Upon arrival in Sydney, I had two goals: find a place and find a job. I started almost immediately with the job thinking I should know where I’m working before attempting to find a location to live. I quickly realized that task was difficult when living out of a backpack… in a hostel….

For me, hostel life was just not suited for job hunting. It was hard to deal with getting ready for interviews when your clothes have been sitting your backpack for a while, applying for jobs when the internet was crappy, and even just finding a quiet place to talk to prospective employers on the phone! That was it. I needed a place and asap!

Of course Sydney decided that rain was in order on the days I decided to look for apartments, so that made everything even more stressful. Its hard enough to look for rooms when you barely even know the layout of the city and suburbs. To make matters worse, everything I looked at was either too expensive, too crappy, or too far away for comfort to give a second look. Finally, my luck changed when I found my current room in a wonderful international house about a 5 minute walk from Central Station in trendy Surry Hills.

Sure, my room is the size of a shoebox, but it is my OWN room. Also, the location just plain rocks. I work in downtown Sydney in the CBD, so it only takes a 20 minute walk to get there. And, if I want to go to anywhere in Sydney, I am already at Central Station so its just no hassle! Boy did I get lucky!

For added excitement, my housemates are all foreigners here either studying or working, so there’s never a dull moment. In my house alone there are 2 Japanese people, 2 French people, and an Irish guy. We share a backyard with another house that is swarming with Italians and a few others, such as a German guy and some more Japanese. It really gives it a hostel feel but with a more homey vibe.

Every Friday night we hit up the KB, a bar across the street for some fun. Everyone always talks about how bad it is to have the KB right there because they always spend too much time there instead of at other places in Sydney. However, from the amount of fun everyone seems to always have… who cares?! It’s a good atmosphere for sure ’round these parts… almost good enough to make me forget about the bugs that also love this place. Ha!

If I made a list of the far-flung places I have now traveled to, it would probably contain the following:

1) Guatemala
2) Ukraine
3) Kyrgyzstan
4) Kazakhstan

I didn’t think I could add my current country to this list, but after many shocked glances and responses about how remote it is, I decided that Australia now makes itself known as number 5.

Yes, people, I am in the land of kangaroos, kaolas (not koala bears), and crocodiles. I’m walking on a land of deserts, beaches, and bush… A place where people eat vegemite for breakfast, call busboys “glassies”, and say “thongs” instead of flip-flops. I am in Sydney, Australia and absolutely loving it!

Australia has been a curiosity of mine for more than half my life, and I’ve actively played with the idea of moving/living there for at least the past 10 years. Actually, when originally planning on traveling the world, I always thought I’d save Australia for the end because I could work/live there.

When I was in high school, I thought becoming a photographer would be a cool job. I would travel to Australia and take pictures to sell to National Geographic.

I also thought that taking a year off before university and spending it in Australia was a good plan. I talked about the idea a lot, but the idea of a “gap year” wasn’t too common in my neck of the woods, so I didn’t have the proper support or inspiration to make stepping out of the norm happen.

When returning from study abroad, I held the forms for applying for a working holiday visa to Australia in my hands. I calculated the amount of money I had to save up in order to head abroad, took up two jobs, and started counting down. Unfortunately, it was again just not meant to be. I ended up having knee surgery, not working for a while, and getting caught up in a life back home.

Imagine my disbelief that I am finally making it a reality: I’m touching the untouchable!

I’ve been here for a little less than 2 weeks now, but I’ve been super busy. I hostel-hopped for about the first week until I finally found a place within walking distance of central Sydney. Soon after I found a job, which starts this Monday!

As for touristy things, I’ve gone up in the Sydney Tower for a bird’s eye view of just how massive Sydney is.

I took a gander at the famous Sydney Aquarium for a view of what lies out in the deep blue. Fantastic.

Besides this, I’ve been introduced to various good restaurants, cafes, and bars. I’ve even gone bowling! So far, Australia is treating me quite well. What fun lies ahead.

Pinch me!

Confusion was the overwhelming sensation of the past weekend when some other teachers and I made a quick girls-only trip to the southern seaside city of Odessa. We all basically endured a 9-hour sleepless train ride to get there, but that didn’t matter once we arrived because the brightness of the sunshine perked us all up like a double shot of espresso. Actually, I spent a large part of that day in tears, and not because I was sad. I just hadn’t seen that much sun in quite some time!

