Of Wanders, Fake Numbers, and More

Last weekend I reminded myself that I was in one of the most interesting cities in the world, and instead of being my usual lazy-bum self and staying in watching movies, I went on a walk. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but back in my living-in-England days (sigh, nostalgia) I would be asked by my parents to go on a walk on particularly nice days. This always meant walking in fields, so I said no.

Nature and I do not get along.

But going on a walk in a city is much more bearable, and much more my kind of thing. Much like a house, if I am thirsty I can walk a few steps and grab a drink (do not bring up drinking from streams, you unhygienic person!). There are many more benefits to going on a walk in the city than this, which cover all kinds of things from hunger to tiredness to less mud and less fresh air..... where am I going with this?

Back to the point.

I went for a walk in Sydney on the weekend with the objective to take pictures of interesting things. My photos ranged from a chandelier made of bottles to a rainbow to a clock depicting the history of Australia to flowers. "I am photographer extraordinaire." Ahem. What is nice about going for a walk in a city with no destination is that you notice more. If you have a destination it is too easy to simply focus on that and not stop to look around. In a city, you can't just look straight ahead, you have to look up, down, and to the sides as well. If you don't, you will miss monkey statues and hundreds of suspended bird cages and plaques that show the point of measurement for the construction of the Sydney Opera House.

And that would be a shame.

"Oh my god!" "I can't look" "Lalalala I can't hear you!"

Hey Sydneysiders, did you know that in the QVB there is a letter written by the Queen of England that cannot be opened until 2085? Treasure hunt!!! Off you go.

Anyway, on my walk I was asked out on a date. By a man in his late 30s, who uses his marathon running as a way to impress, and who wants to come to my hometown to visit me when I leave the country. Yeah. In these kinds of scenarios, when it comes to people that I know I definitely won't see ever again, I make things up. Is that bad? Oh well. So in our discussion which I tried to end repeatedly to no avail, I told him I was a waitress and I was trying to bring the skill of spinning trays to restaurants in Australia but so far the idea hadn't taken hold and I'd been fired 4 times. I probably shouldn't have said this as I only seemed to impress him with my ingenuity rather than freak him out with my strangeness, and he asked for my number. Many times, despite my excuses. And so I gave him my very special fake number which I found last year. To the Rejection Hotline. Google it, it's a real thing. So on Tuesday when he called me to confirm the date he tried to bully me into going to last Wednesday, he would have been greeted with a voice saying "Hello, this is not the person you were trying to call....."

Excellent.

Sorry mate, next time, actually listen to what the girl is saying! Persistence is futile.

In other news, I've started tutoring someone in English, and it has come to my attention that the English language is hard. The simplest of words, like 'had,' 'would,' 'be' are actually very difficult to explain in terms of the rules for when they apply, especially to a person whose own language does not use the same rules. It's something that I've never really given much thought to, seeing as I can only speak one language, but I can now confirm that the English language is confusing and weird. And the word that a teacher must always dread hearing, or at least I do: "Why?"

Because.... it just is... that way. Hmm? What?

However, we were both able to commiserate over the Australian accent, which is particularly difficult over the phone. Also, if you know an Australian, get them to say "SRU" and "SIU." It sounds the same! So confusing (these acronyms come up in my work all the time, so it's not a totally random example).

Next week is my last week working in Australia. How time flies! I've been here 2 and a half months now, which seems both a long time and a very short time. And the most exciting part of my trip is yet to come! It's also yet to be planned. I am setting the challenge to see more of Australia than an actual Australian would see. Send me any suggestions of things to do/places to see/places to eat at, I'm open to all things (except weird things. And dangerous things. And scary things. So not all things. But most things).

TTFN!