I just got back from The Scary Canary. Apparently some type of British-inspired restaurant/bar...? I ordered the chicken schnitzel (I realize that's German, but the menu also had Bangers & Mash on it). Today I kept my promise to my fiancee Michelle and had 3 meals (cereal for breakfast, Chinese food for lunch with co-workers, and chicken at The Scary Canary). Now I just gotta find a gym so I can keep working out until the big day.
I suppose I should document my first impression of Sydney. It's a nice, clean city. I debated to include a comparison between Sydney and San Francisco, a city where apparently every pet and pet owner defecates on the sidewalk, but I decided just to say I internally debated this. Also, I was going to say I noticed no homeless people, but then I saw 2 later today, so I can't entirely say that. The people are also friendly. Not too friendly like in a small, Midwestern town where everyone waves at everyone, but still friendly (especially considering that everyone's a decedent from criminals. Haha, I kid, I kid).
Now I'll rewind to when I last left off from the coffee shop on Sunday. After my $4 cup of coffee, I went to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art.
It was awesome that it was free. I don't want to knock it because I really enjoyed it, but I probably would have been annoyed if I had to pay $10+ to get in. One installation I found interesting was from a female artist named Wangechi Mutu who had something that reminded me of The Dinner Table that Michelle and I studied in our art history class back at good ol' SCU. The museum had many modern Australian artworks. One take away: there are some tensions between the Aborigines and the rest of Australia. I guess all countries have some type of internal tension/dynamic. One of my favorite pieces was the following (also conveniently happens to be about the only one I took a picture that I could share...)
Once I left the museum, I couldn't help but notice the quintessential Sydney sight, the opera house. I didn't go see it, but from afar it's pretty impressive looking. However, I was reading that unlike, say, Gaudi whose designs were impressive and functional, this design had many construction issues.
I then walked around The Rock and Circle Quay (pronounced "key") area. There I enjoyed a nice half-glass of wine.
I deemed it to be a spicy wine with a hint of tart/cherry and a olive brine-type taste. I really enjoyed it. I wrote down what the smell was like, but long-story short I lost those notes, so you'll have to go without this armature wine enthusiast's BS description. I'm looking forward to planning a trip to wine country around Sydney.
That all pretty much wrapped up my Sunday. I went back to my apartment and successfully made myself stay awake until about 9 or 10pm (to get over the jet lag).
The next day I woke up for my first day of work. It also marked the first time I had to wear a suit all day at work. Yep, I'll be wearing suits everyday here.
Today was mostly just getting introduced to the office (a place I don't expect to spend too much time as I'll be out at clients), filling out forms and doing some trainings. Tomorrow I have another morning training, then its out to a client.
Today I also ran some errands, including setting up an Australian bank account (had to do this because I need an Australian bank account to have expenses reimbursed), picked out a phone plan, and went to the supermarket called Coles. I was kind of wanting to go home, so I just picked up some necessities (paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, milk, and cereal), but I noticed that daaaaang, things do seem expensive here. A fifth of Gordon's Gin was something like $40+. I'm pretty sure that's under $20 in the US (someone correct me if I'm wrong). And again, didn't spend too much time to verify, but was that $5lb hamburgers? I'll give a better report the next time I buy groceries.
OK, I think that wraps things up. Wish me luck on my first day at a client. And I suppose I'll wish my readers a happy Monday.
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