Australia

My housemate, Wendy, breeds horses, which are kept on her mother's farm about a 2 hour drive west of Melbourne. She has to go there pretty much every weekend to check in on them and spend time with them, esp since her mom doesn't really know anything about horses and mostly just feeds them during the week. On Friday night, I came home and said I was rather bored and had a boring weekend to look forward to, so she invited me out to the farm with her. We left Saturday morning and drove west of Melbourne, heading towards the town of Ballarat, but then on past that to a smaller town called Beaufort. The region has a lot of French descendants, in fact the mountains near the farm have the creative name of the Pyrenees. I found the drive interesting, even if it wasn't really that exciting or pretty, just because it is new to me, and this was only my second time far out of the city. There was a lot of farm land and fields and sheep. Sometime in the early afternoon we finally arrived at the farm which is still almost half an hour from Beaufort. The house is on a hill with brilliant views of the mountains. The best photo I have is here, though it doesn't do the view justice, it's only part of the mountains. It was a gorgeous, clear day, so we got to really soak up the view as we munched our lunch of toasted cheese sandwiches. Then Wendy and I fed some animals and walked around the property. Her mom also has chickens (which Australians call chooks) and ducks, though they really have to fight off the foxes who live just up the hill within sight of the pens. The chickens actually like a bit of a cuddle, which Wendy likes to give, but the ducks run away from you as soon as you head their way.

We wandered down to see all the horses she has, about 20 in total, though I lost track of how many I saw and certainly lost track of their names. The stallions are kept on the complete other side of the house from all the other horses, and esp the females, though they still call out and rile up the females. There are some young horses and an old mare. One has some back leg problems and walks a bit like a goose, another is blind in one eye and thus gets easily spooked, as he did when we were saying hi and he stomped down on Wendy's foot, which she said has turned many fun colours after that. We went walking up a gully that a stream runs down (though the stream doesn't have much water at the moment) and Wendy informed me that this is the time of year the snakes start coming out, and yeah, pretty much any snake you'd see is poisonous. Great. She said though that you're only going to get bit if you agitate them or step on them, so as long as you're not stupid, and not looking up in the air, which you shouldn't be doing anyway on uneven ground, you likely won't get bit. I don't even like harmless garden snakes though, so I really don't want to come across one here.

Sunday was really windy, made worse by being exposed up on a hill, and it started out sunny and warm enough, but it later really rained, which was kind of impressive to see as different clouds moved through the valley and past the mountains. I helped Wendy feed the horses and also helped her move some of them around from one paddock to another, though there was a big drama at one point as one escaped up the driveway and then some people arrived at the same time who wanted to go riding. I was all happy to help drive the truck around the paddocks (it was a small pickup truck, which is called a "ute" here, short for utility, and thus pronounced "yoot"). It was, I think, the first time I've driven a manual since I had to give up my car back in 2000. I only drove for like 2 mins, but I had fun doing it. She went riding with these people who arrived, after taking ages to gather and saddle up the horses, and then it started raining while they were out there, but they got back just in time. I'm very glad I didn't go, heh, but I never was comfortable riding horses.

It was a great weekend away, I met some people they know out there, and got to see and do some things that are definitely out of the ordinary. It was so wonderful to be out in the nature and in the mountains, seeing some forests and just more of Victoria. Oh, and I saw my first wild kangaroos! Which is still definitely a novelty for me, esp since I think I had the impression before that kangaroos only live out in the outback, but there are many kinds of kangaroos and they live all over the place. There are koalas and wallabies out there too, but we didn't see any of those, though Wendy spotted a dead koala on the side of the highway. I first saw a whole... herd? of kangaroos (what is a group of them called? Hrm, apparently a "mob") on a distant hill. I couldn't even see what they were and thought they were maybe cattle until one of them moved in a distinct hopping way. This morning though on the drive back to Melbourne one hopped across the road and I saw more gathered in someone's field. It was so cool! I mean I know it's so common for Australians, but we only see them in zoos! Definitely a reminder of the very different country I am in. Quite dangerous though to come across them while driving, you really do not want to run into one of them.

