April 25, 2010

I decided Friday that I needed to get out of Brisbane. I wasn't really impressed and had been looking for work outside of the city so I figured there's no reason for me to stay there. Flew out today. I had to take a train to the airport so I was up at 845 for a flight at 12. My bags were about 5kg overweight, so I had to spend shit loads of money for that. I wish I would have thought of that and I would have just took the bus. Bus would have been the same price and I wouldn't have had to worry about the train to the airport, the overweight cost, and one night accommodation because it would have been an overnight bus ride. It was all worth it when I landed though! Once we broke through the clouds I could see the harbor (I was in an aisle seat so my view sucked) and I got so excited. It's like I've been traveling so much that my excitement for new places isn't as extreme anymore, but this time it was. I had surge of excitement! Once we landed I wanted to let someone know I was here, to be excited with, so I was going to text Michael (pretty sure I've mentioned him in my blog before, but just in case… friend I met in Europe who lives in Sydney). I was going to wait until baggage claim when I had a few minutes of waiting, but we had to wait an extra minute to get off the plane for some stairs so I text him. My phone was on silent, but as I was walking along the tarmac I looked at the phone again and saw two missed calls from him! Geez! I called back and he asked where I was. When I told him he asked what gate because, get this, he was at the freaking airport! His mom that lives in Brisbane was about to fly back so he and his sister were here dropping her off. He was walking toward my gate but was a few gates away! Oh my gosh, I was so excited. We'd been talking a few times a month since I got here and always have kept in contact on FB so we'd been DYING to see each other for quite some time now. HUGE hug from him and his mom and sister, and his sister offered to take me to my hostel, awesome. Nice drive in a tiny little Aussie car, and they dropped me off. He's taking me on a tour of the city tomorrow. He's been prepping for quite some time so I'm excited to see what he comes up with. After I got settled in the crap hostel I went for a walk of the town. Walked alone Hyde Park, through the botanical gardens to get my first view of the Opera House! As I was walking to get a good shot of it, I kept grinning like a fool. I was about to see the Sydney Opera House! How insane? I'm in Sydney, Australia!! I've wanted to be here as long as I can remember and here I am! I couldn't believe it. Anyway, took heaps of pictures and kept touching and touching it, unable to comprehend where I was standing, and started walking back to the hostel. There was another park, Darling Harbor, on the way, so I stopped there right at dusk. It was really pretty, another smaller bay, so there were city lights, water, boats, fountains, and street performers, really nice. Walking for like five straight hours in crap sandals, but worth it. Maybe tomorrow I'll wear sneakers. Definitely sneakers.

April 17, 2010

Not much new to report. I've been in Brisbane for a little over a week now. I was sick for most of it. Still coughing a bit, but it's settled a lot. I'm staying at a hostel on the river. It's a few stories high and overlooks the city. There are bridges and high rises, it's really pretty. It's SO different from Mission. Mission is a tiny town on the beach, this is a huge city on the river without sand or palm trees. I think it's a good difference though. I said once that I always wanted to live in a tiny town, a big city, and another country. I've now done the tiny town, another country, and I'm working on the big city. Pretty killer. I got a gig cleaning the hostel pretty quick. I clean for a few hours a day and get free accommodation. Dani and Rob (was working with them in MB) have been living here since they left so I contacted them right away and we met up a few days after I got here. Rob works all the time but Dani works evenings usually so we met up early in the afternoon and hung out until she had to work. It was so nice to see her again. We just sat in her really nice apartment and gossiped about the people and stuff that's been going on for the past few months. She had the whole next day off so I went over after work and hung out all evening. We walked around the botanical gardens, went shopping a bit, bought some hair dye and did some coloring, made cupcakes, Rob came home so we chatted with him for a bit and had some curry. Hair is a bit darker than I wanted but it'll be okay. The cupcakes were good and the curry was hot. The company was wonderful though. They walked me home because it was like 11pm when I left. Dani works at a restaurant and said that they were hiring so today I went out there and turned in a resume. They didn't seem to want someone without experience, which I am, but when I mentioned Dani's name, they said that I could do a trial run. I'm going to have to do some "waitressing for dummies" research or something, just in case. Either way, I felt uncertain about me working in a restaurant so I came home and sent out like 10 resumes to hotels. Some in Brisbane, and others in other cities, just in case. Some places were actually hiring, like six or seven, so hopefully something good will come back. I haven't been out to do anything in the evenings yet. The people in my room are really cool. There's seven people in this room. Two are never around, two are BFF, which leaves two other boys that are really cool, but one is in love with one of the girls here and the other just doesn't seem to want to be buddies. Either way, because I've been sick, I haven't really been wanting to go out. Now that I'm better I haven't really been wanting to go out or felt wanted.

Apr 7, 2010

I’ve just left Mission Beach. I’m about to spend 30 hours on a bus to Brisbane, not fun. I could have flown, but getting a bus to the airport, then the airport, then bus to a hostel… doesn’t sound like fun and would end up being more expensive. I’ll be spending the night on the bus, so that’s one night accommodation paid for! Whoo hoo! Anyway, the past two weeks spent in Mission Beach were pretty good. I was hoping to find work but that didn’t happen. Dez sent out 5-6 resumes, and I sent out 11-12. I was hoping to hear back sooner, but I haven’t heard a thing. Peta and Dez are both really confident that I’ll hear something soon but I didn’t think sitting around MB would have been a good idea any longer. I told Boyd I’d only be at his place for a few days and it turned into a few weeks. I was spending my evenings at the hostel and one of the new employees hates me because I’m friendly with her husband, so I felt like a burden there. The only employee that is still working from when I was there is Joey, and he’s been a big ball of depression lately, so he hasn’t really been very welcoming. The new employees, with the exception of Stef, have been really cool, and seemed to get on well with me. May, my replacement, is awesome. She’s such a sweetie and likes to DO stuff, so her and I went to Paronella Park with another guest she found with a car. I’d wanted to go since I got to MB, so I was thrilled that she arranged it. It was beautiful. Her and I also wanted to take some walks but the weather was pretty crap. When it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t that bad. It’s cooled down and the humidity has died down a great deal, so it’s bearable. Tourist season is starting soon and I’m sad I’m going to miss it. I’m really going to miss Mission. I spent my last day at Boyd’s sitting out on his back porch watching the ocean and enjoying the quiet. I laid out in the sun (for the few minutes it peeked out) and walked a bit along the shore until it started raining. Brisbane doesn’t have a beach so it’ll be a huge difference from Mission. I spent my last night out with the locals. None of the hostel workers wanted to come out. Boyd, Christian, Ricky, and Pete all came out to the resort. We drank a lot and went back to Christians for the rest of the night… long night. We slept for two hours so I’m on the bus, not being able to sleep and I’m dead tired.