Thanksgiving

As it turns out, when I drink or have a party I like to make sure that there is another event or get together on the way. Thus, during our House Warming Party I asked an entire room full of people who wanted to come over for a real American Thanksgiving. The whole room raised their hand. The funny thing is I had no recollection of inviting over twenty people to our house for dinner. Lord knows I cant cook,and neither can Katie. She literally set a vegetarian sausage on FIRE last night before we went out. She tried to hide it from Sarah and I who had been in the living room and probably would have pulled it off had the smoke alarm not given her away.

Anyway, I had gone back to Kings Cross the Monday following our party and saw Jen (England) and Hyphy Jamie eating at the Sugarmill. I sat with them and talked for awhile then Jen mentioned Thanksgiving and asked if we were still having our dinner. I stared at her in aw because I really hadnt remembered inviting everyone over. I asked her how many people said they had wanted to come and she told me that pretty much everyone had said they would. I looked at her and my mouth dropped. How were Katie and I going to feed all these people?! I asked her if she knew how to cook a turkey and unfortunately she said that she did not. But then she told me that I had asked Ali (Katie and my old roommate from the Pink House who went to four years of culinary school) to help me. He had said that he would. At least when im slightly intoxicated I make sure to cover all the bases.

When I got home I asked the girls if it were ok if everyone still came over, realizing at that point just how much work it would entail. They said it was fine and then Jenah told me that Sarah had actually gone around at our party and had been telling everyone they are coming over for Christmas...looks like we're covering all the holidays. I called Ali and he said that he would still come over and help cook. THANK GOD.

We went shopping the next day and it took forever deciding what we were going to have because we had some vegetarians and we didnt want to spend a ton of money. The final menu came out to:
Turkey (duh)
Mashed potatoes, or just mash as everyone else says (duh)
Stuffed bell peppers
This tuna mixture Ali devised that was delicious and I hate tuna
and Louisiana Katie brought a peach apple crumble. Danny made this chocolate crunch thing and Knute made Pecan Pie minus the pecans. I dont know how that worked out but it was really good.

On Thanksgiving Jenah,Sarah and I woke up and peeled the potatoes and Britt (Ali's girlfriend) and Ali came over at like 1:00. The three of us went shopping and got some bread and spinach to make a spinach dip, and some other stuff. When we got back to the apartment I had expected to be put to work as did Sarah and Jenah. However, Ali pretty much just kicked us out of the kitchen and literally did EVERYTHING. I felt so bad becasue that really wasnt my intention. I thought we were all just going to be his slaves as he delegated from the living room. Every time one of us would walk in the kitchen and ask if he needed help we would get the stare of death.We would then quietly retreat back to the living room with our tails between our legs realizing we were not helping, just being a constant irritant. It was probably better this way...So, Britt, Sarah, Jenah and I played Jenga in the living room. I lost. Shaky hands.

Katie came home from work at about six and at this point we were all kind of waiting for everyone to show up. Dinner wasnt until about 830 because a few people had to work. When Danny and Knute showed up with dessert it was about the sweetest thing ever. Neither of them seem the type AT ALL to cook...let alone bake. We were all quite impressed, especially since it was so good.

By 8:45 everyone was there, in total about 20 people smashed into our hot, little apartment. Aw. Everyone was starving and by the time everything was done people were in the living room acting as if they were five wondering where dinner was and when we were going to eat etc etc. When the food was finally served silence filled our humble abode. Ali could not have done a better job cooking for so many people in our kitchen that has NO counter space. The turkey was super moist, the bell peppers were perfect, and the mashed potatoes tasted just like my grandmas. I was pleased as punch. A dinner that had taken 6 hours to cook plus 2 hours of shopping took about 6 minutes for everyone to eat. It was like no one had had a real meal for months (which for some people might actually be true). A general overview....


Naturally, after we ate we started drinking. It wasnt at all like our party it was more laid back and we sat around talking and playing a little King's Cup. At this point I started inviting the girls over for "Girls Night Saturday", surprising? I think not.

After awhile there was a pounding at our door. We all looked at each other knowing we were going to get yelled at by someone. Katie, our diplomat, went to answer it. She talked to someone outside for quite awhile. When she came back in she kind of "popped her collar" and said something along the lines of "No problem, its all taken care of". Apparently when Katie opened the door there was a man there (YES, the same man who had been staring into our window) and he took a few steps back down the stairs and said "You guys are being so loud! My wife's pregnant and our neighbors have two kids keep it down!" and was pretty much just yelling at my dearest Katie. Katie, like a real champ, kept it together and apologized, telling him that we would of course turn the music down and keep people quiet. All he had to do was come over and ask. After she finished talking he looked at her and said "Oh where are you from?" and she told him "America..." and then he started having a nice conversation with her asking what part because as it turns out hes from Illinois. Once he realized the Irish girls were no longer living there he became quite pleasant. USA USA USA. Then he left and Katie came back in and we carried on.

