First Day in Sydney

This'll be for those not on facebook.

Some of you asked for notes and whatnot of my adventures in Oz. Not sure how good I will be at blogging, but here's an uber long one to start. Not particularly interesting, so read at your own risk =P

Thursday Sept 18, 2008
20:25 Sydney

So here I am, back at the YHA Railway Square. I’ve got a different room this time, #224, behind a barred gate, then up some stairs. There isn’t an ensuite, just showers and toilets in a different room. I had to go out and buy a basket for all my toiletries. It’s just too much of a hassle having to remember to get everything I need. Everything into one basket makes it so much more efficient. Yea, and bringing full sized bottles makes it very difficult to pack well. Luckily, nothing exploded on the way over, though my medicated cream somehow leaked. The jar’s fine, just that the cap had become loose.

I had the exact same problem as the last time I was here, trying to find the hostel. When I came out of the train station, I took a wrong turn, and instead of walking to the end of the block, ended up circling around the entire complex. I can’t wait to find a place to move into. It’d be nice to have a real bathroom, and to be able to unpack. I hate living out of a suitcase, and rummaging through it everytime I need something. I don’t mind the lack of privacy overly much, since I rarely see my roommates anyway. The other thing that bites is that all internet access is paid by time. It’s rather expensive here, almost double that of Everywhere Internet, so I go out to use the net. I just got an adapter, so starting tomorrow, I can use my laptop at the café. Much more convenient than using their desktops.

Everything’s been good so far. The flight was on time. Actually, the San Fran-Sydney leg was a bit ahead of schedule, but we weren’t allowed to land before 6am anyway, so it didn’t make much of a difference. Earplugs are saviours! Never leave on a trip without them. There were a couple screaming kids on the plane, but they were beautifully muffled. It’s also been quite a while since I’d last flown. I’d forgotten just how loud planes could be, what with the roar of the engines combined with the wooshing of the air vents. I’d gotten lucky, too! I’d picked an aisle seat, and because the plane wasn’t overly full, one of the flight attendants moved me to another aisle seat, where I had a second seat to myself. (It was part of a 4-seater row, and the guy on the other end had a seat to himself too). All that space makes all the difference. This cantankerous Cantonese couple behind me were angry that I’d gotten moved, and not them. Weird, seeing how they had the same arrangement I did. I mean, what did they expect, an entire row for each of them? Yeesh. They kept referring to me as the ‘leng mui’, and here I thought I’d long outgrown that epithet, being at the ripe age of 27 already.

Anyhoo, I just ignored them. The earplugs helped =P

Pretty good experience with United. I had no troubles on either flight. The YVR-SFO pilot had a rougher landing than the SFO-SYD dude. The latter did a really smooth touchdown. Impressive.

No trouble with customs, though they did have me going for a sec. Aussies like to give you a mild heart attack, just for kicks. The coolest basset hound caught my attention. I thought he was a pet at first, then I actually read the vest, and looked at the handler, and he’s a Quarantine Dog, trained to sniff out suspicious objects. It’s a damned good thing I hadn’t reached out to pet him. That most definitely would not have gone over well.

Walked a LOT today. Kinda wished I had a pedometer, just to have a rough idea of how far I’d traversed. Urban planning obviously was not high on the priority list in the making of Sydney. I think it’s somewhat worse than Vancouver, and maybe the slightest bit better than Seattle, though all three could be sisters. Sydney’s a fantastic place for a Vancouverite, especially at this time of year. The weather’s absolutely perfect, if a bit sunnier than what I’m used to. Eighteen-degree high. T-shirt and jeans weather for me, plus a light jacket in the evening. Spring’s barely started. What the heck am I going to do come summer??? And it is set. I shall be proceeding clockwise. Apparently, the north is horrid between October and March: monsoon season. So I will hit up than area near the end, meaning I will not be spending much time. Just as well, considering the restrictions on my Visa. Not allowed to work for any one employer for more than 6 months. Hopefully, by then, I will have saved up enough money to be vacationing full time, and not dipping into credit cards.

I must say, people in Sydney jaywalk like there's no tomorrow. I'll probably eventually join in, but seeing how I can barely remember to look right, rather than left, for traffic, I think I shall stick to following. I'd actually followed this 10-year old girl for a few blocks. She was obviously a local with the way she was so fearlessly jaywalking. I'm totally not ashamed to admit that I only walked when she walked =P.

Feeling decently accomplished. Got a mailing address with the General Post Office:

Sophia To
Poste Restante
GPO Box Centre
Sydney, NSW 2001
Australia

Free service, and as Will says, “Free is affordable!”

Also applied for a Tax File Number (cross your fingers that I did it all correctly… won’t know for a couple weeks), and a couple bank accounts. The guy at the bank was SO helpful! Now I just have to wait for my card, and I’ll be good to go with banking. It’ll be nice to get this cash off my person. I’m turning paranoid.

Up next: Accommodations and Work. Dun dun dun!

But first, sleep. 9pm seems like a decent bedtime, yea?