The Year of the Tiger

Happy New Year!!! Yes, I realize we're two months into 2010, but this is the Chinese New Year: the Year of the Tiger and, of course, we're celebrating. (I'm following several different sites to help schedule fun and unique activities in Sydney. It's important to have a busy social calendar.) Sydney has a fairly large Chinese population and Chinatown so Chinese New Year is a big celebration around here. It spans a time period of two weeks with all types of events and activities. I love festivals and last week Paul and I, along with a couple of friends, braved the rainy weather and joined the crowds in celebrating the launch of Chinese New Year through some taste testing and shopping. This past week there were temple tours, origami classes, Chinese film screenings, etc. Unfortunately, I missed out on the lion dance class, but I hope to catch it in the future. You never know when that skill might come in handy.

Tonight we headed down to check out the parade and it was a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, Sydney puts on some AMAZING events but this parade definitely wasn't one of them. It reminded me of the parade my parent's little town puts on. . . pretty disorganized but a whole lotta fun for the participants.

Although the parade might have been a little disappointing the fireworks that followed were definitely not. This city knows fireworks. There is no doubt that they could fund a significant portion of the Haiti disaster relief effort with the amount of money they put into these fireworks. In less than the one month time period that we've lived here, we have seen 3 incredible fireworks displays. They all beat any display either of us have ever seen before. (Did I mention they did fireworks for Valentine's Day too? Our favorite was the fireworks that formed the shape of a heart. Ahhhh....so cute!) Funny thing is that Sydneysiders keep telling us that these fireworks shows are nothing compared to New Year's Eve. . .the non-Chinese one. Guess I know what I'll be doing next NYE.

Along with this being the Year of the Tiger, this is also our year of change, growth, and opportunity. Sounds like something out of a fortune cookie and well, maybe it was. This past week was pretty busy and slightly monumental as we moved into our new home. (And no, Paul didn't carry me over the threshold. He claimed that it was too difficult. In his defense, the door does require two hands to open.) "Moving" is slightly a stretch as we just rolled our suitcases from the one apartment we were renting a room in to our new apartment. As many of you remember, the apartment hunting process was quite extensive. We were both thrilled to have landed our own apartment but neither of us could remember exactly what it looked like. This issue and not being able to remember what we packed in our shipment curtailed my craigslist and ebay shopping for furniture and decoration. Of course, only for a short while. After we received our keys and walked in, I was pretty disappointed. It just wasn't what I remembered or had made up in my mind. In hindsight, most homes look pretty sad when they're just empty. It's grown on me now and I know once we have our furniture and stuff that it'll feel and look more like home. I definitely try not to think of our monthly rent payments as that makes me like the apartment even less. Have I mentioned how expensive it is to live here???

Speaking of furniture or lack thereof, we should (fingers crossed) receive our shipment by the end of March. Keep in mind that it left Dallas on Dec. 14 but sat on a dock in California until mid-January. Since Dec. we have both been living out of suitcases wearing the same things and we're over it. Actually, Paul more so than me because he gave me his extra suitcases so that I could bring more clothes. In order to be super prepared (I was a girl scout.) and cost efficient I even did a little or actually a lot of shopping before we left Texas because I knew that shopping in Sydney would be much more expensive. Could I have made do with what I already had? Maybe, but there were some AMAZING sales that I just couldn't let them pass me by.

Besides our six suitcases, we had nothing else in our apartment the first few days. The girl we rented the room from lent us a few dishes, kitchen items, a folding chair, and a small tv. (I'm absolutely LOVING the Olympics.) We had brought a set of sheets and towels from home and in all, that was it. The floor served as our bed the first two nights and we were thrilled when our futon (won courtesy of ebay) was delivered. Even though our bed will be arriving soon (yay!) the futon will serve as a great piece in our sun room in the future. Our little empty apartment was much more bearable because we were gone several days this past week. I traveled with Paul for a few days to Melbourne and will be traveling to Auckland, New Zealand this next week. (Gotta take advantage of the time off and free hotel while I can. I know I'm not getting much sympathy.)

Even with our sparse living arrangement, we hosted our first guest. I met this girl, Joyce, from the Netherlands, backpacking through Australia/New Zealand on a tour in Melbourne. We hit it off and she had to return to Sydney for a couple more days before her flight left for SE Asia. I completely understand traveling on a budget and the cost of traveling in Australia, so I invited her to stay with us. Good thing Paul is an easy going guy. (I'd probably never have done this back home, but for whatever reason it just doesn't weird me out here. Don't worry, our apartment WILL NOT be turning into a hostel.) We have a second bedroom and bathroom, although no beds, so there was definitely space. So for the past two days the three of us have ventured to all different parts of Sydney experiencing many new sights and exchanging travel tips. Joyce shared her highs and lows of touring Australia and New Zealand and I shared my experiences and recommendations of traveling through SE Asia. Joyce had spent about 9 days in Sydney prior to this visit, but had never been to the beaches so we hit up Bondi this morning. (Beach, nap, and then Chinese New Year - busy, busy day) All in all, it was a great visit and now we have a friend to visit in the Netherlands.

This has been an extremely busy, yet great week. I've got tons more to write in regards to my time in Melbourne, goofy things I've seen/experienced in Australia, and my new job, but I'll save that for the next post.