Life on the flipside

I’ve moved into a flat now! We have no internet and it has been difficult to find a connection. Usually I go and use wifi at McDonald’s but it doesn’t seem to be working today so I am writing this blog in word and if I find internet somewhere this week  I’m going to post it.

It’s a public holiday here today. Melbourne cup day. Everyone is at the horse races, I can’t go because I’m broke. I spent all my money on one months rent plus bond.

My friends Helen, Kerry and Jen decided to look for a flat 2 weeks ago and no one told me they were looking. I had 24hours notice. They told me they wanted to find somewhere cheaper than the hostel then the next morning we were moving out. We have a two bedroom between four girls.
it’s been good. Jen and I spent our whole weekend on the couch watching tv because we have no money. We went to the market on Sunday to buy cheap meat and veggies and have been cooking.

In the long run this flat with save us $60 a week.. plus the money saved on food from cooking more and entertainment because we have our own tv.

Work is great. I started at Entertainment as a temp just helping with filing and data entry but they decided to keep me in a full-time position because they liked me. A girl in a production admin role left the company and they didn’t like anyone they interviewed so I am doing the job now and they’ve hired another temp to do the work I was originally meant to do.

I’m checking contracts with merchants and making amendments to them. My boss gave me one of the books yesterday which I was very very excited about. The entertainment book is a giant book of discount vouchers. So now I have coupons for everything which should save me a lot of money as well.

I told my boss that we have this flat until January 15^th and he said “ok, you can stay until then” but I’m sure If I decided to stay until March (when the book goes to print) he would let me.
I don’t want to do that though. I am thinking on January 16^th I’m going to fly to Perth and try to get harvest work for my 2^nd year visa.

I would have to do that until April which would leave me with one month of travelling around the country but that is probably more than I can afford anyways.

They don’t celebrate halloween here which was depressing. We had a little bit of a party at work. Everyone had a costume and we had snacks and wine for the last hour of the day on Friday.

Sunday I went to my friend Shane’s for dinner and a movie about vampires. That was it for my halloween in Melbourne.

It’s been raining here a lot but it is supposed to be 26 and sunny on Saturday so I should end up at the beach J

So it is now Wednesday and I am at the library.. Last night Shane came over  to see our flat for the first time and have dinner, and he bought us a DVD player!!!! yay! it's really cute and pink for the four girls.
Then today at work Jen randomly got three free dvds they were handing out to the staff (all Hugh Grant movies funny enough) so I know what we are doing this Saturday night! haha living it up in Melbourne

Hope everyone is well in Canada xoxoxoxoxox

Life in Melbourne

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing very much. The internet in this hostel never works at night and I have been going to work which means I can no longer spend my mornings online.

I’m working full-time at a company called Entertainment Publishers. They produce 18 “entertainment books” (coupon books) for Australia and New Zealand.
I’m enjoying it; the people are nice and the work is simple.
I am working with the production department. In the morning “job bags” come in, which are basically packages with contracts and information about clients wanting to put a coupon in the books. I key into the database that we have received the job, and then hand it off to the proofreaders. When they find a mistake they give it back to me and I make corrections. Today I was correcting spelling mistakes almost entirely from 8:30am to 5:30pm. They keep apologizing to me because they think it’s so horrible that I spend my whole day correcting “road” to “street” but they are paying me $21.74/hr so I love it.

The GM is from Seattle and she seems to like me. I overheard her saying in a budget meeting that she thinks I am “lovely” and also when I told her I was going to work in Melbourne until January she said “you say that now but 6 years from now you will still be working for us”.

I moved into a new room within the hostel. I’m now living with my friend Helen who I met my first day here; she is now working at a bar but trying to find a Christmas casual position in a retail store. Jen, my new Scottish friend; she works at Foster’s (beer) as a personal assistant for 2 execs. Jen and I have similar schedules now so we have been spending a lot of time together. We also live with Mevan; he is an event manager and a permanent resident of Australia but he has a British accent because he grew up in the U.K. Jen has a friend joining us from Scotland this weekend and that will be it for our room. No more randoms!

We have all decided to live here until January. You can rent a room for about the same price as our hostel but then you have to worry about buying household things and internet. We get free breakfast every morning here, dinner on Tuesday and we meet great people. There is a great patio on the roof, so weekends we buy a $10 bottle of wine and drink up there. All the backpackers you meet have great stories about their adventures, and they are open to talking to everyone. It’s way better than being in a bar.

I have been here for 4 weeks now! I can’t believe it. Time flies…

Work

I got my first assignment with Kelly Services!

I work tomorrow at 9am. Only for one day... but yay! money!

The Last week...

OMG it's been soooo long I'm sorry. I didn't realize I hadn't been writing..

