Sleeping, Searching, and Shorncliffe

I realize I haven't updated in a while, so I figure I'd surprise everyone with a new post. It's 4:40 pm here, and I'm just sitting around waiting for it to be time for me to cook my spiral noodles and finish up some of the leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge. It's an exciting life. (it was delicious by the way)

Over the past few weeks, we haven't really done much but hang around the house, watch movies, watch tv shows on laptops, play XBOX, go to Indro for food,  go to Indro to buy food, and whatnot. We did have a day where everyone was free, so we went to Shorncliffe Beach for a little outing.

Brisbane is on the coast, and the river is connected to Brisbane bay, which is really only the technical term for the pacific ocean, just because there are islands on the coast. So its not hard to find a decent beach once you hit the coast, you  just have to go up high enough or down low enough from the mouth of the Brisbane river to get to a decent non-polluted spot.

We stopped at Indro on the way, because Emily and Cal wanted to deposit the cash that Emily and I gave them for rent - since we dont have Australian bank accounts yet because we don't have jobs yet. (more on that in a minute).
I took out some more cash, and Emily and I bought bubble tea. Bubble tea is basically flavored tea with tapioca balls at the bottom. it's an experience, but the texture isn't for everyone.  I had it in my backpack, because apparently its forbidden to drink or eat on public transportation. Emily always told us to hide our drinks a bit on the bus and not drink while on the bus, just because they don't approve of it. But apparently it goes beyond that. It is a $220 fine to drink or eat on a train in this country. I suppose unless you are in the dining car and you bought the drink or food there. So we could only drink our bubble tea while walking between platforms, and waiting on platforms.

Since we took the bus to Indro first, we had to walk to Indro train station, get a train to Roma Street station, and then get a train to Shorncliffe.

Fun fact: Unlike other public transport, where you can buy a monthly pass with unlimited rides, in Australia you need to top up your Go-card whenever it runs low. The only thing the system does to help you is that any transfers you make within an hour are called continuations, so you don't get charged for every apparatus you board (as long as its all within the hour).

We got to Shorncliffe train station, and started walking. We didn't know where the shore was, so Emily took out her smart phone and got a GPS but Cal just kept walking up the hill because he was sure it would lead to somewhere. He was right, and we caught up to him.

Then we had to climb down to the actual shore area. When we got there, the weather was nice, but as we started walking on the sand, it got cloudy. Then while we were all walking out on a make-shift pier that any lifeguard would tell you not to walk on - ever - it started raining really hard, and got very windy. Walking out on it, i was just afraid a tidal wave would come up or something.

 The beach, the one area of the whole park that has a big area of sand designed for laying out. The rest of the places with sand were just to walk or explore or gather sea-shells.

 the thing we walked out on.


 
To give you an idea of how long it was ^

Then it rained.

 then it started raining again. Emily U attributed it to the Upton family curse. Apparently it always rains when you bring an Upton to the beach with you.

 Then we got some chips, and we started a cult following of air rats, or Jonathan Livingstons, if you will.

 Saw ridiculous double rainbows.

 and a crane.

 and a crap ton of dead jellyfish on every stretch of sand, ever, everywhere. It made it very very hard to convince yourself to go into the water, no matter how hot it got outside. (and right before the second downpour, it was 90+ in the sun with no clouds).

 Then after we finished our chips (and by chips I mean fries) we got on a train back home, but we went to the train station in Sandgate, since we had walked far enough on the coast to be closer to that station. So that was nice. The town of sandgate is actually super cute, and with more time and a second trip, it is a cute little beach town with shops and stuff.

Then we got off in Brisbane City, stopped in a discount book store - where I FINALLY found a copy of Oliver Twist that I didn't HATE the cover of!! I've always wanted the island trees library copy, because its green leatherbound and vintage looking, but they sold it in the book fair and I missed out on snagging it. Most covers have ugly drawings of Fagin, or cartoons of little boys, or just nothing. So this one is cream colored with white and blue pocket watches. It's very nice, and it was cheap. It's one of my favorite books, so I'm happy that I finally own it. I also got two other books that only cost me $5 for both. So not a bad haul. 

