Learning to Live Here

Arriving here was, to say the least, intimating.  Working at summer camp I was used to hearing different accents around me and I always teased that my friends from the UK and down here in aus land talked funny.  It was an interesting moment when I realized that now I was the one who talked funny.  I had just landed in Sydney and was getting on the plane to take me to Brisbane when I realized I was the ONLY one without (or with if you look at it the other way) with an accent.  Strange, for the first time I realized that some people didn't understand what I was saying, just how sometimes I can't understand other people.  However, it's still better than being in a country where no one speaks english.

My friend Ben picked me up from the airport which was a HUGE help.  I was so thankful for that.  Not that I wouldn't have been able to find my way...eventually, but everything was just so overwhelming it was nice to know that I had someone to watch my back.  After the hour drive into Surfers Paradise (aka my new home), we met up with Ben's friend Simone and we had breky (breakfast as you would say) at a cute little cafe right in the tourist area.  They dropped me off at my hostel and while Ben had to work Simone and I continued to walk around and try to get me orientated in where I'm going to be for the next 6 months or so.

Simone was a life saver to me.  We met up almost every day and she drove me to her uni to use the computers and printers for my resumes as well as letting me use her laptop and internet USB in the hostel so that I could continue my search for jobs.  She is a wonderful friend and person and I am very lucky and thankful she has been so good to me.

The hostel is alright.  I moved into a room that has 3 bedrooms, 2 rooms of 6 and one room of 2.  All females, we share a common area with couches and a tv as well as a kitchen.  Some of the girls are cool, some are not.  The problem with an all girls room I've found is that a lot of them are anti social.  They go to bed around 8 and don't talk to anyone.  I've found most of my time is spent in the game room downstairs with everyone else.  There are bigger couches, computers, a pool table and a big tv which usually has movies playing.  The friends I've made that are long termers (people living in the hostel for months) are all in one room.  I immediately started to try to get into their room.  14 girls trying to share one bathroom was starting to get old.

This is the all girls room, my bedroom of 6 (plus my friend Leanne lol notice she is wearing my Greylock shirt.) my bed, the common area of the room and kitchen. As well as an open area that is right outside the room.

 People just mainly use this area for smoking and to eat their meals.  It looks out over the front of the hostel and the street.  After a little over a week I was finally able to convince the hostel owner to let me move into room 4 which is the room that my friends are in.  It's much more open and has a balcony that looks over the pool and all that fun stuff.  Here are the pictures of that.

It's much more open and 'homey' and I'm really glad I was able to move into the new room.  I love all the people that I share with and it's a really good situation.

Here is a quick picture of the game room as well.

There really isn't much more to say about hostel living.  You don't sleep hardly ever, either you are up or other people keep you up.  There are always things to do.  Every night the hostel hosts some sort of event.  Saturday and Wednesday are big night out nights in which you pay 30 dollars and you get bbq at the hostel and we do a club crawl where you get free entrance and a free drink at each club.  It's draining.  It's good to do to experience it, but after that it's not worth it.  All the other nights are different as well.  Some you get food like $6 all you can eat pizza night, and most nights we go to a different club and we get free entrance and a free drink.  I haven't been going out much, it's just too tiring really, but it's good to offer the people that are only in Surfers for a night or two.  They love it.

I'm going to try to catch up from the last few weeks so that I can actually write about what is going on right now.  Away we go.