The American Halloween Invasion

 H. A. double L. O. W. double E. N spells Halloween!

I've been asked about Halloween in America. People have seen everything in moves and on television from kids trick-or-treating to wild college parties with girls in itty bitty costumes. I've told tales of my childhood costumes of a can of Coke and box of popcorn to my college roommate's sexy lady bug. Halloween's kind of a big deal.

Apparently it is not as big a deal in Australia. I've been a Halloween detective over the past few weeks, and I've found evidence to show that American Halloween has definitely creeped into the land of Oz (though it has a long way to go).

Remember how Australians love pumpkins?! Well they don't go crazy about Halloween jack-o-lanterns. It's a very limited selection.

I've heard three things about trick-or-treating from an Australian perspective.

1. Some neighborhoods do it. There's enough people here from America who have visited and liked the tradition so they've tried to do it here. It's fun.

2. Ugh. That's so American. (said with a 'we boycott anything American' type of connotation). In addition, there was an article in the newspaper how American is poisoning Australian children with its highly processed sugary and fatty treats for Halloween.

3. Australian doesn't do Halloween very well. They just don't understand it. (what's there to understand about costumes and candy?)

Anyone who has visited my apartment in MD or SC knows I like to decorate, at least enough to remind me that it's a holiday. I used to have these cute little pumpkin lights. Since at some point I will have to pack my things back into three bags, I just wanted a little something for the apartment. At the first shop, this is what I found.

 Without a big focus on Halloween and no Thanksgiving, most stores have already jumped straight to Christmas. After a little more exploring, I've found whole sections in stores even with costumes.

Australians apparently do costumes very well, so it's surprising they don't go 100% into another excuse to dress up. Oktoberfest had hundreds parading the streets in lederhosen. The Rotary Club had a big scavenger hunt around Perth two weeks ago, and teams of four were decked out as superheroes, Where's Waldo, and any costume you could imagine. Those costumes were ten times better than ones I've seen in College Park or Columbia. I've even heard tales of a guy dressed as a Christmas tree, with his friends as presents, and one as a star who he put on his shoulders. For a Christmas quiz night party. And someone else was talking about their office's Christmas party.

Today I went on Halloween recon. A few places on campus got into the spirit. And Ashely brought in candy corn sent especially from America. The Australians had never had it before and couldn't even think of something to compare it to.

On my ride home all I saw was one little party of children and parents dressed in costumes picnicking on the river in South Perth. Holding out hope that it was still too early for trick-or-treating, I wandered around the city after dinner. I figured if I hung around the  busy train station long enough, I would see at least one costume. Nope. There has been a festival all week in Northbridge, but no one I know has heard of it.

All I've ended up with for my Halloween celebration is a little pumpkin bucket (now empty of candy, where did it all go?!) and a beautiful card from a beautiful friend. But that's quite enough for me!

May your Halloween be full of ghost, ghouls, and more treats than tricks!

Pumpkins in Perth

Every one back home is posting about how it's getting colder, quintessential New England autumns and pumpkin picking. In my year of eternal summer, I almost forgot it was October (and time for one of my favorite James Taylor songs!).

It's strange having opposite seasons. I'll find my starting a story, "Last spring..." and correct myself to say "Last April...". And having no autumn is always a little bittersweet. I'm the first one to bundle up to go apple picking or wander the corn maze. There's nothing like the smell of the first crisp, cool autumn night when it's time to put on a sweatshirt and put an extra blanket on the bed. At Maryland, I hunted for an apple orchard and dragged all my dormmates down to the communal kitchen in the basement to patch together an apple pie from scratch (yes we used a nalgene bottle as a rolling pin). In South Carolina, there were no apple orchards within a 2 hour drive, but there was plenty of SEC football and tailgating to be sure that it was Fall. Luckily the apples were just ripening in Connecticut before I left with time to make one American apple pie. And I'm sure a 100 degree Christmas will seem bizarre.

I'm not complaining about missing winter this year. It's going to be 90 in Perth this week :), but that doesn't mean I don't get my share of pumpkin. They LOVE pumpkin here. From the first day I arrived and we talked about pumpkin at lunch, it's everywhere. They eat it plain apparently. It's always in the grocery stores. I assume you cook it like squash? It comes in pieces wrapped in plastic. I guess no one likes it enough to have a whole pumpkin. But they do like it enough to even have organic pumpkin.

There is tons of pumpkin soup. They made it at work for the fundraiser, and there are even different kinds of pumpkin soup!

