Movin on up, to the East side

Sorry for the delay. Quick update – I arrived in country 9/3. Got my visa approved and started working 9/17. As of yesterday I received my tax number (so I won’t be taxed at 45%).

Housing-
At first I lived in the North Sydney suburb. It is across the harbour but very close to the CBD. Its really quite there and not much going on after 6pm. After 2 weeks I found a place in an area called Chippendale. It is close to the university and is kind of artsy. I had a Kiwi flatmate named David. This past Monday I moved out to an apartment at Coogee Beach. I have an Aussie flatmate who is a local cop. Coogee is a fairly quite beach and not too crowded. It sort of reminds me of beach towns in NC.

Housing here is difficult. There is a housing shortage due in part to the imbalance of construction versus migration to the city, as well as families becoming larger due to the government giving a 4 or 5 thousand dollar payment per new child. Apparently that is the answer for a country that qualifies as its own continent but has barely more people than the state of New York. Or look at it this way, the US has about 84 people per square mile, Australia 7. Housing is a real hassle to find and having only 2 weeks to do it made it even more fun. Luckily now I am in Coogee for at least 6 months, which is all of the summer.

My first flatmate was going to help me move out there. We loaded all my stuff into his incredibly small car and started driving. On the way I noticed a funny smell and could hear him having difficulty shifting gears. He said it had been having a little trouble lately but hadn’t sorted it out yet. Just as we reached the outskirts of Coogee, still about 10 minutes away, the clutch burned out and the car would no longer go at all. So we got it to the side of the road and called a towie (tow truck – I’ll write about the ‘Stralian dialect another time). 2 hrs later we were back at the flat with all my stuff still in the car. Exhausted and defeated we decided it was time to get food and a beverage. The next day I still had to move, but now had no help. So I loaded all my bags in an old grocery shopping cart I found and pushed them down to a bigger street to catch a cab. I can only imagine how that looked. Finally I got to my new place, moved in and unpacked my bags – most of which had not been unpacked since I left NC. Its nice to be at the beach. If you want to see where I live, go to Google maps and look for Leeton Ave, Coogee, Australia.

Other happenings -
I have spent a lot of time just roaming around the city and finding things. I have gone to several ethnic festivals on the weekends in Darling Harbour (Korean, Brazilian, Chinese and the Latin Festival). It’s a really cool little place near my office that always has different events going on.

I have also managed to watch a lot of rugby already, both the union World Cup (which the US was eliminated easily and New Zealand and Australia undefeated so far) and the NRL (National Rugby League – similar to Union but a little different) and the AFL (Australian Football League – Aussie rules) playoffs and championships. I will be playing some rugby down here, but only touch since I don’t need to add another injury to my list. There is team that plays every Wednesday night on the beach and there is talk of an office team too.

Side bar – Thanks to Lori and Patrick (Lori worked at GT Greensboro before leaving and ending up here with a different firm) for all their help. It’s been immensely helpful having someone in country for help and whatnot.