Tuesday Morning

It's Tuesday at 9:16am and I'm sitting at the little cafe "Dunk" where there's an outlet and free internet. I've decided that Dunk's coffee is overrated, but the date scones are absolutely fabulous!!! I don't even really like dates, but the scones are nice and soft. One thing about Australia and New Zealand is that they don't have any drip coffee here. You cannot just get a cup of black coffee...the closest thing would be an americano with water. They have what's called a flat white, which I'm very fond of because it is like a cappuccino but without all the foam! Yay!

So I've just been taking it easy the last couple days because since I've arrived here I've been a little tired and I've decided that the reason I feel more comfortable here is because it's a slower pace of life. My "west coast" persona is happy in this relaxing environment. Yesterday I put in a couple more job applications so hopefully I'll hear at least something by the end of the week. Then I spent the day with Lindsey as we went shopping (I didn't buy anything) and walked around downtown Sydney. We had a couple of new roommates on Sunday night: Lidia, who's from Northern Ireland. She's this petite girl who is from Belfast and had only been on a plane one other time to France! She's here visiting her sister for a few weeks before going back to University. The other gal, Diana, is from Germany and she's pursuing a career in film journalism. Very interesting!

Then I had to switch rooms last night and tonight because I made reservations a little bit late and the previous room was already full. I'm out in this bunk house now, that luckily wasn't cold last night. I didn't get to meet all three roommates there, but one is from San Diego and she's been studying for a Phd. in Ecology in Wellington for the past 2 years! She used to work at the San Diego Zoo! I keep forgetting her name...but I went in the room at one point last night to find a guy. I had just assumed I was booked into another all female room. Whatever, I was really only worried that he would snore and thankfully, that didn't happen!

I realized I haven't given you much info about Lindsey. She's from Houston, Texas but went to the top boarding school in the U.S. which is in the New England area. She went to undergrad at Yale and I think she did some or maybe all of a master's at Harvard. She worked at Goldman Sack's (the prestigious financial firm) for awhile, was a photographer and journalist for a magazine for awhile and she sang in band in Japan for awhile. She's pretty intense, but not stuck up or anything like you would have imagined someone that attended Yale to be.

Today I'm hoping to go on one or more ferries, maybe check out one of the islands that has a bunch of wineries or one of the historic villages on one of the islands near by. I definitely need a day to myself again, so I might do all the above. Meanwhile I have to decide if I'm going to stay at the City Garden Lodge (which is probably a yes). I hope everyone is doing well!

-Lisa