In Adelaide!

I am here in Adelaide, in my new room, my clothes all put away (in drawers or hung on hangers! not stuffed in a huge backpack like they were for 3 months last time) with my own bed, heater, nightlamp, an Australian calendar on the wall, and a small 8 x 11 collage of pictures of family and friends. It is my home for the indeterminate future. It is gloriously better than hostel living. It comes with a warm and cheery Australian family included. It's pretty great.

My next move is to begin looking for work. I have been asked by no less than 10 people what kind of work I am going to look for. "Anything really," has been my answer, which has satisfied some people, who understand money is money, but others don't get it. The ticket taker at the Blue Mountains the other day told me the government mandated minimum wage in Australia is over $16. Sixteen dollars an hour! That is more than twice minimum wage in America, and also what I have been making the past year, in a job I have held since 2009, with my college degree backing me. So I really do not mind to have the most remedial position, any job, anywhere, just as long as I am making Aussie money. It makes a difference. I checked my bank balance on an Australian ATM the other day, so of course it converted my American dollars to Australian dollars. Imagine looking at your account and finding it instantly hundreds of dollars less than it was, not from you spending it on anything, but just from converting it into a different currency. It's gut-wrenching. But, if I am making Australian dollars, to spend in Australia, I don't have to deal with the messy business of currency conversion. I have $100 Aussie dollars, it is $100 Aussie dollars, not $95 or $92 or $89.

I've spent quite a lot of time with Marie so far, which is Sarah's brother's wife. She is French Canadian, and they live here also, in the back house in the back yard. She was around last time, and we've developed a friendship because she has a lot more free time than Sarah and has been nice enough to pick me up at airports and drag me around with her to various social engagements. She got me yesterday and we saw a double rainbow while leaving the parking lot, a good omen for Adelaide I hope. Marie has developed the most crazy accent, I call it French Australian. She was still learning English when she came to Australia in 2010, so she has picked up a lot of the Aussie inflections. It is the most unique and interesting thing to hear. Tonight, she took me to see a bunch of her friends from a volleyball league she and Sam play in. There was lots of pizza and Sangria made from mixing blush wine with orange juice and lime soda and lemon and lime slices, and throwing a splash of Cointreau in, and lots of questions for the American. It was a lot of fun, and I am now somehow committed to playing volleyball with their league next Thursday (yikes, need to practice.)

I was again asked to list off the cities I traveled to last time. I am still amazed when I rattle off the list, and Australians always remark that it is much more of Australia than they have seen. It is much more than I have seen of my own country as well, but I still always find it shocking to say out loud the places I have been.