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| 1st bestie night at Flinders! |
So I'm home. It sucks.
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| 1st view of Bondi |
"You should stay!"
"Why don't you change your ticket?"
"Just move here already."
The only text I had when I landed at LAX?
"You should have stayed."
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| sleepy Hal |
The truth is I would have stayed until Stella's movie was over and I was forced to return, but I've already committed to writing and living in New York until Thanksgiving. Yeah, I can write anywhere, but I can only live in New York in New York and since that's been a dream of mine for years and years, I'm insanely looking forward to it.
Its the necessary gap-week in LA that's a bummer. My only consolation is I'm making super valuable use of my time here to get what's left of my life together and organized, since I left with everything half-finished three weeks ago including my job. Whine. Whatever.
Anyway when I travel I like to reflect on stuff along the way and after the fact, so here's what I got:
- I stink in Australia. I never went through the BO phase when I was growing up, so (overshare alert) deodorant isn't a given automatic for me. I forget all the time. I don't know if it was the climate or the chemistry of the air or that I'm finally going through the last phase of puberty, but I got to smelling homeless-minus-the-pee often. I now try to be better about remembering deods, just in case it is a late bloomer thing (awesome.).
- If the UK is the middle-aged parent and the US is the snotty teenager, Australia is the badass nine-year-old. Young enough to be fearless and savor everything, not too young so that you can't relate. Old enough to be aware, but not old enough to have attitude. People here throw themselves into life with enthusiasm for everything- drinking til it counts, dancing til it hurts and connecting like it matters (Hey LA, it does.).
There is a lack of self-consciousness that makes everyone here drop dead sexy. One of my favorite things about our favorite bar (yay Flinders!) was the dance floor. It was a mess of goofy dancing, making out, sloshing drinks, taking pictures, shouting conversations, more wild dancing, more kissing, and more wet clothes all to obscure oldies and rap. It was Heaven. It was Australia.
- I love drugs. Ambien to be specific. It works so well. It's the best pill since, well, The Pill.
- Australian guys are the most charming men on the planet. Like, movie charming. Like, it sounds like bullshit except you keep talking to them and actually find them to be genuinely nice. They have game for miles and it's not just the accent. Never once did I feel a bored LA hipster vibe or a bored industry vibe. Men approached us all the time. Men talked to us all the time. Men danced with us all the time.
I'd actually like to arrange an exchange program between LA & Sydney-- we get hot, charming Aussie men and our guys can have the gorgeous, kickass Aussie women (because they are. And nice, unless they're dancing. Then they hit you with their giant purses). Everyone wins!
- People here care about who you are, not what you do. When I talked to people, it wasn't until deep into the conversation, if at all, that my job came up.
- I've mentioned the trust thing before. Australia is like my parents in this sense- they always trusted me to make the right decisions and behave myself so I had few written-in-stone rules. I'm not sure, but I feel like I was a better behaved kid because of it. I found example after example of that as I walked around- the weird half railing on the pier, the lack of guard rails near most bodies of water, the slot machine warnings.
Not that it's chaos, there is a definite police presence here, but they were like the cool parents at the party that walked thru twice and would rather you drink under their roof and spend the night than have you lie and sneak out and get wasted where they couldn't see you.
- To carry the My Parents Analogy one step further- the times I did misbehave (all four times- no, really FOUR times), I was jail-grounded like no other kid on the planet with no time off for good behavior (Mama, remember the time I was grounded from November to Prom of my senior year of high school? It was awesome...). I've heard its similar here.
I looked it up, and Australia's drinking and driving laws are far more strict than ours with a lower legal drunk cut-off (incidentally, .05 to our .08 with fines and license suspension minimums for a first time offender starting at our maximums)- and I can't say I disagree.
- I love grocery stores. I found myself ducking into every grocery store I could find just to browse. I don't do that in America, just foreign countries. I love all the unfamiliar food and packaging- especially because we were in Koreatown on the fringe of Chinatown, most of the markets were Asian markets therefore they had all matter of mystery veggies, mystery meat, mystery canned sodas, etc. And kimchi!
