much farther inland than the harbour, so I would have had to backtrack anyway, and because the closest point of the harbour from the office involves walking around a whole bay to get back near the bridge. So once I got to the harbour and had walked along it for awhile (total tourist trap, by the way), I decided walking was not going to be my usual option and I’d already walked much farther than planned today, so I headed inland to take the bus back. And actually, on my way back I got my bearings enough to realize that while I hadn’t really known where I was going on the way to the office, I’d actually headed in about as much of a direct route as I could have so there probably wouldn’t be a shorter route. I also passed by the ferry stop which was almost a 20 minute walk from work, which means the train is still the most efficient means of travel.

And I’d been told that the Botannical Gardens are just a block from my office, and coming to the office from a different direction means I saw a bit more of its perimeter, and it looks really pretty. I was on a mission to time myself at the time, though, so I didn’t stop to really look in them, but that’ll mean more pictures for another day, and probably a nice place for me to eat my lunch most days.

Just some more photos from my walk across the bridge and a bit from the harbour on the other side:

This one just made me laugh - Sionna, if you by chance decide to visit me, you may have trouble getting around ;) (I also had to crop out the guy to the right of the sign who was looking at me like "Why the hell are you pointing that camera this way?" I thought he might not like his likeness published on the internet.)

A couple bright spots in the middle of a miserably rainy day

So it’s kind of a gross Saturday in Sydney. Overcast and drizzly. I was going to attempt to walk across the bridge today, to see how long the walk is and if that can be my route of choice to work (I’ve held off on buying a long-term train ticket until I at least try it out) but because today is miserable and tomorrow’s supposed to be sunny, I’m holding off. But I still did have a few errands I wanted to get done in the city today, so I decided to still go, but go by train. But I discovered that due to railworks, the train doesn’t run from my station on weekends for now. They do substitute buses instead, and because it’s just for this one link of the train that’s down over the weekend and some people will still need to pay for their connecting trains, it’s free!

Anyway, one of the things that I had decided I needed to do in the city today was get a Krispy Kreme donut. Because I was thinking, I have been so good since I’ve been here, I have literally not had a single piece of junk food aside from one little Aero bar, and I haven’t had a Krispy Kreme since forever and there’s one right by my city train station that’s been taunting me and calling my name every day. But once I got to the city, I decided that I’d run my other errands first and get my donut on the way back.

However, I ended up in this labyrinth of malls where you just keep walking on and on forever and one mall links to another and eventually you’ve walked blocks underground and start thinking “I’m not going to remember the way back!” and then I spotted cupcake heaven. I snapped a picture of the cupcake store, but the photo just didn’t properly capture the utter cute pinkness and cupcake-ness of the store and the rows and rows of awesome cupcake varieties, so I’ve just taken a photo of the cupcake I ended up buying. Krispy Kreme was pushed to the back of my mind; red velvet cupcakes were calling my name. Well, Krispy Kreme wasn’t totally forgotten, though, because I started thinking “maybe my lunch today will be a cupcake and a donut”. So much for my no-junk food streak. However, after the cupcake, I just had an overwhelming feeling of sugar overload in my mouth and couldn’t really have handled a Krispy Kreme, and then I passed a fruit stand, and suddenly strawberries and melons were calling my name, so I wasn’t too grossly unhealthy today. Krispy Kreme, I’ll catch you Monday.

Although I did also notice on the way back that there is yet another amazing cupcake store right next to the Krispy Kreme that I had somehow missed before. Dangerous. The other one at least took effort to get to so I'd have to be really determined.

The other major thing I was trying to get done today was to set up my Blackberry on a local service, but I wasn’t successful. :( As a temporary resident, they need me to provide “proof of residence” which has to be a utility bill or bank notice received at my address, can’t be any of the documentation I have from moving in. Boo. They mentioned I could go somewhere else for pre-paid, so I will probably end up doing that if I don’t decide to set up a local bank account soon, but the month-to-month plan looked like a pretty good deal. A problem to be solved another day…

But the other bright spot is, I went to the crappy tiny grocery store nearby for a quick trip, and this time I noticed that in spite of their tiny size, they do have a lot more inventory that I overlooked on my first jetlagged day, so it might be more useful than I thought. A lot more inventory including…. CLOTHES HANGERS, woooot! Only place I’ve seen them. So that was a little pick me up after my Blackberry disappointment, although I didn’t buy as many as I need because I would have bought out the store and still been lacking, and because a coworker mentioned she might be able to buy me some this weekend from one of those bigger K-Mart style stores they have out in the suburbs that I can’t get to.

And one random thing I spotted in the crappy little grocery store: a can of “Creaming Soda”. Not cream soda. Creaming. Sounds... um. And it was just this one random can on the condiments shelf. I circled the store a bunch of times to try to find the source of the creaming soda, but it was the only one. I almost bought it out of pure curiosity, but then I thought maybe some other customer had bought it elsewhere and accidentally left it on their shelf (or maybe looked at it again and said “Why did I buy creaming soda? That sounds gross!” and purposely left it there) and there would be a lot of confusing questions at checkout (more confusing than “cash out?”) so I left it on the condiments shelf. It’s probably for the best.

