Last Update from Sydney?

Jeez folks, sorry about the novels lately.
This will probably be my last blog post from Sydney, though there may be another in between Surf Camp and flying off to Tassie. Anyways, tick off another 4 months of living abroad. I think I’m done, at least for now; certainly not in the future. I’d like to come back to New Zealand at some point (we get an entire year!). I have two days of work left, and I can see the light (2 months of holiday) at the end of the tunnel. Hmm, that metaphor doesn’t really fit for my work experience down here, which has been really good. I’m not quite sure how exactly I ended up here (through an agency of course), but the inner workings of client-agency-candidate relationships continue to mystify me. The light at the end of the tunnel metaphor would be more appropriate for the last few weeks of the living situation. Getting out of the bug infested house where food goes missing, the sex is loud and the dishes are never done will be a mostly liberating experience. Mostly, in the sense that I am very glad to have met Pat and Ethan and continue my friendship with them in a different hemisphere. Mostly, in the sense that Newtown is a pretty cool place to live. Completely, in the sense that I will be going back to my old backpacking/aimless wandering ways where my biggest responsibility is figuring out which bus or train goes to the airport and what time breakfast closes at the hostels. How I do love it.

I’ve explained my travel plans over the next two months to so many people that I’m sure you’ve heard about it by word of mouth, but I don’t mind laying them out one more time (in a bit more detail than previous posts) for you, Dear Reader, if you have not yet heard the word. The last week of February going into March I am heading to the south coast of New South Wales to take surfing lessons, live next to the beach and BBQ every night. A frantic weekend in Sydney and then I am flying off to Launceston, Tasmania to gear up for the Overland Track. After spending the week trekking 80 kms across Tassie I’ll arrive in Hobart for a few days. It’s off to Freycinet to have a look and hike around Wineglass Bay. Before you know it I’ll be in Adelaide for a short couple of days to tour about the Barossa Valley and drink copious amounts of wine (and Guinness, hint hint on the dates). A long northbound train ride through the desert will dump me in the middle of the continent. I’ll spend the next 3 days driving through the middle of nowhere to look at some rocks (really, really fucking big rocks) and hopefully some roos! After the red centre, it’s back to the urban realm of Melbourne to figure out what Aussie Rules Football is all about. I’ll be there for a while with no idea what I’m doing, but I’m sure I’ll figure out something. Melbs will be the end of my big Australian cities as I fly up to the tropical north – Cairns. I’m going to work on an organic farm and hope to learn about, well, organic farming! A few tours into the Daintree rainforest and it’ll be time to start the long drive down the east coast back to Sydney, hopefully with some friends in their car, though I may end up having to take the greyhound, which takes about 4 days. A quick goodbye to my mates still hanging around in Sin City and it’s off to LAX and I can complete this chapter of my life. If shit hits the fan somewhere along the way I’ll make my way back to Sydney and be a dosser for a while.

Last Friday was the going away party for my boss and I’m happy to report I wasn’t thrown out of a single bar, had 0 scuffles with glass doors and was pissed beyond my wildest dreams. To give you an idea, the following txt message was sent from my phone:

Hey not sayin I’ll be walk Fucking trashed, but Shit mate…yeah. See ya in a while!

What the hell does that even mean?! The brain and fingers were not moving in concerto that night. The Malaysian food I had for lunch was also among the best ever. On the other hand there was no pinching the bums of local sports heroes. Another member of our party was not so lucky: at one point there were no fewer than 4 coppers and 3 bouncers surrounding him at the entrance refusing him entry, his pink shirt flailing wildly.