We also went into a discount souvenir shop. It was HUGE and full of a lot of junk. I only bought a pin, because I was feeling a bit frugal. I'll be going back though, just for the two things I was mulling over. They also sold taxidermied ball sacs of kangaroos. For $20. how tacky.

Then we went to Pancake Manor, which is a pancake restaurant and bar in an old catholic church. I am positive that the church was de-consecrated when it was sold, otherwise no one would ever have been able to open a bar inside the place. I got chocolate jewels, which were two large chocolate pancakes, with cream, chocolate ice cream, and hot fudge. I couldn't finish it, but it was delicious. Cal finished it for me.

The next day, Emily and I had to sit around the house all day waiting for the internet company guy to come fix our wifi connection. When he came, he freaked out the cat, and kind of us too because he was quite enthusiastic, had a really strong accent - like he was a Cockney Australian. it was strange, and we couldnt understand a word he said really. He walked in, checked something, and then left with his bag and didnt come back for a good hour. So we didnt know what was going on. Then for a few hours he was in and out, fixing wires outside on the street and stuff. Then he said he hated our block, and was sweaty so he lifted his shirt up and looked like he was going to full on take it off,  but the looks on our faces (I presume) stopped him from doing so, so he smoothly just wiped his face with it.
He got it fixed finally, and then left, but we still had no connection, so Emily called Cal to figure it out. But then we finally got it working!

Then we ordered Pizza Hut delivery and it was very good. I got the supreme. Large pizzas here are a bit smaller than Papa John's larges in America. We each got our own and it lasted me dinner that night, and lunch for two more days (despite its size it was filling. yay)

Since then we've been sitting around, literally.
I've applied to a few more jobs, researched some others, and have gotten lost into the throes of insecurity and downright fear. I will happily explain these things, once I can put them into words that won't offend the people with me here (because it is not their fault) nor wound my pride over my strong decision to come here. I've had two lovely conversations with my mom and with my darling ring sister about my concerns and I feel a bit better now, but talking it out would be great for all of you who's interest has only peaked because I decided to include this paragraph. Now you'll be waiting for that update, because what is more juicy than a glimpse into my own tortured anxiety-ridden mind?

Not much, I say. Not much ;)

Conquering Brisbane

Oh hey there friends. I suppose you’re ready to hear about our conquering days in Brisbane City and Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Well let me begin by saying that this city is beautiful and after one day walking around the city I know why Emily U is in love with this place. It really is the perfect blend of city and country. It is a beautiful place.

Our first conquering trip, we decided to go to Roma Street Parklands  first. Roma Street Parklands is a huge park full of Australian plants and flowers, and just generally a beautifully designed park. It has a lovely flow. I think Amy needs to get her butt over here and check this out. Billy would blow up his Instagram feed at this place too. 

When you first walk in, it’s a big open field with two waterfalls. The two waterfalls have a path between them lined with bamboo, into a bigger area with checkered tiles and more plants, that lead into the rainforest section of the park. The rainforest area includes Fern Gully, which is aptly named because it is a gully full of all types of fern. And lots and lots of water dragons (lizards). Fern Gully bridge is a winding wooden bridge that has an incline, but is so unnoticeable that you don’t even know you’re climbing up until you see that where you just were a few minutes ago is an entire level beneath you. It is crazy cool! So the bridge winds all through the rainforest area, up to the tallest point of the park, which is a great way to see the pond and the first bit of Brisbane city. 

The rest of the park is sidewalks and flowers, little mosaic gardens, streams, tree-lined paths, staircases, and more lizards. Here are some more photos:

My camera died almost as soon as we got into the rainforest area, so Emily U let me use her camera to take pictures of what I wanted, because she’d been there before.  Her camera died just before we got to the big flower garden, so Tex Emily took a lot of pictures for us. I’ll be back in that park though at a later date, because it is just so great.

It was very hot at this point, but we still decided to walk over to South Bank. We walked a few blocks in the center of Brisbane CBD (City Business District – basically the busiest area) and stopped in a 7-11 to cool off, and ended up getting the most amazing slurpees. They had mango, raspberry, coke, and virgin margarita. So Emily U and I got raspberry virgin margaritas and Tex Emily got mango margarita. It was incredibly tasty.

