Still amazed by the price of food

When we do make it to the grocery store,
the next challenge is trying to use the kitchen
appliances. The microwave is even more complicated!

Brooke and I didn’t have a place to live for a couple of weeks and have also been working hard like good lil’ new hires, so we haven’t had that many opportunities to go grocery shopping. Thus, we have been going out to eat for a lot of our meals.  Oh, did I mention that most stores close around 5pm or so? If I only had a wifey at home to do my shopping I’d be all set  =)  

Going out would add up in most cities, but here it is absolutely ridiculous! The other night we went to the random little Japanese restaurant hidden on this side street next to our hotel and my dinner, which included an appetizer of three tiny skews of dark meat chicken and a cup of miso soup ($8, normally ~$2) cost $16.00. I chose that combination because the dinner options were all between $28-$45 for main dishes. While this was a cute restaurant, it was not a fancy schmancy place. This is pretty standard for most dinner places around Brisbane—I can’t imagine what the cost is in Syndey or Melbourne.  I am just flabbergasted at how people afford to eat out, but they do! And all kinds of people are out, not just well-off business people. It’s really astounding.  Luckily, the firm has covered a few work dinners…thank you uncle Deloitte!

Moving Day!

Our long-term hotel was $120/night and to avoid having to pay for an extra night to leave our stuff there all day while we were at work, we decided to move into our new apartment early in the morning before work. This sounded like a great plan when we contrived it. However, we didn’t really account for the time and physical energy we’d have to exert to accomplish this ostensibly simple task. The only long-term stay place in Brisbane that was near work and in our price range put us on the fifth floor of a walk up building. It took us about 45 min to haul our 70 pound suitcases up, one stair at a time. Then, a week and a half later at 6:00am on a Wednesday morning, we hauled them back down the flights of stairs. With gravity on our side, getting them down the stairs was substantially easier [picture the suitcases being laid down and slid down the stairs]. Oh, what a feat! But, we made it and our new apartment is wonderful.

This is the first night I’ve made it home to see the sunset from our balcony [deep, relaxing breath]. Enjoying a glass of Aussie wine on the balcony overlooking the river…ahh.

Interesting words and sayings:

• A common greeting here in Brisbane is “How you going?”  This is similar to the American “How you doing?” or  “How’s it going?”  They also say things like, “How you going with the house?” if someone is making renovations to their house. It’s interesting,
• Another thing Aussie’s say all of the time is “No worries.” In response to  “thank you” Aussies will often say “No worries” instead of something like your welcome. It’s quite nice.

     Other fun words and pronunciation things I hear a lot are:

• The word keen – I’m keen on learning more about X; I’m keen on meeting X. I really like the word keen and actually used it in a work email today to a client –woo!
•  The articulation of “H” pronounced  “heych” – for instance, the acronym “HR” pronounced “H-R” in the U.S. sounds like “Heych Ah” here.
• The letter “Z” – widely pronounced as “zed.” The Company ANZ is referred to as “A-N-Zed,” the saying xyz is pronounced “x-y-zed.” For the longest time I thought zed was part of the name until I realized that’s how they say the letter z here!

Let's not forget the huge birds that act like pigeons and crows. These huge birds lurk around tables with crumbs and garbage cans looking for food. It's hilarious!

All great stuff! I am liking it so far.  We haven’t had much time to go out and do things this week, but now that we are a little more settled I’m sure we’ll be seeing the sites! This weekend we may try renting some of the city bikes (much like the rental bikes located around DC) and seeing some more of the neighborhoods.

Rainy Saturday and Sunday

There has been a drought in Australia for the past several years, but recently it has been making up for it with all of the rain. The water reserves are 99% full and got that way in a matter of one week, I heard. Everyone keeps telling us it's not normally rainy and cool like this. Queensland (the state Brisbane city is in) is called the sunshine state and is known of it's subtropical climate and blue skies. It just reminds me of Seattle when it's like this, which is never a bad thing. I'm glad I bought a new fleece though!

Stores close early here, usually around 5 or 6pm. Late night shopping is available in different cities on different nights of the week. Brisbane's late night shopping day is Friday, so shops stay open until 9pm. This has made it a little hard to get some things accomplished during the day and I guess will just require us to do a more planning!

