Happy Birthday Ex-flatmate

Today is Ex-flatmates birthday, so happy b'day mate! Well technically it's tomorrow, but with the 14 hour time difference, I gave him a ring today and said g'day/wished him well using Skype. With free Skype to Skype calls and really cheap international calls, it's an awesome program for calling overseas, especially in my situation of only having the opportunity to call from a cell phone with expensive international rates. Wow, that reads as a cheesy ad for Skype, but you get the gist that I'm a fan. Even though it's only been a month, it was cool to chat to Ex-flatmate and catch-up on recent happenings, plus it's always nice to hear a familiar accent via +61.

I've known Ex-flatmate since high school (as with most of my close friends). We shared an apartment for around 2 years and have had countless adventures through our friendship. Ex-flatmate is one of those high-achievers who works unnaturally long hours in the ruthless corporate world, yet manages to be positive, cheerful and modest, plus he still manages to take time out from his commitments to hang out with his mates for a beer or a rock concert. A more decent, likeable bloke I couldn't imagine. Over the years, me, Ex-flatmate and The Scotsman have made a tradition of being the rock gig/music festival-attending trio, and some of the highlights of my last few months in Australia was moshing out to Tool and at the Big Day Out festival (where Tool was also headlining) on consecutive days at the end of January.

Big Day Out crowd 2007, by Matt Booy

The lineup at Big Day Out this year was stupendously superb and Tool and Muse rocked out completely, while Aussie bands like John Butler Trio, Expatriate and the few songs we caught from The Vines were also top notch. A significant number of young, shirtless, amazingly hot guys were a fitting accompaniment to the superb music; especially in tight, crowded situations, as in the mosh pit. I mean let's not beat around the bush, a music festival is 80% music, 20% pervfest, well for me it is. If you are a tourist in Sydney around late January and want to visually sample the most gorgeous guys (or girls) Australia has to offer, I strongly suggest trying to snag a ticket to the Big Day Out. A diverse range of music, a hedonistic mass of shirtless guys, beers, good mates and a sunny clear blue sky, need I say more?

But I digress, back to the birthday message, I hope the golf God's favour Ex-flatemate for his birthday round and that he has an overall awesome weekend off, despite being another year grayer :-). I know Ex-flatmate is a Star Wars fan and although it's not sold anymore, if I could mate, I would have sent this to you:


More vintage Star Wars stuff and the above image can be found here.

Fine art and Kung Pao chicken

I'm cozy and warm in my new studio at the moment. There's no hint of the supposed springtime outside, instead it's grey, freezing and rainy. My temporary lodging at Lulu/Bing's place finished two nights ago and although it was great fun living with them, it's nice to have a personal sanctuary to really call home.

A work colleague was kind enough to volunteer to drive me to Target so I could stock up on essentials for my apartment, so I'm now equipped with kitchen stuff like knives and a microwave, bathroom crap like towels and other random paraphernalia that's made my place liveable. I've also done numerous trips to homeware shops like Bed Bath & Beyond and the department chain Macy's for other stuff. It's bloody amazing how much crap is needed to make a place liveable! Needless to say my bank balance has taken quite a hit recently so the plan is to go without furniture until I can find something cheap on Craigslist. Who needs a set of drawers when you've got a suitcase dammit.

So with a comfy queen-sized futon to sleep on, cereal in the pantry and bowls to eat from, I'm content. I've even acquired a plant who I've called Eli. He's a Madonna Lily which are apparently pretty hardy. Despite my abysmal track record in keeping plants alive, I'm hopeful he'll survive, although he does have a few yellow leaves on him already...



Apart from my new place, I now have a swanky new cell-phone with Verizon Wireless. Courtesy of being staff at Harvard, the phone came free with a 17% discounted calling plan (the cheapest plan Verizon had to offer of course). Plus, my social security number got issued so I can get paid, woohoo! The internet guy came today so I've got high-speed internet of course (hence the blogging update), and with the net comes the sweet sounds of Triple J online. Lulu and Bing don't have a TV and I haven't really missed it so I'm not getting a TV, which makes the net my lifeline to entertainment.

