A Very Overdue Blog...

Hello once again,

It has been ages since my last blog, so let's just do a little coles notes version of my life these past few weeks.

1- I have been getting quite a few shifts at Grill'd, about 27-30 hours a week which is alright. I now pretty much know all the burgers and what goes on them so I'm less of a newbie!

2 - We went on the Great ocean road and it was awesome!! Loved it! And I even fed birds!

3- Things in the apartment are good, we have 2 new roomies now who are both nice.

Basically my life consists of sleeping, working, and then going out with the roomies when I don't have work. We have found a couple key spots to go to during the week. Monday is bowling night, it is $6 per game. Wednesday is poker night where we go to this pub and have a poker tournament with other locals. It is quite professional and last week I came 2nd! I got a coupon for $30 in the pub which is awesome! Defiantly a highlight in the week! Most other nights we just watch movies and hang out. Pretty laid back life.

For our next adventure we are planning to go to Alice Springs and do a 3 day tour of Ayers Rock. It is going to be a little pricey however, I'm not going to have the opportunity really again and I really want to see the rock, curse my nerdy ways! This will probably take place in 3 weeks or so.

Anyways that just about brings things up to speed. I have to jet off to work now, I am doing a 7pm - 2am shift tonight! gross!

GOT A JOB!!

Soooooo Good news I have a job in Melbourne! It was not looking promising before. I kept getting interviews for places that were for fundraising and stuff which paid 100% commission. I shadowed in for a day to see what it was like and in the 2 hours I was watching the girl only got $10 which means she made $2 in 2 hours... But anyways the job I have pays $16 bucks per hour and I'm a casual worker so I will get 20ish hours a week. However, it is coming up to the Grand Prix here so I probably will be getting more then 20 hours. Also it is just down the street so if they ever need me I will be able to collect more shifts which is awesome.

The place is called Grill'd, there is a website grilld.com.au It is like a high end fast food place, you order and get your meals taken to you cause they take about 10 mins to cook, and the food looks yummy!! I have my first training session on Thursday for 4 hours and then another on Sunday... I'm pretty excited the place looks cool to work at, when I went in there is loud music playing and a bunch of ppl my age working there just having a good time. I will try to take some pictures as well.

Today we also booked the Great Ocean Road tour which I'm very excited for. We are going on Wednesday and the weather should be nice! :) I really hope I see a kangaroo! We will be doing a hike in a forest as well so hopefully we get to see some cool wildlife! Anyways, I have to go eat my dinner now, but things are defiantly looking up at this point!

Got an Apartment in Melbourne!!

Hey all,

So I got an apartment in Melbourne! Wooo and it has internet and washer dryer. It is a really nice apartment I'm very happy with it. On a negative note finding a job is proving to be a bit difficult. I have applied to a ton of places and still nothing. Tomorrow I have an open interview with Lulu Lemon so hopefully they are hiring and I get in there! That would be a pretty cool job. It seems like people here don't want to hire backpackers because they can only work for a certain amount of time... oh well I'm still optimistic that I will find something. Anyways, just a quick post to keep things up to date...

Goodbye Mildura Hello Melbourne!

So I realize it has been quite a long time since my last post. And I know that my posts are so riveting and you all have probably been waiting for this so here it is! Haha. Anyways, we have now left Mildura, we realized that the amount of money we were making for the work was not leveling out. For example, on our last day we made $6 for 2 hours of work picking sultanas... depressing. Haha so we just took some pictures on the vans (which are up on facebook) and drove around for a bit in the vans sight seeing. Much more fun! We have now arrived in Melbourne and are trying to find and apartment. It is a little more dificult then we thought it would be but I guess it is only day 2 so hopefully things pick up a bit.

