Let me start out by addressing the two curveballs that mother nature has bequeathed on my hometown in the past week or so. Why is it that I always miss the incredibly random weather/natural disasters?? Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t wish for mother nature’s wrath to flatten things. But when crazy crap goes down, I wanna be around to see it! We got a hurricane, which is a rarity, and I missed it. Manhattan skyscrapers shook and shimmied due to a Virginia earthquake, and I missed it. Last September, the ONE real weather phenomenon that I’ve always wanted to witness (that would be a tornado) tore through WHITESTONE specifically, and I missed that too. I was in Manhattan. There were no tornadoes in Manhattan that day. Just a lot of trains that didn’t go anywhere, which resulted in my infamous 5 hour bus ride home. Glad that the hurricane seemed to be mostly hype though. Bust seriously, what a weird week!
Sydney, on the other hand, has been perfect. “Winter” (I put this in quotes because their winter does not really exist, despite was Sydneysiders may tell you) is basically over. July and August are the nippy months, and we’re already heading into September. So how would I sum up my first Australian winter? Much like Irene, it was much ado about nothing. There were a few chilly days in July, one evening in particular where I was glad to have the gloves. There was a week in July where we got like end-of-the-world monsoon rain for DAYS on end. Other than that? Eh. Some days required a light fleece, but nothing major. It goes up to the mid-60s every day now. The chilliness hath passed. I was initially sad at first about losing my summer (even though I’ll get it back in December and January), but it the end it was no big deal.
Work has been going along fine. Nothing major to report on that front. My contract is already half over though. I’ve finally gotten the swing of things, and it’s going to be time soon enough to start thinking about where my next paycheck will be coming from, so that I don’t have to start a new ramen noodle era.
My roommate is still sick. I wasn’t sure how this was possible prior to today, but now I think I understand. I’ve never been sick for over 2 weeks in my life. This is because when I am ill, I take medicine. I also EAT. We had a discussion about food today. Apparently ALL she ever eats are instant noodles or sausages. That’s it. Every night for dinner. Noodles or sausages. She asked me today if sausages are healthy. I had to burst the kid’s bubble. I informed her that sausages are about one of the worst things you can eat, and gently suggested that perhaps part of the reason she remains ill is because she takes in ZERO nutrients? I’m not sure what’s going on up there in that top bunk. She certainly does know about tissues though, I find them all over the floor. Several have landed on my bed. This does not amuse me. We did have a discussion about the importance of door locking though. Tom and Claire were also not amused by the front door being left open all the time, so they tacked a sign up on it saying PLEASE LOCK in giant bold letters. The other Tom is gone. Apparently he was in Australia for an unpaid internship, and he only had a limited amount of funds. This kid partied like 6-7 nights a week, so one day last week he finally ran out of money and hopped a flight back home to London. Just like that, gone. You’d think that if you were supposed to be staying in a country until October, and had no income, you’d perhaps pay at least a smidge of attention to things like “budgets” and “account balances.” Weird kid. Speaking of weird, Tom’s replacement has already moved in. He seems older than the majority of us here are, and has loud conversations with himself. That’s all I’ve gathered on him so far. So that’s what’s new on the home front.
I’ve made my second excursion out of the city! Cheryl and I went to Hunter Valley, which is the wine country a couple of hours outside of Sydney. It’s actually a fairly small region, as most Australian wine comes from other parts of the country, but since it’s right on Sydney’s doorstep, it’s fairly well known and well-travelled amongst the tourist crowd. We went on a real people tour (as opposed to a tour geared toward the backpacker crowd), so the bus was fancy and all that. We made a morning tea stop in a small town called Wollombi, and unlike my Blue Mountains tour (which was geared toward backpackers) morning tea actually was morning tea – the “morning tea” stop on the mountains tour was just a fancy way of saying we’re stopping in this town for a half hour in case any of you need to go to the bathroom. We got tea and a tasty scone at the Wollombi Tavern, which was quite nice. I certainly needed the caffeine, since I had to be in the city at 7:15 am to meet the bus.
We stopped at 3 vineyards, and the wine at all three was very tasty. The first stop was a place called Lindeman’s where we tried 6 types of wine. They were all really good, and I would have considered buying 5 of the 6 kinds, but I restrained myself to only one bottle. The next vineyard we stopped at took us out into their field for a bit, and we watched a video on wine making. Then we had lunch, which was sort of a smorgasbord of various dishes for the table to share. We each had a small glass of red and white wine, and there was a list on the table of which dishes went with each wine. Naturally I just ate and drank everything in sight. Gotta get my money’s worth! The third vineyard had more good stuff to choose from, and I bought 2 more bottles, and had to restrain myself from a 3rd there. It was all so good! There was a nearby cheese shop, so we checked that out as well and got some free cheese. Minor drama ensued, as when we emerged from the cheese shop I realized that 1) we were 15 minutes late for the bus, and 2) the bus was gone. Ooooops! We had the winery call the tour company who called the driver. Turns out the last stop the bus makes for the day is at a tiny tourist village basically around the block from the winery. The driver came to fetch us. It was like a 3 minute walk back to where the bus was parked, so no serious damage done J
Friday night was my first real Shabbat dinner since Israel! Yigal (one of the FA’s who I worked for at Bernstein) was kind enough to introduce me via email to his wife’s cousin Justin, who lives here in Sydney. Justin and his wife Tami were nice enough to invite me to their family dinner. I was very pumped about that. Actual food in an actual house with actual adults, and my first contact with Jewish people since I’ve been down here! I went from being in NY and working at a financial firm founded by a guy named Bernstein to moving to a place where when I go to a supermarket and inquire about a kosher section, the kid starts talking to me about gluten-free cookies and the international section where the taco shells and tortillas are. Ummmm….