My job was to find the hostel, so, being the strong navigator that I am, I got us there fairly quickly, even after we found ourselves stopping numerous times just to question whether we were actually still in Ukraine or not. At first glance, one can seriously picture downtown Odessa as part of any other city in Europe!

Upon arrival at the hostel, we were greeted by the wonderful owner. “Yes, come in girls,” he said. “Take off your clothes.”

Uhm… Questioning looks were shot between Tanya and I as we tried to figure out just what we got ourselves into. The owner immediately realized what he said and blamed it on him being Polish, which I later found out to be true even though his British accent definitely made me suspicious for many hours to come.

The girls and I dropped off our stuff and headed out to the city. Oh, what an amazing city it was! Here are some of the reasons Odessa was so cool:

1) We ate an ecclectic mix of food including something Mexican inspired, Georgian, and Italian. It’s definitely hard to realize you’re in Ukraine when you find yourself eating nachos and drinking beer while the sun is brightly shining and Nelly is on the radio!

2) We basked in the sun at the Black Sea. Industrial port city? What?! The beach we found had the most perfect blue water, and seagulls like you wouldn’t imagine!

3) We bonded with wildlife, such as lions, horses, and birds. Yes, Lauren even found out its possible to see women riding horses at 2 am in this city. Is Odessa sounding more and more like a fairy tale to you, too?!

4) We hit up the markets around town, browsing like a group of girls in a shopping mall. I was even able to feed my ring addiction there.

Overall, we felt that when we walked around in Odessa, we were a part of it. There’s a certain distance one receives when trying to get to know a large place like Kyiv, so the atmosphere of Odessa was much welcomed by all four of us. It’s hard to tell if our impressions of the city are valid or not since we only spent a very, very short time there, but I think I’m going to sum it up by saying this: Odessa is in Ukraine, but we still felt it necessary to question this fact many, many times.

Even though I have spent nearly two weeks of my life recently in Riga, Latvia, this is actually my first post on the country at all. Shocking, no? I was planning to do a post on Sigulda with some cute photos, but someone I was travelling with decided it was a good time to clean the sensor on my camera - gasp! Therefore, I had no battery life on the camera when we got there. I was also planning on giving some sort of walking tour of the city, but it seemed that on days when I was wanting to photograph things the weather was awful!

I have hundreds of memories from my time spent in Riga, most involving:

1) The people I met while at the ARGONAUT HOSTEL that made my stay amazing.

2) The places we all went, such as the ORANGE BAR!

But, in spite of all this other excitement in Riga, I have decided to make this post about one little thing I discovered along the way - Pelmeni XL - the backpacker/budget traveller’s dream come true! Cheap food that is quick and oh so filling!

The beauty of pelmeni XL is the fact it is weight-based. You get in line and start filling your bowl with these little dumplings - some chicken, beef, pork, lamb, veggie, and cheese. Then, you top off with sauces and sour cream. We all made the mistake the first time of getting more than we could handle because these little suckers are filling!

What makes this place even greater is the price - about 2 lats for a bowl! You can’t go wrong. And, if you’re a late-night person, pelmeni is available until 4 am at one location in Old Town. MMMmmmm. You might think the fact I ate there almost every day funny, but I’m not laughing. I loved it. Lovvved it!!!

I decided to spread the pelmeni joy to other people whenever I had the chance, and would chuckle when I saw them bringing to-go containers of pelmeni back to the hostel for dinner.

To get a better idea of what pelmeni is, take a look:

They are deeeeelicious! Take a gander at their website and make sure to stop by if ever in Riga. You won’t regret it!

There is no doubt that I truly despised my landlady in Bishkek. Landlord was not so bad, but ever since his putting the body in the freezer day he was few and far between. Landlady, on the other hand, made her presence quite known. I found her quite annoying!

Even before I officially lived in the apartment, she got on my nerves. For no reason at all she would stop by, budge her way in and start snooping. It didn’t matter what we were doing – watching a movie, cooking – she would stay for an extended and awkward time, and then use our phone before heading out (yeah, we paid that bill, too).

