Happy 4th of July...

Tonight we celebrated the 4th of July with a large group of American expats at TGIFriday. The restaurant had a couple large American flags hanging and offered free face painting to kids (do any Americans celebrate the 4th with face painting?). We had a great time talking to everybody about what brought them to Australia and the differences between Australia and America. We also got good advice on finding apartments here. The process is quite a bit different than in the States. For one, the apartment must be inspected, which is similar to an open house, before an application can be lodged (Australian for submitted). Different agencies publish the times and locations of the inspections, which last only 15 minutes. The application can be picked up at the inspection and then dropped off back at the agency. The sooner the application is dropped off, the better the chances of getting the apartment. Another way to improve the chances off getting the apartment is to offer more money or to offer to pay up to 6 months in advance. I can't imagine paying more than the advertised rent, but with such fierce competition, this is something we're definitely going to need to consider.