On a different topic, as a follow up to my mentioning the hook turn, I thought a video would help demonstrate how it works. I found this little animation that shows a pretty accurate situation of trams and traffic going through an intersection, though it goes fairly quick, so you may need to watch it a couple of times to get it. Otherwise there are some real life videos if you search for "hook turn" on Youtube. I won't post links because I have no sound and I don't want to endorse something I can't hear myself. =) I hope it is all clear after this.

I had a job, but I don't anymore. I was hired at a place that does breakfast and lunch in the heart of the main business district, so a lot of people in suits coming in for their lunch, having business talks, etc. I was hired to prepare the food (they sell wraps, salads and baked potatoes with toppings) and also ring it up at the till because the person who makes the order also gets the money from the person who ordered. A lot of my training was just trying to explain to me their trying-to-be-user-friendly, but-not-being-successful computerized till. I hardly learned anything about the actual food prep. But I helped customers a bit and watched my coworkers a lot and then when it got busy just before 1, they had me help out around the cafe, mostly bussing tables and washing dishes (which made me laugh, in a grim sort of way, because I just read a book about a guy who tried to wash dishes in all 50 states). I did a shorter shift because I was training, so they sent me home at 2 and told me to come back at 11:30 the next day (Tuesday). I then found out that the shift they planned to give me if they gave me the job was only for 4 hours, so I left thinking the job wouldn't be enough for me, I'd hardly earn enough to pay my bills, let alone save anything. So I considered once again doing office work. Through the visa agency, they have contacts with an agency that helps get office work for working holiday people, and I hadn't planned to do office work because that's what I normally do and I wanted something different, but I was also thinking that work in a cafe making food wasn't for me. It would especially be exhausting to do full time and I was only doing it half time. I feel like a wimp, but I'd rather have energy for my off time and not be dead all the time.

I called this work agency and made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon. In the meantime I worked at the cafe on Tuesday and they gave me cash in hand for the whole 6 hours I'd worked. Hey, it's some money. I am a bit sad to leave them, even after just two days, because everyone who worked there was so nice. There was Maria, the girl training me (heh); Lila, one of the managers; Nick, the cute and sweet Greek-Australian who made coffees (but he's married and has kids, damn); and Cynthia, the Indonesian girl who was the other dishwasher who I got to chat with a bit as we hid out in the sink corner. The only one I was afraid of was Lila's husband, Tim, they're both Chinese and working for him was like gaining a gruff Chinese dad I never asked for, maybe it was just because his English was not very good, or it's just cultural differences, I know he was only trying to help, but I did feel quite timid around him. Anyway, the plan was that I would fill in dishwashing while Cynthia was gone next week and they'd call me with details later in the week, but I called this morning and said I wouldn't be working there anymore. So I'm unemployed again.

The meeting went pretty well with this agency though, a whole group of us talked to the guy who works with working holiday makers and he took details of when we could work and what we wanted to do. He said he wouldn't be surprised if we were all employed by the end of the week, and I hope that wasn't just a fake promise. I got a call this afternoon, but it was for a call center job which I had said I didn't want to do. But there should be enough admin and general office jobs out there that I should get one fairly quickly. The pay is much better (I should get $20 an hour vs only $15 or so in hospitality work) and this agency does some fiddling with your pay so that you get less taxed and more take-home pay. Anyway, I hope I get a job that works well for me.

Never fear, Northern Europeans, our weather went to crap this week as well. It was fairly rainy and gray and miserable yesterday. Today got sunny eventually and tomorrow should be ok, but rain again after that. Thing is, they have such a drought here, they are happy to see the rain. I still can't be happy about being cold and damp. And a slightly weird Australian thing is that in weather reports, instead of just saying it'll be sunny, they say it'll be "fine". That just seems to take all the fun out of it, like, yeah, it's not bad. It's ok. Can't complain. Maybe it's because they get so much sun, they just get bored of it after awhile.

