spontaneous road trip...

Once again this past week I had three days off in a row. My friend Dan and I decided to plan a trip to take advantage of my time off. We were unsure of where to go so we rented a car on monday afternoon with plans to travel south the following day. Tuesday morning dan and I left Sydney with two comforters, two pillows, a backpack, some bread, peanut butter, nutella and no plans. I volunteered to drive since I don't mind driving and thought it would be an interesting experience driving on the other side of both the car and the road. And despite a few close calls, I think I did fairly well (the cars on my left side that I almost side-swiped might beg to differ, but we returned the car in one piece and to me, that's what matters). We spent the three days driving and stopping at places with names that sounded appealing to us. We made it to Kangaroo Valley, Jervis Bay, Batemans Bay, Pebbly beach and Dolphin bay. Along the way we finally got to see kangaroos in their natural habitat, and even a few on the beach. We tried "the world's best pies" and stopped to eat lunch in the midst of several cows. We witnessed the sunrise on the beach and the sunset as we were driving by the coast. The last day we spent in Canberra, the capital city, exploring the sights that we felt were necessary to see during our time spent in Australia. To save money on accommodation we spent the first night sleeping outside in an empty field and the second night sleeping in the car. Both of which were surprisingly successful.

one month.

So tomorrow I will officially have been in Sydney for one month. And I can definitely say that the month has gone better than I could have ever hoped for. I love my apartment and the ten others i share it with, I have begun to get the hang of my waitressing job, I have met some amazing travelers, tried many new foods and seen some beautiful sights.

The last week has been pretty eventful. On Sunday, four of my housemates and some friends rented a van to drive to the Blue Mountains (a famous mountain range about an hour away). Renting a car was the cheapest way to get there since we split the cost amongst eight people, the only problem was that no one had any experience driving on the opposite side of the road. Two of my housemates volunteered to try it out, and luckily we only drove into one-way traffic once during the entire trip.

Eventually we made it there safely after stopping on the way at a wilderness park to see koalas and kangaroos. The koalas and kangaroos were out in the open so we were able to pet them and take pictures, which i was really excited about.

The Blue Mountains were absolutely beautiful. We spent the day hiking and packed lunches to eat along the way.




I was given three days off from work in a row the next week, so my friend Dan and I decided to go to Melbourne. We booked the flight two days before and the hostel the day before and decided not to make any plans and just go. This was a little tough for me, but I decided to give not making plans a try and it ended up working out great.

Tuesday we spent most of the day exploring Melbourne and we found a free comedy show to go to that night. Wednesday we rented bikes for the day and biked along the river. While biking we came across a rock climbing wall, sort of hidden in the confines of the trail and decided to give it a try.

After working up quite a sweat rock climbing, we made the conscious decision to jump into the nearby river, despite the "private property- no trespassing" signs.

We tried quail and rabbit that night for dinner, which was actually delicious. Thursday we ventured St. Kilda beach, one of the only nearby beaches and spent the day there and the night out in the city. As "Melbourners" describe it Melbourne is a city of "culture", which to me means it is a city of cafes and shopping. We asked most of the locals for things to do and they couldn't seem to give us an answer. They would tell us about things to do an hour north or an hour south, but never in the actual city. So being there three days seemed to be enough.






In regards to my job, my boss seems to love me for some odd reason. I still struggle to carry three dishes at once and have some difficulty remembering where I am bringing each dish when I am halfway through carrying them, but for some reason he has been giving me a lot of shifts and even gave me a Sunday shift this week! (in Sydney, Sundays you get paid time and a half). I have learned that if I always look as if I am doing something I will not be bothered, so sometimes I will briskly walk back and forth across the boat to avoid doing other things. I will probably continue to work another three weeks and then quit before i travel to New Zealand and up the coast to Cairns.

i am slowly becoming cultured...

Sydney is a city of many cultures. In my two weeks here I have met more people from different countries than I have met in my entire life. I have learned about the beautiful sights and cheap prices in Thailand, I have tried Indonesian food (not my favorite) and African food, I have listened to a new friend speak "Sing-lish," a slang form of English spoken in Singapore and I have listened as a Latin man explained to me why Latin men make the best boyfriends...

In addition I have learned how to balance four plates at one time, I have learned to refer to the "check" as the "bill" so as to not confuse the cooking staff who thinks the diners have asked to see the "chef," I have discovered that washing your hair with soap isn't the end of the world and orange lemon lime juice is not as delicious as the name may appear to be.




This weekend was Mardi Gras weekend. Mardi Gras in Sydney is a celebration of gay rights. On saturday night at 8pm there was a parade through Oxford Street in Sydney where people dressed up in any possible thing you could imagine and marched through the streets. Unfortunately I didn't get to see all of the parade because i had to work. Apparently the extremely slow pace I carry trays at and my terrible pronounciation of each dish managed to get me five days of work this week. But I can't really complain since I am happy to have a job and be making some money.