Then we crossed one of the bridges on foot, saw all of the tall buildings that Brisbane has to offer, saw the Wheel of Brisbane which is about ½ the size of the London Eye, and then walked down along the side of the river into South Bank. South Bank is another park area, but it has all of these pools and man-made beaches. My camera was still dead, so I don’t have any pictures of South Bank that are mine yet, but here are some of Tex Emily’s:

We got on one of the water things which was basically a scale model of the Brisbane river and all of its branches. It shot water up in jets and flowed over the edges. Very very refreshing on this hot day, though I think all of us wouldn’t have complained much had we “accidentally fallen” into one of the larger pools, fully clothed. 

Then we walked back to the cultural center to catch the bus home, agreeing to stop in Indro shopping center to get some food from the food court. Once we got there, it was almost 6 pm, so everything was closed pretty much except for the American fast food places. I chose McDonalds and took it to go.

We caught the 444 from Indro shopping centre, and Emily said that I smelled delicious. (or the fries in my backpack did). We got back to the house and we were all very relieved to hear that Thor had been back and had left again. But Cal and Emily figured that he’d be back soon because it was almost 6 and therefore dinner time. Not that he hadn’t been catching geckos or birds all day - but hey, I bet there’s some satisfaction in getting your people to feed you gravy coated mincemeat. 

I ate my McDonalds and I can say that the fries are shit. If you bought McDonalds fries and left them in the fridge for three days. Limp and greasy. And stale. It was bad. The big mac was alright. It had a good ratio of special sauce to stuff. It definitely was not as bad as my first big mac in England. I still remember that one.

We watched an episode of the Syfy show,  Warehouse 13. It was quite cheesy, I think a bad version of the X Files. The lead woman had very puffy and dry lips that I just could not stop staring at. I think the level of suspense and the level of writing were that of a prodigious 8^th grader. In fact, I think I would’ve only enjoyed the show had I been in 8^th grade, a glorious time when clichés thrilled me. I mean, the show is about two Secret Service agents who hunt all these mysterious creatures. (Think X Files meets Supernatural meets Bones). Tex Emily watched an episode with us the next day after Lone Pine, and she was equally as unimpressed with it. So I then popped in Pitch Perfect because Cal and Emily hadn’t seen it and it was a blast. I can watch that movie over and over.  

Anyway.  My fan blade broke, and tape wouldn’t hold it. It was shooting more air out of the edges of the dome than at me.  Which was no bueno. I can’t be in my room at night with the windows open because the light attracts bugs and there are no screens. I can’t even have my door open really without getting bugs, but it would really help with getting a draft from outside if I had my door open….perhaps not dying of heat stroke is worth the fauna that would enter my bedroom and never leave. Like my good friend Barth.

The next night, the broken fan blade was still broken, but then in the middle of the night, probably around 5 am, the fan fell completely off its perch and the front broke off, I wake up horribly to this ridiculously loud bang and all this noise, and the front of the fan popping off caused a different fan blade to crack off entirely. So the fan was useless and broken. So the next few hours of sleep were very very hot and stuffy. This was the day that I HAD to go to Indro and HAD to find a new fan. The next place to look for one was Target, and I found one. It is highlighter yellow and it is very powerful and very effective. It cost me enough that I want to take it home with me, but not enough that it would be worth plugging into an adapter just to use it at home. 

The next day Emily U and I went to Indro in the morning just to go on facebook and check email and fill out a few more job applications. We left after lunch time, and had a bit of a time crunch between getting back to the house, getting Tex Emily, and then getting to the other bus stop to meet Cal to all go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary together. We had about 20 minutes to do all of these things – hoping the bus wouldn’t come early.

We made it – the bus was not early, nor was it late. It arrived precisely when it meant to. Like Gandalf.

The bus ride was winding, and the driver was a bit cray, so I wasn’t feeling too hot when we stopped, but the promise of koalas and kangaroos made it better. When we got to the ticket counter, I made the decision to just go ahead and get the yearly pass. It was $32 for one-day admission, or $60 for a yearlong pass. I plan on going back a couple times, so already it was worth it to me than paying $32 each time…and also with perks it’s 20% off all food and merchandise, and whenever we get the professional koala pictures, we get double whatever the package is for the price of one. So that was worth it. Emily and Cal have year passes as well, so they got 20% of the $32 for Tex Emily. I had to pay full price for the year pass though, which is totally fine. So now I have this cute Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary photo ID. 

