The weekend can't come soon enough

Ok, you had to know it would come eventually....that little dose of reality that reminds you of the real purpose of the trip....WORK. That has hit this week. It has been a typical "busy season" week for me. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for some of my Australian colleagues, who have commented on my "American work ethic" and not meant it in a complimentary fashion. I'm relatively stressed out, which shouldn't be a surprise to any of you who have seen me in the heat of busy season. However, I'm trying really hard to soak up the Aussie nature and be more laid back. I'm just not sure I can do it. Maybe I need to stay here much longer than 3 months to make sure I get that very valuable trait. :)

Anyway, the weekend.....sooooo excited for it to come. The agenda entails (after some work on Saturday morning, I'm sure) viewing an Aussie rules football match on Saturday night and then....oh yes....wait for it.....surfing lessons on Sunday. I know. I was just commenting on how cold it is here for surfing. However, I figure when in Rome.... And I'm not sure what it is right now with me and the excessive use of dots. Please forgive me. I'm sure this is annoying someone. Probably the result of too much caffeine combined with too much work and too much running. Anyway, I have no idea what Aussie rules football entails, but I know I'm supposed to "cheer" for the Sydney Swans (apparently the word "root" has a different meaning here) as they strive to win their "match" (it's not a game, apparently). All in all, it promises to be a very Australian weekend, which only seems appropriate given my location.

I mentioned earlier something about running. I'm sure some of you who know me well are wondering what that is all about. In all honesty, it's an effort to help counter act some of the more "empty" activities I find myself participating in, as well as just generally being motivated by my new friends here. There are 3 of us who get up at 6am and run out to Sydney Harbor (home of the famous bridge and Opera House) and back. It's about a 3 mile loop we've been doing, and it is absolutely surreal to run past those amazing sites as the sun is hitting the horizon behind them.

Additionally, while we're on the topic of running, next weekend is Australia's largest "fun run" called City 2 Surf. (www.city2surf.com.au) The run starts in the heart of Sydney and winds 14k (approx. 9 miles) with a finish at Bondi Beach. They claim 70,000 people participate in this. My new friends here have all signed up to do this. Some are intending to run the entire thing (and some I have more faith in that happening for than others), while others of us (myself included) have committed to do it more for the fun of it - which isn't likely to include running 9 miles. Anyway, there are many folks from work who participate and Uncle Price is generous enough to throw a big party at the beach for all his grunts afterwards. It should be, needless to say, a fabulous time.

Ok, must get to bed. 6am comes awfully early when it entails running. Until next time....

An Australian Tradition....the Beginning

Tonight, my new roommate (Karalee) and I started a new tradition.....Sunday evening dinner at our house. We had all our short-term secondee friends over - 2 New Yorkers, 1 Canadian, and 1 from Amsterdam. We made tacos and had wine and shortbread cookies with nutella for dessert. Side bar - it's the strangest thing - you can find all the makings for Mexican food in the grocery here, but there isn't a Mexican restaurant to be found. At least not easily. Anyway, it was a great time. Makes it sort of seem like you've got a little family here. Anyway, just wanted to share. Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend, and I can't wait to be able to share more of this with you.

Loving Life

Two weeks in and I've resolved myself to the fact that I love it here. I'm still trying to find the words as to why, but what I know is that I do in fact love it here.

Work is going well. I'm learning alot and definitely experiencing more diversity than ever before. My team currently consists 2 Aussies, a Brit, a New Zealander, an Indonesian, and a girl from Singapore. It's just crazy - but amazing. It's interesting to hear all of their experiences and to hear their ideas about Americans. One of them told me this week that I don't say "fantastic" as much as he would have expected, since I'm from America. Another one asked me if the high school experiences in the movies is real - where the football players wear their letter jackets and jerseys and there are geeks and popular girls, etc. I have a hard time believing that's not a high school reality in most places of the world, but maybe I'm just being ethno-centric in my thinking.

Yesterday, a few of us went to Bondi Beach, which is one of the main surfing beaches here. Actually, in a couple of weeks, there is a 14km run that goes from the city to the beach called "City to Surf". A few of my new friends here are running it. Anyway, Bondi is basically heaven. There were guys surfing and it was only about 50-55 degrees. There are huge rocks and cliffs near the beach where the waves were crashing and making amazing sites. I've added some pictures for your viewing pleasure. I also have posted a pic from the whale watching adventures.

