Paddy's Market and Chinatown

Monday was a holiday here: Labour Day. So we had a nice three day weekend! Western Australia actually celebrates the Queen's Birthday this weekend as well, but the rest of Australia celebrates it on the second Monday in June. Can you tell I've been working on learning the holidays!?

So since it was a holiday, we decided to check out Paddy's Market and Chinatown. I had read about both of these places in my guidebooks, and our friend Scott told us on Saturday that Paddy's was a great place to buy cheap Australian souvenirs. So of course we had to see what this place was all about!

Paddy's is in a big old warehouse-type building. The top part of the building is full of outlet stores, cheap clothing stores, and food courts. The lower half is... oh boy! It reminded me of being at a Tennessee flea market with 100% more Asian people.

Just like a flea market, there are tons of stalls packed with junk. There are tons of jewelry stores, places selling knockoff shoes and purses, booths full of boomerangs and Australia t-shirts, racks of bootlegged or ancient DVDs, and more Angry Birds paraphernalia than I thought could exist. Pretty much anything and everything you can think of!

Oh yeah, there was also this guy, who may or may not have wandered straight in from the bush to buy a tie (but didn't wear a shirt)!

At the far end of the building is a food market, where there was more variety of produce than we've seen anywhere in Sydney. And for way cheaper too! It was awesome!

There was also a "mushroom man" selling all kinds of mushrooms. We ended up with this bunch of mushrooms for $5, which is crazy cheap! The one wrapped in a towel is a variety I've never heard called a "Bailing mushroom." We're going to give it a try and see what we think. He said they are supposed to taste very meaty, so we're excited to try!

When we had had our fill of Paddy's, we headed back home by way of Chinatown.

Chinatown was quite a bit different from San Francisco Chinatown. There weren't nearly as many vendors but tons more eateries. All the signs were in Chinese - there was no effort to cater toward English-speaking visitors. All in all, it actually seemed like a town you would find in China.

And oh yes, in case you were wondering, the dinner with our mushroom variety pack turned out amazing!!

Kirribilli walk

On Sunday I was down and out with a cold. So there was a lot of sniffling and napping. But after nap number 2, we went out for a short walk. There is a pathway that winds under the Harbor Bridge and along the Kirribili shoreline. It was a beautiful day so there were lots of boats out.





After we got to the end of the sidewalk, we wound our way back home through the streets of Kirribilli. Here's the view of the bridge from the 'burb.



And that was pretty much the most exciting part of our Sunday! Even though I didn't feel great, it was lovely to be out enjoying the beautiful day.

Happy birthday, Michelle!

Today is my Knoxville bestie Michelle's birthday. Michelle and I are two peas in a pod but different in enough ways to make an awesome team. She's the person I call when I need something or just when I had to talk. I miss her so much, and I am so so sad that I'm not there to ring in her birthday with her. My goal is to persuade her to come here, so maybe next year we'll have a birthday celebration together! ;-)

Happy birthday, Michelle!!!

The aquarium

On Saturday, T and I met up with a man I knew from Exstream. He and his family have been living in Sydney for the past year, so they took us out for dinner and to the aquarium to welcome us to the city.

We met up at Darling Harbor and found a nice Thai place for dinner.




Saturday was a big day for Sydney-ians because the local rugby team was in the finals. So the city put up big screens by the harbor so everyone could come watch. The picture is a little blurry, but those are big screens set up in front of the harbor. The grounds were PACKED with people watching and cheering LOUDLY! There might have also been some drinking going on. All in all, it reminded me of a UT gameday. =)



After a great dinner, we headed over to the aquarium. It's a fairly small aquarium, probably because it's packed into some of the scarce space along the harbor. In fact, part of the aquarium is actually over the water, even though you can't really tell when you're inside.

We had a great time going through the aquarium! There were lots of local sea critters to see.



There was also a glass plate in the floor where you could stand over the shark tank. It kind of got my stomach a little.

Here's T in an old scuba suit!



Here's me and what size shark I'd be.




We also got to walk through a shark tunnel. Where we saw this guy!



Lastly, Croc Toby tried on this hat in the gift shop.



It was a great night and a great time. Thanks, Scott & Cathy for making us feel so welcome!

Springtime

It's just turning spring here, and the weather reminds me a lot of home. A good example: on Friday it was 94 degrees. On Saturday the high is going to be 68. Crazy!!