When I officially moved into the apartment, she would only ask to speak with Ryan on the phone. Well, that’s fine because his Russian is amazing unlike mine. Well, Ryan left at the beginning of July, which left Liam and I to deal with her craziness. The day before rent was due, she made it known that we owed $150 dollars more than we thought we owed. After having a very long and horrible shouting match on the phone (in Russian by the way), I told her I needed to speak with Liam before proceeding. He then proceeded to call her and set up a meeting at the apartment to calculate why we owe $100 for utilities (it is usually around 500 soms) and $50 more for rent (when we previously agreed on the set amount). Well when we did the calculating, we came to the fact that we only owed about 500 soms ($15) for utilities, and that’s what we paid. Ha, landlady! Try taking advantage of me again!

Even after this very awkward incident, she proceeded to phone us all the time, many times in a row. She actually EXPECTED us to WANT to help her learn English… for FREE… even after she tried to rip us off of all that money! WTF?! I stopped answering the phone.

Then, the final day I was there I was expecting a call from her, but this was ridiculous. I was walking out of Ramstore with some food and heading home. I saw her on my phone ID, but decided I would just phone her back after I got home. The walk takes seriously less than 20 minutes, but this crazy insane Kyrgyz woman called me 15 times. FIFTEEN times!!!!!!! Then, to make it just a bit more interesting, I walked into the apartment to find her and landlord chilling on the couch in the living room with my couchsurfer (who doesn’t speak a lick of Russian). I mean really?! Who is THAT crazy to just call and call and call and call like that?!

So, they wanted to know when I was leaving so they could get the apartment keys. I was planning on leaving early in the morning in order to avoid the heat, so I said I would try and leave at 7am. However, I offered to just leave the keys on the table and push the special bolt lock button (the one that caused great troubles before for us because we don’t have a key for it). Erica was also with me and offered to bring the keys to them since she was coming in the morning to get some stuff from me anyways. The landlady took her number in her cell phone as if this was the preferred method, but before they left she agreed for me to just leave the keys on the table and push the weird bolt lock button – MEANING – I would not have to leave at any specific time in the morning (I wouldn’t be meeting them in person for a key exchange) and it was completely UNNECESSARY for Erica to give her phone number to her.

“Oh man, Erica. That crazy lady has your number now!” I said. “What a sneaky crazy woman!”

Later that evening, I checked the weather and found out that it was NOT going to be super hot the next day. With that in mind, and the fact that I no longer had to meet with the landlords at any specific time for a key exchange, Erica and I stayed up all night having an early 90s dance party and eating watermelon instead of packing up the apartment. To my dismay, I awoke at 6:40am to the Landlord at the door waiting for the key!!!! He looked at me in shock and said, “You said 7.” I wanted to scream.

At this moment, I phoned Erica and hopped in the shower quickly because he was in the living room waiting for me to leave. We loaded up the taxi with ALL the items that were bought for the apartment because I absolutely did not want these people to have ANYTHING of value after I left. I gave our stuff (bedding, dishes, etc.) to Erica to disperse as necessary to other people. I did, however, leave them a cell phone that could not be unlocked in Kyrgyzstan, a broken suitcase full of Ryan’s old socks, and some juice. Ugh, I am so glad to be done with that, but I do miss our place.

I feel like I’ve gotten a pretty solid, normal routine down in Bishkek with classes, friends, and family dinners. But, really, when I stop and think about it, life isn’t so normal here. I’ve put together a list of a few weird occurences that are bound to leave someone scratching their head. Enjoy!

When animals attack. This was a weird one for sure. I was walking to my home when I found myself confronted by, not one but, two hissing cats! I hate cats to begin with, and this was straight out of a Stephen King movie creepy. I was doing nothing out of the ordinary when from out of the bushes came a cat hissing at me. It sat in front of me on this narrow path, basically blocking my way, and continued to hiss every time I took another step. Just when thought things could not get any freakier, another cat popped out of the bushes hissing at me! What is going on here?! If you remember my pre-trip preparation from long ago, I never did quite get those rabies shots, and for fear of getting infected with the disease – quite the last thing I need while in Kyrgyzstan – I slowly turned around and took the long path home. They won, those hissing cats. I can’t believe I let them win.

