Home Sweet Home

---

Normally I sit around at the end of a section of traveling and write all about and then post it for all to see. It's been at least 2 weeks since I've posted stories about my travels in Tasmania, so even though I'm not finished this section of my traveling, I figured it was about time for an update.

I arrived back in Melbourne from Tasmania the morning of November 28th and moved straight into my home in a suburb called Brunswick just 20 minutes outside the city. I'm sharing a room with Nicole in a large shared house. My other housemates are Marine (an 18 year old girl from Belgium whom Nicole met in Sydney before I got there), Nick (a 23 year old guy from Hobart), Scotty (a 23 year old born and raised in Melbourne), and Pete (a 24 year old traveler from Belgium who knows Marine from back in the day). Scotty has a one-eyed dog named Ziggy, that is the world's sweetest creature around all humans but hates every single other dog he ever comes across. The house is in bad shape and is (I'm told) supposed to be demolished in the not too distant future, but its cheap and serves its purpose, so for the month Nicole and I intend to be here, its perfect. The only thing that drives me crazy is that no one ever does their dishes, but I've learned to let it go. Pete spins records and Nick is part of a band that practices at our house regularly, so there's always people around and music in the air. It makes for an interesting experience.

My first day was basically a complete write-off. My second day, however, it was all in high gear. I needed to find a job because I was quickly running out of money, and so I started handing out resumes at every store I passed in the city centre. I passed out resumes up and down Sydney Street (the main street in my neighborhood) and applied to more online adds than I care to remember. I even tried to get a job fundraising for various organizations on the street. But nothing worked out. The only thing I could get was a job as a telemarketer at the same call centre Nicole was working at. I didn't like the idea of doing it, but since I needed the money I figure I could at least give it a shot. I only lasted 2 1/2 hours - it was the most horrible job I had ever done and it actually made me feel like a bad person. I would call homes at very inconvenient hours (like they always do) and get them to commit to a consultation to help them turn their tax money into investments, but I wasn't sure it was legitimate - I was never sure who I was working for or how the incentive worked, I had to read verbatim off a pre-prepared script. I could pick out the places in the script where we tried to catch people and get them confused and I didn't like being a part of it. So I quit. I was hoping something else would come up, but it never did. Now I'm just trying to save my pennies as best I can until the New Year.

I gave up looking for a job about 10 days after arriving in Melbourne. With the Christmas holidays fast approaching and things being closed for so many days over the break, no one was going to hire me for only 2 weeks. So I started using my time for doing touristy things. In the 16 days I've already been in Melbourne I've visited the National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square, the State Library, the Shrine of Remembrance, the Royal Botanic Gardens, St. Kilda's Beach, the Ian Potter Centre, the Queen Victoria Market and the Victoria Police Museum. I walk around town a lot, because it's a nice town, and have seen all the buskers in town at least twice (the buskers in Melbourne are fantastic). Melbourne is colder than I anticipated it being, so I had to buy a warm sweater, and when it rains its just so miserable that you don't even want to get out of bed, so I've had a few days like that too. We've managed to find a lot of pubs we quite enjoy as well and have spent a fair bit of time bonding over beer, but in my current penny-saving state I've done quite well to figure out which beers are the cheapest and which bars have the best deals.

My friend Leslie from high school in Ottawa is traveling Australia for a few months and is in Melbourne working and living when I arrive. We only meet up twice before she leaves for Tasmania and then Sydney, but we get to see the Homeless World Cup together one day, and we go to see a live performance of Rocky Horror Picture Show at one of the theatres in town. That is definitely one of the best things I've done so far on my trip.

I'm in Melbourne now until the 28th of December. Nicole and I have bought bus tickets that will get us into Sydney on the 29th, which is where we'll be for New Year's. Before I leave Melbourne I still want to see the Town Hall, the City Baths, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Brunswick Street, the Little Creature's Brewery, and take the City Circle Tram. I also want to try and visit Philip Island, outside the city, and take a tour of the Great Ocean Road, but both those things take time and cost money so I've got some figuring out to do.

I'm going to be in Melbourne for Christmas. Pete will be gone by then and Nick will be in Hobart with his family, but Nicole and Marine will be here, and Scotty periodically. I'm going to bake cookies and we're all going to cook. We're going to paint a tree on the wall in the lounge and rent lots of Christmas movies. Livvy, our friend from Sydney is living in another suburb in Melbourne, and so is Jack, the first person we met in Melbourne. Nathan is traveling to Melbourne from Adelaide and will be here by the holidays. All three of them are going to come over for the day and if the weather is nice we might go to the beach. It doesn't feel anything like Christmas around here, which is kind of nice because I don't feel like I'm missing out on being home for the holidays when it's so warm. Having lots of people around is going to be nice too.

---

Photos

Rainy Days
city folk waiting for the tram on a crummy weather day

the lounge
Pete spinning and Nicole watching in the lounge where the band practices