Down for Dumplings

I always seem to find my way to Chinatown in one city or another. Last week was no different. After yoga and two morning interviews, I took a walk through town and wound up on Dixon St, the main street in Sydney’s Chinatown.

It was pretty quiet in the early afternoon on a Tuesday, but I’m eager to go back on a Friday for one of the night markets. I scoped out the restaurants, ice cream stands, and tea shops, but I had my goals set on a different part of town for lunch.

The path from Dixon St. leads down to Darling Harbor. I remembered it from my last visit—pretty crowded and touristic, but a good place for pretty views of the harbor and, I hear, fireworks every Saturday night. It’s also home to the Chinese Garden of Friendship, which costs only $6 to enter so I should just suck it up and go to, but during both visits I’ve gotten too tired/hangry to continue my tourism. I had some snacking to attend to.

The walk back to Mike’s place took me past a tiny street-between-streets called Spice Alley. It’s a strip of ten hawker food stalls offering cuisine from China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Um. How is a person supposed to decide between those options? I see no reason to ever eat anywhere else.

After much time spent debating, I chose a plate of chicken and veggie dumplings from Shanghai. Australia doesn’t have many of its own delicacies that are worth writing home about, besides fish and chips, kangaroo (no thanks!), and emu (also no!), but I’m happy to sample treats from nearby nations. It was the perfect lunch break after an interview-filled morning. Sending a million cover letters and resumes can get to you after while, so it was nice to forget my struggles with a plateful of dumplings.

White Rabbit

I’m writing this from the future where I’m trying to throw together a last minute Halloween costume, but my first weekend in Sydney was full of things I love. Of course, Friday was a hit, what with Noodle Night and all. On Saturday, I took two dance classes at Dance Central Sydney. I used to take dance as a kid and it still really makes me happy, so that’s what I want to spend my time doing, ya know?

Sunday started with yoga— as the best ones always do. The studio I’ve been going to has live music on Sundays, and it makes the practice really special. I never want to miss one! It takes a little less than an hour to walk back to Mike’s, so if I’m not in a rush, I’ll skip the bus and take the path through two nice parks and the center of the city. It’s been nice to get a little tour of all the neighborhoods; my biggest problem is that I like them all and can’t decide where I want to live!

As I walked back on Saturday, I needed to stop at the grocery store for a few items. I bought some new deodorant that I don’t really like the smell of, so I’m currently dealing with that. I also walked past the White Rabbit Gallery, a Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery that I didn’t have time to visit during my last trip down under. It’s open on Sundays, so I decided to pop in.

Wow! I didn’t know that I was into contemporary Chinese art before, but I guess now I am. There were so many interesting pieces; I took my time and didn’t want to leave. There was one very long scroll of cartoon illustrations that takes you through much of Chinese history, and I was glad one of the attendants handed me a guide so that I could understand some of the intricacies.

I’m kicking myself for not taking any photos Sunday night, because Mike brought me along to an experimental music gig at the Petersham Bowling Club, aka the PBC. The type of bowling here is lawn bowling, which I assume is kind of like bocce, but I have no idea. It’s had a bit of a resurgence with hip young people in the past few years, kind of like our shuffleboard trip to Brooklyn. They had good beer, fun-looking lawn bowling (although we didn’t have time to play), and two stages for musical activities. Hope we’ll be back there soon!

Noodle Night

Like I said last time, one of my favorite ways to find out about fun stuff to do in a new city is by word of mouth. That means sometimes I have to break out of my comfort zone, put my phone down, talk to strangers, and then remember what they say, take my phone back out, and write it down! When I was waiting for my Uber at the airport, I heard a girl saying that there were free walking tours offered twice a day, every day around the city. I asked her where they met up, and followed her advice to join one. I was hesitant to do such a touristy activity now that I’m trying to blend in as a real “Sydneysider”, but it was a good way to learn many things and enjoy a free afternoon activity whilst being around other people.

The tour went all around the central city area, lasting almost three hours. I knew it was a good one because I paid attention almost the whole time and barely got distracted like I have been known to become on long historic tours. I learned that you can rub this boar’s nose for good luck and donate some change to the hospital behind him:

And that the two animals on the coat of arms of Australia, the emu and the kangaroo, were chosen because they’re both unable to walk backwards. So the country keeps on moving forward, and I like that message.

We walked through Hyde Park, saw some food tents and fences set up, and our guide told us that Friday night would be the last Noodle Night Market of the season. And the last one to be held in Hyde Park, the original location, probably ever. There are few things I love more than noodles, so I knew I had to be there! Luckily, Mike’s office is right next to Hyde Park, so he agreed to meet me after work for some noodle noms.

