Come on in

Here are a couple shots of the inside of our house, courtesy of Katie's request. The decor's a bit dated, but we're not complaining. Sorry, there are no shots of my roommates' bedrooms or the bathroom--I figure some things in life should be kept private, you know? But please feel free to take a gander at my bedroom.

Officially an honorary Australian

My Aussie roommate Hannah recently informed me that people from other cultures can become "honorary Australians," provided they fulfill certain requirements.

For Americans, apparently if you can stomach Vegemite you're in. As it turns out, tonight I discovered that I really enjoy the stuff!

Simply put, Vegemite is concentrated yeast extract. Sounds pretty nasty, and most Americans regard it as such. The only nutritional claim I can find is that it's rich in B vitamins. Vegemite can be eaten a variety of ways, but mine was pretty simple--on toast with butter. It has a very savory and salty flavor, which I love.

Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised I like Vegemite. I've hardly heard a good thing about it since I arrived here--even some Aussies who weren't raised on it say they'd rather eat a pan-fried lizard than taste the stuff. But I'll be bringing jars of it back to the States---that, along with other Oz staples including Darrell Lea Strawberry Liquorice, Jatz Crackers and crumpets...lots and lots of crumpets.

Anyway, I'm pretty thrilled that at least one Aussie here considers me one of her own. Even more importantly, the next time I hear Men at Work's "Land Down Under," I'll know exactly what his vegemite sandwich tastes like.

A difference of opinion

I really never considered that they'd be such a integral part of my experience here, but lizards really have made themselves a hot topic of conversation between the locals and I. Almost every Aussie I've talked to thinks it's outrageous that anyone would be afraid of lizards. It's almost as if they're regarded as squirrels here...really ugly, scaly, creepy, snake-like squirrels.

As I mentioned earlier, my first run-in with them happened when Jenny and I were on our way to view that dump of an apartment earlier on our second day in town. But even though we found a more inviting place to live, they just keep popping up. Around the university I can here them scurrying about in the bushes and grass. I can't see them, but I know they're there.

It's one thing to catch them in the wild, but just a few days ago Jenny discovered one crawling around in our bathtub. That, combined with the one-too-many cockroaches and spiders we've seen around our house, made it clear what our only viable option was: To call an exterminator, of course!

The lizard in our bathtub really was the last straw. Call me what you will, but nothing remotely reptilian has any place in my bathroom or rest of my house, for that matter (Though I should mention that it was a baby lizard--maybe an inch and a half long at most.).

So the friendly folks at Illawarra Pest Control came over fairly quickly by Australian standards--only an hour later than promised--and sprayed the entire house inside and out for spiders, cockroaches, silverfish and ants. While I was paying, one of the men asked me if I knew that I had Redback spiders in my garage (which is situated conveniently outside my bedroom window). I said no--heck, I honestly didn't even know what a Redback spider was. He informed me that in America they're commonly known as Black Widows.

Holy crap.

After about vomiting in the poor man's face, I asked if he took care of them. He assured me that the chemicals would kill them straightaway. He also told me not too worry too much about them, "Sure, they can kill you," he said. "But they're more likely to cause kidney failure, so no worries."

Oh, just pesky kidney failure. Thankfully I didn't overreact too much.

Though Jenny and I have been getting a lot of grief from Aussies for actually ordering an exterminator (though the phone book offers about 20 pages of pest control services, they're apparently never used by locals, just "paranoid Americans" such as myself), it was the best $165 I've spent in a very long time.

Welcome home

So after our run in with the lizard-guarded property from hell, Jenny and I weren't feeling so great.

We trudged to the University, the only place we could think of for help. We made it up to accommodation services and it was there that I broke down in tears at the woman's desk. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. But the thing about a legitimate cry is that it gets people to respond. And respond this woman did. She got to work straightaway and by the time we left the office, we had in our hands stacks of available properties to choose from.

We walked to a nearby atrium on campus and began making calls. We got ahold of a property manager who had a 4-bedroom fully-furnished property located right across the street from school. We were able to check it out immediately, which we did. It was what I had envisioned as the ideal Australian abode--a cozy, dark brick ranch with a winding porch and white posts and a tropical garden. It was cheap and the location was unbeatable. But there was a problem--there were only two of us and four bedrooms.

However, the kindly Sri Lankan couple living behind the house recommended we call some girls who also showed interest in the property. They gave us their numbers and we gave them a call right then and there and they (there were two of them) said they were meeting with the landlord at the property in 20 minutes to secure the deal. Turns out, the only thing they needed were two female roommates.

