New Job :)

There still hasn't been very much that has happened since my previous post about just two days passing... It is just day to day life at the moment. Yesterday I did however get another job as 40 plus of my Facebook friends and family 'liked'. That was pretty great. I am pretty sure all the people I have met here hate me because I seem to have to put in the smallest amount of effort and I get somewhere. I literally applied to this coaching job Wednesday night and received a phone call Thursday afternoon. The director's name is Karryn and we chatted a bit on the phone and she asked if I could come down and see the facility and if it is something I would be interested in. I told her that was no problem and I would be there before practice ended. However, I got SO lost. I mean like totally turned around and confused. I took the wrong tram, to one of the right streets, and then proceeded to walk a solid mile in the wrong direction down that street. Of course yesterday had to be another day of down pouring rain so at one point I ended up stuck under a bus stop while it just monsoon-ed around me. Tried to call a cab- he asked for an address and I tried to give him my cross street which apparently wasn't enough. He asked me what suburb I was in and I said I have no idea, how am i even supposed to KNOW that??! He ended up being kinda rude and got snappy at me and said "why don't you just call us back when you know where you are". Well, Sir, clearly I wouldn't be frikking calling if I knew where I was! Urg. Frustrating.  Anyways, walked far enough that I ended up finding a random restaurant that had a take out menu posted outside and I called up the cab again and used that address. Resourceful I know. Turns out I really wasn't THAT far away but it was a solid 45 min walk-15 minutes in a car and I was headed the wrong direction. Cost me $12 in the cab. Worth it. Got to the school, its a Private all girls Catholic School named Lorento Mandeville Hall with a beautiful campus. I found my way to the sports center thanks to very well marked signs and finally made it there about 5pm. I left the hostel at around 3 45.

Karryn was great- so welcoming, nice, enthusiastic. I dressed up even though I knew I was going to a gym because an interview is an interview. We talked for probably over an hour or so while watching the practice and essentially by the end she just offered me the welcome packet. I think she is excited to have someone from the States who knows gymnastics well and comes from a very structured system (thanks Ryan). I hope I don't let her down. Next week they have a mini competition for the young classes, ages 5-10 i think) and I start by getting to be one of the judges! It is basically me marking off whether the kids have the skills they are showing me or not. It sounds really fun actually and I am excited. It's a nice way to ease into the program and get to see all of the students and where they are at skill wise to help me better plan. I want to try and start off strong and come in with lesson plans so I don't have to just pull stuff out my first week. Pay is good to since it is a Private school starting salary is $22/hour but she said depending how much I work and what classes I end up taking it could go up to $30! Hence my motivation to impress. It really seems like a perfect fit for what I am looking for. It is good work, for not too many hours during the week, so  I can still enjoy being here, and it also still allows me to keep my bar job Friday and Saturdays. I think it will give me enough money to not freak out and I also still get school holidays so I can go travel at that time. :)

Pretty much that is the most exciting thing that has happened since the Great Ocean Road. Apart from this week being my last week in the hostel. Which I am so excited for. Last night I did meet 2 nice Americans and a German and we grabbed some drinks at my new favorite place, The Local Taphouse. The American was complaining that nowhere in Australia had good beer- I proved him wrong. It was a good time. Kinda funny to be hanging out with Americans because we really are few and far between here. Still, it was nice and I think I am going to go indoor rock climbing with two of the guys on Sunday. (my idea).

I am just being lazy today though as I have to work tonight and as I am sure you have all gathered, it is really hard for me to get into the mindset of going into work at 10:30 still. Just knowing I wont be home until 5am is daunting. But it means money and we can always use more money. I am feeling less homesick but still miss everyone a lot. Love you all <3 p="">

Two Boring Days

Nothing really has happened in the last couple of days. So for those of you who get excited for a short post this ones for you. Basically I have been working all weekend. wooo. Turns out right now I am the only server so I have the floor to myself both nights. Friday it was moderately busy and I made a decent amount of money. Good crowd of people but the night dragged on. Got a phone number from one guy, and another KISSED ME! haha I was pretty much in shock. No one in their right mind in the US would just kiss their server while they were working. Don’t worry everyone, he was cute and my boss condoned it. Got home at five something and was a bit wound up from energy drinks and cleaning that I read my book for another hour and finally got to bed at like six am. (I just finished the second book of Beautiful Creatures and it is very addicting!)

