Just a boring blog post...

Some random updates:

I am now working full-time for the Red Cross. I was originally hired to work in their call centre during their annual appeal answering questions from the volunteers who go door knocking to collect money. This is their major fundraising event for the year and usually 150,000 people participate in trying to raise funds for them. BUT...since the bush fires happened (and continue to happen) in Victoria (quite close to where I am living actually) Australians have donated 200 million dollars to help those who have lost their homes and family/friends and so the Red Cross made a decision to cancel the campaign this year because they didn't feel it was appropriate to ask for more money after so much has already been generously given. Which by the way has completely overwhelmed me. I sit in my office everyday and open up mail from people who write notes thanking the people who work for Red Cross for their efforts and saying how they wish they could give more but they are profoundly affected and they really make an effort to come together as a country and take care of one another. It's quite touching really. So...since they decided to cancel the campaign, my job load and therefore my contract was cut in half. It was quite dissapointing finding this out on my first day of work. I had been contracted to work until June but am not sure what is going to happen now. They will probably only need us for a month or two. I am trying to be optimistic and of course just feel grateful for any money coming in but the recession is starting to hit hard here and it is scary. My job had 200 applicants, 60 interviews and only 14 people were hired. Many jobs now are only open to Australian citizens and those that aren't get over 300 hits within the first few hours of being posted. We are all applying for the same few jobs. Anyway, I am trying my best to let it go and trust that I will be taken care of. I know of a few travellers who have had to cut their trip short because they couldn't find work.

My emotions continue to fluctuate about being so far away from the people I love and know the best (and visa versa). I don't feel homesick as often as I did when I first got here but it still comes in waves, especially when I am having a rough day. Travelling on my own means I feel so free and for the first time ever I truly live in the moment and accept what is with very little resistence. I experience things I would never normally experience (see last post) and meet people I would never meet othersise. Plus, the weather is pretty sweet;) On the other hand I desperately crave being close to those who love me and know me the best. Connections like that are not made in a few days/months/weeks. I daydream about my first reunion with everyone and it put's a huge smile on my face.

I think that's pretty much it for the updates for now. I still plan to do some trips and super fun things on the weekends even though I am working full-time so I will update when I can but if I updated every week right now it would be all "today I went to work and did stuff and talked to people. I had a really good tuna sandwhich for lunch. Then I came home, made dinner and went to a movie and was in bed by 11pm" BORING! I would rather wait until there's actually something to write about.

Here are some pictures of people wearing my sunglasses. I get a lot of compliments on these (all thanks to you Katie). I will probably add to this blog post as I take more pics of people wearing them in the future...

Tom:


Johan:

Conrad:

Tim:

and here is a pic of the stained glass that was in my room in the first sublet I was in. But seriously...is it just me???

Is it???

love, love, love to all of you.

Four of us left but only three returned...

This week was very eventful. This is going to be the longest and I am pretty confident best blog post yet. So a few weekends ago I went to another couchsurfing pot luck. It was super fun times and I made a ton of new friends. One of those friends was Matthew from Perth, Australia...






The next day we decided to go to the Gay Pride March together. It was not nearly as fun as Gay Pride weekend in Toronto. I mean, for one thing, it's called a "march", not a "parade" which to me indicates that here it's much more of a political protest then a celebration (same-sex marriage is still not legal in Australia). We had fun though. Despite passing by someone who was making drunken homophobic remarks and then almost being hit by the glass bottle she was holding after we ever so nicely responded to said remarks.






In the march there was a dude dressed up as the Doc from Back to the Future and he even had a dog that looked like the dog from the movie AND he was driving a DeLorean (Ashley Carter: these next 2 pics are mostly for you).

The next day Tom came to Melbourne for his last 3 days in Australia (I would like to think that he mainly came to see me but truth be told he had to pick up some mail to do his tax-back before leaving the country). On his last night we went to this place called "The Laundry" for Karaoke. Johan and Henna sang some Britney Spears (Hit me one more time). English is not their first language and they were one of the first people to go up. Props to them.

After a few drinks Tom got the courage to do Gangsters Paradise by Coolio since he knew all the words off by heart. Which is hilarious considering Tom is from a small town in England. It was very impressive. This video pretty much sums up why Tom and I are friends...(sorry it's sideways, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it).

Then Tracey and I did Time Warp with full on audience participation (my new favourite karaoke song for sure). Note: Victoria and Micheal, these next 2 videos are dedicated to you. Bring back any memories?

and finally for the last song of the night, Tracey and I did Paradise by the Dashboard Light (Meatloaf). Please note that by this time it was 3am and we pretty much just yelled the song. I apologize in advance.

