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.