australifornia.

i feel like i am in some californian city that doesn't actually exist. sydney is not ridiculously large, easy to walk around, has generally moderate and agreeable temperatures, has blue skies, greenery, an effective waste management and recycling program, and reasonably fashionable and outdoor fitness enthusiastic citizens. i suppose it doesn't help that i've mainly been hanging out with my friends who are not native australians, but aside from some subtle (clean city streets, positive attitudes) and a few none-too-subtle differences (abundant vegemite and driving on the left-hand side of the road), i don't really feel like i'm in a different part of the world. granted, i've not really going much beyond sydney, and therefore have not really had a definitively australian experience, but that's what i've experienced so far.

so since i haven't said much about the australian bit of my journey i'll give you a brief background: i'm mainly in sydney to visit with my good actor/director friend shannon murphy. she went to UF with me (i was actually her RA during my sophmore year) and is from a bit of all over, but in brief, her dad is australian and mom is american and shan grew up in asia mainly, and is here for at least a year in sydney giving the acting industry here a go. she lives here with her boyfriend jarred, who is from kentucky and is also an actor. they also live with ashleigh, who is from queensland and is along with shannon is a fellow fragrance consultant in the city centre. they all live in a nice flat in darling point which is actually one of the nicest neighbourhoods in sydney, but they got a steal on their current apartment and have a lovely terrace view of double bay.


i was originally planning to do a bit more travelling around, outside of sydney. i was going to go down to victoria and visit in melbourne and there is a prominent wine valley down there as well that would have been fun to explore. and then there is of course the great barrier reef. however, i didn't adequately research any of these options before leaving the states and it also didn't really sink in how far everything was from everything else. australia is pretty equivalent to the size of the U.S. if not a bit bigger, so the distances between cities are pretty great. that and i didn't financially prepare for doing a great deal of travelling on my own and since i have a free place to stay on a comfortable couch with a lovely friend, i don't see much point in this time around going out and spending a bunch of money, especially when i don't really have a long amount of time to go do travelling that would really be worth my time and australia's beauty!

one of the things that's been pretty cool is that apparently this is a big food month in sydney, which a bunch of events sponsored by the sun-herald (local paper). the most fun thing that i've been to a couple of times already is a nightly asian-themed food fair in hyde park where a bunch of local restaurants have stalls set up and are selling a few dishes each at reasonable prices and you sit on the grass or some tables and eat with your friends and the area is all lit with red lanterns! most of the other activities going on are more pricey, hoity-toity affairs at fancy restaurants.



so in the mean time, i'm just taking it easy and doing a few things at a time. which is nice, because this is my vacation after all and i can do whatever i want. so being able to not have to pack lots of things into one day takes the pressure off of me and i'm able to enjoy sydney and the surrounds at a more relaxed pace. i've beenn making a lot of nice dinners for shan, jarred, and ashleigh so that helps keep me busy and having fun. so far i've gone to see the opera house and sydney harbour of course, the contemporary art museum, a play a n.i.d.a., walked around glebe, the featherdale wildlife park, visited bondi (but not yet the beach), taken a class at the sydney seafood school at the fish market, and some general walking around hyde park and the city centre. i am taking another course at the seafood school next week (crabs!) and am going up to the blue mountains for a day or two sometime soon. shannon and i also plan to do the early morning tour of the fish market a few days before i go and visit the hunter valley wine valley north of sydney, which is meant to be really lovely.

shannon's been really busy working on an application project for a prominent directing program at n.i.d.a (national institute for dramatic arts), which was another reason she is living here at the moment. it's a really competitive program as they only select 6 people per year, and shan is concerned because there are already several factors against her, but she's working hard (and dragging me to help when she can) and i think will have a strong project. luckily her interview is before i go which means that we'll have about 5 days to hang out with her relatively stress-free and less busy, and also celebrate her birthday which is the day before i leave!

anyway, it's about time to get dinner together with the girls...i'll write more about my interesting experience at the seafood school later!