Let's get it started

Monday October 13^th… 2008 – 9:30pm

Well this is the first time I finally decided to sit down and write about what has been going on in our trip so far. It’s been so hectic doing this and that, even though we’re out here in the land where it feels like you should be doing nothing but chilling out – we’ve been putting tons of pressure on ourselves to try and get stuff done. And even if I do say so myself – we’ve done a pretty darn good job. It may not seem like a lot – getting set up to live, but it has been a ton of stuff. And we’re not quite done yet…

First we had to figure out what the heck we were doing and what we had to do when we got off the plane, because we had no idea, and no phone, and no internet, and no computer because we watched movies on the plane and had no way to charge our batteries. Long story short – we were screwed, but not panicked. After figuring out how to get some access to free internet were in business, and business was good. We got a free ride to a hostel because we booked two nights and it luckily ended up being in a great location. Then we found the “helping people”, who hook us up with internet and other goodies.

After getting a permanent mail address, filing for a tax file number, searching for places to live, picking out the best and cheapest phone plans, buying awesome pink phones because they were $10 cheaper than the black ones, taking a two hour nap, and walking about a thousand miles… we were all ready for a drink or two. Our hostel hooked us up with a free ticket to this place called the Gaff where all you have to do is buy a drink and then you get a free, albeit semi-crappy, dinner.

Over the next couple days we explored the area and tried to get leads on houses/apartments/etc. and after actually seeing just one we were beginning to lose heart. Then we found an awesome one and had to hustle to make it there because it was so last minute. The guy, steve, was pretty much a jerk to us and we thought we had no chance on the place until he called me back later letting me know it was “our lucky day.” Honestly it probably was too – the place is sweet. The jerk steve, now our landlord, set us up and we moved in the next day (yesterday?).

After dragging hundreds of pounds on public busses to our apartment and getting everything dumped off, it was off to Kmart to get things going for the flat. Pots, pans, silverwear, and anything else you can think of we bought. The cheapest stuff you could imagine. A set of fine dinner plates, mugs, bowls, side plates (16 pieces total) for only $9.59 australian (apprx $6.50 USD at the time). Not too shabby. Today we went to the grocery store and stocked up on food and finally figured out how to work our stove.

Oh I forgot to mention the boxed wine the other night. We were feeling especially cheap because we were concerned with how much money everything was costing (when the dollar menu at McDonalds all of the sudden costs 2.29 you get scared). So we decided to buy the cheapest thing in liquorLand – boxed wine. I think it was about 10 bucks for 4.4 Liters of the lowest quality wine on the planet [extra 10% free!!]. We sipped on some delicious boxed wine whilst playing liar’s dice, only the classiest for the rescuers down under. Oh and taylor was here by this time and he and Lindy talked to these german folks who moderately spoke English. The reason I bring this up is they are getting paid 17-18 bucks an hour promoting something, and they barely speak English. So we’re confident we’ll be able to get jobs. Also the german dude had a girly friend, so we’re also confident Brian and Taylor can make it happen eventually… hopefully.

Funny little things have been happening that make us so excited we’re here, all the time. Last night while we were watching Casino Royale out-of-nowhere fireworks start going off right outside our flat. Did I mention we live on the bay. Our house is in the bay – floating. Ok not really, but it’s really close. So the fireworks are going off in a barge mere meters from our flat. I love meters, almost nearly as much as I love Kilograms. Kilograms are the greatest things in the world. It’s weird buying 3L of milk instead of the full gallon… however.

Alright that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll write more frequently once we get better internet situations so the blog can make more sense. One of us will try to upload something at least every couple of days, if not every day. Erin is in charge of pictures so if there aren’t any good ones – blame her.

Jesse “psyched to be a rescuer” Meredith