My first experience of feeling like a total moron foreigner since I arrived

And I was feeling so comfy and confident, like people might mistake me for an Australian until I start talking. So I went to pay at the grocery store, and as I'm holding my card out to the guy, he goes "Cash out?" What does that mean? Was he asking if I want to pay in cash, even though I was holding my card out to him? Was he asking if that was definitely the last of my groceries to confirm it was time to cash out/close out my bill, even though my grocery basket was clearly empty and done? Or was he asking if I wanted cash back? This is how the conversation went:
Grocer: "Cash out?"
Me: "Um.... what?"
Grocer: "Cash out?"
Me: "...sorry, I can't hear you."
Grocer: "Cash out?"
Me: "Come again?"
Grocer: "CASH OUT?"
I thought maybe he'd add more words if I kept asking, but no. So then I was just like "um... just please take my card."
And I'd thought I'd gotten a hang of paying by card already. The process everywhere else seems to be; "Debit or credit?" Credit. "PIN or sign?" Sign. Easy. This guy didn't even ask me PIN or sign. He just put the keypad out in front of me for me to put in my PIN, and I don't know my credit card PIN, so I had to ask "Can I sign?" This guy just totally threw me off my game. I don't think I can shop there again.

But this was my first opportunity for a real thorough grocery shopping experience, so now I have food! Like actual meat and vegetables and stuff, yay! I no longer have to deal with cheap pasta and crappy stir-through sauce, or "just add water" curry pasta. (the little grocery store right next to me is quite crap)

Real food! And now I shall feast.

Another day down

I still haven't totally beaten this jet lag thing, but I'm getting there. At least today I'm only starting to get a bit drowsy now that it's after 8pm, rather than yawning through the last couple hours at work. And my right eyelid keeps twitching, which I remember reading is a sign of tiredness. It's just annoying.

The thing I learned really fast was that the walk from the train station to the office is much harder than it needs to be in heels, so today I brought the heels in a bag and walked to work in sneakers and it was much, much easier. But we had a bit of rain today, so walking back to the train station with two bags of groceries and an umbrella was less fun (I've also learned fast that the options for groceries are slightly better in the city than in my neighborhood).

Also, the very annoying thing I've learned: it is bloody impossible to find clothes hangers in this city! My apartment came with 6, but I've figured I need about 30, and I don't have much drawer space in the meantime, so all of my clothes to be hung up is sitting in a pile, and I've tried a whole bunch of stores and even asked around and had absolutely no luck. See: and the moment I walked into my place on Tuesday I was like "I have to take pictures to show everyone how nice it is!" but the first order of business was to unpack everything so I could take a shower and have all my toiletries out and a change of clothes, so immediately it went from "nice" to "nice but with piles of clothes on the bed" so I was like "pictures will have to wait until I get hangers", but since it's taken so friggin' long to find any, the rest of the apartment has managed to get a bit messy, so... you probably won't get pictures now. And you have the clothes hangers drought to blame! I think that's going to be my mission for the weekend: hunt down hangers. They have to be somewhere. I don't think all Sydney residents have their clothes laying around in piles.

And the Sydney harbour keeps making me think of Nemo.

Google finally let me in

Inspired by Paulina’s awesome chronicling of a year in Korea (http://paulinajarmula.blogspot.com/), and encouraged by Sionna, I’ve decided to start this up to record my 6 month stay in Sydney. While I’m sure there won’t be as much culture shock and funny stories as a Bermudian in Korea can experience, it’s at least a good way to keep everyone in the loop about what I’m up to!

So I’m starting off writing this in a Word document, before the blog even officially exists. I’m actually still in the Bermuda airport as I’m typing this paragraph (but I’m sure the full post will be continued in New York and LA). And I was expecting a hell of a time in the Bermuda airport, considering my massive amounts of luggage, and my flight itinerary that ends in New York because the rest of my flights are on another airline (I still have a memory of coming back from France via New York, and US Immigration almost wouldn’t let me in because they didn’t believe I had a connecting flight back to Bermuda! Those people don’t mess around) But as far as Bermuda airport experiences go, it’s been surprisingly pleasant. No weird questions, no one giving me any hassle, US Immigration just asking for the reason for my travel and sending me off with a smile. The two crazy big suitcases weren’t even a problem: they weighed the big one in at 47 pounds (sweet!) and didn’t bother to weigh the slightly smaller one because I guess they just assumed it would be lighter even though I could have loaded it with bricks for all they knew. Maybe they just took pity on me after seeing how much I struggled to lift the first one up on the scale. And then even though I felt like I was spazzing around and working up a sweat moving the suitcases through immigration, once we finally got up to the line to get rid of the suitcases, a lovely elderly woman behind me lifted my spirits by telling me, “I’m so impressed with the way you’re managing those bags! I wouldn’t have had the courage, but you make it look like you’re lifting a feather.” Ha. I don’t quite believe that, but it was nice of her to say.