Aside from that, life has been rather laissez-faire. Go to the beach, go to BBQ, go to the bar. Aussie life is pretty good. I was asked the other night what I would tell people about Sydney when I go back to Minneapolis, and I think it’s this- beach culture, drinking culture and for being the busiest of Aussie cities, it is pretty relaxed. Also, even though it is however many thousands of miles away in a different hemisphere, it’s very Western, but a blend of Europe and North America. There are cities in the States older than Sydney. It’s a city that lacks a long history, not that it makes it bad, but history gives rise to great culture and I appreciate that. It’s beaches were what kept me happy and satisfied while I lived here. Even though I did not live out there, I think I had a bit of a life out there. Just last night I went to Bondi to cook dinner, take a walk around the neighborhood and watched skaters tear up the pool to the background music of the ocean – all in a typical Tuesday night. I’ll miss swimming and surfing in the ocean, lounging on the beach and picnicking in the parks on the days of big festivals. I’ll miss having to decide what sort of ethnic food to eat, literally just a few steps from my doorstep. I’ll miss walking everywhere. A 45 minute walk somewhere doesn’t faze me in the slightest. I’ll miss the views of the opera house and Harbor Bridge as it is quite simply spectacular. I’ll miss getting thrown out of bars with Pat, or watching as Pat gets thrown out of bars. I’ll miss Istanbul on King – the local kebab and pizza shop. Those 4 months went by in a blur, so if the old adage is correct, apparently I did have fun down here.

Check youtube for this: I went to Tropfest on Sunday. It is the world’s largest short film festival, with about 50,000 of us hanging out in the Domain all day and watching 16 short films at night. It was broadcast all around Australia so everyone sort of sat in the park and watched them together. A film called “An Imaginary Life” took top honors and, along with being quite funny and creative, probably had the lowest budget of the lot. Another good one was about the Cronulla riots. An Anglo and a Lebanese show up and are the first ones on the beach, but they don’t quite know what the pre-riot etiquette is. Hilarity ensues; titled “Between the Flags.” Completely unrelated, I met people from Malta and Nepal that day. Two small countries (the former has a pop. of 400K or so) from which I wouldn’t expect to meet people.

One last note before I finish up: Watch out North America, Pat is coming!

Stay The Course, or Cut And Run?

From the above title I can understand why you might think this post is about Iraq, or US policy in the Middle East, but remember that I’m living in Australia where every day is a slow news day and most Aussies could care less about Iraq even though Australian forces are stationed over there. No, I have my own battles to deal with that span the political, cultural, historical and socio-economic spectrum of life at 25 Albert St. Well, OK, not quite, but here is what happened, or is happening as it’s an ongoing story.

The other day I was the first to arrive home from work (of the people in the house that actually work) and went about my get-home routine, as you do. I find a note taped to the wall that basically says that Ella’s things from the kitchen that she bought are no longer able to be used by the rest of the house. I went into a state of shock (what had I done to deserve this?!) and then quickly realized that I knew this moment certainly had the potential to happen but didn’t think that is actually would. I am still not quite sure about the reasons behind this action. The note said it was “because of the talk with Pat” from the previous night. I didn’t hear much of the argument as I was not around but learned later from Pat that it was in regards to previous flatmate dramas. The TV also disappeared and we now entertain ourselves by giving performances out of the complete works of Shakespeare, or “The Importance of Being Ernest” or, we just play cards and drink beer. I’m pretty sure that the clothes pins for the line outside and the lighter we use to start the stove have also vanished. Haha, oh dear….could be a long couple weeks!

Well anyways I shot the others a quick txt letting them know what had happened and this is when the mood of the house went into Defcon 1. Our facilities were down to a few pans that I had bought for Thanksgiving, a knife, a potato masher, my camping cutlery, some Tupperware and a spatula. We were gonna do this MacGyver style! Thursday night was no problem as I had planned to wander off to the bar anyways to meet Adam and others. Friday night Pat and I ate à la carte: bacon and cheese rolls with extra cheddar and devon (Australian version of low-grade boloney) cooked in the microwave, and ate on, plastic Tupperware lids substituted as plates. Classy like Ron Burgundy! Saturday evening I ate out of a baking pan and a couple hours later, Pat showed up with plates, cups, cutlery et. al. Hero of the day.