It turned out to be a fantastic Thanksgiving and everyone had a really good time. Success. If anyone is wondering what we have been eating the past few days...the answer is clearly mashed potatoes. More information on girls night to come :)

xoxo

Minor Details...

Just to add some details from the party I forgot that are kind of funny...

Before the party started Sarah realized that the handle on the door to her room was broken adn if you closed it all the way it couldnt be opened. During the party, I see Jaime literally kick the door in as if he were a character on The Shield and I ripped him apart. Something along the lines of "DAMNIT JAIME! I have absolutlety NO problem kicking you out of here RIGHT now. Youre such an idiot!" Only to watch his face drop and look so sad, then to here Sarah say..."Jacque, I asked him to because the door couldnt be opened" oops.

As most of you know, Katie has a weird obessesion with ketchup. At the end of the night she watched a group of English boys from the hostel (I refer to them as the Hansen brothers) go into the fridge and steal her beloved bottle of ketchup. ..that was all they took. Apparently they made up some lame excuse as to why they needed it when she confronted them so she let them take it. Such a sweetheart.

Also, this guy who is now called "Disco Graham" had his eyebrows shaved off. Yes, both. When the Hansen brothers walked in I thought "Ha! I knew that one was gay!" Because he had his eyebrows penciled in...apparently the leader of the pack just shaved them off while he was sleeping and he had no choice, he also isnt gay. Another one of them only had one eyebrow shaved...he looked like a bigger idiot. But of course, the pack leader had to shave off poor passed out Graham's eyebrows...with MY razor. But the next morning I decided he deserved it because the chair he had been passed out in had a huge wet spot which looked like pee...good riddance to your eyebrows sir.

I think that's it... :)

Love

House WARMING Party

We had our house warming party Saturday night and it was a blast! Katie and I had been worried the whole time about the noise and being kicked out within the first week. The noise was not the problem.

This weekend there was a heat wave and our apartment was literally a sweat box. It was not a house warming party, but a house sizzling party. It turned into a pants off dance off not because it was the theme but because people were sweating so badly. The English had quite the time because they arent used to the heat, so our roommates ended up real drunk, REAL quick. A few of them even ended up sick.

We played kings, and there was some beer pong, which was such a joke, and generally just ridiculousness. Sarah and Jenah bought speakers so the music was like perfect and we woke up the next day with people passed out all over the place.

Jenah (who had been army crawling around the night before because he legs had failed her), Dan, and Knute went to the store the next morning and Louisianna Katie and I made pancakes while, of course, Katie continued to sleep. We had pancakes and eggs then people who felt up to it went to the beach and the rest of us bummed around pretty much all day.

The Irish stayed and started drinking at ten and went through half a bottle of vodka, a bottle of passion pop (yes, its as good as it sounds) and a crate of beer. They impress me. Its funny because once they get drunk their accent gets even thicker and they are almost impossible to understand. But they are SO hilarious. Ill have to record a typical conversation one day.. I LOVE them.

Anyway, im off :) xxx

Apartment!

We moved in! The four of us moved into our apartment on Tuesday and we love it. There were some problems at first though:
1. Katie and I spent 3 hours cleaning it and it was still dirty
2. A cockroach flew into the window at two in the morning and Katie and I had quite the fiasco trying to kill it. The bottom of my tennis shoe will never be the same
3. While Katie and I were moving into our room I looked out the window and there was a dude that was in the shadows of the apartment next door staring into our window. I waved, like an idiot, and he said something in another language and continued to stand there. We even turned the lights out and peaked out the window...he was there for about 15 minutes. Apparently hes just some noisy neighbor. Hmm...
4.One of the rooms is way smaller than the other. So we are going to switch halfway through
5. The flies are ridiculous. There is no fly swatter large enough to handle them. And they are fearless. The little bastards just sit and when you try and swipe them away, you can actually hear them laughing at you.
6. No AC and apparently there is going to be a heat wave this weekend.
7. The laundry room is like a torture chamber. Katie and I did laundry the first night and there was LITERALLY a spider in there the size of my head. ...you all know how large my head is. Thanks Daddy.