We actually went to look at an apartment yesterday and were really excited because it was in a good area of town. The price was a little high at 160 per week, but we figured this would mean it was good. When we looked at it, the living room and bedrooms were nice but the bathroom was discusting and the kitchen was pretty gross as well. And for that much money we decided to pass for now and keep the hunt going. So this is where we are at right now... still on the hunt for a nice place to live. Still feeling pretty optomistic and hoping we get something soon! :)

Settling in Mildura

So I realized today that I haven't posted anything since the first day of work. Quite a bit has gone on so this is mainly a recap of the past week or so... We started work last week and haven't done any picking yet because the money is garbage! Instead we are covering and uncovering the grapes. Basically what you do is put a pin in every meter or so as a tractor lays the tarp.. Sounds easy and it is as long as nothing goes wrong.. aka tarps rip, machine breaks, spiders blocking your path... haha these are all things that happen frequently. The pay is ok... not great and the work is very unorganized for the most part. We still are waiting on our pay from the jobs... but have kept a log of all our rows and how much we should be earning.

However, today we went to a new farm where we though we would make a killing. They were going to pay us $10 each per row... at the previous farm it was about 2-4 dollar per row. So we arrived and the farm was very nice, and very organized. However, the rows were very long, and we have to put a pin every 80cm... and pull the tarp tight and also put the pins in differently then we had been taught before. So unfortunately we only did about 4 rows each. We are going back tomorrow and hopefully will make more money. On a lighter note, this work really tones up your arms... I actually noticed a muscle in my arm the other day I never had seen before.. haha It's because all day I have my arms in the air pushing vines out of the way of the wire to pin... Living the dream! haha

A note on the hostel now....

Things at the hostel are becoming strangely familiar and almost homelike. A typical day consists of waking up at about 6:15am (gasp) get to work around 7am. Do a day of work that is usually till 1-2 pm (after that it is usually waaaaay to hot). Then we get home, call dibs on the shower... I'm usually mid range, once I got first shower... it was glorious. Then we have a few games of ping pong, watch gogo stop (kids show) and Deal of No Deal at 5:30... both classics! Then make dinner. And lately we have been having poker nights in the hostel. We each bring an item of food, like noodles, or something small and play. Instead of chips we use nails to bet with haha I have some pics I will post soon of the games. They are fun, and I actually am not that bad, I won the other night! :) Then we usually go home watch an episode or 2 of Dexter and sleep.

We have met some pretty cool people in the hostel too. There are some guys from England, and a girl from Ireland called Claire who we play poker with. So all in all we are settling in nicely. I thought today that I may even be a little sad to leave this place in about a month... I didn't think I would be the first day we arrived but it's really not that bad once you get over the shock of the filth you have to live in haha jk. Anyways, I gotta get going but i will try and be more frequent with posts! :)

1st Day Fruit picking!

So today was day #1 on the vineyard... We started out the day by driving to the wrong spot of where to meet our lead hand I guess. Tony told us to go to the 'Big Lizzy' we figured we could figure out what this meant... but didn't. Turns out that the 'Big Lizzy' is some sort of huge car on a railway track... (dad you probably knew that) haha. Anyways, we made it there and the grapes weren't ripe so we had to instead tarp them. It was actually not bad, quite hot but better then I thought it was going to be... hopefully when pay day rolls around we make as much money as we should. What we did was nail the tarps onto these wires... At the end of the day I was getting pretty good at nailing in the tarp. I didn't have gloves today so when I got back I bought a pair for $2.50, found a Giant Tiger type store (Vikki and Homero... you would love it). And mom the Body Shop kit you got me is coming into so much use! I'm so glad I have it. And you will be happy to know I'm eating better, I made a chili yesterday, and it was pretty good! Anyways, I should get going. Gotta get rested up for tomorrow. Talk to you later! :)

Mildura... ' The hottest place on earth'

Hey all, Sitting here in Maccers' using up the free internet. I haven't put up posts b/c the internet is intermittent here so this next paragraph should have been up a day or so ago;

So we arrived in Mildura and the town is really nice. We are waiting to find some good picking jobs. Apparently they are kicking off the season soon most likely this week, so hopefully we get one. Mixed reviews around this place about about work, some love it some say it’s awful, we shall see… haha I figure as long as I get paid I’ll do it, can’t be much worse then landscaping in the summer in Canada. Last night we met some more people at the hostel, it was a good night. Got some goon, which is VERY cheap wine and what most ppl in hostels drink. It tastes pretty bad, and even has fish product in it… don’t ask me why. But these British guys we met showed us that if you add a little bit of juice the goon takes on the taste of the juice and is quite good! It cost $10 for 4.4 liters of the stuff, so I’m set for a while! Hahaha it comes in a box… Mmmmm goon! : ) Anyways, better get going to the store, gotta get a hat for picking.

