Pics of my Bondi apt...so sunny!

Anzac Day

Went to the horse races on Saturday and won twice!! It was beautiful weather and good times sipping champagne and making random bets in the sun. Yesterday was Anzac Day - a day of remembrance for fallen Aussie and Kiwi soldiers. It is the one day of the year that it is legal to play 'two-up' in pubs in Australia. It's basically heads or tails...one person stands in the middle of the ring or bar and flips the coins and the rest of the crowd is betting, $5, $10 up to $100 on whether the coins will land heads or tails...simple and lots of fun! Lots of yelling and beer drinking. We waited in line quite a while to get into a popular pub for the game but it was well worth as we immediately made our right down front and I got to be 'the spinner' flipping to the coin til I crapped out by tossing a tails. Afterwards we partied the night away dancing to live music and eating at the 'best pizza place in Sydney' according to my crew.

Today I realized that I am domesticating myself..haha. I am hosting my first proper aussie bbq. All the cheese, crackers, chips, pita are set out AND I chopped tomatoes, peppers, avocado and made a lovely salad. First time for everything :) I ALSO marinated chicken over night in bbq sauce - which is now chilling in the fridge waited to be thrown on the barbie with the various types of sausage. BBQ is scheduled for 1-5 and it is now 1:30 and no word from the Aussies. I'm assuming mostly 3pm arrivals. :) Wondering if I should hit the beach for a bit..beautiful day.

Best news yet is that I now have wireless internet hooked up in my apt...only took 1 month. It goes on the blink a bit but happy to have something.

Get on skype so I can catch up with you all...

Latest adventures

Well I decided to go for it and do laser hair removal. The burn mark on the bed where I was to lie down was a bit concerning, but I went for it anyway. It actually wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be, but it was definitely not fun. More like someone snapping a rubber band against your skin over and over and over again. But I think in the end it will be worth it - especially at a 20% discount. :) Hair removal seems to be a pretty competitive market here. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Next appointment in 5 weeks.
That's probably the latest in terms of adventures. Met some new Swedish friends this week - continuing my international friend streak. They have 2 dogs...one small and one the size of a small horse...pretty funny to see. Still enjoying good weather - feels a bit like Fall some days, but today still in a sundress and thongs (flip flops :) ). Electronically I'm hoping to make some major improvements in the next week...starting with internet, webcam and then hopefully a TV. I haven't missed TV much but want to at least be able to turn it on when I'm relaxing on my enormous couch.
Very excited for another long weekend next week...celebrating Anzac day (Australia day of some sort). Apparently everyone goes to the bars on Sunday April 26th and plays two-up..basically gambling on whether a tossed coin will land on heads or tails. It gets pretty rowdy. And on Saturday I'll be going to 'the races'...hopefully in dress and funny hat.
That's all for now...

One month and going strong

It feels like a ton has happened since my last note, so here goes. Before Easter weekend (a nice 4 day break here in Oz), a friend took me to a free spa night where they essentially feed you cheese and crackers and champagne (obviously perfect for me) and sell you things. So I got a free facial and my first ever spray tan (which I really liked)...and by the time I left I had purchased laser hair removal sessions starting next week. I'm a bit nervous but mostly excited...I'll keep you posted on my progress :)
After that, I headed down to Jervis Bay a few hours south of Sydney for a few relaxing days in a cute little town Huskisson on the beach. I went with 2 new friends, both Brits so I mostly drank hot tea the whole time...a childhood tradition I plan to reincorporate into my life (especially since I am the only person on earth who doesn't drink coffee). It was a great weekend. We stayed in a lovely little B&B run by who else but a british couple. It was clean and homey and the breakfast was amazing every day. There are great national parks so we hiked and went wine tasting and saw lots of great wildlife (which you can see on FB). Snakes, kangaroos, wallabys...good times.
We also had an amazing dinner at a treetop restaurant where I tried kangaroo meat for the first time and loved it. It's like a very lean, melt in your mouth steak. Although, I have heard that it depends on who is cooking it. I didn't practice my left-side driving - I handled the map and navigating instead...so next time there should be good stories on that.
Last night I went to my first AFL (Aussie Rules) game at the sydney cricket grounds. The stadium is great and we managed to get tix from a member so we sat right before the 'dugout'. I loved watching...so fast-paced and impressive. It reminds me more of soccer/ultimate frisbee combo...nothing at all like NFL really. Lots of running, no pads, and lots of kicking/catching the ball. They literally play on a HUGE field nonstop..I don't think they had any time outs and are constantly subbing in and out like ice hockey. The Sydney Swans kicked the Richmond Tiger's butts...so a good time was had by all. :) I was with three French friends and we had absolutely no clue what was going on..prompting the Aussie guys in front of us to ask how we had member tickets..ha. They were quite nice about explaining the game though. And to top it off, after every game they let the entire stadium run down on the field and play, run, catch etc. Really fun and we got some good photos in the player dugout.
That's all I can remember for now...I'm off to an American Expat Meetup to play some touch football at the Domain - a park down by the harbor. Then off to a movie screening of an Aussie war film (in which I gather they take credit for winning WWII - gotta love Aussie enthusiasm :)).