Saturday I slept in until 3:30 in the afternoon, which considering my bedtime wasn't too bad. However, then I literally did not move all day. I read my book in bed. That is it. To give myself some credit Saturday was easily the worst weather since I have been here. It was gusty winds, heavy rains and a nice cold air flow. It reminded me of home in a comfortable way. The smell of the rain outside my window, the sound of the wind....it was nice and honestly a perfect day to stay in. Finally at around 8pm I got up and got ready to go to work again. Man was that hard. I really did not want to go back. Rob walked me to work and we stopped to try and get food except I wasn't hungry and basically ended up eating chips for dinner (fries) but technically I tried some place that specializes in meatballs. They were alright, kinda more wanted the ones from costco soaked in Baby Rays BBQ though. Work was long again. It is just still very hard to get used to. At least it got busy later so time went by faster than Friday. Less cute boys this night and no crazy Saint Patricks Day groups either. I kinda expected it to be crazy but I have discovered that I think America is one of the only places in the world that really DOES holidays to the max. I mean every holiday. Got off work Saturday pretty early (4:30am) and took a cab to the hostel down the road because it was pouring rain still. Started the beginning of the third book and passed out.

Sunday, I set my alarm so that I would wake up and actually go hang out with my other new friend Andy. He invited us to come out of the city and hang out with some of his mates (also English). One of them, Dylan, is a musician and plays at this hotel every Sunday all afternoon. He is fantastic! We had some drinks, met new people, and just spent the afternoon chilling. It was a lot of fun and I am really glad I got up and went. I hope to see those guys again. Andy and I have plans to hang out this week so I am assuming I will. Now I am so exhausted I am having a very hard time typing this. Busy week coming up though; going shopping with Bridie one of the days, getting my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol), and work. I am headed back to my original hostel tomorrow, Habitat HQ for the next week, then I will be moving into Bridie’s extra room for about 50 $ less a week then the hostel. Very excited about that. Will keep you posted. Love xx

Part two of the Great Ocean Road

After our lovely stay in Warrenbool, we woke up bright and early to head to the final stop along the road, Port Fairy. There is actually one more stop, named Portland (!) but apparently there isn't much there and its not really worth the extra hour drive. Also, since you all know me, you know how much I despise the morning.... well it turns out EVERYWHERE has checkout at 10am. Which mind you, is frikking early. Not because 10 is early but because 9 is early and that is what time you have to get up to be ready to checkout at 10. I guess you could say it gets my day going but perhaps not in the best mood. Port Fairy was eh...cute but kinda lame. If we would have gotten there a day earlier, they just had this huge Folk/Blues festival that I was kinda bummed we missed. Other than that we ate lunch at a Turkish Cafe, I got a bacon, egg, cheese sandwich on Turkish Bread and an Iced Chai which she basically turned into an iced chai milkshake. It was delicious and something I had been craving. After that we headed back the other direction.



One of the main tourist attractions that we hit going this way was called the Otway Fly. This is what all those pictures on FB are from. It is an hour treetop walk through the rainforest. To me it honestly didnt seem all that rainforesty but mostly because I am from the Northwest and growing up in the kinds of woods we have back home is hard to beat. BUT being up 47meters at the canaopys of some of the oldest and biggest trees, is pretty unbeatable. This is also where they offer the only Zip Line in Victoria. I was going to do it and even suck up the ridiculous price of it but by the time we got there they were done with tours for the day. It saved me $115 so probably good. The part of trail where I posted pictures of dinasoures was pretty fun. They had a side trail that was the “prehistoric” walk. It showed how some of the trees and vegitation were around even way back then. It was like a little boys adventure park. I thought it was so fun and broke up the straight walking. Also, I should mention it was a million degrees out. While up on the treetop walkway, it was nice, you could feel light breeze up in the trees, but once down on the rainforest floor it was so humid and sticky...  it was around 94 degrees out...I got my exercise and sweat quota in for sure. After we left there we headed back to Lorne which was the original town we were recommended to stay in. It is so cute and calm. We got a fantastic deal on a real hotel for only $60/night which was a nice change as well. In hotels they actually treat you like they want you there. Crazy. We got there pretty late but had enough time to relax and then go to dinner. We picked a spot called like Seafood on the Pier or something equally unoriginal. For $39 a plate I ordered the seafood platter, no scallops, no oysters. It came with mussells, calamai, fried white fish of some kind, crawfish?, smoked salmon and crab. It was pretty delicious but I did wish they served it with melted butter like at home. For the amount of food and the fact a lot of it was fresh caught, it was mostly worth the money. We figured slpurging one night was okay for our sub holiday holiday. After dinner we walked down the pier and saw all the people fishing. Since the sun had gone down it was beautiful out. We went back to the hotel and since we were located on the first floor up, we had access to a wrap around balacony. This is where I decided to try and upload my photos and just relax. It was so amazing. I think the best feeling since I have been here. The breeze was picking up a bit but it was 10pm and still 85 degrees out. After my shower I didnt dry my hair but being outside it did it naturally in like ten minutes. I spent probably three hours out on this terrace just enjoying the evening, looking at the stars and relaxing. I didn’t want to go inside because I knew as soon as I did I wouldnt get to redo the awesome experience. However, eventually we had to go to bed. 



