2004-04-04 03:09:51
Goodness I guess it’s been a while, and my public (hi mom!) is requesting more updates, so here you go. Sorry I’m not going to talk about kangaroos or the crocodile hunter or other wonderful australia things like heath ledger.
while i still get weak in the knees every time i see the beautiful view of the opera house and harbour bridge or view the sydney skyline at night, I am beginning to settle into the not-so-glamourous-this-city-is-actually-full-of-flying-roaches-and-freakin-huge-bats world of reality.
i have found a place to live. hooray! i have two american flatmates (way to branch out there, i know. but the international housing office wasn’t exactly teeming with australian kids) and we share a 2.5 bedroom apartment. thanks to my way awesome good luck and mad skillz at drawing little slips of paper out of a hat, i have the .5 of a bedroom. it’s actually a closet-sized sunroom that heats up to a cool 50 bazillion degrees (that’s celcius by the way) every morning when the sun shines in. but i love it.
so getting all set up in this new country was a bit hectic and at times very trying, but i am just continually impressed with myself and my ability to take care of simple tasks. the other day i woke up late, which actually was quite an accomplishment in itself considering we turned the clocks back and actually gained an hour of sleep. i got ready for church anyway, walked all the way down there, grasped the handle and prepared to enter and then decided -eh, screw it. did an about-face and headed back up the hill towards home. but i felt that my first big accomplishment of actually getting out of bed should not be wasted, so i walked to coles(1) to get some much desperately needed toilet paper. by ‘desperate’ i mean that there was approximately 1/3 of a square clinging to the last tp tube. Since I had bought the last month’s supply, i didn’t really want to be in charge of this junk again. but if i didn’t do anything, the boys might end up using the curtains or something. and that would be bad. wait, i don’t think we even have curtains in there which means they would have to go use someone else’s curtains. and that would be seriously bad. but what the heck was i even talking about before this mess. oh yes. me and how wonderful i am.
so, after braving the sunday morning crowd at the coles (this place has the worst setup i have ever seen in any store. ever. trying to checkout of there is a nightmare. luckily the supersize pack of tp i had only counted as one item so i could stand in the line of 20 people in the "express" lane.) i decided that i deserved a reward for all of my efforts. so i stopped by brumby’s(2) on the walk back to our flat. after carefully surveying the selection in the case, thoughtfully tasting each sample they had available, and then just staring blankly at the case while drooling for another 10 minutes (believe it or not, i have somehow earned the nickname "decision master" here. i think they are somehow picking on me. hmmm.) i ended up choosing the hazelnut chocolate chip butterfly roll. i must say this is probably one of the better decisions i have made in the past few weeks. it was heavenly.
that night andrew was replacing a light ‘globe’. since nothing can be quite simple here and also due to the fact that our flat is booby trapped, this simple operation managed to blow a fuse. so we spent an evening in the dark. joon came over to join us for a movie. he ended up staying on our ghetto couch again. i really think he would be happy to just live in our living room. oh heck, it’s already called a living room he might as well. he even has a toothbrush here. so i guess we’re really living in a 2.75 bedroom flat. sweet.
the next morning i was unstoppable. it must be my new "100% TASTY" Sanitarium(tm) cereal. doctor, pharmacist, medibank, and i even picked up my mail. since i was on such a roll, i did a few other errands and then went to the electronic store for a new fuse. the nice man in the shop (who later i wish i had kicked in the jaw) told me that while they do have fuse wire (oh yeah, these are no normal fuses. these are huge plug things probably crafted in the early 1200s with some wire you thread through and clamp down.) he said that my fuse was probably shot to hell and i would need a new one. which they don’t have. and the nearest hardware store is a 20 min walk away. suck. i came back home to regroup and look at a map. oh apparently i am sparing no detail in this long boring part of the story. so the map is kept in my closet. bottom shelf. on the left. i sipped a tall cool glass of o.j. while planning my route.
ok.
so it was really at least a half hour walk. jerkface. and when the man there looked at my archaic fuse plug thing i presented to him, he informed me in a very condescending manner that all i really need is some new fuse wire. besides, they don’t even make fuses like that any more. sonofabitch. so i got the wire and started the long journey back home. of course it was uphill both ways and i had to walk it barefoot in the snow. actually, it was a pretty nice day out and i could probably use the exercise. plus, i got to see a new part of town. and not wanting this trek into the heart of bfe randwick to go to waste, i stopped into a little secondhand store and then checked into some salsa dancing lessons on alison.
once again feeling quite proud of myself for completing the quest at hand, i decided to treat myself to a nice lunch. toast with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and dill. deeelicious. i should open up a cafe. of course i was eating all this in the dark since the fuse replacing fairy had not yet appeared. but, strengthened by my salmon, i replaced the fuse wire using a cheeseknife. (did i mention that besides being clever and wonderful and humble i am also resourceful?) i plugged that bad boy in and clk-clk-clk-click! we had light. the happy dance followed.
hmm. maybe it’s about time i should start accomplishing some studying or something.
Footnotes
- coles = grocery store. basically, for your food shopping needs your choices are coles, coles, coles, or coles express. or all the little random shops along the streets which are a lot more interesting but i haven’t figured out which shops are good for what things yet.
- brumby’s is like a panera only without the sandwiches. or soup. or coffee. okay, so it’s just a bakery. but it smells awesome as you walk past, and if you’re lucky they have samples of their chocolate cross buns sometimes so you can grab a bite on your way down the street