Xtina in Oz

Well, it's that time of the year, I guess. The time to say goodbye to a life of comfort and leisure (and employment!) and venture back into the land of the unknown. Yes, folks, I've left Melbourne. I finished off my last few weeks in Melbourne with some great adventures: a trip to Gippsland, east of Melbourne, to visit the hometown of my co-worker Prue; last-minute invite to the Melbourne Cup, the premiere event of the Spring Carnival racing season (fancy dress required); giving notice and working my last shift at Slow Down!@Harley Court; a farewell shindig; and of course, no trip to Australia would be complete without the doomed romance. Yes, I managed to squeeze it all in since my last blog post! Photos of most of these events can, of course, be found on facebook. Saying goodbye to Melbourne and the friends I've made there was very sad and difficult. I spent 9 months and 1 day there, held down 3 official jobs, and a variety of various and sundry forms of employment be

Hey yall, I know it's been a while, but if you follow me on facebook you've probably been keeping up with photos. Here's a short summary of what's been going on the past couple of months: Mostly worked like crazy for the entire month of August. Last month of winter, and Melbourne made the most of every minute, with lots of crazy rain and wind and cold. Went to a couple of fun restaurants with dinner club, a German sausage Haus: super authentic Indian food in Richmond, beloved by Melbourne's cab drivers:

So I continue to work like a crazy person, but mostly at night, so I've had my days free to do some fun stuff. Last week I caught up with a fellow traveller, Marlies, a Dutch girl I met in the Northern Territory. She's been in Melbourne for a couple of weeks, staying with a friend, so we met in neutral territory and had breakfast in Richmond, at the Sass Cafe: Marlies enjoying her latte on Bridge Road After breakfast we went across the road to Cotton On and bought some cheap clothes. Yay!

So I've gotten some... comments (read: complaints) that I hadn't updated my blog in a while. And this is true. Travelling takes it out of you, both physically and financially. So, in the 3 weeks since I've returned from my various destinations, I've basically been working non stop. Yay for money! Boo for having no life! Here's a snippet of the life of an expat-American waitress:

A few days ago I returned from my first extensive trip since arriving in Australia. I went to the Northern Territory for 2 weeks and saw a lot of amazing things. For those of you unfamiliar, here is a little geography lesson to get started. This post will be focusing on the portion of the NT known as the "Top End": My trip began in Darwin. My friend AJ from the states flew out to do this trip with me, and met me in Darwin. We booked ourselves in for a weekend to explore the city. It turns out this was almost too much time, as there isn't a lot to do in Darwin;  luckily the hostel we stayed at had a really nice pool and patio area, so I whiled away my days poolside!

There are times when a girl just craves the tastes of home. Well, May 1 was one of those times. I set out for a bike ride with a British friend who lives in my neck of the woods, but a flat tire, too much wind and sheer laziness sent us instead to Misty's Diner in Prahran, an American style diner I had heard about but never been to. I'd had a late night the evening prior, and alcohol was consumed, and I wasn't feeling at the top of my game. A Dr Pepper was definitely in order Yes! They had Dr Pepper! And it only got better when I decided to order the Bacon Ranch burger as my meal (at 11:30 am) Would you look at the amount of Ranch dressing on that thing!? It was heaven. My only comment would be to note that the bacon on said Bacon Ranch burger was definitely not "American-style" but I have found that bacon here is exceptional on a burger, no matter. So, a stellar meal, overall. The wall next to our booth had license plates from all the states on it (Americ

So, for those of you who are not aware, I am not a coffee drinker. Never have been. Never liked anything that tasted of coffee - coffee ice cream, chocolate covered coffee beans, nada. However, working in a cafe in Melbourne, where coffee is a way of life, I decided I might need to try and wean myself onto it. First of all, coffee here is not remotely the same as coffee in the states. Whereas at home, most coffee drinks start from a base of plain black filtered coffee, here it starts with an espresso shot. If you are like my mom, and like your coffee strong and black, in Melbourne you need to order a "long black" - and you'll find you probably need at least two of those to satisfy your normal coffee quota. If you like milk in your coffee, that's a "flat white." Then there's a latte, which is an espresso shot with steamed, frothy milk. The difference between this and a flat white is still somewhat vague, but I think a latte is stronger and frothier. Mos

Good morning America! I come bearing gifts - well, photos of some recent adventures. As promised, I took my camera out with my new bicycle and we went for a ride on the beach.

