Go out and buy yourself a jar of Nutella.

Have you ever tried the stuff?  It's fan-friggin-tastic!  I had never had this hazelnutty sensation until yesterday...but man, I'm hooked.  I've successfully eaten TWO 600g jars of it on my own thankyouverymuch.  Do yourself a favor and search high and low until you find the amazing spread called Nutella.  You won't be sorry.

Ok, now that I've got that out of my system...I'll give you an update.  

Many things have changed since my last post.  Most importantly: my outlook on Sydney.  Last time I updated I was depressed, lonely, and extremely homesick.  Granted, I still get homesick on occasion, but it's more much palatable.  Things really began to turn around for me as soon as I got out of the awful living situation that I was in.  Here, let me paint a picture for you:

Josh lives on Cleveland St. which is the dividing line of Surry Hills and Redfern (Sydney is made up of tiny suburbs...similar to NYC or any other large city--these are two of them.)  Surry Hills is a nice, trendy area with many good cafe's, pubs, restaurants, etc. while Redfern is an area that is to be avoided at all costs due to the constant muggings, rapes, and hoards of homeless people (largely Aboriginal) in the area.  Needless to say, Josh doesn't live in the   safest area of Sydney.  Rent is cheap and he doesn't mind the occasional shrieks that pierce   your eardrum in the middle of the night...clearly we are very different.  He has 3 roommates, of which he knows one of their names.  Her name is Anna.  Anna is originally from Russia, in her late 20's and has already had a stroke...she's a junkie.  The woman has totally lost it, here's an example:  one night she was so high that she went into the freezer and ate all of her ice cream that she had just purchased and yelled at the entire household (myself included) for stealing it!  Josh's other roommates were a 60+ yr old Indian man that I rarely saw and an Aussie in his thirties with a major drinking problem.  I would wake up in the morning around 8 and he would already be in the kitchen drinking beers.   Josh's room was pretty small and dirty along with the rest of the house, but I was able to clean up a small corner to put my things.  We shared his double bed the first few nights...something I wasn't thrilled on doing but hey-it was free.  The second night that I stayed with Josh, he arrived home around 2 am completely trashed out of his mind.  I was already asleep but was awakened with his stumbling around and such.  I helped him into the bed and went back to sleep.  The following morning I notice that my leg is wet...yep-he urinated in the bed.  I jumped out of bed and alerted him of what he did; his response was far too casual for my expectations.  Josh didn't even take the sheets off the bed.  I'm not joking.  I showered, left the house, and when I came back to the house the room smelled of strong urine.  I slept on the couch in the living room for two nights before finally getting the hell out of there.  I couldn't take the constant yelling between the roommates, the filth, and the overwhelming depressing atmosphere. 

My original plan was to stay with Josh for 2-3 weeks, which was cut much shorter.  By day 2 I was already scouring the internet trying to find rooms for rent.  I found a few prospects but nothing really caught my eye...except one.  I sent an email to the ad and was given a questionnaire to fill out, etc.  I was told to be at the location at 11:15 on saturday morning.  I showed up at 11:18 along with another American guy from California (Travis) and was caught completely off guard by how many people were already in the house.  Turns out there were 2 guys interviewing people as they would be taking two of the rooms and had two rooms available for rent.  Travis and I were shown the rooms and left shortly afterward.  Travis and I immediately hit it off...finally someone to talk college football with!  I briefed him on the awful living situation that I was in and he suggested I walk over with him to the hostel where I was staying to see about getting a bed there for a few nights until I found a room for rent.  Both of us were really hoping to get one of the rooms in the house that we had just seen as it seem like the perfect place.  Not only was the house big, it also had a nice backyard, great location, and most importantly: both the guys living there seemed really cool.  

Within 30 minutes of arriving at the hostel, I got a phone call from Andi and Bojan telling me that I was selected as one of the roommates!  I was really thrilled to say the least.  They invited me to come with them to IKEA to pick out a few things for the house as it is unfurnished.  I asked them who the second roommate was and they told me they were still undecided.  I knew right then and there that I had to go with them to sway their decision for Travis to be the 4th roommate.  Once I got off the phone, I went back and hung out with Travis in the hostel without being able to tell him anything about the conversation.  I made up a lame excuse for me having to leave and met up with the guys back at the house.  We had a really good afternoon getting to know each other and picking out stuff for the house.  I hadn't been that happy in such a long time, I finally had a nice place to live!  Andi and Bojan were both still really undecided on who they wanted as the 4th flatmate.  The list had been narrowed down to three: a british girl, a french girl who hardly spoke english, and Travis.  After much persuasion (and telling them how badly girls shed, how they take forever in the bathroom, etc), I got them both to agree on Travis.  Man, this was really becoming too good to be true!  We called Travis up and he was elated to hear the news...he had been house hunting for weeks now so it was a huge relief for him.

I got back to the hostel (stayed there for 4 nights until we could move in) absolutely elated.  

To be continued very soon!