Working

Today I went to work; I am staying at a new hostel out at the beach. The walk from the hostel is absolutely beautiful! The roof top deck has an awesome view of the Tasman Sea/ Pacific Ocean. The work was pretty cool, but my shoulders are sore from carrying around a big ice chest around my neck.

Things in Oz are somewhat different than back home. One big difference is they drive on the left side of the road. My mind can't seem to remember which way to look when crossing the street. They also walk on the left side of the sidewalk. This seems simple enough, but it gets confusing when you try to head up the escalators... Speaking of walking, I have done a ton of it (or the Aussies would say heaps of walking). I probably average walking around 5-6 hours/day. It is not uncommon to walk 30min to an hour at one time, sometimes longer. I am starting to get tired of walking and my feet are too. I am beginning to use the trains and busses more.

One cool thing here is that they do not have one cent money. The smallest is 5 cents. If something is priced with pennies, they'll just round to the nearest five cents. And whatever the listed price is, that's what you pay. No tax is added in at the register. You have to carry a lot of coins though because the one and two dollars are in coins only, no bills(notes).

Fish and chips is a very popular meal here. I have eaten it several times, but it tastes pretty plain as does most of the food. You definitely need BBQ sauce or tomato sauce (aka ketchup).