Quick Update: Apartment Living

Sydney is still incredible. My apartment is actually a lot of fun now. Well, for the most part. It's almost like a sorority house at this point. My two Canadian friends Gracie and Katie moved in and two of the guys moved out, so it's me, 3 German girls and 2 Canadian girls. Gracie, Katie, Catarina, Nora, Julia, and me. Oh, and Tree. Don't forget Tree. Tree is the 39 year old Thai man that lives in our living room. That's right, our living room. He's set himself up a fort with sheets and shower curtains all around it. You can see it in the first picture below. That's our living room (some of the people live there, some were just visiting before we all went out) and that's Tree's house in the back corner with the flowers. Awkward? Yes, we all think so too. We're working on the situation at the moment. The rest of the girls are all really sweet and a lot of fun.

We've had a lot of rain over the past few days so I haven't gotten much beach time. :( It's hard to do anything when you don't have a car and it's pouring down rain outside. We have 2 dvds in the house: Dirty Dancing and The Notebook, so we've started wearing those out already.

If anyone feels the need to send a care package then I can give you my address! :) Just e-mail me: HaileyHerdlinger@aol.com

Miss everyone!

Some funny conversations with Aussies

Aussie: Did you bring your cozzie?
Me: My what?
Aussie: Your costume.
Me: Oh, cozzie means costume? Um, no...what do I need a costume for?
Aussie: No, your swimmers!
Me: ???
Aussie: Your BIKINI!
Me: OOOHHH, swimsuit!!!!!


Aussie: I'm supposed to go to their house for tea tonight.
Me: Aw, tea? That's cute.
Aussie: Not actual tea, I mean dinner.
Me: Oh, yeah we just call it dinner. Have you ever heard of 'supper'?
Aussie: Yeah, but I've never had it.

Aussie: Did a mozzie get you?
Me: A mozzie? Is that short for mosquito?
Aussie: Yeah, we're lazy so we shorten everything.
Me: Aussie, cozzie, mozzie....I see that.

Me: Can you pop the trunk?
Group of Aussies in car: (blank stares)
One Aussie: I think she needs you to unlock the boot.

ENTIRE conversation with a southern Australian
Aussie: (talking, talking talking)
Me: Smiling and nodding and understanding NOTHING.

Note: my roommates are German and Taiwanese...there is very little English spoken around here
Rob: Are you going to try to find the grocery store today?
Me: Yes, I think I'll ask my roommates where the closest one is.....and then nod like I understand and go find it myself.

Lying Aussie in the ocean: Don't touch the things that look like leaves. They're the most poisonous creatures out here and they can kill you.
Me: (Picking up leaf in ocean) you mean like this?
Lying Aussie: WOAH, you're in heaps of trouble now! There is only a 5% survival rate if you touch those things.
Me: I'll keep my fingers crossed
Lying Aussie: Nah, they'll be rotted off by then.

AUSTRALIA DAY long weekend

Bondi Beach=GORGEOUS! This is the most popular and probably the most tourist-packed beach in Australia. I went with Gracie and Katie (the Canadian girls) a few days ago and it was so beautiful. I think it was on a Wednesday, so it wasn't TOO packed. The waves were HUGE and we didn't even go out in the water past our knees because we were scared of getting slapped around by the ocean.

After we left the beach we rested, showered up, and went out for the night with 2 girls from Holland who are staying in Katie and Gracie's hostel. On my way home I was thinking it was about 12:30am; I looked at my phone and realized it was closer to 5am! Wow.

The next day (or...that same day I guess) was January 26th: AUSTRALIAN DAY!!!!! I took a train up to Central Coast which is about 2 hours north. My new friend Glen lives up there so I met up with him and after his friend fixed my computer (thanks, Bret!!!) he took me out with a big group of his friends to a bar called Beachies. It was fun and it was cool to get out of the city to see a little quieter and calmer Australian atmosphere. I stayed the night up there and the next day we went to look at Soldier Beach (below) and a place called The Entrance on the lake where there are a lot of resort areas and there were plenty of festivities going on for Australia Day.

