hear them bells? them jingle bells?

so maybe there is some christmas spirit all the way in australia. at least my family was able to send some my way! rachel, a girl from home is also staying in surfer's paradise, merely a street away from jason and i. small world! she was lucky enough to have her parents visit for christmas. i went over thinking i was to pick up a bottle of mascera and $35. very pleasantly surprised, when i walked in the door, rachel's mom was holding my stocking! my tacky old teddy bear stocking from home. that, plus a bag of goodies which i haven't looked at yet. not until christmas! it was half me avoiding christmas spirit, and half the fact that is no christmas spirit, but seeing that stocking, regardless of what is in it made me really happy. i felt like i was at home with my family again.

today, we had some intense rain. on the brightside though, i was thinking that if that rain had been snow, we would have had the whitest christmas ever! the raindrops tonight were so huge, and reflected so much off the sky, it even seemed like they were snowflakes. pretty neat to see.

aside from receiving that awesome surprise, i was also commissioned to make a painting as a christmas present. mom, i haven't told you about this yet! one of my friends who i met last week, he found out that i did art. he wanted to have a skateboard deck painted for his friend and was having a rough time finding someone to do it. lucky for him, and lucky for me, i was able to do it. today was such an inspiring day. and yesterday as well. when i went to the mall/target, i also picked up 3 novels. i've been looking for some good reads this entire time to sit on the beach and enjoy, but there arent' any book stores in surfers. i was so excited to read (since i haven't properly finished a novel in over a year), that i read the entire thing, save 6 chapters, in one sitting. then i did this painting. the best thing about it, was that my commision-er, he paid for the painting, PLUS the supplies. now i have a decent set of brushes and tons of extra paint to use .. all while watching the office!

movin' on

today, my mother convinced me to venture out of town. i went to the next suburb south- broadbeach and went to the mall. most of it was outdoors, some indoors, but it was the biggest mall i've ever seen. i felt pretty at home because they had a target and a k-mart! plus, there were actually christmas decorations and even a santa to take pictures with! best part was the bubbles. it's an activity for kids. parents can dump their children off here, put them in bubbles, and the kids just have the opportunity to run around in hamster-like cages for an hour. good for parents, and great for kids! this might be better explained if you check out the picture below. my parents also gave me my christmas present early, and i got an awesome surf board! i can't wait to try it out! when i bought it, i realized that particular board was called the 'hott butt!' .. perfect for me!

ps: kelch, here's the bathing suit you bought me! i always wanted a zebra print one, i love it!

opposite view

jason and i were lucky enough to finally make a group of friends! matt, mark, gavin, tyler and anthony. we met matt one night last week at the bar, and got into conversation because he was also from canada. we got his number, and ended up hanging out just about every day since then! it feels good to have a good group because when you're bored and it's raining, sitting alone in our apartment is no longer the only option. four of them are from winnipeg and one is from cairns, an area in north-eastern australia.



yesterday, after a long day of accidentally getting sunburnt at the beach, we headed over to their house to hang out. they don't live far from us, but have a completely different view. from their balcony, you can see the river and a much better view of the buildings.

summer lovin'

well this year, i'm dreaming of a white christmas. but i think that stops at dreaming because it's not looking like we're going to get any snow here in surfers. it's hard to be glad to be here when i'm getting phone calls from family christmas' and i find myself wishing i was there instead, celebrating with everyone. but then, i look out the window and it's pretty easy to forget about being away. in fact, the lack of christmas decorating here really helps too because i barely even think about it being in four days. having such a different climate, not much spirit and an ample amount of distraction really makes it seem like it's not christmas at all. i think i have to work on christmas day, which is too bad, but at the same time, what else would i be doing? my family is across the world. lucky for technology though, it's easy to communicate. skype is awesome too. i wonder how long that will be free for?

a stroll down cavill

finally, an exterior view of our apartment building. looks pretty domineering in this picture! it's cool to live in a high rise though, and the elevator is super fast. in our building, we have two pools, and two hot tubs. but they're more like cold tubs because they're not heated. and the indoor one has jets that shoot right up to the ceiling .. probably not supposed to do that. besides that though, we have a sauna, tennis courts, a gym and a restaurant called santino's. santino's is cool because it's convenient, and they have good deals everyday. $2.99 breakfast and $10 all-you-can-eat pizza pasta for dinner. but i would advise anyone against ordering the aussie pizza. it has eggs on it, which is very weird.



cavill ave., surfer's commercial district. it's a nice little area, mostly vehicle restricted. on a typical night, you can find buskers doing magic tricks, playing instruments, or pretending to be statues. cavill also connects with orchid, the bar district. the clubs are large, elaborate and expensive. most places have a rather pricey cover charge of about $10, not to mention $8 drinks. so it's good to familiarize with the scene to learn about cheap nights at places like beer garden ($3 on tuesdays), or sin city (girls drink free on thursdays .. sorry, jason!). for the most part though, cavill ave., which is conveniently one block away from our apartment, is a great place just to go for a walk. i go there at least once a day just for something to do. there are always people around, and of course, you do get your weirdos, as every city does!



















like most cities are infested with pigeons, crows, and other dirty birds, australia has something a bit cooler to look after the garbage removal. here, we have ibis birds. there are some really neat looking ibis birds around, but not here. they're considered pests and the 'birds of brisbane.' they're goofy looking creatures with curved beaks and long legs. and they're everywhere!

finally!

