Out and About

Well, a lot has happened but none of it seemed substantial enough for its own post so I saved up all that flavor for one big one. Sorry for those a.d.d types who got bored (I know I myself am one of you!)

Well, I did a bad thing.

I ate kangaroo meat.

They're cute, fluffy, hoppy, and..... REALLY tasty. Many of you who know my eating habits know that i avoid big chunks of red meat, and am generally disinclined to eat steaks or pork chops or whatever have you. I just don't like chewing and chewing and chewing, and I REALLY dont like the stringy muscley bloodiness. Its just not my thing. I like bits of meat, but not big hunks. So anyways, Eli was having a kebab of kangaroo meat, so I ate a big old slab of it. It was so delicious. It was soft and juicy and sweeter than cow meat. It was everything I love about red meat (which is a lot despite the above) and nothing I hate about it. Then a few days later, we went to Tim's mum's for her tasty curry dinner (the week before we had chicken and green chili, and this time it was to be red curry and kangaroo) and it was delicious ALL over again. I still have leftovers, and am looking forward to it again, as it was also my lunch today.

I went into my temp agency today, and did all my australian work safety crap and typing tests and questionnaire filling et al. She doesnt have anything at the moment, but she is a friend of Tim's family, and she is looking for me. She gave me tips on my resume, and what goes as par for Australia, since they dress differently and write applications a bit differently. I think I might now have a chance. She said to look into other agencies, and since agencies only offer temp work, maybe i should continue looking for another job as well, to give me some permanence, which was nice to know. I felt very successful. I had been dropped off (Tim drove me so I wouldnt get lost and be late, but he is sick so I let him go home lol) so I was downtown by myself for the first time. I explored. Today being the last day of the month, and banks generally operate by charging you for shit on the first of the month, I decided that, since I was downtown by myself already, I would go to the bank and deposit some money out of my canadian account into it, so I dont get charged for going under my limit when the service charges come out tomorrow. I asked the lady at the desk of the agency I'm with for Temp jobs, and she gave me directions, however I got turned around in the elevator, and got really quite lost. I finally gave up, and went to the bus stop to go home, and the bank was right across the street from my bus stop! SIGH. So I go up to the atm which is outside the main branch on the street, and start to use my card. Of course, it is a Visa debit, so for some reason each feature has its own pin number. It only tells me this AFTER I attempt (and fail) to deposit. Each time I do this, it gives me a new envelope. I tried my 3 pins (of course it was the last one) but then I couldnt figure out which 'account' to use! Cheque (as we usually use in Canada, Saving, Credit, Visa, or Mastercard (I was unsure, as my Canadian credit card is Mastercard, and I got confused.) Again it gave me a new envelope every time. Turns out it was a savings account, which was the last one I tried. I had about a metric ton of envelopes in my hand. Two Indian guys were watching me, and trying not to laugh. Sigh. I then hopped on the bus and made it home without further damage, though I did get off one bus stop too early because Tim didn't explain it the way I would have, and I had to walk an extra two blocks. Woe is me.

In the meantime, the sickness that plagued me every day since I have been here (just over a month now!!) and every time I am in a moving vehicle has finally died a violent death. I am a completely different person not having the threat of 'when today am I going to feel like violent shit' lurking at every bend. I just feel so much more conent and happy. And motivated! I didn't realize what a toll it had taken on me, because I was being a surly bitch without even noticing it (Tim was trying not to say anything, but he couldnt deny it when i asked, bless him, he's so brave.) But, its all over, and I am much happier and calmer. I am looking forward to future car rides where I can actually look around instead of trying to keep my insides as just that... insides.

If You Go Out in the Woods Today...

So, yesterday the boys decided that since almost everyone in the house had the day off, that we were all going to go on an adventure in the woods. Don't ask me why boys who like to paint on things and go in drains wanted to go into the woods, but we went. The trees here are amazing, and I've been completely loving the gum trees, palm trees, and whatever else that grows around here (90% of them look way more climbable than anything I've ever seen in Canada) but, I have been saying how much I missed my pine trees. So we go to this place they went to before, and after getting lost, twice, we found our way to a PINE forest!!! I spent hours walking around with pine cones and needles, and it was awesome. I was a little home sick. It was amazing.