One of the more positive outcomes of all this was that for Ella to separate her dishes from what “us three had contributed,” she had to actually wash her dishes. Bowls and pans used for baking a cake, trays and plates for pizza and all her other daily dishes had been piling up for over a week by this point! Well almost another week has gone by since then, and all of her dirty dishes and wine glasses have regrouped at, in or around the kitchen sink once again. The house has very much turned into a 3 vs. 1 type of mentality. Ella barely comes out of her room when the three of us are in the lounge; the house is just a little, hmm what’s the word, tense! In less than 3 weeks however, I will be off to surf camp, and then Tasmania. The lease on the house won’t be renewed and we will part ways. Some of us will be just fine. I don’t know what the other some of us will do – be in a fine mess I suppose.

Even with all of the house dramas I still carry on as normal, happy as can be. It’s summer, I’m almost done with work and I start travelling very soon. Plus, I’m having a pretty good time down here, even with the doings of one odd house mate. So I suppose I should somehow make a reference to the title of the post eh? My question is what does Ella hope to accomplish by taking away all of the kitchen things? Are we supposed to break down and realise now that we need her? Was she trying to bring us in line? In what line? Well, we won’t cut and run. We will stay the course, but I’m withdrawing troops on the 26th and going surfing.

I am writing this from work (where I have no blog access) and emailing it to myself and it has been so long since the last blog update that I am not quite sure when it was from or what was in it. I will assume that the last post was from before I went on my two week holiday for Christmas and New Year's, so I will start from there.

While on the one hand I wanted to work the days that weren't holidays so that I could at least earn money for rent/food/entertainment, it was really nice having two weeks off on the other. I was able to get out and do a little bit of travelling, though not as much as I had planned initially. I spent my Christmas eve at a BBQ out at Bondi Beach and wound up catching a taxi home about 3 or 4 I suppose. Christmas day I slept in, took a run in the afternoon and had some leftovers for dinner. As you can see, I don't really celebrate much if I'm not back in the US with family. It really doesn't seem like Christmas when it is sunny hot and green, thus it was just another day for me.

After xmas and Boxing day had passed, cool Ethan and I took a train out to the blue mountains for some hiking. We arranged a tour with an aboriginal guide who met us (small group of 10) at a train station that was sort of in the middle of nowhere. We spent the day hiking up and down the mountains. In the end we did about 8 kms (5 miles). Our guide was an archaeologist of sorts and had spent quite some time searching for aboriginal meeting places. He lead us around to all of these sites and showed us old rock carvings and cave art. He taught us about Aboriginal Dreamtime spirituality and culture. All very interesting as they are the oldest continuous surviving culture on the planet: 50-60,000 years right now! We stopped for lunch at a billabong and waterfall and got to use the ochre paints that are so characteristic of the aboriginal body art. We learned what all of the symbols mean: squiggly lines, dots, U's spirals, circles and all that. After thoroughly tattooing ourselves we carried on to where the tribes used to hold corroborrees (from where the English corroborate comes?) and demonstrated some dance for us. All along the way we learned about bugs and insects and animals as well as munching on some bush tucker. We shoved eucalyptus up our nostrils and chewed on sarsparilla. At the end of the walkabout he took out a wooden block on a string and started swinging it around. It made an awe-inspiring sound - it was a bull roarer. We tipped back a couple of schooeys at the pub while we waited for the train to haul our weary selves back to Sydney. This is definitely the kind of experience I had come in search of. Not hopping on some tour bus that bandies camera snapping tourists around all the big sights in the mountains. I'd highly recommend this tour to anyone up for a physical challenge and an interest in Aboriginal life.

A few days later and it was time for New Year Eve celebrations! I went and met my friends at Mrs. Macquaries chair, which overlooks the harbour bridge and opera house. We picnicked for the day and watched the fireworks -and they were the best fireworks I've ever seen- before heading back to Newtown for a house party. I made an early night and went home about 4. New Years day I headed over to Coogee beach to watch the Barmy Army play the Aussie cricket fans (Australia had won back the Ashes by this point), which is tradition when the Ashes are played in Australia. After seeing a few wickets taken by the Aussies I headed up to Bondi for another BBQ. By now the weather had finally got back to normal (after being out of season since I have been here - colder than normal). I spent the next week I had off just hanging around at various beaches and surfing. Just before heading back to work I had 4 of my friends leave Sydney and Ethan moved out to Bondi, so a fair bit of change went on. I have a new flatmate now and for most of January went out a lot less. New flatmate - Liz from Richmond, VA- is good and I have been able to save some money for travelling as well as focus on my new year's resolutions.

