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:
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.
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