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Hey guys!!
First of all, apologies for this long overdue blog entry. The past few weeks have literally flown by with a mixture of, I think, all the emotions I possess, so finding time to sit down and write about it hasn't been easy. From the elation of returning to paradise (Cottesloe), to my first proper bout of homesickness, to starting work (and being permanently exhausted ever since), I feel like I've been on a rollercoaster ride moving from the holiday-esque excitement of arriving to the realisation that this is actually not a holiday, that I'm not going home, and that I need to sort out a proper life for myself here (at least for a bit). All in all, the past couple of weeks have seen reality kicking in.
So where am I at now? I guess I'm going to go with excitement/importance over chronology, so first off...I HAVE A JOB! At the end of my last entry I talked about needing one and now, finally, I have one. I'm working as a waitress at the Ocean Beach Hotel restaurant, bar, and pub, which is literally two doors down from the hostel - how convenient! Getting the job was SO easy - almost all of the waitresses there are girls living at the hostel, so I just took my CV in and they invited me for a trial. That said, it did take me a good couple of weeks of being back in Cottesloe to actually go and try to get it. I just couldn't shake myself out of holiday mode - the days of lying by the beach, not getting up until 12, not going to bed until the early hours, and generally just doing nothing dragged on and on. But it did get to a point when I realised I was actually really bored of doing nothing, so even money-worries aside, I needed to get a job for my sanity. But more of that later. So yes, I'm officially a waitress. And you know what? It's such good fun!! But so unbelievably tiring. I've done a week there so far, so am just getting the hang of everything. I've also been given 40 hours for this coming week, so it's actually like a proper full-time job which will hopefully allow me to save up a decent amount of money in the next couple of months.
So that's my provisional plan - to stay here in Cottesloe for a few months. The location is ideal: right by the beach, a bus ride into the city and local towns, pubs and restaurants all around, and a hostel full of people to socialise with. Then when I've got some cash in the bank I'll move on. That's the weird thing: when I came out here I came with the mindset that I was going travelling. Actually, the way this working holiday visa runs, it's more like I've just moved out to Australia; swapping one life in the UK for another out here. The differences being that 1) there's sunshine (WOO!), 2) I'm a waitress (all the excitement of having a job aside, I seriously miss SLOing), and 3) I'm living in a hostel. This last point has been such a weird transition to make. There are parts of hostel life that I love and parts that I find really difficult to adjust to. Funnily enough, the sharing a room thing doesn't bother me all that much. I actually really like the people in my room and there's always the beach to escape to if you need some alone time. I guess the thing I'm finding hardest is not being able to properly relate to people. For instance, most of the people here have come out to Australia in order to make better lives for themselves. The wages are much better out here (I'm getting the equivalent of around £15/hour for waitressing!!) and there are lots of jobs. But that's not what I came for: I love my life back in the UK - I love my friends and family (I miss you all!), and I loved being an SLO at Newnham. The reason I came out was for a break, to get some sunshine, and to travel and meet new people for a different experience of life. And I'm not sure whether this will have come across in writing in the same way it feels in my head, but I just don't feel on the same page as the other people here. In the hostel, everyone talks about the regional work they're going to have to do to get their second year visa, and then about finding a sponsor so that they can stay here and claim residency. All the talk is about money and work - the things I came here to try and worry about least!! On top of that, the culture of hostel life is literally to sit around socialising in the evening - which inevitably means drinking and smoking. I enjoyed that for the first few weeks, but the culmination of everything I've just talked about means that lately I've been suffering from a bit of something like cabin fever. I had my first bout of homesickness last week, which resulted in streaming tears (I tried SO hard not to cry) outside in the courtyard at about 1am one morning. I just remember lying in bed and thinking to myself - why am I doing this? Why am I here? I'd had a few weeks of rest and sunshine (which is exactly what I needed), but then when I realised that I wasn't going home anytime soon and that I'd have to start working to keep myself going, I just didn't know if it was all worth it. I could be back in the UK with a decent job and surrounded by the people I love. I literally had thoughts about changing my flight and coming home.
