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.