Nice Is an Understatement

At the first glimpse of Australia, it looked a lot like anywhere else I have flown.

Clouds

 However, I have quickly realized it is unlike anywhere I have ever lived.... Australians are the nicest people on the planet....

Experience 1: I went into the Apple store looking for an aussie adapter for my power cord. Of course Apple only sells a world pack with a whole bunch of them (When am I going to China or Europe in the near future?) -- So the employee just gave me one, said it was laying around!!! That would never happen in a US Apple store!!


Experience 2: I am looking for a bike and have gone to a bunch of stores to try out different ones. Yesterday, one shop owner let me take a bike home, saying I could try it out for as long as I like. He didn't care to take a deposit or photo copy my license/passport or anything, all he has is my phone number! 

This is awesome.

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

      John and I rented a car on Saturday and explored the Blue Mountains. This was my first time driving in Australia, which was surprisingly easy. Although right hand turns were a bit tricky. I turned out to be on the cautious side, probably waiting a bit too long to make the turns. Neither of us hit anything all day, though, so we did good.

      We began the day by driving from Windsor through Richmond, so that I could see where John worked, and then up to the Blues.

Here is a map of our trip from Windsor up to Katoomba.

     Getting to Katoomba was insanely easy, follow one strip of road and you're there. We stopped once on the side of the road to admire the view.

     Once we got to Katoomba, we walked around, window shopped, and got a snack. I am pleased to say that I tried my first Flat White at a cafe. This tasted surprisingly like a latte and looked like one too. This is curious because lattes were also on the menu. Next time, I will get a latte and make John get a flat white so we can figure out the differences. We also went to an outdoors shop and discussed good climbing destinations with the owner... John really wants to go climbing!! So much so that all day he kept saying I could climb this and that and so on... Even when we were underneath a waterfall. Granted it was a weak one, but the rock was still wet and full of moss. None the less, I got the message. We may have to go climbing next weekend.
  
     After getting a feel for the town and having a snack, John and I went on a hike called the Devil's Hole Track. It was roughly a 1.5km round trip hike down a valley. It was incredibly beautiful. The hike began on the side of a road, walking slightly downhill into the forest. There had been a recent forest fire and so everything looked dry and somewhat singed.

     As we descended into the Valley, the climate totally changed. We went from an arid sun dried landscape to a wet almost rain forest gully.

    

 Note the rock formation that I am standing under. John was salivating the whole time!

      As we got closer the the opening of the valley into the forest the climate changed again. Now it seemed like we were in a forest and desert at the same time. Here is a view of the side of the cliff and and dry weather adapted tree. I have no idea what it is, but the colors are fabulous.

      Walking along the cliff, we occasionally went under roofs of rock that looked like this:

      We couldn't figure out what type of erosion was going on here. They obviously weren't water pockets because this is on the underside of a roof. I will have to look into that.

     After the hike, John and I decided to drive to see the Three Sisters. A very touristy and famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains.

     These peaks were once a popular climbing destination, until it was banned in 2000. Initially, a 5 year ban was placed on climbing the Three Sisters for environmental reasons. Climbers were contributing to erosion by causing damage to plan life that could hold together loose rock. Then in 2005 it was determined that the Three Sisters held cultural significance to Aborigines and climbers disrupted that. (See reference)  Needless to say, John was not able to do any rock climbing here. Maybe one day.

    That was our Saturday. After a long day of walking and driving, we came home, did a little grocery shopping, and passed out.

Cheers,
Carrie

Carrie is in Australia.

    Woo! I am in Australia. I don't have much so say yet because I have only been here for about 27 hours. My flights from Chicago to L.A. and L.A. to Sydney were actually pretty pleasant. John even took the day off work and was right outside of Customs to meet me. It was so nice to see him right away, and not just because I needed help with my luggage! Instead of John renting a car to get me, he took the train. This meant that we had time to relax together on the hour train ride to our new home, which was so much nicer than jumping right into Australian driving.

