What's up Down Under: May 31, 2009

Saturday, June 6, 2009

When bad things happen to clean people

Yesterday something terrible happened. It was something that I had thought about late at night sometimes. What if it actually happens? What would I do? Would I be able to make it?

Yesterday…my flip flop broke…when we were away from home…far away from home. I knew this day was coming, I just didn’t know when, and I was hoping that when it did come, I would be about two sanitary steps away from another pair of shoes. Well, I wasn’t. The last time I had a flip flop malfunction I was on my way out the door to work and just grabbed another pair. Not this time. The ONE day in Melbourne when we actually venture out of the little bubble around our hostel. We were all the way down at the Docklands. I’m talking an entire tram ride away. We had just picked up our Indian visas (yay!) and all of sudden my shoe flip flopped right out from under me. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Being barefoot in a public place is very close to the top of my list of “things that would make me freak out.” Although, here in Australia and also in New Zealand I would fit in just fine being barefoot because it’s not uncommon to see a barefoot person at the grocery store or even at a gas station, which makes me think half the population has mental problems.

I tried holding the broken part between my toes and dragging the shoes part, but I just ended up tripping. Katy graciously offered me one of her socks to wear so my foot wouldn’t touch the dirty ground and I accepted since it was either that or contaminating my foot with public filth. The only thing is, Katy doesn’t wear normal socks. Katy’s socks always have a theme. Yesterday’s theme was Easter. So I got to hobble back to the tram, then back to our hostel wearing one flip flop and one of Katy’s goofy-ass socks. I guess I was lucky though. What if Katy had been wearing flip flips too, and thus had no sock to offer me? THEN what would I have done? I don’t even want to think about it.

Soo, yeah. Three paragraphs about the horror of my flip flop breaking because that’s basically the most exciting thing that’s happened since my last blog. The remainder of yesterday was spent shopping for new flip flops (obviously) and we don’t do anything at night except geek out and read our books until our 11:00 bedtime…so that’s that. Today we went to a couple of art museums…one contemporary, one regular. I think I’ve had enough contemporary art for awhile. “Oh yes, this display of plastic chairs is very thought provoking.”

And there seems to be some sort of freak convention in town who has based themselves at our hostel. Let’s see there’s the girl who wears the furry cat tail and ears, the guy in the all white suit and bright yellow bow tie, the girl who wears a long black cloak and spikes the top half of her hair all the way up (she doesn’t have short hair) and many others with various weird outfits. And they’re always in their big group. It’s like they would get beat up or something if they walked around by themselves. Weird.

Right now Katy is just sitting next to me making weird noises because she’s so bored. She finished her book.

Tomorrow we FINALLY go to Cairns. Our friend Matt who we lived with in Sydney is up there and Jamie is coming on Tuesday. The next few weeks will consist almost entirely of lying on the beach, eating tropical fruit and looking at colorful fish, which I will be sure to describe in great detail.

I complained a lot about Melbourne but it really is a nice city. Sorry Melbourne.

Pictures later again...

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

I'm cold and bored and want to go where it's sunny.

It’s still cold and boring here. Friday we ran/walked around the botanical gardens. But of course it’s winter so there aren’t any flowers to look at. Then we went to see I Love You, Man which was pretty good. It’s hard to find movies we want to see here since Star Trek and Angels & Demons have taken over all the theaters. Blah.

Saturday we walked over to Target where I bought a yoga mat to hopefully entertain myself with. That was it for that day.

Sunday was actually a pretty busy day for us. We got up at a decent hour (aka before 11) and took the bus over to St. Kilda to check out their weekend markets. St. Kilda is Melbourne’s beach area. I may be biased, but Bondi is much much better. The markets were nice. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of going to weekend markets because they’re all so different. The only downside is the stuff I want to buy is either huge, breakable or huge and breakable. Like this time there was a lady selling these really cool chests made out of tree trunks. But there’s no way I’m carrying a wooden chest around with me and I can’t afford to send it home. Too bad.

When we got back from St. Kilda, we noticed a large group of people chanting in the middle of a really busy intersection. Apparently some sort of protest was scheduled and it was in the middle of the way back to our hostel. We didn’t feel like fighting through the crowds, so we went to the casino instead. I won $30! The protest of was still going on when we got back, and actually continued through the night, so we went back anyway.

Monday we literally did nothing. I think I went to get coffee and that was it. Sooo yeah, 4 ½ more days here. Might go back to the casino, maybe see another movie…I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have time.