Life in a hostel: It’s been quite some time since I’ve shared a bathroom with eight other women (since 1997, in fact), and I’ve never shared with foreigners. In our room, we’ve had Swedes, Germans, Australians, Swiss, and me, the lone American. The hostel is in a nice location, just blocks from the beach in one direction and the shops in another. The bathroom is right in the room, so it’s segregated by gender, which is rather nice.

Homesick: Yes, I admit it. I’m a little homesick. I think that, in retrospect, deciding to come here with no more plans for lodging than to stay at the Backpackers By the Beach Hostel was not the best choice for my overplanning and, shall I say, anal-retentive nature. But something this hard for me has to be good for me, right? J I felt really out of place when I first got here, since it’s so similar to the US and yet so different. The first afternoon here I spent wandering in circles, trying to find a store to buy locks for the tiny little lockers they have in the hostel. (When I heard they had lockers, I mistakenly assumed that they would be the size of gym lockers. No, these lockers are like lockers at ski resorts, where you can fit a shoe, or maybe two if your feet are small. But unlike the ski resorts, there are no locks on them.) I felt pretty abandoned and alone. I finally felt more at ease when we started playing trivia after free BBQ and drinks at The Brewery Queens’ Wharf, since trivia is something I’m pretty good at. It took a few days, but once I finally settled in and got to know a few of the other hostel guests, I started to feel more comfortable here.

Australian thoughts: On Saturday morning, I finally felt like I was in Australia when Andraea (a nice British/Australian girl who’s backpacking alone) and I went over to Newcastle Beach and played in the water for a bit. Sitting at the water’s edge, with the sun shining hotly down on us, the surf rising up towards high tide to meet us, watching the surfers and body-boarders catch waves, I could feel the pull of Australia on me. Newcastle feels like a mix of places I’ve been, like southern California, and places I haven’t, like Ireland, all rolled into one.

Fashion: Having been here a few days, I’m already starting to notice some things about fashion. Much of the clothing appears similar to the US, but much more revealing. I don’t think any woman under the age of 50 owns a one-piece bathing suit. Even the few women who are a bit large to be wearing bikinis (see, LJ, this is called tact *wink*) have opted for a two-piece suit with a tank top and boy-shorts or speedo-type bottom. So many people here are so skinny, especially compared to the average American. I can’t decide if that’s a national trend, or if it just comes from the fact that Newcastle is a college beach town (think Wilmington, for those of you from NC, or perhaps San Diego near the university, for the Ultimate players who’ve been to President’s Day).

Some place I will NOT live: Elizabeth House, a long-term stay youth hostel here in Newcastle. It’s run by the YWAM, or Youth With A Mission, and let me tell you, from the rules for living there, their mission is NOT to drink and have fun (which happens to be my mission. If you’re anyone I work for or with, then my mission is to do research 24/7, of course). The rules include things like, “NO visitors on the premises after 10 pm” and “The door must be fully propped open whenever there are visitors in the room.” My dorm in college didn’t have rules as restrictive as that! (Mom and Dad, ignore that last sentence. I’m lying to seem cooler to all my friends reading this journal. Of course the door always had to be open when we had friends over. If you’re not my parents, you can ignore this bit in parentheses.)

Australia Day: Definition: a public holiday for drinking, grilling, beach-going, family-time and fireworks, much like our Independence Day. Here’s an excerpt from the Travel Channel website about the real reason for the holiday :

“Australia Day celebrates the anniversary of Captain Arthur Phillip unfurling the British flag at Sydney Cove and proclaiming British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia on 26 January 1788.”

Seems like a strange thing to celebrate to me, but what do you expect from the descendants of a bunch of prisoners? J Lots of fun things to see, from a swim race across the harbor in the morning to fireworks and “Moulin Rouge” in the amphiteater in the evening. I was most moved by the Citizenship Ceremony, when these cute little Asian kids became Australian citizens and stumbled off with their Australian native trees and certificates of citizenship.

This one time, in Australia… I went out to dinner with a bunch of backpackers, two Brits and two Germans, to dinner at a great Indian place called Darby Raj over on Darby St. and then to a couple pubs for some live music. Newcastle is known (in the Lonely Planet guide, at least) as the live music capital of New South Wales. Part of that stems from the popularity of Silverchair (remember them?), who got their start at the Cambridge Hotel here in Newcastle. I guess I’ve found something to keep me busy in the evenings.