Later that afternoon/evening, I took ANOTHER train and went south past where I live and into a place called Cronulla where I met up with some other people who wanted me to celebrate Australia Day with them. By the time I got there, they were all pretty much smashed since they'd been drinking since 10am. Cronulla wasn't too impressive, but the people were hilarious and all decked out in their Australia gear and flags. Glen bought me an Aussie t-shirt that I wore, so I totally looked like a local.

I stayed the night in Cronulla then went back to Sydney (finally) and laid on Bondi Beach with the Canadians and Glen. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day!

For some reason-I think it's because Australians are the self-proclaimed laziest people in the world-most Aussies didn't have to work on Monday, even though Australia Day was on the previous Saturday. So early Monday morning I had plans to SNORKEL!!!! Adam Lulay's roommate Doug-who I met in California-put me in touch with a friend of his named Phil who lives in Sydney. Phil picked me up at 9:30am with 2 of his friends to go snorkel in Clovelley Bay. I haven't ever snorkeled before, so it was really cool. And the waves were pretty choppy in some areas, so it was a good workout too! I saw some really pretty fish and a couple of Blue Gropers which are HUGE, and no one is allowed to fish in that area so the fish are really tame and not skiddish around people. You could almost reach out and touch them before they'd swim away.

Overall, it was a pretty fun Australia Day weekend!

Side Notes

-My hair dryer and the converter I was using were plugged into the bathroom outlet the other day...not even turned ON, just plugged in...and all of a sudden I heard POP! Long story short: thanks, Adam for letting me borrow the converter, but you won't be getting it back. When I left the bathroom, none of the outlets worked! OOPS!

-Oprah comes on at 7am.

-I'm getting used to walking by birds and not freaking out. Any bird that's flying still freaks me out if it's too close, but the pigeons, seagulls, and these scary-looking black and white birds are all over parks and are too stubborn to move when you walk by them...so I'm used to it.

-It's the coldest summer here in 15 years. Good timing, Hails.

-I'm going to attempt to learn to surf at some point.

-Everyone here (at least in my hostel) LOVES the Simpsons.

-Just because someone refers to you as "Love", doesn't mean they're you're friend. I learned this when I accidentally hit a man in the head with my umbrella.

-Rufus Wainwright (sp?) is playing here in a few days. I love him, but tickets are too expensive for me to go.

-Toilets have a half flush button for #1 and a full flush button for #2

-Spanish is worthless here. I need to learn Chinese!

-Everyone told me that people call girls "sheilas" and guys "blokes", but a couple of Aussies told me that only the rednecks use those terms.

Boring Stuff

I found an apartment in Surry Hills which is close to Darling Harbor. It's not perfect, and not what I'm used to in the States because I'll still be sharing a room with 3 girls, but ANYTHING is a step up from the Boomerang Backpacker's Hostel!!! I think it's a great location. It's right next to Central Station, a gym, close to a big park, and my new Australian bank is right on the corner. I have to give the owner the OK today, so let's hope it's stil available!

I've been looking online and through the Sydney Morning Herald for some job openings and I applied for two jobs yesterday, both with global companies, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

I Started WALKING! (Haha, Kales/K-Dos)

I got up this morning and started walking without any real direction. I ended up walking for MILES and then wanting to cut my feet off and die at the end of the day! But I did happen upon some really cool stuff. I walked through downtown and started seeing signs for the Harbor Bridge, so I walked towards it. I saw the pedestrian walkway to walk across the bridge so I started heading there,but before I got there I saw the Sydney Observatory so I climbed up the hill and took some pictures from up there.

I left the Observatory and walked across the bridge and got some pretty good shots of the Opera House:

I wanted to go to the Opera House, but I wanted to save it for a prettier day and when I had more time so I put it off for awhile.

Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World

I WANT A PET KOALA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!









Feeding time for the snakes:










There are tons more pictures on Facebook, so look there for more of them!