1st week in review.....

So I have officially been in Sydney for 12 days now. I have some great friends that live about an hour away from the city center and they picked me up from airport and spent the day with me. We went to the famous Bondi Beach. My first hostel was in Kings Cross, which is known for being the party area of town, with lots of bars, clubs, and strip clubs. I did not end up taking advantage of the "party area" while living there. The hostel was sufficient, with free breakfast and free wifi. I met some wonderful people from all the over the world in the week that I stayed in the hostel. I defiantly enjoyed the Free Wine Friday that they offered. I spent several days wandering the city, seeing the sights. The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour, and the wonderful malls. The girls came out and we did a beautiful coastal walk and saw a bunch of the different beaches near Sydney. Saturday night my friends and I went to the International Fleet Review event in Sydney, where Australia celebrated and saluted the sailors across the world. They had a wonderful fireworks celebration, followed by an evening out on the town. The girls are showing me a great time and I am enjoying meeting all of their friends and family. Everyone has been so nice, caring, and supportive.

I've been applying to jobs like crazy, and have had several interviews over the past week for live in au pair positions. I'm hoping that I will have good news in the next few days about a position, and will update you all at that time.

I'm currently staying with my friends out in suburbia, and am enjoying seeing how Australian life is different than the American life. The biggest difference that I have noticed is that they seem to be more active, and watch less TV tele than us. I have been enjoying comparing things, such as words,  slang, language, and emphasis on different syllables. Also realizing that America super sizes EVERYTHING, not just food.   All of there stores shops are smaller, and they have separate shops, such as a butcher, a fruit/veg shop, bakery, pharmacy chemist. I am trying my hardest to assimilate, but find that I am constantly asking what does that mean, or huh. Some of the hardest things is that I feel they use a lot of slang/shortened terms, and the emphasis. For example, "this afternoon" would be savro (said savo), aluminum here is, al-u-min-i-um instead of al-lum-i-num; oregano here is or-e-gan-o instead of oreg-e-no.  Some of our words, such as bell peppers are not the same, it would be a capsicum here, and they do not say their "r's", so it would be wata, winta, summa, etc. The unfair part is that Australia gets A LOT of our tele shows, but we do not hear many Australians on our media, so they all understand me, but I struggle sometimes. Between the words and the accent, they also use the metric system, so I never know the temperature, distance, or usage of anything. Thank you Google for converting everything!

I will try and update on a regular basis with information, once I get onto a regular schedule. Here are some pictures from my first week.

Bye for now <3