International Roommates

Jonas and Alberto have been gone for a few weeks now. The house is no longer stained with dirty bowls and cutlery, but it's also a whole lot more boring. Jasper and Lachie usually work in the evenings and have very independent social lives so it's as if they're not really living here. In an attempt to jump start the social life of the house I've taken it upon myself to invite everyone to 'Double Steak Tuesdays' at the Doncaster Pub or buy a blow up pool for Summer! It's not really catching on though because sadly my Australian roommates aren't as excited by things like 'Double Steak Tuesday' as I am - it's their loss really, it's awesome value.

Ah well, I'm glad I taught Jonas and Alberto a little bit of Australian culture while they were here. They learned that no one wins the Australian game of drink, not even Australians. Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with Jonas in February next year in Germany as part of a spontaneous trip I'm going to eventually organize in January.

Jonas described to me a whole bunch of German drinking games, but we never had the people or resources to play them. It'll be really rewarding to learn these important life skills first hand. Strangely enough, Lachie and I invented a drinking game earlier today while he was waiting for a program called "steam" to install on his computer. All you have to do is drink at the same speed as the application being downloaded. Because Australia's internet is so bi-polar this makes the whole thing much more challenging than you think. Also, if you screw up then you have to Skull your drink. Now that's a 21st century 1st world drinking game if ever I've heard one!

Lastly, I just came back from a village party I managed to get invited to. I left early once I realized that a few first-years I tutored last year were there. Man I'm old!

International Trips

A friend of mine from Texas is currently in Australia. He arrived last week and is currently staying in a hostel in Kings Cross. I picked him up from the airport on a Monday morning at 6am before I had work and as a gift he had got me a bottle of fine whisky from the duty free. I think I noticed him holding onto the bottle a little too tightly as he handed it to me - clearly some regret was forming in his mind once he realized alcohol is 23 times more expensive in Australia. That Wednesday, we went drinking at the Wanderer which is a great pub in Central to celebrate his birthday. The drinks were cheap (because my roommate was working there), the company was good, and the music was awesome. Sadly though, I think I'm kinda failing at my responsibility to be a good tour guide to Australia - I'm at work on the weekdays and he wants to go clubbing on the weekends. It was actually kind of disappointing to find out in the car that he didn't want to do any cultural activities in Sydney - he just wanted to get wasted every night. I dunno, my policy when I travel to somewhere new is to do the touristy stuff in the morning when you're sober, then fill in the gaps of time with alcohol.

This reminds me, I'm planning a trip to Indonesia early next year. I'm planning on meeting up with my Spanish friend who recently got a job in an embassy in Jakarta!  I really don't have the specifics sorted yet. Actually I don't have the over arching picture ready yet either. But at this point, I'm thinking of hitting S.E. Asia first, then heading to Qatar and maybe a few carefully selected places in the Middle East, and finishing it off with Eastern Europe. I've been guilt tripped into experiencing Istanbul by a work colleague of mine. We'll see how awesome it is. I really wanted to fit Canada or California in there somewhere, but they're just too far away :( Why can't the world be shaped differently :(