And now a further update...

Got me a hat! It's pretty funny very Australian! I will for sure take pictures. So we have got a job tomorrow! We get to drive there in this beat up van... Starts at 6:30am so it should be cool in the morning then heat up during the day. We get paid $1.70 per box... we are not sure how large a box is... but have been told by people to just shove the grapes in the box and get going to make decent money. We each are bringing 4 liters of h2O to stay hydrated. Today the weather was soooooooooooooooo Hot!! I'm saying take the hottest summer day in Canada, times it by 4, and then add 10000 and you've got today. It is crazy! But very nice skies just blue blue blue! And our room has air con so last night I woke up shivering b/c we crank it so no worries on that front.

Now a paragraph on Tony.

Tony is the owner of our hostel, originally we just got his number from SWAP and called him up to reserve the beds. He was always VERY brief and vague and his voice sounds like a woman, think Julia Child... So I was under the impression it was a fat old lady who would be great at cooking. Anyways, we got here excited to meet this 'Tony'. When he arrived to pick us up we soon discovered he was a HE! Not sure what happened to his voice nobody asks, but Dylan can do a great impression so when there is nothing else to do we just start talking like Tony haha, I wish I could upload a sound clip. Turn out he is a super nice guy, and I like him. Quite the character though.

Anyways, I should get going. Gotta go to bed early to get ready for picking tomorrow... I will post more on the picking and how it is once I've done it... Pictures will show up soon! Chow!

BUS RIDE!

Hey all, Just sitting in the IEP office, got my tax file number so I now can get paid for my work. hopefully the fruit picking works out so I can save some money for fun trips around Oz. I can't believe the amount of places I want to go here... basicly every spot has about 10 things I want to do... The traveling around really isn't that expensive as well which is cool. Our 18hr bus ride only cost 141 dollars... not bad, and the bus is pretty nice looking, air con and everything. 

The money here is ridiculous the more the coin is worth more the smaller it gets. So the 50-cent piece is larger then any coin we have in Canada. So my wallet is really heavy and I feel like I have tons of money and it turns out I only have like 3 dollars haha. I will take some pictures to show you all... The 10-cent piece is the size of a quarter, and the 2 dollar coin is the size of our 10-cent piece but a bit thicker. So funny. Anyways gotta run, gunna go out for lunch and then hit the road. Talk to you soon!!!

Aquarium & Zoo!

So today we went to the Sydney Aquarium. It was pretty cool, I took lots of pictures, but my camera didn’t work so well through the glass. We have met a British guy called Ryan, who was traveling alone and wanted to join us on our venture. We are also starting to think about work and decided fruit picking seems like a cool thing to try before we get settled in a city. We are going to the IEP office Monday to get more information on good places to fruit pick. This will be done more inland so we are excited to see some of Australia outside of the city. Tomorrow heading to Manly Beach to get some sun!! Anyways, the pictures are up now on facebook for you to take a look at! Wooo sorry for the delay I will try and make it a weekly thing. Hope you enjoy!

(That post should have been days ago, and here is more of an update)

We have a job at a picking place in Mildura, seems like that's the place to go for picking jobs, pay is usually in the 18 - 20 dollar/ hr range so should get some good coin for more traveling. It is an 18hr bus ride though, gunna charge up the Ipod for that! urg! Anywho that's pretty much the big news here. Oh actually today went to Toronga Zoo today and saw some cool animals! Yay zoo's!

I blog from a land down under!

Hello all, I made it to Australia!!! Wooooooo longest flight ever! But I’m happy to say it was worth it! So nice here and hot hot hot. One of the hardest things to get used to is walking in busy streets, instinctively I go to the right when people are coming towards me but here the majority go to the left, like the traffic I guess. So it is a little tricky navigating but I think I’ll get the hang of it. Another funny thing is you don’t have to tip in restaurants BUT this means you go to the bar and order, and pay before you get the meal… strange but efficient! We went to the botanical gardens today and took some pictures. I will post them shortly. Tomorrow we are going to the BEACH, it has been to rainy here today so we didn’t go, and we need to figure out the bus schedules. Speaking of busses the buss drivers here are so friendly, and everyone you talk to is really really nice… (yes 2 reallys). Anyways, I’m off for food tonight with the hostel, they are serving Kangaroo burgers! Mmmmm

Australia Tomorrow!

