Joy Ingram

What a week this has been! I started the week with jet lag and ended it with “jet flu”, or whatever this head-chest-ear-throat-sinuses thing is! I think all those hours on the plane breathing that re-circulated air finally caught up with me. My project is in planning and strategizing phase for the most part, working with my AWA sponsor to flesh out the details. In the meantime, I’ll provide you with some small vignettes of my first week Down Under….

View of Sydney Bay from Manly

View of Tasman Sea and Manly Beach from Manly

The Manly Lodge.

Manly is a beautiful area north of the main city of Sidney.  It is a little peninsula with the Tasman Sea on one side and Sidney Bay on the other.  I don’t have a “permanent” place to stay yet, so am staying for a week at a little, fairly-inexpensive-for-where-it-is-hotel in the middle of a very touristy area (walk a few blocks in one direction and you run into the Bay, walk a few blocks in the other direction and you run into the Sea).  But lest you conclude that I am living in the lap of luxury, I should tell you that my room (including the “kitchen” area and bathroom) are about the size of a good-sized bathroom off of a modern master bedroom.  When I set up the ironing board, I can’t really get to the refrigerator (although it does work out as extra counter space).  They had some even smaller rooms…..

The Grocery Store.

I knew everything was going to be expensive, but I was surprised that some things seemed not terribly higher, and some were double, triple, or MORE in comparison to what we pay in the Tampa Bay area!  To save some money on restaurant costs, I decided that I would buy a few things to eat in my room, which has a microwave, a 2 burner hot plate, and a small refrigerator.  Buying eggs was very interesting because of both the cost and the labeling.  In Florida, if you want to save money on eggs, don’t care about whether your eggs contain chemicals, or whether they came from chickens treated humanely or not, you just buy “eggs”.  No such thing here.  If you want that, you must buy “caged eggs” (about $3.50 AUD per dozen) and be faced with your own indifference right on the label.  You can also buy “cage free” eggs, which are at least $1.50 AUD more.  “Free range eggs” and “organic eggs” are between $6.00 and $7.00 AUD per dozen.  I will have to compare these prices as I go to other areas, as I don’t yet have a feel for how the grocery prices may vary from store to store.  And in case you were wondering, I went for the “cage free” eggs.

For all of you Coca-Cola fans (probably not many, with all of the things we’ve read about Coca-Cola), this is a very expensive place to have a “Coke” habit!  The grocery store was having a “sale” on two 24-packs of cans – only $34.99!  To buy an individual plastic bottle that looks to be the equivalent of about 16-20 ounces, it costs about $3.50.

The AWA Office – Getting There and Being There.

I went to “work” at the office the day after arriving – jet lag and all.  The bus ride is about 45 minutes, plus a short walk to and from the bus stop on both ends.  Public transportation is almost ubiquitous here – a word I’ve never thought about applying to transportation before.  Between buses, trains, and ferries, you can get just about anywhere, and you can buy an unlimited monthly pass that ends up being quite reasonable – especially if you don’t know where you’re going and get on the wrong bus or train (I haven’t done that YET, but probably will before this is over).

The Australian Water Association has multiple offices in Australia, but all are relatively small.  There are about 25 people working in this one, and except for a couple of people in offices, everyone works in clustered workstations that have very low walls – not much privacy, but probably good for collaboration.  They all seem very nice, but quiet and focused on their work, and I have a desk in the middle of all this.  For many years in the work force (up until I left in January, 2011), I had my own office, so am trying to get used to overhearing EVERYTHING, and trying to learn to focus with lots of activity (albeit quiet) all around me.  For most of the week, I was just trying to get over the time difference, so we’ll see how next week goes.

The Bank & the Panhandler, or “Why I Will Never Use Travelers Checks Again”.

I decided to use travellers’ checks after discussing my options at my credit union at home.  If I had it to do over, I would  try to get a pre-paid card with Australian dollars, doing all the currency conversion before even leaving the States.  Not only did I pay 1% to convert the cash to American travelers’ checks in the U.S., but I have to pay fees every time I cash them, and only some banks will cash them since I do not have a local account.  What they do here in Australia for their citizens traveling to the U.S. is what I described with the pre-paid card:  they convert the Australian currency to U.S. currency, load the card and send them on their way with, in effect, an American pre-paid card.

