The Brown Lake

---

2/26/10
I just finished my first week of work at Tiffany & Co. in Sydney. I thought I’d be doing the same thing as in the states but turns out there’s not much to do. The US call center is the only place that can Australia orders over the phone, we don’t have access to any records for returns, repairs, orders, etc and none of the stores ever answer their phones. So basically all I do, along with one other girl, is tell customers if a store has something in stock, transfer calls to what is usually an answering machine at a store or when the customer gets really pissed keep calling different extensions till someone finally picks up. Oh and none of the stores have direct lines, they all go to us…imagine trying to explain that to a customer, or for that matter that the American answering the phone isn’t actually in America they called the right country. Anyway, it’s easy I get paid more than in America and I work with a girl about my age I really get along with. I also get to have breakfast in front of the Opera House every morning so I’m ok with that

So back to where I left off in the last blog, the day before I got a flight from Brisbane to Sydney I spent the day away from Charlotte and Ryan and headed to North Stradbroke Island, though I did get off to a late start so there wasn’t much time in the sun on the beach. I got the train to a ferry that took me on a lovely ride to the island. Once on the island I felt the freedom of being able to not know where I was going and not have anyone else to worry about getting lost…then after walking around I realized the only way to get anywhere worth being was to get on the bus that I ignored upon getting of the ferry…so I came across an empty taxi with a number on it and ended up spending too much to get to a brown lake…the brown lake part was on purpose though. That’s literally the name of it because the branches from the tea trees around it fall into the lake making it an amber color. It looks gross but it’s really good for your hair and skin so people just hang out in this dirty looking lake. There were also tadpoles swimming all around, which I enjoyed playing with because I’m weird like that. I stayed there for a bit, only venturing slightly thigh level and bending down in it because honestly it did weird me out a bit and you could see the bottom less than at black lake so I covered my skin and dunked my hair and thought that was a good enough experience for me. I then sat on the beach around it waiting for the cab to return for some other people swimming in the mucky water so I could bum a ride.

From there I took the bus where the cab dropped me off to Cylinder Beach where the tide had just gone out so there were tons of shells everywhere. The water was so clear and although the sun was going down and I wasn’t getting a tan it was still really beautiful. There were also hundreds of tiny balls of sand all over the beach. I’m not sure the reasoning behind them but it seems tiny crabs really enjoyed making them. I tried taking a movie but it will probably just look like a movie of sand balls.

I then headed towards anywhere where I could get cash to get the bus back to the ferry. I managed to find a little convenience store so I took the opportunity to get some cash out of the atm as well as a large bottle of ginger beer and what turned out to be disgusting chocolate covered pineapple cream ( thought it would be delicious chocolate covered pineapple chunks but I was very wrong). I finally got to the ferry to watch the sun set over the ocean and back to the shuttle bus that would take me to the train. Which by the way stopped at a certain point where they were doing work on the tracks so I had to then get on another bus back to the city. We were supposed to have a BBQ on the roof but by the time I got back Charlotte and Ryan were done and there was just one cold chicken spear left for me. So when Charlotte went to bed I went and got Hungry Jack’s which in Australia is Burger King.

The next morning I walked around Brisbane to get in as much as I could before I left, making sure to walk across the bridge past the giant ferris wheel and around the man made lagoons/beach put right in the middle of the city! After dripping sweat from another 90 something degree day I returned to gather my things and said goodbye to Charlotte and Ryan. I caught the train to the airport and boarded my flight. 1 hour 15 minutes later I was in Sydney. After collecting my luggage I called the hostel to ask where the shuttle bus was they said I could get but they said I had to talk to someone in the airport to arrange for it…well luckily for me the company they said pulled up right as I got off the phone to pick up some others. So I asked him to bring me to the hostel and he agreed packing the van as full as possible with people and luggage.

The first 3 nights in Sydney I stayed in Glebe which is a little outside the city. The area is cute enough but nothing amazing and when I walked up the stairs with my bags about 7 guys just watched me lug them up the stairs without even asking if I needed help. Now many times I say no and I can manage but still even if I was sitting there as a girl, if I saw someone with a giant bag I’d ask if they wanted help! I then had to wait about a half hour till reception arrived at the front desk which wasn’t too fun because I was “desperate for a wee,” as my English friends have taught me to say. I then carried my bag up more stairs and finally to the room. One of my roommates was this older woman Polly who must be around 50 who just decided to move to Australia by herself and open her own deli up the coast. She said her mom was one of the original English people in the 50s they paid $10 to go live in Australia for 2 years because they needed more citizens! Never knew that even happened, I want to get paid to live in Australia!

After working the week at Tiffany I switched to my favorite hostel in the rocks which is my favorite area of Sydney ever! Stayed there for 2 nights then stored my stuff Saturday since nothing was available in the city due to Mardi Gras and went back to hang out with some old friends from Collaroy I had met about a month ago. It was great to lay on the beach again and we had a great day drinking and hanging out on the beach…but I must’ve been sitting in a not so strategic position because my left shoulder only got super burnt, like the color of my new red transformer’s t-shirt. I decided to call it a day, got something to eat and then a little later caught a death ride to Hungry Jacks with some people. One boy was driving this other guys van which just had a mattress n the back about 3 inches from the ceiling. I had to lay in the back with my friend Sam who looked like he was going to pee himself as the boy driving mentioned he hadn’t driven in ages and then drove the car into the bushes because the reverse isn’t actually the reverse…well we got our fast food and got back alive and then a couple of us went back to the beach for a bit so I could cover my burnt shoulder and try to even things out.

That night we went to Dion’s new apartment that’s literally 9 stories up ON the beach. When you’re on the balcony it feels like you’re in the middle of the ocean. After Dion almost burnt down the new place trying to bbq sausages we just had a good time drinking and laughing the night away! I ended up getting stuck there for a while though since he English wanted to watch the stupid soccer game till about 2am and since there was no beds available that night at the hostel I was staying in my friends spare bed in the room him and his girlfriend sleep in. So I went to sleep on the couch till I was told it was time to go where I soon passed out very knackered!

The next morning I woke up to the beaches being closed due to a Tsunami warning…not something you want to hear when you’re staying about a 2 minute walk across the street from the ocean. Crazy people went surfing in the larger waves before they stopped everyone from doing so. I waited till later in the day when it had supposedly passed to go try to even out my shoulders some more. Then I got the bus back to my favorite hostel took a long nap, a warm shower and now I’ll probably go back to bed again which is fine with me because last night made me very tired today!!!

---