So this is life: July 2009

Since moving to Sydney, I've had a lot of time to reflect on my life, my friends and family, and also to think about my future plans and aspirations. I've evaluated how far I have come in the past few years of my life and what I have yet to still achieve. Being such a far distance from home has enabled me to take an outside perspective on my life and look at my life in San Francisco as a chapter that has ended; or perhaps it's better to say that it's just been put on pause. Beginning a new adventure brings certain levels of uncertainty and caution, but at the same time has allowed me to explore and reflect on all the positive and wonderful things that I have been through in my life, and most importantly the people who have been apart of the journey. I can't say that I'm home sick (I'm sure I will be in time), but it's funny that at the most random of times I will have a memory of a great moment shared with a friend and not be able to stop myself from having the biggest grin on my face. I've always known what wonderful people I have in my life, I have never been able to figure out how I got so lucky to have as many people in my life that care about me as much as they do. My friends all have hearts of solid gold.

This past week was my first week working for Kiehl's and so far it has been a nice experience. My co-workers are extremely nice and both companies I work for (Kiehl's and David Jones are in partnership) have good company vision and great management. The products I sell are really good and I have benefited from using a lot of the different things we offer. The only downfall is how expensive the product is compared to US dollars. The price here is double if not more. What's really great though, is the scheduling at David Jones; they alternate weekend shifts and late night Thursday shifts so that I have every other weekend off but still work the same amount of hours each week. Now that I have an income, I'll be able to get around more and take weekend trips to Melbourne, Perth, Queensland etc... This will hopefully make my blog much more exciting in the future :) Today was my first day off so I hoped on a bus to the northern beaches and got off at a random little restaurant on Pittwater bay and had a slice of delicious orange and almond cake with a pot of honeydew green tea. They had a lovely outside seating area on the water with sail boats cruising through as I sat and read. The temperature today was around 78 degrees, just perfect, and would have been a great day to spend surfing except for the fact that there were only killer 6 inch waves to be caught. Even more exciting however is the fact that I get paid tomorrow and I can't wait to buy a new surfboard with my first paycheck! Pics will be posted the day I buy it!

Finally, I got to a hip hop show... well, sort of. There's this old gnarly dive bar underground in Manly called the Boat shed. It's a notorious little spot known for the old guys that are the regulars and the sketchy stairwell you have to walk down to enter. My kinda place. Some kids from the area had a show there a few nights ago, and surprisingly it was better than I had expected. Of course, I was the only one dancing and having a good time, while the rest of the crowd didn't quite know how the handle the bay area moves I was doin. Then, out of the back corner by the bar, one of the regulars went up on stage and did he best to get down, and it was awesome. I have to admit, I've never been to a hiphop show where some old white dude took over the stage and then proceeded to be escorted out by the bouncer against the crowds popular demand to let him stay. I was just stoked that I got to dance to something other than the terrible house and electronic music that's continually played all over Sydney. I'm also equally excited that the event happens in my own town about once a month or so.

Well, I guess this is all for now. I'll leave you all with a few pics to bring my story to life. Take care and I hope you're all having a lovely hot summer where ever you are!!!

It's one of those rare and lovely days, when everything seems to melt smoothly together from one string of activities to the next. A day when you and your friends all have great smiles on their faces and the majority of their expression is laughter. A day when the most beautiful and random events happen that could only happen on a day like this. I never could have thought days like this... could last a week.

As you have seen already, my week began with the 8K mountain/river walk with all my friends from Sleeping With The Enemy. On Monday I went to Dee Why Beach and had lunch with Renzo who I hadn't seen for two weeks. We caught up over deli sandwiches, Italian Hibiscus and Blood Orange sodas and Blueberry cheesecake. After that, I came home and Virna and I went for a walk over to Freshwater Beach by our house for sunset. It was a gorgeous warm day. Then we grabbed Jade and a bottle of red wine and walked down to my roommates pizza shop that has lovely outside tables and heating lamps and we chatted and drank for hours.

On Tuesday, Renzo took me out to breakfast at a new beachfront restaurant in Dee Why before he had to go to work. Anja came over on the ferry late in the afternoon and we walked to Shelly Beach for sunset. It was jaw droppingly gorgeous. She had her camera that day so Ill post sunset photos when I get them from her. Spending that day with just her was really nice since she left (today) on Sunday. We beach combed the sand and got several really cool shells for her to smuggle back into Germany. Before she went back on the ferry we had Thai food for dinner at the wharf and made plans for later in the week. Renzo came over that night to meet my roommates and brought over Ice Age 2 and a lovely bottle of Riesling. I had gone down to the local Patisserie and gotten a scrumptious little apple dessert for us to share. We had decided to watch Ice Age 2 because the 3rd one came out the next day; we found it absolutely necessary to go and see it.

On Wednesday, yet another gorgeous and sunny day, Renzo and I got up and went to his house to surf all day. I was chatting with a guy next to me out in the water about being from Northern California when a family of about 15 dolphins came frolicking through the water about 30 feet from where I was. I could hear them calling to each other and was watching them catch waves right next to me; then they decided to just hang out for about 5 minutes and swim and jump in the water. I was absolutely in heaven. The guy I was talking to told me he loved to surf in the winter time because they come swimming through all the time... I told him I have never seen a dolphin in the wild. After a day in the water Renzo, Victor, and I went to dinner at the best fish and chip restaurant in Sydney. I had the grilled New Zealand Cod with pumpkin spinach salad, and yes, it was incredible. After a quick cat nap Renzo took me to the movies and guess what!? Ice Age 3 was in 3D!!!! So awesome! I had never been to a 3D movie before and it was quite fun. For anyone who's a fan of Ice Age, the 3rd one doesn't disappoint. I absolutely love spending time with Renzo since he continuously makes me laugh. All of you know that laughing is my most favorite thing in the world. I am very lucky to have made such an incredible friend so soon to moving here. I undoubtedly think that knowing him has made my transition here much easier and would not have been as comfortable without him. This was proven on the following day :)

Thursday. Renzo is from Peru, he moved here when he was 18 and is now a resident. He is also a chef. A few weeks ago he asked me what was the one thing I missed most about California so far and I told him that it was Mexican food. On Thursday we spent the day relaxing with each other in the sunny weather and then he made me Nachos for a late lunch! While he was preparing the meal he said, "I don't know how they make nachos in California... but this is how we do it here so hopefully you like them." They were so good. Afterwards his friends and roommates joined us who are also from Peru and Uruguay. I've spent a lot of time at Renzo's home and his friends and roommates are really great people who I enjoy being around. Learning Spanish has become my new task :)

On Friday a bunch of us went out in the city to party with Anja. We ended up meeting a group of Aussie guys who were just awesome. One in particular was Beau, he has the personality of Jim Carrey and was one of the funniest people in world. Anna and I will definitely be hanging out with them again soon.

On Saturday Anna and I got up and grabbed a train to Newtown to meet Anja and Siobhan for breakfast and shopping. Newtown is the equivalent to Haight street in San Francisco. It was Anja's going away party that evening so the ladies went out in search of cute outfits. I think the photos do a fine job of showing how the rest of the day and night went: