pokies, sharks, and tequila! oh my.

City view from Essendon

Australia has been pretty unbelievable. I've been here almost 6 weeks now(?) , it's been a slow start, but things are definitely coming together nicely. The first two weeks or so were a bit of a struggle, finding my way around, meeting new friends, fighting off some homesickness, and trying to find a job.

Loz and her "special" friend =)

The job hunt has been an adventure in it's own, I've met with quite a few salon owners and managers, some that I thought I would have really loved to work at, and some I knew immediately that it would be a horrible match! I've done a few haircut models, with a really positive outcome... or so it seemed at the time, but everyone is kind of weary about work visa, and is looking for a permanent resident, so they can stick around longer. So I've pretty much given up on hairdressing... it only makes sense though, If I owned  a salon I wouldn't want to hire someone that would be building up a clientele, knowing that they were on a timed visit either. I gave up on hairdressing and started looking for kitchen work, not the greatest jobs, but they pay.... and usually cash. As soon as I started looking I lucked out, and found an ad for counter help at this vegan pizza place we go to a lot down the road... awesome! and now I have a job =)

Sinks in the Casino... minus the sink?
the water just runs back...it's weird. 

I walked into a casino for the first time ever a couple weeks ago! It was quite overwhelming, and the security was intense..... definitely not my thing. Not to mention the fact that I got kicked out of the black jack area by my Canadian friend Jimmy, because he thought I was bad luck. grrr. There's a little bar down the road though thats kind of part casino/part restaurant/part pub, where I learned alllll about "pokies" which we would call penny slots.... ha. Those little machines have definitely peaked my interest!

First experience with pokies!

My birthday is coming up next week!!! I don't know why I sound so excited.... I hate birthdays. I'm a firm believer that everyone should just have a generic birthday every year on new years.... but I'm pretty excited, because I'm heading off to Adelaide in the morning to visit Abbey! Adelaide's a smaller city, north west, about an hour flight. We've rented a cabin close to the beach for three nights! We'll be beaching and boozing mostly haha and she's taking me on a dolphin cruise!  I'm so excited! Slightly nervous about hanging out at a beach that needs to be patrolled by helicopters for sharks, but c'est la vie... I'm on a giant island in the middle of the ocean, I suppose it's to be expected! Definitely more updates to come about that next week, and lots of pictures!

Jimmy the Canadian, my new
Malaysian friends, and myself after
way too much tequila! 

I've met so many awesome people since I've been here... a lot of locals, and people from the "country" which has been a blast!! as well as a lot of people from all over the world. I've gotten involved in this site called couchsurfing.org. It sounds a bit different than what it actually is though. It's more or less an unbelievable international community of travelers. It's not about "couch hopping" it's more about meeting people and networking world wide. There are weekly meetings and plenty of events, and Melbourne is actually one of the most active cities on the site!

Travels.... and settling in.

First of all, as I said in the previous post... LA was amazing, and I can't wait to go back for a longer period of time. Below is a pic I took before I left the airport. It looks like some sort of space station... lol. Which I guess... in a way LAX kind of is... 

I traveled from LAX 13 hours to Auckland, New Zealand, which was really awesome. The flight was long, and I had an 8 hour layover there, but I met some really cool people, and the airport was really clean and nice! 

I mean.... they even tell you not to spit in the trash cans! ha. From NZ It was another 4 hour flight to Melbourne. Definitely a lot of time travel. Started out, going from VT to Chicago... back one hour, then Chicago to LA, back 2 hours... then LA to NZ which was forward......19? 21? something like that.... and then back another 2 hours. phew. From LA through to Melbourne, I flew Air New Zealand, which I, seriously, highly recommend..... seats were comfy, airline staff was friendly, and it was relatively cheap, compared to my other options, especially booking on such short notice! Oh and the food was great too.... of course I ordered the vegan option in advance, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was really decent! 

Settling in has kind of been rough, I haven't really felt the greatest, the time change is killer... but It's been nice just relaxing here. 

My hobbit hole enterance/ally way =) 

Tram stop, with the shop in the background...

oh, and seriously? I was worried about not being able to bring my purses from home..... There's a Salvation Army across the street, filled with brand new stuff! 

I know this is a bad pic... but I have to say that I was prettttttty excited when I ran across the Aussie version of Big Buck Hunter =) If you've hung out with me at all in Burlington that you would understand haha! 

So it's been a pretty awesome first few days...... minus the constant daytime headache. I set up an Australian bank account, and a phone plan! now........ mission for monday is to find a job!!! =)