A very Coogee Christmas

I am having deja vu of studying abroad in Denmark...

The first few months in Copenhagen were hectic and I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that I was actually LIVING, however temporarily, in a completely different corner of the world.

Then, with about a month left to go, my homesickness evaporated, I developed some deep friendships, and I thought "WAIT! I just got used to life here! I don't wanna gooo!"

And while I am not going back to the states anytime soon, it is a little weird to think that I have less than a month left in Sydney. I will admit (and have made obvious in certain blog posts), I have struggled with adjusting to life halfway around the globe. Living frugally is something I have always been good at, but cramming into an apartment with very little personal space and living paycheck-to-paycheck are not things that I am used to. Maybe I needed the shock of getting used to being out of my comfort zone. I have come to appreciate little, stupid things... for example, Montana and I freaked out when we saw the DISH DRYING RACK, of all things, when we moved into our new apartment. No more sopping dishes left on the counter to be covered in ants! Now they can actually be properly dried and neatly put away!

Anyway, ramblings aside, I have gotten used to the way of life here, living without luxuries, and am quite fond of the little Coogee Beach bubble that I live in. I love my coastal walks, interactions with tourists in which I am actually able to give them the information they are after, and the friendly Australian lingo that is permanently ingrained into my vocabulary ("no worries" is not only my favorite phrase, but also a reminder of how to best life a happy life). While I love Sydney, the little beach towns of Coogee and Clovelly, where I work and play, are where my heart really belongs. And while I am SO excited to have my family visit in a month and then move on with the rest of my grand Australian adventure, part of me is freaking out to leave Sydney when I have gotten myself a nice little comfortable routine going on here.

But if I have learned anything this far, it is that life's greatest experiences come from pushing yourself to take a leap of faith. And because of that, I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for me in the upcoming months.

I've been working a lot more lately and am SO happy about it! Not only am I obsessed with the Cloey and my wonderful coworkers, but bartending is such a social job that forces me to be friendly and outgoing on days when I really don't feel like doing anything (which has been a bit recently, the holidays coming up are making me a little homesick). Plus, I'm actually making more money than I am spending (shocker) so it's very exciting that I will have some funds for travelling after the new year.

Speaking of the new year, my family comes in a month from Wednesday (Tuesday for all you American folks)!! I am SO excited that they will be here for my birthday, and they are finalizing their plans of where we are going to go besides Sydney. Seems like the plan is to fly up to Cairnes and do the Great Barrier Reef and other wilderness outings up there, then fly down to Brisbane and explore the Gold Coast for a few days. Wish they could stay longer, but I understand that not everyone can be a wandering nomad like myself...

Montana and I have been thinking about our plan for after that. I think once we leave Sydney with my family we most likely will not be coming back. I'm so antsy to travel and get to see the rest of the country, but Sydney has been my home for almost 3 months now and it's weird to imagine leaving. I'm currently trying to convince some of my coworkers to come do a grand American tour with me next summer (or at least a visit to California) when I am back so that I don't have to say goodbye for long! Sydney, at least Coogee and the eastern suburbs, remind me so much of California beach towns. The city of Sydney itself is super modern and metropolitan, but when you get out to Coogee it's all flip flops and chilled out attitudes. Californians and Australians are of the same breed for sure.

It's beautiful out so I am going to go on a walk on the beach, I will post some pictures soon as I finally have been using my new camera!

Cheers!

Darn Sepos

So people at work have been calling me "sepo", and I was too embarrassed to ask what it meant (sometimes it's better to just nod and smile than ask questions that could prompt a 'dumb american' joke), but I finally found out... according to urban dictionary:

Sepo	133 up, 20 down
	American. (Australian cockney rhyming slang.) From: Yank --> Tank --> Septic Tank. Is he a Candian? No, he's a Sepo.

It's a term of endearment, or so they tell me... Am I the only one who thinks it odd that being called a container full of shit is supposed to be flattering? I mean, Australia is one of the few countries on the planet that we have not totally screwed over in one way or another, so I don't know why they have to hate on us like that.

My work schedule is becoming a bit more regular, basically I am the opposite of a normal person in that I work all weekend (and I do mean alllll weekend...) and usually not during the week. Which is nice, but as it is Monday afternoon and I can't get out of bed because my body is so mad at me for being on my feet all weekend. Plus the "staffies" (staff drinks) last night after closing didn't help either I suppose. Regardless, it is a glorious day and I am going to head down to the beach as soon as my lazy ass gets out of bed.