Woke up this morning (Wednesday) to a much cooler Lorne. You could tell the weather was getting ready to change the night before because of all the wind, but I was still surprised by my goosebumps all day today. It was still like 75 out but a huge contrast to yesterday. After checking out at 10 :( we went on a mission to find a short hike to see a waterfall. Now, to be fair, I do live in a place where my standards for what “falls” should look like are based on the Snoqualmie Falls or something similar.... We got to the site, pretty close to town and went down a ton of stairs to see this waterfall. I am telling you Washingtonians, this was a trickle. I literally kept looking around thinking I was missing something and thinking that the wind was the sound of water. it wasnt. lol I took one picture, was so unimpressed that we turned right around. The biggest bummer was that as we hiked back UP from this disappointment I counted that we had to walk 217 steps. That is one hell of a stairmaster workout. I was huffing and puffing after 50. Once we got back into the car and I turned on the AC full blast, I was a bit disillusioned by what all the pamphlets and books said was a “must see”. I gave up on wanting to do anymore hikes today and my legs were sore so we headed into town for lunch.



Ate at a place called Milkbar that a random customer at Electric Landyland suggested. Got their burger, it was good, not great. There is something they season their meat with here that I just cant put a finger on that makes it have a distinct flavor that is good but just not what I am used to. After that we got back on the road to try and find a beach. Pulled over about 15 minutes out of town on the side of the road at some random beach access point. It seemed like a good idea....got settled, Rob looked like he was taking a nap and I was trying to read. However, the wind was so bad it was blowing sand everywhere, into everything, my mouth, hair, ears, kindle. I was trying so hard to be comfortable and enjoy the fact I was on a beach but it got really hard. Add in the sun kept fading in and out I was flipping freezing. I actually sat on the beach today with my WSU sweatshirt on and hood pulled up (to protect from the blowing sand). Finally, when Rob looked like he was moving again I told him that frankly I was not enjoying myself so we got in the car and moved on. Ended our day in Torquey  which apparently is pronounced Tor-Key. Which I cannot seem to grasp at all. Got into town and I must say that today I have not been very chatty or in a very good mood... Neither of us could decide what we wanted to do once we got here so we went to the Visitor info center. We finally settled on a rather short beach walk since I was tired and cranky and it felt less windy here. Beach trip take 2 went better. still a bit chilly but better. As the day went on the sun got warmer so I was happy about that. I got about 2 hours of quality beach napping and relaxing in. Then we found the only hostel in town and checked in. It’s kinda a cute place, and pretty laid back. This is the capital surfing destination so uptight is not really a thing. I will say I am super bummed to be heading back into the city tomorrow but I guess everything must end. At least the temperature is a bit more manageable now. I have four days booked at a hostel on Chapel St. which I am excited for because this weekend I will now be super close to work :)
Overall, I am very happy with my trip down The Great Ocean Road.There are always going to be things I wish we would have gotten to do, like a couple cycling paths, but I really was never up for it. I saw a lot of beautiful places and many of them reminded me why people want to come here. I got to see Koalas, a Wallabee (or maybe a baby kanagaroo), and an Emu which was so cool all by itself. I loved having a car and the convenience of being able to leave your crap somewhere was incredible. I am actually super sad about having to return it. I miss my Mazda :(! Either way, on to the next thing. I have no immediate plans for when I return to Melbourne except try and find another job to work during the week, and try to convince Makenna to move down here. I supposed I will fill you all in once I figure everything out myself. <3

An Actual Vacation

It has been two days since I left the city and that awful hostel. I felt like those three days were the longest ever. Currently I am very content in a hotel room in a small town called Warrnambool along The Great Ocean Road. It is a super cute place and every town we have stopped at has had beautiful views. I don't think I have ever been this touristy. The entire drive we have stopped at nearly every lookout and tourist sign and taken a picture. I really don't want to miss anything big but after hours of doing that today I started to be okay with skipping some stops. I felt like I was taking so many pictures of the same thing. Even though every spot was gorgeous and I wanted to make it special- honestly its all just pretty beach. Yesterday we started our journey in traffic of course. It was SO nice to have a car though and even nicer to be in AC after being sweaty and hot for three days. The only downside to starting our trip Sunday was that I worked both Friday and Saturday night. Saturday I ended up staying up until around 6:45am, took at 'nap' and woke up at 9am to check out. 

