Mixed Easter Bag

I had a pretty relaxing Easter, and one of the best parts of the long weekend was that I didn't go in to BoZo for three days in a row! I managed to get a bit of work done from home, as well as usurp just enough wireless internet to check my email a couple times.

Saturday morning Jordan, Alex, Brian and I went down to the farmers market. Because of the stupid national folk festival at Expo (I call it stupid because it is $77 per day to get in, and FOLK festivals are meant to be for poor people) the farmers market was not happening, but we went to the veggie market in North Lyneham instead, then had coffee at the cafe next door. It was our first outing together, which was pretty neat.

I spent Easter going for a long run, then dashed off to one of the two Lutheran churches in all of Canberra. This little church in Turner only has one service a week, and it so happened to be in Finnish. I knew it was a Finnish service before I arrived, but I wasn't sure if it was actually in Finnish (how many Finnish Lutherans can there be in Canberra?), but since things like this tend to happen to me, it was. There were only about 16 congregants, and I am certain that I was the only person under the age of 75. It was a little weird. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if more people said hello or Happy Easter, but maybe since I sat in the back and old eyes are hard of seeing, I was able to keep an especially low profile. Nonetheless, I am glad I went, particularly since I had not been inside a Lutheran church since leaving Raleigh.

I baked bread pudding for brunch (it was a bit dry and crispy and reminded me of eating crunchy cereal) and munched on hot cross buns, then in the evening each of us in the house cooked up a dish to share for dinner. Jordan and Alex didn't go home for the weekend, and Brian--like me-- had no where else to go, so we all hung out together. Jordan and Brian made really awesome curries (green chicken curry and red beef curry), Alex whipped up an apple rhubarb crumble for dessert, and I tried making shepherd's pie for the first time. It was not as impressive as the other dishes, but it did the trick.

It was nice to spend time with the house-mates this weekend, and I feel lucky that 1) I didn't have to be by myself for Easter and 2) we all get along really well. Even though we all have our own schedules and don't really see that much of each other (which can also be good), it is nice knowing there are people around because I think if had to live by myself I would go a bit nutty--and possibly become a crazy cat lady and keep hundreds of animals for company.

I spent yesterday (Monday) working on my presentation, but I took a few minutes off to visit the psychic expo down the road. I had seen advertisements for it and was curious to see what it was like. It was a lot smaller than I expected and really only focused on getting readings done by the psychics, with a take-a-number-and-wait-for-your-favourite-seer approach. Besides that, there weren't many booths and workshops like they advertised, so I left.

Since I had been working from home a bit I decided I should get a desk. The previous residents of the house left tonnes of pieces of old furniture out the back. There are at least three office chairs, two tables, a desk, two wardrobes, several couches, a vacuum, a broken dryer, and many other random pieces of crap. I dragged in a table with lots of funky black marker drawings--as well as a few cob webs--on it to use as a desk. Now I am certain I don't want a bed, just so I can conserve the rest of my floor space for stretching. Besides, I have been sleeping great without one!

Feels like Fall

Today is the first day that officially feels like Autumn--not only is it rather cool, but it is the first time it has been overcast (though not rainy) since we returned, three weeks ago. The deciduous trees are even losing their leaves. It is super dry again, so even though the leaves turn brown and fall, they are not really changing pretty colours like red and orange. However, I suppose it is better than those last few Autumns we had in North Carolina, where it would remain very hot through October and the trees would drop their leaves, bright green, from their branches.

Seth would like this weather, and it is too bad he is missing it--he flew back to New York on Wednesday morning. Nonetheless, I am sure he is loving the snow and having a great time being home with his family, especially for Easter. He hasn't been home for Easter in years!

Today, Good Friday, is a public holiday, as is the Monday after Easter. I suppose it has been almost two full weeks since the last public holiday, so it is nice they are giving the Public Servants a four-day weekend to let them unwind. As for me, I will try to get working on a conference presentation, and if I can get it done by tomorrow night I can enjoy my Easter, too.

Here are a few photos from the past two weeks:

Seth showering at BoZo (we got pretty comfortable there, if you couldn't guess!)...

...but we finally found a place to live! The girls we moved in with, Jordan and Alex, are also in the process of unpacking.

Our first morning in the new house. The tiny bedroom looks a bit less cluttered now, but I still don't have a bed! I am getting used to sleeping on the floor and will probably not get one (even though Julien and Heather offered me one). I like the floorspace that even a twin bed would totally devour.

Artur and Moose during their housewarming party. Moose, who grew up in the US, lived in the Emirates for a while and sometimes wears the traditional clothing. Before I took the photo, Artur (from Russia) advised Moose not to say "bomb".