On the plus-side, spring has also brought a lot of beautiful blooms. The foliage here is quite similar to home but a touch more tropical.

 

 

 

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My commute

I know I've mentioned this before, but this week I rode the ferry to and from work. The Atlassian offices are right by Darling Harbor, which has two ferry stops. Since the novelty of this commute hasn't worn off, I thought I'd document how my mornings go as I make my way to work.

First, I head down to the wharf at Milsons Point. The street we live on mainly has apartment buildings, cafes, and little shops, so it's fairly quiet in the mornings.

 

Alfred Street

 

The wharf is located next to a carnival/amusement park called Luna Park. It doesn't open until sometime during the day, so sometimes Toby runs there in the mornings. He has a running app that adds sound effects to your music like zombies are chasing you, and he says its especially spooky when the park is deserted.

Luna Park

 

Milsons Point Wharf

 

Next I get on the ferry and take a 10-ish minute ride over to Kings Street Wharf in Darling Harbor.

 

 

This wharf lets out onto the promenade on Darling Harbor. The promenade goes around the harbor and has fun stuff like the aquarium and maritime museum. It also has tons of restaurants and bars, so it's always lively when I head home from work. In the mornings, though, it's nice and peaceful.

The promenade at Darling Harbor

Lastly, I have a short walk on Sussex St to get to my office.

Bridge over to Sussex Street

 

Sussex Street - the most mundane part of my walk

 

And that's my commute! One day I walked back to the harbor to eat my lunch and it was a really nice break.

 

 

I'll be sad when we move to the offices next week. I'll ride the train then, and it is not nearly so charming as the ferry!

 

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Quick update!

I wrote this post during the week but am just now able to be on wi-fi where I can upload it. But I'm here & alive!

We've been staying in our new apartment, and we don't have Internet hooked up there. So it's been hard for me to get my updates together. The ferry I take to work has wi-fi, so I'm tapping away madly on my iPad to get this post up before we arrive at my wharf!

Work

Work's been going well. There is a huge amount to learn so each day is kind of a blur and my brain is foggy by the end. But everyone is really friendly and nice, so it's been good.

 

Dragonboat racing

Obviously I survived my outing in the harbor. I didn't take any pictures because we didn't take any valuables out in the boat with us. It was an interesting sport: about 16 people fit in a boat, 2 people in a row. Then you use an oar and paddle the boat like a canoe. As you can probably imagine, it takes some coordination! And first timers (like me) were not very good. But it was a fun team exercise. Afterward we went to a pub for some free beers - that was actually the best part because I got to know a lot of the people, so I feel like I'm not a total stranger now.

 

The only downside of the event was having to travel home in soaking wet clothes. It was FREEZING and I ended up with a little sniffle from it. =(

 

The apartment

We're moved in and staying at the apartment. It's great to have a home base! Toby works super hard every day on getting things set up for us there, so it's been really great all around.

 

More updates and pics to come next time I find wi-fi!

 

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First day of work

Well, today was my first day of work! First priority was picking out a first-day outfit and texting a pic to Holly for her approval. Priorities!!!

Before I could leave the apartment for the day, my HR lady texted me and asked if I could come in at 10:30 since she was tied up all morning before that. Ummm....OK! =)

I also got some sweet texts wishing me a good first day. And that started my day off right!

Taking the ferry to work

From where we're staying and where the Atlassian offices are located, it's fastest for me to take the ferry to work. How cute is that?!

T walked to me to the ferry for my first day. Here I am, ready for my commute!

Bonus points if you can find me in this picture!

 

First day craziness

The Atlassian headquarters are located by Darling Harbor, but next week they're moving further into the CBD where they have more room to expand.

Current Atlassian headquarters

Getting started at Atlassian is pretty intense. All new R&D workers go through a 6-week bootcamp, which is designed to get you up to speed on their various products, as well as having you create something that you then present to the company as a whole. I'm not sure how my bootcamp will compare with the typical one, but it will be a vertical learning curve nonetheless.

My new teammates took me to lunch and they all seem very nice. It's a pretty small writing team (I think about 7 people total). Everyone was very kind and welcoming, but it still made me miss all my Exstream friends. A lot!

The Atlassian offices are quite open and designed for fun. There also seems to be a pretty constant stream of free food and drinks. Everyone seems to work really hard, and all the developers I met truly do seem to be at the top of their game. It will definitely be a challenging environment, but I hope that in a few months I'll be somewhat settled in.