After checking out we spent the morning and afternoon down at the Moomba festival again watching the Birdman Competition.....it was a very interesting event that loads of people turned out to see. It was sweltering out, probably like 95 F and people were hiding under anything that made shade along the river. The event basically consisted of people who create contraptions that are supposed to glide/fly.... they run off this stage and see who can get the furthest however most of them literally dropped right off the end of the stage and plopped into the water like a 10 year old off a diving board. But with their poorly designed crafts with or more accurately on top of them. So weird. I think the winner glided 20 meters or so. which I guess is far? Curse the US and not teaching metric! 

After the competition, which seriously dragged on, I met up with Andy again (the new Englishman who is my friend) and we walked around and grabbed lunch. After lunch, we said our goodbyes and Rob and I headed to pick up the car. 

Once on the road it took some serious getting used to to be on the left side of the road, and more then anything to be a passenger sitting on the left without driving. This is where we started our crazy tourist behavior. Everyone kept telling me that the road was soooo long and it would take sooo many hours. Um it wasn't. And actually most of the towns were pretty close together. We made it about half way to Apollo Bay where we literally followed a random sign that posted for backpackers to try and find a place to stay. We didn't book anything for this trip because we weren't sure where we were going to end up at any given time. SO it was 830 and we didn't have a place to stay...oopsy, but luckily we followed this sign which took us into a super local suburb type place, where a hostel that could be someones house was located. It must have been good luck or meant to be, because they only had two beds left! We took them and I actually ended up really liking the place. It was like staying in someones home, so relaxed, only a handful of people to hang out with, met some Aussies out back who had bbq'd and were very friendly. I wish I would have taken a picture of the place.Oh- side note at this point in the day I had literally been away for nearly 27 hours with only that two hour nap to go on. I was exhausted! So finally crashed out and apparently rob said there was a big spider in our room right before bed but he didn't say anything. Which is good because I wouldn't have been able to sleep. Without any prompting though I had already planned to sleep in my insect guard sleeping slip thingy. Made me feel very validated in my purchase and clearly it kept mr. spidy away from me. 

All that happened in ONE day. Seriously the longest day ever. Then today we woke up, didn't get to spend much time in Apollo Bay and we may go back and revisit on the way back and headed on the road. I was cranky this morning. Poor Rob does not get morning Thea yet. he tried to comment on how I seemed less tired after being away for 27 hours then how tired I was in the morning. I snapped at him that duh, its morning and I hate waking up. I was not nice for the first like hour. So much stopping today. Again, every lookout, everything the little tourist map told us we did. Some of it was super cool, the 12 Apostles was awesome, saw some cool light houses, check facebook in a couple days for photos of everything. We were going to stop in this town called Port Campbell which everyone talked about as being great. I thought it smelled like cow shit and there were flies everywhere. not my favorite place. We had lunch and then kept going. We drove down a beautiful endless road for a while which was fun into some forest before just giving up and turning around because we needed gas. I got to see a real life Kangaroo or possibly a Wallaby jump out on that road which was awesome, followed by later seeing REAL Koalas in their natural habitat off the side of the road. SO COOL! Also, worth a giggle but as we were leaving the National Otway Park, our car got stopped by a massive herd of cows. I mean huge. it was totally like in the movies! I thought it was so funny I took about 10 pictures to try to convey to you all just how ridiculous it was to have traffic stopped for this herd and how funny it was. 

After all that excitement I took a small nap in the car before getting to our little town now. We ended up staying in a hotel because it wasn't much more expensive and again didn't really plan very well. It is actually quite nice. We had a lovely dinner in town, probably the best I have had since getting to Australia and now I really need to get to bed. We are hoping to finish up the road tomorrow, then start backtracking and doing all the things we missed or didn't feel like the first time. We have until Thursday and I must tell you I don't really want to go back to the city, I love the coastal town vibe. I will update in probably another couple days to let everyone know more fun stuff I do. Love you :)