Jan and Greg's farewell party at El Dorado (Dickson). Alecia and Reggie are presenting Jan with a poster-card, while Greg, not paying any attention, is busy yakking away.

Seth's poor, busted up guitar--the case is destroyed, and the guitar itself is also cracked. Before he left he made sure to make a nice big sign so people at the airport would know who is responsible for the damages: Qantas Airways, the main airline in Australia. (This happened last March when he flew back to Australia from the US. Qantas still refuses to pay for the damages).

Kaima came over for a 'visit' on Wednesday. He actually wanted to use the kitchen to bake ultra-cute Japanese muffins!

The very mini, yet delicious, finished product!

Out with the old

Last night was Jan and Greg's dinner at El Dorado (don't let the name fool you--it wasn't really a Mexican place). Jan and Greg are the owners of Dash and they sold the business about two weeks ago, the same day Seth and I were stuck in the Christchurch airport. I will have my first day back at work tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. The new owners seem to be a real pain and I have only heard bad things about them. Almost everyone is quitting. Though I never worked with Jan and Greg much, I did like, and respect, them a lot and really enjoyed working at Dash. I hope it won't be too horrible going in tomorrow. My co-workers assured me I would be able to find another job, but I don't know if I want to spend my final two months getting accustomed to a new one. I will try sticking out two days a week for the next couple weeks so I can at least pay my rent.

After the dinner Seth and I spent the evening going through his luggage (again) for his trip back home. I am determined to get rid of tonnes of my ratty old clothes, some of which I have had since high school. Luckily I found a donation bin in Dickson, though this may actually be unlucky for those who end up wearing it!

It has been weird living so close to Watson again. This is where I had spent so much time those first few months I arrived, and it is a little surreal being back. It isn't weird in the sense of time (only one year has passed), but it is so dream-like because those months were my first impressions and experiences from Australia, and since then it seems like so much has happened and changed. The past few mornings we have been running up in the Mt Majura/Mt Ainsle parks and it really brings back weird memories of late summer days at Oanh and Hawks house--I almost expect to come home to an unruly boxer dog and the smell of Vietnamese food cooking! What's more is that I went to the farmers market and visited the Dickson shops for the first time in over a year and that also added to the strangeness of being back in this part of town.

Our fourth house-mate, Brian, moved in last night. He grew up in CA and actually knows Tatiana, a masters student from Dr. Pfennig's lab whom I worked with the summer before I left. Small world! It is ironic he is just getting settled and trying to figure things out (like finding the best way to call home, getting around the shops, using the internet, etc), just like I had to do when living up in Watson. However, I can look at him from the other end, since now it is finally my turn to be getting ready to head home!

New Home!!

Seth and I finally got to move into a house last night! We are now living in Downer, which is the neighborhood just south of Watson (where we used to live with Oanh). I heard about the spare room through people at BoZo but I didn't want to get my hopes up--but on Monday they wrote back and said I was set to move in this week. I asked Jon (whom we met at Johns last year) to help us, and we piled everything into his big red van (it all just barely fit--there wasn't even enough room for Seth so he had to bike up!). We hadn't seen Jon for several months so it was good to catch up with him--he is probably one of the most intriguing people we met at Johns and I will try to make more of an effort to meet up with him in the future.

I couldn't believe how much crap we had accumulated in the past year and a half. Though a lot of it is kitchen stuff, which will be easy enough to use up or get rid of, there are also just boxes and boxes of other things that we wouldn't notice if we didn't have. Especially after travelling and always being aware of what is necessary and valuable enough to carry wherever you go, it makes me really want to just give everything away (or, in my case, I would probably have to be wasteful and throw it away because no one would want my stuff). For example, in the past six weeks Seth and I have only worn just a few changes of clothes, which we hand-wash every few days, and we never missed our other boxes of clothes we left at BoZo. Particularly when we get ready to head back to the US, I don't think the Australian Postal Service offers very cheap rates for sea mail, so we will have to go through everything we have and just start getting rid of anything we don't really need.

Before we showed up at the house, I had never even spoken with any of the house-mates. I was VERY relieved to see they are very friendly, and based on their DVD/CD collection they seem to have a similar style as me. Jordan, the girl I was in contact with, is a new honours student at BoZo (I think her office is next to mine!). Alex, the other house-mate, is also an ANU student (psychology). Since it is a 4-bedroom house, the fourth person to fill it will arrive on Saturday. He is a new PhD student at BoZo who just arrived from the US.

The house is a bit chaotic at the moment since Jordan and Alex just moved in on Monday--they previously lived a few houses down the street but were 'evicted' (ie. it was being remodeled), so they also have boxes everywhere and are in the process of unpacking.