I'm pretty much obsessed with working at the Clovelly Hotel (lovingly known as the Cloey). By the way, most bars here are part of hotels, but I really forget that the Cloey is a place where people stay and get really thrown off when after pouring 8 million jaeger bombs people ask about accommodations. But everyone I work with is awesome, and I feel like I'm really settling in and meeting locals and just having a blast.

Next week we are moving to a new apartment, it's only about 10 minute walk from where we are now which is nice, PLUS it's ONE BLOCK from the beach, right off the main street in Coogee, nicer than our current shithole and cheaper. Stoked!

Off to the beach, I will be there for the next 5 days, life is rough :)

cheers!

Honeymoon's over

I really suck at updating my blog, but it's strange to me to be keeping a "travel blog" when in all actuality I am LIVING here. It's been 5 and a half weeks now, it's so crazy to think about that but I feel like I've been here forever.

Last week was a bit rough. The honeymoon is officially over now, and I got superrrr homesick for a few days. The weather was shit and I was stuck inside not really doing much. But Saturday I had a fun night at work, and Sunday it was sunny (finally!) so we went to the beach and laid out, drank some wine coolers, had some bbq and watched a gigantic brazillian drum circle. Super cool, a very Australian day that I needed for sure.

My roomies and I haven't really worked this week so we've been hanging out a lot, have been skyping and talking to a lot of people from home which has made me so happy!!! (my skype name is mefitzgerald by the way, so add me if you have skype!) Today Montana and I went to the beach, amazingness as always, plus a new Ke$ha song came on the radio when we were there which obviously made the experience 8000 times better.

Probably will work a bunch this weekend, which I am excited about big time because not only do I need money but it's great to be social and meet new people (even though i have to tell people that i am from California a thousand times a night).

Next Monday and Tuesday we are going to Hunter Valley to do wine tasting, I am so excited! Staying at a cool hostel and renting bikes to go to the wineries, hopefully the weather is good, I will post and update after that!

Missing you all in the states big time

xox

mags

overdue

Guess it's been a while since I've posted! Since the last entry I:

-Got a job!

-Got wireless!

-Went to the races!

-Lost my camera!

Yeah that's about it for big events in my life. Not to say I'm not having a blast! I had my first real night working at Clovelly Hotel last night, it's heaps of fun. My trial on Monday was a bit hectic, I've never worked at a bar never mind worked a cash register. But the bar was pretty calm/out of most beers because sunday was the big championship rugby game. The Roosters lost so all of Sydney was pretty bummed and hungover. Yesterday was more fun since I knew what I was doing, and I also worked in the bistro a bit which was fun to mix it up (and getting free food is also a plus). There's some major hotties who work with me so it's definitely motivation to go to work....

Went to the horse races Saturday, which is a huge event in Sydney. They are most weekends at one track or another, and people get super dressed up and women are expected to wear hats or other "hair flare," as I have dubbed it. So of course we went all out for it, and Vegas (my roomie Sarah), in typical Vegas fashion, got us tickets into the member's lounge. It started raining so we ended up inside sharing champagne and conversation with locals. So fun! Left my camera there and it is nowhere to be found :( Maybe after a few paychecks I can afford another one.

That's about all that's new here, trying to plan a trip to Hunter Valley (big wine-growing region not far from Sydney) to get away for a bit, and waiting for the weather to get nice so I can go to the beach since I don't really work during the day.

Until then, Cheers from Sydney!

xox

Other than that, I'm

First day trip, job hunt, etc.

Well it's Monday here and I just wrapped up a great weekend.  After a week of job hunting, scams (I'm sorry but door to door jobs are not "professional marketing careers"), and money woes, I was able to finally experience a good deal of Sydney culture.  Friday was an absolutely gorgeous day so we went down to Coogee beach and laid out for a while.  It was pretty crowded, which makes me a little worried about how crazy it is going to be when universities get out and heavy tourist season begins.  Then we headed up to the Coogee bay hotel beer garden for a drink and some people watching... lots of people seemed to ditch out of work early to get a head start on the weekend.  Not opposed to this lifestyle at all.

Saturday Montana, Cassie, and I met up with our new aussie friend Alex who showed us around the Botanical gardens, and then we headed to a pub by the harbour to watch an aussie rules footie game.  A) SO much fun to watch in a pub with rowdy crowds, and B) holy crap i have never seen so many attractive men on a field at one time.  So we sat in front of the big screen as i drooled into my savignon blanc, and watched our new favorite team, the Saints, make a comeback that resulted in a tie.  Well what do you know, when you tie in the finals of this crazy game, you have another game a week later.  So I will be drooling again next Saturday... can't complain!

