One Month Down!

OMG, YOU GUYS. I've been here for almost a month and a half now!! At the two week mark it felt like I had been here for a month and now I’ve been here for a month, it feels like I’ve been here for two weeks. It's so crazy how everything is settling in.

A question I get asked a lot is if I have gone out and explored and the answer is YES! I've gone into the city a few weekends now but honestly it's so boring without friends to talk to/eat/drink with. The first time I went into the city I took the train in by myself to Circular Quay (pronounced like circular 'key') and did a lot of looking around. I walked around the Rocks farmers market, some parks and looked at the bridge/harbor, got extremely lost at the Sydney Westfield shopping center (it's massive & the layout is sooo confusing), and found a Chipotle substitute... Let’s be honest, nothing's gonna beat Chipotle, but for the time being Mad Mex will have to suffice.

When I’m not looking for 'American' food I have been trying Australian foods whenever I get the opportunity. Let me just clear this up right now, Vegemite is not AS bad as people make it seem, I actually tried it within the first couple of hours after I landed. Contrary to YouTube videos I watched before coming to Oz, you’re suppose to put some butter on your toast first and then you put the skimpiest layer of Vegemite on because it’s salty AF. On videos and pictures online you see a thick spread and of course it's gonna taste nast like that.

It's supposed to look like this;

NOT LIKE THIS!!! (Internet pic)

I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s not like it's so horrible I couldn’t finish my toast. I don't eat it on the reg now but Nox (2 year old) loves it and Shae has appointed me the unofficially-official toast maker. I think it's because I've got the golden ratio of butter and vegemite figured out to his liking.

But side note; I think I might be living with a serial killer.

WHO DOES THAT?! (thats butter if you can't tell)

Oh my god. MEAT PIES. One afternoon, Shae and I had frozen meat pies cause there was nothing else in the fridge to eat. I imagine them to be the equivalent of a Totinos party pizza to a real pizza kinda quality. So I wasn’t a huuuge fan of them. Something about the consistency and color of the inside just threw me off. But last week we had real pies from Bite Me Bakeshop in Mt. Colah (a suburb next to us) anddd; I approve. I tried one with beef and one with mashed potatoes on top. I can totally see why they're popular; meat, gravy, handheld, and most people top it with tomato sauce (their version of ketchup) Would recommend.

I also tried a lamington for the first time, which is a sponge cakey sandwich with a creme filling and covered in chocolate and coconut. I’m not much of a sweet tooth but they remind me of hostess cakes and pastries like that. Nothing to write home about. Next on my list of things to try, is a Tim Tam. Has anyone else been to Australia and have recommendations for foods/restaurants while I’m here?

Everytime someone asks me how Australia is I don't really know how to answer, it's good? I'm alive, the kids are cute, the host parents are fun to hang out with, I haven't experienced homesickness yet. But like I anticipated, my lack of social life has been different to what I'm used to. It's not that I'm not doing stuff but for the last 5 or 6 years I've been busy busy busy with friends, family, and school so it just is a big adjustment for me to have so much free time. However, I'm not a total loser and have managed to get out a few times.

I went to the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade with Michelle (Tim’s brother, Blake’s, girlfriend, they live in the 'granny flat' in the back of the house). It was a huge deal because this year was the first year since gay marriage has been legalized in Australia. And oh my goodness... There were soooo many people. You would think you're walking away from the event and you turn the corner and there was just more people and more people. It was great to get out and see everyone’s creative outfits and support for the community.

A few weekends ago, the kiddos went for a sleepover at Shae's parents so that we could have a day to go out. We went and celebrated their friend's 30th birthday at Freshwater beach and dinner & drinks in the Manly area before Shae and Tim went to an Incubus concert.

Left to right: Lilah (Phill & Sam's daughter), Phill (Tim's twin brother), Sam (Phill's wife), me, Shae, Tim, Roo (Tim's dad), Blake (Tim's younger brother)

After being here for exactly one month, drinking far less than I usually do, a handful of pale ales on a half empty stomach knocked me on my ass. My tolerance is at an all time low. Let's just say that I was not on my best behavior and I paid for it all, the next day, Sunday.

I MISS COLLEGE. Not just because of my unusually high tolerance to alcohol but parties. This last Thursday Blake and I went to an annual Toga party at Macquarie University bar and it was everything you would see at your typical toga party. People (girls) trying too hard with their greek outfits, & people (boys) not trying at all. But my favorite has to be a guy I saw with a bedsheet held up with a sealing chip clip instead of tying it or using a safety pin. There were live DJs (wearing PBR shirts lol), but the type of music they played was very European dance mixed with weird/old songs... I'm not sure if they were bad DJ's or if the entire music culture here is different/or behind compared to the states. Also another weird thing to think about is that there isn't greek life at school here and it's a funny concept that everyone makes friends through classes and clubs like the rest of us geeds out there.

Michelle, Blake, and I went to the Ubar again this week. This time it was for a wine and watercolor charity event put on by a startup that empowers women to 'stick' themselves back together after leaving a situation of domestic violence. Our group decided to attempt to paint the waratah which is the New South Wales state flower or something like that... I clearly have not missed my calling as a watercolorist but I love drinking for a good cause.

To any potential art collectors: that painting has already found its way to the recycling bin. So no, it's not for sale.

I don't know how to segway into this, because smooth transitions are for things like school papers and require way too much thinking, for something as measly as this little blog. So... SLANG UPDATE!

• Uni (pronounced you-knee)- University/College

• Face like a dropped pie- Ugly person... (crying-laughing emoji)*

• Budgie- Budgerigar, which is a parakeet

• Budgie Smuggler- speedo, because it looks like you have the bird shoved down a pair of swim bottoms? wtf lol

• Petrol/petrol station- gas /gas station

• Washing- laundry

• Dummy- pacifier/binky

• Gum boots/wellies- rain boots

*I wish i could put emojis on here... (thinking emoji with hand on its chin)

I'm starting to realize that a lot of the phrases that I'm not familiar with are actually used both in the UK & Australia so it's just sometimes the difference of American English and British English (like dummy & wellies). There's tons of phrases that are used and with context clues I can figure out what they mean but it's just funny adjusting what I say so that everyone else knows what I'm talking about.

I really want to post more often, so that the posts aren't too long. But it always takes me forever to edit these darn things that events just pile up and I want to you all about everything. What do you guys think? Too long? Too short? Just right? I think that's all I've got for you guys this time!

A quick late b-day shout out to my fav boys, Austin & Nolan for making it another lap around the sun, miss and love you hooligans and hope that you had a good one! (Can we go back to Shasta when I get home???)

Hope you enjoyed this update! Have a great weekend!!

Love,

Aivi