The day after Tom left my friend Henna (Finland), Johan (France), a friend of Johan's named Romain (France) and myself decided to drive 600kms, camp out for a few nights and attempt to climb the highest mountain in Australia called Mt. Kosciuszko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kosciuszko. Little did we know that not only would we not end up climbing the mountain, but the next 2 days would be the most adventurous any of us had yet experienced on our travels...

First we packed the car with all our crap and started our journey at about 9am on Friday...

After leaving the city, our view looked like this most of the way...

We decided to take a very curvy road which went all the way up and around a mountain. It was a much longer road then we had anticipated and it was extremely hot that day (about 45degrees). We didn't see anyone pass us for hours which was a little scary considering we also had no mobile reception up there. We all agreed that it would be a good location to pick if you wanted to kidnap or murder someone. Just saying. Here is a video to demonstrate how much the road curved every 2 seconds. It reminded me of a drive I took in Mexico around a mountain. One side is just rock and the other side just drops off. During this part of the drive we started to smell something funny from the car so we stopped for a bit to let the car cool off and then kept on slowly and it seemed to be fine...







We ran into a patrol officer along the way and she told there was a great place to swim a few km's ahead so we decided to stop. The flies were so bad that we had to wrap our towels around our heads or risk going crazy! Why do they always want to fly right into my ears???

But despite the annoying flies, it was well worth it. We got to cool off a bit and the view was lovely...

A little further ahead we ran into this dude who was following a huge cow/bull on his motorbike. I tried to get a pic of the cow/bull but it was too fast. But check out how awesome this dude was! We asked him how much longer until we reached the next town and he could barely understand Johan's French accent. He had to get off his bike and come over to the car. His answer was just as hard to understand as he had a pretty thick Aussie accent.

When we got to the town close to where the mountain was we picked this spot to camp for the night (even though here were signs saying "no camping"). It had a beautiful and calm lake.

Before going to bed we had a swim, drank some beer/goon (boxed cheap wine) and Johan played us some tunes on his guitar.

Johan and Henna slept in a 2 person tent and Romain and I each took a front seat in the car (not the most comfortable. I think I slept about 3 hours max).

Then we got up at about 8am and had some breakfast, went for another swim and set out to climb a mountain! We drove about 30kms to the entrance to the National Park where the mountain is, paid to get in and about 10kms up the road the car completely stopped accelerating. The clutch kept slipping and there was no power getting to the engine. So we did the only thing we could and called for a tow truck at which time we were informed that the only mechanic in Jindabyne (the closest town to where we were) was not open until Monday and then who knows how long the repair would take. So Henna, Romain and I made an executive decision to hitch hike home in hopes of making it back to Melbourne before Monday morning (when Henna was scheduled to check out of her hostel). Johan decided to stay back with his car and camp out by himself for a few nights. This was the last we saw of the car:(

and so our hitch hiking adventure begins. Let me start off by telling you that I was fairly skeptical about getting rides since there were 3 of us but Henna was optimistic and thankfully her attitude prevailed. We got 9 rides all together, never waited longer than 30mins to get picked up, had food and accomodation offered to us several times, got to choose the music in the car on a couple of occasions and made it back within 25 hours, including stopping to sleep for the night.

Definitely the most memorable town we stopped in was called Bombala, population 1500. When we arrived we had been hitch hiking for about 6 hours, were very hot (it was still 45 degrees), tired and dirty and decided to take a break for a beer at the local pub. When we opened the door, all eyes turned to us and it quickly became apparent that everyone in the bar knew eachother and that within a short period of time we would become the talk of the town. During our whole time in Bombala (about 3 hours) we encountered only one woman and she was the bartender. All of the patrons were men. Here we are enjoying are cold beers...

and here is what the bar looked like. One by one the men who were drinking in the bar approached us and asked us where we were from and what we were doing. Several of them offered us a place to stay (although they also had no teeth and seemed a little over eager to see new females in town so we were skeptical to accept).

So we decided to press our luck and try to get to at least the next town before it got dark. The town was literally 3 blocks long. To give you an idea, here is what it looked like where we were trying to get a lift...

and here is looking from Henna's point of view...

and that's pretty much how many cars we were seeing pass by as well. There were a few that kept driving around the block to see if we were still there. Most of them just stared at us or gave us the thumbs up. This dude (who we later came to know as Beaz) went home, made this sign and drove past us holding it out the window. Ha!