 I'm sorry it's been ages since I wrote - time gets away from me here in Oz! Well, things on the job front have changed quite a bit, and I wouldn't be surprised if they continued to do so, but here's where I'm at for now: Slow Down! @ Harley Court didn't do the boom business they hoped to in the first couple of weeks, and I became a casualty of that. Just not enough hours to go around when people aren't coming in to eat. So I had about $47 in my bank account, and set out on a desperate job hunt for about a week and a half. But, fear not, all is well now, and I have not one but two jobs! The first is working at a cafe in Melbourne's CBD (central business district), The Terrace. It involves 6:30 am start times, the occasional room service order for the neighboring hotel, and pretty great hourly pay! So I get up at 5 am at least 3 times a week and go to work until 11 am, come home, take a nap, and then have the rest of the afternoon and evening free!

Those of you keeping up with me on facebook will note that I have re-discovered breakfast. For the life of me,  I cannot understand why America has not caught on to beans on toast. Truly a great invention. Even better, I have mastered soft-boiled eggs. Why, you ask? Because I love poached eggs, but they are such a challenge. So soft-boiled eggs offer a similar consistency with 1/5 of the work. And they go so nicely on top of beans on toast! It's a great way to start any day. So, I got around to uploading pictures from my camera, at last. Here are some of my quaint little house on Chapel Street, taken when I first moved in last week:

Ok, ok, calm yourselves. I come prepared with some pictures (not previously seen on Facebook). These are not recent, and I apologize for the delay, but they're new to you! A couple of weeks ago, a couple of British girls I met and I went to the Eureka Tower, which offers the highest public vantage point in the Southern hemisphere.

 That lyric is so not about New York! Must be about Melbourne! Nah, actually, Melbourne's streets make you feel like you've lived here your whole life - comfy and easy and downright cool. Today I went to the ACMI - Australian Centre for the Moving Image. They have this cool Dennis Hopper exhibit on, plus some other free stuff, so I went to check it out. The Dennis Hopper exhibit was very interesting - I'm ashamed to admit I really had no idea he had done so much. I sadly was not raised by cinephiles, and so have never seen Easy Rider or Rebel Without a Cause . But I also didn't realize he was so involved in visual art, as well. I've got some movies to add to my list, now! After that exhibit, I wandered into a general exhibit called "Screen Worlds: The story of film, television and digital culture" which is exactly what it sounds like. It was actually pretty fun, and told from the Aussie perspective which is a nice little twist - turns out not everyth

I know it's been an eternity. I was paying $4 an hour for the internet at my hostel in Melbourne, and so didn't really get around to the blogging thing. I did take a lot of pictures, most of which have been added to facebook by now. So if you're my facebook friend (if you're not, who are you anyway?), check them out. I am making Melbourne my home for a while. I've gotten a job and a house share in St. Kilda, a beach precinct about 20 min. from the city. So far, it's been lovely! I was thrilled to move out of the hostel. The backpacker lifestyle is just not for me. I'm waiting tables at a brand new restaurant in St Kilda, called Slow Down! @ Harley Court. So far, so good. Have had a couple of days off and today is my first day back, so hopefully I haven't forgotten everything I learned last week! The house share is great. I will put up pictures soon. It's a little shabby, but it's big, the housemates are nice, and the location is splendid. A

Some of you have already heard this story, and I've been trying to keep my blog in chronological order, but I cannot resist. Two days ago I went down to visit a friend on the peninsula south of Melbourne. We went out to a beach with rock pools and such - very scenic.

Well, it turns out you can run out of things to do, even in a big city like Sydney. I mean, there's still the zoo and the aquarium and what not, but those are rather expensive ventures and since I don't plan on having a job for at least another month, money is tight. Also, the weather forecast has been misleading. Both yesterday and today it said it would rain all day. It rained for about 10 minutes yesterday and sprinkled for about 5 today. So plans to go to the beach or to Olympic Park were cancelled, but could have easily been carried on with anyway. Tried to rent a bike from the hostel this afternoon to go burn off some steam, but it turns out they've only got one bike and somebody had already checked it out for the day. Fail. Perhaps will attempt Bondi Beach tomorrow, rain or shine. Am looking forward to skipping town and going to Melbourne on Monday. Of course, I've booked three weeks there, which seems like a lot. I've been in Sydney for a week and am b

