Wine, Money, and Electricity

Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back from all of the things going on in your life to enjoy a beautiful, sunny California afternoon.  We are lucky to have 70 degree days in February, and they are often calling out your name, telling you to come outside and bask in the sun.  I have always been one to have a very structured schedule, not having much time to just pick up and do random things as I please.  But last Friday, that all changed.  The gym girls were approximately 2000 miles away, and of course I'm not in school right now, which means no class time and no homework hanging over my head.  Taking advantage of the situation was a definite must, and I have to say that it was a wonderful experience.  Alex and I had the entire afternoon, and decided that we didn't want to stay around campus, so we took a little drive, with the windows down and the music blasting, and somehow ended up near SFO and the bay.  We found a place to sit, opened a bottle of Australian-made wine, and just sat out there talking and watching the planes go by.  It made for a very nice and peaceful afternoon.  However, little did I know that we would soon be finding our way to the bar at the nearest hotel, and ordering drinks and food from there at approximately 4 in the afternoon.  I have many friends who have done this numerous times in their college careers, but I have to say that it was first for both of us.  It was a wonderful experience, not having any obligations to anyone on a weekday afternoon, sitting and staring at the water through a large glass window, being waited on, and enjoying nice company.  I would definitely recommend it and feel that a repeat performance is necessary before I leave, if the weather holds up (forecast through Saturday is rain...bummer).

This weekend has been all about converting my American things to their corresponding Australian ones.  First it started off with money.  I am now poor by American standards, because I wiped out my savings account as well of most of my checking, and converted all that money to Australian dollars.  This is all too easy to do online...transferring money from one account to the other, placing a foreign currency order...it's crazy.  Apparently my order will be here by tomorrow, and all I have to do is go to the bank and pick up the new money.  I'm really excited to see what it looks like.  Did you know that the bills vary slightly in size, increasing with the value of the bill, and are made of polypropylene polymer (which means nothing to me besides the fact that this makes them water-proof and un-tearable)?  There are also $0.50 coins that are 12-sided and there are no $0.01 coins at all.  Cash transactions that come to less than $0.05 are rounded up or down to the closest $0.05.  No more pennies taking up space in my wallet!

Yesterday was spent trying to find an electrical converter.  With guidance and reassurance, I found what I needed at Best Buy.  It was interesting to open it up, read the directions, and find out that, "The converter is designed to be used only for short periods of time (approximately 10 minutes)."  This caused me to question my decision of buying this product, but instead of taking it right back to the store, I decided that I was going to place a phone call to the company and ask about it.  I got through to what I am pretty sure was an office in India, and after some clarification and being mocked by the man on the phone ("Well ma'am, I can't see why you would only want to use an appliance for only 10 minutes at a time."), I was finally told that the directions were in fact wrong, and that I can leave my things plugged in for however long I please.  So, I can now safely plug in my computer and other important electronics without blowing them up.  Not only does my purchase allow me to do this in Australia, but also in most other places around the world.  Playing with it after all of this drama has led me to the conclusion that the UK has the coolest outlets ever.  Now the only thing left to do is to test my power strip when I get there, because otherwise I am going to have a fun time trying to juggle charging only one piece of equipment at a time.  That will get old really fast.