Eventually Beaz and his friend Mark pulled up and advised us that they would like to take us to the next town but they were afraid we were going to stab them. After convincing them that we were indeed harmless, they agreed to drive us 45 minutes to the next town called Cann River with another car with some of their friends following behind. This turned out to be our most memorable ride. I mean, we had a very nice lady offer us peaches she had picked, a dude who had "mum" tatooed on his arm who drove 150kms/hour the whole time we were with him in a car that looked like it was being held together by duct tape, a dude who basically gave us the whole history and best sites to see of every place we passed by, a guy who had so many papers in his back seat that Henna and I could barely fit in and a woman who said she would take us all on her electric wheelchair if she could, but these guys still topped it all.

Beaz was 20 years old and had never once been to Cann River (did I mention it was only 45kms from Bombala?) They played loud music and told us that for fun they go to a swimming hole and go down to the river and try to talk to the spirits of people who have died there and get drunk on Friday nights (apparently Bombala has the highest underage drinking rate in Australia. Beaz was quite proud to disclose this fact). They told us that woman in their town work in the shops and men work at a factory. They have all dated one anothers sisters/girlfriends at some point in time. I was so facinated by their lives since they were so opposite to mine and yet they seemed so happy and content to just hang out in this 3 block long town. The banter between them was amazing. I wish I had recorded it. They were talking so fast and laughing so much about the silliest things. They told us that giving us a ride was the most exciting thing that had happened to them since they could remember and that they would be talking about us for months. In the middle of the ride Beaz asked "so, uh, do you guys have like cell phones and stuff"? and we were like "um, yeah" and then he asked "so, you want my phone number"? and we were like "um, ok, I guess." So we exchanged phone numbers and about 3 minutes after they dropped us off I got a text from Beaz that read "you're really pretty". and I thought to myself, that's cute and all but there's no way in hell I look pretty after my day today...you just haven't seen a girl who you haven't grown up with...ever! I got another text from him several minutes later which read "Ur realli cool hey. Me n mark will come to canada to stay wit ya n we'll go out n u can show us around." and I was thinking geez, how much do I owe these dudes for giving us a 45 minute car ride???

Cann River turned out to be much like Bombala. We tried to catch a ride for about 30mins but when it got dark decided to call it a night and rented a room above the local pub. The room was pretty gross. It had 3 single beds which we're pretty sure contained bed bugs as Romain was bitten all night and the water from the taps came out yellow, like, really yellow. But after a day of hitch hiking I was just happy to lay in a bed and I passed out pretty fast. Here is the room...

and here is the "lounge" which is where we found our free breakfast consisting of toast and cereal.

We weren't sure if we were going to make it back to Melbourne because the lady who offered us our second last ride told us that the highways were closed because of all the bush fires (which I am assuming most of you have heard about). When we got to Bairnsdale (about 200kms from Melbourne) we found out there was a bus that was running in an hour but we decided to try to catch a lift one more time and if we couldn't then we would pay the $20 to get the rest of the way home. We waited about 30 minutes and were offered a ride by 2 Indian dudes who were driving all the way back to Melbourne and who played very loud Indian hip hop the whole way back (not that I'm complaining, we were grateful for the ride). About half way into the ride we were pulled over by the cops for going 85km/hr in a 60km/hr zone. The cop was such a jerk and since the driver didn't have his international drivers license on him so the ticket was $227 + 3 demerit points. Poor guy. We snapped a pic of the action...

and despite the loud music...this is pretty much what we looked like the whole last ride...(and yes, Henna is actually asleep in this pic. That's how she sleeps).

So...now I am living in a new flat with a Canadian girl named Michelle. It's in a great area and much closer to downtown then where I was before. Also, I got a job working for the Red Cross calling centre which starts on Monday the 16th. It's a 4 month contract and pays $22/hour so I will be staying in Melbourne until the end of June trying to save money for the next part of my journey which will consist of travelling up the East Coast and possibly down the West if I have time.

My new address is 186 George St, Apartment #2, Fitzroy VIC, Australia 3065.

Update: Johan has returned! and the car is fixed! But...he was alone without a proper shower from Saturday afternoon until Weds afternoon so I am not sure he will ever be quite the same again.

This is my life as of late...

