Arrival in Sydney

hello everyone,
after 14 hrs of direct flight on monday, oct10th from SFO to Sydney plus some minor delays in SFO, i'm finally down under. flight was not bad...i was able to sleep off more than 50% of flying time....magically when i woke up, Tues, Oct 11th never existed to me. I arrived wednesday at about 6:30am and did not get out of the airport until abt 2hrs later...coz i had to go through customs, long lines, inspection lines (yup, i had food!!! but it was worth it coz they're good and made by tita imelda) and bleh, bleh, bleh. and it seems like my permanent visa worked...its not a hoax. so i get out of the exit and i see sooo many people that there was no way i could find my cousin, michelle. i went out, walked around, and finally decided to ask someone's cell phone and called her. i told him i didn't have any money (AUD) with me and immediately, he said sure! called my cousin and next thing i know, i see my cousin running towards me...wooohooo!!!!

oh yea...it was raining when i arrived...i guess it was spring showers!!!

so we took a taxi...a bigger taxi than the regular ones...coz, you know, i have two oversized bags (which its worth it to mention that i went over the weight limit by abt 4lbs but the agent let me through anyway eventhough he was ready to charge me...btw, the limit is now 50lbs if you bought your ticket after sept 6th...most airlines require this now). got home, waited for our new washing machine and dryer to arrive, then we were off to downtown...not sightseeing (geez, i have 3 yrs to do that), but went to CBD (central business district) to open a bank acct, went to the medicare office, tax office, looked at some cell phones, and tried to get to know the streets, area, shopping...especially knowing where to go next monday for my interview with a robert half recruiter (my former employers back in the bay area).

so we left CBD then went back home to Leichhardt (italian community similar to north beach in SF). i had to do some shopping (soap, shampoo, etc so i can take a shower that night) and some pillows (so i can sleep that night). we had dinner at, of course, in an italian restaurant with michelle, her bf (andrew), and another roommate (natasha). now i know 3 people on my 1st day here.

thurs, michelle had to go back to work so i'm all by myself. went to a nearby shopping area (leichhardt marketplace) to get my USD exchanged...unfortunately, they can't exchange all the money i brought and i didn't want to get charged a fee everythime i go back. so i left the bank and went to woolworth (yes, they have that here...i think they closed all the stores in the western US...california, at least). i had to exchange some yogurt that my cousin bought abt 5 days ago. i'm glad they took it back and let me exchange it for another. but the item i exchanged it for was a little more expensive than the one i gave back. at this point, i still didn't have any AUD so what to do? well, i just told them i just arrived yesterday and i didn't have any cash on me. the lady behind the counter said, oh, that's ok. don't worry abt it. and the lady next to me offered to pay for it, too. Very nice people around here. then i went back to CBD (20 min bus ride from our place) and went to the bank where i had opened my account (supposedly, they had more money limits in the suburbs than in the city and the lady told me the suburb bank workers didn't like the city bank workers either). after that, i got my cell phone (vodafone). my cell# is 0404789143. i guess you have to dial the international code first (which i don't know) before dialing this. i don't get charged for any incoming calls.

then i went back to the marketplace in the afternoon, bought more stuff (ie. hangers for my clothes, lamp, drawers/boxes, etc) and started unpacking. almost done unpacking.

i'm cooking friday night (see, i know how to cook) for 4. we'll see how it goes! test run for another dinner i'm having with cousin michelle and tita/aunt terry on tuesday next week.

ok. gotta go. will catch up with you later again.

luv,
celestine