Upon landing, Brisbane was already a good deal warmer and more humid than Sydney and I had been obliged to wear jeans on the flight, as my backpack had become ridiculously crowded over the previous week or so. Up to this point in the trip, I have been traveling very light. We're talking five shirts, three pairs of pants and two pairs of shoes, including what I wear. So yes, I do a lot of laundry and wear clothes out pretty quickly. Also, this enabled me to carry my own bag most of the time, notably up the Inca death staircase on Isla del Sol. However, as I intend to get a temp office job while I'm here, I had to upgrade the wardrobe substantially. Neither hikers nor flipflops are really ideal interview shoes and my t-shirts were in shambles. So after shopping in NZ, Sydney and Carolyn's closet, my bag ballooned up from 12.5 to 21 kg.
I reassured myself that this was alright because I would be unpacking and hanging up my clothes in a closet upon arrival. But when that bag rolled around on the luggage carousel with an angry green HEAVY sticker, I felt a bit guilty over maybe overdoing it. Not guilty enough to carry it myself though... Mick was kind enough to volunteer and I was lazy enough to accept his offer. Although an annoyance at the time, it was definitely worthwhile - I've already had occasion to wear my new dress shoes three or four times this week and it's swell not having to do the wash every five days.
I've moved into a peach coloured house with a bright pink door shared with Mick and his friends Colin and Ingrid. Colin enjoys Xbox, bacon and running the taps when others are in the shower. Ingrid enjoys puppies, waking Mick up with a watergun to make her breakfast on holidays, and going to bed at exactly 9:05pm on weeknights. Safe to say we all get on well.
The house is all one floor but fairly spacious for four people. My favourite part of the house is the kitchen. And here's why - not only do they have an entire freezer devoted to meat, they also have an entire full size fridge just for beer (in addition to the small scotch keg and the wine rack, of course). No joke. I also enjoy the front yard, because the two cars are parked on the lawn - no driveway to speak of really.
I have a front bedroom with loads of sunlight (a lil too early in the morning... I'm awake most days by 6:30am because it's so bright) and far too many neighbouring birds in the front yard tree. Between 4-7am, our house sounds like we live in a rainforest reserve. It's easy to forget how LOUD animals are. The choir of crows and magpies and geckos sounding off all morning is quite a racket to wake up to in the morning. And I'm on the quieter side of the house!
In case any of you were worried that I've relaxed my guard, I continue to eye anything alive with the suspicion that it could kill me. I'm keeping a very close watch on the small spider in the corner of my room, but he seems pretty chilled out up there, so I'm leaving him be for now. There is also a persisting rumour that our back shed has a resident carpet snake, who I am not eager to meet. Our biggest problem is ants, because the windows are always open and there are no screens on them to keep the bugs out, but on the scale of threatening wildlife in Australia, I'm happy to settle for ants in the cupboard.
When I'm not being paranoid that something venomous is out for my life, I'm just getting some sort of life organized here. I had a quick visit with my cousin Kim this week, who is also wandering around Australia. She dropped in for dinner and an overnight en route to the Gold Coast. Aside from her visit, this week was full of exciting activities like opening a bank account here, getting a tax file number, job applications, one phone interview, baking cookies that are consumed astonishly quickly by my roommates, making my dad's homous, meeting my roommates' friends and families, cleaning the house, two naps, etc. I haven't really wandered into downtown Brisbane just yet, but since I'll be here for awhile, there's no hurry on that count.
No comments:
Post a Comment