The next morning I bought a laptop from an Irish guy who was about to head to Asia to travel and didn't want to bring it with him. He had just bought it and was selling it for only $150 AUDs. That was such a steal and I figured while I'm doing job applications it will be helpful and I am SO grateful I did.. Doing all the things I've done on my tablet would have actually made me go crazy. Then I took the free walking tour which was awesome and full of tons of great info and history about Melbourne. The parks are all over the place and will be perfect once the weather starts to warm up.
Donnie and I had a reunion in a sweet rooftop bar then headed back to his awesome house and got to out with Collin and all the other roomies as they got home from work. This is the day where I first realized that I would never be prepared for Melbourne weather. Donnie and I were on the rooftop bar sweating so put up our umbrella at the table and then it was the perfect temp.. After about an hour, a crazy cold wind came through and by the time we got back to his place, maybe an hour later it was like 25 degrees cooler than when we were on rooftop... and so then I was freezing in shorts and a tank top. It changes in a snap and apparently the locals know based on the wind direction if it will be a cold wind from the arctic, or a warm wind from the outback.. I don't think I've left home without a jacket since that day. Luckily Donnies roomate also gave me some extra winter clothes to layer up.
The next morning, resumes were printed and in hand ready, it was time to throw them all out there. I walked around for hours upon hours asking if places were hiring and handing in my resume. No one had really definitive answers if they were hiring which was frustrating. I had much more luck with the places I'd applied to online, mainly gumtree. I had an interview with a few places, a terrible trial in a cafe, offered a cleaning job below minimum wage, and wasn't really feeling it. I even applied in call center jobs and whatever I could find. My friend Liz, who went to high school with me, and I had visited in Hong Kong had recently relocated in Melbourne and started working in disability and suggested I try to get work in the sector. The problem was that they require you to have certificates to work there, so I knew it was going to be a challenge and maybe even impossible without the certificate. She told me that her certificate cost around 5000$ and took 5 months to complete, so I was not ready to do that just to get work.
But after lots of prodding and phone calls, I finally got a company to at least invite me for an interview. The interview went really well, it was really thorough and in depth and upon completion of the interview I was offered the job, handed papers and would have trainings the following week. YAYYY. I have now been offered work with two other agencies similar to the one that I will start with first. Because it's a casual employment and shift work, I am able to accept jobs with multiple agencies, and that just allows me to pick up more work. So some shifts will be a one off, one time thing, or others will be consistent. It will be around the city, and in different settings. Possibly in a group home, in a private home, or at a day program. I'm really excited for the opportunity and that i'll be able to do something that I enjoy, rather than something just to make money. In the mean time I've had to apply for several things and do lots of hoop jumping to almost be ready to start work. I had to retake my First Aid/CPR course here because they won't accept the American course, apply for a working with children check, a police check, and several other papers. It has cost me a little hole in my pocket but as soon as I start working it will be fine and so worth it! Another plus of working with the agencies is that it allows me to work for longer than six months with them.. They just cannot send me to the same place in the second six months as the first set.. so at least it gives me an option to stay longer if I fall even more in love with Melbs. :) I have my first aid class tomorrow and then have one little last glitch with that to solve and then should be set to start some shifts.
In the mean time I have found a cute little family to do some babysitting for occasionally so that is also very helpful. A few weekends ago I worked as a catering assistant at a wedding.. The wedding was so beautiful but we were running to food plates up and downstairs all night so my legs are probably in tip top shape.
The house hunt was also a little bit crazy. There is a terribly designed website called gumtree which is like craigslist but with a ton of ads and spammers and really annoying to navigate through. Then there are also a few facebook groups for people seeking roomates, or flatmates as they say here. There I was searching for rooms to rent. Because of my job possibly being in locations all over the city I was trying to find something rather centrally located and close to a train station and public transport. Some of the facebook posts I would send a message about myself, and more than 40 people had responded to the ad.. So I hardly ever got a response. It got really frustrating, then decided I would keep trying on gumtree. maybe there is less traffic and a higher chance. I checked out three places, all which told me they had a ton of people coming to inspect the places and if I liked it I would have to pretty much commit right away and then of course the other roomates would have to accept me.. Well I waited too long on one of them and it was already gone.. So the last one I checked out, where I will live is in a little area called Parkville. It is about 5km or 3 miles from the city. It has easy access to bike trails going all over the city, and while public transport isn't exactly as close as I want it to be, i'll have my bike to ride to the stations when needed. I really thought about getting a scooter out here, it's a perfect place for it since public transport is available just takes a long time to get places usually because the east and west paths aren't exactly connected. If you are going somewhere north or south, you can easily get there. So many instances it would take me the same time to ride my bike as take the train.
