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...