Thank You
Moving to another country can really make a girl realize how much of a ‘home body’ she is. It does get easier as the time goes on, but no one could have prepared me for the low moments you spend thinking of family back home. Watching on Skype and hearing your nephew learn to talk from thousands of miles away has got to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. Missing birthdays and family dinners is something I only want to have to do once. Being able to keep in touch online has really made me notice even more I have such a warm, loving and caring group of relatives and I cannot wait to see them all again. Even my smelly old cat can bring me to tears looking at pictures and shock me how much I miss him!
All of this “boo-hoo-ing” and sadness is put into perspective, and my successes in Australia made possible thus far, by truly the most supportive partner a girl could ask for. Nothing sways him, not even my father’s stern talk before we left Vancouver of how he is to “take care of our girl!” or low nights on my end having a tear (or 2) missing home. Being a girl with an extra heap of anxiety and stress atop of all of the new struggles moving to a new place I am very aware I am not always rainbows and sunshine to spend time with. Finding a job, being broke, and learning to drive his car on the wrong side of the road can push a relationship to its limits on their own. But somehow I have been blessed with a boyfriend who has endless patience, understanding and love to see me through it all. He’s always an ear to listen, understanding I have no friends or family to call up nearby. He will always take time to think up solutions or ideas with me no matter how ridiculous or impossible the situation. And all in all he is always a set of big open arms to fall into if I need to just be upset without words.
There is no way I would have been able to make this big leap in life without my second half and I hope he knows everyday that I am so thankful to have him in my life. I love you Zeke <3
Well That’s Different… Pt. 2
Most kids attend private schools here, unless you are a ‘hood rat’. Even though a part of me loves the idea of school uniforms to control the younger and younger onset our society has of dressing like a prostitute, the school uniforms here take a whole new set of self confidence. Pastel greens, and oranges, always ill-fitting and the best they top it off with huge broad rimmed hat, too good.
Sweet Chilli Sauce is Australia’s answer to Ketchup (tomato sauce)
I do not miss Vancouver’s bike lanes and “critical mass-ing”- bikers here are incredibly more respectful, we share our lanes, nicely.
Public transit is shockingly expensive and incredibly unreliable with rates only to increase in the coming months.
Sushi… (ohhhh sushi) is served without being cut into edible pieces. A long green sushi tube to pick up like a hot dog.
Round abouts instead of 4 way stops or stop lights. Talk about terror to a new driver to the left hand side of the road- meet the two laned round about.
Daisy dukes for children. 5 year old girls with half of their rear ends hanging out.
My Family stickers have really taken off here. EVERYONE seems to have them, even if you’re single with 9 cats, a dating couple with no kids, or want to pay tribute to your dead pets with angel wings.
I am trying to bring back the courtesy wave to Australia after merging but it seems to always be taken as a flip off.
Bunnies are pests :(
Around Australia Day there was a huge uproar in which having an Australian flag on your car window, or even the front of your house- was seen as RACIST! Because somehow celebrating your country’s birthdate was only put in place to make everyone else immigrated from other countries uncomfortable.
Deodorant/antiperspirant is sprayed from an aerosol can.
Grocery shopping? Barefeet. (The only real one that bothers me- I do not want your grubby feet near my food thanks) Clothes shopping? Barefeet. Driving? Barefeet. Weekend outing with the family? Barefeet.
So I am getting use to watching football/soccer/rugby and I have to say it truly helps with the generous display of huge manly muscular thighs in those itty bitty shorts. x
“BUT I really didn’t mean to!” vs. “I really didn’t mean to BUT” the BUT comes at the end of the contradicting sentence.
Mailmen ride little motorcycles down the side walk to deliver the mail and don’t even think of getting in their way.
The peaceful quite you’d expect living out of the city is met with melodious chirps and squawks from about a billion different types of birds living in the trees.
911 = 000
Rat tails. Grown respectable looking men with great hair and thing 2 foot long ratty trail behind them, or my favourite a shaved head and a 2 foot long braided rat tail- and sometimes not even out of the centre of the back of the head, just randomly to the side. Nauseating!
Well That’s Different… Pt.1
Shopping is done on Thursday and/or Friday evenings when malls and grocery stores stay open until 8 or 9. Other days of the week find places closing anywhere from 3pm to 5pm.
