Breaking up with Melbourne

Tomorrow is our last day in Australia. I am very sad about it. A couple weeks ago I was getting excited about having our laundry done by mom and dad, free food, H&M, Shamrock burger and seeing everyone, but in the last couple days I've realized that all that stuff is going to be there forever and we only have one more day in Australia. We'll be back here for sure, but I still don't want to leave.

I was thinking about the posts about Australia in this blog and I think many of them reflect a negative vision of Australia, but truth be told, I love this place. Before I came I had this hugely romanticized image of what Australia was and when it wasn't that, I found flaws in everything. But living here has made me come around. I still don't

like the fact that Australia is about 10 years behind in terms of social attitudes, but I guess every country has it's faults.

Kurtis and I said that we are never going to move to another city because it is too painful when you leave. It is like breaking up with someone, but you are breaking up with that city. Melbourne is an amazing place to live and we had the best time this year.

Australian Word of the Day: "Sauce" - this means ketchup, but the horrifying thing about "sauce" here is that you have to pay for it when you are eating fast food! Paying for ketchup! Can you believe that? So dumb! Unfair! Unjust! Free ketchup with you fries is a basic human right! Hungry Jacks does give you free "sauce" so I always ask for extra and carry the packets in my purse so when I go to KFC I don't have to pay $0.30 for ketchup.

Saying good bye is the hardest part

Rachel:

I actually don't know why I write "Rachel:" at the top of each blog since Kurtis NEVER writes anything on here.  I've nagged him, trust me.  

Anyways, we've just recently packed up our life in Australia, specifically at 384 Toorak Road. It was really sad.  I've been saying my good byes to many things around our house or in Melbourne that I won't see anymore.  I'm feeling very conflicted.  I don't want to live in Australia, but I don't want to say good bye either.  We've met so many amazing people here (Gier, Asso, Julia, Flo, Francesca, Aimee, Robyn, Ally, Angel, Andrew, Allysa, Peter, Laura, Pat, Gary, Buster just to name a few), reconnected with people (Lauren, George, Ally), fell in love with a great city, became addicted to tv shows, Tim Tams, trams and tree possums and made our first home here so it has been tough.  

Packing up our things went well enough.  We sold most of our furniture, unloaded the rest on Lauren and threw out as little as we could.  The washing machine gave us some last minute issues, but that was to be expected.  That demon wouldn't leave without a fight.  AND the best part is that we got our whole bond back! Well, back to Lauren's house to live in luxury for a while.

Aussie Word of the Day: "Heaps" - means lots, but they say it all the time! Like they say heaps, heaps of times.

Garbage Christmas

Rachel:

I can't believe I haven't posted this earlier! In

Melbourne there exists a "Garbage Christmas" also known as household waste day or something like that. On Garbage Christmas, you wake up and the streets are covered with free stuff that you can take! Stuff like clothes horses, printers, broken chairs, televisions, hangers etc. We got our TV from the curb and beside the odd time that it turns itself off, it is our best friend. We had another Garbage Christmas recently and Kurtis was so excited that he made me go to bed early because in his words, "If you don't go to sleep, Garbage Santa won't come!"

Kurtis has come such a long way since we got here. He used to be too snotty to use coupons, didn't immediately go to the grocery that costs the least, too good to participate in Garbage Christmas. But now, I didn't even know this Garbage Christmas was coming up but Kurtis spoke of Garbage Christmas many days before and even posted the notice of Garbage Christmas on our bulletin board! Unfortunately, we both had to work all day, so we didn't get any garbage this time....

Australian Word of the Day: "That's not on mate!" - Another thing Kurtis and I keep saying with an Australian accent. Just basically an Australian way of saying, "that is not cool, friend," usually indicating that something is not fair, not right or not nice. For example, when Kurtis found out that his pizza store job paid him less than minimum wage, he would say, "that's not on mate!"

Not racist huh?

Rachel:

Despite protests from many Australians that Australia is not a racist country and are welcoming to all races, this garbage was on TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMAyGewq37w&feature=player_embedded

This show was widely watched as it was an older Australian variety show, brought back for a limited time. Seems like they are still in the 1930s? When was blackface around? Probably way earlier than that.

I just want to vomit, shake everyone, slap people across the face etc etc etc. This is why I cannot live here. I couldn't stand to have to deal with this on a daily basis. It's not everyone, I know, but the fact that these guys are not immediately fired and raked across the coals just indicates the acceptance of these ignorant and intolerant attitudes and behaviours. The rest of the world should be saying something to Australia, because they just don't get that racism is evil, outdated, ignorant and completely unacceptable.

