February 18
Today was a craaazy day!
It started off with Stacey and I leaving for a meeting that we had at 10:30AM. I got an email saying that there would be an internet information meeting in the John Fisher Dining Hall. And seeing as we STILL don’t have internet we thought it would be a good idea to go. We trekked ourselves up to John Fisher (University Apartments) and boy was it a long ways up the hills. It was probably almost 2 miles from our house. When we finally got there (a little late) we found out that the meeting was only for people who live ON campus. They asked how we had found out about the meeting so I told the guy from the Uni that I had received an email about it. He did some calling around to try to figure out why and discovered that I have a room waiting for me in John Fisher. So now I have a house and an apartment! He was very kind and told me the whole process that I was going to need to go through in order to get out of my apartment reservation. I went and took care of that and I am just waiting on a call to confirm that I am cleared!
After that chaos we went to talk to the people at T.U.U. (Tasmania University Union) to request a dresser for my room. The man was hilarious! I just love Aussies! Stacey and I talked to him for a good 30 minutes about tons of different stuff. I asked him if I could light a fire in my fireplace and he said that I’m not allowed to. :( Sad! But hey, it still looks cool! Haha. He told us that one of the reasons there was so much confusion with Natalie and April’s housing is because Rebecca had emailed him the night before we came in town and told him that Stacey and I wanted to live together. I feel bad that we caused some issues for him but I’m really glad that she and I are living together! It really is perfect; I love my house and roommates!
We went and got some free lunch at a thing that they were having for all the international students. All us AustraLearn people plus Alex (friend from Italy) ate together and chatted for awhile before all going our separate ways. Stacey, Joey and I headed home after that to get our leases to take up to campus and turn them in. That whole process went smoothly…whew!
Next we went up to the library to skype a little bit! I was so happy to get to skype! I had talked to Momma once on skype before but it was just like a telephone call because we didn’t use the video. I got to talk to Dad, Mom, Catie and Garrett. It absolutely made my day! I was so happy to get to SEE everyone. It made me a little homesick but more so just happy. Catie and Garrett are so goofy and it was good to get to chat with them for awhile. I miss home a lot. I stay busy so I don’t think about it often but little things remind me of it. But when I get sad I simply remind myself that I LIVE in Australia and that I need to make the most of my time. No worries.
Ugh, can I just say that getting internet here is a pain in the rear!?! We called Telstra (like their AT&T) and asked them if there was a phone line set up for our house. They told us that they didn’t have anything on record. Bad news! If there isn’t a phone line installed in the house then we have to pay $300 to get one installed and that just doesn’t seem worth it to us. We found a phone line in our house so it obviously seems that there has been a phone there at one point or another. Telstra wants to charge us $125 to send out a guy to check and see if we have the capability. If not, then we have to pay the $300 in addition to whatever else needs to happen. We are pretty frustrated with everything. We want the internet at our house but we just can’t figure out what is going to be the best thing for us to do. It’s very frustrating when you don’t really understand the way things work and are only going to be here for 5 months and therefore don’t want to sign a contract. What a mess. We are going up to the library tomorrow to look for some good internet options in Tassie.
Today we woke up and bummed around for a little bit. …I’m starting to see a theme here!
Once we finally got up and going we went up to the library to research some internet options. We were there for about an hour and got some good information. Then we went to free lunch up at the Tasmania University Union building. We’ve had the same lunch I think every day this week; but hey, free is always good!
After lunch Stacey, Natalie, Joey, Amy and I took the bus into Hobart. We went to talk to Telstra and then to Vodaphone. Vodaphone sounds like it is going to be the best bet for us. With that one we don’t have to buy a phone line, just a modem and router and then however many gigs we may need. We are going on Monday to buy it. We have to wait for Marina to get back into town before we make any definite decisions.
After we looked into the internet stuff we did a little shopping. The other girls bought a lot of stuff but I only bought hangers. Hopefully all of my stuff will fit on these hangers now!!!
