Update: Another sighting...

I'm typing this up on my new computer that I built. I had a few missteps on the build (this is the first one I've done in 5 years!) but I've cracked the case a few more times and got everything in its right place. I decided to go with a cheap processor and then overclock the heck out of it. I got the Intel e2160 which is supposed to run at 1.8GHz, but I've got it cranked up to 3.0GHz!! The whole thing cost about USD $650 and I’m very happy with it.

All of the CSE computers are Linux, which means I had to do some work to set up a work-from-home environment. I wouldn't even think of installing Linux as the one and only OS on my machine; I'm a Windows man through and through! I have plenty of copies of XP Pro lying around from the MS days, so I installed XP rather than buy Vista. Actually, even if Vista was a free option, I would have still gone with XP for my dev box... Vista is nice for fun and pretty things (we've got it running on our laptop) but I certainly don't want to deal with compatibility issues while I'm working on projects. Switching back to XP wasn’t too rough, but I couldn’t deal with the electric blue color scheme anymore. Fortunately I found the Zune color scheme released by Microsoft which I absolutely love! It looks similar to Vista, but it has some orange highlights that really make the GUI pop.

To deal with the Windows vs Linux issue I installed cygwin with X Server, but I quickly realized that this solution just wasn't going to cut it. So I downloaded VMWare Player and an image of the Ubuntu 7.10 distro of Linux. I downloaded and installed a bunch of dev tools and now I’m ready to go. I have my VM up almost all the time and I often find myself browsing the internet or checking email from it because I was already there doing something else. The experience is flawless, I don’t experience any slowdown or any other problems (except the Linux UI, ha!) Virtual machines have always impressed the hell out of me, and now I finally have reason to use one!

So, yeah, I’m having a good time immersing myself in computer land. My classes have been pretty interesting so far, and I’m excited to get going on some projects!

Things are going well, but we don’t have any furniture to speak of. We’re sleeping on Paddy’s air mattress, and we scrounged two hideous sofa chairs and a beat-up coffee table that someone abandoned on the side of the street. New furniture is really expensive here, so we’re hoping to find second hand stuff, but that’s turning out to be a bit difficult since we don’t have internet and we don’t have anyway to transport stuff that we might want to buy…

I want to post pictures of our place as badly as y’all want to see them, but until I can get my laptop on the internet, it ain’t gunna happen. Hang tight.

This morning we had an appointment to see an apartment in a newer building that sounded really nice. It was in a neighborhood we hadn’t looked at before (Maroubra) and the location seemed pretty great. There’s a shopping mall about a block away with a few grocery stores and lots of other shops, so it sounded good since we aren’t getting a car. Also, it’s only a 10 minute bus ride to my school and the bus stop is at the end of the block. So, before we even saw the place, we were really hopeful that it might be ‘the one.’

When we arrived at the real estate office at 10:30am, there was another couple also there to see the unit. I decided that if everything looked good after a quick look around, I’d employ the deposit tactic that I saw yesterday to drive our competition away. We rode the elevator up to the 5th floor with the agent and the other couple, and the agent let us into the flat. My first impression of the place was that it was small, but very nice. The kitchen looked new and nice and shockingly it had a refrigerator! None of the places we’d looked at before now has had a refrigerator! The place also had a dishwasher and a clothes washer, so there were three very big plusses going for it. We checked out the bedroom, and it was also pretty small. The bathroom looked very nice, with nice tile work and a fancy counter and sink.

Kara said she really liked it, and I was ok with it so we hurried back to the agent and asked her if we could put a deposit down. She told us that we could head back down to the office to fill out applications and put down a deposit, and that would keep her from showing the unit to any other people until the results of our application came back. So we did just that, but filling out the application took some creative work…

Neither of us have jobs, we haven’t rented from a place since August, and we’re new to the country to boot! So, we spent time slowly filling out the applications, writing on a bunch of other details that they didn’t ask for. Kara said that she’s looking for a job, and will be able to start working in March. She also listed how much monthly income she expects to make. I listed my school as my employer and put down my school loans as ‘income.’ We put down our Hawaii apartment as our current rental details, and then wrote that we moved out in August and have been traveling since. It was all carefully planned out to make us look at least partially stable and responsible. We also (at the agent’s suggestion) wrote on the application that we could pay 2 months of rent up front. When we turned in the application, the agent told us that we should know by tomorrow at the latest.

Less than 4 hours later the agent called and said that we were approved. WOO HOO! We are going back to the real estate office tomorrow at 10:30am to sign the lease and get the keys to our new place! Tomorrow after we sign the lease, we are heading over to Paddy’s place to borrow her air mattress and maybe bring back over a few of our suitcases. We have to take the bus both ways since her car has broken down, so I’m not too sure how much we will be able to bring back with us.

So now our job shifts from finding an apartment to furnishing the found apartment. We have absolutely nothing when it comes to furnishings or housewares, so garage sales and second hand stores, HERE WE COME!