And now I’m in JFK! Feeling very privileged sitting in the Admiral’s lounge. So, switching airlines and dragging the massive suitcases from Terminal 5 to Terminal 8 was quite possibly my worst experience of 2010 so far. It was hard. Like really, really hard. My arm muscles are currently shaking, which means they’ll be aching tomorrow. Not to mention, the journey from my gate in Terminal 5 to the AirTrain was miles and miles long via a Skywalk without A/C. However, in spite of my shaking arms as a memory, that’s in the past now, and my time in Terminal 8 has been fine so far: check-in was a breeze, and now I’m all privileged in the Admiral’s lounge with free Red Bull, so.

And now in LA. And, honestly, quite tired. I’m considering just living here. I don’t know if I can go any further. I was pretty confident in my abilities to withstand the long flights before I started, but boy. I was getting super restless towards the end of the NY-LA flight, and now it’s just too far still to go. I’m already getting very confused about what time it is. I haven’t changed my watch yet (what’s the point?), so on this last flight I kept checking the time in Bermuda and relating that to the time in New York and the time in LA and attempting to figure out how long I had left. And, see, my dad’s suggestion for my LA-Sydney flight, which I thought was a great idea at the time, was to watch a movie, read, whatever, for the first 4 hours, then sleep for as long as possible and try to be awake just towards the end. However, I am starting to see the flaw in this plan. I got up at 8 am in Bermuda. It’s currently almost 1 am in Bermuda, I’ll be on the flight by 2:30 am in Bermuda (10:30 in LA), and another 4 hours will make me want to die. They better have some very engaging movies. I had two free Red Bulls in NY and they did nothing, and that was still just the afternoon! By the way, I don’t think I’ve ever been to LA before. If all of it is like the airport, I am not impressed. Also, I had to walk outside to transfer, and it’s much colder than I’d expect for LA in August. I just re-read my sections from the Bermuda and NY airports and I was obviously in much higher spirits then. Oh, my life more than 7 hours ago – those were good times.

Now in my Sydney apartment! Okay, I came out of the Qantas flight in a much better mood than I went onto it, in spite of the fact that I didn’t sleep too well. I think I’m now past the point of tired, but still a little dazed, like I’ve got that feeling like I’ve been on a boat; there’s this slow rocking feeling through my brain, making it somewhat difficult to concentrate, but I don’t really feel tired. I’m still confused about what time it is throughout the world though. Here’s what I have to say about Qantas: massage chairs, YAY! Screaming babies, not so yay. So not yay. But anyway: the Sydney airport people were nice and very efficient. Sydney airport >>> LA airport.

I have a cute balcony even though it just has a view of a wall.

And I’ve just been walking around the area for a couple of hours, and took a couple pretty pictures, both within a few minutes’ walking distance from my apartment (which Blogger won't let me insert here mid-post, so they're just at the top).

It’s a nice area; I like it. But the cross walk signals make weird noises. That’s my only complaint so far. Oh, also, it is much, much warmer than I was expecting considering we’re on opposite seasons. Unless you’re in a very shady area with a lot of wind, it feels only a few degrees cooler than Bermuda, and without the humidity. I went out with a light sweater and quickly felt like I didn’t need it. There were people in shorts.

There has been a slight delay in actually creating this as a blog on blogger/blogspot, because when I tried to create an account there, Google got all cranky and wanted me to verify my identity via mobile phone and I was all “Hey, Google, I just got here, I don’t have a mobile phone, and I ain’t giving you my Bermuda number and paying those roaming charges!” Now waiting…

Still waiting for Google to respond that they understand my plight. However, the delay has caused me to realize that it does, in fact, get cool here as it gets later in the day. I started by adding a sweater and now have the heat running. The delay also means that you’re getting an update on my mental state: early evening and tiredness is definitely setting in. I think it’s going to be a struggle to stay up to my usual time, particularly since I’m reading my textbook, which isn’t exactly exciting. I kind of want to see what Australian TV is like, but I have to finish at least this chapter tonight! Currently drinking the third cup of coffee of today (which, if you know me, means I’m moderating).

And! I’m getting a kind of better handle on the time difference because I realized during the first several hours I was here, people were still awake for their Monday night back home, and people will be waking up again when it’s later in my evening, but I am currently in this weird point of time when everyone’s asleep. And someone totally just tried to break into my apartment, which is not the most comforting thing for my first night, and I have no one to talk to! (I think it was just a neighbor who got confused and had the wrong door, though.)

And now it's Wednesday evening, back from my first day of work, which went ok, but I was definitely getting tired again towards the end of it. Lost my ability to concentrate. But it's a nice office with a nice view! And Google finally let me onto Blogger, so here you go.