Work-wise, I'm still settling in and it'll take a while before I get into a defined project. Most of my lab are older family-orientated postdocs so there hasn't been much social interaction with the lab. They've been friendly and helpful so far but I don't see the same level of out-of-work fun that I had with my previous lab who were mostly close to my age or younger. Time will tell.

At the moment I've been eating out almost every meal with Lulu and Bing who have been giving me the culinary tour of the neighbourhood which has been draining on the wallet but heaps of fun. I think we've only had dinner at home 8 times or so in the almost 4 weeks I've been here. My social life has been hanging out with Lulu, Bing and their work friends which has been cool and welcoming in a foreign city.

The other week we went to the Museum of Fine Arts as part of a meetup event for Aussies working in Boston, although we went and did our own thing after greeting everyone. The exhibits of art and artifacts from all over, including traditional masks and costumes from Africa, pottery and goldwork from South America, awesome calligraphy from China were interesting, but as part of a special exhibit, the marble piece called Madonna of the Clouds by Donatello was the winner for me.




I'm not an artsy person, and religious art usually repulses me, but there was something intangibly appealing about the piece. Up close, the detail and emotion conveyed by a freakin' slab of marble was pretty special.

The event at the museum was on the first Friday night of the month and as such, there were drinks and canapes in one gallery. Having spent too much time admiring the art downstairs we arrived late to the drinks and were glad we did. We expected complimentary food but it wasn't free and to make it worse, the gallery was filled with a pretentious looking crowd of glamour wannabes (admittedly, there were a few incredibly cute guys there sipping their champagne, effortlessly looking hot and making a large blip on my gaydar). Surprisingly, there was dance music blaring and a lot of atrocious dancing by a drunken mob of the generally less attractive too-hip-for-society people. It was a weird scene; classic styled paintings hanging on the walls of a stately, cavernous museum room clashing with the beats and dancing of wasted people. It was an interesting experience, but not my our Lulu and Bing's scene, so after a bit of gawking and feeling slightly uncomfortable we bailed for some really good pizza at a local Italian restaurant.

I've just returned from dinner to finish this post. It was at an awful Chinese restaurant about 5 mins walk away. Think lots of MSG, cheesy 90's music being piped into the dining room, fluorescent sauces on inappropriately flavoured dishes and then double the overall horror. Oh, did I mention is was attached to a cheap motel? Not good. Even my fortune cookie didn't make sense. It said something like 'A handsome man means a handsome does'. At least the Chinese Tsing Tao beer tasted good. Lulu, being a lover of authentic tasty meals of any nationality, and having high hopes of finding a good local Chinese restaurant, was thoroughly disappointed and grimaced with disgust throughout the meal.

Now that I've got craploads of MSG coursing madly through my body and making me hyper, I'll probably be awake all night. However, one good thing about dinner was that I finally found out what Kung Pao chicken tastes like. It doesn't exist in Australia but I've heard it mentioned in countless American shows like Seinfeld. Having tasted it, I'm glad it's a dish confined to the States. Think chicken pieces, extremely slight chilli, celery, bell peppers (or capsicum in Aussiespeak) and a few peanuts in a nondescript oily gravy. With plenty of MSG of course.

Lucky 7

I saw at least 16 studio apartments and visited 3 share-houses in two weeks of house-hunting. The apartments were in buildings that ranged from well-kept and comfortable, to shabby blocks of brick with dirt caked in the corridors and with basement laundries that wouldn't be far from what I'd imagine a room in a crack-house to look like. Although I investigated share-house living as a way to save money, in the end I decided that living solo and not saving money was fine. I had lived alone in Sydney and knew that it suited me.

I'm happy to write that almost two weeks of searching, that seemed desperate and hopeless at times, has finally rewarded me with a nice studio apartment. It's $1200/month, located on the second floor (in Australia it'd be called the first floor) of a professional building with 24 h maintenance, has hardwood floors, a separate kitchen and of a decent size. My windows overlook the internal courtyard and the apartment gets decent, but not spectacular outside light. It's actually about 5 buildings away from where Lulu and Bing live, so it's a 12 min walk to work, has plenty of restaurants nearby and 2 supermarkets for groceries within walking distance.