For a zoo, the place is super cute. There are a lot of activities with different animals, but we got there too late for most of them (hence going again! For free!) so we walked around through the first few areas with different animals and then went to the souvenir shop to get the vouchers for the professional koala pictures. Once we got the vouchers, we went on line to get the koala pictures. The koalas at this point in the day were not having it, especially since all of the people in front of us were crowded around and chattering away so once I got up there, the handler girl tried to put two different koalas on me and they just were not happy anymore so the handlers put all of the koalas away and took out different ones. The third one she tried was Maximus and he is the one that was chilling on me for a bit. 

The cool thing about the place is that your friends are totally allowed to take pictures of you with the koala for free, and the professional girl comes over and takes one too and if you paid for it you can have it, but you can also do it for free. Which is nice, no other place I know of that sells the photos also lets you take them for free. 

Tex Emily got hers done next, and Maximus was fine with her too. She didn’t have to stand there while the handlers found a koala in a good mood like I did lol. Lucky her. She was nice enough to take a video of me getting rejected by koalas. 

While the pictures were printing we headed over to the kangaroo enclosure, which is a huge open field full of kangaroos and a few wallabys, and they sell bags of pellets to feed them in the souvenir shop. Kangaroos are awesome, very soft, and pretty chill. By the end of the trip, the Emilys were calling me the kangaroo whisperer because I made a few kangaroo friends. Here are some pictures:

A baby koala!!

After this, Cal decided to go home, so the three of us conquered the zoo without him. We saw more koalas, Tasmanian devils, dingoes, a platypus, birds, more lizards roaming, more bush turkeys, and wombats. Wombats are HUGE I don’t know if you thought they were koala sized like me, but they are actually more like wild boar sized. But they are sooooo cute! Cute in the way that they could rip your face off if they wanted to, but they look like Precious Moments at the same time.

Bush Turkeys were wandering around at their leisure, without cages. 

 

Cal said earlier, when we asked if people ate them, that the only way to eat a bush turkey is to cut it up into pieces, wrap the pieces in banana leaves, dig a hole in the ground and layer it with hot coals, and then put the banana wrapped pieces in it, cover it with wet burlap, more hot rocks, and then put one really big rock over the entire hole. Then let them cook in the hole and once the big rock is softened, eat the rock.

I’m guessing bush turkey is not delicious.

After Cal left, it was getting close to closing time. We walked around and ended up by the bird cages, and we made friends with a red-tailed black cockatoo. We talked to him and he squawked in return, and nodded his head a lot and showed us his feathers. He was a cool bird.

 

A kookaburra!

 

Then we went to the last cockatoo cage, with a big white cockatoo with lime green head and tail feathers. His name was Mr. Cocky and he was pretty chill. He talked to us a bit too, and then he danced to Gangnam Style when Tex Emily played it on her phone. We’re gonna get rich off youtube with the video. Then the place was closing, so we went back to the parking lot to wait for the bus. 

Apparently we were less than 10 minutes late for the last bus, so we then had to wait about 40 minutes for the next one. But we entertained ourselves in the bus gazebo. 

Emily U got off at the bus stop for the house, but Tex Emily and I went to Indro to go to this sushi place that we’d checked out the night before. It was one of the ones with the moving train covered in dishes and then you pay depending what the color of the plate was that you took. It was by sheer luck that we chose to go there on a night when every plate no matter what color only cost $3.50.

It was amazing! Great sushi, great options, very fresh  - just a horrible set-up for someone who is impulsive lol. Like OH THAT LOOKS GOOD MUST GRAB. That was kinda me, sort of. So now this place is going to be our Tuesday hangout because it is just THAT good. Emily studied abroad in Japan while Emily and I were in London, so she was having mad nostalgia there because it was authentic and delicious. She got a rice cake for dessert and almost cried. I know the feeling – every time I have Strongbow.

We haven’t done much since Lone Pine except go to Indro for internet in the library, go to Indro to get bubble tea or go to Indro to run errands. I know I’m getting the timeline wrong on this blog post – but from now on, I promise to be better with posting! Especially once we get the wifi back, I won’t have any excuse.