When people attack. I have witnessed a few fights here in Bishkek. The first time I was at Osh Bazaar when I looked over to see a few guys rumbling in the dirt. One of the guys was apparently drunk, and the other, dressed in a suit, eventually got loose and started running away as fast as he could with a cell phone in his hand. The blatantly drunk guy totally got his phone jacked. The second fight was just this week during my walk to school. One guy was shouting and kicking another guy in the face while a girl was in the middle and trying to break it up. I have no idea what it was about, but it was very awkward to witness. And the third also happened this week while walking to class. It was between a marshrutka driver and some guy in a car. They got out and yelled at each other until the guy in the car wacked the other in the face, making the marshrutka driver bleed. Man, mornings are not good around here!

When you get infected with bird flu. I have no idea if bird flu has ever been an issue in Kyrgyzstan, but I started to wonder a few weeks ago when walking to school. Two mornings in a row, there was a street corner with a huge pile of dead chickens waiting for the trash collector. This seemed very out of the ordinary to me since they looked to be perfectly good chickens, besides the whole being dead part. It wasn’t as if they had been mauled by an animal, and they weren’t pieces of leftover chickens. Why would anybody in poor Kyrgyzstan get rid of something that would make them money?! I remember saying to myself, “Ok, Brooke, let’s not get sick. No one wants to hang out with a girl who has bird flu.” Oh, and what happened just 2 weeks ago? Yes, that’s right. I got sick. Remember all that feeling great in Bishkek jive I was spewing a month earlier? Must have been all the vodka.

When your host family doesn’t care that you have bird flu. Remember how I mentioned our family dinners were communal activities where your personal utensil is also the serving utensil? Remember how, at the same time, I questioned what would happen if one of us got sick? Well apparently people here don’t understand that sickness is passed through saliva because when I told my family I didn’t want to reuse my utensil in the noodle dish because I was sick, they said it’s normal and I should anyways. Fine. At that point I was secretly hoping they would get sick to prove a point, but even after my little sister got the sickness, they continue to cough, spit, touch all food; they continue to drink off the same glass; they continue to not understand that I don’t want to be sick again! Wow, am I glad to be moving into an apartment at the end of this month!

When your apartment warming gift from your landlord is an entire sheep in your freezer. When Brian and I lived in New York last summer, the landlord was keen on giving us a 6-pack of Brooklyn beer whenever the rent was paid. Here, however, I guess the gift is an entire sheep?! Ryan and Chris just moved into an apartment about 10 minutes from school - a far cry from my 45 minute walk now – and I will be joining them at the end of the month. Ryan sent me a text message saying that the landlord came with a big duffel of sheep meat and put it in the freezer. What?! Could this be how life in the Kyrgyz apartment renting market is really like? No, sadly it is not. The landlord is just using the freezer for a bit, but at least he will be cooking up some plov with it in return.

When people think you are 10 years younger. Wow. Today at the language school, some Kyrgyz kids said I looked 15! 15! Need I say more?

I bet you have been wondering what life with my Kyrgyz family is like, right? I have purposely put off talking a lot about this because for the first week and a half, my host dad was away for work. Well, he finally arrived back home this past weekend and home life has changed drastically – not necessarily for the worse – and I am finally seeing how a Kyrgyz family normally functions.

Meet Mars: Mars is my host dad. He is in the Russian Delta Force as he put it, meaning he is in a special security team here in Kyrgyzstan. He practices Russian Judo (was a former Kyrgyzstan fighting champion), and even showed me the video documentary of his team breaking bottles over their heads and demolishing burning boards. Every night, except for the first night when he spent hours singing Karaoke, we have watched some sort of video involving the military. He is very passionate about his work, which is always refreshing to see, and is very much in line with anti-terror governments. He might sound a bit on the scary side, but I assure you he is a very easy-going man.

Meet Aizada: Aizada is my host mom. She is a German teacher, which makes me wish I had retained a little bit more from my semester years ago. It is funny because when she cannot think of what to say in Russian, she will say it in German hoping it will ring a bell. She tries really hard to communicate with me. I am still slowly coming along with this Russian learning business. I might have to stay a bit longer than I was planning (but that’s not so bad, right!).

I guess German is actually a common language here in Kyrgyzstan. When I am out and about, I often get asked if I speak German. I asked Aizada about this and she said that after the war, all in Central Asia had to learn to read German in case there was another. Just a little tidbit!

Meet Rasul: Rasul is my 7 year old host brother. He doesn’t talk much and, like any other young boy, spends most of his time playing video games on the computer. He also never wants to eat unless its meat.