January has been pretty low key. I've been eating much healthier food and running faster and for longer periods of time (and more often), so I feel pretty good about that. A few weekends ago I went out to Bondi for an international short film festival. I wasn't really that impressed, only a couple of the films were even worth my attention. Next day there was a massive Brasilian Jazz (bosanova) concert in the Domain (big park in the city) so I ambled on down and hung out with Ethan and Tulio. We tried to find a house party in the rocks that had no address... didn't really happen. Next day I went out to the Taronga Zoo with Barez to what you do at a zoo: see animals! It was a bit expensive, though as backpacker new to Australia I left quite impressed. I was able to get up close with kangaroos, koalas, emus, crocodiles, blue tongued lizards, komodo dragons, wallabies, echidnas, and just about any other Australian creature that might exist. Some of the cages had double sets of doors, so you could actually go inside with the animals. I stood 5 feet from a roo with nothing between us! Well I thought it was neat. It's also a good idea to have gone there because now I know what creatures I DON'T want to meet in the bush look like! Taipans and brown snakes and the like. The one downside is that the zoo is really expensive. I think the zoo should be part subsidised, so long as the animals are given the proper habitat and little kids can learn about environmental issues.

After the zoo, it was off to Bondi for yet another BBQ. I think I have had a proper Aussie summer whilst living here! What started as a few snags and beers turned into a 10 hour drinking session with multiple runs to the Bottle-O for compari and sambuca. Barez got really drunk and became hilarious. Tulio and I outdrank him and were just fine. Silly Canadians. I finished off the night by calling the police (000, not 911) on this bloke who was assaulting what appeared to be his date in the middle of the street. I yelled at him first, then told him I was calling the cops. He wouldn't stop so I did. He basically had this bird in a head lock and was dragging her down the street. She was able to break away at first and run away but he ran after her and yanked her arm and started draggin her along again. Then he stole her purse and she was crying (to me I think) that I should call for help. We waited around for a minute and things kinda settled down so we carried on to the bus stop. I guess domestic abuse is pretty common here, but it sure gave me enough excitement and adrenaline for one night!

The following weekend everyone quietly disappeared so I had the house to myself. It was well over 40 so I took it easy and just relaxed - quite literally did nothing of interest at all (aside from watching Twin Peaks). I've learned how to make sushi! Cheap easy and delicious, but I'm pretty bad at it so it ends up being slightly messy. Tomorrow is Australia Day. You could sort of equate it to the 4th of July in the US, but not quite. 26/1/1788 commemorates the landing of the first fleet at what is now Sydney. There will be lots of beer and fireworks tomorrow. I think that about brings me up to date with what I have been up to since mid-December. I've got the bulk of my travel plans laid out; at least I know where I am going and what to do once there. How and when remain unanswered.

I have to say I am kinda tired of Sydney. I don't get the same feeling of wonder and awe I do from London. Don't get me wrong, I am loving it down here, the beaches are great and I have made a ton of friends. But in a way that I don't quite know how to describe, I have a much greater affinity for Europe. It really hit me after I read Bill Bryson's "Notes From A Big Country." I could easily live here longer than 4 months, but I am ready to come back to the US, and start to think about "settling" there. I use quotes because I still plan on moving out to NZ at some point. But I have until I am 30 to do that. New York City is definitely in the near future, after a summer in the Minneapple.

One last thing before I complete this novel: I was once again refused service at a bar last night! And this time it was for being, get this, from the United States. Seriously. Just another bar to add to Pat and I's list of places we have been thrown out of, banned from, asked to leave, refused service, etc.

It only took me 6 days to get this posted! And now there is so much more to update about. Fuck not having a computer!