We’ve been marathon-style watching Game of Thrones, because I had never seen it before. Anyone who likes fantasy ANYTHING should watch Game of Thrones. It is a great show. Very well made, very well acted. We’re just starting season 2 now. 

Sorry this has taken so long to write! But at least I got the pictures up on facebook to sort of ease your complete and utter suspense over the conquering going on down here. 

Until next time!

When Sadness Is Really Just Jet Lag

The first day in Brisbane was a kaleidoscope. When we landed, the only thing that made me aware that we were really there was the heat. The duty free stores were all full of smiling aussies just beside themselves trying to sell their discounted booze. 

Customs was a breeze, because we had nothing to declare. Emily U was on her way to the airport but we knew we would be waiting for her a bit because she couldn’t get on public transport early enough to be there before 7. So when we got to the main atrium, Emily and I found an ATM so we could get cash without being cheated at the currency exchange. Got a $50, which is bright yellow and has the queen on the front and a guy on the back. It’s also quite long. Unlike America but like England, each bill is descending in size along with value so that blind people don’t get cheated. Which is quite nice. The difference between the Aus $50 and the 50 pound note is that the 50 pound note could pass for a diploma or at least a certificate of authenticity for being so tall and wide. I’m rambling.

The Brisbane airport atrium was very bright, all glass, and quite full of people. We settled ourselves behind a coffee place, and right next to the $2/30 min internet stations so that we could get on quick and tell our families we landed. Plus we wanted to search through facebook for Emily U’s mobile number to try to call her and also to see if she sent us a message about when she would be there. 

So we sat there for a good hour, chilling. Then suddenly im on facebook and I hear “EMILY TWO!!!” and it’s tex Emily running toward Emily U! So I logged off quick and joined the hug. Apparently we’d both been there for a long time but neither of us walked around to find each other lol we both just stayed put.

Then we waited in line for a taxi. The guy in front of us was just by himself with only a briefcase, and he was next in line when a taxi van pulled up. So he got in and got going. The next car that pulled up for us to get in was a prius. Instead of the guy waiting literally 30 seconds longer and giving us the taxi van for our four huge suitcases and three people – he took the van and we got to shove everything into every nook and cranny of a prius.

The ride was alright, the driver was a bit cray, the traffic was a bit like the cross Bronx, but it was fine because we were in Australia and had tons to look at. There were two different rainbows that we saw on the way. Then once we got to the neighborhood of the house we were going, it was quite clear the taxi driver had no idea where the house was, so Emily U had to direct him down the side streets to the old house.

The house was on Jerrang street, and we were going there just for the better part of that day, because they were all busy moving. As Emily U said, in a perfect world, the move would have been done before we got here, but alas it wasn’t. So we settled all of our bags in the empty bedroom of the old roommate who no longer is living with us, and then we took a walk to the new house where we’d all be living.

Old house:

 The walk: (Emily U/B/2)

 The new house:

We got a ride in Emmilly’s car (That’s the Australian Emily – that’s how her name is spelled!) and we just chilled in the old house all day while everyone moved their stuff. They rented a yute for the day, which is a truck that has a cage on it with no top, and they moved all of the big furniture onto it. One of Emmilly’s friends, Morgan, helped with the move. Morgan is very tall, built, long red ponytail, Australian guy. We were told he was really excited to meet us, and he was very nice. I think he was quite taken with Tex Emily.

Speaking of Emily, we were both on our laptops on the couches until they moved the couches – then we were on the floor. We sort of felt like shitty freeloaders just sitting around, but almost every time we offered to help move something or pack something we were told it was okay, they were good. We did move a couple things though. And we did continue to offer even after getting refused a number of times. 

It was sort of mid-way through the move, once they unplugged the big fridge, I guess Emmilly and Morgan opened the fridge to make sure it was off and then found the jar of vegemite, so that obviously became the make-the-americans-try-it moment. Vegemite is like, when they make beer, they scrape the yeast goo off the sides of the drum or whatever…its very technical obviously and I don’t know how it’s made but that’s me trying. It’s made by Kraft, which is cool.