A Bad Choice

Well I already spent over an hour writing this post but apparently my computer didn't feel like saving it. So awesome. I feel like that just adds to the title of this post. To pick up where my last post left off, I switched hostels. I moved from about 20 minutes outside the city in St. Kilda, into the city center to a place called Discovery Melbourne. It seemed nice enough online and I had said I wanted to try somewhere new just to see since I had been at Habitat HQ for seven nights. A bad choice. I realize I might sound like a high maintenance American in a moment but I really don't care. First, a few positives: the lobby is nice, big open, has a nice cafe, travel and jobs center, very friendly staff. However, the positives pretty much stop there. The moment you get into the main part of the hostel it feels like a sauna. Literally so frikking hot you can hardly breath. There is no Air Conditioning and while normally this wouldn't be a huge deal it is consistently in the high 80s and even 90s right now. You would think it would be worth the investment. Also my dorm room has 7 other people in it apart from me but was clearly meant to be a six bed dorm. It is so cramped, no where to put your stuff and is super long and narrow. The only ventilation is one little fan. A crap fan might I add, where if it is on at one end of the room your not about to feel it at the other end. There is a window but it does nothing, the angle wouldn't allow a breeze in even if there was one, and essentially it just makes it feel hotter. Now the bathrooms are also less than ideal. Sharing is not the problem, but these ones are so far away (from everyone's rooms, not just mine) and are just dirty. They cant seem to figure out to keep soap in the dispenser and the sink doesn't drain. They have separate shower rooms which actually is very efficient however in a room with over 8 showers there is absolutely NO ventilation. No fan, AC, windows. Nothing. So the moment you get out of the shower you are sticky and gross all over again. Good luck pulling any clothes on. My first night here was so bad that I woke up in the middle of the night dripping sweat so hot and disoriented. It felt like I had a 100 degree fever it was awful. I got up and went and put my head in the cold shower at 4am. Miserable. I suppose I could share a couple good things that happened in the last two days. First, I made another friend, who although he left to go live an hour outside the city is very nice and wants to be friends. His name is Andy, another Englishman, and he is 6'5"! Very nice guy. Last night this free festival started called Moomba in the city center. It has rides, carnival food and other shows as well as a water skiing competition. We went down there in hopes of catching the opening night performance which was a Cabaret of sorts with some dressed in drag. I thought it was awesome and wished we could have gotten a seat inside the tent but it was too full. We watched from the sides for a little bit and then called it good. After walking around the "no alcohol" fair we grabbed some drinks at a bar in Federation Square which is basically the city center. I had one drink and then had to leave to head to work. Oh right, so another problem with this hostel is I booked it without considering that I work on Chapel Street on Friday and Saturdays which was maybe ten minutes away from the last place. I booked here Thursday-Saturday and considering I get off sometime after 3am there isn't actually a way to get back here. Luckily Bridie is wonderful and let me stay on her couch for a couple hours before being able to catch the tram back. WHICH reminds me, last night I saw my first spider. I freaked out. Yup, the are HUGE and apparently this one wasn't even that big. On the wall it looked pretty huge. Bridie is going to school to work with animals and IVF/Cloning or something so she isn't scared of them, thank god, someone has to save me, and went and took it off the wall with paper and Tupperware. She asked if I wanted to look at it close up because it was my first spider encounter, I said no thank you considering I was already going to have a hard time sleeping thinking about it. She also told me apparently this one was a huntsman which can be good to have around the house because they keep all the other bugs away and its not one of the ones that can kill you but I don't think I'm going to stick with that logic. Urg. makes me jumpy! Anyways, I am very excited for my trip down the Great Ocean Road starting Sunday. It will be nice to have a car and get out of the city. I am excited were renting a car because it gives us the luxury to take our time and stop where we want to. We have four days but it is a really long way to go. Hopefully I don't get sick of my new friend because after spending four days together we have a booking at another hostel together for four more nights because it was the only thing available during the Grand Prix. Hopefully after that stay I will be moving in with Bridie as I am already over the hostel scene and would love to just unpack my bag. I know I had more to say and my first draft was so much better but I have to start getting ready for my second work shift now. Also, I am finding myself being surprisingly homesick.. I don't remember having this problem in Belfast and it feels very unlike me. I love and miss everyone and all I can say is August feels very far away...

I Made a Friend!!

