first day of work

had a wonderful first day of work yesterday! just went in for a 2 hour training session and met a lot of the people (really nice!) and learned how to use the palm pilots they place orders with (GENIUS system).

checked into a new hostel today right near work and am now exploring the new area (prahan/windsor/chapel street district) and will go into the CBD (central business district) to go to the farmers market for some fresh produce a little later!

aussie words of the day
capsicum: red peppers
rocket: arugula

Grand ol day in Melbourne!

what a beautiful, fun day today in melbourne! first stopped off at a couple hostels to find a place to stay for the next week or so and decided (very smartly, i think) on back of chapel hostel, which is about 20 feet from the job i decided to take (the one at Hoo Haa as a waitress) so that when i get off work at 4am i dont have far to go. since public transport stops at 3am this will be very key in next stop!

next was a picnic in the botanical gardens and then exploring the yarra river district - what a surprise! it was absolutely beautiful and filled with interesting places and people. after that was watching the sunset over st kildas and finding the pint size penguins just as they were finishing marching around for the night. wonderful sunny day and cant wait for tomorrow- my first day of work!

aussie word of the day
chook: chicken

Melbourne: the rain finally stops!

today, after 4 days of non stop rain and cold, it finally stopped raining in Melbourne! the next couple days are supposed to be pretty nice, and with even more reason to celebrate - i got a job! actually, i got two jobs and another call for an interview! i have a bartending job up in Kew - a northern suburb of Melbourne (half hour tram ride from the city but an hour tram ride from where i am currently staying which is St Kilda - half an hour tram ride south of the city) at a sleepy place called the Hotel Kew and also a waitressing job in Windsor (a part of town in between the city center and St Kilida) at a very trendy very cool restaurant/bar that seems like it will get verrrry busy. the interview is to do promotions, i dont know a lot about what the work would be but figured it would be interesting to go check out at least!

next step is to figure out where im going to live for the next few weeks here in Melbourne and take the RSA (responsible service of alcohol), a federally mandated course for anyone working around alcohol.

melbourne day 2: job hunt

today i managed to survive the constant rain and cold to go job hunting! it was tougher than i expected it would be, most places said they werent hiring, but i did get one call back and have an interview set up for monday to be a bartender! also got my melbourne library card today to cash in on the free internet (only thing i wish i had done differently is to have brought an ipod touch or something to get online with - i will probably end up spending the same to get online for the next few months that it would have cost!)

next step, find a flat!

Aussie word of the day
flat: apartment

aussie travel

i discovered this morning that the 'she'll be apples' philosophy of life in australia also extends to airport security. i managed to get from sydney to melboure without any person or machine checking my id even once, with a half full water bottle and pepper spray in my purse. the advantage of this was that i also managed to get my 20kg backpack on board even though the limit was 10kg without paying extra :)

i guess the one amazing thing about austrlia is that no one wants to blow them up...and they dont want to blow anyone else up! its like switzerland but without the banks

Aussie word of the day
Oz: Australia

***and Sydney is nicknamed 'the emerald city'***

Melbourne - Day 1

made it to Melbourne safe and sound!

PS whoever it was that told me that Melbourne had crazy spastic weather - you were so right! in 15 minutes today it went from 45 and raining to 75 and sunny!

Aussie word of the day
you reckon?: dont you think so? you agree? (an implied 'yes')

the blue mountains adventure/disaster (still deciding which title works better)

it was a cloudy, smoggy day here in sydney this morning (about 1/4 of the people walking around were wearing those hospital mask things), so i decided to venture out to the blue mountains, which are a 2 hour train ride out of sydney. i had heard just enough about them to know it was an enchanting place with great hiking trails and quaint villages... what unfortunately i did not research was the weather forecast or trails condition! i left sydney just before 10am in pleasant warm weather and got off in Kootoma at noon in near arctic conditions. after a quick stop in the trail outfitters to get a pair of thermal long johns, it was almost bearable, and i figured id warm up quickly once i got to the hiking trails! echo point and the start of the trails are about two miles from the train station through what is a really cute town center, so after a half hour walk, i arrive at the three sisters and echo point - beautiful views! (ill try to figure out how to get pictures on this blog sooner or later) unfortunately the trails were all flooded from too much rain so hiking was not an option. to solve both of the issues i hoped on the tourist trolley bus (with no tourists -they were probably smart enough to check the weather!) and cruised around the mountain in style, then headed back to sydney early. (only to find, to top the day off well, that the thermals must have something in/on them i'm allergic to, because my legs are covered in red splotches!)

so on that note - tomorrow morning i head off to Melbourne! (pronounced "mel-bon")

Aussie word of the day
Pom: a British person