You put ‘tyres’ on your car- you are ‘tired’ when you haven’t had enough sleep.
Pitbulls (and their relatives) are all man eating blood thirsty monsters who must be outlawed and illegal, no matter temperament or responsible owners.
Beer can be bought by singles, 6 packs, or 24 cartons- not 12 packs.
2 lane roundabouts- my driving nightmare.
When buying a loaf of bread- even ‘thick cut’ slices are only 1cm thick.
Television commercials are 50% life insurance (funeral coverage) advertisements- just a tad unsettling!
Hate your partner watching all day Sunday football? Meet all-day, weeks long Cricket matches.
Sprite and 7up are lemonade… Lemonade is… Iemon juice?
Bacon is big, thick, and beautiful.
K-Fed is still a celebrity.
“Hey Howyadoinnn”- is not a question or a conversation opener, just a simple greeting.
There is no tipping- hard working service industry people make a rightful $18-$20 (ish) an hour. On the other hand, table service isn’t very stressed and no one is in a hurry to work for their tips.
The bears to fear on a hike (or camping trip!) back home are now snakes and spiders.
Dogs are commonly pets kept 24/7 in the backyard and not welcome in the house. Some tied up on lines so they can run certain lengths, some just left to roam in the grass.
*to be continued!
Oh Steve Irwin, I never really appreciated you until now. Growing up you were always that full tilt crazy Australian on tv getting too close to animals who wanted nothing to do with you. And of course, being one of the only Aussie’s I’d encountered I based all of the Australian population on you. Thoroughly disappointed at how little everyone says Crikey.
But now I have been to your Zoo and seen your work with my own eyes. ‘Zoos’ -if we can even call them that- where I’ve been back home do not even compare to what I witnessed this weekend. First meeting your staff who clearly love their jobs and are incredibly knowledgeable on the critters they work with was almost soothing- visiting a Zoo has always come with much contempt on my part, spending most of the time pointing out how sick/unhappy ‘that’ animal is. Each animal has heaps of space; their environments built specifically to mimic that of it’s natural habitat. Their’s ample space between us nosey visitors and their ‘home’ as to limit annoyance and typical ‘glass tapping tourists’. There are attendants walking through everywhere, happy to answer questions, but to my delight they were mostly focused on the animals- one attendant was so entranced with talking with her birds cooing away she was embarrassed as we appeared behind her. Knowing my nutty ‘dog speak’ when I work I was thrilled to hear it!
My favourite place was of course the rehabilitation centre out back. Not nearly there for 30 minutes, it remains the highlight of the visit. The bubbly and talkative nurse we met wanted to answer any questions we had and then some. We got to see the operation room and large kennels the sick animals stayed in. Mostly Koala bears, found abandoned and wounded- they were given stuffed Koalas to cling on to. A huge sea turtle named Matilda lay on the ground up near the glass who really won my heart. She had been found with one flipper severely tangled in crab nets- and they had to amputate. They had had a very similar case with another sea turtle happen just 6 months back with the same amputation and he had recovered so well they released him back into the wild. With a small GPS attached to him they were able to track his movements and put up a map which showed the incredible lengths he was still able to travel!
So now I sit, wishing I lived closer to the Australia Zoo so I could work there, but mostly re-invigorated to nail my job interview this week and get back to working with animals, and especially the ones who need that extra bit of love to be the best they can be. <3
Life is expensive
I have come to accept that my groceries are going to cost $1-3 more per item and learned to budget. And maybe everyone is sick of me starting every sentence with “WELL back in CANADA we…” but seeing Zeke pay $40 to park yesterday was crazy! Apparently it is more expensive to park in downtown Brisbane than even New York City. $22.00 per half hour to be exact. The evil Kim inside me had to laugh that Zeke will be making up the $20/night I was spending to park by his apartment in Vancouver up pretty rapidly!
The world can now rest that I finally have my hands on some Hellman’s mayonnaise. That little 400g jar of gold cost me $11 but truly puts my heart at ease. Sad when you realize how happy a condiment spread makes you- I truly do put that shit on EVERYTHING.
