Patrick and I have settled into a bit of a routine now that we've been here two weeks, though it's hard to imagine that we've only had this apartment for 12 days. We've made the white noise of the city our dreaming buddy (though I would really like to disconnect the wires on the street cleaner that moves along the street here at 3:30 in the morning -- what stoner actually wanted that job?).
Today was Patrick's third day of classes and from what either of us can tell he'll do fine this semester. And while I apply for as many jobs as I can and wait impatiently by the phone I have been writing the first few chapters of a novel (woohoo page 34 today!), the idea for which I've had rolling around in my head for over a year.
We've discovered some very tasty cheap places to eat but are surviving off delicious veggie stir fries that we cook at home. I'm still amazed at how cheap the produce is here. The Queen Victoria Markets are a foodie's open-air dream and yesterday we ran out of our veggies. I walked over and up two blocks to the Market yesterday and bought 8 red and yellow bell peppers, half a kilo of green beans, a kilo of carrots, 10 kiwi, 10 mandarin oranges, two tangelos and a bunch of ripe bananas for $12 Australian, which is $10.74 USD. That's cheap! And it still confuses me when I walk into Woolsworth or Cole's (the chain supermarkets) and see people paying so much when the market is only two blocks away. This morning I made myself a delicious fruit salad for breakfast of kiwi, banana and mandarin orange. Yum! All that was missing was the soy yogurt. And I love feeling like I actually live here because we can cook for ourselves.
The temperature is slowly rising and today we broken the 60*F mark -- woohoo! I know Patty will love it here even more once he starts to see the place come alive in the heat. Some parts of the city are already starting to show the first signs of spring. We walked around the botanical gardens the other day and Patrick saw his first Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and lorikeets (parrots which are as numerous in the summer as our robins or blue jays).
We're living relatively sparsely here since we're buying internet by the megabyte and movie tickets cost $17. We're not watching as many movies or videos or downloading any music and in certain ways I think our passions are benefiting because of it. Without television or video games, we're both spending more time on what we care about the most -- Patrick is writing and organizing his thoughts like a speed demon and so am I, in a different way. And although certain things have become more expensive since I lived here last (a Student Union membership, which I used to use to rent movies, is now $100 and movie tickets used to be about $10), we're living relatively cheaply as well. Plus, we live across the street from the state library. Though we can't check out books like in the United States (it's not a lending library), it has a nice enough atmosphere that we could spend the day there reading if we wanted to.
Patty has just made Mexi-beans and rice for dinner so I'm signing out,
will post again soon,
Jordan
P.S. - Here, Mexican food is exotic (a Mexican restaurant charges $18 for a meal that would cost less than $6 in the States and is therefore off limits to the budget-minded 20-somethings in this apartment). Plus, the grocery stores do not sell black beans...at all...even in the "Hispanic" aisle. So, Patrick and I have become fond of the Mexi-bean, which is essentially pinto beans seasoned with garlic power, chili powder, onion and salt and which thickens when drained and fried in a pan. We add cumin, cayenne, and paprika - yum!
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