Time flies...

I can't believe it's been a month since I left Chicago...it's been a busy few weeks since my last post. I've moved, been out with my work "pod", met an ex-Prime Minister, driven a cargo van on the "wrong" side of the road and seen the largest group of people in Sydney's history take over the city - even larger than the Olympics. It's been a great month. It's pretty amazing how quickly I've started to feel at home, especially in my group at work. I think I totally lucked out and am part of the best pod in Sydney. My boss, Mel, is the perfect kind of boss. She's wicked smart and very experienced in the Financial industry, but she also knows how to have a good time. As seen below . We had our pod offsite two Wednesdays ago, which consisted of a well-run meeting and business review from 8:30 - 3:30, followed by bowling, pool, karaoke,


The highlight of the night was a run in with Bob Hawke, the ex-Prime Minister who is perhaps best known for holding a world record for the fastest consumption of beer: a yard glass (approximately 3 imperial pints or 1.7 litres) in eleven seconds.

Me and the guys with Bob

Here's a pic from the end of the night, right before I had my first proper pie (an Aussie delicacy) at the world-famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Thankfully we were all "working" from home the next day because of World Youth Day, which had basically made getting around the Central Business District (CBD) a nightmare.

World Youth Day (WYD) is the largest youth event in the world and was held in Sydney from Tuesday 15 to Sunday 20 July 2008.

WYD is a week-long series of events attended by the Pope and hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the globe. It has become the largest single mobilisation of young people in the world.

The WYD "Pilgrims were EVERYWHERE. Here they are marching down the street near my hotel/apartment


I was in rough shape on Thursday. It took until 3pm for me to be able to sit up. Just like old times :) I had to pull myself together because we went to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX on Thursday night. I had to dodge thousands of pilgrims to get to the IMAX. Personal favorites were the American pilgrims chanting "U!S!A! U!S!A!". Classy bunch we are :) You can kind of see them here.

It was worth dodging the madness to see the lovely Windy City as the backdrop for The Dark Knight. I kept pointing out all of my old spots to my friends. "There's Starcom!" "You can kind of see Google Chicago there". So cool.


Anyway, work is great and I finally feel like I'm able to contribute something. It's been kind of cool getting to know all of the Aussie banks. The office feels a lot like the Chicago office, with a few differences. Besides the accents, I've also adjusted to making myself flat whites and toast with avocado and tom-ah-to for brekkie instead of the Starbucks and Special K diet I had in Chicago.

I've learned how to properly steam milk and make espresso to make my flat whites (1/3 espresso 2/3 steamed milk). I'm quite the little barista :)


Here's the view of Darling Harbour from my office:


My team and everyone in the office are laid back and really welcoming. My first week of work I went to happy hour on Friday (shocking, I know), where I met a few guys from other teams. Jasper was having a barbie at his place near Manly Beach on Saturday and invited me to come along, so I decided apartment hunting could wait until Sunday. I have my priorities straight.

I took the ferry with Dave and David, two guys on exchange trips from the San Francisco and Dublin offices.

Me on the ferry to Manly

The ferry building Manly Beach

David from Dublin taking pics at Manly Beach

The view from Jasper's balconyJasper

It was a fun day of grub, wine and then some footy watching at the local pub. Not bad for the first week.


Things just keep getting better. Yesterday we had going away lunch for Bailsy (Chris Bayley), who was one of the first Googlers in Sydney. He's leaving to start his own business, which seems to be one of the only good options for leaving this la-la-land.

The day started out at Hurricane's in Darling Harbour, which is a well known restaurant famous for their pork ribs.

View from Hurricane's (the white building to left of the palm tree is where Google's offices are)Bailsy showing off his biceps

Mel, me & Pete enjoying some liquid lunch Pete prepping for his Flintstones-esque rack of ribs Team Finance Mel, me (Mauza), Pete (Poo Brown), Barney (Barn-dog), Chris (Bailsy), Ben (BJ/Emo), Elaine (Lainey), Darren (Dazza), and Belinda (Cinnamon Rolls)

We started lunch at 1:30 with drinks and TONS of food, followed by more drinks.

It was very heart-warming because in Bailsy's farewell "speech" he said he was so glad he got to work with me, if only for a few weeks and that I fit into the team so seemlessly and considers me like his little sister. They told me they were a little worried about an American joining the team, because I might not be able to "take the piss", aka take shit from people and give it back. Their worries were calmed right away. I can take the piss with the best of them! I think my humor plays a little better here...

The lunch would have been well and good, but we had to go to an event at 6 that was being put on for OMD (an advertising agency, for those not in the bizz). Needless to say, we were in good shape for schmoozing clients. After that we went to The Argyle, which is a really cool club in The Rocks.

It turned into a pretty late night, but it was worth it. Today has been a bit of a struggle, but I've only got 15 minutes until the weekend, so I'm going to bid you adieu for now. Stay tuned for apartment pics.

Hope all is well with all of you. Definitely keep me updated on what's going on. I miss you! Come visit!