Aside from that, everything is going well, though I'm still looking for a fun job, SIGH.

Oh, Devon sent me photos of the fires outside of Vernon and I am SHOCKED. Hope it gets over itself soon so everyone can go back to normal, I'm trying to send you some of the rain we've been getting down here ;)

Home is Where Your Giant Backpack is.

Well, we're back home in Adelaide now, and it really does feel like home now. The holiday was amazing and I loved seeing other pieces of Australia, but damn it's nice to be home, an do home stuff. Luckily yesterday and today have been super sunny so I've been able to do laundry and hang it to dry instead of carting all my shit to a laundromat. Dryers are not popular here, much to my dismay. Unfortunately though, I ended up putting one load up a little too close to sunset, and they didn't dry. Tim said it should be nice enough, just leave them out overnight, and while he was right, today is nice enough, at 3am when I woke up it was winding and raining like you would not believe! I decided it best to just clean up in the morning, and stay in bed. Turns out only one sock and a pillow case made it to the ground and the rest is nice and dry, excellent!

That said, Brisbane was super fun, we toured around the City a lot, went to the huge malls (like Indooroopilly, seriously I will give any Canadian who can pronounce that on the first try money) and the park along the river (Southbank.) It was so warm! It honestly felt like late spring in Canada, and it was shocking that this is mid-winter here. Tim's cousins took us to Wagamama for J-food, and it was (for everyone else) delicious, but i ordered potentially the most boring dish on this earth, sucks to be me! Even without much flavor, it was still pretty tasty though. I went to a Subway for lunch, and ordered my go-to sub that I ALWAYS get because it is the best (chicken bacon ranch) and it was not NEAR as good. For one, they just used ham, because bacon is not Canadian bacon, which I accepted, but they also use way more processed cheese, so it ws just incredibly weak. However, Tim and I both have a love for McDonald's breakfast, so we went for that, and while they don't have my go-to item there, they did have something even MORE exciting, a double bacon muffin. Its two hunks of Aussie bacon, and cheese and muffin, and it is better than anything i have ever had fast food in the morning ever.

I do unfortunately have work to do today, euck. This week the goal is to find a job, so I have to Australia-ize my resume. I also have to finish all my laundry, since my backpack's waterproof coating is wearing off and has covered all my clothes in waterproof powder, and stink. Then I'm going to rip apart Tim's old street directories and make a giant wall sized map of Adelaide so I can get my bearing as to where things are. Finally, we are hopefully going to find supplies to craft shelves and a closet the DIY way... I don't know if I have mentioned this, but our room is TINY and I should probably post pictures of it. Its a long skinny rectangle, and it is exactly as wide across as a double bed. To be honest, I love this little room (it just despirately needs so homey touches.)

Sights, Sounds and Sun

Well, I'm in Brisbane at Tim's Aunt and Uncle's house, we just got in yesterday after a few days trip to Hamilton Island (seriously, google that shit, because I can't describe in full how awesome this place is.)
Hamilton Island was wonderful, it's "as far north" as Tim has ever been in Australia, and as a result, despite being winter, it was only chilly at night, and warm during the day... However, they don't believe in heating their outdoor pools, so swimming was a little bit too cold for my liking, but the fact that I even considered it at a 'mere 21 degrees' was enough to label me as Canadian. There were tropical flowers, birds, palm trees EVERYWHERE and no cars on the whole island, only golf buggies. It was so much fun. We were there for Tim's sister's wedding so there was all the family schmooze and drama and such that goes along with, but how can you be grumpy in tropical island weather? The cockatoos were as big as Canadian crows, and very brave; the other birds were super cute too I think they were called Rosettas. Tim and I also went off the main beaches and walked around on the rocky bits through some rich person's unused holiday home backyard and through a construction site (we couldn't get back up the way we came so we had to make due) and it was all very fun. The best part about it was meeting people from so many different states, and picking up all their fun slang. One of Bianca's (the bride) friends stayed with us a few nights, and she was hilarious. I also have never eaten so much cheese and crackers as I did those few days.

We're in Brisbane now, and we're going out tonight for dinner, so I will update about this section of the trip later, when I have more time. Mmm, Japanese food.

Cheers!