Trying To Get Situated

Have you ever been to the Mitchell Park Domes? Yeah, it’s kinda like the rainforest exhibit here, except more sunny and breezy. The trees look the same, the air feels and smells the same, and it’s hilly everywhere you go. Just a thought
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Today is Friday, I arrived on Wednesday, and left on Monday. Still wearing the same clothes and I still haven’t got a hold of my luggage. I’ve made so many calls and checked in at the front desk of my hostel so frequently that most people have come to know me by name. Even the people in the airport ask me if my name is Neal when I say that I’m calling about lost luggage for Brisbane. Last night, I got word that the Brisbane airport may have one bag and they asked for a description for confirmation. They claimed to have one that belonged to me and offered to deliver it in the morning. Best news I had heard so far on this trip. But I still needed to find a place to live and my phone had run out of pre-paid minutes. A friend let me use her phone and I began calling the different people who had posted rooms on the UQ rentals website. One of the rooms that I was interested in answered and offered to meet me last night.

I went to the room, which turned out to be an apartment, and it didn’t have any furnishings in the bedroom. The people seemed nice, but it wouldn’t be an easy place for me to move into. By the time I left, it was 10:45 pm and I needed to take the bus back downtown. As I waited by the bus stop, I started to hear all these strange noises and saw leaves and branches falling down around me. A walked around the surrounding area and realized that there was a very active population of bats in the area. Big ones, too. When the flew across the street, I would guess they had a 2.5 - 3 foot wingspan. They really freaked me out though. All habitable land is covered by houses, roads, trees, and bushes. So every 20 seconds or so, the bats would start screeching and breaking small branches. They’re probably harmless but it sounded as if they were going to jump out of the bushes at any moment and attack. Either way I got home safely thanks to the extremely reliable bus system they have set up here.

This morning I checked out of the hostel, gave them my phone number in case they caught wind of my bags, and headed off to campus to attend two mandatory presentations. One of them was actually important, but they were both boring. Afterwards, I went back to the accommodations office and started putting my search into high gear. I began calling almost everyone on the list, beginning with the most updated listing. Most people had already filled the rooms or weren’t available to answer my call. As a last ditch effort, I sent a text message to a place which I had called last night and was rejected. They have a very diverse group of people, including two Americans, an Aussie, a Japanese person, and an Indonesian. It’s a great place to live on paper and they apparently still need a roommate as of today. Shortly after sending the text message, I received a call from the person on the list asking me more questions about myself and agreed to let me come by the house later tonight. I’ll do my best to impress them and hopefully they agree to let me stay. But for now, I will be trying to get a hold of my friends and ask them for a change of clothes.