Besides moving, yesterday was pretty uneventful… We got our mobile phone set up, we signed up for a Skype Pro account (we now have a Portland area code number that will ring our computer), and we called on a bunch of apartments. We also went out to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. The food was yummy, I’m sure we’ll go back.

Today was our first serious apartment hunt day. This whole process is TOTALLY different than in the States, and I already miss “our way” of doing it. Here’s the deal: all rentals (at least as far as I can tell) are handled by real estate offices, and many of them are only shown on Saturday… for 10-20 minutes!! The agent opens the place up and anyone who wants to see it has to show up in that timeframe to walk through it with everyone else. The places we saw today were crammed full of people inspecting the place and filling out applications.

Before we left this morning, we made a list of all the flats we wanted to see, and the times they were being shown so we could walk from place to place to place. After we saw all the apartments, we walked down to a real estate office on Anzac Parade to fill out an application. Here is our 8+ mile walking route… we started at 9:45am and ended at 2:30pm!

As for the apartments we saw… The first place was a wreck, the 2nd one (the one we filled an app out for) was pretty old and had a weird layout, but it was a decent size and it is very close to campus. The third and fourth units we saw were nicer than the first two, but they were too far away from bus lines for daily bus commutes. The fifth and final place we went to, we weren’t actually able to see… The real estate agent brought the wrong keys, so he was unable to open the door to show it to us! Each place we saw had no less than 15 other people there for the inspection, so our prospects seem a little grim for finding a place right away…

When we finally got back to our room at 2:30pm, we chowed down on chips, candy, and Coke before crashing on the bed for an afternoon nap. Since then we’ve just been hanging out in our room recovering from our marathon walk-and-inspect-a-thon.

Tomorrow we’re planning on walking through a few more neighborhoods near the school to see if we should expand our apartment search outward. This doesn’t feel like vacation anymore!

And with that said, here are a few differences between old home and new home that I’ve noticed so far…

So yesterday we went to the Arriving and Surviving class (which was mildly useful) and then hung around the neighborhood waiting for the nearby hostels to open so we could see if they had any vacancies. We figured that we could stay nearby for a week or so to make our housing search a bit easier on us.

Since the class ended around noon and the hostels didn’t open until 5, we decided to waste away the day at Coogee Beach. It’s a 30 minute walk (mostly downhill) from the Uni, so it’ll be our home beach while we live here, and that’s fine by me because it’s a nice beach! A lot of the beaches here are very large, and this one was no exception. We mostly basked in the sun and read our books, but occasionally we’d cool down in the surf by getting tossed around by the strong waves.

At 5pm, we stopped by a few hostels, but the cheapest place we could find was AUD $75/night (weekly rate). So we walked back to the Uni bus stop and rode buses and a ferry back to Paddy’s place.

Today we called the cheapest hotel that we found yesterday and booked a room for a week. It’s a bit spendy on our budget, but we’re anxious to get into a place and we’re hoping that being nearby will help us find a place quick. We did a bunch of other administration things: ordered health insurance cards, cancelled our car insurance for the Jeep, cancelled our US cellphones, wired money from our US bank to our Aussie bank, etc, etc.

Around 3pm, we had enough of this serious stuff, so we headed out to the Manly area for some snorkeling. Owen dropped us off at Manly Beach, and we walked over to Shelly Beach where we saw a bunch of snorkelers on Sunday. Along the way, we saw a bunch of lizards so we took a few pics. At Shelly, we saw a bunch of new-to-us fish, and there were quite a lot of underwater plants as well. After some exploring, we headed back to shore to warm up on the beach for a while. Then we walked over to the swimming area right next to the Manly Wharf to do some more snorkeling.

I had read that there are seahorses and cuttlefish to be seen at the Manly shark net, so we put our snorkel gear back on and swam out to it (on the people side, not the shark side!) I didn’t see any seahorses, but I think I might have seen a cuttlefish through the net… Unfortunately I didn’t stay out there long because I kept seeing little jellyfish floating in the water and I didn’t know how dangerous they were. I definitely want to go back there some time, the net was pretty cool looking underwater, and there were lots of fish and stuff hanging around eating the algae that grows on the net.

Tonight we had our first Sydney thunderstorm! More lighting and thunder than I think I’ve ever seen before, very cool!

Tomorrow we make the trek back to Randwick (the suburb near the Uni) to check into our hotel room. Fingers crossed on finding a place soon!!!

Today Kara and I got a ride from Owen (Paddy’s flatmate) down to the UNSW campus. The campus is pretty compact, and I was afraid at first that it’d be reminiscent of PSU. But there turned out to be plenty of green areas and pleasant open spaces. There are a lot of cool looking buildings too, so overall it's a pretty neat looking campus. While there, we opened a bank account, I got my student ID card, and we ate our packed lunch at a picnic table. Then we walked east off campus through the Coogee suburb. The road we followed eventually ran into the shoreline at Coogee Beach, so we turned north and followed a pedestrian path along the coast. We ended up following the path (which is called the Eastern Beaches Coastal Walk) for 6 km all the way to Bondi Beach. The walk took us past places like Gordons Bay, Clovelly, Waverley Cemetery, Bronte Beach, Tamarama Beach, and finally Bondi Beach. Once at Bondi, we caught a bus back to Circular Quay and then rode the ferry back to Manly. We didn’t end up getting back to Paddy’s until 6:30pm or so and we were worn out from the giant walk!

