Highs 'n Lows Part II

...While Lauren and Charlotte were enjoying their romantic beachside walk to Bondi, Rachael put on her comfiest pair of sneakers and set out on the hike towards Randwick. 30 minutes of mountain climbing later, Rachael had finally made it to Randwick, a little city outside of Sydney. She shamelessly entered numerous grocery stores and EZ Marts, desperately asking for any kind of wifi device. Finally, a kind Indian man working at Rumour shoe store pointed her in the direction of Dick Smith.

Who the hell is Dick Smith you ask? Not who, but what. Dick Smith is one of the few tech stores in the area, which also happens to be located in the Randwick Shopping Center. Filled with confidence, Rachael continued on her journey and made her way to Dick's. She perused all of the internet devices and realized that she was useless: she was technologically challenged (in a big way) and had no idea what would work in the apartment. After waiting to be helped for 20 minutes, she finally snagged one of the two employees working at the busy tech store. Let's call him "Gary."

Now Gary was a Uni student (a university student in Australian lingo) with an attitude, and Rachael was clearly his last priority at the time. After explaining the situation and the fact that the apartment had no phone-jack to even install internet, he told Rachael that she might as well give up....GIVE UP? Lauren and Rachael had friends and Jeffrey Jay to Skype. Gary, still not giving a single flying ^&*%, said that the only possibility would be a portable wifi, and OH WAIT. That it would be too expensive: $580 for 4 months for one person. GEE THANKS FOR THE HELP GARY!

At this instant, Rachael felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. It was instantaneous. She started BAWLING in the middle of Dick Smith, surrounded by gadget geeks and friends from Vanderbilt. Every single person was listening to her sobs, and she was beginning to create quite a scene. Suddenly, an angel appeared--an angel by the name of Sandy.

Now Sandy was not your average angel. In reality, she was a ball-busting, 40-something-year-old, short-haired local woman who happened to be purchasing a tech device at Dick Smith during Rachael's mental breakdown. This woman clearly had to have kids because she fearlessly marched over to Rachael. This woman meant business. Sandy took Rachael's hand and led her up to good-for-nothing Gary. She demanded that Gary find her the best wifi and most affordable deal for her 4 person apartment. Sandy spent an HOUR AND 45 MINUTES in that tech store with Rachael, as if she were her own daughter.

After securing Rachael with the best internet deal possible, Sandy handed Rachael her card and disappeared into the sunset, never to be seen or heard from again.

So this is where we are at! We finally have our VIVIDWIRELESS installed and can blog our pants off! SO excited after the big victory, these biddies felt ready to take on the town and headed over to Cargo Bar!

Highs 'n Lows

After 3 long days of tear shed and heartache, we finally received the keys to our dream home! We had come so far: literally moved right next door, approximately 15 feet away from our hostel. With the new set of keys, came a new sense of responsibility. We were officially grown ups/head honchos/the big cheese(s)/top dogs/the big bosses of the 7th floor, so to speak. Having once been members of the "Frat Castle", we felt as if we were moving into the sorority pad of our greatest desires. All of the excitement had gone to our heads, and we had forgotten about our new "roomies" and our lack of internet. Internet was crucial as we both are very popular people. I mean we obviously needed the internet to create this blog! DUH.

We decided the best approach to finding internet was to split up and attack the three closest cities.  Divide and conquer, if you will. Lauren and Charlotte (our third bestie) set off on a leisurely stroll towards Bondi Beach in search for internet. Rachael walked to Randwick alone in search of the prize so she could Skype her needy boyfriend ;). Marc, the dude with the blowdryer and questionable amounts of gel in his hair, went off to look for wifi in Sydney's business district. Who would find the internet first??

Smelling the roses with the ocean breeze at our backs, Lauren and Charlotte relaxingly walked towards Bondi with not a care in the world. Dressed in leather boots and jeans, they were totally unprepared for the six mile hike and the mountainous landscape. As the hot flashes kicked in, we realized we would not make it to Bondi. After three hours of seeing the same body of water from different angles of the mountain and taking pictures of the same damn blue ocean, we were SO over this. Climbing up a large hill, we ran into an Australian flight attendant. Creepily hanging out of the second story window of the local apartment buildings, he began to tell us the best way to get back to where we started, Coogee Beach. Spitting out what sounded like a million words a minute, we puzzlingly looked at each other in utter confusion. All we knew was that we had to hike up to St. Catherine's Cathedral. We asked that she keep us in mind in case we did not make it. Upon our surprise, a woman who was friends with our new flight attendant friend, offered us a ride. We were psyched!!! 

This woman was the bomb. She had lived in Paris working as a model and had moved to Australia after marrying a Kiwi. Not the actually fruit, but a man from New Zealand. On a high from her great trip with Charlotte, Lauren called Rachael. The second she heard Rachael's voice, she knew that she had hit her low point. You won't believe what happened next.

Welcome to Coogee Beach, Australia!

What a week! 9 months after applying to embark on this journey of a lifetime, we are finally in beautiful Australia. However, this first week hasn't just been rainbows and butterflies. After touching down in Sydney, we quickly discovered that we had a long road ahead. We arrived at our assigned housing in Coogee Beach and realized that this housing was not right for us...more cockroaches than bathrooms in our three story house. This housing ended up to be so uncomfortable that we opted for a hotel room after Rachael stepped on a cockroach getting out of the shower. In the hotel room, tears were shed, and more importantly, we devised a plan to get ourselves out of "Frat Castle" (our 31 person hostel). 

Although we looked like the biggest princesses to grace Coogee Beach, we were certain that this housing was not right for us! So certain, in fact, that Lauren did not even unpack a single bag upon her arrival. After getting our beauty sleep in our bug-free and boy-free hotel room, we set out to find the apartment of our dreams. We hit every hotel in Coogee Beach and even stopped in at a real estate agency to see if there was any housing available for 4 months. After being turned away from hotel after hotel, our homelessness began to sink in...why us??!! 

That night, we headed home to the hostel, where we proceeded to sleep with the lights on to keep the cockroaches away. Lauren refused to put her sheets on the two dingy mattresses on the floor that was our "bed," and instead opted to sleep on her towels in her jeans and jacket. Between the wildlife outside of our window and the wild life in our house, these princesses got 4 hours of sleep. We woke up knowing that today was the day we had to move out of the hostel...bring it on.

In our depression, we headed to Coogee Bay Road with a couple of friends to have breakfast. We were slowly giving up and the idea of staying in the house permanently made us more depressed.  Suddenly, in the middle of breakfast, we received a phone call from a woman named Michaela, who is the secretary at Coogee View Service Apartments.  She told us that she had an apartment fit for four people at an affordable price, unlike the other hotels in the district. One issue: we have no friends and we have no one to live with. Desperation hit, and we posted an add on Facebook looking for two roommates (any two "suckers" who would opt to live with two American girls they don't even know). This is our lowest point to date. We continuously checked Facebook throughout the day, hoping some lovely girls would respond.  Instead, we received two messages from two European men over the age of 24.  Looking at each other, we knew our fathers wouldn't be pleased, but we needed that DAMN APARTMENT.  We arranged to meet the boys later that day. After showing them "our dream home" for the next four months and sugarcoating every detail about each feature of the place, we took them to the Beer Garden to get them drunk enough to accept our offer...

...Needless to say, they said YES! So this is where we are at: we are two 20 year-old American girls living with a 24 year-old Swiss man who blow dries his hair and a 26 year-old German male model who doesn't speak English and won't stop smiling.

Welcome to our study abroad in Sydney, Australia!