After Hours II

Home of 2 Buck Chuck

Troll bridge

Serpent

White walls

Relic

Merrp

Christmas Miracle

Christmas Spread

Snow!

It doesn't matter where you are in the world, you will always over eat on Christmas.  Our friends Eben and Dannii were kind enough to let us crash their family meal and we are so great full. This year the spread was a bit different from our norm.  Instead of deep fried turkey, honey backed ham and cheesy potatoes, we enjoyed eggplant parmigiana, sausage, lamb chops, steak, rice balls, zucchini cakes, home made salami,  and a whole lot of Christmas sweets.  There was no shortage of food.   Along with gluttony, we experienced another Christmas miracle, SNOW!  To be correct, it was marble sized hail, but it still counts as a White Christmas.  Happy Holidays

Gifts

A must read

Creamy koala inside

Bling

Lego man

Brewster's

Facts

Because of hemispheres and other things, water tends to swirl counter-clockwise down the drain in this half that we’re in now.  Kind of interesting, but not that interesting.  On that front (the hemispheres and other things front), I think it's more interesting that Adam's sense of direction is mixed up down here.  I discovered this when we were walking somewhere the other day and got turned around (happens to me all the time but very infrequently when I'm with Adam).  Adam looked up at the sky and said something about how south has felt like north since we've been here and then kind of scrunched up his nose and tapped it.  I asked him what the nose thing was about and he explained that he feels his keen sense of direction vaguely in the nose area because it points him toward north.  What.  Something to do with iron levels in the body and the magnetic pull of the poles, he said.  VERY interesting.  This is a true* thing because I googled it, by the way.  The mysterious shroud besieging Adam’s (and anyone else’s) highly envied sense of direction is a little bit lifted.

*Not definitely true.  Might be psychosomatic based on some not true information Adam once heard.  Who knows.  Still pretty mysterious.

Vid

Acme Tribute

60's Bollywood inspired 11-piece band and folks screwing in the lightbulb

Nativities are nativities everywhere you go

Husbands are husbands everywhere you go

PHHHEEEEW

Gorgonzola

This was the time we were going to pretend it was a Monday night in Minneapolis but the free comedy show was packed, so did this other stuff instead.

After Hours

Three out of seven nights of the week or so, while Justina is living the bartending dream, I bounce my knee s filled with energy and have been itching for an outlet. While Justina makes the dough, I have decided to spend my free nights working on my photo skills.  Here are a few pics from my adventures out.  I would post more but we have run into a snag with our battery charger.  I accidentally left the stock Cannon charger in Houston, MN so we had to by a replacement in SFO.  For some reason the replacement charger didn't appreciate the outlet adapter and decided to fry itself. Enjoy

Ute

Your friendly neighborhood spider

Little ben

The Library

Open for biz

Boo Hoo

Style

Meal Time

Language Barrier Cont.

Ever since the dawn of time I’ve wished I had an Australian accent.  For obvious reasons, though lots of Aussies have told us, awwwww we love your accents!!!  Nutty.  Australians basically speak a different language than Minnesotans.  I’d say one of the most identifying qualities of the Minnesotan accent is the strong R (followed by the strong O), whereas Australian accents drop the R completely.  So when a girl at the bar asks me for a millah and I ask her to repeat herself several times during which she eventually notices my Fargo-esque vernacular and finally says milleRRRRR, I say ohhhhh.  You might wonder why anyone would have trouble understanding someone trying to order a Miller at the bar no matter how outrageous their accent was, but this was actually an exceptional circumstance, the explanation of which I won’t bore you with/the circumstance wasn’t that exceptional and I don’t want you to judge me.  Anyway, she then told me she had done some study program thing in Wisconsin for a couple months and had the same problem asking for watah.  Smart cookie trouble shooting that one.  Another thing I’ve noticed is almost every single person to whom I serve food says cheers.  Almost always cheers and about fifty percent of the time cheers, mate.  So I say cheers back sometimes and always feel like a poser when I do (mostly I say you betcha to bring them a taste of Minnesotan culture).  They also say, how are YOU going, rather than how’s IT going.  It threw me off the first time.  And they call sweatshirts jumpers.  How cute is that.  Australians also have tons of cutesy abbreviations for things, as well as tons of three-letter acronyms.  As far as three-letter acronyms pertinent to us that we’ve encountered so far, there are BSBs, BSAs, TFNs, RSAs, and for sure more that I can’t think of right now.  So I can’t imagine how many there are total.  Probably hundreds.  I just got my RSA this afternoon, actually.  It’s the Responsible Service of Alcohol course and it’s mandatory in every state before you can legally serve alcohol.  It was kind of riveting.  For two reasons, firstly because almost all male Australian voices remind me of Flight of the Conchords (even though flight of the conchords is New Zealand and apparently there is a major difference between the two accents as far as Aussies and Kiwis are concerned) and so his dry, stoic demeanor came across as very comical (to me) and secondly because I learned a lot about the responsible service of alcohol and the liquor laws in the state of Victoria and it was very interesting.  Anyway, back to the language thing, it’s definitely been a life-enriching part of the trip so far.  Adam’s the culture sponge in this outfit so he’d likely sound like a native (not aboriginal, regular native, you know) if it weren’t for spending time with me.  But since I’m 25 now and pretty set in my ways I don’t think there’s much hope for me assimilating the language, but we’ll see.  WE’LL SEE. 