So Tex Emily and I both stuck our finger around the edge or the rim and gave it a try.  The first thing out of my mouth was, “it tastes like gravy.” Because it did. Morgan said that actually people use vegemite to make gravy sometimes, because it’s really concentrated. It is very very salty. I like salty food, but I could never eat vegemite straight up if it were a dollop any larger than the tip of my pinky finger.

Just two nights ago actually I made a grilled cheese with some vegemite on it and I put on wayyy too much because it was so salty I couldn’t eat it after a while. 

Back to the move. Okay, so after a few hours, Emmilly’s boyfriend Chris came. Chris is English, so he has a good laugh calling everyone his children / his rebels because of that. 

Tex Emily and I then had a discussion over what we think the country will do for it’s tri-centennial – and then in our jet lag stupor we could not for the life of us figure out what year the tri-centennial would be. Originally we agreed that 2075 wasn’t long enough, and 2175 sounded more right, but we figured we’d be alive for it…so 2075…but then that wasn’t 300 after 1775…oh wait yeah it was… -- that was the conversation we were having for a decent five minutes. Jet lag. It’s a bitch. That became the excuse for every slip of the tongue and stupid thing we said or did all day. Jet lag. It was even the reason we found things funny. Jet lag. 

Emily and Cal bought some kangaroo for us to have dinner. So once the big things were moved and all the locals left and it was just Emily U, Tex Emily and I (and the cat), Emily U started cooking up the ground kangaroo. While it was cooking, it smelled like bacon. We each tried a little piece before she mixed it with the spaghetti sauce, just to see if we liked it on its own. It is a bit metallic, different enough so you know it isn’t beef, but still has a beefish quality to it. I didn’t want to say there was something dog food about how it tasted, but sort of. Once it was mixed into the tomato sauce though, it was lovely. Cal had found Moose head shaped pasta,  so it was an awesome dinner. Especially since at this point it was like, 7 am our time.

After dinner, we sat around waiting for Emmilly to come back, hoping she’d give us a ride with all of our stuff over to the new house. But no one could get in touch with her. Cal walked over to the new house to start working on stuff, but couldn’t get in because Emmilly had the one key to the gate. So he hopped in through the window. Emily and I were so crazy and bad moody and jet lagged that we just wanted to sleep, but didn’t really want to walk – but ended up walking anyway. The tiny blue LED flashlight that my mom told me to take came in handy while we were walking – we didn’t walk into any spider webs. 

I don’t remember how we were able to get in, because the gate was open when we got there.  It was so hot, so still in the bedroom that I just wanted to get on a plane and come home. The lighting in the room at night makes it look like a hospital room, the walls were off-white, there were two spiders by the window, my bed is just two mattresses laying on the floor – it was a bad night. I wanted to get on a plane and come home. I wished I brought the sheets from home. I turned the fan on full blast and fell asleep (it was about 9 am new York time by this point). 

I slept like a rock.  

The next day, I couldn’t have been in a better mood. I didn’t even care that there was a spider on my ceiling. In fact, he’s still there, and he’s not bothering me. I named him Barth. He won’t get killed unless he comes near me or until he is actually a she and makes an egg sac. That won’t fly Barth. 

So that day, Tex Emily and I agreed to go out walking around the neighborhood because we wanted to be out of everyone way while they were unpacking in the new house. We took a nice walk around some side streets, went to the strip mall directly across the street, and checked out all the shops down there. We wanted to eat at the Thai place, but it is closed until later this month. So we went into a swanky grocery store / deli and took a while to work up the courage to order at the deli counter. I got a spinach and feta puff pastry thing, and Emily got a slice of quiche and we split a ham and cheese croissant. It was all quite delicious.

The cashier girl asked, “Where abouts are you from?”

I said, “America.”

She said, “I know, but which part?”

I said, “New york, but she’s from Texas.”

So then the whole meal I was afraid that I insulted the girl by saying America before saying New York. Like obviously we were from America, most people know our accents. But then I remember in England whenever someone accused a Canadian of being American they got very angry. Emily and I discussed it while we were eating, that Americans really underestimate how much other countries know about America.

Then we went back to the other store, because they had slushies. The largest size was called the “huge.” And this is how big it was:

Then we walked a bit further and found a park with a playground. We got on the swings – me on the adult one, and Emily sitting on top of the baby seat. We were having a blast until Emily saw a huge spider up at the top of the overhang. The spiders here are all on steroids, so it was quite a disgusting creature. There were two of them.

