"All I want is a room somewhere...

...far away from the cold night air. With one enormous chair, now, wouldn't that be loverly?"

Granted - I'm looking for a bit more than a room with one enormous chair, but right now that would probably be just fine.

This song (rather, this verse) is on constant replay in my head. I can't look at a single person on the street and not think to myself - "Look at you, walking around with a place to live. Must be so nice."

Me - bitter? No. Not at all.

ARGH.

Okay - this is a venting post. I'm just a little frustrated today over here. Down here. Whatever. Take this with a grain of salt. (Which I can't even do, because I'm still living in a hotel with no salt of my own.)

• A checking account (in US terms) is a savings account here. A savings account (in US terms) is a chequeing account here.
• There are fees for EVERY piece of banking that you do. Transferring money. Setting up direct debit. Setting up bill pay. Breathing.
• Some real estate agents require you to use direct debit and then the bank charges $4 for each direct debit that's made on your account. What?
• Trying to book a taxi is ridiculous. There is one company and they recently invested in an automated speech recognition system. One that apparently can't understand my American accent. Although I'm sure the accent along with the fact that I can't pronounce anything correctly doesn't make it easy to understand me. You try these names... Narrabundah, Jerrabomberra, Furzer, Lymenham, Woden, Manuka, Eyre. Now say them clearly in an Australian accent. Nice, well done.
• Every piece of property here is managed by a real estate agent - which means you don't deal directly with owners. Which means you are prey to the whims of the real estate agent. And they have exhibitions (open homes) for 15 (yep, 15) minutes. About 20 people show up, look at the place and then submit an application that the owner peruses and then selects their favorite. I'm finally putting cover letters on the applications to explain my situation. And that I OWN a house in Atlanta for goodness sake.

Other differences I've noted. Not really things that make me crazy, but are different:

• They drive on the other side of the road. I know that seems a bit obvious, but it still is hard to wrap my head around. So, every time I step out I'm looking both ways like a bobble head that's lost its marbles.
• Lots of things have different names - the movie Airplane is called Flying High. Burger King is Hungry Jack's.
• McDonald's has McCafe, which serves espresso drinks and pastries. I haven't been in one yet, but I may have to check it out, as weird as the concept seems.

Tulips in the spitting rain

This past Sunday was a grey, cold, spitting day. The perfect day for wandering around Commonwealth Park looking at tulips in full bloom for Floriade, Canberra's springtime festival, with new friends. Why would I want to be doing anything else? Being outside on grey, cold days, is the perfect hangover cure, right??

I went to breakfast this past Sunday with new friends S and K, a married couple I met through a yahoo group - AmericansIn Australia (or something like that). They've been in Canberra for 2 years (from Ohio) and are super nice and have lots of good practical advice. We were joined at breakfast by P, a guy I met on Friday night while at the ANU (Australia National University) postgraduate ball. My neighbor H is a senior lecturer at ANU and convinced me to go to this ball. Really not a ball, but more like a fancy dinner in a great hall (much smaller than the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies, but similar in theme and decoration). But I digress... I met P there and he joined us out for breakfast on Sunday. We met up with H there as well and chatted for a while before rambling off to admire the flower displays. The only one really worth nothing was a map of Australia decorated with natural flora and other items for each state - the wine country had wine bottles, the desert had a miniature Uluru, Queensland had large ferns and other tropical plants... It was pretty neat.

Where are the pictures you ask? Well, I took pictures, but haven't arranged a permanent computer situation (I'm using the one at work and don't want to download photos there) so as soon as I figure something out you will have a glimpse of my life and the people here. Because it's just so dang fascinating. :)

Other things I've done in the last week - I got a phone, I applied for a couple of apartments. I can't WAIT to have an apartment so I can start to really feel settled. I looked at one on Saturday that I really liked, and I've probably just jinxed the whole thing by telling you about it. Oh well.

Went to a Belgian Beer Cafe on Saturday night to celebrate the West Coast Eagles making it to the AFL grandfinals in Melbourne next week. H is a HUGE Eagles fan, so I've watched the last 2 games of the season with him and to be honest, I really like AFL (Aussie Rules Football). So much so, that when I watch soccer now, I can't help but thing the guys are such drama queens for faking a fall! Oh well... Each sport needs its melodrama. Anyway, the Eagles (from Perth) are in the AFL grandfinal in Melbourne this coming weekend, and I am going to be there! Okay, not actually at the game, but I'll be in Melbourne. My friend Z from Seattle is traveling around Australia for a month and I am flying to Adelaide on Friday to meet up with him and we are going to drive the Great Ocean Road from Adelaide to Melbourne, spend a couple of days in Melbourne, then head back to Canberra. He'll stay with me for a few days and then we're going to Sydney next weekend to hang out. Oh yeah, and go to the Dixie Chicks concert!! I can't believe it's almost here. Seems like just yesterday I was in Atlanta talking to M and A about going on their behalf since the show in Atlanta was moved. ok...pause for a bit of nostalgia... okay... moving on. Wasn't this paragraph about the Belgian Beer Cafe? And the AFL grandfinals? Anyway, the Belgian Beer Cafe, while a 2 minute walk from my place, is nothing like Brickstore, let me tell you. Close enough to be an okay substitute, but it did make me miss the BS. Their selection of beers isn't as extensive as the one at the BS, although I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a broader selection of Belgian beers outside of Belgium than at the BS. At the Belgian Beer Cafe, H and I met 3 guys (okay, I met 3 guys, and dragged H into the conversation). Spent the rest of the evening hanging out with them... good times. But to get back to footy (football - any game with a ball over here - aussie rules, rugby, rugby leauge, soccer, etc)... I'll be in Melbourne to experience the culture of the AFL grandfinals. Should be pretty darn exciting!

