Gringotts

I've found Gringotts, the wizard's bank! Well, sorta... There's this bank - Westpac - in Toowoomba's CBD (Central Business District) that completely reminded me of Gringotts from Harry Potter, except that the bank is terra cotta in color rather than white marble.

I know. It's a bit of a stretch, but oftentimes these historical buildings that have "bank" or whatever on them don't really hold what they're supposed to. This one did. I mean, it looks like what a bank ought to look like. I thought it was interesting. A more complete view of the bank below...

Also, some pictures that I took of the city's CBD. It's late autumn leading into winter so you can still see some trees that show a change in color of the leaves. Not quite New England, but still very nice.

Rain

It's raining pretty hard right now. I think it rains quite a bit in general here. This is a relative recent change as Australia has been plagued by droughts for the last few years. Of course, people know of the recent floods that hit Brisbane and Toowoomba.

It hasn't gotten that bad. In fact, driving around town, you can't even tell that the city was flooded 3 or 4 months ago. The city is bisected by various rivers though so it is always a possibility. This is the nature of being near a river I guess, including Brisbane, the Mississippi Valley, etc. I will mention that the first time I saw one of the main city streams or rivers on a mild to moderate rainy day, it was raging over the embankment. A couple days later when it was dry, the stream was completely docile. A show of respect, please.

As I have mostly commented on things that I have seen, I thought I would make a footnote on what I'm doing these days. So far, I'm still looking for a job. An expected start date would be a couple more months. By that time, I will have been off for 3 whole months! I still cuddle up to Harrison's or the Washington Manual to keep my medically savvy neurons active.

I've had a chance to help my parents a lot during this time. To this day though, they are still having a hard time with the Australian accent. I think the British accent might be a bit more forgiving, but the Australian accent is kind of hard on them. My mum did make a local Australian friend. It's funny because I think they "understand" each other, but my mum can't really understand her English and I don't think this rather nice lady can understand my mum's English either. Brilliant. :)

The rest of the time, aside from looking for a job, I am taking advantage of the educational offerings at the Buddhist school here, the Pure Land Learning College. I am trying to be grateful for everything and everyone around me. I try to be grateful that I am alive as I know from our observations in the medical profession for many of us, someone somewhere in some hospital is taking their last breath everyday. So each day I wake up, I am grateful that I have another day to be grateful. I will consider posting some stuff that I have learned in hopes that it can be taken as good simple life advice.

Brisbane

I went down to Brisbane a few days ago. Run a few errands, see the city, get my iPhone taken care of. It was a rainy day (no, there was no flooding) and the city itself reminds me a lot of Boston. There's a main river that runs through the city like the Charles River. There are skyscrapers all over the place, streets at odd angles, and many many one-way streets. Parking is a nightmare and pricey. There is a nightlife though as there were plenty of streetwalkers around. There were several young Japanese girls, too... or Taiwanese. I can't decide. Sadly, I did forget my camera, so I have posted images that share a similar facsimile to what I saw.

The only real shame about Brisbane? It's a good hour and forty minutes from Toowoomba, so although weekend trips are feasible, it can get a bit tiring if done repeatedly.

Fast Food

I need fast food... I've been living off healthy Chinese food for the past 3 weeks, and now I keep salivating for Domino's Pizza, margarita-style. Yes, they have Domino's. They also have MacDonald's, as well as KFC and Burger King. They don't call it Burger King though. They call it Hungry Jack's here. In New Zealand, it's still known as Burger King.

I haven't seen the menus in person, but I imagine there's no quarter pounder at MacDonald's. And the difference between Hungry Jack's and Burger King? I would have to go with the Aussie Whopper. Not just your average Whopper. This one comes with bacon, egg, 400mg more salt, and 7g more fat.

But that's nothing compared to the Ultimate Double Angus. 3.5kJ energy, 57g of fat, 2300mg of sodium... this baby is guaranteed to send your 35% ejection fraction patient into congestive heart failure. But in all fairness, the health information can be conveniently found on the website. Full disclosure.

Beef is ample and cheap. They even have kangaroo steaks!

Marsupials

Cute, right?

Well, apparently marsupials are not all that they seem. These are wombats... and they bite. 
Quoted from Wikipedia: "Humans who accidentally find themselves in an affray with a wombat may find it best to scale a tree until the animal calms and leaves. Humans can receive puncture wounds from wombat claws as well as bites. Startled wombats can also charge humans and bowl them over, with the attendant risks of broken bones from the fall."
Fun. 

Apparently, the title of dangerous marsupials is not restricted to wombats. Kangaroos can be dangerous, too, as "the real danger lies in a serious kick with the hindleg. The sharpened hind claws can disembowel an opponent."

At least koalas are okay. They are only "aggressive towards each other."
But, they are cute though... Aww... Sign me up for my first wallaby! 

Cuter than a wallaroo or kangaroo?

Amazon.com

I just found out that I can still use Amazon.com for many online purchases (assuming it ships directly from Amazon.com, LLC). That's great! The shipping is a bit pricey, but even when factoring in that cost, many items are still cheaper than here in Australia, which imposes significant import taxes. This is the second best news I've heard today... I can still order from Amazon.com...

Since I've been making random posts, I thought I would also include some pictures that I have taken of Toowoomba. It's a nice town... about 120,000 inhabitants. It has all the basic amenities... hospitals, Bunnings (Australian Home Depot), Kmart, Dick Smith (Australian Radio Shack), Harvey Norman (an Australian combination of Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond), Myer (Australian Macy's), and The Good Guys (Australian Circuit City... may it RIP).

Roundabouts

Roundabouts...

These things are everywhere. A bit annoying to be honest. A nice little article on them from Wikipedia. I guess they are in fact a lot safer than traditional junctions.

I'm always afraid I'm going to miss my roundabout exit. The flipside is that it's easy to make another full circle to the exit again. Of course, I'm sure other drivers would think I'm a nutter if I did that.

Wildlife

I saw my first wild kangaroo! Two, in fact... hopping away... in a place called Goombungee (population n=800). Sadly, I did not capture this event on film, but here's an approximate facsimile.

Speaking of wildlife, there are a lot of different types to watch out for especially when driving. Some I cannot even identify by silhouette alone.

This one is a bit more straightforward though...

Houses

Houses in Toowoomba are kinda interesting. The older ones look like British colonial plantation homes... except without the plantation part. Metal corrugated roofs for potential inclement weather. The newer houses look closer to what you would expect in the States with a tiled roof. We're living in the less desirable part of town, but by Los Angeles standards, it's rather nice. I guess it's all relative.

Driving on the left side of the road has actually been alright. I think the toughest part is remembering which direction to look when changing lanes. I feel the left side of the car has grown significantly and the right side has shrunk (which for all intents and purposes has). I kinda feel like James Bond... except not. I'm positive it's the Aston Martin and not the driving on the other side of the road...

In Australia, beginning drivers must display an L plate on the front and back of the car. Essentially, this designates them to everyone, "Watch out, I'm a noob." Afterwards, they get upgraded to a P plate (subdivided into P1 and P2, again front and back of car) before they graduate to an open licence, which is a general drivers licence. No L or P for me, thanks!

Welcome to Australia

So, I finally started the blog that everyone wanted me to. Today is my 9th day here; first day blogging. I thought I would start off with an image. Target is spelled with a period. It still blows my mind.

I will upload some more pictures later. Haven't gone around as much as I would like. Not having a car is probably one reason. I did get a Queensland drivers licence... pretty awesome. Right now it's the interim piece of paper one. The real one arrives in less than two weeks. Cool.