I do like Australia BUT (and thats a big but) can you enjoy a place where you know that your best friends wouldn't be accepted here? Can you endorse a place that turns a blind eye to prejudice? This is a huge struggle Kurtis and I have been dealing with. We have met lovely people here, visited amazing places, experienced interesting culture but there is a dark side here that makes our stomach turn...

Australian Word of the Day: Wog, Skip, Abs, Abos, Pom, etc etc. - the lovely racist terms that some Australians use in regular conversations. Many people don't see these terms as racist, they are just narrowing who they are talking about. I'm dry retching right now.

At last....

Rachel:

So after 8 years, 5 months and 8 days of dating, Kurtis proposed to me. He did so at a romantic dinner in Fiji, on the beach just outside of our beach front bure after we had finished our pizza. Pizza doesn’t sound too romantic but hey, it was pizza night at the resort so we couldn’t pass it up. I can’t lie and say I was totally surprised but it was a perfect proposal. We had champagne, our own waitress, the most beautiful sunset and the whole beach to ourselves. In the words of myself, how romantical.

Our trip to Fiji was beautiful and I can’t wait to go back. The Fijian people are gorgeous, the weather was perfection, the water was an amazing blue and the scenery is stunning. Plus they have these flowers, fragapani, which I am now madly obsessed with. We stayed at Mango Bay in a bure which was beautiful. We had our own outdoor shower, where I had the best showers of my life. You look up and there are palm trees and flowers everywhere and the sun is shining down on you. It was

really tough to shower this morning in our dark, ugly, damp bathroom. The other thing about Fiji is that everyone is on Fiji time, which means that things happen when they happen, no worries. I wish my impending school assignments could be handed in on Fiji time…

In Australian news, Kurtis quit his pizza store job and now works at the Lindt Café in the city. I have about three more weeks left at IKEA and we both have about four more weeks of school left. This year has whipped by. It’s getting to the point where there isn’t really anything new about Australia to us. We kinda feel like we are at home. I will miss our house and neighbourhood when we leave. But before we leave, we have a big three and a half week trip up the east coast of Australia to plan and do. Should be good and expensive!

Australian Word of the Day: "You'll be right/He'll be right/She'll be right" Kurtis and I just keep saying this phrase because its the only thing we can properly say with an Aussie accent. Just means that you will be okay and is usually followed by "mate." You should always throw a "mate" in for good measure. lol.

Looking Up

Rachel:

Leave it to a change in weather to make you feel better. I started my first week at my new placement school and things are going WAY better. I have pretty good classes (the kids can be wild, but I need to work on cracking the whip, so its a good thing), my supervisor teacher is nice and there are bunch of other student teachers there, so I have some good company.

Plus, September 1 is the first day of spring and we've had two really nice, sunny days. Friday was 23C and today is 26C. The sun makes you feel so much better!

I'm also getting really excited for our trip to Fiji. We leave September 29 and we will have a week to lounge around out front our beach front Bure! Hopefully I will get rid of some of my whiteness.

Hopefully things will just keep getting better...

Australian Word of the Day: Its a phrase, "Who do you go for?" which means, "What team do you support?" usually an AFL team. It is sometimes confusing when you are speaking with an Australian and they ask, "Who do you go for?" especially when you aren't even talking about sports. What team do I go for? Kurtis and I go for Essendon! GO BOMBERS!

Homesick..

Rachel:

Homesickness…. It’s finally here. We’ve been okay for about seven months, but we’ve hit the breaking point about now. I think seeing my parents and then having this trouble with school has pushed me over the edge. I don’t know what Kurtis’ excuse is. We’ve been talking about things we miss about home and I’ve compiled a list:

- Pop-tarts

- Wal-Mart at 401/Morningside

- SCARBOROUGH TOWN CENTRE x 1,000,000

- Our own beds

- Costco (and the food from it)

- Cosmo (Kurtis’ cat, and I can’t say I miss her that much)

- Driving places instead of using public transit

- H&M

- Reasonably priced clothes

- Reasonably priced eating out

- Red Lobster

- Soft chocolate chip cookies

- Shamrock Burger (mmmmm)

- Having our laundry done

- Full fridges

- The Beaches

- The EX

- Cottages

- A TV with more than 6 channels

- Our family

- Our friends

- Insulation

- No data restrictions for downloading on the internet

- CANADA!

You never realize how much you love your country until you leave it…

Canadian Wordsof the Day: Words they don't understand here (Canadian code) are: douche bag, sketchy, sketch pad, chesterfield, touque, Halloween, inexpensive, Tragically Hip, Tim Hortons, double double, The Leafs, Don Cherry, hoser, T-Dot, loonie, twoonie, TTC, "Yo guy, links me a bus ticket" etc etc etc.