- Stella is the best best friend in the whole world. The morning I left we hugged and cried, and I composed this long thing in my head about every way she is the best person I know and every reason I love her. I'll spare you the details- not because they're yada, yada, yada but because they're mine and I'm precious about them. Those of you who know her, know what I'm talking about.
- I'm capable of anything. That I committed to a writing schedule I previously thought was next to impossible and accomplished my goal of completing a script in less than three weeks reminds me of that. Oh, and turned a new city inside out at the same time. Go, me!
- Homeland and kimchi are amazing together. This has nothing to do with Australia other than its the only show Stella and I watched and the only food we ever had in the house.
Until we meet again, Australia...
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| Sydney Football Stadium |
The truth is I would have stayed until Stella's movie was over and I was forced to return, but I've already committed to writing and living in New York until Thanksgiving. Yeah, I can write anywhere, but I can only live in New York in New York and since that's been a dream of mine for years and years, I'm insanely looking forward to it.
Its the necessary gap-week in LA that's a bummer. My only consolation is I'm making super valuable use of my time here to get what's left of my life together and organized, since I left with everything half-finished three weeks ago including my job. Whine. Whatever.
 |
| this is how you know its a good hostel |
Anyway when I travel I like to reflect on stuff along the way and after the fact, so here's what I got:
- I stink in Australia. I never went through the BO phase when I was growing up, so (overshare alert) deodorant isn't a given automatic for me. I forget all the time. I don't know if it was the climate or the chemistry of the air or that I'm finally going through the last phase of puberty, but I got to smelling homeless-minus-the-pee often. I now try to be better about remembering deods, just in case it is a late bloomer thing (awesome.).
 |
| a night at Circular Quay |
There is a lack of self-consciousness that makes everyone here drop dead sexy. One of my favorite things about our favorite bar (yay Flinders!) was the dance floor. It was a mess of goofy dancing, making out, sloshing drinks, taking pictures, shouting conversations, more wild dancing, more kissing, and more wet clothes all to obscure oldies and rap. It was Heaven. It was Australia.
 |
| still my fav morning in Australia |
- Australian guys are the most charming men on the planet. Like, movie charming. Like, it sounds like bullshit except you keep talking to them and actually find them to be genuinely nice. They have game for miles and it's not just the accent. Never once did I feel a bored LA hipster vibe or a bored industry vibe. Men approached us all the time. Men talked to us all the time. Men danced with us all the time.
I'd actually like to arrange an exchange program between LA & Sydney-- we get hot, charming Aussie men and our guys can have the gorgeous, kickass Aussie women (because they are. And nice, unless they're dancing. Then they hit you with their giant purses). Everyone wins!
- People here care about who you are, not what you do. When I talked to people, it wasn't until deep into the conversation, if at all, that my job came up.
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| hell yeah, Sydney |
Not that it's chaos, there is a definite police presence here, but they were like the cool parents at the party that walked thru twice and would rather you drink under their roof and spend the night than have you lie and sneak out and get wasted where they couldn't see you.
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| awesome Asian market |
I looked it up, and Australia's drinking and driving laws are far more strict than ours with a lower legal drunk cut-off (incidentally, .05 to our .08 with fines and license suspension minimums for a first time offender starting at our maximums)- and I can't say I disagree.
- I love grocery stores. I found myself ducking into every grocery store I could find just to browse. I don't do that in America, just foreign countries. I love all the unfamiliar food and packaging- especially because we were in Koreatown on the fringe of Chinatown, most of the markets were Asian markets therefore they had all matter of mystery veggies, mystery meat, mystery canned sodas, etc. And kimchi!
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| bestie & a trifle |
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| home away from home |
- Homeland and kimchi are amazing together. This has nothing to do with Australia other than its the only show Stella and I watched and the only food we ever had in the house.
Until we meet again, Australia...
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