Fun things like this welcome box will help get me through all the stress!

Oh, and I've also been signed up for dragon boat racing on Thursday. I had to look it up and it seems like some kind of rowing thing. I guess that's as good a way to meet my co-workers as any! It was a little unsettling to have to sign a waiver saying I could swim 50 meters fully clothed when I first got to my desk!

Anyway, that's the short version of my first day at work. I'll keep you updated on how that goes, assuming that I survive Thursday, of course!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Toby spent the day getting things set up for the new apartment, changing addresses, and making calls. He has taken care of all of that stuff and it is completely awesome to not have that to worry about it while I'm at work!

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The bare bones apartment

On my last day of being a lady of leisure, we were super busy! We went back to Ikea to order the couch that was out of stock when we there on Saturday, we mapped out my route to work, we went by the property management office to get our apartment keys, and we found our Australian Target. All of this was a little of an adventure and it took all day. We are wiped out!

A couple observations from the day:

• So far, Ikea is the only thing in Australia that is exactly like it is in the states. And I mean it is exactly the same! It's kind of funny that if we want to feel like we're home, the closest thing might be an Ikea!
• The Australia version of Target is definitely not the same as in the U.S. My cousin warned me about this, but it was still a blow to see it in person. ;-) I would say the Target reminded me more of a cluttered K-Mart or Meijer, but with a lot less selection. They still had some cute clothes but everything else was a little sadder.
• The shopping mall at Bondi Junction (of which Target is part of) is amazing/horrifying, depending on whether you hear about it from T or me. After being in all these little shops, it was somewhat comforting to see that we could find the American shopping experience somewhere. But it was also a little overwhelming since it is A LOT of stores in one area. I'm sure I'll brave it again someday and then I'll do a detailed post on it. =)

And.... the apartment

So here's a few quick pics I grabbed from the apartment. It's all empty now, but someday when our crate arrives, it will look more like a home.

The apartment came with a TV, which is Toby's favorite feature! Here he is checking it out.

Toby in his area

And in case anyone was laboring under the illusion that this is a spacious one bedroom, I'm standing in the bedroom area as I took this picture. =) Good thing we like each other!

Here's the view of the bed area and the balcony. The balcony overlooks a road, a quiet park, and the train bridge. I think it's a nice mix of nature and urbanscape. T has other thoughts...

Bedroom & balcony

And the kitchen:

We're quite lucky to have an almost full-size fridge. Some of the apartments we saw had only half/dorm-size fridges!

And the bathroom... This is another interesting thing we've noticed - most of the showers have half doors like this one and the other half is all open. It sure seems like water will get everywhere, but maybe not?

The only other interesting thing is the laundry area. Like the apartment we're in now, the dryer is hung on the wall upside down. I'm starting to think this might be a standard thing?

As long as it works!

So that's the place! I'm not sure when we'll officially move in, since our Internet won't get hooked up for 2-4 weeks. (Which seems like a crazy long time to wait!) But I'll post some updates as we get settled in and it becomes our home base.

Thank you to everyone who's been asking about our apartment search and sending good thoughts our way!

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Weekend fun

Since we accomplished our big goal of finding a place to live on Friday, we decided to have some fun this weekend.

Well, first we took a trip to Ikea on Saturday to order some things we need for the apartment. Whether that can be called fun is maybe questionable! =)

But on Sunday we had for real fun. We started the day by taking the ferry over to Circular Quay and walking around the Opera House. It was a beautiful day and perfect for doing touristy things!

Waiting to ride the ferry

On the ferry ride over, a fast ferry came into Circular Quay right as we were docking. That boat had a ferry-dog!

Then we joined the masses in walking around the Opera House.

It was really beautiful, and the sun was so bright it made it even more awesome!

After we walked around the Opera House, we meandered through the Royal Botanical Gardens, which is located along the bay and backs up to the business district. It's a huge park and it was full of people out enjoying the day. We saw cool trees, neat birds, and some beautiful scenery.

Some sights from the Royal Botanical Gardens

After some lunch and Skyping with family, we decided to keep on enjoying the weather and headed out to Clark Park, which is a small, secluded little area halfway between our current apartment and new one. We took some books and found a quiet spot for reading.

Since it's turning spring here, there were lots of beautiful plants in bloom.

And that was pretty much the weekend! We got to talk and text with a lot of family and friends, enjoy some awesome wether, and see some beautiful sights. Couldn't ask for a better weekend!

 

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