I made a friend! His name is Rob and he is from outside Manchester. He moved into one of the empty beds two days ago and while I was being anti-social and coming up to my room to hang out while everyone downstairs was getting drunk, we started chatting and hit it off. He is quite entertaining and we get along great. Yesterday we ended up spending the whole day together and as he pointed out right before bed, we talked for about 10 hours straight. You all know me, so that's not really that surprising but considering every other person I have met, our conversations have been about 5 minutes, it was a big deal. We started the day walking down Chapel street to find lunch and check out this hostel that Bridie recommended called 22 Travelers. Ate lunch at this place called Yellow Bird. I am telling you it was the most bizarre restaurant, extremely eclectic...I mean okay it was weird. It had Indian, Asian, Mexican, and misc. other themes. I got soft shell crab tacos- they were a little spicy but pretty good. Wasn't expecting the crab to be fried but it was good. He paid for lunch. Which was very sweet. Went and checked out the hostel, seems like a nice enough place. It is meant to target older travelers, those of us who don't really need to be acting 18 and getting completely hammered everyday. We just booked 4 nights there next week, because literally it is the only hostel that was not booked for the Formula 1 Grand Prix which is March 14-17th. Who knew fast cars were a big thing here... apparently people come from all over and all the hostels are booked. After spending the afternoon on Chapel Street, we came back to the hostel, rested up a bit then headed down to the beach. Turns out this hostel is a lot closer to the beach then i thought. Refer to last post about taking the wrong tram and what not- its only a ten minute walk. oopsy. Nice to be shown around though. SO we went to the beach and again even late in the day it is super hot. We just walked in the water and hung around chatting until the sun went down. We went and tried to see the Penguins that apparently come out after sunset. There was one. Poor guy he was bombarded with flashes and pointing since he was the only one even though there were signs saying no flash. It was cool to see though, and your out on a rock jetty which is beautiful. After we gave up on more penguins, we went and walked down St. Kilda looking for food, found Pizza and this time I paid because it seemed fair. My feet hurt. Surprise. Really over trying to pick which shoes will hurt the least. Went back to the hostel again and changed for the evening. He had been to this super cool bar down the road (5min) and suggested we go. It's called The Local Tap House and it was SO COOL! Total hole in the wall kind of place but upstairs is a bar that opens to an outside patio which, when it is still 75 out, it feels wonderful to be outside. Also, they have over 20 beers on tap and even more bottles from all over the world. I tried one called Evil Twin Honey I'm Home. For real. It was super yummy and was a super light beer but had a ton of flavor. Chelsea would have liked it and been surprised by it. He paid for this round. Only got one drink in before they closed but I will definitely be going back. Overall it was an awesome day. I had such a great friend and its amazing what finding just ONE person you get along with can do. I am in much better spirits. Today we spent the day together again but really just went to the beach to tan and swim. I finally SWAM! In Australian waters and it was beautiful. We got Subway (original i know) and went and sat on the beach. Got my first ice cream to- Boysenberry Swirl... yum. I don't think I got super burned but I won't lie that I did kinda hope to get at least a little bit of color.I will have to report back on that tomorrow. The day flew by and suddenly it was already 5pm. Now were getting ready to go grab some dinner and maybe a couple drinks. Tomorrow I am moving to a new hostel for 3 days, I am ready to try somewhere new. The new place is more in the city and called Discovery Melbourne. After that, on Sunday we have decided to rent a car and do the Great Ocean Road by ourselves. It ends up being the same price about and allows us to take our time and find cool places that tours don't. I am actually super excited! And since he is from the UK he can drive on the left hand side of the road. I will let everyone know how the new place is and if anything else interesting happens. Love everyone :)

Beginning of the First Full Week

Monday/Today: Woke up too early and was not thrilled about it. Laid in bed for a good couple hours and finished my book. The first of the Beautiful Creatures series. After that I knew I wanted to do one of two things today, beach or city. I ended up choosing the city because originally I was on the hunt for better shoes for work, cute black flats that have a bit more substance then the ones I have. I ended up getting to the city and getting a bank account first. That took FOREVER. The queue was so long. I took a ticket and my number said 114, they were calling number 92 and they were not fast. I picked ANZ- Australia and New Zealand bank. For short they call it A and Zed. Don't ask why, I haven't a clue. The bank was again right next to China Town so all the tellers were Asian. The lady was very nice though and explained everything well. My card will come in a couple days to Bridie's place and its going to be PINK. After over an hour and a half at the bank I found the shopping center but honestly had lost steam. I ended up going to Big W which Hardy swears is basically Walmart but with a different name. Same color scheme and everything. bought myself a normal towel for showering and some shoe inserts for my tennis shoes and then lost interest. Wondered around some more but my feet got sore in crappy throngs. Decided to grab lunch at a place called Grilled. I tried their veggie burger and I will not get that again. I mean it wasn't bad...it was just weird. Weird flavor combinations and odd, but there was a beet on it. Interesting. Gave up on the search for black flats. Figured I would come back again later. Went back to the hostel for a bit then went to go meet up with Bridie just to hang out. She was at Electric just relaxing since its not really a day kind of place and she had just got done with Uni and was pretty tired. We just chatted, I picked up my money, and it was nice to just get to know her a bit. After a while we decided it was time to call it a day, she walked me to the tram, got donuts at 7/11 and said goodbye. OH fun fact, they have Krispy Kreme here!! Someone tell Joe please. Got back to the hostel and now I am updating everyone here! I haven't totally figured out the kitchen here and the whole cooking for myself while on the go but I guess I will work on that in the next couple days. I may be switching hostels here soon since I need somewhere to stay a little longer. Bridie's roommate is still planning on moving out, its just that I guess she broke up with her boyfriend and now is home a lot so the whole couch crashing isnt the best plan anymore. I will be keeping it low key tonight and going to the beach again tomorrow. Now with a towel and the intent to tan and swim. maybe.

