Day 7

Shiny new apartment, shiny new interwebs connection!

I moved into my flat with Erin and Kylie (That’s her name!). She is super super nice and I think we are all going to get along swimmingly. She’s from South Carolina and seems normal and is chatty with a good sense of humor. Whoo! I seem to really luck out in terms of roommates.

We were met and let into the place by a guy named Malcolm, but we’ve taken to calling him Marco and he shall hence forth be known thusly. Is thusly a word? Spell check says yes, so I’m going with a yes.

Marco is a pretty cool dude. He was born in the US but has lived in Brisbane for 11 years. He is 20 but certainly doesn’t look it, I would have guessed 25. He let Kylie and I into the flat and told us what 3 out of the 6 keys we have do.

The flat itself is pretty nice. It has a common room and a very nice balcony and two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a decent kitchen. The only problem is there is some obvious lack of care for the place. The dishes hadn’t been washed since the last people lived here, there is stuff on the walls, the majority of the light bulbs were dead, and Erin’s mattress pad had some….stains. Let’s leave it at that.

Most of the things that are wrong with it are easily remedied; the flat itself is pretty nice. Blatantly meant for two people and not three. My bed is actually in front of a door to another small balcony that both bedrooms lead out onto, but I don’t think the door actually works so it doesn’t really matter.

Marco took Kylie and I to buy sheets and go grocery shopping. We also got these delicious bacon and cheese pizza like things, except there was no sauce. So yummy. I want to find the bakery again and get another, because WHEW it was good.

We got our sheets at a place named Pillow Talk (snicker), and Kylie and I spent around twenty minutes looking for the cheapest ones there. We surprisingly ended up with some nice ones, I would actually use my bed spread in the states, it’s got polka dots! After Pillow Talk we went to Coles, a grocery store. It is pronounced like Kohl’s…but it isn’t Kohl’s. It’s a grocery store. I was confused at first, but thankfully this is a textual medium so you won’t have to be.

One thing that I noticed is that Australians pretty much all have those bags to replace plastic ones. In the states they are just now becoming big, but pretty much everyone already had them. I felt odd with my groceries in plastic bags, that is how many people had them. Thankfully we have recently had time to explore our place a bit more and found a decent sized stash of them.

Erin got in at around 4, and Marco, Kylie and I were just getting back when she pulled up. Through a team effort, we managed to get everything up to our apartment in one trip.

We probably should have looked around the flat before going shopping, because we missed a few key things. Like napkins and/or paper towels, a bath mat, paper for the printer. Some things were left behind from the previous tenants such as trash bags and some dish soap, but we didn’t take inventory before shopping so it’s just odd.

The flat also has a strange cacophony of eggstraneous items (Picture of egg for pun relevance). Among the odd items is body paint (two colors), several books about Australia (obviously), one on Autism, Jenga, a single 9 volt battery, and a copy of The Lake House. Some of it will be useful (Australia books) and some is just interesting (body paint?!).

This week has been Orientation Week (AKA O Week), so we’ve been going to some mandatory meetings on campus. They’ve been alright, some boring some interesting. There was a guy named Rus who was very entertaining. It turns out he was actually Erin’s tour guide in Sydney, so that was snazzy. He showed a group of four students how to eat Tim Tams.

Oh man, I need to describe Tim Tams. They are these delicious cookie wafers. The proper way to eat a Tim Tam is to bite off opposite corners. Then stick one end into a drink such as coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and suck like a straw. The liquid will saturate the cookie and it will begin to implode. Quickly stick it in your mouth and prepare for what is known as a Tim Tam orgasm.

I haven’t tried it that way yet, only eaten them straight but man they are yummy that way too. I need to get my hands on some hot chocolate to try it out.

The funny thing about Tim Tams is that they are universally loved. Literally EVERYONE loves Tim Tams. They will walk by and try and resist, but the things draw you in. There is nothing in the US that everyone loves. I mean, people like Oreos or candy bars of some sort, but nothing that every single person will buy and love.

I’ve been looking for someone to do research with this week. I was supposed to meet with someone yesterday, but he was out of his office at the time. Still working on it, I have two good leads. I am meeting with them tomorrow and Friday and hopefully one or both would be willing to take me on. I only have to pick one, but options are always fantastic.

Yesterday we watched an Australian game show on television. It was pretty amazing. It was something along the lines of generations competing, but they were all so sassy! There was a baby boomer team, generation X team, and a generation Y team. There were just little quips and I’m not sure how they decided the winner, it was very arbitrary. Also the only prize (as far as I could tell) was a little tiny trophy that they had to give back. It was a really good watch.

Sorry there are no transitions here, I’m just very tired. It seems that I always get really exhausted at around 8. It isn’t just me, both Erin and Kylie are just finished at around then. We think it might be due to it getting dark at around 6 here (like it is completely black outside by 6). Normally the daylight slowly recedes and it is a transition into winter hours, but since we all went from summer to winter times it is just disorienting to our bodies.

Sleepy sleepy, my other updates will be better honest!