Last days

So it is my last day in Brisbane and I will be flying home in less home two weeks. The feeling is bitter sweet.  At one end I'm going home to see my friends and family that I have been away from for so long. On the other hand I'm leaving a place filled with some of the most kind and friendly people I have met in all of Australia.  

At first I wasn't sure I wanted to stay in XBase Central, because the room smelled weird, there was a loud party every night and on top of that, I was the new guy who didn't know anything.  But the people there made each of these annoyances seem small one after another.  I grew used to the odd smell that only 4 guys in a cramped room can produce.  When the party was too loud I would go down to the tv room where there was always someone to talk to.  And the longer I was there the less I was the new guy.  In fact I became the most experienced dishwasher for a time.  I felt like I was the tallest of the midgets.  

But now like all good things, my time here must come to an end. Workers of XBase Central Brisbane, you will be sorely missed.  

Just because it is legal doesn't make it okay.

So I made an Australian friend who is my age (I was 18 at the time).  Shawn seemed like a pretty cool dude.  We got along pretty well and I decided to hang with him at the bar.  As the night wore on and the females came in I noticed him noticing a girl.  She looked older but not too much older for someone our age.  After he got to talking to them I did my best to be a wing man; as he hit on this girl I chatted up her friend.  Later when we were all talking we found out that she was 31.  I was shocked but I did my rest not to let on.  The group conversation continued and I watched his built relationship with her slowly deteriorate.  Then the conversation turned in to a debate wether it was okay for "Someone our age to sleep with someone your age".  It was his last and most desperate attempt to get into this girls pants who he'd been talking to all night.  I would have stopped him and saved him the embarrassment of being not only being shot down but also told off, but I sat back and enjoyed the show.  The conversation reached a climax when Shawn said

"Well, it's not against the law or anything"

And she harshly retorted

"Just because it is legal doesn't mean it's okay!" 

Since then he has left the Brisbane hostel I am staying at and moved on.  And from all of this I learned one very important lesson; I am a bad wingman.  

Sunset

Just wanted to share the sunset of Brisbane.  

18,000 km

So I have recently moved hostel from the Base Uptown in Brisbane to the Base Central.  They are about 3 city blocks away from each other so it wasn't that hard of a move.  I am now staying in a work for accommodation room. 

Work for accomm. rooms are always hard to move in to, because your roommates who could have been living here for a week or a month or 6 months get comfortable and start laying there stuff everywhere.  So not only are you shockingly walking into the aftermath of something that was once liveable, you also have to find your own space for your own stuff.  It is my second day here and I am already getting adapted to what this room is.  

Anyway this story isn't (supposed to be) about me.  It is about my new bunkmate right below me. Just today he bumped in to his friends from home.  Now this would be something that would be common if "Home" was here in Brisbane, but his home is not here in Brisbane.  His home is 18 THOUSAND kilometres away in a small town in the UK.  Apparently he hasn't seen these guys for two years and then just today he bumped into them.  His two friends who used to live less then a few kilometres apart are now sharing a flat here in Brisbane. 

You Must Be This Experienced To Work

I find myself surrounded by jobs that refuse to hire me because of my lack of experience.  I mostly hear "You need more experience" or "We are looking for someone a bit more skilled" or "We can't afford the time to train you".  The fact is that there are jobs in hospitality, retail and cafes.  Jobs that you just pick up and do.  Training should take about 2 days to 2 week at the absolute most.  It took me  days to learn my dishie job.  I think the hardest part of having a new job is getting adjusted to the schedule and that isn't even that hard.  Well I have heard one thing over and over again from multiple backpackers and kind people giving advice; Lie.

Well I don't have too many qualms with lying but there is a certain amount of lying that I can't do.  I can lie on resumes about as much as I can back up.  I wish I could back it up a bit more but I just can't.  Say I were to say that I have experience making coffees, they would expect me to get there the first day on the job and know how to work a contraption that I have never seen before.  Well I have tried that with the one job I got a response from.  Did not work out.  That said, I did my best to follow though and contact the owner (who I never met) who offered me the job in the first place.

I am not the only one going though this.  Many backpackers I have talked to agree that not only is it not easy to get a job but the place looking for work have an extremely high standards when it comes to qualification.  I have also been told that many places treat backpackers poorly.  Either you get paid poorly or you get treated poorly.  I'm honestly fine with both of those things as long as I am getting paid.  That is my goal right now; Get a job, get paid.