It's been a while since my last post--mainly because there hasn't been any exciting travel adventures to post about.
Leaving Sydney, John and I got an overnight bus for the 12-hour trip to Melbourne. Once we got here, it was straight to job searching and apartment hunting. We had to float around various backpackers for two weeks, and almost went broke paying the down payment for the apartment--but a month in and we are doing pretty well.
We are both glad to be done with the backpackers thing for the time being--our sleep and sanity was starting to suffer. However, now we've got an affordable studio apartment in the city and we both are working full time.
John has a job as a waiter at this trendy restaurant along the river, right in the center of the CDB, called Ludlow Formation. It's not as fantastic as Elephant Hill was, but the staff is nice and it pays well. So he's sticking with it for the moment. He temporarily took on another job at a fine dining seafood restaurant, but the management was really bad and the pay was a bit less so he didn't stay.
As for me I got a job working at a bistro at the Melbourne Zoo. I kinda like it--you get lots of messy kids, but other than that it's pretty low key and my co-workers are mainly nice girls. It's mostly a daytime thing, though. So, I got a second job as a waitress at a tapas restaurant in an area called the Docklands, that is also waterfront. The restaurant is pretty new and thigns are still being sorted out so it can be a bit stressful, but it's only part time there to make up for the hours I don't get at the Zoo. Overall, things are pretty okay and we are making decent money as well.
Adjusting to city life after NZ is . . . difficult. But we've managed. We both use public transport, and shop mainly at the Aldi that's right around the corner because it's cheaper. We live on the 12th and too floor of our building, which minimizes street noise. But it definitely is a an adjustment--especially dealing with city people. All Kiwi's were pretty much some of the nicest people I've ever met. Melbournians. . . well. . . apparently they are more friendly than Sydney folk--which is I guess means not staying in Sydney was a good idea. People here tend to be a bit too self important and can be quite rude, but I guess that's just city people in general. You also get the creepy weirdos, though. Which is why I carry John's pocket knife in my purse when I walk home from work at night. Guns here are pretty hard to come by, same as NZ, but better to be safe than sorry.
But yeah, we pretty much hit the ground running with work the day we got here. We find ourselves coming home and cooking dinner at like 11 or midnight and then waking up at 9 or 10 a.m. the next day to do it all over again--but--like I said--we're making it work. On Thanksgiving we had no time to cook because we both worked, so I got a store-bought roast chicken and some sides and we had dinner at 11:30 when we got home--but it was better than nothing.
Hopefully all this hard work will pay off and we will have heaps of money to go traveling with afterwards, and hopefully we will have some more fun jobs once we get to Queensland in the winter.
For now, I'll leave you with some pics of our new pad!
The view from outside our window.
P.S. In case you can't tell, I still miss New Zealand.
