Sunday, February 28, 2010

White House on Mt. Alexander Rd.

After staying with the newlyweds Chris and Sophie and cramping their style for 3 weeks, Hannah and I have finally found an affordable place to live that's near the city. After looking at trashy places in sketchy neighborhoods, getting lost trying to find places and being rejected, we have finally found our humble abode. You are now looking at one of the new residents of 150 Mt. Alexander Rd, Flemington VIC 3031. We have been in this house for about a week now and learning many new things about the place daily. We don't live with any Australians unfortunately but we do live with a Dutch girl named Malu, a Mauritius guy named Vivian, German girl named Yvonne and 3 Italians named Fabio, Maurizio and Frederico. Kind of sounds like the beginning of a joke, right? The house is a 6 bedroom place so it’s a decent size. There is one shower and 2 toilets so sometimes it’s a little crowded but for the price it’s worth it. In Australia they advertise prices weekly and I am paying $90 a week, which is one of the cheapest places I have been able to find. And what makes it cheaper is that Hannah and I share the room. It is right on a main street where conveniently a tram stop is located that can take me straight to work, the amazing Queen Victoria Market and to the heart of downtown. The house is pretty old, so old that the house is on stilts and there are holes in our floor where you can see the ground so there is quite a draft sometimes. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s affordable and a good location.

Now to say a little about my roommates. Malu lives across the way from Hannah and I and she is here working at a research center at one of the hospitals. She is really nice and usually out of the house during the days saving people’s lives through her research. Vivian is the sous chef at the restaurant I work at. He is the one that told me about the available room. He is trying to get his permanent residency here and is a really nice guy. Yvonne is traveling a bit I believe and is currently taking English classes while trying to find a job. She has only been here for a couple of months and also just finally settling down. The Italians are an interesting group of guys. 2 of them share a room while the 3rd one has his own. They like to smoke inside the kitchen, which is always pleasant when you are trying to cook or eat your food. There is nothing like biting into your meal with smoke blowing into your face at the same time. We've asked them kindly to smoke outside but they bluntly refuse. Luckily, they are moving out in a week. At first I didn’t really care for them because of the smoking issue, but I tried to keep an open mind and have carried on some conversations with them. They are good-humored guys and nice but I’m still looking forward to when the smoke smell disappears.

The house is pretty old, so old that the house is on stilts and there are holes in our floor where you can see the ground so there is quite a draft sometimes. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s affordable and a good location and it’s not for the rest of my life. If I had money that I could just spend without a care, I would love to take a trip to IKEA and completely decorate this house so it looks like someone lives there and completely get this place organized and clean. But I don’t, so I have to make do with what is available. One thing I’ve also noticed and only in this house so far is that the cold water knob is on the left and the hot water knob is on the right but only in the bathroom. I had a few cold showers before realizing this. The knobs in the kitchen are normal, at least by our standards. In the backyard we have around 6-7 shopping carts just hanging out there. The nearest grocery store is about a 15 minutes walk and by the looks of our fridge and cabinet, no one buys that many groceries to where they need to bring a cart home with them. I’m thinking they got there by some drunken escapade. Needless to say the character of the house and the things I find here definitely makes life interesting.

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