Good news is that Seth was planning to leave for the US this morning but he found out a couple days ago his flight was rescheduled. I think he was annoyed by that but I don't mind :P It will be nice to have this weekend with him, and it is also great he can see the house and meet the girls before heading home.

It felt great to unpack what we could, but it is a very small house for so many people--at least it will encourage me to get rid of unnecessary things, haha! It is also strange to move out of BoZo--Seth had worked out quite a nice routine of playing guitar in the rock garden (which he will continue doing), lifting weights in my office, etc, and I was getting used to showering, cooking, and doing everything else there. It will also take getting re-used to biking a bit further to Uni (Nick's house in Lyneham was only a 10min ride, Downer is nearly 20min). But Jordan drives in everyday and she offered a ride this morning, so I imagine if I ever don't feel well or if the weather is poor I can bum a ride with her.

Half Marathon and New Wheels

This is a bit random, but I finally ate my Q-Cup (cup-of-noodle soup) I grabbed from the free bin in a hostel in Hobart last April. The little pig faces are pretty funny.

Last night was kinda nice--after spending all day at BoZo we went to Garema Place in Civic to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. During the summer, the city shows films by projecting them onto a large screen in the middle of the town centre for people to watch "under the stars". Despite not being able to hear very well (the direction of the speakers made the sound fluffy and it was impossible to understand conversations in the movie), and not following the plot of Harry Potter (I never read the books), it was still nice to have a night out with Seth.

After the movie we went to stay the night at BoZo. We had always half-joked about sleeping there, but last night we finally decided to do it. The main reason why we wouldn't normally sleep there is that the cleaners come in during the week around 4 or 5am and it would be weird if they came in. Sleeping there went really well--in fact, it was probably the best sleep we had in over a week. We had lots of warm, comfy blankets, and we each had our own full-sized pillow. The only strange thing was that the hall light was on and I woke up at 4:30am thinking it was day-light and thought I had overslept.

Sleeping at BoZo was especially convenient because I woke up early to meet with Kaima across the street at Johns, and we went together to Black Mtn Peninsula for the Weston Creek Half Marathon. I decided not to register because I had only run two road races before (both 5K) so wasn't sure how a half-marathon would go. Also, I am coming down with a cold and felt like I probably wouldn't run my best.

Kaima was great company, except that he thought he dropped my student card a few kilometers into the race and ran all the way back to look for it--when he caught up with me around 8K, he saw that I was actually holding it! He ran just for fun and helped keep my pace up. I first began hanging out with Kaima last year when training for IB with him--he is planning to run again this year and has been running quite long distances three times a week. In fact, he had already run yesterday (about 20K), and will run again tomorrow! To help train for IB, today he even carried a pack with several litres of water (and my camera) during the race!

I finished the 21K in 1:53:58 and based on the race results from last year think I placed about in the middle of female entrants.
This afternoon, I went to Julien and Heather's house. They are ex-Johns ressies and Julien is a good runner-friend of Seth's (and a bike wizard). Julien helped clean up my grimy bike and popped on my new semi-slick tyres I ordered before leaving for NZ. I figured the smooth tyres would be much faster for commuting when I live off campus!

Couch surfing

I still have not had luck finding a place to live. Last week I sent an email around the department asking if anyone had a spare room (or sofa). I got a few responses and two seemed promising--I went to check one house out this morning but I don't think it will work out (they are interviewing a whole bunch of people and I don't think they were really blown away by me), but the other may still work just as long as they don't try to find someone else. If it happens I can stay there, I still won't be able to move in for a few weeks.

I visited the University Accommodation Services and they said the entire campus is booked up, even the short term houses for graduate students. I was told the housing shortage is even worse this year, and that they can't even guarantee first-year undergrads on-campus accommodation.

Seth and I have been continuing to crash at the bachelor pad (Nick, Moose and Artur's place), but since we still haven't worked out how to re-compensate them we haven't been wanting to make ourselves too comfortable by cooking too much or bringing over any suitcases. We would usually just come in around 10 or 11pm, chat with Nick and cook a pot of rice or lentils, then go to "bed" (aka the floor) and leave first thing in the morning for BoZo.

I have been spending all day in my office, with Seth using the ANU computers downstairs. We have been making up breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of any microwaveable foods we have, and every afternoon I have been taking a daily trip to Aldi, in Civic, for groceries *Goodness, I love Aldi (so cheap!)* It has been hard, however, to just get a few cans of food, some produce, and a litre of long-life milk each day (just enough to eat for dinner and lunch), since I don't have anywhere to store the food, and can only carry a few things in my backpack while biking.