Gluten free food items are everywhere! We are not sure what the rationale for this is. Are people just health conscious? Do many Aussie’s have gluten allergies? We are not sure yet, but will keep you posted. They also have very tiny peanut butter jars! So cute, but Brooke says they are very yummy!

Another interesting cultural nuance is that once you are beyond teenage years, people no longer refer to significant others as boy/girlfriends, instead calling them "partners." People can either have a partner or a husband/wife and mixed gender and same-gender are both accepted. I have been told by one person that many people in Oz opt not to get married and instead just remain life-long partners (have kids, buy property, etc). Apparently, there is no tax incentive to get married and besides, if you are living together with a partner for more than two years you are considered "de facto" married and have to follow the similar rules if you split up and redistribute property. I’m curious to learn more about this and see what most people do.

I am not sure why, but we have seem three men and one woman walking around the city barefoot and often when it is cold and rainy out. They are walking around like normal, fully dressed (not in swimsuits or something where you might imagine someone wanting to be barefoot). Not sure what's going on, but it's interesting to observe! 

I am still working out how to watch the American college football games. Some bars will play the games, but they are only listed in the TV guide as "American College Football," so I don't know who is playing on what station. There are some Husky games coming up that I really want to watch! 

That's all for now! Miss you all! 

Things I wonder about...

I love how almost every restaurant in Brisbane gives you bottles of water (old wine bottles, converted to water bottles) when you sit down. It's fantastic! The wine here is also very tasty, but like with most things here it's expensive. You can get glasses of wine starting at $7/8, but bottles tend to start around $65 and quickly head into the $100+ and people don't seem to bat an eye at that.  I guess with all of the wineries, people only want quality wine? What I don't get is how people afford to eat and drink here. Minimum wage is about $15/hour here, but I still don't see how they can afford it paying $25 per meal and $18 per drink if you get a cocktail. If anyone knows, please help me understand. =)

Bugs, wine, and crucks

Not surprisingly, Australia has a lot of seafood, some of which I have never heard of before. There is the barramundi (Brooke had this one night thought it was similar to flounder), sand whiting (described as a creamy white fish), and let's not forget Moreton Bay bugs! The bugs are not really bugs, thankfully, but crustaceans that hang out at the bottom on the water. There are two types of bugs, Balmain bugs and Moreton Bay bugs, and they are caught year round. I have not tried one , but a colleague said they were similar to lobster. I'm adding it to the list! 

One block away from our new apartment is a wonderful wine bar called, Bar Barossa. It has lots of wine from the Barossa Vally in South Australia and is very charming inside. This is where we went to celebrate signing the lease for our new apartment! Move in date is next Wednesday! They have an amazing menu of fancy combinations I've never had, such as Smoked Ocean Trout croquette with baby leaves, shaved fennel, pear salad with Hahndorf chutney--I had this and it was amazing. 

All over Brisbane you can see crucks --the half car, half truck combo from I think the 1970's in the US. They are everywhere! They have nice ones, sporty ones (that wish they were a Mustang), beat up ones, work ones...it's hilarious!

Last, but not least, there are these absolutely gorgeous trees all around Brisbane! They are called Jacarandas and bloom from around September to October'ish. Apparently, In October/November some sort of red tree then begins blooming, followed by a yellow one in the later months. It will be like living in a rainbow!

First day of work! (Oct 4, 2010)

We started work on Monday, Oct 4th. We spent the first day going through the induction process and getting laptops, etc. Deloitte has three floors in the 38 floor building and we are on the 25th floor. This is the client facing floor, so it is fancy (just like us, haha!). The whole floor is windows, which provides amazing panoramic views of the city. They also have a break room with Weeetabix and Nescafe haha!

View from 25th floor
Deloitte balcony

There is also a balcony that overlooks the water (and our new apartment). Apparently, they have BBQ's and happy hours out there sometimes, which I am really excited about it. We snuck out there for a minute to take a picture, but it didn't do it justice.

Pie Face!