The past few days I have spent exploring as much of Sydney as possible. I spent a day in the botanical gardens, and a few hours in the Powerhouse museum and Museum of Contemporary Art. I spent some time at another new beach nearby and saw the University of Sydney campus. There are so many things to do here, and I'm trying to fit in as much as possible before i venture up the east coast.

apparently waitressing is harder than it looks...

Last night was my third night of working on the South Steyne. The first few hours I spent greeting and seating people. For some reason my boss always likes to give me this job. It makes me wonder whether he thinks I am friendly and do such a great job greeting people or whether he thinks I am incompetent and can't handle any of the other jobs. Either way, aside from my legs getting slightly sore from standing in one place, I don't mind the job. I get to meet and chat with people from all over the world, people watch the people in the restaurant across the way and I discovered that if I lean far enough to the left I can see the television in a nearby bar that is usually playing a soccer or rugby match. It has been about 75 degrees every night too, so that doesn't hurt.

After a few hours of seating people, I was told that i would be "running." In waitressing terminology this means going back and forth from the kitchen to the tables serving people their food. At first I thought this would be simple, until I realized how ridiculously heavy a tray with four dishes on it could be. I balanced the tray and slowly carried it to the table, upon realizing that I had no idea what any of the dishes were. The dishes are very expensive and because of that i don't know what anything is. It doesn't help that some foods have different names and everytime the kitchen says table 13 it sounds like table 30 to me. Eventually I started to get the hang of it, but I fear the day that they make me actually start waitressing!

kangaroo is quite tasty...

The past few days have been pretty eventful. Lets see, I ate kangaroo for the first time, I even cooked it myself once with a friend, I moved into my apartment, I got my first true Australian sunburn and i learned how to cook curry.

So I have not yet seen a kangaroo, but i have managed to eat them twice. The taste of kangaroo is tough to describe but I guess I would say that it tastes like chewy steak. You can buy it marinated at the supermarket, order a kangaroo burger from a fast food place or go all out with a kangaroo fillet. My friend and I made 'roo cheese steaks' and they were delicious!

Moving into my apartment went well. I arrived at the apartment at 10:30 am on Sunday and mostly everyone was still sleeping, but I hung out in the apartment most of the day and eventually got to meet all ten of my roommates. I am in a three person room with a Dutch girl and a girl from Belgium. Everyone is in Australia for different reasons, either studying, working or just trying to perfect their English. The only problem is that I am terrible with names to begin with and several of them have names that i can barely pronounce, nevermind remember, so i have to work on that. Three of the guys in the apartment play soccer (the Turkish, Colombian and Brazilian guys- go figure), so i finally have others to play with! Everything is in convenient walking distance from the apartment. Town hall station with trains and buses all over the city is just down the block, Hyde Park (similar to central park) is a few minutes away, Darling Harbour (where i work) is about a ten minute walk and there are supermarkets and shops all around.

Monday was my second day of work and my first payday. Apparently in Australia Monday is pay day. They explain the reasoning to be that if they pay on fridays everyone will waste their money on alcohol over the weekend, so Monday is a better choice. Makes sense. I spent most of my shift greeting and seating people and being asked where i was from.

Apparently it is really hard to get a job here and I lucked out. I have met travelers that have been trying for months to get a job with no luck. In my five hour shift, three girls stopped and asked if we were hiring.

Yesterday I went hiking at Royal National Park, which is the second oldest national park in the world (after Yellowstone, which i have yet to see!) I have no idea how they determine the age of a national park, but i didn't question it. Even after numerous warnings, I packed sunscreen and decided not to wear it since it was cloudy and about 75 degrees. That wasn't the greatest of ideas. But I guess I learned my lesson.

I am no longer unemployed...

So, after a few days of handing out my resume and a couple hundred emails, I finally got a job. Yesterday I received a call from the South Steyne, a fancy restaurant in darling harbour, asking me if i was available that night. I jumped at the opportunity, unaware what my shift might entail. I stretched the truth a bit about my waitressing experience so I was a little afraid at what they might expect me to know.

The restaurant is on a boat that is docked in Darling Harbour and is a popular spot for private parties and events (http://www.southsteyne.com.au/index1.htm).

I arrived at 6pm in black pants and black shoes, ready for whatever might be thrown at me. I was given a tour of the restaurant and told that i was going to help with catering an event. So most of the night was spent running food from the kitchen to the private party and passing it out to the guests. The most difficult part was learning the different names that Australians have for the same food. Shrimp is called prawn and peppers are capsicum. The entire beginning of the night I called the hor derve i was passing out steak with peppers until an Australian asked me what a pepper was. At first I thought it was an odd question but then realized that I had been calling it by the wrong name and people had just been going along with it, probably having no idea what it was.

The other people I work with are all around the same age and all very nice. I am in shock that I found such a great job. I have three more shifts this week and I'm hoping they go as well as the first.