    Besides that, we got lunch and a few groceries and then passed out around 7pm. Here are the few photos I have taken so far...

This is Trevor.  He is a yellow lab living with us. He belongs to Michael who owns the house we are sub-letting. He knows so many tricks, especially being a ham!

Here is my first orange that I picked from our orange tree in the back yard!!!

 And this is my desk set up in our room. The fresh air is so wonderful. Although, I don't know how much work I will get done when I can see the beautiful weather right in front of me.

 

That is all I have for now. John and I are planning to go on a ferry ride and to the beach this weekend. More photos and stories soon...

How to rent an apartment in Sydney

Sydney's rental market is much different than anything I've experienced in the US. The short story is that Carrie and I decided to bypass this crazy system for the time being, and we've rented some rooms in a share house for a few months. This will give us a place to stay when Carrie arrives in a few weeks, after which we can look for a more permanent place together. I'll post later this week with pictures of the house and a description of the area where we've decided to live, at least for the short term.

I pieced together how the Sydney rental market works from talking with many recent immigrants from the US and Europe. So if you found this page because you're moving to Sydney, this will give you a short introduction to finding your own place. If you're just reading this for fun from the US, maybe it will be interesting to hear about a system that is so different.


How to rent an apartment in Sydney

(1) Take a deep breath, and prepare yourself for battle. This is a competition. There is incredible demand for rentals in the Sydney area, and this has a large effect on the market.

(2) Compile a list of potential flats in your price range- useful websites are realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, and gumtree.com.au. Prices are listed per week. Take another deep breath, and let the sticker-shock pass. Carrie and I were looking in Richmond, which is very far from downtown Sydney, and crummy-looking 2 bedroom apartments were generally $400pw. That's quite a bit of money for not much apartment, but that same average 2 bedroom could be $1200pw in a popular Syndey neighborhood.

(3) Call the realtors and find out when the open house is scheduled. The flat will only be open for 15 minutes on a single weekday afternoon, and the realtor will not be willing to show you the place at any other time. You must go to this open house, or you just won't get the place. I heard a story from another recent US immigrant- he arrived 5 minutes late to an open house, but the realtor wouldn't let him see the apartment. She said "I already have 25 applications- I don't need 26."

(4) Prepare a rental application tailored to the apartment before the open house. The rental applications are quite involved and you won't have time to do it all after the open house, as you need to submit the application within just a few hours. You will need letters of recommendation from previous landlords, a copy of your employment contract, copies of a few pay stubs, evidence of your visa status, and possibly a bank account statement showing your balance. Privacy, apparently, is not valued.

(5) Go to the open house, and don't be surprised when 30 other couples or families also show up. You've only got a few minutes to decide if you want the place, so go nuts. Try all the light switches, check the water pressure, and pound on the walls in search of insulation (generally, there is none). It's very strange to look at an apartment like this while a bunch of strangers are mentally arranging furniture in the living room, but get used to it.

(6) Think about sweetening the deal, based on the competition and how much you want the place.
 Apparently it's common to offer 10% more than the asking rent, and to offer a substantial amount in advance (e.g., six months up front). This will help your application float to the top of the stack. Put this offer into the cover letter of your application, and turn in your application within a few hours of the open house. I talked to a woman who had filed 27 applications and had never been selected by the relator, possibly because she is poor, disabled, and on government assistance, and thus couldn't compete against other applicants that offered more money. The system is tough and arguably discriminatory, but there's not much you can do about it.

(7) Sit by the phone. The realtor will probably offer the place to three different applicants, and the first applicant to pay a deposit (normally 2 weeks rent) gets the place. You must act fast.



This system, from my perspective, is absolutely mad. But don't lose hope, most everyone eventually finds a place. At the very least, understanding this system may make you feel better about your experiences in other, more reasonable regions of the world.

Carrie and I decided to sublet a room in a house for the time being, mostly so that we can navigate the Sydney rental system together. In the next post, I'll upload some pictures of the house and the area where we've decided to live for the next few months.