Tourist Day

My name is Adam and I'm a tourist/Royal exhibition building

More of the first

Deciphering the tram schedule in Fitzroy

Timtam in the oven

Dandendong train station

Southern Cross

Kevin Tribute

Kevin and Justina

Kevin and Adam

Kevin and Justina

Reasons for Living #2

People said we’d for sure miss our favorite American foods and stuff while we were here, but so far I haven’t noticed that as much as the part where I miss places.  I was wandering around the other day looking for black shoes and thinking about the Minneapolisthriftandconsignmentstores-shaped hole in my heart.  I hadn’t seen any consignment stores and the only charity shop I had seen was a Salvos (Salvation Army) and it just didn’t cut the cheese/have black shoes in my size.  At the time, google couldn’t tell me where to go because I didn’t have THE phone on me so I was doing things the old-fashioned way, like wandering around aimlessly.  Naturally, I eventually ended up at that Target store downtown and I asked a local-looking girl there if there was much along the lines of thrift/second-hand or consignment shops in Melbourne.  She looked at me like I was from outer space and then hesitantly directed me to the same Salvos store I had already seen.  Since this was the second time I had gotten this kind of reaction when using all the words I could think of to ask about thrift or consignment stores, I figured Melbourne hadn’t yet discovered the wonderful world of consignment.  Obviously, right?  At that point I knew it was probably my destiny to open a really great one here in Melbourne.  I was shoulders-deep in the business planning process before I got back to the library only to discover that there are a TON of consignment shops all over the Melbourne region.  It must have been my thick Minnesotan accent that caused the confusion.  I was disappointed because we had lost another purpose in life, but mainly relieved that I had been released of the burden of bringing a whole new retail industry to Melbourne.  Plus, now we have time to focus on our other business ideas.  Other business ideas like smuggling Trix into the country.  Let us know if you want in.  Anyway, I found black shoes at the outlet mall and have yet to check out the consignment competition in Melbourne.  

Bonus Feature #5

Reasons for Living

New and improved Tim Tam eating experience.  Thank you Dannii and Eben!!!!

These shoes were made for beach walking/we found these shoes on the beach and I put them on

NEW SHOES/recipe for a foot fungus

Bay watch Adam

Witness bird.  We let him live.

 

 

 

 

Since getting employed and settled were our all-consuming goals that have now been accomplished, we needed some new raisins d’etre.  Besides each other (awwwwww, cute), we are looking forward to these other things, for the time being:

1.     Finding wallets and things like that

2.     The upcoming blazing heat of summer

 More to come.

Who Farted

Wandering While Justina Works

The Chicken King of Bay Street

For the Audi Fans

Fun Old Ford

Practice Jobs

Because this is the first time I’ve lived outside Minnesota, most of my observations are based on the comparison between the two cities.  So when I say something like, Melbourne has a massive backpacking industry, what I mean is it’s bigger than Minneapolis’.  I actually don’t really think Minneapolis has a backpacking industry, but surely it would if the poor thing weren’t so especially landlocked.  Anyway, there is plenty of work for people like us (backpackers) in Melbourne.  And one of the first places to look for jobs marketed toward travelers are the job boards at the loads of hostels in the city.  Another job-hunting tactic useful to travelers is gumtree, which has also has many ads for traveler-friendly work.  Unfortunately these “backpackers welcome!!!!” jobs usually mean banana work strictly on commission.  Yucky-poo.  There are also abundant harvest jobs available for folks like us, though we’re biding our time on that one.  The other option for those who don’t have any office skills useful to procure a temp business-y or office gig, is hospitality work, especially with the upcoming summer holiday.  The one thing about hospitality jobs, besides being extremely competitive, is that they usually require previous experience before you apply.  Regrettably, neither Adam nor I have any of that (previous experience), which isn’t a problem so much for Adam, because he’s pretty good at faking it.  I, on the other hand, couldn’t fake my way out of a paper bag, though I make a fabulous first impression (it’s the keeping it up part that’s tricky), so I’ve made it to the trial shift stage several times.  And even though my first few trial shifts (I like to think of them as competition shifts) at an assortment of establishments were varying degrees of mildly disastrous, the experiences were enlightening and character building.  So, one sandwich place (to which I will never return), one bar & restaurant, one pizza joint, and one beer garden later, I’ve got steady work.  Adam does as well, though his job search experience wasn’t as much trial and error, more like just, BAM! I want that one okay I’ll do it.  Now on to item nine.