Beers come in either 6 packs or 24 pack cartons. I am slowly (and by slowly I mean a few a day…) testing out this fine country’s brews. Haven’t seen a single Canadian beer yet, but did get quite excited for a case of MGD the other night. It is kind of scary how quick a beer goes here in the heat. I could milk one for a solid 30 mins back home but here it’s lucky to meet 5.
xoxo
Feelin’ hot hot hot
So it’s a bit hot here… Luckily Zeke is just as sweaty as me. Even when we sit at night watching TV we perspire. Most days have been hitting 30, if not just below- but tomorrow is suppose to be 35 and raining so 100% humidity. I feel like that will be my true test, and I plan on failing hard as i sit with all door clothes and the AC pumping. Showers are now a daily (if not twice daily) god send. I remember back home always hitting the two day mark, but here it would be cruel to my housemates and anyone else within armpit smelling region. Deodorant is also like my wallet- comes everywhere with us. We hit the beach today! The heat is so much more tolerable there with the constant breeze from the water. I marched out into the waves like a champion and ate it on the first true ‘ripper’ in. Face plant, sun glasses gone, salt water in my eyes nose and throat… I hung my head and stumbled back to my beach towel where I watched Zeke frolick for the rest of the time. How glorious was it to see all the dogs at the beach though! Probably 100 dogs + all tearing around having the times of their lives! From little wussy pocket pets to big Rotti’s with life jackets bounding in and out of the waves- SO MUCH FUN!
Give me a croc, a venomous snake… ANYTHING but your ridiculously large spiders Australia. This is cruel. A picture from the back door was as close as I was going to get. This spider made our bbq steak night become and indoor stove top steak night real quick. And Zeke was kind enough to inform me this is a small Huntsman. Can I come home now?
Settling in..
Welcome to my little Aussie blog! Will be updating and messaging friends and family individually but thought it might be nice to have a place I can post and express all new experiences and happenings as life goes on here.
We have been warmly welcomed into living at ‘The Bitch’ - the fond name for our new home with myself, Zeke, Rob(dog) Zeke’s bestie and Matt, Zeke’s older brother. The house is just a few blocks from the water, as well as great shops, restaurants, and a liquor store ;) The house has my seal of approval after reaching my only request- Air Conditioning. We slept for our first few nights on an air mattress in the living room perfectly situated underneath the cool blow of the AC, where I spend most of my home time.
So yes, it’s bloody hot, but alot more bearable than I assumed it would be. One thing that really gets me, due to the heat, is not having running cold tap water. I like to take a shower first thing in the morning to cool down and the best I can get is a cooler warm water. Which means the tap water (drinking water) is pretty far in comparison to Vancouver. Zeke and I refuse to drink the tap water because it basically tastes like dirty seafood. So beer it is!
Incorporated tax in prices is a BEAUTIFUL thing. The cost of food and commodities is quite a bit more, but knowing what you’re going to pay when you pay it is fantastic. The shops are quite patient as I try to figure out what kind of bills and coins to pick out. The bars are where that is the best- and no tipping <3 hallelujah! Restaurants are mostly self serve also. You walk in and may be seated by a hostess, but it’s up to you to walk to the bar and order a drink, as well as walk to the kitchen to order food. Working in the food industry back home I have the utmost respect for the SWEATY kitchen staff at any restaurant here- cannot imagine!
My job back home seems to be in a bit of demand here at the moment. Also, the pay for what I will received here for the same job is over DOUBLE what I was making at the City of Vancouver (which was already incredibly good by my standard). I sat down the first day and sent out a tonne of resumes and will be visiting a few places and responding to a bunch of replies I have had so far. I am trying to remind myself that this is also suppose to be partly a vacation for me and I shouldn’t rush into work- but I am just so eager to meet all the stinky aussie dogs!
Public transit here isn’t very evolved unfortunately so we really need to find me a job close by. When we got to Sydney- for us to take a train they wanted to charge us $40 EACH for an all day public transit pass. We ended up paying $25 EACH to go one stop into the city and back! Luckily, Zeke is going to look at a potential car on Saturday so we have our fingers crossed!
My 1st day burn is finally fading and I’m eager to work on this pastey Canadian complexion. Luckily my counterpart is as fair as me and we’ll stick out as dumb tourists together as we turn red. Off now to go grab the makings for burgers and start to impress these boys with some cooking. I’m already on the good list for cleaning the kitchen, 2 bathrooms and folding everyones laundry on my first day ;)
Lots of Love <3