They had a spicy pumpkin soup too. It wasn't supposed to be two of the same kind :)

At a work even they had pumpkin hummus dip. Savory, a little spice and it was yummy.

October also means that it's my big sister's birthday :) Happy birthday Lindsey!!!

Betty Crocker was not Australian

I'm guessing Betty Crocker was not Australian. And neither is Martha Stewart.

Now that I'm settling in, it was time to attempt to bring back one of my hobbies: baking. As some of you know, I enjoy baking. As fewer of you may know, I won the final, council-wide Girl Scout bake-off with my Grandma's lemon square. And I make some mean dissertation cupcakes (how else do you think I got a PhD?).

First, I had to get basic equipment. Luckily, working with a nutrition intervention, I got the leftover muffin tins, measuring cups and spoons and other miscellaneous kitchen supplies (thank you again to Kyla!) A few less things to buy and most importantly, less things to carry. Three shopping trips, and two sore arms from carrying bags across Perth later, I had enough supplies to attempt a baked good. Unfortunately, an electric mixer did not make make the "absolutely necessary and able to be carried" list, so it was sacrificed (for now).

The next step was deciding what treat to break the ice with. Something American? Something seasonal (American seasonal as in fall or Halloween)? I needed something easy to transport, as I would be taking it in to the office on my bicycle (which is a whole other issue), didn't absolutely require a mixer, and I wanted to use my new muffin tin. Since there is a lack of peanut butter and chocolate over here and they are the two most perfect flavor combinations, Martha Stewart peanut butter and chocolate muffins (they really are cupcakes) it was.

This is what they were supposed to look like. Delicious, right?

Now to find the ingredients.  First, there were no semi-sweet chocolate chips. Only little bags of dark or milk chocolate chips and melting chocolate. I went with a combination of the two.(In case you were wondering, they do both taste great right out of the bag!)

Instead of plain confectionary sugar, most of it was "icing mix". It was powdered sugar with some thickening agent. Luckilty after staring for awhile, I did see a little bag of plain icing sugar.

*Note that  have since been to a different grocery store with a slightly wider selection of baking supplies, but still no Stop and Shop, BiLo or even Walmart.

With the help of Google images, I picked an American recipe. This was probably a mistake. My new hand-me-down mesuring cups have both cups and milliliters on them, but a 500g stick of butter is not divided into tablespoons!

THank goodness for online measurement converters. A little estimating and mixing later, I had the batter in the tins and ready to go into the oven. First, the three ovens I have seen in this country have a billion settings with little pictures and no words. I don't know what they are. I assume one is broiling and one is convection. The rest is just a crap-shoot. So I picked one of those. Next it was time for the big Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion. 325 degrees Fahrenheit is approximately 162.78 degrees Celsius.

So in they went and I worked in the kitchen so I could glance over and make sure they were doing alright. I didn't pay close enough attention. With still 5 minutes to go, something didn't smell right. They were overcooked!

I was so disappointed, I threw them out. I've never thrown anything I've baked straight into the garbage can. I can't even bear to show you a picture of them. Then in my angry, disappointed state, I went straight down to the 24/7 grocery store on the corner to get butter and start all over again. THe second time, I may have put a little too much batter in the cups and undercooked them. I warned everyone not to judge them by appearance, they still tasted like a sweet treat.

From now on I think I'll stick to Australian recipes that look a little more like this.

Overall, it was not the "Erin, the baker, goes to Australia and wows everyone will her culinary skills" experience I had hoped for, but it was still a Sunday afternoon full of baking and that's what makes me happy.

Plus, on my extra trip to the corner store I found this! And who says there's no peanut butter and chocolate here?

Perks of Perth

It only took me 6 weeks, but I did it. I ordered my first Australian coffee. As I was warned, coffee in Australia is not the same as coffee in America. I can't just walk into a store and order a "coffee". They have choices. Espresso based choices. Already overwhelmed with using cash (colorful bills and coins with sizes that aren't logical, the 50 cent is the biggest), I wasn't ready to face the coffee culture alone. Thankfully Kyla was willing to accompany me.

Where every corner seems to have a little coffee shop, there are places not to go. The equivalent of Starbucks is Dome, and like Starbucks, there are the strongly devoted who drink nothing else. Conveniently, their menu has a list of the common coffees.

 

Then there's Muzz Buzz, which as a mini coffee drive thru in purple looks cool to me! I was warned not to try it, and thankfully I have no car to drive through.