Justin and Tami picked me up at Bondi Junction, and I piled into their car with their 4 young kids. We were headed for dinner at Tami’s aunt’s house up in St. Ives, which was a bit of a drive up since it’s on the other side of town. Early on in the car ride all the kids started clamoring for their parents to play the dynamite song, which I assumed would be some nonsensical kid song that I’d tune out. Turns out they just all really love Taio Cruz’s pop hit “Dynamite.” It was really cute to see a car full of little kids singing about rocking a club all night long.
Anyway, there were maybe 12-15 people at dinner? Somewhere in that neighborhood. The food was absolutely wonderful, and everyone was very nice. It was a treat to be a part of it for a night! Cause my cooking is terrible, and backpackers tend not to discuss things other than beer, beaches and where to get cheap ramen noodles. So a nice home cooked meal and a lively debate on gender equality in the workplace was most welcome.
Sunday night I went to my first nightclub in Sydney., and of course it happened to be in Sydney’s most um… shall we say, “vibrant” part of town. I went out in King’s Cross, which is essentially Sydney’s red light district. I dolled myself up and took the train out to the Cross, and emerged from the station surrounded by bars, clubs, strip joints, girls dressed to the nines and groups of drunk guys. Lovely! I also wasn’t 100% sure where I was headed, but luckily I found the place soon enough. It wasn’t bad actually. The music was good and the drinks were tasty. Plus the walls were lined with velvet couches with little tables, and I am a huge fan of clubs with seating for the regular joes. If I have to be out all night in little heels and can’t sit anywhere, then I get cranky. We didn’t stay out too late, which was fine by me since it was a work night. I was surprised at how many people were out and about and looking to party on a Sunday night. I sort of wanted to go around and ask everyone, don’t you people have jobs???? But all in all it was a nice time, and I’m sort of glad that my introduction to King’s Cross was at night. That seems to me to be the proper way to meet the red light district for the first time!
Yesterday I went to the Taronga Zoo with Cheryl and her friend Josh. The Taronga Zoo is Sydney’s big zoo, so the tickets are quite expensive. With the ferry ticket, it’s a bout $50. Luckily enough, Josh’s work sponsors the zoo, so we got in for free!!! The zoo is very nice. It reminds me a lot of the San Diego zoo, in that it’s set on a hill. It’s a pretty place, and it boasts some great views of the harbor and opera house as well. Seriously, those giraffes have some awesome real estate:
Random thoughts:
The acceptable term here for “bathroom” is “toilet.” No one uses the word bathroom here. When I put my phone on idle at work because I have to go, I punch in the idle code as “toilet.” When you’re telling someone about your call of nature, you say that you’re going to the toilet. I dunno man, I know it’s completely normal here, but I can’t get past the fact that to my ears it sounds kind of crude to say I’m going to the toilet now. I feel like if a kid said that at home they’d get scolded for being impolite.
I bought earplugs. It was the only way to get any rest. They work a bit, they do block out some of the lower level snorting, but when that girl goes full blast, she could wake the dead. There isn’t an earplug in the world that could block out those horrible noises. The problem with them is that they make my inner ears a bit sore. Apparently the uninvited fetus did go to the doctor about her cold that seems to NEVER go away. The doctor told her to eat garlic. A whole clove. Really? That’s your top-notch medical advice? I’m pretty sure that people were eating garlic to help with immune issues like, 500 years ago. Now granted, she does need the nutritional value, but really? That’s all you got Mr. Doctor? So she bought garlic. I asked her yesterday if she ate it yet. She said she did not, because she tried to smash it up with a knife and the knife almost broke, so she gave up and will try again another day. Uhhh…. I could find about 3 dozen things in this house that we could use to smash up garlic. If she doesn’t eat it soon I may have to force feed it to her.
I found a blog online about a group of people who went a trek across Sydney to find the best shanghai soup dumplings. They travelled all across the city in a day, and just ate soup dumplings all day long, looking for the best ones. What an amazing way to spend a day! While I don’t have a car, making such a trek difficult, I did write down a few of their top places, so next “weekend” I’m hoping to go on a shorter version of their dumpling adventure. It’s gonna be exciting!
I’m working on back walkovers at one of my gyms. The coach who is helping me comes from this big gymnastics family. His brother was the first Australian gymnast to ever win a gold medal at the World Championships – that’s a HUGE deal! It’s kind of cool that I am learning from someone blood related to a gymnastics World Champion!
Another week of HSBC awaits me…. I can’t believe this job may very well be over in a month! What on earth will I do with my binder and homemade granola bar box tabs?
How long do you think you'll be stuck with this roomie?
ReplyDeletehave you tried any soup dumplings yet? you have to at least hit one place!
ReplyDeleteLove the pictures!