I shall try to explain something that is uniquely Melburnian, not Australian, and that is the hook turn. It is a strange traffic maneuver that is designed to keep the cars downtown from blocking the tram tracks in the middle of the street when turning to another street. It's a bit hard to explain because they also drive on the left here, so everything is all turned around, but for you people who drive on the right: imagine that to make a left turn, you don't go to the left lane, but to the right lane. You then move forward til you are in front of the cars waiting at the red light, and then, when it's about green for them and clear for you, you make your left turn. If it helps, try reading the entry over at Wikipedia. Even though I knew about it, I was still confused sometimes to see cars sitting in places you don't normally see them. One of the first times I saw a hook turn going on, and actually I didn't really know what was going on til later, a cab was hook turning right in front of a police car and I was wondering why the police were allowing the cab to sit blocking their lane like that. Another thing to get used to with them is that you can be crossing the street and suddenly have this car sidling up alongside you as they wait to make their turn. You have to be careful to not stray too far out of the crosswalk.

I have uploaded some more photos, including ones of the house. It's been a pain uploading them this time, the program I use to edit them was slow so I gave up and uploaded many full size to Flickr, which still took a lot of time. I only meant to be here an hour and it's going to be much longer than that. You can view the new photos starting here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-gem/1365469682/

Wow, I haven't posted in awhile. I was trying to keep my internet costs down... Anyway, so I've moved into the share house and it's gone pretty well so far. 4 of us live there: Wendy, the woman who contacted me about the room, Travis (Trav), who works in a bar, and Nick, the other new guy who is a co-worker of Trav's. They're all really nice, I feel most comfortable with Wendy, but then I hardly saw her all week. We caught up though last night (Friday) cuz she finally had the night off and we had some girly chats while moving some furniture around. It was a bit annoying this week because there weren't spare keys for me and Nick. So we shared one key, leaving it under a plant at the front of the house. But then it turned out that to get out of the house you need the key as well, there's no handle or anything to get out the front door. So I usually had to resort to going out one of the sliding doors to the porch and then squeezing out a gate to the front of the house. I finally have my own key as of yesterday, it's nice to not feel like I'm sneaking out of the house like a robber.

I'll hopefully post photos of the house next week. It's huge and rather quiet, though the fittings are all a bit old and 70's looking. Still, the view is worth it and being along a river and being connected to a bunch of parks and bike paths. The quietness freaked me out at first, I moved in and no one was home and for most of the evening I sat in this big house in the suburbs on my own, after being used to a hostel with people around all the time and music playing in the common room and being in the very center of the city. I'm a bit more used to it now, but it is almost too quiet, plus the TV isn't hooked up, so I can't put that on for a bit of noise/vegging out. There is a DVD player though, I watched the Big Lebowski one night...

Oh, so in other news, I have a job! Yay! I got a call Friday morning making an appt for an interview at 4 at a place I'd applied to but couldn't remember specifically cuz I'd applied online and sent in my resume to so many places. But I was hired on the spot, well, I have a 3 week trial period, but I think it'll be fine. It's at a sandwich/wrap place in the center, so it's aimed at serving business workers, meaning I'd work only Mon-Fri and have weekends and public holidays off. I start Monday for a few hours to start training and see how things go. I think it'll be good, the boss seemed nice at least, hopefully the co-workers are as well.

In the midst of handing out my resume to places this week, I took the time to go up to an obvservation deck in one of Melbourne's tallest buildings. I had a free voucher given to me by the visa agency. I chose a perfect day to go, it was an absolutely clear day and not hazy, so I could see probably about as far as possible. Melbourne is not on the ocean, but on a large bay called Port Phillip which eventually connects to the ocean. I could see all the way across the bay to the two pennisulas which almost close off Port Phillip, and then in other directions you could see various mountain ranges, plus all of Melbourne in between. It was gorgeous, I hope to put up some photos I took soon.

Also this week I met with a friend of a friend, a Croatian girl named Jana who lives her with her Australian husband. She was very sweet and invited me to her place for dinner, which was very yummy, then yesterday we got together for a fancy Italian lunch at one of the poshest places downtown. It was very good though, I had steak which I never usually order, but it was great, very tender and well grilled, and for dessert a really nice, dense and slightly crisp chocolate cake. But yeah, I was great to get together with her, and she lives out near my end of town, so hopefully I'll see her more.

Today when I left for the city, there was mad traffic around where I live. I'm in an area called Ascot Vale (sounds very poncy and it is a little bit) and the house is practically across the road from the Flemington Racecourse where the Melbourne Cup is held in November, which I mentioned before. But another race was on today and there was a steady stream of cars going towards the parking lots. My housemate Trav got special tickets from a friend who works at the track, so he was off for a day at the races.