This whole ordeal has been very frustrating and tiring, though I suppose one good thing is that I have been able to get quite a bit of work done by spending all day in my office. But still, I really hope I can find somewhere to stay by the time Seth leaves next week :o( I want to have a place to unpack, cook, wash, do a bit of yoga, talk at a normal speaking volume, and not have to sneak around or feel uncomfortable.

Back in Canberra, (finally?)

Seth seemed to have a good time busking during our night in Christchurch. He made friends with two drunken boys who gave him change to sing the blues—then joined in by drumming on his guitar case. He gathered $8, enough to pay for our bus fare and a part of our Japanese take-away dinner, the first and only time we ate out during our month-long trip. He was also given a pack of crackers and offered cheeseburgers.

Our bus to the airport was equally smooth. We were going to get off the bus about 2 stops before the airport ($2.50 each) to avoid the hefty fare they pose to airport travellers ($7 each). The driver was very nice, though, and took us all the way to the airport, right when it began raining pretty hard. In the international arrivals section of Christchurch International Airport (open 24 hours) we joined a small village of a few dozen other travellers and set up camp. I didn’t really notice at first, but I was later told that the Christchurch airport is unique in that it doesn’t mind people sleeping overnight—it even has a free shower. We picked a spot under a Japanese tour desk and ate dinner.

Seth got up a few hours later (3:50am) to go for a very quick run and we dashed over to check our baggage for our 6:35am flight. We were shocked to find the queue winding throughout the terminal. After waiting for a while, Seth ran ahead to ask if we could be checked in. The JetStar attendant told him that it was 55min before the departure time and check-in for our flight had closed 5min ago. We were RIGHT THERE, the plane would not leave for another hour, and the woman refused to help us. In fact, it seemed she actually tried to prevent us from getting on the plane.

We asked around at other airline desks if they would have standby tickets, but none did, so we ended up having to rebook our flight (with a $120 fee) for the next day. Since it was raining and we had lots of luggage, we didn’t feel like lugging it to the city and ended up spending the rest of the day at the airport. That night, we were going to sleep under the information booth, but at 11:45pm it opened for an incoming flight and a woman came to tend the desk until 2am. She didn't seem to mind that we'd set up camp right in front of her desk; but it would have been weird to have groups of people walking right next to us looking through information pamphlets, so we went back to our spot under the Japanese tour desk.

The next morning, after Seth’s 4am run, we made it on our flight (finally!), and even caught an early bus back to Canberra. We didn’t have seats booked since we missed our bus the day before and were afraid there wouldn’t be room for us.

View of New Zealand from airplane window

The bus ride back was really strange. Usually I am excited about coming home after a long trip, and this trip was the longest one I had ever been on. In fact, I was dreading going back to Canberra, knowing we didn’t have any place to go. We arrived at the Jolimont Station and I poked my head into Dash. I was looking forward to working so that I could get back to some sort of normal schedule and see my co-workers. Jan and Greg, the owners, sold the business two days before, and the new owner, Michael, was working. I introduced myself and after talking to him for a moment I was under the impression that he wasn’t planning to schedule me in at all. Weird… He would “call me later”, but I am a little doubtful. For now, although I enjoy working there, I am a bit relieved to not have to worry about going in for a week or two so I can catch up on my thesis.

We grabbed a few groceries in Civic and walked, with all our bags, back to campus and to BoZo (where else could we go?).

Seth got in contact with Nick Love (a good friend from Johns who moved out and got a house with Artur and Moose) and asked if we could crash at his place. I went to the gym for the last time (my membership had expired), unpacked a few things, and made “dinner” in the tea room downstairs. The entire time we had to sneak around and not look suspicious with our armfuls of food. It was all so weird—knowing that just around the corner was Johns, where there was friends, lots of hot food, and once a comfortable flat to ourselves. After a month of wandering around a different country without a home, we were so close to our previous home, but could not go there, and were still homeless.

Finally, we went to Johns to retrieve our bikes from the shed. It was really strange and also depressing being back, and the only people I saw were new first-years. We took off for Nick’s place in Lyneham, about a 15min ride down the road. It was nice to be around somewhat familiar faces: Nick, Moose, Artur, and Matt, who was visiting. Their house is really laid-back and spacious, and we were able to sleep in the study room.

Instead of working on my thesis (like I NEED TO DO), I spent a good portion of today making phone calls and sending emails about accommodation. No luck. I still can’t believe how frustrating it is to not have a place to live, especially after having been moving from place to place (hostels and campsites) nearly every night for the last month. Seth will be leaving soon for his job interview and will probably be away for at least a month. I sure hope I can find someplace to go by then, or else I will probably strongly consider going back to Raleigh.