Time Management

It’s been tough churning these blogs out! Lots has been going on, and I wish I had more time to write about it even if just for myself to have a nice chronology of the things I’ve been doing.

Of course one of the things I’ve been doing a lot of is going to the beach. When I went to my first orientation session for international students – a “welcome/arrival” talk that was given, the speaker asked how many of us had been to the Sydney beaches yet, and surprisingly only a very fair few raised their hands. Of course it’s handy to know some Australians who will take you around to the spots, but even if I didn’t I would think I would really try to make it out there especially in the really hot, humid weather we’ve been having recently. Despite the very small number of beach goers, there was still a talk given on beach and sun safety by a lifeguard which I thought was pretty interesting for a university to do. They are very big on swimming “between the flags” or only in designated safe spots along the currents.

I’d really like to see some beaches outside of Sydney, but for now I’m content with the huge amount there are just in a really short distance. I’ve been to Dee Why, Narrabeen, Manly, Curl Curl, Freshwater, and Balmoral (and Bondi, if you count my trip from two years ago). Manly is probably my favorite in terms of actual beach towns because there’s a lot of shopping and restaurants whereas the other ones are a little more residential. But Freshwater is probably my favorite in general. It’s the most scenic with the best surf, and it’s home to one of my favorite little cafés so far – Pilu, which is actually a really fancy restaurant, but they have an outdoor kiosk where you can buy paninis, espressos, and really amazing pastries while sitting and overlooking the cliffs and waves. Really stunning.

One of the best days of sightseeing I’ve had so far was my trip to Darling Harbor and Cockle Bay Wharf. I hadn’t gotten a chance to go there last time, and it was really beautiful. I think it’s pretty touristy with expensive and sometimes chintzy restaurants (Hard Rock Café), but the harbor itself is beautiful and the bridge walk underneath the monorail line is really nice. It’s also home to the Chinese Gardens and the Aquarium. It’s where I had my first Thai meal since arriving in Sydney, which I couldn’t believe since Thai food is everywhere! Afterwards, I saw the observatory, a beautiful old building home to some really cool space and nautical exhibitions located near the harbor bridge in the Rocks area… sort of. At least we started in the Rocks, and then walked up. It feels like no matter where you walk in Sydney, you’re going up hill, even on the way back from wherever you came from.

Of course it hasn’t all been beaches and thai iced teas and space museums. Every Saturday, Tom and I have had to wake up early and organize apartment inspections which is one of the most frustrating activities I’ve ever encountered. For some reason, all the inspections occur on Saturday from 10-2 and last for 15 minutes each, so we are rushing from Suburb to Suburb across the entire length of Sydney to make the next one on our list. Sometimes, agencies list the wrong address. Other times the buildings are just impossible to find, or the agents have listed wrong, somewhat integral information like there happens to be no kitchen, or they only want one tenant. Sometimes they don’t even tell us the information until after we have filled out the three page application, photocopied dozens of IDs, bank statements, payslips, etc. and submitted it, only to never hear a response and have to hassle the real estate company until we are finally met with “Oh, sorry – one tenant only.” Gdidsghgfojgiehgiovdrejg! Most places don’t include utilities, wardrobes, a fridge, and one place we went to was about $1300 a month and the floor was covered with roach carcasses. Finally, we caught on to the trick of organizing separate inspection times for places that were not open for public viewings, and this past week caught a lucky break. We saw a newish apartment in a nice building – clean, spacious, balcony… not furnished, but not overly expensive, and we were accepted the same day we applied for it. Thankfully it’s the best place we’ve seen and it’s in the same suburb as university, so it’s a good deal on all counts.

