I can see into your future!

Gotta love jet lag - I keep waking up around 3 or 4 am. But then at least I have more time to look for houses online :) I came up with a way to figure out the time difference - just take the current time, add 5 hours, and change the am/pm - so if it's 2 pm in CA, it's 7 am here (the next day - yes, I can see into your future!) And in case you were wondering, 7 am is still dark outside because we are just a few days away from the shortest day of the year.

So here's my day 2 recap. Karen (my new adopted mom) went to downtown Melbourne with me yesterday to get my bank account set up. It's nice to finally have access to my money over here - my paycheck for May was paid in AUD so it was good to be able to spend it. I found it interesting that the interest savings rate is so high here - 5.9%, compared to the .5% I'm used to back home.

Then we explored the outdoor market - it is going to be very easy finding Christmas presents for everyone this year. I also foresee a giant inflatable yellow kangaroo in my future. We drove around some neighborhoods to get an idea of where I might want to look for houses. We're going to attend a few "inspections" on Saturday. That's their version of an open house, except it only lasts 10-20 minutes.

On the way back we stopped at a grocery store. I bought a bottle of wine, and when the cashier rang me up she asked if I did cash out. I gave her a funny look so she repeated it, then I told her I had no idea what that meant. She laughed and explained that it meant did I want to take any additional money out (like with a debit card). They also ask if you pin or sign - meaning sign the receipt or enter the pin number. Then Karen told me she wanted some mints. Except we walked over to the butcher, and I realized she wanted some mince - which is what they call ground beef. After she paid, her and the cashier both said some short word I couldn't quite catch - turns out they said ta, which is short for thank you. Everything has an abbreviation here, even if it sometimes makes the words longer.

Well, ta ta for now, I better try to get some more sleep while it's still dark.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Baw Baw Blog

One Sleep Until Citizenship!

Missy and Emily's Tassie Trip - Freycinet National Park