Found a Job!

Hello all

Sorry its been so long since I last updated, I've been transferring residences once again and am back at Jane and Anthony's for the next two weeks. The stay at Alistair's was a lot of fun, I certainly learned how to paint.

Now for the job update...as many of you know I was looking for country pub jobs out in Western Australia. I was trolling the internet and came across an add on gumtree.com.au advertising for pub jobs. The company is Professional Placements, found on Facebook at HipJobs, and the woman's name is Danielle Prowse. I wrote to her an expressed an interest and she wrote back saying she had a job opening in Meekatharra on March 30th. Not knowing if anyone else I wrote was going to get back to me I jumped on it. Good thing too since no one else has said anything.

I will be working at the Commerical Hotel in Meekatharra, WA for at least 6 weeks. Room and food is provided and I'll be making around $12 an hour. Not bad when you think that you wont be paying for much of anything while you're there. I will be working with an English girl which should be good, at least I'll have someone to talk to.

Getting everything set up to go to Perth and then Meekatharra was a bit of a nightmare. The flight ended up costing me about $240 from Sydney to Perth, with the train from Wingham to Sydney being another $40. Then I had to book a hostel for two nights for $50 a night and then the bus to Meekatharra is running about $120. So in the end I'll pretty much be working my first week or so for free to make up for all the costs, but oh well. At least after that first week I'll be earning, plus I think I want to stay in Western Australia so I wont have to pay for a flight back to Sydney until the very end. Actually, my dream would be to earn enough money to take the 3 day sleeper train from Perth to Sydney, but thats about $1100 so we'll see.

Aside from all that nonsense things are going well here. Gave the horses, the car, and the float (horse trailer) a bath today so I'm currently covered in a lovely mixture of mud and horse poo. We're planning on going riding later today, as long as it doesn't pour rain like it has been.

On a sadder note, my Papa (grandpa) died on Sunday morning (Monday night for me) so that's been a bit depressing. I wish I could be there to support my mom and go to the memorial but unfortunately Australia is a bit far away to just jet back for a weekend. Anyways...Grandma I love you and Papa Rest in Peace.

Until next time.

Wallabies and Beer!

Just a few pictures of what I've been up to lately.



Using an axe to get the bark off of an iron bark tree. And yes it's called an iron bark tree for a reason!



If you look closely there is a very adorable wallaby standing in the grass. If you look even closer you'll see that it has a joey in the pouch. It stood there for about 5 minutes just looking at us and swatting at its ears.



Gaby and I taking a break from all that hard work for a nice cold beer!



Alistair and Alan helping.

HelpX Stay Number 2

Well I said I would update when I got here...and I'm here. I'm staying with Alistair and his 6 year old son Alan. They also have another helpexer here but she will be leaving on Monday.

Alistair is a farrier so he's teaching me all kinds of interesting things about horses and shoeing them. I already went out on one job with him and it was fun, I just wish the roads here weren't so curvy. I Haven't really done much here yet as I just got in last night but Alistair seems really nice and his son is adorable. I don't have any photos yet since I haven't taken any and I'm not on my own computer but as soon as I've been here for a bit I'll post some pictures.

We went out to the pub last night with Jane and Ant and met up with Alistair and everyone else there. The food was good, I had chicken since both Alistair and Jane have just had some cows slaughtered and all we've been eating is beef. It was a bit expensive, $18.90 for chicken with garlic and lentils, but since that was the first time I had payed for anything in over a week I figured I could suck it up. There was a guy on a guitar in the pub and all but one of his songs was American, Jane and Alistair were joking that they told him I was coming so he should play American muscic.

Other than that not much is going on here. Just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know I was alright. Talk at you soon!

Welcome to Wingham

Sorry everyone...I know I've been slacking a bit on my updating but I've been busy relocating and settling in. I'm now in Wingham, sort of, it's actually a little village called Bundook but the closest town is Wingham or Gloucester. I haven't actually been to the village because I've been staying with my HelpX hosts on a 240 acre farm and there's plenty to do here to keep me occupied.


- The house -


My hosts are Jane and Ant and they are lovely. Ant is a plumber/all around handy man and Jane does web design from home. Jane is the horse enthusiast and she's already taken me out riding once. It felt so nice to get back on a horse after not having ridden in so long and the scenery is so gorgeous here that I could have stayed out all day.


- Jane -

As for what I'm doing: Well first off for those of you who don't know HelpX is a website, www.helpx.net, which connects people that are willing to work and need a place to stay with people that need help around the house or farm and have a spare room. So Jane and Ant let me stay at their place and eat their food and all I have to do is stay busy around the farm doing what needs to get done. So far that has been picking fruit and veggies out of the garden, feeding the horses and dogs, chipping thistles, and generally keeping the house clean. Nothing so far has been too difficult and Jane is home all day and willing to show me whatever I need and help me out.


- Ponies: Freddy, Tommy, Clyde -

Yesterday I cleaned out the fridge and came across some overripe bananas so I thought...banana bread. I've never made banana bread but I looked up a recipe and surprise surprise it turned out quite tasty. It was nice to do something for Jane and Ant to show them how much I appreciate them putting me up and now I've got delicious banana bread for breakfast.

