The Ultimo Roomshare

A bit of a pun, but the suburb is called Ultimo, so there you go. Just to be confusing, Sydney is subdivided into tons of little neighbourhoods, called suburbs, which you put on your mailing address instead of Sydney even though some of them are only a few minutes’ walk apart. 

The apartment is located in a small building around a courtyard formed by the other apartment complexes with lots of trees and ferny things (which is pleasant and there are some loud birds that live nearby). Inside is nice and clean but it’s not air-conditioned, which was a bummer the first few days I was there when it was over 30 degrees (that’s like 90 in Fahrenheit) and pretty stifling. There’s a small kitchen with an additional fridge and shelf space to support the food of the 12 or so people sharing the space. There’s a large living room, a small balcony, and at least 3 bathrooms between the two levels (one’s in my room, which I share with three other girls). The bunkroom itself is small, but there’s a drawer and some closet space and it’s not any worse than a hostel room, plus there’s the ensuite bathroom and the whole downstairs (and kitchen!). Internet is also pretty good, so no complaints there. 

As for my fellow housemates, here’s the rundown:

Nick – from Taiwan, has a habit of playing his iphone club music and singing along to it in the shower, and is always cooking some kind of meat…he also plays this one Chinese song over and over again, which I think is from some sort of TV show but I’m not sure

Anne and Jenny – also from Taiwan, they live in my room, but I hardly ever see them because they study all day and come home late (I hear them occasionally in the morning or when they come in at night)

Daniel – from Taiwan (I think there’s a pattern here) who is around the apartment more than the rest and always offering me various Taiwanese food items and wanting to make sure I know that they’re especially from Taiwan (so far I’ve tried noodle soup, funky puffy cookies, and veggie dumplings, and no complaints about anything!)

Antoine – French chef who is always out late cooking at a super fancy restaurant downtown near the Opera House

Robin – French bartender, I don’t know if he’s working yet or not, the Frenchies are traveling together

Veronika – also from Taiwan (I think) with dyed red hair, she hangs out on the couches a lot and is trying to find a job

[Ketsh] – I have no idea how to spell his name or even if I’ve got the right syllables, but he’s Japanese and for a while thought that I was from Canada (I was introduced to a few people my first day, but others I only met later on)

Angel – also from Taiwan and moved in to my room on the second week, she already knew Daniel from somewhere but doesn’t speak very good English so I haven’t talked with her that much

There’s also two other guys, one of them is Anne’s dad and the other one is another student, but I can’t keep track of their names and feel bad asking them at this late stage (we’ve got a list of names on the wall, but it doesn’t help that some of them are written in characters!)

Anyway so lots of Asian influence, as you can tell, which is interesting, and makes sense because of the location right near one of the schools and Chinatown in Darling Harbour. I am learning a bit about Taiwanese cooking, and would love the chance to practice my bad French (I think I won’t have too much luck trying to learn Chinese) but the Frenchmen are never about. Everyone’s very nice though and not too loud, which is good for me, and they’re hardly ever around it seems so I haven’t had any trouble cooking during the day or anything, which is good.

In other news, more updates on jobs coming soon…