So this is going to be my last post in Canada... Ahhhhhh I leave tomorrow! So I now finally have all my stuff together and packed up ready to go, just a few loose ends to do before tomorrow. My flight leaves at 3pm from Ottawa to Toronto, that flight will just be a warm up to the marathon flight from Toronto to Sydney... Anyways just a short post to say goodbye Canada, hello Australia! :)

Things are taking shape.

Hey all!

So I figured I'd fill all 7 followers in on my activities thus far. Yesterday was my last shift at Rogers, and I can now say that I successfully completed my time there without hanging up on a single customer... guess I have the patience of an angel.. haha. Anyways, my SWAP pack arrived this week and I have now signed up for an Australia bank account. It is now 9 days until departure, and I still don't think it has quite set in... I don't think it will until I'm there... on a beach... sipping on a drink... in the hot hot sun! Dylan and I have decided that on arrival we will attempt to stay awake until 11 pm Australia time... this will be a challenge considering the 2 day travel, but if we can do it it should make the transition to Oz time much easier. We are planning on being the tourists we are and traveling around the city taking pictures of all the landmarks with ourselves in them. I will post them if I don't pass out from exhaustion first. Anywho, this is just a quick post to keep all 7 followers posted! 7! haha

FLIGHT BOOKED!!

So it has been quite some time since my last post, as not much has happened on the Oz front. The only big step was getting rid of my cat Bongo, which I did back in October, but I didn't want to make a post of that because this is a happy blog! However, today the largest step to date was made... I purchased the flight!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I will now do more posting as I prepare for quite possibly the longest flight in the history of flights. I hope my 2 followers... Dad... and Vikki, will appreciate my hard work!

Just one of the many BEAUTIFUL pictures of Australia... The trees look like art! AMAZING!

My very first post on my very first blog!!

Hi to all who have stumbled across my blog. I have decided to create this blog to capture my adventure to Australia... from the very beginning. I will be leaving in January, it is now October I have a little time to get things sorted out. You may be asking why Australia? Why now? What are you thinking? And yes I have asked myself the very same questions... many times, and the answer is simple... why not? Allow me to fill you in on the coles notes version as to why....

I have always wanted to travel and explore the world. I studied geography in University and have always loved nature and the outdoors. I remember one evening walking through campus in 3rd year and seeing a stack of SWAP flyers (students, working, abroad, program) on a table. I picked one up to read while I was waiting for the bus. Inside were all these countries that you could choose to travel to, and as I looked through the flyer I just got a feeling that this seemed like something I needed to do. As soon as I looked at the page for Australia I knew that was the country for me! I can't really explain it but I knew out of all the countries that was the one I wanted to go to. Ever since that day it has been a dream on mine. It started out as something I wanted to do after university... before getting settled to a full time career and starting the full adult life.

I have now been out of university for 2 years, you may be wondering why have I not done this yet? Well there are a few reasons. My dream of traveling to Australia began to take a back seat to my life as other things were going on at the time. After university I moved in with my now ex boyfriend lets call him Mr. X. Anyways, at the time I was excited for this and thought it was what I wanted. We planned on traveling to Australia together, as I had let him know about this dream of mine. We needed to save up some money and he had a large student debt so we decided waiting until this was more under control was the logical thing to do. After a year of living together our relationship ended, during this time I now see I gave up a lot of what I had wanted and was content with just hanging out the 2 of us each night, not really doing anything with my life. I always kept this dream of Australia in the back of my mind, but more and more it began to feel like it wouldn't happen. After the break up I moved in with a friend, and was feeling like I had no idea what to do with my life. This was in March, after a few months of wallowing in my own pity along came Canada day. This was the day that I decided I was going to travel to Australia... FOR REAL! I put away all the reasons I can't and decided that this is something I want to do, and now is the time to do it. And here we are in October.

So I hope that this blog is a fun tale of my journey, I can't believe that I am going to be doing this! These next few months are where I have to prepare everything and I will update on all the happenings on my journey... Hope you enjoy!