Tomorrow we’re going back to campus for the ‘Arriving and Surviving’ orientation class that all international students must take. Should be helpful…

The rest of the day was low-key, we settled into her place, searched around on the internet for flats, and tried not to fall asleep. We arrived on Australia Day so in the evening we had a barbeque with Paddy’s flatmates. A very nice (but very sleepy) first day in Australia.

I slept solidly last night and didn’t end up getting out of bed until 10am or so (that’s 3pm PST). I was all for lazing around the house for another day, but Kara wanted to get out and see something, so I said “if you plan it, I’ll go.” She talked to Paddy, and decided that we’d go down to Manly Beach for a look around. We caught the bus near Paddy’s place and eventually made it down there after some bus confusion. Once there, we walked down the Corso (a pedestrian walkway) from the bus stop to Manly Beach.

As this is Australia Day weekend, there were lots of races (swimming, rowing, etc) taking place on the beach. There were people all lined up on the shore watching, as announcers on loudspeakers shouted out the race results. The beaches were mostly closed to random people, so we walked along the beach on a nice pedestrian path until we reached Shelly Beach. Here there were no organized sports, so we walked to the water and stood in the surf a bit to feel the water temperature (maybe a little colder than Maui winter temps, but definitely not bad). We explored the park and discovered a nature walk in an area called the Cabbage Tree Reserve. Lots of nice sea cliff views and a short bush walk. There were TONS of freaky spiders everywhere, we assumed they weren’t poisonous since people were walking all around them. We also saw a blue tongued lizard just hanging out under a tree, it looked a lot like this! Then we walked all the way back, had a lunch of doner kebab, and then caught the bus back to Paddy’s.

This evening we went to a nice dinner party at Paddy’s friends’ house. We chatted about all sorts of things and had a yummy dinner. Now we’re back at Paddy’s house, it’s past midnight and I’m ready to hit the hay (or whatever they call it down here).

My six month sabbatical has been going incredibly well. To say that it has exceeded my expectations would be a ridiculous understatement. The two months in Europe were life changing. My world has been expanded tenfold and I can never go back. I treasure the 200+ pages I wrote in my journal where I recapped the events and feelings of every single day of my trip. When I read back through it, I see the tone change from nervous about the unknown to confident about whatever comes next. Seeing Europe’s differences and deep history was stupendous, but realizing that I successfully coordinated a two month travel plan over 13 countries, 5 currencies, and 37 different beds boggles my mind.

The downtime in Portland has also been wonderful. I’ve been able to spend quality leisure time with my friends and family. I’ve been able to take time to do the things that I enjoy, and I’ve had time to try new things. One of those new things is tile mosaic art. When I was in Italy, I fell in love with the art form, and I was determined to try my hand at it when I returned home. I have already made one that was patterned after a mosaic I saw in Pompeii and now I’m working on one that I designed myself. Both turned out way better than I thought I was capable of. Like the Europe trip, I made it up as I went along, and the results exceeded expectations!

A month ago we were invited to spend a week in Puerto Vallarta at an all inclusive resort with some friends. All we had to do was buy the plane tickets down there, and the rest was already paid for. We jumped on the deal, and last week was spent basking in the warm Mexican sun. The warmth, drinks, and food were quite enjoyable (I’ve got an expanded belly to prove it), but the social situation was a little difficult. We were in a group of about 20 friends, of which we only knew two people. So, we did what we could to connect with people, and made the most of it. Even though it wasn’t what I’d consider a great vacation, I was happy with the outcome.

This Friday we fly back to Maui for three weeks and I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to snorkeling and swimming and boogie boarding and lounging on the many beautiful Maui beaches!

I still have about 2.5 months before school starts, so I’m just over halfway through my extended vacation. As the plan stands now, I’ll have 3 weeks in Maui, 3 weeks in Portland, and 4 weeks in Sydney before I have to get serious again!

(We originally planned to fly straight to Sydney from Maui, but we changed our plans in order to save some money. Now we will be returning to Portland for the remainder of January, and then we’ll fly to Sydney at the beginning of February.)

And the big question is… when am I going to get my journal up on my site!?!? Well… I don’t know. Journaling for 60+ days straight was a real task at times, and I guess I’m still a little burned out on it. I’m so glad I did it, but I don’t have the fortitude at the moment to type it all up. So, someday it’ll make it on here, but I’m not sure exactly when.

Alright, back to life as a happy bum! :)

Alright, I'm going to get crackin'. Stay tuned for all the Europe-y goodness!