When I realised that night that I just wasn't going to get any sleep with my thoughts spiralling as they were, I went down to the courtyard to get some air. Tears had been brimming under the surface for a while, and as soon as the couple of people still down there started talking to me (luckily they were a couple of my good mates here) I just sobbed. But it was so good to get it out. And actually, the others completely sympathised - even the tough guys admitted to crying in their first few weeks out here, which, funnily enough, made me feel a lot better. I think that's the thing - the realisation that this isn't just a holiday is something that most people go through. And it would be weird if I wasn't emotional about being away, right?! A week later though and I feel much better. There haven't been any tears since (well, with the one exception of a VERY emotional episode of Glee that I treated myself to last night), and now that I have a job I feel much more settled and focused. I know that those tears won't be my last, but I'm glad they happened...and you know what, I didn't fly home :)
Anyway, enough of the emotional talk! So what else has happened in these past few weeks? Well, before I got my job I knew I was in desperate need of money (or a decent meal), so I ended up making bets with a couple of the boys - if I cleaned the fridge in each of their rooms, they'd buy me steak. WHAT A DEAL! I cleaned two fridges: one resulted in my being cooked a whopper steak dinner, and the other in being taken out for the Thursday night 'Steak Night' special - winner!! I also volunteered one night to clean the hostel kitchen, which is done in exchange for a free night. And that was anything but a winner! It was the same night that I had my trial in the OBH, so after four hours of manically waitressing, I arrived back to clean a Friday-night-messy kitchen. I was ridiculously knackered, and what was supposed to take one and a half hours took me two and a half - definitely not worth it for one night rent free!! Safe to say I didn't volunteer to do that again...
In other news, I had my first proper night out in Perth last Saturday as a joint birthday thing for me and Scott, one of the guys in my room. It's such good fun on a night out here, because it's as if the whole hostel is going out! There's always a huge group of people and we either get the bus or train into Perth City (Northbridge, more specifically) and then spend the night in various bars and clubs. Saturday night was great fun - unbelievably messy! - and I ended up losing all the people I went with originally but bumping into a crowd of Frenchies from the hostel and dancing away with them until almost 4am, before getting ourselves some pizza and a taxi-ride home. That's another thing about hostel life - it allows you to know so many people, so there's always people to hang out with and do stuff with. All the scariness of moving to a new place and not knowing anyone is completely removed. It's also great for language skills!!
Then on Tuesday it was both my birthday and my first shift at work. I started at 7am and worked until 3. Crazy as it might sound, I loved it!! And the chefs even made me birthday pancakes (see picture!), which were amazing and literally the nicest thing they could have done :):). Then as soon as I got back to the hostel, the guys grabbed me and took me back to the pub for birthday drinks....5 jaeger bombs, a pack of birthday brownies, goon and a whole host of other concoctions later, I went to bed having bagged myself 41 birthday kisses (all from different people! - but all cheeks only ;)!) and awoke to a banging head - the kind that can only be cured by a day of lying on the beach in 28 degrees...perfection. Since then I've been working most days, and just chilling when I'm off. I've also decided that now I've got a job, I need to bring the rest of my life into reality...so I'm going on a detox week: no alcohol, more sleep, and I'm going to try and get back into running (I've been on two so far - it's such a beautiful place to run in as you can go right along the beach for miles). I just want to relax into being out here and enjoy the freedom that I came here for.
I'll stop there for now. So much else has happened - every day there are new people in the hostel, every day there are new stories and happenings - but there's no way everything can go into a blog. In future I will endeavour to blog more frequently and I'll start introducing you to various characters in this Ocean Beach story. For now, rest assured that the tears have stopped and the sun is shining....but also know that I miss you all back home very much.
Bonza babys xxx
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Felicity Macdonald-Smith < I've also decided that now I've got a job, I need to bring the rest of my life into reality...so I'm going on a detox week: no alcohol, more sleep, and I'm going to try and get back into running> And no smoking??? Hmm, thought that was too much to hope for! [Mum mode OFF]