I went to st.kilda last sunday and it was wonderful <3 I love the beach and the pier. Kat and I just sat on the pier talking for about an hour.

Monday I went back to St.Kilda haha that's how much I love it.

Tuesday it was rainy so I just stayed in the hostel. I'm starting to feel very at home here. Next friday I am moving into a 5 bed room where my friend's Helen, Jen and Em live... and a couple weeks later Jen's friend is booked in so we won't have any randoms in our room which is nice.

Tuesday nights we get free pasta and the cinema is cheaper so we ate our dinner and then went to see Easy A. Very funny movie btw.

Wednesday was a boring day.. I bought $5 shoes. That's the most exciting thing that happened haha.

Thursday we went out drinking at 6pm .. tsk tsk. We went to a really cool bar called Section 8 which is basically just an empty lot that someone put a bar and some tables in. It has no roof and gets very dark because the lights are only around the walls of the lot. After that we went to a little rooftop bar, then a place called red hummingbird... and finally ended the night at Cookie. All nights end at cookie for some reason.

Friday I spent the whole day in bed and then got up and watched Spiderman 3 in the tv room with my friend Kat.

Yesterday was footy!!! unfortunately the saints lost :( horribly... it was just awful. stupid magpies.

We went to a bar in South Yarra to watch the game and then when it was over Kat, myself and a big group of aussie friends we were with went to the park to play footy. I was girly and just tried not to get hit by the ball but Kat was fully playing the game. The sun went down and the mozzies came out so we headed back to the city center.

I went out for drinks with my friend's Shane and thechloesmith. Lots of expresso martinis. yum.

I have an interview Tuesday at 10am with Kelly Services for temp work. If that doesn't work out my friend Em gave me a number to call to get call centre work and another number of a bistro owner. So hopefully I will have a job by the end of the week. I haven't been trying too hard because I've been having too much fun... whoops.

Hope everything is well in Canada xoxo

The Week

This week went by so fast and I did a lot but I'm having trouble thinking of everything I should tell you about..

I've made so many new friends I can't even remember all their names. There is a couple new people everyday.

The fringe festival is on right now so Helen and I went to a free comedy show in a precinct called Fitzroy. That was a lot of fun.
The McDonalds here have little cafe's in them where you can buy expresso and cheesecake. I think it's very funny. I had a latte and chocolate truffle roll and mcdonalds one day this week.

Thursday I went to the Queen Victoria Market with my friends Kat, Helen and a new guy named Cyral.
Then we met up with my friend Shane for coffee which was really great.

We discovered a german store called Aldi!! those of you who have been to europe might know it. Aldi is amazing! I bought a giant bag of penne for $1.

Tomorrow Kat, Helen, Fiona and I are getting up for free sunday pancakes in our hostel and then going to St.Kilda for the day.
St.Kilda is the precinct on the beach. Apparently they have nice markets and artists so that should be fun.

We've done a lot of pub crawling. The bars are excellent. we've been in a place with a cottage built inside a deer on the walls, a place set up like a dentist office where you are served shots in a plastic needle, and many more.
My aussie friend has planned a special pub crawl for us next thursday to show us places we might never find on our own.

The lady from the plane, Pam called today! I am going to her place Oct 17th for lunch. We were talking about the football too.. she was cheering for the Saints as well.

I think the best place to have a drink so far is the hostel. we get some cheap wine and there is a rooftop patio here. I've talked to soooo many interesting people with interesting stories.

I'm not sure what else to tell you for now.. so farewell xo

Job front

All the shops in the mall are already hiring for christmas casuals so I've decided to just work in a store until christmas and then take the money I've saved and go up the east coast in January.

The manager at Guess said I had have a trial shift but not for two weeks so Im hoping to hear from someone sooner.

That's all there is to tell for now..

Football Finals

Today was the Grand Finals of Aussie rules football!
My friend Kat and I got up this morning and went to Federation Square because they have a big screen and we could watch it for free.
OMG I am a huge fan now. I had the best day so far.
It was warm, the sun came out, and the place was packed.

The two teams are calling Magpies and the Saints.
Most people seemed like they were Magpies fans. In the beginning the magpies took a lead and were doing really well but in the second half the Saints fought back.

I decided I wanted the Saints to win because they seemed like an underdog.

It was so exciting the last 10 minutes of the game. It was hard to see the score from where I was sitting but I know when the last 10 minutes started the score was 51-50 and when the game ended it was 68-68.

Everyone was SO shocked! apparently a grand finals game hasnt been tied since 1977.
They don't go into overtime here in australia... because no one won there is going to be a rematch next saturday.
I am soooo excited to watch it all over again.

I had plans with a friend to go to the yarra valley wineries next saturday but he texted me as soon as the game was done saying we will go another day haha.