The Land of AUS: My Australian Household

I have officially lived in Ivanhoe Victoria for over a week now and am finally feeling like I've settled in.

Groceries are done, pictures are up, bed is made and every suitcase unpacked.

Thus, this is my post on the ins and outs of my Australian Household experience.

Roommates:

I live with a VERY full household in a student shared house in Ivanhoe (a posh subburb about 20 minutes by train outside of the city center, and 15 minutes by bus to my school).

There are SIX people in my house at the moment

Tom- British

Jesper- Danish

Claire- Aussie

Scott- Aussie

Kristyna- Canadian

and myself

We all share a large bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen.

The household works in schedules as Kristyna and I are the only people who have the luxury of a student life. This means that Tom and Jesper get up at 5am to get ready for work and depart around 6. At 6am Claire and Scott awaken to get to work downtown for 8:30ish. Kristyna and I roll out of bed whenever we feel like it or if there is something to do.. and just try to stay out of the other 4's way.

Groceries:

I am a person who LOVES to eat. But, grocery shopping in a country with no similar brands was a bit of a challenge, so I attempted to find the most similar groceries to home as I could. Here are some pictures of the food I bought and you'll probably notice some small changes in the brands.

This sign says "24 Pack Dr. Pepper 29.95- HALF PRICE!"

the best cookies in the world

Cheddar Cheese is referred to as "Tasty Cheese"

Bedroom:

I have a small bedroom in the house that fits a Queen size bed and not much else. However, the bed was FREE so who can complain and is large and comfy. There is also a large closet and window in my room. In my opinion the less space, the less mess and so far thats proved true.

Australian homes are not built like Canadian homes. Winter is such a short season that the homes are built for the warmer weather, with many windows and doors to keep places cool. This means that the homes are not heated as Canadian homes are throughout. Instead there will be a heater in one or two rooms and that's it, meaning I have to bundle up before bed as if I'm camping!

Another thing about Australia is that storage bins are VERY expensive. Rubbermaids run about $45 a piece and those plastic stackable drawers can be between $45 and $75 Australian. Needless to say, I went student for my storage solutions. A shoe rack with a few colourful cardboard boxes made my clothes, hair accessories, jewlery and picture frames easy to store for $25. Then I bought a few cheap decorations like a black and a white clock to keep track of Canadian and Australian time for $4 each. I also bought red branches with lights for $8 and 2 pieces of canvas Aboriginal Australian art for $20 all together. Finally I bought 2 $10 frames to store some of my pictures. All in all my room set up cost me

$80. Not bad for making a home away from home.

Here is the finished product!