Seriously, this place is amazing. It's really too bad it's on the other side of the world from the US. I never in a million years thought that I would ever consider relocating to a foreign country for a time. However, this experience so far may be changing that. At PwC, there are opportunities all the time to do 2 year tours all over the world. In fact, I've met some pretty cool people here from America on a 2 year bit. I know the grass is always greener on the other side, but seriously.......this (here or in some other random place) could be my reality. Crazy!

The first two pictures below are from the whale excursion. The last three are from Bondi. I hope you enjoy!

A correction...and a quick update

So, since some new friends here in SYD have read this blog and pointed out the error that I had hoped could just slip by without notice, I'll take the high road and admit the mistake. In some previous posts, I mentioned exchange rates and have since realized that I had them backwards. Therefore, a bottle of yellow mustard for $3.50 AUD is actually only about $2.80 USD.

So, this weekend was as busy as expected. The whales were amazing! I hope to have pictures to upload soon. Wine country was a good experience, but the tour bus driver was a bit of a tool. He sort of put a damper on things. Otherwise, though, it was all in all a good time.

I must skip out for now and get some things done, but know I haven't forgotten about you and the promises of sharing this all with you.

First weekend without jet lag.....

...promises to hold a few very exciting things. 1) Whale watching, 2) Coffee festival, 3) Yulefest (aka, Christmas in July), 4) Wine country. It will be a full weekend that is already off to a great start. The Aussies are totally NOT into working weekends...and the weekend seems to start some time between noon and five on Friday. So, this evening, I spent the evening meeting new PwC folks at a happy hour turn HOURS at a bar that is just around the corner from my apartment. Yes, that's right, I live only 1 block from "the place to be". It's a beautiful thing....particularly a few drinks in. Anywho....good times were had by all.

Tomorrow's plans include enjoying the coffee festival, markets nearby and whale watching. The whales are apparently migrating now, so the other short term secondees and a couple other new friends from SC and NY are planning to spend 4 hours on a boat in the middle of the ocean looking for them! Sooooo excited.

Sunday entails a tour to wine country - Hunter Valley. It's supposed to be about a 2 hour trip there via bus. Should also be a great time. Might make Monday morning interesting, but I suppose you only live in Sydney once, right? :)

I've got my camera battery on charge now to be fully ready to catch all the excitement of the weekend. Can't wait to share it all with you!

Cheers!

A little vocabulary lesson

So, I'm realizing that a lot of things are different here - neither better or worse, just different. One of these things are common words used for various things. Tonight, I learned a new term - lady boy. Any takers on what this might mean? This is the Aussie slang for transvestite. Now, why this came up in conversation, it's hard to say, but it did. So, consider yourself a little more cultured now. :)

Another thing that is different here is how they deal with cell phones - or "mobiles" as they're called here. Nothing here is divided into packages by minutes. Rather, it's based on dollar values. So far, what this means to me is that they don't want you to really know how much it costs you to talk on your mobile. Well, I signed up for a plan that gives me $xxx value. We'll see how it goes.

I went tonight with some new friends to see The Proposal. It was a cute movie - a little unrealistic, but still entertaining. How can you go wrong with Sandra Bullock and an ending with a big kiss?

I have attached a few pics of my apartment and the views not far from my apartment. These are all along Darling Harbour. I hope you enjoy!

Hello from the Southern Hemisphere!

So, I arrived....I was hoping to be able to post something sooner than now, but it has taken me a while to figure out how to best obtain internet access here. It's not like the States. Upon the advice of some folks at work, I ventured out to Chinatown and purchased a prepaid wireless card with a limited amount of gigs to be used over the next 30 days. So, it's slower than molasses, but it's working.

Anyway, the jet lag has been a little rough, although I now feel like I'm adjusted. I arrived Saturday morning at 8am, after having slept about 6 hours on the flights. I made it until about 3pm and decided to try to take a nap. Bad idea. I slept through the alarm at 5pm and awoke at 11pm. At this point, I realized the best option was to try to continue to sleep, which I did until about 2:30 am and then was wide awake. At this point, the options of activities were limited - especially w/o internet access. So, I watched several reruns of Will & Grace on the tv channel that seems to play nothing but American reruns (including VH1 Pop Up Videos!). I then worked out a bit and decided to try to find my way to church. Afterall, it was Sunday morning and I was awake, so why not?