Okay... I think that's a good summary of my life the past week. I miss you all!

Happy Monday

It's lunchtime here, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to jot down some thoughts...

• I saw some kangaroos this weekend! I went to dinner at my boss' house and his family took me on a walk out behind their house. We saw about 30-35 kangaroos, enjoying a twilight meal. It was so cool to see kangaroos in person. And this was literally a 5 minute walk from my boss' house out in the suburbs of Canberra. I think that's an advantage of Canberra, it's surrounded by rural areas so there's quick access to the outback/bush.
• Had a gourmet brekky (breakfast) at a cute little place in Kingston this weekend - read the paper, watched the locals. I had french toast with carmelized bananas. Yummy! The bread here has been universally great - very flavorful and substantive. The bananas were apparently a treat - there was a cyclone in northern Queensland earlier this year that knocked out the banana crops and the price has apparently only recently gone down on them.
• Saw more kangaroos on the campus of the University of Canberra. My one friend in Canberra that I don't work with has a car and he drove me around most of Saturday, which was great. This time there were 5 kangaroos and we were able to get pretty close. I have some pictures and will post as soon as I am able.
• Have been exploring the grocery stores with great success. Have found very wide selections of all things and have even found some new favorites - in particular the yougurt. It is so good - the stuff at home is too sweet, even the plain stuff - this is just right. (I feel a little like Goldilocks when I'm trying out new food!)
• Went to the Target. Now, it may seem like a weird compulsion to get to the Target on my first weekend here - but given how much I love Target at home, I needed to see how similar it was. It was similar enough to make me feel comfortable. I had a grand time figuring out my size in Australia and did some retail therapy damage to my credit card. :)
• Watched Aussie Rules Football semifinals (Perth Eagles vs. Melbourne Bulldogs) and even learned a little bit! It helps that the guys (i guess I should say blokes) on the team I was watching were very good looking, so it kept me interested... ;0
• Went for a run this morning by Lake Burley-Griffith, which is about a 5 min run from my apt... it's so nice to start the morning by the lake. There were rowers and kayakers out there this morning - I'm looking into that this morning. There were also hot air ballons floating around - that'd be pretty cool!

I'm feeling pretty good now; although I'm definitely on an emotional roller coaster. Luckily it's sunny every day and that always helps my mood. I miss everyone terribly, but am having a grand time getting settled and trying to wrtap my head around the fact that I live here now, I'm in a different hemisphere and I work for the Australian government (as an FTE!!). Crazy.

First Impressions...

Well, I've been here almost a week now, and am finally beginning to come out from the fog of jetlag. It wasn't till I started to feel normal again last night that I realized what a fog I"d been walking around in. Travelling around the world really does a job on you.

I arrived late Sunday night, my new boss picked me up at the airport with a box of food and delivered me to my temporary housing, a furnished apartment in Kingston, one of the suburbs in Canberra. I was so thankful for the familiar face at the end of my journey, and having real food for breakfast (or 'brekky' as it's called here) was priceless. He also arranged a taxi to pick me up on Monday morning to get to work.

In my first couple days here I have opened a bank account, figured out the bus system, traveled to the immigration office, and slept a lot. I still have so much to do! I'm looking forward to this weekend, I"m planning on walking around the neighborhood I'm in to scope out places to rent, checking out the Australian Target (!), and jsut hanging out. A colleague I know through CDC actually lives around the corner from where I"m staying and he has been great, checking in on me and he'll take me around this weekend.

I've been watching a lot of Australian TV this week - the 10 channels I have in the hotel/apt - 2 sports channels [I swear that by the time I leave I will understand the difference in rugby, cricket, aussie rules, and there appears to be another game similar to rugby and aussie rules... just need to find some bloke to explain it to me... ;) ] and 8 others, mostly news. I've become only slightly addicted to 'Neighbours' and 'Home and Away', soap operas that come on in the early evening. I had a thought this morning as one of the TV channels was debuting a 'new' Coke ad, one that I've seen numerous times back home already' - things arrive here later than in the US, and while right now I already now what's come out in the US, soon I won't know and I"ll be just as behind in my pop culture/movies. Oh well - my knowledge of Australia events will far surpass yours. If I pay attention.

No pictures yet.

Kangaroo sightings:
Live: 0
Dead: 2 :(

Last posting from the US

Well, I get on a plane for the other hemisphere tomorrow morning. I can't believe it's finally here. I'm excited and apprehensive all at the same time. Moments of sheer panic are balanced by the thought of getting to see Australia and live there, but it's a minute-to-minute excitement, I have to be honest.

This past week on Oahu has been really fun, my friend Jason and I did as much as possible while both getting ready for long trips (him to GA for couple of weeks, me to... well, you know where I'm going!).

Quick pictoral summary of the week:

Visiting the USS Arizona Memorial

Waikiki Beach!

The sunset on the North Shore, just past Haleiwa

At the top of Diamond Head

Well, that's it for tonight... on to the packing and trying to get some sleep. The next time I talk to y'all, I'll be upside down! :)

Katie has left CONUS

I'm in Hawaii now! The weather is perfect and the air has such a beautiful fragrance... Love it! I'm planning to go snorkeling tomorrow morning, then hang out on Waikiki Beach for the afternoon.

The last week is sort of a blur - so much happened... road trip was slightly changed to get back to the Bay Area more quickly, then some much needed and unexpected family time in Tacoma, WA. Back in the Bay Area I got to say goodbye to grad school friends, and Maggie and I even found time to go try on wedding dresses (for her [next summer], not me!)

Then Maggie (the super-duper para trooper) and I packed up the parts of my life in my mom's living room. I arrived at the Oakland Airport this morning with 3 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons. Not too bad for one life. :0 For the record, vacuum seal bags are life-savers!