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!