Skimming the menu

My arrival at Perth, my first Aussie POA was quite the experience! It was mid day and I had to move from from one airport terminal to another and boy, was it a hot day. The fact that the airport is built with this open air structure did not help. The crazy outback style didn't sit well with me - and I panicked wondering what the state of Aussie technology and infrastruce would be like. Hell, the last time I'd been Down Under was twelve years ago - so my memories were not very clear nor reliable! I was a mad lady at that airport in search of a trolley - to no avail! Me with all my luggage (2 suitcases and several bits of handbagage) struggled pathetically without a bloomin' trolley! Luckily, my namesake - an Aussie Meagan gave me a hand, and lil old me barely made it on the connecting Quantas flight. Four hours later I was finally in Adelaide.

When I first reached the place I would be staying and am currently living - Kathleen Lumley College, I had a spaz atack. My mobile phone battery died on me, and none of my plugs/ adapters were compatible with the wierd Aussie system. Unable to use my laptop, charge my phone and even switch on a blowdrier - I freaked. All went amock - I felt cut off from the outside world, desperately trying to contact my boyfriend and mum - and well, the tears rolled.

Needless to say, the first night was exhausting, and I finally fell asleep in spite of the biting cold. That initial week had me in two minds - I questioned whether I had made the right decision in leaving home, my job, family and Sameer (the boyfriend) and venturing all the way over here to Kangaroo land. Once lectures began and I got into the small, but very organised and managble city - well, there was no turning back. I have fallen in love with Adelaide, the city has really grown on me in the last three months. It has its own charm, and is quaint, and ultra cute, mostly because of the apt geographical location, fringed by the mountains up toward Mount Lofty and McLaren Vale and the beach down toward Gelnelg, and of course not forgetting the food and wine country - the valleys of Barossa. Living in Adealide has been dreamy! A dream that still has a lot more fuel going...

Finniss Street is where KLC is located, just off Melbourne Street that is lined with several cozy little pubs, cafes and bistros. The area is fabulous and is considered prime real estate - so yah - I'm living in the right spot!

Although my life is pretty much in full swing now, I've made a couple of good 'mates', and have figured out where to go shopping, pick up grocceries, am comfortable with lectures and uni setup. The only point of frustration remains the lines of communication! Ayo technology - All that comes to my mind constantly is JT's song! But, honestly, Bangalore baby we are miles ahead when it comes to wi-fi and connectivity! Phone bills are ridiculous here - to make a local call is just daylight robbery, forget calling home! Computing a printing can be a bitch as well - and oh, so expensive. Internet connections here are so crappy, to say the least!!! After struggling with the wi-fi connection at KLC (the quota would be used up by the 15th of every month by Asian students streaming animax and people using their webcams for hours together) now I am self sufficient with my own 1GB connection per month. This is great as I can surf the net, research, contact home all from the comfort of my pink haven! I have made myself rather comfy in my room that is the perfect pink, palace, pink duvet and bed covers, little princess foot mat and a pink TV for my viewing pleasure! With my good freind the kettle I'm on insta-coffee 24/7 - so I'm one happy gal!

The food at KLC has and continues to be something I am unhappy about. Fair enough, meals as a service that included with room rent is packed into a pretty price. But I am still not able to fathom how it is possible to screw up things like Minestrone Soup and poached eggs! I mean I walk into or as the Aussies would say 'I rock into the joint' at 8.00 am and the eggs are always undercooked and nasty or overcooked and rubbery - I think over the 60 breakfasts or so that have been eaten here I have had about two or three decent eggs. Tonight for example, I actually went through bits of brocolli that were roughage for crying out loud! They were probably cooked for under five minutes - awful, simply awful!

It is just impossible for me to wrap my brain around the food here. How is it possible to screw up food so bad. To make everything taste like mulch, look like glob. It has come to a point, well actually by the third day here I stopped reading the menu - I don't bother. The menu eludes to images that conjure up some wonderfully aromatic, deilicious connotations in my mind. And after a bloody long day, you don't want to set yourself up for an incredible fall like that. The Veal Escalopes, or so they were meant to me stick out as one of the most horrific encounters in my life till today. I literally peeled flour and nastiness off my slimily sickening piece of beef trying to analyse what the hell it was we were being given to eat - that will forever be a mystery to me. I steer clear of such mysteries, head straight for the salad bar, boiled veggies (pray they have been allowed to boil) and well thats dinner. At this point, with an extra four kilograms that have comfortably settled on my lower tummy, hips and thighs, I think the veggie detox is required. So hopefully, that and my rigorous two hour workout will help burn the fat away. My paranoi with the higher fat content of processed foods here in Oz compared to back home, India has been comfirmed. I mean, fair enough Melbourne (ten days of no excerise and hello good, rich, wholesome food) exaccerbatted things - tipping the scale literally!