So far I am enjoying Melbourne very much. My flatmate Anne and I get along amazingly and have become good friends. Although her english is quite good, there are some things that she pronounces incorrectly and it's the cutest! For instance instead of saying "clothes" she pronounces every letter inlcuding the "e" so it sounds like "cloath-ez" and instead of "sweater" she says "sweeter" and instead of "Coles" (which is the major grocery store here) she says "coolez". Recently we went to a fancy bar walking distance from our flat and they had a $500 cocktail on the menu. $500! For one cockail! Needless to say, we went with other choices. Here is Anne enjoying her Mojito.


A few days later I met up with a girl that I had emailed on the Couchsurfing website who I had a lot in common with and we went to a rooftop cinema to watch The Breakfast Club (Sarah is the 2nd girl in).

They had these comfortable (although slightly hard to get in and out of) deck chairs to sit in.

It was so cool watching a movie and then looking up and seeing stars and sky and the tops of city buildings...

Then Anne and I went to a BBQ with the gang of Germans we have been hanging out with including our new friend Conrad...

and the girls who we have come to refer to as "the nannies" (because they are all working as nannies while they are here. Duh!)

Anne and I ate BBQ'd Kangaroo! It actually tasted pretty good.

This week in Melbourne there is a festival for everyone who is part of the Couchsurfing community http://www.couchsurfing.com/ (which I am), with different events going on every night.

One of the events was to take part in the Free Hugs Campaign: http://www.freehugscampaign.org/. So about 20 of us met up at Federation Square (like Dundas Square in Toronto) and gave away free hugs to strangers for an hour. You would be surprised how many passers by will hug a stranger.

These guys were all dressed up and coming from watching the Australia Open Tennis and they had plenty of love to give. They were crazy. Crazy awesome!

Another Couchsurfing event was a picnic in the Botanic Gardens on Australia Day. If you were to ask a high school teacher what Australia Day is, they might say something like this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Day. However, if you ask a member of the general public who is an Australian citizen what Australia day is (which I did) they might say something like "Australia Day is a day when you don't have to go to work and everyone get's wasted". Here's a few pics from the picnic...

So I have only been doing casual work in Melbourne so far. I had an interview for a 4 month contract with an inbound calling center for the Red Cross taking phone calls from people who want to donate money on Tuesday. It went very well and I would be very surprised if I don't get it but I have to wait until Tuesday to find out AND it won't start until February 16th. There is also a massive heat wave in Melbourne right now (the hottest since 1908) and the temperatures have been in the mid-40's for the past few days with only a slight dip expected in the coming week. This, coupled with the fact that I have a lot of free time at the moment means that this is my life as of late...

Although my bank account continues to drain, I am not yet needing to panic and try to keep in mind that a) this visa is called a working/HOLIDAY makers Visa for a reason and b) I worked my ass off for a year to get here so I deserve a little R&R. It's amazing how that North American mentality of working hard and making as much money as you can creeps up on me, even though I am so far away (and believe me, the mentality is not the same over here, and it's lovely!)

Also, my sublet where I am now is up Feb. 10th. Tomorrow I am going to see a flat in Fitzroy which is close to Brunswick Street where my friend Thomas and I went bar hopping a few weeks ago (see last blog post) and the CBD. I would be sharing it with another Canadian girl the same age as me and could stay there as long as I am in Melbourne. I'll keep you posted on how that goes...

Goodbye Sydney...Hello Melbourne

Before I get started into this post, take a look at this crazy awesome used book store that was in Newtown, where I lived for the last 5 weeks before I left Sydney. Every possible free space is taken up with piles of books. It's insane. So crazy!












Now...onto my updates... My last few days in Sydney were filled with mixed emotions. I definitely felt like it was time to move on and was excited to see a new city and meet new people. I also felt sad about leaving the people and familiarity of Sydney and anxious about going to a city where I knew no one. On the Friday before leaving I had some people over to my flat in Newtown and Tom made a deadly punch consisting of vodka, passion pop (cheap champagne) and juice. We had initially intended to go to a bar after having a few drinks but ended up just staying in and making our own dance party. It was super fun times.








My last official day in Sydney started with brunch with my friend Yvette who is Australian. We only saw eachother on a few occasions during my time in Sydney but we always had fun when we did.


Then I went on a 2 hour coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach with this German girl named Nicole, this Icelandic girl named Bee and Tom. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.

On the way we saw these pools that were right beside the ocean and were filled with salt water. Maybe for people who are scared of unknown sea creatures!?

