My first week in Perth

After being in Perth for about a week and a half now, I have finally gotten a feel for the city and thought it was about time I wrote about the community, my apartment and of course, my job. While it has only been 10 days, I feel like so much has happened while I've been here that it's hard to decide where to begin.

Joel and I said goodbye and while he headed back to the states, I flew on to Perth where I was picked up from the airport from the Millner family. I got in touch with the family through a connection from one of Joel's friends and even though It's only been a week, I feel like they're my new family here and they've done so much to make me feel welcome and comfortable in the community. They have three kids and I love love to play with them. In any case, they picked me up from the airport and took me to their home for dinner because I didn't have any food in my new apartment yet. After a really nice meal, they took me to my new apartment. I was kind of nervous about what the place would be like because I had never seen it, but it's absolutely perfect. I have a huge amount of space and the house is only a few years old so it has all new amenities and is fully furnished with a kosher kitchen so it has everything I need. The apartment is on the property of another Jewish family. (They call it a "granny flat" here) and they too have been so welcoming and inviting. They even have a poll which they let me use and the view from my "flat" is beautiful with bright flowers and palm trees.

Since I arrived on a Thursday night, Carol Millner offered to take me grocery shopping the next day, which turned out to be one of the biggest helps because buying kosher food here is extremely difficult. There are hardly any hechsers and the only way to know if something is kosher is by looking each product up in a little book. It would have taken me hours to figure it all out by myself, but she showed me a lot of the brands I could buy and gave me a basis so I could shop in the future.

For Friday night dinner I went to one of the synagogues in the area, which turned out to be so nice. It's relatively small and the people are so warm. I had dinner with the Silberstein family (The people I am renting the apartment from) and it was a nice opportunity to meet them them better. I had Saturday lunch with the Millners and then they took me to someone's house where a lot of the young community were were having lunch so I was able to meet more people in the area around my age. I continually think about how lucky I was to get in touch with these families who have really helped define my overall experience and have immediately made me feel so comfortable in not just a new city, but in a new continent, hemisphere and culture! It makes me realize just how incredible it is to have a community that will welcome you wherever you go.

Since the first week, I have met with the Millner's quite often- they even took me to a place called Lake Lischenaultia which was absolutely beautiful and I had such a fun time with the kids playing in the water and kayaking around the lake. I have yet to see the famous beaches of Perth, but it's only the first week and I'm hoping to try to make it over there next Sunday.

But of course it's not just the community that I want to write about (although they are clearly a huge part of my experience). I started work last Monday and things are going really well. I was nervous about having to learn an entirely new computer program from the one I'm familiar with, but even after the first two days I felt I had a pretty good handle on it and everyone in the office is so helpful so there's always someone around if I have any questions. The thing that really got me confused was the fact that they use metric units instead of the imperial scale. I had completely overlooked this fact and my sense of scale was so completely confused when I first got there and I had no idea how big or small things were in millimeters in relation to feet and inches. I've since taken to keeping a conversion calculator open on my computer screen, but in general I'm starting to adjust. I have to say, I'm even happy sometimes when I encounter these "unique" dificulties because I can't help but to think how much it is really helping and broadening my general skills for when I graduate. My boss is really great and tries to give me different projects that cover a variety of experience. Right now I'm working on an office redesign they are doing for their firm. It's nothing big, but I'm the only person working on the project which is slightly daunting to say the least. Some of the pieces for the design are coming on Friday and my boss suggested I come in on Sunday and work with him and one of the other interns to physically build some of the pieces. While on the one hand it uses some of my Sunday, I really appreciate the emphasis he puts on not just sitting in front of a computer all day and designing on a screen. By physically working with the material you can get such a better understanding of the design and I'm actually pretty excited to work on it on Sunday for more experience.

As I mentioned before, people in Australia are really friendly. They are also really big talkers and definitely give me a run for my money. The other day, my coworker wanted to show me something for "15 minutes". An hour and a half later I finally made it back to my desk to continue my work. This happens maybe 3 or 4 times a week with one person or another and while it may not be the most productive of situations, it's nice to get to know the people in my office. Tomorrow evening one of my coworkers even offered to pick me up and go with him and his family to the only set of "hills" in Perth (it being a VERY flat city) so that I can take a look at the whole city and night and enjoy the view. He is also hosting an international exchange student at his home, so he was planning on taking her anyway and offered to take me along which I'm really happy about.

Anyway, I just got back from a barbeque where I met a lot of people who live in my area so I'm really hoping to get to know them better and hang out again. Everything is going so well for me right now (if you couldn't tell), but the only issue I'm having is that there is a very slow internet connection in my apartment so I can't use Skype to call people and keep in touch. These blog entries are the best way for me to keep in touch with everyone at the moment so don't be offended if I can't get a hold of you directly since it's so hard for me to get online at the moment. I'm hoping to get it figured out in the next couple of days, but as it always seems to be with computers, it's taking a lot longer than expected. I can't wait to call everyone or even just send individual emails, but until then, I really love reading your comments and hope the blog is a good way to let you know what I'm up to.

Hopefully I will talk to you all soon and hope everyone is staying warm ( I know I am!) Miss you all so much!!

Tamar