Things we like:
1. It's really good sized
2. Great location, close to the train, the mall is on the walk to the train and the grocery store is in the mall (Which I think is really, weird), the beach is just a quick step away, and there are some bars around. There is also a Pie Face in the mall. Katie and I are now addicted. I was a little intoxicated with Sarah and Jenah one night (Katie had work the next morning) and apparently I ate a piece of pizza and then got this pie that I thought was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. I remember thinking that I ate something SO wonderful the night before but I couldnt remember actually consuming it. Katie and I went to the place Sarah and Jenah told me we went to and each got a vegetarian pie. And it was STILL amazing.
3. It came fully furnished
4. There is more cabinet space than any one person could dream of
5. The neighbors seem great from who we have met (Minus creepy next door)
6. The landlord is rad

Thats all I can think of at the moment. Hopefully after this Saturday we will still have an apartment as we are having our "House Warming Party".

Cheers xxx

House Hunting...

..in Sydney was an absolute JOKE. It was such a pain trying to find a place that was a decent price, in a good location, and was furnished for four people. We started by looking at about every website that was available, realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, gumtree.com etc etc. We found some houses that we liked on like realestate.com and went to check them out but they were either unfurnished or we had to apply to it through a real estate agent we went to about four open houses but they were all a bust.

The real estate applications were a joke because of course they asked us for proof of employment, dates we would be in the house ( most wanted at least a year), references from previous landlords and all of this stuff none of us have. Thus, we decided that going through the bigger sites wasnt the best plan and we just stuck to gumtree where the deals just go through you and the landlord.

Jenah and I went to look at a place after we went to the beach. After getting lost trying to find it, we finally arrived at an apartment that a group of boys lived in. Fail. It was too small and too expensive for the location. Apparently, the neighbors were also horrible and couldnt stand any noise whatsoever. On the walk home, after a BEAUTIFUL day at the beach (I mean perfect weather, you couldnt ask for anything better) we got caught in a thunder and rain storm. At this point our hopes were quite down about finding anywhere we would like.

The next day, Saturday, I found a place on gumtree and called. The guy seemed pretty spastic and said we could see the place at three. This two bedroom apartment is in Bondi Junction which is five minutes from the train station and ten minutes from the beach, fully furnished with two beds in each room, sheets provided, cutlery, and everything we could ever need. Too good to be true? He called me back to say that three wouldnt work but the girls who lived there would be there at six. Katie and I got there first, checked it out and fell in love. Jenah and Sarah got lost so after we hung out with the current tenants (and new best friends) for about half an hour, Sarah and Jenah turned up and had a look at it. When we left it didnt seem like they liked it, but they loved it. I called the guy right then and told him we wanted it.

We move in Tuesday :) The location is perfect and it is SO cute. Its just weird because the street we live on is called Old South Head Rd... Anyway..WOOOOOO!!! Check one! Well Check one for me....Check two for Katie who is also employed as a receptionist for Ferrari. Surprised? Neither am I ;)

PICTURES!

Us with the guys who asked us to go the Moulin Rouge with them because they couldnt get in without us.But here is where I stop. Another post laterrrr
Seriously the most charming coffee shop in the universe
Andrew (Boy) Charlton pool
St. Mary's Cathedral and the Archibald Fountain
:)
Felix, Roommate Dan and Scotland Dan
Katie, Sarah and Jenha
Us with Felix on his last night before moving to Bronte :(
Katie and I...the only ones excited enough to go out despite the rain. Yes, we are under an umbrella, in Australia, in the summer...
Inside the Sugarmill
Harry's famous "Tiger" pie. Its about the most delicious thing ever with either a veggie or meat pie on the bottom, mashed peas and potatoes on the top with gravy. Amazing
Jenha, Sarah, me, and Katie
Bondi Beach
Roommate Danny from England
Katie and French Jeff
The Homies
View of the Opera House and The Harbour Bridge
Where we run through the Royal Botanic Gardens
Our hygienically sound room

The Pink House, our home away from home

The Whole Kit and Kaboodle

Well, if you have ever wondered what a piano bar owned by a stripper looks like, we found it. The Kit and Kaboodle is a lounge-like bar fully equipped with leopard print couches, red velvet walls, frilly pillows, a gold hand shaped chair and of course, a zebra print piano. We went there Wednesday night with Felix, Clement (our new French friend), Jenn ( a new English friend who is AWESOME), Steve, Scotland Dan, Roommate Danny and Kate. We all hung around then Felix, Katie, Clement and I stayed and danced. When "Soldier Boy" came on Katie and I proceeded to, again, clear the dance floor with our choreographed American "Soldier Boy" routine. Boy did we "crank that". Everyone was so confused and had no idea why we knew the dance to such an absurd song. We went back to the hostel at about 2am and I sat on the couch with a new English guy named Mike who is an "arborist" if anyone was highly concerned about that. He asked me if I had any gum, I said the only piece left is in my mouth, he asked if it still had flavor, I nodded and took it out of my mouth...and yes, yes he did chew it. In Australia everyone is big on recycling....Shortly there after I went to bed and Katie was up for like another thousand hours talking to Clement about ponies and fuzzy ducks or something. Katie said they were actually talking about the differences in American and French culture...hm