So, some of the weird cultural differences I've noted in my two weeks here: instead of labelling the toilet doors as Men and Women, they say Male and Female, which to me seems to say that the toilets themselves have an inherent sex, not that they're meant for males and females to use. I don't know what's wrong with just putting Men and Women on the door.

Australia is sometimes a strange mix of things both American and British (though I guess Britain has it's own massive influx of American things). Going to the grocery store points this out, with a lot of things I am familiar with from the US, but also British things. Anyway, most of the cereals are from Kellogs, but they call Rice Krispies "Rice Bubbles" which is just wrong. The package still is blue with Snap, Crackle and Pop on the front, but "Rice Bubbles"? It makes me think of bubble tea, a weird drink with tapioca bits in it, something far removed from Rice Krispies.

I'll have to think of more weird differences... And I'll write about how the job goes and, if I can maybe bum some free internet next week, get some more photos online!

I need to try to be quick since I've spent a lot of time editing some photos and I've already been spending quite a bit of money on internet time! The photos I put online start here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/m-gem/1308367787/ It's from my whole time in Australia so far.

So in the weekend I enjoyed the wonderful weather we had. As you'll see in the photos, I went to the Botanic Gardens, which are some of the best in the world. So beautiful, and a reminder that they have quite a few different plants and animals here than I'm used to.

Sunday I met up with a former co-worker from Amsterdam and she took me out to her house in a rural suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne. It was so nice to see some of the area. I had lunch with her and her Dutch boyfriend in their sunny backyard and then she and I went for a drive around the nearby wine region. It was just endless prettiness. Hills and the rolling vineyards... Though she said it's good now that it's the end of winter, but they have drought problems a lot and then everything goes brown and dusty. So I was lucky to see it now. We got a glass of wine at this winery that's like perched on a little hill with views off the valley all the way around. Oh, as we drove around I saw my first wombat -- dead and stiff on the side of the road. Poor wombat. It looked like a small brown bear to me...

I move into the share house tomorrow, very happy about that, cannot wait to settle in and cook for myself again and all of that. Still no movement on jobs; tomorrow I'm dedicating to moving and settling in at the house, then Wednesday, depending on how things are going, I may give in and apply for temp office jobs.

I went this afternoon to view the large house I wrote about and I should be moving in there early next week! It all was about as good as I imagined, meeting the girl who answered my ad, meeting one of the other guys who lives there, seeing the house. It isn't the prettiest house, but it is big and has amazing views right on the Marybyrnong River, plus it faces west so: sunsets! Also you can walk right down from the backyard and go to a path that goes through to a park and nature areas. The house has huge living room, kitchen, dining area, a bunch of bedrooms and bathrooms and tons of closets (there are so many doors in the downstairs area that I think I'll be walking into the wrong room or into a closest a few times at first), really nice backyard (on a bit of a hill so it's sort of in levels up the hill)... And the people living there so far are great, Wendy is the one who called me, she's 41, but seems about 10 years younger and is very chatty and a bit quirky, I think she'll be fun. Then there's Travis who seemed really nice, though I only spoke to him a few minutes. Another guy is also moving in next week, Wendy described him as a sweet country boy, heh. And there still is room for one more... The house is a little farther away from things than I had hoped, esp since I don't have a car, but I'll work out the best public transport to take. It is almost directly across from the racecourse where the Melbourne Cup is held in November. To me it's just a horse race, but it's so big here that it's a public holiday in Melbourne. There's big drama right now though because of horses having equine flu and various horse races being cancelled, but the Melbourne Cup so far is ok. Oh! And they have a dog! Well, it's Travis' technically, but yeah, a dog! She's really sweet, so cute, and maybe I can take her for walks along the river. Anyway, it is all very awesome, I'm so happy to have found a place that is so amazing and spending spring there will be wonderful. I hope to post some photos of the house once I move in and get around to managing some photos.

Work is moving slower, but it's not been long that I've been looking, and if I need to I can do temp office jobs. Not what I want to do, but it's money. Now I plan to relax and enjoy the weekend and see some more of Melbourne. Today's weather was crap, but it's supposed to better in the weekend, so I want to enjoy it.