There are cute coffee shops everywhere, which is awesome! The coffee drinks are called different things and I still have not figured them all out. A long black is an Americano, and I think a short black is just a really strong Americano! The cappuccinos seem more like lattes and then there is this thing called a flat white, which sounds like something between a latte and an Americano, but I still need to investigate more.  Pie Face appears to be a chain around the area and has incredible mini pot pie type things filled with all sorts of different things. You can get it "stacked," which means the out mashed mashes pies, topped with mashed potatoes and gravy on top of the pie. It sounds and looks bizarre, but it's delish and I will take everyone who visits me there!

Kangaroos, dingoes, wombats, oh my!

Me and another Roo!

On Sunday (belated post due to lack of Internet access for a few days) we went to the animal sanctuary just outside of the city. It was absolutely amazing!  You could walk amongst the Roos in a large field as they lounged around and ate. 

Dingoe--so cute!

They were adorable and incredibly tame and comfortable around people. You can pet and feed them and they will walk right up to you. They have a very interesting walk--not what I was expecting--and are fast when they hop!

Family of koalas
(see the joey on the right?)

We also saw cuddly koalas and had the opportunity to hold one! It was like holding a stuffed animal- cute, small, and soft. This particular sanctuary had over 100 koalas on site, so we had several chances to see them in action. We also saw dingoes (so cute), wombats, and flying foxes (aka, adorable, fuzzy bats). 

We made it!

Despite the incredibly long flight, we finally made it to Brisbane, Australia! We left the U.S. around 11:30pm on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 and arrived two days later at 6:00am on Thursday, September 30, 2010. Wow, that was a loooong and squished flight! I definitely need to fly business class next time.

View of bridge from city center waterfront

(also the view from what will hopefully

be our apartment)

We managed to stay up until 6:30pm the first day, after getting settled in our hotel, setting up local bank accounts, and getting new phones. The city reminds me of the Northwest U.S.; akin to a small scale Vancouver, Canada, with lots of tall, glass buildings, surrounding water, and coffee shops on every corner.  While it's spring here, the weather reminds me of Seattle in the fall--cool and overcast. There are several bridges, each with their own style and character, connecting the main city center to the surrounding areas, such as South Brisbane/West End and Kangaroo Point.

Schnitzel sandwiches?

At least from what I can tell from Brisbane, there are a lot of things that are different between Australia and the U.S., (see Things to Ponder below), but there is also a lot that is the same. In the main shopping area you will find several stores that we have in the U.S., such as Guess, French Connection, Lululemon, Tiffany's, Fossil, etc., but often they have a twist. For example, while they too have Subway and Starbucks here, the menu are somewhat different. Subway serves chicken schnitzel sandwiches and Starbucks serves lamb pies!  Americanos are called Long Blacks and, sorry, sugar free syrup and splenda are not common.  There is also a Target, but it's pricey! We saw dresses for around $60...what happened to affordable shopping and prices around $19.99?  

The food is yummy, but insanely expensive. Everyone warned me about this, but I figured D.C. was pretty expensive so it couldn't be much worse. Club sandwiches, at lunch, cost around $20.00! It's like D.C. dinner prices for lunch and many things are a la carte. An omelet at a casual outdoor cafe would set you back $18.95 and an additional $3.95 for a side of hash browns. We have not gone grocery shopping yet (because we still live in a hotel), but a quick glance at prices does not assuage my wallet's concerns. Next time you see me, I may be a few pants sizes smaller!

Fig tree in main street

The scenery is beautiful and intriguing! About 80% of the flora and fauna here is unique to Australia, which I think is just amazing. There is a gorgeous, hug fig tree in the middle of Eagle St (one of the main roads that parallels the water). The tree branches are like vines and look like they are growing into the ground, instead of up from it!  There are also trees with huge leaves, brightly colored and very interesting flowers (yet no one seems to know what anything is called, haha!), and lots of parks.

Our office

We start work on Monday, which is exciting, but I wish there was more time to explore beforehand too. This is our building...on the water with a great view!

We put in an application for an amazing apartment, so please keep your fingers crossed!









Things to ponder about Brisbane and Australia?
Why are the egg yolks orange? 
Why are there needle syringe disposal boxes in the public bathroom stalls?