Hey, everyone! I can’t believe it’s October already. I’ve been in Australia for about a month and a half. It feels like longer than that. People back home are saying it has started to get colder already. I’m looking forward to escaping the chill this year – a warm Christmas sounds nice. Although, it gets very hot here from December through March. It basically will be the opposite of Chicago – people here mentally prepare for the extreme heat while in Chicago, people prepare for the freezing cold.

I’ve been working a lot this week, but as intended, I did get a chance to wander around some areas on my days off.

I’m staying in East Perth, which is just outside the city. Nearby, they have an area called Victoria Gardens which I thought sounded nice. I went to check it out, expecting there would be loads of flowers… but there were not haha. Instead, they had some cool stones with various names of Aboriginal groups etched into them.

I continued walking along and crossed the Matagarup Bridge. The evening I arrived in Perth, I saw this bridge and thought, “how cool looking – it looks like tentacles.” It was neat to finally walk along it. It was my first impression of Perth, and I hadn’t been to it yet.

People are able to buy tickets to zipline from the bridge to the other side of the river.

Pretty cool, right?

I also went back to Bold Park to do a hike there with one of my friends. I had visited Bold Park previously but only briefly, to watch the sun set. On the hike, I heard some kookaburra laughing, saw plenty of butterflies, and even some snails hanging out on plants.

Some of the plants were a very impressive, lime green.

Hi, snails!

I also met up with my friend Liam for dinner one night. We walked around for a while, and I finally saw a jellyfish in the Swan River! It was fitting to have seen it with him because he’s the one who told me there are loads of them in the river… but I hadn’t seen any, and would look for them every day as I walk to work. Sure enough, we saw one while we were walking around together. Apparently, they start popping up around spring time so I’m sure in the next couple months, there will be a lot more around. I took a video but it’s sort of crap. Once there are more jellyfish around, I’ll bring my nice camera and try to take a good picture to share with you all!

I also was lucky enough to see some dolphins while walking along the river recently. One morning on my walk to work, I saw a couple dolphins surfacing. One of the babies fully leapt out of the water and did a spin. The dolphins here are bottlenose dolphins, and I didn’t realize they spin! It reminded me of the spinner dolphins I’d seen in Hawaii. I’ve also seen dolphins occasionally while working. Even today, while we were cleaning up the boat after a cruise, I saw some dolphins swimming right by the boat.

Liam and I also went for waffles & ice cream at a place in South Perth. I hadn’t seen the view of the city’s skyline at night and it didn’t disappoint.

I know I’ve mentioned it so many times already, but I think this Tuesday I am FINALLY going to go snorkeling. The temperature should be warm enough for it, I think. Fingers crossed!

Reflections

And now for a string of random thoughts I’ve wanted to mention!

Bin = garbage
Arvo = afternoon
SBS = sauvignon blanc semillon
Ta = thanks
Can’t be f*cked = can’t be bothered

Australians like to shorten words… a lot. In addition to their accents, it sometimes makes it hard for me to understand what the hell they’re talking about. They also apparently like to shorten people’s names, too. One of my coworkers asked me what my “shortname” is… but isn’t Steven already a short enough name as is? Haha. I told him Steve-o or Stevie. But it seems like Windy is the nickname that has stuck. I prefer Mr. Wind.

I think one of my favorite Australian phrases is “reckon”. I may have mentioned it already, but it is a word that I never hear people use in America. Out here, it’s always “do you reckon?” or “I reckon ___,” etc. It’s used very frequently. People also will punctuate the end of a sentence with “hey?” similar to how one might say “yeah?”

Have I mentioned that it’s very hard to get a hostel out here right now? I imagine a big part of it is that the borders were closed for such a long time, and once they re-opened, there was a huge influx of travelers. I was only at my hostel for about a month, and they raised the prices twice while I was there! Apparently, it’s hard to buy homes as well and the prices are really high here at the moment. I’ve heard from my Australian friends that similar to America, the housing market is pretty insane.

I also have received my first paycheck from my job (yahoo!) so I am now using my Australian debit card for purchases which is a cool update. I haven’t had to buy much food or anything since I’ve been working, because there are usually lots of leftovers from the cruise buffets and such. It’s quite nice because the food is delicious. Especially the desserts!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this either – but when I do buy things at the store, some places will be like “oh, you’re using a visa card? There will be a 1% surcharge” — and they say it as if it’s the biggest inconvenience in the world. Coming from America, I’m so used to seeing a price tag and then being like “okay, that’ll be like an additional $10 after tax, etc.” A 1% surcharge is nothing to me. In Australia, the tax and everything is included, so the price you see is what you get. If it says $15, it’s $15. There’s not sales tax or factoring in a tip or anything like that.

And lastly, to share some art! I’m loving this abstract theme I’ve started exploring. It feels really new and refreshing for me. It’s quite different from the type of work I’ve made over the years.

That’s all for now. I’ll follow up more next week! Sending you all my love!