after dealing with rain and wind for the majority of our trip, we finally got a couple days of sun! and i say a couple because it's now saturday and we're back to rain. but the nice weather was a decent distraction from christmas. of course, the spirit here is nothing like a north american christmas, where the holiday has gone well beyond what it's supposed to be. here, we see a few decorations here and there, maybe your odd christmas deal, but that's about it. that's good for me though! we may even have to work christmas. and speaking of work, we did get a job. in the same place as usual. it's a new restaurant called 'bizaar' opening up in a hotel just down the road. from what i gathered, it's a really modern style, fine dining. open concept layout, with the chefs making food right out in the open. it seems like it would be a good place to eat. or work i suppose, especially with the high australian minimum wage!

these red and yellow flags show the areas where you're allowed to swim. that's why, on the first day when i swam outside of the area, i got chased down by a rescue boat. it's a very small area, so you can imagine how concentrated it would be with people. also, we were confused to find out that the ocean opens and closes at certain times. you're not allowed to swim past 5pm, which is strange, because i was unaware that any one country 'owned' the ocean. but then again, there would probably be a lot of people drowning if they had no boundaries.

oh mr. sun, sun, mr. golden sun ...

weather's been terrible so far. we've been driven to constant job hunting every morning. which probably is a good thing! i started my first day at a server at 'in flames,' a fish 'n' chips/burger joint. it's pretty easy. since there aren't tips here, waitresses aren't expected to do quite the same quality of work as they would in north america. it's hard to get used to the confused faces customers give when i come and ask how their meal is halfway through. jason and i had another interview this morning at a new bar that's opening later on in december. we're on break right now until we have to go back at 2:30 for a second interview, woo! but besides looking for jobs and staring at my computer screen, the rainy weather makes for limited activities. the forecast says it's supposed to continue until the end of the week. but with schoolies and rain leaving surfers at the same time, next week is sounding promising!

after our fridge looking like this:



... we finally figured out that it's much more efficient to buy a box of 'goon' wine, which tastes just as awful as it sounds! but with alcohol prices being inhumane, that's what we're stuck with. food's expensive too. we got groceries tuesday, and it's saved us tons of money. at places like mcdonalds, a big mac meal is only $6.95, which is about normal, right? but any other restaurants, you're paying way more than what we'd be used to. so this is what our home cooked meals look like:

161 hanlan street, apartment 703

finally found a place! not only is it somewhere to stay, but it's in a prime location and a really nice building. gym, pool, perfect view AND within our budget! although, we did have to settle for a studio rather than the two bedroom that we had intended on getting, but prices were high and places were going fast, so when we saw the view from this one, we took it immediately without looking at anything else.











we knew surfers paradise was going to be an awesome place to live, but google earth definitely did not do it justice. it doesn't seem like it with all the high rise apartments and city-like setup, but there are actually only 12000 people who live here. it's mostly tourists and people like us, who came here to work and travel. the beach is absolutely beautiful though. waves are big, the sand is white and the sun is hot. playing around in the waves is so much fun, but the current is super strong. so strong that the first day, i got carried way out of the swimming zone and the rescue boat had to come out and tell me to get back to where i'm supposed to be! it's a good workout though. i can't wait to surf. the city itself kind of reminds me of halifax because it seems bigger, but it's pretty small in reality. everything is central within a matter of blocks. there is a market-type street called cavill ave. which is packed with stores, restaurants and some bars. it's an easy city to get around, i'm loving it so far. i guess what the australians would say here is cheers!

shrimp on the barbie!

although hostels are hostels for a reason, i was really expecting something more than it actually was, especially according to the more-than-decent looking pictures online. it was mostly stressful just not being settled, so our first couple days were taken with apartment hunting. we first arrived at the backpackers in paradise hostel at about 8pm and the lady at reception informed us that seven different hostels around town were going on a pub crawl downtown surfers. that seemed like a good idea until she then told us that the bus was leaving at 8:30. we rushed to the liquor store only to find out that alcohol was way out of our budget. $25 for a mickey? i don't think so. we did end up going out anyways, but it wasn't as fun as it could have been since we didn't know anyone. we eventually met our friend dave from germany, and that made it a bit better, to have a group of three rather than two. for this first week, it's also schoolie week, which is when the high school kids are on break, so downtown from about 7pm on is absolutely insane. people everywhere!



so we toughed out the first couple nights despite our disappointing hostel because we knew we'd find a place of our own soon enough.

au revoir, canada!

now that i finally got an internet connection, i can upload some pictures and start this australia blog for all you people back in canada where it's freezing cold. here's the last picture from canada at the detroit airport. we look pretty happy to be leaving, even though i spilled butternut squash soup all over myself.




this picture is of los angeles from the plane. the actual flight wasn't too bad from la to sydney. we slept 12 out of 17 hours so it went by rather quickly. the worst part was when jason realized that his baggage had been left in la. so him arriving in australia with no clothes put a bit of a damper on the start of our trip. and to top that off, we missed our flight to brisbane and had to wait 6 hours at the airport. we could have gone out to see the city, but i was tired, angry and didn't want to carry my heavy bag (that broke twice during the travelling). finally after finally arriving in brisbane, we had to wait two hours for the bus to take us another hour to surfers paradise. travelling sucks.

crackers & cheese

because this week had been relatively warm out, i thought today would be a good day to get out and take some pictures with kelsey. turns out, today was freezing cold, so we only managed to get a few pictures. i don't know what those mallards are thinking paddling around in the water. and, going to the dock, we learned that the notorious ship playground had been torn down! that thing was a landmark, rip ship. no 00's plastic liability-free playground will compare to the ship. even though i never knew it was a ship until about last year.





jose's vegetable lasagna that kelsey ate in approximately 2.5 seconds and xocimilco's bean burritos & flaming cheese .. goooood two days!