I Miss My Morning Cup of Joe

So Thursday night was our last night in our hostel, which proved to be quite eventful. At about 4am the fire alarm went off and the hostel receptionist started banging on everyone's door and yelling for us to evacuate immediately. As soon as I opened the door, I realized why she was panicking. It was hazy and smelled like the whole hostel was burning down. We quickly ran down the 3 flights of stairs and gathered with the rest of the escapees outside the hostel. Two fire trucks came (although one proved to be useless as 5 of the firefighters were needed to complete a 3 point turn in the firetruck) and it turns out that one of the vending machines caught fire. Nothing that warranted extreme panicking or a dramatic evactuation.

I've come to learn that American coffee isn't even an option here. You can't order it in any cafe or restaurant - its all lattes, cappuccinos, tall blacks and flat whites. I started searching for a regular coffee maker, most stores don't carry it. And only about half of grocery stores sell ground coffee. The closest thing they sell to it is instant coffee. Yuck! So that has become one of my new obsessions. Every single grocery store we go into, I immediately walk to the coffee aisle to see if they sell ground coffee...even thought I don't have a coffee pot.

No luck yet with the apartment hunting. Hulk Hogan proved to be useless. We've decided to stay in another hostel this week - its much nicer than the last one and we've already practiced the escape route in case of a fire.

Kerry and I went to a Koala park yesterday and got to pet koalas and kangaroos and watch a very boring sheep shearing demonstration that lasted far too long. This weekend we're cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for some of our Australian friends and then going to the horse races - very exciting!!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! I miss you all!