May 17, 2010

Nothing new has been happening in Sydney. It's been cooling down a lot and I don't have the clothes for cold weather and certainly don't have the money to buy some, so I've been wearing the same hoodie and lounging around a lot. I made some friends at the hostel so I spent a few days with them before they left. I'm still hanging out with the two guys staying in my room from England. They should be here for at least a few more weeks. They have a friend staying down the hall and she's awesome, but left today. I got her addicted to Friday Night Lights so we spent the day yesterday watching a million episodes. We're guessing they don't have it in the UK, so she wanted to watch as much of it as possible before she leaves. I clearly had no complaints. I found work with a temp agency a couple of weeks ago but I've only had one job with them and i was only for a half day. I was hoping more would come right afterwards, but so far I've got nothing. I met up with Carla again the other day for lunch. She left for the US today. I finally saw Sven (from Mission Beach), but the pub we met at was really loud and it was a friends birthday so we couldn't really catch up. Still haven't heard from Joe, but that was to be expected. I think that's about it for what I've been doing (or not doing).

Onto the fun stuff. I found a job! It's at a ski resort. Not the one I had applied to before, but a different one in a nearby city. I never thought I'd work in the snow in Australia, but I think that makes it that much more exciting! It's like an unforeseen adventure. I like that. A surprise twist in events. Makes for a good story and maybe something unexpected is exactly what I need! So I got a call from Scot on Friday saying that my resume looked good. I couldn't tell if that meant that I had the job or that he wanted an interview, so I asked if he wanted to meet. He said that he would be in Canberra for the weekend so if I could make it out there, that would be great. I found a semi cheap bus ticket so I went out there Saturday morning, had some coffee with him, hit up an art gallery, and came back. It's about a three hour bus ride, so it sort of sucked, but it was definitely worth it. Turns out it wasn't an interview, so the first thing he said to me was, "The job is yours if you want it, I just thought it would be nice to meet and explain the position to be sure it's something you will enjoy". I spent most of the previous night preparing for an interview so it sucked I couldn't lay down my awesome interview answers, but it made for a much more relaxed afternoon. The town, Thredbo, is really small, like Mission Beach. It's a total tourist spot so the locals are all pretty familiar with each other and because it's a ski resort, everyone seems to have one thing in common, they love to ski. Scot was crazy cool and laid back, so we just chatted up about the two hotels I'll be working at and the area. I was under the impression that this was just a seasonal job, but he said in passing that I'd be welcome to stay longer. I made a reference about my visa expiring and he sort of brushed it off like it was something that could be arranged, so I think that might mean I could get an extension on the visa if I needed it. AWESOME! I believe the ad was for front desk but he said that all of the employees sort of switch up roles a lot so I'll be doing a little bit of everything. I think I'd sort of prefer to just do the one thing, but it sounds like I'll get to get experience in a restaurant and other areas of the industry so I'm warming up to the idea. And it'll keep things new so I won't do the same thing every day. Accommodation is on site. I'm not sure if it's included or taken out of my pay, but I'm not terribly worried about it. He didn't make a big deal about it, so I'm guessing it's not usually an issue with employees. I believe he said I'd be sharing a room with one other person. I didn't get much info on where I'd be living. I'm living in a shit hole now and it doesn't bother me one bit so I'm fairly certain that this will be a step up. The job starts early June, so I'm thinking of heading out there the last weekend of May. Finding a way out there will be interesting I think as it's a few hours inland, but we'll see. I need to get warm clothes, which sucks. I have a super heavy bag as it is, so having more stuff to car around will not be cool. I'll have a few things sent from home. It'll save me so much money to have a coat, boots, etc shipped over for $70ish instead of spending $250+ on new ones of everything. I'm a little excited to get some of my sweaters and long sleeved clothes too! I miss them! I didn't really get to pull them out before I left so it's been a while since they've been worn! So basically I have about two weeks left in Sydney to do nothing. I'll watch some movies with the guys, hopefully go on a walk or two. Maybe I can meet up with some friends in town too. I'm loving the idea of getting to a new place and staying there for a few months though because that means I'll have constant people around for a few months. People have been filtering in and out too frequently for my taste so it'll be a nice change.

May 4, 2010

Still in Sydney and loving it. I've seen most of the touristy things in the city, so I'm taking it easy now. The site seeing with Michael and Ben went well. We went to the Opera House, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, The Rocks, and Bondi Beach. It was an all day event. The next day I did a job search and the skytower. The coastline here is pretty awesome. Beautiful on a nice day. My birthday was the next day. I did a web chat with Mom and Dad and the boys in MI bright and early. It wasn't my birthday for them, but it was for me, so that was nice. I went on a tour of the Opera House in the early afternoon and then did a self guided walking tour of the Rocks. Micheal took me there Monday but it was really cute, all old-town-ish, and I found like six tours of different areas of the city so I figured I'd start with the one closest to the Opera House. That took a few hours and ended at the north end of the Rocks where there was a perfect view of the Opera House, bridge, and city. I found a nice little seat and read my book while the sun went down. I'd stop reading every fifteen or so minutes and take a picture of each. The sky was beautiful so I got some really good pictures! On my way home I stopped and got some TimTams and Subway for dinner... sort of lame for my birthday dinner but I had an awesome day in most other categories so I was pleased. I tried getting a hold of Sven and Joe (worked with them in MB and they are now in Syd) for drinks but couldn't find them. I think I spent that evening watching movies. The next day I went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains. They reminded me a lot of the mountains in VA or NZ, but they were still beautiful. I met an American, Aaron, who was on a short leave from Iraq. He was older, but nice guy, so when we got back to town we went to see Iron Man 2, which was just released here. IMAX too. Can't say I'm a fan of IMAX, but it was certainly an experience. Aaron and I met the next day and were going to go to Manly Aquarium to swim with the sharks but it was all booked so we went to the fish market instead. It closed early so we weren't able to eat there but it was kind of cool. We were expecting a cool fish market with people throwing fish around and that terrible fish smell. The smell wasn't pleasant but it wasn't as bad as we expected and there wasn't any fish throwing. There were a lot of crazy fish and shellfish. We went back to Darling Harbour for a late lunch and then I met up with Michael, Ben, Carla, and Klair. Carla and Klair were also on Michael and mine's Contiki trip, so it was really cool to have a reunion. We went to dinner in Chinatown and then outside of town for a bit for some drinks. It was a short night, but it was good to see everyone again. Carla is leaving for the States soon (Minnesota... poor girl), so she's leaving work and suggested I go in to apply. It's a retail shoe store, which really sucks, but I need work in a bad way so I'm dropping off my resume tomorrow. Other than my constant job search, I've been just relaxing. I've slowly been working on the walking tours and find myself stopping at benches and parks to read and lay around. I'm a little nervous I'm going to have to throw in the towel soon, so I'm enjoying the laying around as much as possible. I had an interview with Perisher, a ski resort a few hours away and should hear back from that this week. Depending on that, I'll have to start making definite plans. We'll see. I'm trying to be optimistic and I don't want to head home yet, so I'm going to do what I can to make it work.