Sunday all of us roomies went to the blue mountains, a 2 hour train ride from Sydney, to do some hiking.  It was another beautiful day and we lucked out because I guess it rains there a lot.  It was great fun except for the incident:

Yes, I fell down the blue mountains. BUT i was a trooper and did the whole 3 hour hike anyway, yay for me.  It was super nice to get a day trip in; it's weird how often I forget I am a bajillion miles of home with all of this job searching, paying rent, etc.  But walking to the beach, hiking mountains, and hanging out with locals is making me realize that wow, im in freakin australia livin the dream!

As of now the plan is to work my behind off in Sydney until the fam comes for new years, then probably road trip with them up the east coast and settle wherever we end up there, then travel around queensland and hopefully to new zealand for the next 5 months or so!  Pretty stoked about this, just need to find a job... I am going to start nannying 2 days a week starting next week, and have an interview tomorrow for being a waitress on harbour cruises (potentially could be super cool, as long as it's not full time) so we will see how that goes!

Cheers,

Mags

new flat and settling in!

Wow, I didn't realize how long it has been since I have updated.  A lot has happened but I have had limited internet access so it's rough to find time to write.

Basically, the last week and a half has seemed like months.  On Monday Montana and I moved into a flat in Coogee beach (like 15 minutes from Sydney) with 3 awesome girls, 2 from the states and 1 from Canada.  They are so much fun, outgoing, and we get along great.  The flat is a 10-minute walk to the beach.  This morning I took a jog/walk (mostly walk due to the massive hill we live on.. good for views, bad for walking) to the beach and walked to the points on either side of the bay. SO SO PRETTY!    

I have not taken any pictures of it myself yet, but the picture at the top is basically exactly what I saw.

So yeah, I live on the beach, no big deal.  The rent is crazy, the place is nothing special, but i dont care!  I can't wait til it gets warmer and we can really hang out there.

I've got to run, internet time is up, but I will post tomorrow hopefully when we get wireless!

Cheers,

Maggie

first few days!

What a whirlwind this has been! We arrived early Saturday and came straight to our hostel, which is amazing, but could not check in because it was so early. So we dropped our stuff off and set off to wander around town. Nothing opens on Satruday until like 10am, so we checked out the bridge and opera house before anyone was out and about besides the joggers (and there are a lot of them here!).

Then we found a hole in the wall sandwich shop that opened before anything else and ended up making friends with the workers, a Turkish family who was so sweet and friendly! We ended up naming the older man uncle Frankie and promised to come see him again soon.

We settled into our rooms later that day, took a short nap and rallied for a night out to get to know some people and to experience sydney nightlife. We ended up making our own sort of pub crawl with our German roommates, our English buddy Dan, and some weird but very nice dudes from amsterdam. Went to mostly touristy places but did get a feel for the famed Aussie hospitality and met a lot of really cool people.

Yesterday, Sunday, we checked out Sydney University and the surrounding area of Glebe, where we are going tomorrow to stay for about a week before we try to find a more permanent housing situation. The area was lovely, and had a very youthful, friendly vibe.

Today was had our program orientation, which helped us get a little better idea of what kind of accomodations and jobs we should be looking for. We are headed to the roof of our hostel in a bit for a kangaroo burger BBQ (dont worry, i thought they were endangered but there are 5 kangaroos to every person in this country, so as our program director said, they need our help 'getting rid of them as quickly as possible.') Then the bar next door is having crab races, which should be interesting, so we will check that out!

I love it here more than I imagined I could. I am excited beyond belief for this whole experience. Montana and I both have very open minds and are flexible and down for everything, which has already proven to be the best kind of attitude when trying to figure out a plan in a foreign country. I can't wait to get settled down, meet more locals, and also to travel around the country.

I will update soon, and I miss everyone from the states already!

Cheers,
mags

Sydney Bound

After months of waiting, planning, growing excitement, and--strangely enough for me-- very minimal anxiety, the day has finally arrived... I AM HEADED TO SYDNEY TODAY! I can't wait to hop on the plane, pop a sleeping pill, and wake up in another country, 2 days after leaving (though despite the sleeping pill, buckle an insomniac in a seat for 14 hours and very little sleep is expected). But with endless movies and probably endless booze (just kidding... not really), the flight should "fly" by... heh heh...

Our first two nights we are staying in an awesome hostel in central Sydney with a ROOFTOP POOL AND SPA, and a pretty hoppin' bar next door, where, although we will be exhausted on Saturday, hopefully we can meet some people.

Well, Montana and I are finishing some last minute preparations and then my mom and I are getting massages before we leave. wooooo!

For anyone who has skype, my name is mefitzgerald and i will have it open most of the time I have my computer on!

Well, warm wishes to everyone and I will update when I arrive!!!

Cheers,

Maggie