A niggling concern about my new place is the fire-escape outside my windows which is a potential burglar point of entry. But then again, there are plenty of ground floor apartments and less secure buildings around. Anyway, getting broken into is more likely to be due to bad luck than having a fire-escape nearby. If you think that I'm being a bit paranoid, having woken up with an intruder in my room whilst living in a 5th floor apartment, security is a concern for me.

The studio is completely bare at the moment but I've got a queen-sized futon arriving this Tuesday, so I won't move from Lulu's place until then, and no blogging from my new pad until the internet gets setup sometime. It's been overwhelming when I think of all the stuff I need to get for my studio, but one good thing about most Boston apartments is that they come with a fridge and sometimes a microwave. No microwave in mine but they're pretty cheap second hand.

With a new apartment a significant part of The Big Move is over. It's a huge relief and bloody exciting, and it cements the previously surreal thought that Boston really is my new home.

My studio and building isn't as nice as Lulu and Bing's but hopefully it'll feel like home soon enough. It's also apartment number 7, so with enough luck I won't wake up with another stranger by my bed. Uninvited stranger that is.

House-hunting

It's been a little less than 2 weeks since I moved to the States and the attempt to establish myself in Boston is moving slowly. So far, there have been some successes such as; opening a bank account; filing for a social security number (extremely important for pay purposes and a tonne of other things); and settling into work, although this is an ongoing process.

However, I still haven't got a cell phone and most alarmingly, I haven't found a permanent place to live. Luckily, I'm residing with two good friends, Lulu and Bing, who moved from Sydney to Boston 5 months ago. They moved for similar reasons to myself, that is, they are both scientists who are doing their postdoctoral research in the US. I did my PhD in the same lab as Lulu and got to know her then-fiancee-but-now-husband Bing over the years. Both are extremely nice and accommodating, and I have no idea how I would have survived The Big Move without their advice, support and of course their generous offer of temporary housing in their enviably nice, rented apartment.

My fishy room-mates at Lulu and Bing's place

Their apartment (or flat, in Aussiespeak - say flat to an American and you'll get a 'What the?' stare in reply) is a one bedroom place, hardwood floors, cool tropical fish tank, many indoor plants and a comfy futon that makes the apartment a pleasant refuge from the cold conditions outside. The surrounding neighbourhood is safe and full of good restaurants within a few minutes walk, and it's the kind of area I'm looking to live in.

Housing in Boston is terribly expensive when compared to the rental market in Sydney. Amazingly, a $100-200 difference makes a huge difference to the quality of the apartment. I know it's not exact to compare across currencies, but I was paying $A600/month for a studio in a decent area in Sydney, while it's about $1200/month for a fairly nice place in Boston. There are plenty of decent studios for less than $1200, but since I'm a stranger in Boston I wanted to have a place that is homely and which offers a bit of comfort when I get home.

Another thing that's different here is the separation of buildings between 'professionals' and 'students/undergrads'. Profession counts in renting and you get asked about your occupation. Some rental groups that manage the buildings only take professionals. Generally, the professional buildings are better maintained than the student blocks.

I spent today running around in the frigid, snowy/sleety conditions to inspect studio apartments and share house options in various Boston locales. This is spring?! My jeans are absolutely soaked and clammy on my skin which unsurprisingly, I'm not too happy about. However, due to my new Boston-bought waterproof boots (thanks REI!), my feet are mercifully dry. Worst of all it's just past 11 pm and I'm writing this at work. I've still got a few things to do before I can go home and I'm writing in the breaks.

The major difference between the Sydney and Boston rental system, is that here, the Realtor gets paid a 'brokers fee' for every apartment they rent out. The fee is 1/2 to 3/4 of the monthly rent and is paid by the tenant or in some circumstances, the landlord. So with a brokers fee + first and last months rent, renting an apartment is an expensive procedure.

Although it's only been a week, I'm sick of trawling Craigslist and calling realtors. Craigslist is almost unknown in Australia as far as I know, but it has turned out to be a great resource here in Boston. You can find share accommodation, rentals, furniture and a bunch of other stuff there.

The good news is that I'm ready to apply for an apartment tomorrow. It's just around from Lulu and Bing's place and close to work. Fingers crossed the application goes through.

It's been a long day; bed-time (finishing this post at home). I'm excited that maybe my next post will be from my new apartment. Later.