Home is where you hang your hat.

Sunday November 15^th, 2009

We did it, we moved into our new studio. Yesterday was super busy. We started our day early again getting up just about 5:30 and not stopping until 9:00pm. We packed our stuff and stored it in the storage room at the hotel, grabbed as much as we could on our bikes and pedaled over to the rental office. We overestimated how long it would take us so we showed up more than an hour early. We grabbed a seat at a café across the street and had a bite to eat of toasted ciabbata bread and homemade jam. I’ve been Jonesing for some real coffee. The only black coffee we’ve seen so far is either instant (bleach) or really watery. I discovered that to get the kind I like I have to order a “Long Black” It has a bit of foam on top but no cream or sugar. It was heavenly and strong. I needed it.

After our brekkie (yeah I know, Leah is right at home here) we popped into the rental office at 9:00. We went over the paper work with the rental agent and got the keys. The rental process is a lot more involved here than it is in the states. They are required to be extremely clear about the responsibilities of each party. We have a huge file already devoted to the apartment. After we were done (about and hour) we set off to bike to the new place. The rental agent sort of raised an eyebrow when we told him we were biking there and now I understand why. It was a real ass kicker. Though it was only about two or three miles, there were about fifty hills to climb. And since my front brake isn’t working it was a little hairy coming back down. Not to mention we were loaded down with a ton of stuff.

We got into the place about 11:00 and took a quick inventory. Everything looking good we walked over to the train station (about five minutes walk) and headed back to the hotel. While we were there we took a minute to check our e-mail and discovered we had been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner put on by an American, Kate, and her Aussie husband, Mark. Our friend Julia in Denver had made an e-mail introduction for us to another couple Sally, and Aussie and her husband Rob, an American from Seattle. Sally and Rob were the ones who invited us to the Thanksgiving feast. They also in our panic of not being able to find an apt, kindly offered for us to stay at their place if we were in a bind, even though they are in the process of moving next week. I must say they are extremely generous to us, even though we had never met, they were willing to take us in and invited us to our first party in Oz.

We packed the rest of our stuff into a taxi and made the trip to our place. The cab ride was only $16, a pretty sweet deal compared to hauling everything by bike. After we unloaded, Leah had a horny face about organization for the next hour and a half or so. That’s really all the time we needed to stow our stuff since we don’t have a lot. Then, unpacked and smiling we walked over to K-Mart to get some bedding. Obvi we grabbed sushi once again for lunch….rolls are $2, which is pretty hard to pass up. So delicious!

K-Mart in Oz is pretty much like K-Mart in the states only not bankrupt. We spent the next hour picking out sheets and pillows, a duvet cover and a quilt. So, funny story happens in K-fart. We’re debating sheet colors and I here this tiny voice beside me, “Excuse me, do you know where my dad went?”. I look down and there’s this little red headed freckled kid looking up at me, he probably was about six. “Sorry mate,” I say, “haven’t seen him.” “Oh he says.” So I ask him what his dad looks like. “Black hair, big tummy” he says. So we suggest maybe he’s around the corner and off pops the kid. Thirty seconds later he’s back. “He wasn’t there.” The kid says with a little bit of a pouty face. So I offered to help him find his dad. I introduced myself and he tells me his name is Angus. You don’t meet too many Angus’s in the states. It takes about two minutes to find Angus’s dad, and sure enough he has black hair and a big belly. What struck me as strange about the situation was how unafraid to ask for help Angus was. Americans are frightened; it’s kind of hard to tell when you’re there.

Well we got our bedding (which was really pricey by the way and we were at K-fart mind you) and a few other necessaries and carrying our huge bags went back home. By this time it’s after three and Sally and Rob are to pick us up at four. So we made up the bed grabbed a quick shower (it’s hot here, have I mentioned that) and packed up some togs. Togs is slang for clothes I guess. Anyway, the place we’re going for dinner has a pool and we’re supposed to bring some swimmers (also slang, means Board scccchorts).

Kate and Mark live in a gorgeous house right on the river only a few blocks from the shitty apartment we looked at the day before. Leah and I were both a little surprised to know where we were so soon. So we had thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of strangers on a Saturday, temps in the 80’s and it was a pool party. I could get used to this. Pretty much all of the staples were there, only no cranberry sauce. I don’t think they even have it here unless you can special order it from USA foods. Also, they have a big yummy salad, but no salad dressing, weird huh?

There were four of us Americans and about ten or fifteen Aussies, plus five or six small children. Leah falls hard for a child with and Aussie accent. I admit it’s adorable. We found ourselves explaining what the big deal was about thanksgiving and why we have it. After dinner and a few beers we sat in the yard and chatted with our new friends, getting the 411 on cell phone plans and internet options. The only thing I’ll say right now is Ausssies have weird ways of selling phone and internet plans. It looks like we’ll have to spend a lot more than we were in the states to have similar plans. While we were sitting we could see these huge bats flying over our heads. I guess they’re flying foxes, they were about the size of a Chihuahua with wings. Huge actually slash gross.

Back home about nine pm and sleeping by nine thirty, we actually managed to sleep in until almost six this morning. We’re feeling good about that. Today we are going to check our groceries and try and find some internet access, though we’re not too hopeful as most places are closed on Sunday.

Some observations from Saturday:

-Shopping buggies here have four wheels that pivot, not just the two in front. This makes them extremely maneuverable.

-PM Dawn is still acceptable radio faire.

-Todd officially thinks he is Australian…his lingo and accents is passable for a real live Aussie.

-Bindi Irwin is alive and well every morning

-We may in fact be living in Asia, were not sure

-We heard the same story of a partygoer breaking his testicles about 5 times, who doesn’t love a ball sac story

-What Aussies call pumpkins we call squash, they don’t get the big orange things we have. During a discussion about pumpkins they were just weirded out by the fact we bother to grow them but don’t eat them.

-Birds are really, really loud here in the morning. And I don’t recognize a single one. (Except for Bush Turkeys of course.)