We had to venture off campus to Hoopla Espresso. To make things easier, I got the same thing as Kyla, a cappuccino (because it has chocolate sprinkles on top). We got a Snickers Slice to share (slices are another thing, which are basically a bar tpye of layered cookie in all different flavors).

 And this is what I see people drinking all around Perth. My first picture wasn't good enough because the flower was upside down.

If you're not in a cafe, everyone drinks instant coffee. Seriously. That's what fills the shelves.

 

Since my budget can't stand purchasing a flowery cappucino every morning, I found my own little cheap, basic coffee pot tucked away between all the fancy espresso machines. Now I can happily sip my own brew every morning.

Now I just have to visit every coffee shop in Perth to find where it's worth splurging on a frothy cup complete with chocolate sprinkles.

Time for Work

 Find a job you like and you add five days to every week. 

-H Jackson Brown Jr.

Now that you've seen my new home, it's time to show you my other home, also known as where I work. Considering I signed my contract without ever visiting Curtin, I showed up crossing my fingers that the building would be liveable and not a basement dungeon with cinderblock walls and old exercise equipment holding up walls like so many exercise science departments seem to be.

This is Building 408, the School of Business as well as Physiotherapy & Exercise Science. That huge tower thing is some type of water heating/cooling device that was ugly, so they decided to put some "art" on it to make it less ugly...

I share an office with one to three other people depending on the day of the week. Here are the fine scholars and researchers of 3508. I believe both Emily and Rachel are on maternity leave and I've never met them. Come to think of it, there's not even space for them if they were to be here.

It's a typical child physical activtiy intervention storeroom with boombox, a various assortment of balls, and these wonderful toys. I think we may just need to test them out one slow afternoon.

We have a nice reception area that's primary purpose (at least from what I can tell) is to dispense all the extra lemons people bring and chocolates to buy for $1. There's a little kitchenette to self-serve morning and afternoon tea on our floor and another on the fourth floor in the staff lounge. The staff lounge has a lovely balcony, complete with kumquat tree, where you can see straight to the city (and see my apartment building!).

In the hallway outside our office there is a lovely selection of art work.

(Slightly disturbing, and the one in the middle is full of shark teeth.)

Thus far, everyone in the department is mostly friendly. People have popped in to introduce themselves and have a chat. Like any department, especially one with broad teaching and research interests, people find their own niches and only interact with a smile, "How ya goin", or nod as they pass in the hallway. But everyone showed up in full numbers for a lunch time fundraiser, complete with hats.

I did not wear a hat (I blamed it on the fact that I still hadn't unpacked my suitcase, and my hat was buried deep). But I did partake in consuming some surprisingly delightful pumpkin soup.

Who wouldn't want to work here?

Living the High Life

The search is over!  Years ago, the Perth rental market was rough. Real rough. You could show up to an inspection and there would be 20-50 other people wanting that apartment. Luckily, it has recovered a bit.  I started looking at studio apartments and felt like Goldilocks. One was perfect, except it didn't have an oven...(making it impossible to bake cookies!!!). Another one was a perfect location, but beside the fact that it was basically an enclosed patio, it didn't have a refrigerator... One was alright but an oh too far location. After running around Perth (or I should say busing around Perth) to multiple viewings, I found my new home.

I won't give you the address, because I'm responsible and not putting my address on the internet :) But it's zipcode 6000, which means downtown Perth. I've never lived in a city, but I think I've watched enough Sex and the City episodes to feel like I'm ready to give the city life a try.

 

It's a 29 floor high-rise in the CBD. It's an easy 7.2 kilometer (4.5 mile) ride around the river to get to work. Or one 20 minute bus ride that stops across the street for when it's raining. There's a rooftop pool, terrace for picnicking,  and fitness center.

Who wouldn't want to workout with these views?

It's a 2 bed, 2 bath, which means I have my own bathroom and a bedroom with views of the cathedral, city, and even a sliver of the river.

 Looking southwest from the balcony.

 An oven AND a refrigerator!

Plus a balcony that will be perfect when the beloved Perth weather starts showing its face. And being in the city, I'm within a short walk to all the excitement of the Hay Street mall, the Barrack St Jetty (with it's really cool "restaurant", Annalakshmi), and the Hula Bula Bar which apparently is an experience. And of course it's centrally located to busses, trains, planes and still only 10k to the Indian Ocean.

 

It's no penthouse suite, but I am going to take advantage of my city high life while I am here.

Disclaimer: I took all of these pictures, no photoshopping. What you see is what I got.