I will be staying here until Friday and then I'll be going to Jane and Ant's friends place for a week. After that Ant is going out of town for about a week and a half so I'll probably come back here and keep Jane company. That's about as far ahead as I have thought, although I have been looking into a program called WorkStay.com over in Western Australia so we'll see if that comes through.

Promise I'll update after I switch places on Friday if not sooner. Hope everyone is doing well back home and I miss you all.

Welcome to Sydney

14 hour flights = not fun, but its all good cause I'm here in Sydney. I found my CoucSsurfing apartment quite easily and have spent the last day wandering around Sydney looking for free wireless internet.

So far my observations about Sydney are:

-Holy crap its expensive, $4 for a vitamin water, $15.50 to take the train from the Airport on a 10 minute ride to Town Hall Station.

-It kind of reminds me of Disneyland, or at least Darling Harbour does. Mostly because there is a Monorail and "people movers", little toy train looking things that take you around the harbour.



-It feels too much like New York, London...basically every big city I've ever been to. I'm already ready to get out of the city and out into the country or outback.

-Its really really humid. I am going to be one giant pimple in a week, and my hair is already curling. Me and curly hair don't mix.

-Its hard to find free wifi...or at least free wifi that is faster than a snail. McDonalds has it and if you hit it at a slow customer time its pretty fast, Starbucks has it too but I haven't tried there's. It kinda sucks to have to frequent an American establishment to get internet but I guess that's the price we pay for free communication.

In other news, the guy I am staying with, Dean is very nice. We're going to have a dinner party on Thursday with some people we met in the hot tub last night and his french tutor. He's a chef so it should be pretty excellent. I've already decided I need out of the city and have written to several people on HelpExchange asking if they could put me up. A couple named Ant and Jane have agreed to allow me to work for them starting next week and staying till the 24th of March if I want.

I got a cell phone, after sitting forever in Telstra because they couldn't get my credit information. They finally had to give me a prepaid service instead of the monthly one which should be fine as I plan on using Skype more than anything anyways. I guess thats it for now as my computer is about to die and I left my converter thing in the apartment. Hope everyone is doing well and I'll be sure to update when I can find free internet.

The Nitty Gritty

Only one day left until Australia so I thought I'd update everyone on some of the details of the trip. After I arrive in Australia and use some of the products I have purchased to help me in my travels (ie. travel insurance, mail services)I will update on what I think of the quality.

First off, the flight. I am flying on a non-stop flight with United from L.A. to Sydney. Hopefully the non-stop option was the correct one. I know some people who have stopped off in Fiji or Asia but I think I'd rather just stick it out and sleep as much as possible without worrying about changing flights. Fourteen hours is going to be a long flight no matter what.

I did decide to purchase travel insurance, mostly for emergencies. I found it interesting that if I was a UK citizen I would have access to Australia's basic universal health insurance called Medicare. Since I am from the U.S., however, I don't have that luxury, which means I might really need that travel insurance. After quite a bit of research and some number crunching I decided to go with HCC Medical Insurance Services' Atlas International package. The total cost was $300 US. for a year and it seems to provide me with most of what I will need, including a relatively low deductible of only $250. What the travel insurance doesn't cover is prescriptions for pre-existing conditions, such as birth control etc. It will be interesting to see how I will be able to get my prescriptions refilled in a few months, but for now I've got enough to last me.

Whats left...? Bank account - went with Westpac. I applied and received my bank account online, which is a really nice feature they provide. As of now I can put money into the account but until I arrive in Australia and provide them with my passport and proof of address I can't take any money out. Still its nice to not have to deal with applying for an account when I get there.

The only thing left then is actually getting a permanent address...and I managed to do that online before I left as well. GoWorkabout.com offers a mail holding service for one year. For $50 AUD, around $45 US, they will provide you with a permanent address and will either open your mail, scan it, and e-mail you the scans, or will hold your mail until you request it to be sent to you. Having this address already should make it much easier for me to get access to my bank account and get a Tax Id number. I did request that they open and scan my mail since I have no idea when I'll have access to a permanent address.

Well my next post should be from Australia! I'll be sure to let everyone know I'm there and safe.

Bye Until Australia!!

The Countdown Begins, 3 Days till Australia

3 Days!

That's right, in only 3 days I will be boarding a plane to Australia where I will spend the next 12 months of my life. Everyone I know keeps telling me how exciting it's going to be, how much fun I'm going to have, but to tell the truth I'm nervous, very very nervous.

I've traveled abroad many times before, even living in London, England for 3 months, but nothing like this. In England I traveled with kids from school, had a set place to live, a bank account already set up, and most importantly a schedule. Australia is going to be a different type of adventure all together. I do have a few far distant family members whom I have never met living there to turn to in case of a dire emergency but aside from that I am completely alone.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Based on advice from friends I signed up for a website called CouchSurfing.org. CouchSurfing is a site designed to set up travelers with no where to spend the night with people who are willing to lend them a couch. The site boasts 1,690,425 members from over 200 countries and so far it seems to be a valuable resource. I have joined many forums relating to traveling in Australia and made a few connections with others living in the area but CouchSurfing's biggest test will come after my arrival since I am planning on spend my first few nights surfing on a strangers couch. So far everything seems in order, now all I have to do is find the place once I get there and keep my fingers crossed the guy isn't a creep.

That's all for now...I'll post more later on some of the more delicate details of the trip such as finding airfare, opening a bank account, and buying travel insurance. But for now its time to finish packing!