July 1st was a big day! For one thing, it marks Territory Day. Which is basically July 4th for the Northern Territory. For only this one day each year, you can buy and shoot off fireworks. So there were people lighting off fireworks, EVERYWHERE, which was kind of scary. As the major attraction there was a big fireworks show at one of the beaches, Mindil Beach. Weirdly though it was high tide, and it's not like you can stand in the water (crocodiles on the prowl), so the beach filled up really quickly and I ended up standing on top of the dunes having a pretty good view.
July 1st also was move in day to our Darwin Sharehouse! I was thrilled to be getting out of our hostel, which had too many rules and took too much of my money! After work I grabbed all my stuff and started the journey to Stuart Park, a little residential area about a 20 minutes walk to the city, or a 5 minute bus ride. Now I have a place to call "home"! It is nice being able to sit and watch tv, even if we only have 3 or 4 channels! Also I have wireless Internet again, Skype session? Anyone?
I must say, our house is hilarious because it has a lot of Asian influences, starting with:
Julia, our Chinese landlord. I thi k she is great...but she is very hard to understand, and it takes a lot of "what?", "sorry can you say that again", and of course smiling and nodding, to figure out what she is saying. As we paid our first weeks rent and our deposit, she started scribbling on a peice of paper. When she handed it to us, we realized it was our "contract". One of us will
put it in our scrapbook.
On the floor above us we have all Asian roomates, except for 2 guys Jill had met in Cairns, who are Canadian and Danish. I am hoping one of my new roomies can fish and roll sushi. Also I can tell Asians lived on our floor at one point because all of the signs are written in Chinese and broken English, and there is a sticker of an Asian boyband on the door in the bathroom. Also our shower curtain is decorated with dancing hippos.
So all in all, our Sharehouse has some real character! It's my second weekend in Darwin and also my birthday weekend, hip hip horray as they say! Who is buying me a schooner, or better yet a jug!