Then yesterday morning we took Darby Dan to breakfast because he was leaving to go to Newcastle for a job. After that Katie and I went through a mighty fiasco trying to print off our resumes. After about an hour we went to a print shop thing and got that taken care of. Then we were off to find jobs...wooooo (blah). That took about five hours of walking around handing out resumes to some kinda general places. On the walk home we stopped at an apartment that was having an open house. I pushed the intercom button and the voice told me to "push". I responded "Sir, I am pushing". He kept saying, "No, no, PUSH"... after about two minutes of this insanity Katie reached over and pushed open the door to the building that I of course had been pulling...oh good. When we finally made it to the 12th floor we realized that the apartment was for sale...not rent. Then it was off to the LIQUOR STORE!

When we got back to the hostel everyone was sitting out back playing some drinking games. IF you would like to try them.. the first is 21.

21: Everyone sits in a circle and says a number 1-21 in consecutive order. When the person who is 21 says "21" they take a drink and choose which number they would like it change to a word. EX "4 is now armpit" this happens continually until it sounds something like 1-2-3-armpit-5-6-Jacque-fell- down- and -it-wasnt-surprising-14-15 etc. all the way to 21.

Frog: In this game there is a phrase, "one frog- jumps-into-the pond- plop!" each person in the circle says a part of the phrase. Once the phrase is finished it changed to "two frogs- two frogs- jumps- jumps-into-into..." etc and this happens up to "five frogs" x5. We never made it that far.

After this Jenn and I went to the liquor store. I was in such a delightful and cheery mood that I asked the creepy liquor store guys if they are hiring.They arent Way to go Michigan education.

That night we went to the World Bar and just kind of hung out and talked. I left early and went back to the hostel and played some cards. Katie stayed at the World Bar and talked to Jeff about chivalry. While here we noticed that the French guys are all SO polite. They are very accommodating and will always open the door for you, stand when you stand, pay for drinks etc. As Katie says, "Chivalry is not dead, you just have to go to France to find it".


Today we woke up to, Steve saying, "YOURE FAVORITE ROOM CLEANER IS HERE! GET UP!" We werent even mad because his British accent is so endearing. He always says darling, sweetheart and princess (if youre lucky) when he talks to us and we LOVE it. As Steve says, he would "clean up" in America. Hence why the wake up call this morning wasnt too terrible.

We then got dressed and went around some more places to give out resumes. We actually applied to Italia Motori, which is a Ferrari and Maserati dealership...holllller. They are actually hiring as well. Cross your fingers. Then we came to our coffee shop and have sent some more resumes out. Later tonight we will be learning how to Irish Jig (hopefully, as the Irish said, we wont look like "protestants" when we do it. Oy). IF youre lucky and I learn how to work the camera there may be a video for your viewing pleasure.

Anyway, if there is anything you want to hear more about, or less about please let us know! Or if you need a list of characters or maybe some things you want to know that we can find out from some of the people we live with!

xoxo,
us

Rain?

What is going on? Yesterday it was about 85-90 degrees out and perfectly sunny but today its sprinkling and pretty chilly. At least I know it wont be snowing... :)

So, the day after Halloween we just kind of sat around at Roys, which we are dubbing OUR coffee shop, then we went back to the hostel and didnt really do too much worth mentioning but we did invite a bunch of people to go with us to Manly Beach on Monday.

Katie, Louisnia Katie, Roommate Kate, Roommate Danny, Steve, Ashley and I walked to Circular Quay which took about half an hour and then we picked up the ferry to Manly. I liked the downtown area of Manly better than Bondi, but the beach at Bondi was more enjoyable. The sand was better and the waves were bigger, however Manly was at a disadvantage because the weather wasnt as nice as we had been hoping. It would get SCORCHING hot for about a minute then the clouds would pass and it would be cold for awhile. Kind of annoying, but im sure it saved me from a terrible sunburn.

