July 22
This morning I slept in, again. Haha, It seems to have become a habit the past few days since I haven't had any classes. I'm gonna get spoiled this semester!
Early this afternoon I was bored, and so was Jamie, so we decided to go get off campus and go check out this market we heard about that runs on Saturdays. We hopped on a bus at the Belconnen interchange and went into city centre (also called "civic"). From there we followed a few street signs and maps and got to Ainslie Avenue, where we were able to successfully locate the Gorman House market. The market consisted of two courtyards where a variety of vendors selling things from second-hand clothes, hand-crafted jewelery, made-in-china-type jewerly, and books, to homemade fudge, apples, oranges, and other foods. It was a nice little market, although I didn't end up buying anything. It was still a lot better than sitting around the dorm all day, and Jamie managed to find a book that she wanted for only $6.
A couple hours after supper I was invited to go with a few of the people from my dorm to a Thai restaurant. I wasn't very hungry, nor did I feel like paying for an expensive meal, but I went along and decided I would order an appetizer while everyone else ordered their meals. There was nine of us in all, and it was a really nice restaurant. I got vegetarian curry puffs as my appetizer, and they were really good. One of the interesting differences between Australia and the U.S. is that in Australia you aren't expected to tip waiters and waitresses. Apparently some people do still occasionally tip, but it is definitely not a common practice. Of course, the higher minimum wage in Australia probably makes up for this, as minimum wage is always at least 10 dollars, and depending on the state it can be over 15 dollars per hour. I guess that kinda makes up for the lack of tipping, and also for the higher prices of some items here. But I still don't know if that would cause me to want to buy a new pair of my running shoes for $AU200 when I could get them for $US90 back home!
Early this afternoon I was bored, and so was Jamie, so we decided to go get off campus and go check out this market we heard about that runs on Saturdays. We hopped on a bus at the Belconnen interchange and went into city centre (also called "civic"). From there we followed a few street signs and maps and got to Ainslie Avenue, where we were able to successfully locate the Gorman House market. The market consisted of two courtyards where a variety of vendors selling things from second-hand clothes, hand-crafted jewelery, made-in-china-type jewerly, and books, to homemade fudge, apples, oranges, and other foods. It was a nice little market, although I didn't end up buying anything. It was still a lot better than sitting around the dorm all day, and Jamie managed to find a book that she wanted for only $6.
A couple hours after supper I was invited to go with a few of the people from my dorm to a Thai restaurant. I wasn't very hungry, nor did I feel like paying for an expensive meal, but I went along and decided I would order an appetizer while everyone else ordered their meals. There was nine of us in all, and it was a really nice restaurant. I got vegetarian curry puffs as my appetizer, and they were really good. One of the interesting differences between Australia and the U.S. is that in Australia you aren't expected to tip waiters and waitresses. Apparently some people do still occasionally tip, but it is definitely not a common practice. Of course, the higher minimum wage in Australia probably makes up for this, as minimum wage is always at least 10 dollars, and depending on the state it can be over 15 dollars per hour. I guess that kinda makes up for the lack of tipping, and also for the higher prices of some items here. But I still don't know if that would cause me to want to buy a new pair of my running shoes for $AU200 when I could get them for $US90 back home!
posted by itsbenrael at 10:53 PM
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