The Weekend

So I last undated on Friday and I can't actually believe a whole weekend passed because it feels like one day. Friday night Hardy and I had a great time once I got my butt out of bed at 10pm after a nap. We had some delicious gin and tonics that would have cost us a fortune but Bridie is wonderful and took care of our tab. (she would be the friend of Hardy's that got me the job and in a couple weeks is letting me rent a room) I was sad to say bye to Hardy Saturday morning but to be fair, he was on his way to a music festival so it's not like he was going somewhere awful. It was kind of like taking away a security blanket though. Since I had him from the start I have to say I haven't made any friends in the hostel yet and that has kinda sucked. To be fair its mostly my vault.. I haven't been in my chatty mood and it doesn't help that in my "mixed dorm" I am the only girl. There are five guys in here and non are very chatty. Anyways, while we were out at Electric Ladyland for fun, Bridie asked if I had plans for Saturday. I said no, considering again that I don't have any friends yet, and she asked if I wanted to work. Naturally my first response was yes. I am already broke since, well, I didn't come with enough money in the first place. Saturday Night: I spent the beginning part of the day just hanging around the hostel waiting to move into my new bed. We had to check out of the private room at 10am but I couldn't move into my new room until 2pm. I put my stuff into their storage closet which later ended up being a bad idea. It got so full that to get to my stuff I literally had to crawl over other bags. I took a nap around 7pm because I was planning to have to be working until like 5am which is definitely not part of my current schedule. Woke up at 9, in a panic as I had to be at the club at 10:30 dressed and pretty. Turns out my random purchase of a sexy black dress with my mom paid off because that's what I wore and I seemed to fit in enough. One of the Irish man from my dorm walked me to the club which was nice because apparently at night the party street can get a little sketchy. I got there with five minutes to spare. Not surprisingly for a Saturday they were already busy. It took a little while for someone to come over to me but once I got a chance to chat with Bridie my training went something like this: "So you have worked in a restaurant before? Can you use a tray and can you put it over your head? "Yes, I can use a tray, I guess ill figure out if i can put it over my head" "Great, so beer is $7.50, drinks are $8.50, wine is $9, cocktails are $18. Just round up the drinks to $10 each and take payment first. Your sections is generally this area. Ready go" Seriously. that was it. I just walked up to people who were waiting to get to the bar and got their drinks for them. To be honest I was totally lost for the first hour and it felt like complete chaos. I barely know the money, and I don't know the beers on tap, or Australian bourbons and vodkas. Add in a VARIETY of accents and I will say it was an experience. I had to ask people to repeat themselves many times and also there is no writing anything down. Lots of Irishman in the club. A couple that were very cute and most of them actually tipped me to. Which here tipping is the exception not the rule. Had drunk people asking for my number and Facebook page and wanting to take home the "cute American". A girl to. She even squeezed my cheeks like a grandmother would do. Interesting. So after a little while I started to get it, and most of the customers were very nice and understanding. They couldn't believe I had literally been in the country 48 hours and was already working. Turns out we close at 3am not 5. thank god. The last hour dragged on and I was exhausted. Bridie let me go home right at three instead of staying and cleaning to. I was going to try and stick around after to meet the staff and have a couple drinks but I was about ready to fall over. So hopefully I will be able to manage that next week.OH also. You can drink on the job here. I get like $30/shift where I can drink and take shots. All you know me and know that will never happen because I will just get sick at work, but still its kinda a cool quirk that is obviously VERY different from America. I work next Friday and Saturday and as I got paid today, in cash, I figured out that I can count on about $100/night. Comparable to home and I will take it! Sunday: SLEPT IN. No doubt about it I passed out the moment I got to my bed and didn't wake until 1pm. It felt so nice. Feet were a little sore thanks to crappy black flats. I told myself I really needed to get out and do something on this day so I ended up exploring St. Kilda and actually found the beach!! It took a solid 45 minutes for me to figure out which tram I needed to be on and failed at first. Started going the wrong direction about 3 stops, turned around, finally found the connecting stops, waiting in the blazing sun and then when I got on the right one there were tons of people in flip flops (still called thongs here which is very 90s in the US) and people with towels. Good signs. St. Kilda Beach is actually a super cool place. I will post some pictures momentarily I just don't have my camera down here right now. I really wish I had some of my friends here though. There were so many cool spots that I was like, "Oh Chelsea and I would have so much fun there" and "Joe and Dennis would think that was super cool". It really would make this experience. I realized it was nearly 3pm and I hadn't eaten since before work the night before and was starving. I picked Sushi. Not a bad thing to eat alone. Thank god for my Kindle. I am pretty sure Santa couldn't have gotten me a better present. Anyways it was $8 for a 6 piece roll, I got two and $3.50 for a sprite so it ended up being like a $20 lunch which around here is cheap? Yeah I know. like everyone warned me its expensive!! After lunch I really did actually want to see the beach so I wondered past all the restaurants and shops to the pier. Right as I got to the water I got a nice interesting culture shock. A huge group of men and a few women were on bicycles....NAKED. BUTT ASS NAKED! ON BIKES! Just peddling through the pier and on the sidewalk. It was both hilarious and confusing and honestly my first thought was "damn that would be uncomfortable". So many penis's. (sorry for those of you who are reading this and were not on that level) It is always the old men who seem into participating in these types of things. ew. I think they were protesting as their bodies were painted with words but I couldn't tell you what for. Their message was very unclear and it was hard to get past the NAKED part. I asked Bridie today about nudity in public and apparently this was out of the normal for Australia to. Worth seeing though! After getting over being shocked by naked men, I figured it was time to call my favorite place. It was around 10pm at home and I called Coho while I walked along the pier. It was so wonderful to hear the voices of my favorites and Chelsea was totally confused when she answered the phone and didn't realize it was me. Made me cry. I miss home and I know its a temporary feeling its just something like separation anxiety I think and I am working on not giving in. We talked for like 20 minutes and caught up on all of this which was really wonderful. I love Skype. only 2 cents per minute and I really did not want to hang up. After I did, I was super sad... walked along the pier and stumbled upon some closed in small festival. I didn't go in but I got to hear some of the music and smell the food. I don't have a beach towel yet but it didn't seem appropriate to be on the beach and not sit in the sand. It was already around 5:30 here and let me tell you it was still like 80 degrees. Laid in my new swimsuit in the sand and read some more. Walked the beach and finally put my toes in Australian water, it was nice, cooler then I expected but nice. So many tan people which is to be expected but man do i GLOW. After the beach I found my way back to hostel much easier then I found the beach where I met another American in the kitchen. He was from Chicago. I think his name was Brad and he actually had living in Seattle for like 6 years in Bremerton so he knew where Issaquah was!! That might not seem like a big deal but the fact that I am this far away and everyone is typically from Europe it was very weird to have someone know the names of all our small towns.