Louisina Katie (I need to think of a shorter nickname) went swimming with Ashley and when she came out she asked if anyone had a tissue. I asked her what she needed it for and she just sort of pointed at her face. I assumed she wanted it to wipe her mascara off so I gave her my black headband because I figured it would just blend in and I just used it to work out anyway. I threw it to her and she asked me about 20 times if I was sure she could use it and I continually said "Yes, Yes its fine!". Idiot. Yes, as im sure you all have already guessed she blew her nose in it. Some things never change. Like my luck.

When it got too cold to stay any longer we headed home. When we got back to the hostel we were informed that we would be going to The Sugarmill that evening with everyone. Our roommate Thomas who is French had also told us that he was going to make us dinner. I think I love him, it was SO good. It was chicken in a cream sauce (that was sour cream based and I wasnt even mad), with mushrooms and onions all put over rice. He also made a carrot salad which was so simple and really good. It was shredded carrots with oil, vinegar, garlic,and something else but unfortunately my memory sucks and ill never be able to tell you what it is. It was so good, Katie even tried a piece of chicken (which wasnt really her fault since Thomas snuck it in with her mushrooms), and she didnt even complain. So after we ate we were off to the Sugarmill.

The place was pretty classy and Jamie had managed to kick a whole group of people out of a section of couches...which we really didnt need since we just got up and started dancing anyway. At one point Sir Mix-a-Lot came on (for you parents out there its the song that goes "I like big butts and I cannot lie, you other brothers cant deny...) Louisiana Katie(LK from here on out), Katie, and I went crazy because it was definitely not something any of us had expected to hear. At one point Katie looked around and realized that all the people had created a space between us and them, kinda like a buffer- safety zone type thing around us. The people were also giving us looks as if we were insane. This also could have been because we kept shouting "TEAM AMERICA!" Who knows.... After a bit we went home and then to bed.

Yesterday, Katie and I woke up went to the Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool, which is right over the bay and swam. To my unfortunate surprise the pool was filled with salt water. It tasted terrible and burned my eyes like crazy. ALSO, as you might image but never crossed my mind, the direction of the circle swim is opposite. I wasnt a fan, but im sure ill get over it. Though, we still havent gotten used to looking right, left right when we cross the streets. We've almost been run over about a thousand times. Darby Danny always screams "TO THE RIGHT" whenever he sees us crossing the street. Thanks Danny. As a side note, Danny also saved us from a horrible death. He was walking down the stairs and to his surprise heard terrible screams coming from our room. Katie had flung open the door in search of someone to save us, and luckily enough Danny had come running! He came in saying, "I heard some screams which seemed to signify lesbian love so I came straight away", unfortunately for him there was no love, but a cockroach the size of Katie's hand. He put it in a mug and threw it out the window. Im sure now its somewhere in my luggage...sneaky little bug.

Yesterday was uneventful and we just sent out applications and resumes, or "CV's" all day until we went to Kings Cross Thai, which was SO good, for dinner. It put No Thai to shame. Then we went out to The World Bar last night. This place was the most like a nightclub of all the bars we have gone to. It was three or four stories and had about 3 bars in it. The very bottom floor had all of the flashing lights and that jazz while the upper levels were more laid back and kind of hang around-like. People were doing karaoke and getting DOWN. Katie even managed to keep her contacts in all night. No thanks to me.

The night pretty much ended there and we all walked back to the hostel and hung around for awhile. People were watching Highlander when we got there... I had no idea it was such a TERRIBLE movie..."There can only be one..." It only sounds good when Dane Cook uses it in his skit about the tire hitting Mary in the face.HA. Always funny.

So some things we've realized:
-Traffic coming from the opposite direction is scarier than you think
-We cant talk to anyone in bars because of the usual things like, the noise, everyone talking at once, music but when you throw in everyone's crazy accents (especially the Irish) its IMPOSSIBLE to carry a conversation
-We may not be the stereotypical American's but we apparently "maul" people when we meet them. Both Roommate Danny and Felix told us that we were kind of a lot to handle when they first met us. Very smiley and we basically extracted their life stories from them in two minutes. Who knew we were overwhelming?
-The squiggly lines in the middle of the road signify when you can make a turn
-Im obsessed with the squiggly lines. Ive asked about them about three thousand times
-I dont know how to upload the pictures from my memory card to my computer (oops)
-Rats are as big as squirrels
-Outlets (or power points) are up near the ceiling as opposed to near the floor in some places
-Guys in bars are MUCH nicer, less skeezy and a tad more forward about getting drinks
-We havent been here for a week yet and it seems like forever
-Steve is NOT a batologist and if you ask him if the bats in the gardens have rabies he will make up a BS answer
-There are these CRAZY birds called Ibis, that are CREEPY and I want to kick them. They are like pigeons at home.