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