out of the hostel!

as of tomorrow i will be out of hostels for the moment and into a spare room of the family of one of the guys i work with! i have never lived with a family before (besides my own, of course) so it will definitely be an interesting and educational experience. on the upside, i will have my own room (yay!), will be very very close to work, and the mom of the house is a really wonderful almost-hippie flight attendant who i get along with very well. also great is that there is no sort of lease at all so as soon as i head out of melbourne i wont have any loose ends. i am looking forward to getting out of my bunk bed, dorm room, and sloppy kitchen for a few weeks, though the nice thing about staying at a business instead of a home is that the expectations are very clear and its never personal. should be an interesting (and good) change!

last night was my second full shift at work - since it was a tuesday night it was very slow and things went very smoothly, i think im starting to get the hang of things! i am realizing though how very odd the waitstaff dynamic becomes when people arnt working for tips nor keeping tips separate. for example, concrete sections of tables and customers you are responsible for suddenly becomes very blurry. if someone else 'helps' you out by taking their order or food out to them without telling you it puts you in the odd (to me) position of not knowing where your tables are at. conversely, if you help someone out by doing the same to theirs, its tough to know how much then you should be following up with their service.

in so many ways (professionally and personally) it is clear that the states (USA) are so much more fiercely independent (some say selfish, i prefer independent) than other countries, even the so americanized Australia. will a year be enough to de-independant me? we will see!


aussie word of the day
Chuck a sickie : take the day off sick from work when you're perfectly healthy