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However, there were not only noodles to choose from. There were just about all the asian delicacies you could imagine, and some that might’ve been made up just for the event: bao buns, satay, bubble waffles, fish balls, a wild spiral french fry creation on a stick, etc. etc. You want it? You could probably have it, if you were willing to wait in the lines of about a million people each. I wanted the flying noodles pictured above, but they were so popular that we got tired of walking to find the end of the line. No matter; we gathered a couple beers and stood in a much shorter line for likely very similar tasting, non-flying noodles.

All was right with the world.

Things I worried about when moving abroad

During my visit to LA last week (was that only a week ago??), Katherine and I were waiting to order breakfast at a favorite place and started talking to the guy behind us in line. What do you know, he had spent three years living in Australia and had lots to tell me about Sydney. He recommended a few coffee shops and, boom, here I am eating brekkie at one of them.

I didn’t really mean to order a whole breakfast situation, but I needed to kill some time while waiting for a store to open, and the other option was to order takeaway and stand at this curbside counter, which is also kind of cool and nice to have, but not for journaling.

Word-of-mouth is one of my favorite ways to find out cool places to visit in a new city. I also like reading posters and all the little signs on bulletin boards. Now Instagram is helpful too, if you know where to look. I like to read off-the-beaten-path lists and local’s guides, more than say a “Top 10 blah blah blah…” a.k.a. things you usually already know about or know will be crowded with tourists like you. I’ll peruse those, too, and do a little extra research of reading reviews and other websites to see if it’s worth my while.

Here’s a list of things I worried about when I decided to move to Australia, mainly because I might need to consult it later if I ever move anywhere else or if anyone ever asks! It’s more of what I was concerned about before leaving, not getting set up once I actually arrive—that’ll come later!

• My car: I went back and forth about whether to keep or sell my car. Since I am only planning to be abroad for a year or less, and I’ve only had this car for about a year, it seemed to make more sense to keep it. I’m also able to store it in my mom’s garage, so that’s a huge plus. I knew the registration would be up for renewal, so I found out that California has a “planned non-operation” option (CA DMV) for $22.

• Car insurance: I was planning to cancel my car insurance entirely while it would be in storage, but after talking to the insurance company (progressive.com), I decided to keep limited coverage for $20/month that would cover events like break-ins or weather damage and keep me from paying a fee to reinstate full coverage when I get back.

• Health insurance: I expected Australia to be a utopia with free health coverage for everyone, including international travelers, but sadly that is not the case. They do have a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with certain countries, but not the US. I purchased a travel health insurance plan with Allianz for $100/month. Not sure I’ll ever end up using it, and I’m sure some people would avoid the cost, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.

• An international phone number: Mike helped a lot with this one! Of course, I would need an Australian phone number and plan for jobs, banking, and general life here in Sydney, but I wanted to use my phone from home. I also wanted to make sure I wouldn’t miss any calls or texts if someone tried to contact my old number. Mike swooped in to the rescue with two guides to phone plans in Sydney (1 , 2) and I chose Vodafone, because that’s what he chose and I was too lazy to research further. He also sent me a link to Tossable Digits, a service to hold your old number and port any attempts to contact you from your old phone to your new phone. It’s been working well for me.

• Money transfers: I came over with about 300 USD in cash in my wallet, which I haven’t used. I’ve been using my credit card (Chase Sapphire) for almost everything and also took out some ATM money using my US debit card. I won’t want to do that for much longer, especially when getting paid or paying rent, so I set up a bank account here, again with Mike’s help. After doing some of my own actual research, I’m using Transferwise to send money from my US bank to the new one here. It seems to take 2-4 days and hopefully will arrive in time before I need to make any security deposits.

  • *Oh yeah, if you’re wondering, I saved about $12,000 in preparation for this trip (including helpful gifts from friends and family. Thank you!) I’m sure it could be done with less, but I like taking myself out for breakfast and having a bit of a just-in-case cushion. The working holiday visa requires that you have $5,000 in the bank or a departure flight booked, but they didn’t check either of those things upon my arrival. Actually, I just did the electronic check-in and didn’t have to talk to anyone in customs—what a luxury.

• Prescriptions: I don’t have much helpful advice on this one. I tried to see my doctor and dentist in LA before leaving. I stopped taking my birth control this summer, so that’s one I may have to figure out here. I ordered four boxes of new contacts, which was kind of hectic and last minute, so just a reminder to make sure to stock up on your valid ‘scripts and maybe bring an e-copy with you.

Apart from what to pack, I think those were my main concerns. Did I miss anything?