Nonsense

Above, you can see Adam managing his “secret account” online.  He won’t tell me what kind of secret account it is, but it’s probably something along the lines of a secret bank account.  Speaking of accounts, we opened a joint cheque-ing and savings account yesterday for our practice jobs so we don’t have to get paid under the table.  And we discovered that the interest rate is 5.5% holy cow.  The maximum balance is 5 million dollars, so if anyone wants a guaranteed 4% back on their liquid assets at the end of the year, we’ll hedge fund (“hedge fund”?) your money for you at a 1.5% commission rate.  Howz that sound??  Good??  You think I’m kidding but I’m not.  Why would I.  Anyway, the stark difference in bank account interest rates falls into the category of differences (USvsAU) in profits.  Henceforth, other differences we’ve noticed are differences (USvsAU) in profits for the environment.  For example, every single toilet around here has the half-flush option.  Also, all of the outlets have these switches called “power points”, the purpose of which is to eliminate phantom drain/”phantom drain”.  Additionally, all types of plastic (not just those with a neck) and cardboard are recycled here in Melbourne.  Furthermore, almost all of the chickens we’ve eaten so far have not only been affordable and delicious, they have also been free-range and antibiotic-free.  Not only all of these things, but also, there are tons more diesel fueled cars here, which means they burn way cleaner and get way better gas mileage.  Just ask Adam.  

More to come on “practice jobs” later.

Disclaimer:  This post does not have an anti-America tone to it.  We love America.  America has lots of things Australia doesn’t as well; just not power points and high bank account interest rates.

Roughing It in Melbourne

Since the big move, we’ve experienced quite a few lifestyle changes.  Living out of a suitcase in a different country aside, most of the changes have entailed some degree of downsizing.  For instance, rather than six shower products between the two of us (five for Justina and one for Adam), we share one.  Fashion Girl conditioning shampoo by Palmolive.  The best smelling and most economical per ml of the all-in-one shower product options at Coles.  And not to make our lives sound glamorous or anything, but we eat in, a diet that includes, and is mainly limited to, rice, beans, pasta, pasta sauce, potatoes, cheese, oatmeal, brown sugar, milk, coffee, and tea.  Gone are the days of superfluous movie rentals from Filmzilla.  Our new favorite hangout is the library, which includes luxuries such as free wi-fi, celebrity magazine and dvd rentals.  Not that any of these changes are unwelcome, because they’re not, and some of them have even produced practically genius inventions.  Take the Sidewalk Glider, for instance (see below).  That’s genius, right?  And who would have ever thought of that if they had a car?  Not Adam, anyway.  Also, Oatmeal Desert.  If we could afford ice cream sandwiches, would we ever have invented Oatmeal Desert?  No.  We wouldn’t have.  And let us know if you want the recipe.  It’s delicious.  All you need is oatmeal, milk, olive oil, vanilla, and brown sugar. 

Ps  If we sound like we’re complaining, we’re not.  The roughing-it is self-imposed and we don't mind it as long as we can go to the beach at the drop of a hat.

FASHION GIRL

Intellectual property

Oatmeal dessert.  Basically, extremely sweet granola.

Hola Pilgrims

Thanksgiving, south of the border style

Sharing is Caring 

Filling up on Hugs and Kisses "Sangria"

Joining the festivities 9,000 miles away

My Hot Wife

Elements of an Expat Thanksgiving:

* Didgeridoo Music / Spanish reggae / Disney sing along

* Uncle Bens Mexican style rice

* Nana Coles Pulled chicken and mixed bean Enchiladas

* Tortilla chips and salsa

* Sangria with loads of sugar to sweeten the deal (Tom and Fede)

* And a special meringue, ice cream and strawberry desert (Nicole and Hellen)