We met up with Amy’s roommate Mark and he took us to the art building downtown so that Stacey could see where her class is. He’s a really nice guy, a little awkward though. I find that a lot of Aussies are kind of awkward. Mark thinks that Stacey and I are intimidating though so maybe the other Aussies think the same thing. I don’t get it, Stacey and I are pretty much the kindest people ever…we laugh at everything!
Once we made it back home we ate dinner and bummed around for awhile and watched a movie.
February 20
Word/Terms of the Day:
“Trailer for Hire” = “Trailer for Rent”
“Trading Hours” = “Store Hours”
“My Shout” = “I’ll buy”
Today was a pretty uneventful day.
We woke up and went to the Salamanca Market. We were really looking forward to getting a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables like we did at Rusty’s Market in Cairns. This market was more like a trade day. It was still cool though. There were lots of people playing music and tons of cool little stands set up. There were only a couple of booths that sold fruit and veggies and they were a little expensive. I bought a wallet because I forgot to bring one and had been looking for one forever! I also bought some tasty fudge that was made in Tasmania.
Australia is really big on the whole “Australia Made” thing. They don’t let many products into the country and they also don’t allow preservatives so most everything is made here. I have only seen Pepsi in one store and the only Frito-Lays chips that they sell are Doritos…sorry Dad!
We hung out at the Market until around 1 and then we headed back into Sandy Bay. We had planned on going to the beach but the weather was a little overcast so we decided to walk across the street from out house and watch a cricket match instead. It was pretty interesting but we just wish we understood the rules better!
We came back home and dropped of our beach stuff and then headed off to the grocery store. Instead of Woolworths we found a better grocery store, Coles! We love it. The prices are so much better and it’s less overwhelming than Woolworths. I got chicken nuggets. Oh! I can’t remember if I already wrote about this is not but they don’t have orange cheese here…it’s all white. But I was at Coles and I found orange cheese! It was such a happy moment. I made grilled cheese. I am eating a ton of sandwiches that it’s kind of ridiculous. But it’s the cheapest thing to make! They don’t have hot pockets or any of that other wonderful food like we do at home. We have a 24 hour McDonald’s right down the street from my house but we have only been there once…pretty impressive huh?
Natalie and Stacey cooked quiche for dinner…I tried it and it was okay, nothing fantastic (sorry girls!). So I ended up making a sandwich, yet again haha.
Natalie pretty much lives at our house. She’s our fifth roommate. She first lived in this super crappy nasty house…it looked like a creepy seventy’s horror movie. Now she lives in this really nice house but she doesn’t really feel comfortable there yet because everyone else already knows each other. But we love having her here. It’s so lonely when she isn’t here!
We also found an apple and plum tree in our backyard! How exciting is that? I’m not sure if we should eat them though…I’m a little scared to try them.
After dinner we had a nice little night of watching movies. We watched Never Been Kissed and then part of Fight Club. It was storming tonight and it was a little scary at first because there was something hitting against the front of our house but I found out this morning that Stacey had her window open so it was just the blinds. No worries!
Wow! I'm amazed that you are able to handle things so well. Trying to get Internet service, taking care of your lease, riding the bus (no small accomplishment when that is not something you are used to), and finding yellow cheese!!!! I was telling Curtis last night that doing those things in another country would be intimidating to me but you are handling them so well. So where does your 5th roommate stay? Where is she from? When you say Aussie are a bit awkward what do you mean? I love you sweetie!!! Thanks for calling last night. Keep the blogs coming!!!!
ReplyDeleteNatalie sleeps with Stacey. Stacey doesn't like sleeping alone because our bedrooms are at the fron of the house and a lot of cars drive by our house so she gets scared sometimes. She is from Georgia; she's an AustraLearn girl.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, it's hard to describe. The mainlanders always talk about the Tassies being inbreds because they don't like new people coming on to their island and they don't want to leave. I'm starting to think this joke may be a little true. Another thing is that because they don't work for tips or need to make the sale, a lot of times they come off as being rude. In the States a person will go out of their way to help you out (even if it is just in hopes of getting a tip) but here they don't do that at all.