Well, being in Sydney, I decided to google from my blackberry Hillsong and found that there was a campus not too far from a major train stop that was nearby. So, out I went. Hillsong was a good experience, and not too different than my church experiences in college. I ended up meeting a very friendly girl - Naomi - who introduced me to a few of her friends and invited me to join them Tuesday evening. I'm so looking forward to getting to know these girls. I love exploring different cultures, and what better way than to do life with someone who lives this culture everyday. Speaking of cultures, that is one thing that was so striking about being at Hillsong. As I walked in, I quickly realized that as a caucasian blonde girl, I was in the minority. It was such an empowering feeling....being in a new place, realizing that while I might be the new kid on the block, there were so many people around me that likely had very diverse experiences, yet shared a similar basic belief.

The rest of Sunday consisted of me not being at my amazing apartment for fear of falling asleep again. So, instead, I ventured out to Darling Harbour - which is right by my apartment - and then on to Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), which is home to the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera House. Here is a picture I took on my bb from a great park bench where I sat and read for a bit in the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was so amazing. I had one of those, "holy crap - I'm in Sydney Australia" moments sitting here.

I ended up making it until about 8pm, and then went to sleep. I woke up about every hour beginning at 4am this morning, but forced myself to sleep until 7am. As a result, I think my body has successfully adjusted. Work today was good. Typical first day kind of stuff - orientation to office, orientation to new computer, including time sheets, etc. Left work by about 4pm. Also a nice thing. Everyone that I have met is so nice. There were 4 other secondees in my training today - 2 from NYC (financial services, of course), 1 from Canada and 1 from Papua New Guinea. I also met my "buddy" today, which is a girl who has worked for the firm about 2 years and was born and raised in the Sydney suburbs.

The weather has been amazing. The locals claim it's "freezing." However, if I had to guess, it was probably a high of 60 degrees today. This evening, as I ventured out with one of my new NYC friends - Liz - I wore flip flops, jeans and a t-shirt. Everyone on the street looked at me like I was crazy, but I was sweating by the time I got back to my apt from work in a suit. A guy at Woolworth's (the big supermarket here) commented that I must be from the Northern States, since I think this is amazingly warm. He gave the example of North Dakota. Too funny!

Anyway, tomorrow's agenda consists of confirming my identity with the bank here so I can access the $$ they are giving me and hopefully obtaining an Australian pre-paid cell phone. I'm sure this will be equally as interesting as the internet card experience was today. Things are quite expensive here - even according to the NYC folks. The craziest thing so far might just be that in Woolworth's, I went looking for mustard to go along w/ my bread and turkey. I found 2 bottles, on the top shelf, labeled "American Mustard" for $3.50 AU. This a bout $5 USD. Holy cow! Obviously, they have to import this stuff. I bought it - don't get me wrong - but that's just crazy. Oh, and everything is in kilograms at the grocery, so that took some adjustment. At the deli, I just asked for about 5 or 6 slices of turkey, as I didn't know what the common request was. Do you ask for 1/4 of a kilogram? Or do you actually ask for grams? Who knows? However, thank you Laura Hatcher for the lesson in the airport regarding the conversion of pounds to kilos. It was very useful. :)

Ok, well, I'm going to continue to try to figure this place out. I will upload more pics once I get them downloaded from my camera. This always seems to be a challenge for me. I hope you are all doing well! Cheers!

4 Days and Counting...

Well, I've managed to procrastinate on just about everything left to do for this trip....including updating this blog. This procrastination also includes packing - maybe the most essential task after finding the house/pet sitter - of which I have done very little. The one part of this packing fiasco (or soon to be) that has been accomplished is laundry. I guess you gotta start somewhere.

I leave in less than 100 hours. CRAZY! The goodbyes started today - a trip to Indy to say "See you in 4 months!" to the 'rents, the sister, the college roommates and their respective babies. I left the teary eyes to my mother, but I'm sure at some point they will begin to mist.

I have received my address in Sydney, which is in the Kings Street Wharf area, approximately 1 block from Darling Harbour. I am not quite sure what this all means yet, but the fact that the words "wharf" and "harbour" are in my immediate residential future is a very encouraging sign.

So, at this point, the only real thing left to do is pack. It'll be interesting to see exactly how much stuff one can fit in 2 large suitcases and a carry-on. Oh, and there is the continuation of the "See you later's!" And let us not forget the oh so necessary hair appointment and massage. :)

It is likely that my next post will be from the other side of the world. I'm really looking forward to what the next 4 months hold for me. And I am really excited to have you share it with me. A very dear and wise friend of mine helped me explain my anxieties about this trip best. She said, "You're just going to experience so much and you want those you love to experience it with you." This is a very true statement, so I will try to hold up my end of that bargain if you will too.

SYDNEY OR BUST!