If you’re wondering about the “panhandler” part, here it is:  As I left the bank after cashing checks for the first time, I was depressed about all the fees and costs I was incurring, as well as the unfavorable exchange rate.  I was barely half a block from the bank when a man approached me and asked me if I could spare some money.  In a rare moment for me, I muttered that no, I could NOT spare some money as I had just been panhandled by the bank down the street, and kept walking!  The effect of a weak U.S. dollar on a U.S. traveler in Sydney should never be underestimated.

The Coffee Shop.

Oh, my!  Where to start!  If I were a texter, I would break into an electronic chorus of OMG!  I was misguided on my flight by well-intentioned but totally inaccurate flight attendants when I asked about “coffee vs. tea” in Australia.  They told me that Australians drink tea like the British…they said Sydney is a Tea Town…they were WRONG!  Well, there is a lot of tea here, but let’s talk about coffee.  Sydney-siders as well as people in surrounding areas like Manly are coffee FANATICS!  Think American obsession with Starbuck’s before the economy went down the drain, double or triple that, and you begin to approach the fervor with which urban Australians visit coffee shops.  Did I say transportation was ubiquitous – I probably should have saved that word for coffee shops!  Starbuck’s did not catch on very well here, although I’m told there are still a few, but every corner has a coffee shop.  And here is the part that is KILLING me:  there is NO SUCH THING as brewed coffee!  Here are the ways you can order “coffee” at these shops:

1. Short Black – this is essentially a shot of espresso.
2. Long Black (can also order it with “milk on the side”) – this is about 1/3 espresso and 2/3 hot water.  I guess this is the closest thing to a standard cup of coffee.
3. Flat White – this is espresso with steamed milk.  BUT, you can also order lattes or cappuccinos, and I have NO IDEA yet exactly where the Flat White falls between those two, except that it seems more like a latte to me than a cappuccino (less foamy).

So, what if you just want a cup of brewed coffee?  You won’t find it.  In the office where I’ll be doing my project, as well as at the Manly Lodge, there is instant coffee, and at the grocery store, you pretty much have a choice of instant or espresso.  Many people in the AWA office buy a coffee twice a day from the coffee shop across the street.  At $3.50 a cup, that adds up quickly!  I am going through the normal stages of grief due to my loss of brewed coffee availability…denial (“there HAS to be some somewhere – this just isn’t possible!)…anger (“what is WRONG with these people?”)…but day by day I’m learning to accept this as a necessary part of growth and moving on, and I hope to soon be able to report that I have come to fully accept my situation.

Famous Norfolk Pines are Making a Comeback in Manly

This Week’s Water Story.

Norfolk pines have been a traditional symbol of Manly for at least a hundred and fifty years, but I learned that these huge     trees are just now getting healthy and more plentiful again.  Apparently, sewage outfall in the 1960s caused airborne pollution that started killing the trees.  Eventually, the sewage was treated, but it took a replanting campaign in the 1990s to start really bringing these trees back.  So, lest I should ever think that water treatment is only about the water and what is in it, I only have to remember the Norfolk pines in Manly.  You may hear about these trees again as I learn more.

Small Public Seawater Pool

The Seawater Pools.

Around Sydney beaches, there are a number of public pools that are quite fascinating.  They date back to the early 1900s, are filled and refreshed by the Tasman Sea, and are very popular with the locals.  I was only able to get a picture of one of the small ones, because the others I saw at night and did not have my camera.

The one pictured is about the size of a hotel pool.  The largest one I saw is Olympic size and is used for training by the local swim clubs and swim teams.  I will be collecting pictures of as many of these as possible, so you’ll see and hear more about this later.

The Southern Cross.

I am hoping to soon move into a furnished studio apartment, and so I met up with my potential landlady, who took me with her on a weekly outing with a group of her friends that take night walks on the beaches around Manly.  In spite of light pollution, they pointed out a spectacular view of the Southern Cross from a dark cliff.  It was then that I realized just how far from home I really am.  What an amazing sight – one that I could never see at home, one that embodies the reason for our “global” internship travels.  Crosby, Stills, and Nash sang it better than I can say it in the song “Southern Cross”:  “When you see the Southern Cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way”…..

Wishing us ALL a daily understanding of “why we came this way”….

Joy