After an hour or so of getting my internet set up, writing, reading, and blogging, Mauro and I began our adventure into town by missing the first bus. After arriving in Ballarat's city center (oh and we got a free ride in by saying we only had large cash bills, blah blah blah, the people of AU really don't care about anything) we stopped at the bank and worked out my account, the technology store to buy prepaid AU phones (which I'm still not sure if mine is working or not), the Big W (a downgrade from Walmart), to get some essentials which we didn't pack, McDonald's for a cheap lunch, a tattoo shop, and coles for groceries.
The tattoo shop was quite the adventure. I entered into a hole-in-the-wall sort of place smaller than my bedroom and a haggered old woman gimped out from a back room. I asked to see a portfolio, so she took me into where I suppose her station would be and pointed to various pictures on the wall while telling me of all the awards she had won over the years for "best this" and "best that." She then told me she was the most awarded female artist in the lower hemisphere. Impressive yeah? No. The more I began to look at her work (which she showed me on her phone) the more I began to be less and less impressed. She liked my work and asked where I had it done. I asked if she used stencils and she said no. Immediately I knew this woman wouldn't be working on me. Some of her work looked alright, but none of it made me stop and say "wow, I bet this lady is the most celebrated artist in the lower hemisphere." Finally, securing her fate as never tattooing on me, she told me that all the other shops in town were "backed by the banditos." You can take that however you might.
Grocery shopping was an adventure all in its own. Everything is quite pricey and the only protein I bought was a carton of eggs for 2.80. I tried to find ingredients for s'mores (nearly all our non-american roommates hadn't heard of them) but found that the store didn't sell marshmallows. We wrapped up our shopping spree by stopping through the liquor section and each buying a $5 bottle of wine, as everything was astronomically expensive. After checking out, we carried far too many sacks of heavy groceries 6-8 blocks in search of our bus stop.
Overall, we had a very successful trip to the city.
Frozen pizza and a bottle of wine followed for dinner. Following dinner was a talk, lasting over an hour, with myself, Mauro, Paul (of Canada), and Tommy (of China). We talked about life and tattoos and religion and parents and how we were raised. It was incredibly interesting to see the different walks of life.
The evening rounded out with a rowdy game of spoons with several of the roommates (tonight I met Sarah from AU and Paul from France). Orientation starts in the morning, which will hopefully give us all some clarity, direction, and structure.
All is well and I'm really starting to enjoy the people around me. It's a shame we'll be split up in just a few days.
~Daniel
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