After we left, we were gonna keep walking, but it was really hot, and further down the road was a winding hill, so I said that that wasn’t happening, so we walked back to the house to see what was going on. I don’t remember what we did for the afternoon, but once dinner time rolled around, Cal and Emily took us to a fish and chips place down the road in Kenmore. It was only two stops on the bus, but Emily and I didn’t have bus cards yet, so we walked it. It ended up being up and over that big hill I refused to walk up earlier in the day. Irony.

There isn’t much of a sidewalk situation here, if there is one, it switches sides of the road every once in a while, or the first side street runs parallel to the main road, so even though it’s a road, you’re meant to walk on that instead of the highway obviously. People from LI, think of it like Wantagh avenue before the intersection with Hempstead Tpke, how theres that little strip with trees in between Wantagh ave and the other road with the houses – like that – only imagine the side road was up higher and separated by a brick wall, and big bushes. 

When we finally got there, I didn’t know what to get so when I got up to the counter I just ordered the first thing my eyes hit, which ended up being a fish burger. I forgot to order fries. Emily and Cal got $5 worth of fries and this other form of fried scalloped potatoes. Emily got a plain hamburger, and ended up getting a box of noodles for lunch the next day just so that we could sit at the only empty table outside next door’s noodle box restaurant. She took one for the team. My fish burger was delicious. Pretty much five fish sticks on a bun with lettuce onion tomato and seafood sauce (which is thousand island dressing – which I broke the news to Cal that thousand island dressing is Russian dressing, and it is also the special sauce on a Big Mac – and he got very sad that the sauce was no longer special.)

We then walked to a little pharmacy down the same strip mall on our way back, and got some soap and junk. We were aghast that cosmetics here cost literally four or five times what they would be here. At least in this one store – liquid foundation – they wanted $37.95 for it! Excuse me, but no. I don’t like paying $7 for liquid foundation, why would I pay $40?

While I was buying my pack of bar soap and hand soap, I tried to use my debit card just to see if it would go through, but then there was a $10 minimum on a card purchase, so I paid with cash. The cashier woman asked me a question that I didn’t really understand – and I had already asked her two separate times for two other questions to repeat herself – so I didn’t want to do it again – so I just smiled and said no. Then her face kind of fell…so I don’t know what she asked, and I don’t know what I said no to with a smile…and I’ll never know…so I felt really guilty over it on the walk back home.   

On the walk back home, we were on the lookout for spiders, because they build their webs very fast – and get really active at night. It was going alright, but then one of the side streets that we had to walk on – was blocked across the entire way by a single spider web, and a single golden-orb spider. So we crossed one side of the highway and walked on the median between the two sides of the highway just until sidewalk came back. Because the threat of getting hit by a car is more comforting than walking through the spider web of a 7 inch diameter spider. We got home safe though. 

The next day, so our third day in Australia, we took the bus to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre – which is a huge mall in our suburb – I’d compare it in size to Roosevelt Field Mall – if Roosevelt Field was 4 stories instead of being two stories side by side. And Indro is also twice as long. So it’s a big ass mall, and every bus that passes our house goes to it. Australian Emmilly said the night before that she would be spending the better part of the next two or three weeks with her boyfriend, so we haven’t seen her much at all. Cal and both Emilys and I went to Indro and walked around. Our purpose was to see a bit of the mall, and then to go to Kmart for things we’d need house-wise, and then Woolworths to grocery shop. It is disgusting the amount of money I spent this day. But I did buy almost everything I needed to live around the house, and then enough groceries for the better part of two weeks’ worth of little meals. Mostly sandwich junk and pasta. Because pasta is dirt cheap everywhere you go. 

We also got ice cream from Wendy’s, which is like a Baskin Robbins equivalent. It was delicious. A few days later I asked if they were hiring and they said no. Bummer.

So with all of the stuff that we bought at Kmart and Woolys, we got a cab back to the house because there was no way we would’ve gotten three carts full of stuff on the bus. Then we hung out around the house, made dinner, and talked in the living room. I have one photograph from this trip :

In a can.