no news is good news

nothing much new happening here in brisie!

i had my first two shifts at my job today and yesterday, they went really well, im loving it! also looking forward to getting my first paycheck in next week :)

the flat is still 95% definitely a go, scheduled move in is now thursday, just working out a couple of unforeseen glitches!

having absolutely sweltering weather (no complaints here, i'll take the hot summer weather of Oz over the winter of USA!) and enjoying myself on days off hanging out at the lagoon here.

Bris-job

more good news! i got a really great job in brisbane!! i am going to be waitressing at a really great restaurant in South Bank called The Point. really fantastic GM and people, excellent food and atmosphere, good pay and hours, and nearby my new flat! i had a 2 hour trial yesterday and got the job, i start for real tomorrow. im really happy to be getting so many house (30+) from one place, thats pretty rare for here and saves a lot of trouble trying to juggle two jobs with changing schedules!

http://www.thepointrb.com/09/Pages/TPR_TRT09.html

brisbane gets better :)

so the days in brisbane NOT spent in the ER have been lovely! since ive already done the whole sightseeing/falling in love with the city thing, ive been spending my time job and flat (apartment) hunting, which, its happened, has made me discover even more incredibly lovely areas of Brisie. i love this city :)

and GOOD NEWS - i found a flat this evening! its a 3 bedroom for 4 of us (me, a canadian girl and two english guys that ive met on my travels down the east coast) so we're still deciding if we're going to rotate each week who sleeps on the couch or if we'll stagger rent so whoever sleeps on the couch is happy with the low price they get :) ohhhhh backpacking. being one room short is the only downside. the upsides are many and include very cheap rent ($100/week each - trust me, crazy cheap for Brisbane - hostels are almost $200/week each to share a room with 6 strangers), GREAT location in a super fun and safe area called South Bank, where there are tons of great boutiques and restaurants (will start job searching there tomorrow) and also where the big Christmas festival takes place. The big lagoon is there as well and from our place its about a 5-10 min walk to the botanical gardens, a 5-10 min walk to the lagoon, 2 minutes to the train station, and maybe a 20 min walk to city center. its right on the river so we can also use the public transportation ferries (called City Cat) to get around!!!!
i am so excited to be able to UNPACK and have my own room and a nice kitchen and bathroom that i can actually leave my stuff in instead of transporting every time. also one of the guys (matt) who will be living there is a vegetarian also so if we do roomie dinners i wont be the odd man out for once!

on the job front, ive already turned down a couple of work for accommodation jobs (you end up making very little), and a couple of sales/marketing jobs that were commission instead of wage based. im really hoping for another restaurant gig so will be spending tomorrow searching my new neighborhood passing out CVs (resumes)!

heathwise, stomach is still iffy (basically i havent had any appetite for 3 days, not normal or healthy) but hoping that it will all clear up on its own in the next few days! and im not in any pain and seem to be operating incredibly normally for not eatting much of anything so wont worry about it too much for the moment

rough start in brisbane

it was a less than awesome start to my stay here in brisbane this afternoon - on the bus ride here from noosa i got really bad stomach pains and thought it might be appendicitis, so went straight from the bus to a nearby clinic, who also thought it was probably appendicitis so sent me to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. turns out that it isnt appendicitis (they're 99% sure - they couldnt actually SEE my appendix on the ultrasound machine so options are im either a mutant born without one, it suddenly evaporated out of my system, its not where its supposed to be, or -most likely- it was hiding from the doctors, which apparently happens sometimes). however they couldnt tell what the problem was, only were able to rule out the major issues that would need further hospitalization.
good news is that im now out of the hospital and not in any pain!
bad news is that even though australian medical care isnt nearly as expensive as american ERs, im still going to have to now deal with the bill and trying to get my travel insurance company to reimburse me :(

hoping tomorrow (and 2 interviews i have lined up) will be a better kick off to my brisbane life!

aussie word of the day
ambo: ambulance

noosa

can you believe its almost December?? absolutely crazy! after the past 4 weeks of travelling it will be nice to settle down for a bit in brisbane. for now, im enjoying a couple days of r&r in ritzy noosa. noosa has a laid back elegance to it, encouraged by the residents who are all mostly rich retirees. noosa has some great surf beaches, the long winding noosa river flowing through it, the most roundabouts of any town in australia (over 100!), and trendy Hastings Street which is a upscale Mediterranean style shopping block with great boutiques, cafes, and restaurants.

aussie spelling of the day:
tyre = tire (as in, the wheels on a car)

weird.

fraiser island

just got back from a pretty intense 3 days camping on fraiser island. fraiser is the world's largest sand island (weirdly enough, covered in reforests and fresh water lakes) and with no paved roads, everyone takes 4WD vehicles to drive on the beach and sand tracks through the inland. the hostels in rainbow beach (one of the two launching points for fraiser) sets up people into 2 groups of 11 people each to go into 2 4WD vehicles equipped with camping gear, food for 3 days, and not much else. we had a bit of tough luck on the first day with our vehicles but managed alright! saw some absolutely beautiful lakes on fraiser (the most stunning being lake mckenzie - wow) and had a blast bouncing around in the 4WD. only downside was that in my vehicle was a group of germans who (though fluent in english) spent the whole time speaking german to each other, and a group from holland who though also fluent in english spent the whole time speaking dutch to each other. really interesting dynamic there and gives some food for thought on international etiquette. i personally think its rude to do so but maybe im being culturally insensitive (shocking for an american, huh?) to expect people to speak english all the time. i can imagine people would miss speaking their native tongue, but it does give the people around them a really bad feeling of being excluded. thoughts?

updates

so here is the 3 towns and adventures over the last week:

1) stopped at a town called rockhampton (the beef capital of Australia, fyi) which is the launching point for the great keppel island. and no, i still have yet to find out what a keppel is or why they are so great. had an extremely relaxing 2 nights/3 days staying at Emu's, a really great hostel in the middle of no where that gave me the luxury of being picked up from the bus stop and driven to the hostel, and also a ride to and from the ferry station (to get me to the island), and a ride back to the bus station at the end of the 3 days (basically backpacker 5-stars) it was also mostly empty, which meant i got a whole dorm room to myself! and the beds were so ridiculously comfortable... none of this foam mattress stuff i had gotten used to. absolute heaven for catching up on rest! had a lovely time on the island as well, rented a kayak and kayaked around the island snorkeling in the beautiful water.

2) went with the oz experience bus on a mandatory overnight stop at the kroombit cattle station, a real imitation outback experience. we were greeted by cowboys shouting 'yee-haw,' given bandannas and cowboy hats, fed a 'bush' dinner, learned to crack a cattle whip, rode the mechanical bull, learned to lasso a goat and participated in a goat rodeo. fun had by all, especially the guy who insisted i could eat goat for dinner because "goats are vegetarians too"

3) made it to rainbow beach, launching point for famous fraiser island! Fraiser is the worlds largest sand island and home to one of the top 10 beaches in the world at lake mckenzie. we will be there for 3 days 2 nights, 4x4ing and camping - i cant wait! Frasier Island is where the film 'the beach' was filmed (i didnt see it, just what ive heard).
i will be incommunicado for the next few days so i will go ahead and wish everyone a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


(ps, meant to mention before that the whitsunday islands is where matthew mcconehey and kate hudson flimed 'fools gold'!)