First day in the City!

Alright everyone. So I really am in Australia. Today was my first day really being here. No airport, thank god. I passed out last night at like 8pm with absolutely no clue what time my body "thinks" it is which led to me waking up at 7am here. For all of you who know me, 7am is literally an hour I NEVER see. After getting up and having the most fabulous shower after such long travels,(and Hardy giving me crap for taking like 15 minutes instead of 5. Apparently there's always a water shortage and Aussies are all about conservation. Me and my American ways decided to disregard this for my first shower. I feel like my expensive ticket here warranted me a longer first shower.) Anywho after the shower discussion Hardy and I headed into the city to have lunch with one of his friends. Her name was Claire and she's Chinese, very cute, and very nice. We had lunch in China town which was actually yummy and pretty cool. I tried pretty much everything new. two kinds of dumplings, some Mongolian beef (not like the US) and some Chinese rice cake seafood thing. AND I used chopsticks! I only dropped a couple things. After lunch we grabbed some Bubble Tea where again I picked something I had no idea what flavor it was but it was #2 on their favorites. White Peal I think it was. Again yummy. We walked Claire back to the train station and said our goodbyes, she lives outside the city and Hardy won't get to see her again since hes heading back to the US in a couple weeks. Once we left Claire we just wandered around the city. Went for a walk down by the river, saw the Casino which was BEAUTIFUL, went to the mall for a quick stop, very cool history there. Apparently the building in the very center used to be used to make ammunition and when the laws changed, instead of demolishing it, they built the whole mall around it. So awesome. The giant glass ceiling is also special in that it has a self cleaning mechanism build into it that cleans both the inside and outside windows and its the only kind in the world. While touring the city I actually took some pictures and looked like a tourist. I tried to get a bank account but the guy in front of me was taking so long I decided I could put it off a little longer. I also learned that apparently the PENIS game is international. When you see who can say it the loudest. Yup, some nice, possibly intoxicated mates behind us at one point were playing it. I thought it was funny, Hardy not so much. He said I was too friendly to them, I disagree. OH which reminds me, there really are lots of pretty people here. The guys at Telstra (cell phone company) who helped me set up my phone were SO attractive I didnt want to leave. He had to call my phone a couple times to make it work and I wont lie but the stalker in me wanted to call him later. Don't worry guys, I didnt do it. Other observations of the day: I spent wayy too much money on my Chacos this summer so I would have nice shoes for walking around. I should have gone with the ugly Keens. My feet were dying halfway through the day and I officially have like 4 blisters. Awesome. I would have been better off in flats! urg. Also, it was only like 70 something today and I was sweating, I feel like this was a very good first day to re-introduce me to sunshine. I love the tram system, easy, fast, and goes everywhere I will need. Tonight were going to go out for the first time since its Hardy's last night here and I will get to meet Bridie and go to Electric Ladyland. But first I am going to go nap :)