I will have the only downstairs bedroom and a half bathroom which will be nice. The room is quite big and comes mostly furnished I just have to find a bed.. I've seen several of them on gumtree for free but just need to get everything arranged to have one dropped off. Otherwise i'll pop some floor mats there or something for a little bit. The house is not very old at all and in amazing condition. They have a person cleaning it so that helps but all the appliances are really new, there is a pool table, and a ball pit.. I'm hoping to improve my pool skills for sure. The guy who is staying in the house was really friendly and two other people are moving out after I move in so I won't know about the future roomie for a little bit. But I'm excited to have all the life things all set up and once I have worked a little bit, really start soaking in the summer in Melbourne!
Other huge news on the up and up is that my condo is finally being rented out and things are rolling again! YAY, such a relief. Again super grateful for my parents for always stepping in to help me out with anything I need for that, and for the my newly hired manager so my parents won't have to do much at all in the future!
Ultimate Frisbee scene in Melbourne is insane!! I can literally play every single day of the week if I want to. With my current roomate also being a frisbee fanatic, we go all the time. The extra throwing time has been awesome and I've definitely seen an improvement myself. Secondly I've been catching everything and making pretty dang good decisions during games which is awesome. Now so many more things to work on but I know this will be a huge year in my Frisbee performance if I can keep this up injury free, and able to attend all the pick ups and games going on throughout the week. The open season is starting which means womens teams are trying out.. I'm not sure whether I will play but I will see what the commitment level is like and go from there. I am playing on a Monday Night League and practising with another on Saturdays! I've also just registered for my first tournament here next week on the public holiday, Nov 3rd which is Melbourne Cup Day.. I guess it's been explained to me as being as big as Superbowl is for us.. but it's with Horseracing and betting. Sounds like a combination of the Phoenix Open, and the Superbowl. People all wear their fancy hats, bring food, sit on the lawn, and watch horse races. I'm a little sad to miss the actual event but I"m sure I'll go to another before my time here is done.
A girl I met on the walking tour, Nicole from Germany and I have been hanging out from time to
time. We've attended some couch surfing events together, like a international picnic where everyone brought food from their country to share.. She made home baked pretzels.. YUM! Nicole and I also did a day trip with one of the guys we met at a couch surfing event to Wilson's Promontory. It was about a two hour drive from the city, so not far at all. It was really really beautiful but a little bit too chilly to go swim. But we had a blast driving around, hiking, climbing on rocks, and playing with Crimson Rosella birds on our fingers. We spotted a wombat, a brown snake, and some kangaroos.. Didn't see any koalas but i'll have to look harder next time for them. I can definitely see that after I have saved up some money again I will have to find space in a camper van and see the rest of this amazing country.
time. We've attended some couch surfing events together, like a international picnic where everyone brought food from their country to share.. She made home baked pretzels.. YUM! Nicole and I also did a day trip with one of the guys we met at a couch surfing event to Wilson's Promontory. It was about a two hour drive from the city, so not far at all. It was really really beautiful but a little bit too chilly to go swim. But we had a blast driving around, hiking, climbing on rocks, and playing with Crimson Rosella birds on our fingers. We spotted a wombat, a brown snake, and some kangaroos.. Didn't see any koalas but i'll have to look harder next time for them. I can definitely see that after I have saved up some money again I will have to find space in a camper van and see the rest of this amazing country.
One of my favorite places in Melbourne so far is called "Lentils as Anything". It is a vegetarian restaurant, well more of a buffet, where you donate the amount you feel that your meal was worth. It is a buffet line from certain hours for lunch time and dinner time. There is all sorts of amazing art work and a convent outside so you can eat on the beautiful grass, until you get sprayed with the sprinklers :P There is a sign on the door with suggestions about how much money you should donate to keep their organization going. They have volunteers and are a non profit. The food is sooo yummy and I will definitely be there often during my time in Melbourne!
Sooo while it has not been the easiest few weeks in Melbourne searching for work, and a home I am sooo relieved that things have finally fallen into place a little bit more! Hopefully the weather warms up a little bit more for this desert girl!
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