Post 3: Everybody's Working for the Weekend

It’s our first weekend in Australia. Yesterday (Sat.), we spent the day walking all over “downtown” Newcastle. We were also checking out some potential apartments to let. Housing is a bit competitive and expensive here from what we’ve been told and what we’ve experienced so far. This is quite annoying since one of the advantages of not living in a big city is (or should be) that housing is easy to find and relatively cheap. This is not so. It does not seem to be much different than finding a place in DC. Also, everything here goes through property management agents. There is no direct landlord-to-tenant communication (which might be part of the problem, at least with respect to cost). We could only check out places from the outside. To see the inside you have to attend a prescheduled viewing with all the other would-be renters. It’s all a bit overwhelming, but I’m not too worried. We’ll find a place, and in the meantime our temporary apartment (see pic) is good. It is just out of our price range for the entire year.



Downtown Newcastle is pinched between the Hunter River and the Tasman Sea (which is part of the Pacific Ocean). S and I took the bus to the banks of the river and then walked to the beach. The views of the water are extremely pretty. (I really wanted to take and post some photos, but we forgot the camera, so all you get for now is the boring apartment pic, sorry.) This made me very happy to see, as a lot of the city is run-down-ish. It is great to know that there are some really beautiful spots.

We walked down Darby Street which is a sort-of happening area with lots of restaurants and boutiques. Several of the shops were kitschy places, like where you could buy earthy junk and “witty” t-shirts and bumper stickers.* We then walked up a hill overlooking the beach. We didn’t actually go to the beach, though, because we were tired and because somebody’s feet hurt (despite the fact that said somebody, upon being questioned if her footwear was appropriate for the occasion before leaving, assured her companion that it was). Instead we went back up Darby Street and had a terrific (but pricey) lunch at a cool café. Restaurant food prices are fairly comparable to DC, maybe a bit more expensive, but if you factor in the exchange rate (roughly, 1 Aussie $ = .9 US $) and the custom of not tipping,** it’s pretty close.

After lunch we went to the mall to find a space heater (somehow it feels colder inside our apartment than outside it, I don’t know the thermodynamics behind this, but I swear it’s true), which apparently they call something other than “space heater” as nobody knew what we were talking about at first. The trip to the mall was mostly forgettable, although we did find the space heater (thanks K-Mart). It turns out I dislike going to malls in Australia just as much as I dislike going to malls in the US.

I tried to watch some footy (I can’t get over that this is what they call their football) last night, but it wasn’t televised, so instead I watched rugby (union) – Australia (Wallabies) versus South Africa (Springboks). I was reading the rules as I watched. I mostly have the hang of it. It was OK, but it sort of made me sad about the prospect of not being able to watch much NFL this year. Rugby just doesn’t cut it – it’s all running and pushing. The lack of a passing attack makes it much less exciting than the NFL. Footy is a bit different, because everything is based on catching long kicks cleanly out of the air. I think I might like it better. There are many games being played today, maybe I can find one on TV.

* One bumper sticker I saw read, “Tell Your Douchebaggy Friends That Tights Are Not Pants”. I’m not sure if this is aimed at people who actually where tights as pants, or if it’s aimed at people who where really tight pants.

**After the cab ride from the airport, I tried to give the driver a $5 tip, but he refused it almost chastising me in the process, “This is Australia, mate! We don’t do all that tipping here!” When I relayed this story to an Australian in my department, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “If you did that to me, I would have just taken it.”