Come on, I had to. Monday morning we ventured to the north shore of Sydney to visit Manly Beach. We stopped first at Pancakes on the Rocks, in the historic neighborhood of The Rocks. After some misguided walking (my fault), we finally made it, and the meal was well worth the wait. $5 champagne and orange juice (they didn't know what we meant when we asked for mimosas) started things off with a bang, but the real show stopper was the meal itself - pancakes, a fried egg, grilled tomato and 2 sausage links, all for $13! Delicious, filling, and ... well, pretty cheap for Sydney! We then walked to Circular Quay to catch the ferry across the harbour. Manly is a big surfing beach, so not great for swimming, but a nice breeze meant sunning myself was pretty spectacular. I did get a little bit of a sunburn, as the sun is insanely strong here - strong enough to get through my 30+ sunblock.   the view of Circular Quay (that's the MCA on the left) from the boat   a little cloudy

I don't have a lot to say, but I do have pictures to post. Yesterday we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Wiebke wanted to do a guided walk that's offered for free, so we got up early and arrived for the 10:30 blast off time. By 11:30 I think we'd traveled about 100 m from where the walk started. Our guide was very nice, very informative, and very slow. More walking, less talking! So we only covered about 1/4 of the gardens, but plan to go back tomorrow. Some highlights: [hint: you can click on any of these pictures for a bigger version] The Gardens were founded in 1816 - fun factoid! (more of those to come)   tree full of bats, known here as flying foxes Flooded Gum or Rose Gum tree - planted in 1956 Australia is home to 800 kinds of eucalyptus (or gum) trees   a native Australian tree, the Euodia Most bees in the world are stingless beees. What we commonly think of when we hear "bee" is the European honey bee. This is the type of bee that is disea

The walking tour never happened - seemed I had wrong information. But Wiebke and I walked around on our own. Here are some pics from Hyde Park:       I call this the mall - reminds me of Central Park   St. Mary's Cathedral And, just because I thought it was awesome:   who doesn't need a dragon removed every now and then? Today we're headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art - normally something that wouldn't be high on my list, but it's free!

Well, day 3 here in Sydney. So far it's been slow going, in terms of activities. Turns out it takes more than a day to sleep off the jet lag! I did go for a walk yesterday morning to Darling Harbour. It only took me about 10 minutes to get there from the hostel, which may have been why I chose it as my first destination. Darling Harbour has a really interesting history. When Sydney was settled way back when, settlers chose to use Sydney Cove as their shipping port, because the geography of the land made it difficult to get onland traffic to Darling Harbour. So instead it become a dirty industrial sinkhole, and remained so until about the 1980s, when some government types tore the whole thing down and re-designed it as a city center. There's loads of attractions there, including the aquarium, the convention center, Sydney's Wildlife World, the National Maritime Museum, etc. a row of shops and restaurants.   across the bay, a different row of shops, known as Harborsi

I've arrived in Australia. Good on ya! The flight was long and bumpy, and I somehow got stuck in a middle seat, much to my chagrin. But, the in-flight entertainment was enjoyable as was the captain or first officer or whoever kept making the announcements. Super Aussie - he probably does it on purpose. I arrived at my hostel, plunked my stuff down, and immediately went out shopping. One of the outside pockets on my suitcase came open and my toiletries bag fell out (time for a new suitcase, me thinks), so I had to go buy all those necessities like shampoo! Also bought a cell phone and some minutes or something - the system here is a lot different than in America, where you pay $x for x number of minutes. Here you pay $30 for $150 worth of talk time, $40 of texting, etc etc. So I really have no idea. I bought the bottom of the line, $39 phone, and it's so basic I can't even figure out how to use it! But I won't have much need for it, I think, at least not at first. An

I'm halfway through my 48+ hours in LA, my final stop before Australia! I spent the last two weeks in Texas, seeing my dad and getting my fill of all things American. I had cheeseburgers, barbeque, Tex-Mex food, and heard plenty of country music. Also, cowboy hats and boots! We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo on my last night - my first! It was really fun! Those bulls are intense, and I have a newfound appreciation for rodeo clowns - their job is way harder than you think from the job title! my parents and bestie Anne at the midway Since arriving in LA yesterday afternoon, I've eaten vegetarian for all my meals - very quintessential, but unintentional. Last night I went out with my friend Matt who I'm staying with, and a bunch of friends from his PhD Philosophy program. We had dinner at a Southern Indian restaurant, Paru's, then ended up bringing everybody back to Matt's apartment for some drunken philosophical discussions. (I soberly observed)

For those of you wondering why I haven't posted in 2 weeks, it's cause I'm not in Australia yet! I am spending some time catching up with and visiting friends and family before leaving the country on Jan. 25. I've got my hostel in Sydney booked for my first 5 nights. I think I'm going to land, get to my hostel, and completely freak out because I have nothing planned. So unlike me! That's the update for now. More in a few weeks!