It was a great ending to a lovely first part of this journey. When I landed in Melbourne I was initially overcome with sadness and felt very alone. I am starting to get used to the extreme ups and downs that come with being a lone traveller. At times I feel like I am on top of the world. I can do whatever I want, I am experiencing so many new things, feeling so independent, meeting so many great people and learning a lot about myself. Then at other times I feel so alone and it's so hard to meet great people who just leave and move onto their next destination a few days later. I miss my friends and bro. My heart actually hurts. Oh god how I miss you guys. I have the most amazing friends at home. A lot of travellers I have met stop communicating as much with their friends back home after they have been travelling for a while. This will never be the case with me. I am often calling/texting/emailing people at home every few days. and even if I am not calling/texting/emailing you, I am thinking about you for sure. You guys give me strength and inspire me to take this leap of faith. I MISS YOU and can't wait to see you! Ok...end of sappy interlude.

So before I got to Melbourne I had set up interviews with a restaurant called The Boathouse and a bar called The Red Violin. I worked at the restaurant for 2 days but then when I called a few days later to see what my hours were for the week, the Assistant Manager was very rude to me so I decided not to go back. The interview at The Red Violin was awesome. I clicked immediately with the two ladies who interviewed me. So much so that they didn't even ask me any of the interview questions they had on their list. We just chatted for 30 minutes and they hired me. Originally I felt really good about it but when I went in for the training I left feeling mixed. The people who work there are great but the bar is open until 6am and I would have to learn how to make so many fancy cocktails with a million ingredients and measurements. I know this would be a great thing to have on my resume but I just felt so overwhelmed with all the things I had to remember. Plus, the hours didn't seem like they would be consistent since I was new, the pay was $15 cash in hand (usually the standard is about $20/hour and when it's not cash in hand I am taxed at 30% and then I get that all back when I leave which is helpful) and I would have to work Fri and Sat nights. Anyway, long story short I have decided to look for office work (like inbound call center or office admin). Even though it's not my ideal job, I have a lot of experience with this kind of stuff, it will be consistent, I will get to sit on my ass all day and get regular breaks (as apposed to running around for 6-8 hours at the bar without food) and I will have weekends off. With any luck I will have something this week.

The first week I was here I stayed at a hostel called Cooee and it was a 10 minute walk from St. Kilda Beach...
I had some really great room mates (all of which have since left Melbourne except for Andrea from Chile who is right next to me). This pic was taken when we went dancing one night at this place called Big Mouth on the beach.

Even though hostels are great when you first get to a city where you don't know anyone, for me they quickly become annoying because you are never alone and you are constantly being woken up by people coming in and out of the room. So I promptly found myself a one month sublet and so far it's been so great. I live with Ann from Germany who is here doing an internship with a radio station... and Coco who is the most affectionate cat I have ever met...
and Elizabeth who is the Mother of the women whos room I am renting. It's a really nice house about 6 train stations from the CBD (Central Business District) and I feel very comfortable here. Ann and I spend a lot of time together and even cook together which is always nice.

Here is a pic of Flinders Train station which is the one right in the heart of the city. Much nicer then a Toronto Subway station eh?

Melbourne transportation is made up of trains and trams (like streetcars). Here's a pic of one of the older trams. I love them!

The weather is Melbourne is all over the place. One day it is 40 degrees and the next 18. One night 2 English girls, Claire and Gemma from my hostel invited me to go to a bbq with 2 other German guys down near the river. They have bbq's all lining the river for the public to use for free and everyone just has a bbq and eats and drinks after work. But then the temperature dropped and we were cold so we had to huddle under a blanket...

The next night my friend Thomas from Germany (did I mention there are a TON of Germans travelling in Australia?) and I went bar hopping on Brunkswick Street which is full of funky bars and cafes and $4 pizza.

Melbourne has a lot more character than Sydney. I think I will stay here and try and save some money (assuming I get a job soon) until it starts to get cold (maybe May or June). I'm not sure about my next destination yet. I might just head up the east coast which will likely mean I will stay warm the whole year but I also want to experience the outback and maybe go to Perth on the West Coast. Sydney and Melbourne are a lot like Toronto and I think it will be great to live somewhere unlike anywhere I have lived before (like on a farm or something).

Last week I sent home a box of stuff. I consistently have the biggest bag where ever I go and when I came on the plane to Melbourne it was over by 4kg and rather then paying the $50 they wanted to charge me, I had to take a whole bunch of crap out of my bag and put it in my carry on luggage. Part of the problem is that my bag itself is very heavy even without anything in it because it has wheels and there is no way I can ever get it on my back. People even had to help me get it on and off the tram. I've decided to sell it and buy a new bag while I am in Melbourne. As a traveller you really start to realize how little you need and it's refreshing.

P.S. Read so far:

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

About to start: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

xo