Melburrr!

I Arrived in Melbourne yesterday and I was in for quite a surprise. It was a very crispy 10 degrees Celsius. My first impression of the city is that it has a gritty urban feel to it. My hostel in on a busy corner on the edge of the CBD. The drafty windows of my room don't have curtains and a tram go by on the street below every few minutes. The metro bridge is also on the opposite street corner and one of those go past every few minutes too. Think of Elwood Blues' apartment with the walls shaking and the lights flickering.

I went to an ALDI supermarket and I was welcomed by the very cheap prices of everything. I was relieved to find bag of oatmeal for only $1. When I was in line the guy behind me kept pushing my butt with his cart, which contained about a dozen 2L sodas. He was short, around 50 years old and was whispering under his breath. There was only one checkout open so I had no options. He wanted me to move closer to the register, but 2 people were in front of me! I told him to lay off, but he just shrugged and said “damn yanks.” Once I was at the register, the attendant was just as rude, not looking up at me, he expected me to bag my own groceries the same time he slid them across the scanner, even sliding my oatmeal onto the floor. This is by far the worst service I have ever seen anywhere. I guess that is just par for the course at the south Melbourne ALDI.

I started sending out resumes this morning, but I am finding out that Australia highly regulates everything. To have a temp construction job, I have to complete a white card, which costs $60. Because there is such a backlog of cards being processes it may take a few weeks!! Last week in NZ was a holiday weekend, celebrating the Queens birthday. I came here expecting the same thing, but this weekend Australia celebrates the same friggin holiday!! So now I won't hear back from any employers until at least Tuesday. Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21 so I'm not sure why both country’s celebrate the occasion on separate weekends, Kiwis and Aussies just agree to disagree. At least the long weekend will let me have time to explore the city and markets more. I ate lunch at the fantastic south Melbourne market, and Queen Victoria market is reportedly much larger. It feels so strange to be out of New Zealand, I feel like I left something behind. Maybe I just became too comfortable after being at the same place for 20 months. Its time for a new challenge.