There is a God.

Long story short, on our second day in Australia at around 3 pm., we moved into our new house at 1/5 Madoline St. with Hannah, an Aussie, and Farrah from Pakistan. And so far, the arrangement has worked out just great.

Close encounters of the lizard kind

This is a true story.

Jenny and I flew to Australia--half-way around the world--with no set place to live for the next 9 months. Of course, this was not how we meant it to be and it wasn't our fault. Honestly, the University threw us between a rock and a hard place, and well, I'll spare you the full story. But let me begin by saying that while sometimes it seems as if your being short-changed, there are those shining moments when it actually works out in your favor. Luckily for Jenny and I, this was one such occasion.

We did, however, arrive in Australia with temporary accommodation for about a week in a hostel called Keiraview in Wollongong. The hostel's location was prime--just a short walk from the beach and downtown area--but we didn't want to stay there a minute longer than necessary. We wanted a permanent home and we wanted it fast. But our timing was completely off--we showed up in Oz only a few days before orientation week began, so most students who were planning on living in private housing were already in town and settled. Plus, coming from the States, Jenny and I had very specific housing requirements (i.e. we needed a 2 bedroom, fully-furnished unit preferably close to the University that wasn't too expensive). Fortunately for us, there was exactly one such unit left in Wollongong and we made an appointment straightaway to see it. We were both elated and agreed that no matter what state the place was in, we would gladly take it. Anything to get us out of hostel living would be welcomed with open arms.

Well...let's just say Jenny and I weren't as desperate as we thought.

While on our way to the appointment, we had to walk down a decending walkway into the neighborhood. As we walked, we faced what seemed at the time (and actually still kind of does) to be an insurmountable obstacle--a pair of 8-in. long lizards.

The creatures were blocking our path to the property and we were both scared to death. We'd never seen anything remotely like them, and they didn't seem to have any plans of moving. Eventually, we noticed the realtor we arranged to meet getting out of her car and approaching the property. We had to make a run for it--we needed that apartment and no amount of lizards were going to ruin this opportunity for us.

So we ran. And the lizards ran. Fortunately for both parties the lizards ran the opposite way from us. We were safe (for now).

The property looked ominous at best. It was fully-gated, had no grass (only grey rocks for a yard), the front door's glass was smashed and the complex was located only a stone's throw from a swamp (the abode of plenty more scary lizards, I'm sure). The unit was just disgusting, musty, dirty, cringe-worthy, and not even worth the $270/week they were asking.

Of course there was no way in hell we were taking the place. We didn't know it yet, but something really unbelievable was going to happen to us. While we'd escaped the property from hell, we still didn't have a set place to live. And the lizards weren't done with us, yet.

Learning to take my time

After finally being able to secure a personal Internet connection, I'm able to start my blog! I've been in Wollongong for 11 days now, but it feels like months. That's not to say that I'm not enjoying myself here, it's just that I've been through a lot so far. A whole lot.

I'll try not to go into too much detail and I hardly know where to begin. You see, I always thought that I was a prime adaptor. I moved from Sioux City to Iowa City with hardly an ounce of homesickness. When I moved to Chicago, it was strange for a couple of days before I felt like I had re-planted my roots. The transition to Australia, however, was far more difficult than I imagined. And I guess that can be expected--moving from Iowa to Illinois is one thing, moving from America to Australia is quite another.

The first few days here were particularly difficult. Namely, it took over 2 hours to open new bank accounts for Jenny (whom I traveled to Oz with) and I. From what I've noticed so far, Aussie's don't have to same regard for time as Americans do, which I found extremely frustrating to deal with at first but have already begun to get used to.

While the timeliness factor was annoying, it was the homesickness that nearly sent me on a flight back right to the States. I spoke to my parents on my second day here and broke down after hanging up the phone. It was the strangest phone call I've ever had with them because I sensed a certain concern that I have never felt before (it might have had something to do with the fact that I had mono when I left...), and they seemed so genuinely relieved to hear from me, which was really moving to me, I guess.

It was that day that I seriously reconsidered my decision to uproot my life and move half-way around the world--away from my family, my friends, my steady job, everything that was familiar for my for the past 23 and a half years. But as much as that sucked to come to terms with, I know there's a meaning for me here and that I'm meant to be in Wollongong right now. Sounds a bit corny but (for the most part) I believe it.