Meet Mira: Mira is my 4 year old host sister. She is the one I get along with the best! We use words like “play” and “doll”. When we can’t think of anything else to say, we just watch cartoons.

Since Mars arrived home, our dinners have grown in size and also in their communality. For example, we might have a big plate of Russian salad in the middle of the table, but there is no serving spoon, and no plates, so we eat off our fork and then stick it back in for more. Also, Mars has no problem eating off the serving spoon for the main dish. What do we do if someone gets sick?!

Well that’s about it. We live in a small apartment in a nice little microdistrict of Bishkek. When I step outside in the morning, the mountains are in full view. More updates later.

PS - I just learned that we are not going to have hot water for a month starting mid-May!

Yes, I’m no longer in Ukraine, but I needed to get these little myths out in the open before I start divulging all my Bishkek related goods. This post is definitely a little slow in the making because I was trying to search for some place in town that has some sort of wireless signal, or a place where I can plug in my computer. Alas, Bishkek is a little behind, even for a third world country, because they are still on the type of connection that charges per amount of usage and bandwidth. When I asked the language school about access, they actually mentioned getting a dial-up modem! So, I’ve resorted to typing on my computer and copying information off my jump drive to save time and money.

On to the myths! I stayed in three different places in Kiev, the last one being the highest rated one on hostelworld, and the only one with an internet connection (even though it wasn’t working too well while I was there), only to find myself wishing I maybe hadn’t left the lonely private room outside of town. Here is a list of reasons why you might want to think hard before going to this hostel:

1) Privacy is basically non-existent. Generally, this is a given in hostels, but when your room has no door, is the room that you walk directly into, and the office is the kitchen connected to it, it brings the privacy level to an unknown level. The hostel is a 1 bedroom flat in an apartment building. The bedroom has 6 beds and the living room has 4 beds.
2) There are no tables or chairs ANYWHERE. This means you sit on your bed, on the floor, or just stand. When it rains outside, you will really feel it. If you mention this fact to the owner he will go on a tirade on how he backpacked forever and people don’t need chairs (all this while he is lounging on a cushy computer chair in the office (kitchen) surfing the internet).
3) Oh, yes, the hostel advertises free internet usage, but if you don’t have your own computer, you only get 20 minutes a day of usage while he is sitting right next to you reading anything you write.
4) You can’t have ANY food in the hostel. NONE. You have to eat outside in the cold or spend money at restaurants. If you have food in there, the guy will kick your ass, or curse you out.
5) There are no lockers, so you have to keep tabs on your stuff at all times.
6) The shower (singular) was actually broken. Taking a shower was very difficult.
7) The beds were just like the foamy eggshell stuff you put on top of your mattress for extra cushion… only without the mattress.
The stairs leading up to the apartment (hostel) were the creepiest – straight out of a horror film packed with phantom lady, half-naked old guy, and sleeping bum. And I won’t even get started on the smell.
9) Last, but not least, the owner of the hostel just might drive you INSANE. He definitely did NOT make me want to go back there. He insulted people for even wanting to come to Kiev!

Besides all of this, the one part of my stay that made me chuckle was this guy’s telling of some Ukrainian myths. Now, I would take these all with a grain of salt because I think this guy is a complete story teller, but please let me know if anyone else has heard of these myths.

1) Ukrainians believe that sitting on concrete will make you sterile. That explains why you never see them outside sitting around town drinking beers; they are always standing! This actually appeared to be true around the hostels I stayed in, but it could have just been that the concrete walls and steps were cold.
2) Every house has a money tree. If the money tree dies, the family will go broke.
3) Even in the dog heat of summer, you will never see a marshrutka (minibus) with a window open. The reason is that if the wind blows in and hits the back of your neck, at best you will get the flu, and at worst you will become paralyzed.
4) Whistling is taboo. If you whistle indoors, you will go broke. Apparently a Swiss guy went to a poker table and whistled. The Ukrainians looked at him like he was crazy and the entire table cleared out!
5) Too much water will make you fat. They supposedly believe that drinking more than one cup of water a day will result in obesity, which is the reason why you only see people drinking beers outside, even at 9 am!

Like I said, I take anything that guy says with a grain of salt, but I thought you all might be interested in these little tidbits as well. I must go now – learning Russian in Bishkek is a very time-consuming task!