I’ve also had a lot of errands with university itself since classes start on Monday. From trying to work out my timetable (schedule), to hassling the international office about my loans, to attending “required” sessions on how to use a computer it’s been a busy week. I’m intrigued by the idea that they are trying to cram everything into this one final week before school, and that they feel so much has to be done. There are arrival sessions for internationals, for postgrads, welcomes for internationals, for postgrads, faculty inaugurations for your schools, different events, and so on and so on. You basically have to live at uni to be able to attend all these things and since there is really no uni housing, I don’t see how all these things are populated. I’ve been to a few arrival sessions for postgrads and internationals, but it’s mostly all the same information, and it seems mostly geared towards students who don’t speak English as a first language. Maybe it’s just the unfamiliarity of a new place, but it seems a lot more disorganized than NYU ever did! It’s a lot different not living on campus though and having access to things constantly. One thing that bothers me about university here is that you are basically expected to pay for everything. Thankfully, for some reason, Public Health students are the only students that get free printing otherwise that itself would cost hundreds of dollars whereas at NYU it was always free. In order to join clubs and events, you also have to buy something called an access card for $100 which gives you “discounts” on things, but seems like the kind of thing where because you have a discount card you want to buy more in order to get the benefit of it. Unlike domestic students, we also don’t get concessions on public transportation, and we have to pay to park on campus. I feel like I’m being cynical, and I understand that domestic students have a different outlook on education since they are not paying for it up front so paying for these amenities doesn’t seem like an issue… but for someone that has always paid for education and expected to receive those amenities it’s difficult to cough up the money. Especially since I’m paying up front for this too.

I’ve also become really interested in the food culture here (could you guess?) One thing I love about Sydney is the coffee culture. It’s everywhere (and by “coffee” I mean espresso): boutiques, parks, school, car washes… you can go anywhere and expect to have a coffee. And it’s a nice coffee too, with a design drawn into the foam. It’s more expensive than in America; even by espresso standards, but it’s worth it to have all these little cafes around everywhere.
Bar and bistro food seems really popular; meats and really expensive specialty salads as well. You can find a panini anywhere, but it’s usually not made properly at ALL (except at Pilu!). I don’t think Italian food is popular in general – I’ve heard you can’t find penne ala vodka, which is my favorite, although I’ve seen lots of nice looking Italian restaurants so I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe like the panini they are not done correctly. Mexican is also out of course, sadly. The other thing I can’t find is vegan food. There a few really small “green grocers” as they call them that have a variety of organic breads and cereals and wheat pastas and weird things in bottles, but don’t have nondairy butters or vegan cheese or any of the things I’m used to eating at home… even veggie dogs or burgers I can’t really find! I’ve been to some organic cafes; one called Scrambled in Enmore is one of my favorites, but although it serves wheat breads and fresh juices, it also serves tons of meats and cheeses which takes it off the vegan list.
What you CAN find is tons and tons and tons of Asian food. Indian, Nepalese, Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai… anything in that regional area is par for the course. I’ve been to a million sushi trains, and had Indian a few times, and for Tom’s birthday we’ve booked a Vietnamese place. For our anniversary we went to a nice Thai place and had some awesome noodle and giant kind prawns in banana blossom and sweet coconut milk. I guess if I can’t find a burrito, I can deal with that.
I’m also surprised how little fish I see on menus. There’s flatfish, whitefish, and prawns (shrimps) a lot, but in terms of other shellfish there’s nothing. I rarely ever see crab or lobster – apparently really expensive – and the scallops at the market were EXTREMELY pricey. I was shocked seeing as Sydney is basically located IN the ocean, but meat seems a lot more popular, and a lot cheaper. I did drag Tom to the Sydney Fish Markets, which he hated. As expected it was crowded to the brim with Asian tourists, and we ordered a huge seafood platter, which was mostly fried and not really what any Australian would ever typically eat. I was pretty surprised to hear that no one knows how to properly eat crab, or goes crabbing, or orders lobsters. I did have to dehead and devein a couple dozen prawns for a barbecue which I had never done before and was quite the experience… but I am really starting to miss east coast seafood! Someone send me some chowder!

Well I will soon have some new contact info for everyone since we’ll be moving in to our new place on March 10th. I DO have a new mobile number as of… ages ago in case anyone is interested in that though I don’t really expect any international calls! It’s 0438891140… for all you Americans out there, you must dial 011-61 first.

Missing everyone back home! xo