Hasta luego!

PS. The office manager here (the Sydney Mamajo) is still not happy with me for eating Skippy...so she is threatening a bald eagle bbq. oops.

Getting Settled

I got to move into my new apt the night before my birthday...what a great gift to wake up in my own place! after a couple of weeks, i got approved for an awesome one bedroom apt with lots of light and a balcony. i bought most of the living room furniture from the guy who moved out AND the bbq (grill) on the balcony, quite convenient.
It was a busy work week but was topped off with an afternoon golf session on friday with ebay. I guess the media perks don't only exist in NYC :)
Today I got a bunch of kitchen stuff from a co-worker - I have more stuff in my kitchen now than I did in my 6 years in NYC...you guys would get a kick out of that. Pots, pans, rice cooker, wok on and on and on. I have a washer/dryer unit in my place which is awesome so testing that out today as well.
No internet at my apt yet (killing me along with the fact that I haven't unlocked my iphone yet). So I'm at a friends updating all of you before we head off to a Rugby Union game...my first. I will be cheering (not rooting) for the Waratah's - the Sydney team.
Happy birthday Leah - have a fabulous weekend of celebrating :)
I hope to be back on skype soon and with a webcam. MOM GET ON SKYPE! someone help her...
cheers :)

Making Progress...

I am moving into my own apartment tomorrow!! As irony would have it, after 2 weeks of trolling the streets of Sydney begging for apartments, the realtor from the first apartment I saw (and also my favorite) called and said my application had been approved. After a second look to confirm, I went ahead and put my deposit down. It is a modern, wood floor, one bedroom with a lovely balcony and washer/dryer. Good light and space. I bought most of the living room furniture and the grill from the guy who is moving out so now I just need a bed. Really excited about the grill though...called a bbq here.

I also had a great weekend of beach and sun and meeting new international friends which involved a lengthy political discussion with some new dutch friends about obama and healthcare...luckily we agreed on most points :) I am totally wiped out from sun and sea and lawn bowling (it is actually quite tiring when you over-exert yourself running and walking beforehand!). I'm looking forward to a relaxing Sunday night and a busy Monday of work, lease signing and moving.

I'll leave you with some funny dutch anecdotes of mis-communications in english. one guy was leading a training at work and at the end of the day he said, 'ok day's over...drop your pants'. of course he had meant to say 'drop your pens'. this story of course led us to repeating drop your pants all night and discussing possible merchandising and URL buying to coin the term. :) another good one...one dutch girl who waits tables in bondi referred to potato wedges as 'wedgies' for several weeks and couldn't figure out why everyone giggled. 'anyone want some wedgies?' ha - no thanks :)

Oh can't forget that my visa came through on friday just in time for the 23rd of the month payment cycle...very happy about that.

sounds like the weather is shaping up back home...love springtime in nyc!

One week down under

It's been one week in Sydney and I can't decide if it feels like 3 days or 3 months...a whirlwind of personal and work life. Right now I'm sitting on my bed in a spare bedroom of a colleague I just met. She rescued me from a possible homeless fate and I am most grateful! Work is full-on...a new aussie (pronounced auzzie my american coworker tells me repeatedly :) term that feels very appropriate right now. My office is kind of like the UN, with people from countries all over the world and a few Aussies mixed in. Sydney in general is very very multicultural which is great.

The benefit of my extensive apartment search is that I have walked a lot all over the city and so now know my way around to a decent degree. The city itself is pretty small and so it's easy to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood, potts point to paddington to surray hills and then a quick hop and skip on the bus to bondi.

I also made 3 friends this week. I met a British girl for a lovely night out in potts point for dinner and drinks (thanks vaness!). I met an American guy who has connections to softball and other sports leagues (thanks doug!). and tonight I had dinner with a friend of my sister's and her friend. Of course with the world being as small as it is her friend who joined us for dinner has only been here 1 month and already knows 3 of my co-workers, including the girl I am currently staying with. Nuts. She also has a birthday coming up so I may do a joint Sunday afternoon lawn bowling birthday party with her overlooking bondi beach in a couple of weeks.

So I definitely feeling like I'm settling in to the city even though I haven't found my own place yet...fingers crossed for tomorrow. I really love Sydney so far...it seems to be the best possible combination of LA and NYC. Great weather like LA with tons of outdoor cafes and bars and balconies and terraces...pretty tree canopy streets. But it is a small walking city like NYC, but smaller and surrounded by water that you can actually swim in. Just an awesome place.

Just skyped with Deb and the Hughes fam which was great...going to crash for the night since I have an early and full day of apt hunting tomorrow. Goodnight!