Meet the New Barbie and Ken of Bondi Beach!

Sydney has some of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. The sand is soft, the water is beautiful, and sometimes there are topless women! On the bus to Bondi beach I was people watching and found some interesting people. There was Barbie, who had bleached blonde hair and a hot pink bikini. Her eyelashes were on steroids and were about 6 inches long.  She looked dainty and rich. And yet next to her sat a man who looked homeless. I thought the contrast was pretty remarkable.  I'm posting a picture.

Today I found my way to Paddy's Market with Valerie. We stumbled around stalls selling touristy crap to find the precious gems in the rough. There were wigs, phone covers, t-shirts, and kangaroo pelts! It was extra money if you wanted the tail still attached to the pelt. Deliciously gruesome and soft at the same time! At the back of the market was a fruit and vegetable section where we recognized some of our favorites from home and were greeted by some new though friendly looking fruits.  These varieties, such as Dragon Fruit and Extremely Large Sweet Potatoes were just yet another reminder that though the people around us are speaking English, we are no longer in Kansas, nor have we ever been for that matter. Actually most of the people around us at Paddy's market were in fact not speaking English. When I bought fresh basil, the woman I bought it from gave me some fresh marjoram as well. The fresh basil smelled so good I wanted to pull a Winnie and just roll around in it. 

Kangaroo with some Uggs in the background, what could be more Australian?

Dragon Fruit

Making friends

"What is the origin of your name" Valerie, a tall blonde haired girl asks me as we walk around Glebe, hunting for a bar where we can get a beer.
"Hebrew" I respond without hesitation.
 "Oh I should have guessed, what with the hair and the nose" she causally replies. Like a boxer punched the stomach, I feel a whoosh of noise leave my mouth that sounds vaguely like "what!"
Valerie is not trying to hurt my feelings or make racial slurs. In fact she has many Jewish friends, has eaten Matzah, and attended  a Jewish funeral (which she swiftly endorses and tells me she wants one). Quite honestly, Valerie is just the most honest person I have ever met in my life.
We find a karaoke bar and it turns out Valerie not only has a penchant for the truth but is also a very good singer. As we sit around the bar, we (Valerie, Jill, Kaila, and myself) all belt out the lyrics to popular songs from the 90's while Kaila deflects the advances of a 30 something man. However, before we can get up in front of the crowd to sing and make fools of ourselves, karaoke night is over.

New Apartment!!

Today I moved into my new brand spanking new apartment in Glebe! Glebe is a south western area of Sydney, its about 3 km away from the main city (1.8 miles). It is supposedly popular with the young hipsters, there are a bunch of 'ethnic' restaurants and a lot of cafes. Glebe has a large outdoor market on the weekends as well which I'm looking forward to going to. It's called Glebe because it used to be a glebe, an area of land given to a priest so the priest can use the land to support himself either by renting it out or farming etc (Wikipedia).
My apartment opens up into a hallway with a small bathroom to the left. To the right is a stairways leading upstairs to the 2 bedrooms and the full size bathroom which has a bath and a shower. Walking a few feet forward from the entrance brings you to the kitchen and the dining room/sitting room. There are 2 bedrooms in my new apartment, I ended up in the big one that has a balcony. We did a lottery where we all wrote our names on slips of paper and then drew from a bowl. My new roommates seem nice.  They are named Mariya ( who is actually in my room), Lindsay, and Lyndsay. Mariya studies animal science and goes to Cornell. She likes to party. A lot.
Other than that I have just been unpacking and buying groceries.  It is really nice to just have a place to relax and that I can call mine.

Double Decker Metro!

My living room, there is a big tv facing the sofa that can't be seen in this picture

My bedroom! To the right is the balcony -->

The view out of the balcony off of my bedroom

My kitchen

St. Kilda's

This morning I went to the Camberwell market, which seems to be a giant outdoor flea market where I bought some previously loved clothing (second hand).  I had to try on a pair of shorts over my pants since there was no where to change which was pretty ridiculous.  Also if I had to personify the weather in Melbourne (obviously I do), I would describe it as bi-polar, fluctuating between sunny and hot one moment and overcast and drizzling the next. It makes for a terrible hair week.
This afternoon I visited  St. Kilda's, which is an oh so trendy neighborhood of Melbourne. Basically there seems to be a plethora of overpriced clothing and a few funny stores.  One of my finds in the neighborhood was off of the main street and was an arboretum  and garden. I roamed around and picked Kumquats, rosemary, and lavendar (although I am not a co-op member so I might have stolen by accident). Then I walked around the gardens, being as touristy as possible and walking on paths literally off the beaten path which incidentally led me to dirt paths around trees and such. Upon emerging back onto the main path of the garden I managed to frighten a dog without even trying.

Taking the tram

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and tried to concentrate on not peeing my pants as I rode the 67 tram from downtown Melbourne to the suburb I was staying in.  I had been riding the 67 tram for over an hour, albeit at one point I had taken it in the wrong direction and this had set me back quite a bit.  My day had had a clear goal: find second hand stores and then find the treasures within.  I had successfully found a vest and in the process had  ridden the tram around in circles. Finally, I was restored to the correct tram in the correct direction.  At one stop along the way, an older man boarded the tram.  He was wearing khaki shorts with worn dress shoes and high black socks.  As if this wasn't odd enough he was also lugging about a guitar in a camouflage guitar case. I have no idea why a guitar would have a need to camouflage (the city is a dangerous place for stringed instruments).  He wore glasses and his face was scruffy. At different stops, he would get up and move around the tram until he finally perched on the bench next to me. I realized my newfound travel companion was talking to himself, muttering out of the side of his mouth, narrating what was occurring around him. Although his volume was consistently low, at some occasions words would burst out of his mouth with such force as to take the rest of us by surprise.  As a girl quietly ate her apple behind us, he abruptly turned to her and helpfully bellowed "MMM, NIBBLE NIBBLE!" (this should be read out loud at the appropriate noise level for full appreciation). A few minutes later, as someone took a swig of water from a water bottle, he turned to them and brayed "MMM GLUB GLUB". Needless to say, this gypsy of sorts made an everyday occurrence anything other than mediocre.