Now in Nowra

I have been in Nowra for 10 days now. I have worked for nine of those days. When I'm not working I am sleeping. I was so tired on the overnight bus here that I must have lost my book and I am guessing my computer charger fell out of my bag as well.  I just got my new charger in the mail today and I am back online.

 Nowra is a growing town and and it seems larger than the 35,000 population reported. Its takes 15 minutes to drive to work from where I am living. Every house had a large yard and most houses are only one story, spreading things out even more. I am staying in North Nowra, its very quiet with a bush walk along the Shoalhaven river very close by. The downtown itself is busy during the day but the streets clear off very fast after 5pm. The local train station is the terminus of the southern Sydney metro network, making it easy to get to the city, but its still a three hour train ride. Nowra is an Aboriginal word meaning black cockatoo. The local joke is don't look up or you will get pooped on, or something like that. I will undoubtedly learn more as time passes but now I have to sleep, I go back to work again in what seems like just a few hours!

Leaving Melbourne

I will be taking a bus to Nowra, New South Wales tonight. I have a job at Pacific Furniture that I start on Monday. Nowra is a small town of about 30,000, two hours south of Sydney. I have no idea what I'm getting into. I also have no idea where I will be sleeping Monday night!  There are no hostels or couchsurfers there, maybe I will have to go to the pub and find some random people to take me in.

Australian Builder's Slang

Ute: Pickup Truck

Arvo: Afternoon

Timbers: Lumber

Chippy: Carpenter

Sparky: Electrician

Brickie: Bricklayer

Subbie: Sub Contractor

Bat: Stop/Slow Traffic Sign

Witches Hat: Traffic Cone

 Bikkie: Biscuit or any snack

Smoko: Smoke/coffee break

Bin/Skiff: Massive dumpster

Dunny/Port-a-loo: Chemical Toilet

PPE: Personal Protective Equipment

Absolutely Rooted: Very Tired
 
Joey Boy: yours truly, labour hire.

What Could Have Been...

As I was riding home last night on the train, on my way home from work, I was covered in mud and had many dirty looks from people who specifically avoided me. The train got so crowded at Flinders Street station that people had no choice but to sit next to me.  I apologized about my appearance to the 3 people around me and I struck up a conversation with one guy in in suit across from me. He inquired on my appearance and I told him that I was working construction and was playing in the mud all day. He asked me if I was looking for a job, but I was reserved in my response.  I told him a little more about my self and he told me that he was familiar with the US and has a ex-girlfriend in Milwaukee.  He also said he worked in finance. He said his name was Dave and he was going to give me his business card but he did not find any before the train arrived at my station.  I wished him well, shook his hand and got off the train. After about 10 minutes I remembered that I have several resumes in my bag. Oh well, I had no idea what kind of job he was talking about and If I would even like it.

Random Thoughts on Melbourne

Its the ending of my second month in Australia's second largest city. I have realised that I am far from home but not really that far at all. I am finding people in Melbourne not rude, but arrogant. The foreman’s that I have worked for are what I may call ”colonial” in their attitudes. People here are very proud of their city and culture and are not afraid to flaunt it. So many guys wear scarves even though I think they are entirely not practical at all. Scarves look pleasant on women, but c'mon guys its just too metro. On the weekends every man woman and child wears striped scarves in the colours of the football team they are supporting. That's Aussie rules football, which rules the sporting roost in Victoria. Everyone asks me If I have been to a game yet, which I have, and asks me if I like being apart of the crowd. I have to tell them that its nothing like football Saturdays in Nebraska.

Melbourne is full of weird people dressed up and down all over the place.  Super skinny jeans, pointed shoes.  A common hipster haircut I see is the half shaved head/other half bleached. Other people are begging for change everywhere I seem to go, including most internet hotspots. Two people came up to me when I was ordering at McDonald's to ask for my change so they could eat!  Why these hobos were not evicted out of the restaurant is beyond me.  The reason I have to use public networks is because my house is apparently too old for DSL. I have been living in Fitzroy, one of the oldest Melbourne inner city suburbs, and my new flatmates tell me that we cannot get cable TV or internet because there are not enough spots on some sort of junction board or something along those lines.  Without internet we do enjoy the view of the Telstra Communications skyscraper from our front door.

Fitzroy is a very old neighbourhood with most houses dating from the 1870's. Our house was once most likely two rooms with a stable in the rear. The stable now is a bedroom and a lounge room. Every morning I have to walk outside the stable to the back of the house to access the kitchen, shower and bathroom. Its has not been warm in the mornings with lows hovering just above freezing, a fantastic way to start the mornings. The neighbourhood is known for its cafes and bars but every place looks super grungy.  Graffiti is all over Melbourne and Fitzroy is no exception.  The bars have nice clientele, but the expatiation is that customers are paying for the grimy feel of the place by charging $8 and $9 for a pint of the cheapest beer.  The only night I go out is Wednesday when my flatmate and I go to pub quiz down the street in some establishment called Sentido Funf.(bad misspelled mutual fund names included in the price of drinks.)  Part of the enjoyment of this night is the $10 Parma specials.  Parma is apparently a Melbourne staple which I can only describe as a chicken fried steak covered in parmesan cheese. This fried delight fills me up like the all you can eat at Sapp Brothers truck stop.  My flatmate tries to tell me that its an Australian variation of German schnitzel, but I'm not buying it, its totally trucker food.

Melbourne people really think that the city's coffee, cafe, restaurant and bar culture is the real deal. I don't drink coffee very often and rarely eat out so the jury is still out on that one. I'm a bit disappointed by the cityscape, its vary flat, a stark contrast to Auckland's steep hills surrounding the harbour dotted with sail boats. I think the city reminds me of Chicago because of the old buildings and the extreme urban sprawl that permeates every direction from the CBD. The inner city suburbs look eerily similar with bars on every corner. I recently struck up a conversation with a guy on a train who is a Dutch actor. He said he has toured the entire US and has even done shows in Omaha. He said Melbourne reminds him of Portland or Minneapolis, not Chicago. I still think its like Chicago.

Its very crowded in the city and hard to get on the trams during rush hour. I would rather walk 45 minuted home from the train station instead of spend $3.30 to let someone smell my armpits in a cramped space for 20 minutes as I try not to sway into old ladies as the tram shakes and jerks around corners. My flatmate said she saw some guy covered in blood in the tram last week, the same night someone trued to break into the back of our house. Such is life in a so called big city.

I'm slowly getting into things here. It helps getting to know a few people, but I'm not truly feeling the vibe. I'm told that things will get better because its the middle of winter and there are not as many festivals and activities, so I will have to be patient. I am only subleasing my place for 2 more weeks and I need to move again. This may be a good time to look at other cities, such as Sydney or Adelaide. Sydney is huge, but Adelaide is rated as Australia's most liveable city. I have been living in the so called “world's most liveable city” but its still a struggle to get my clothes dry with no dryer.

Melbourne does have very good public transport and is a very diverse city. I do miss doing stuff outside and would like to get into sailing again.  The city feels more "American" than New Zealand with the fast pace of life and more commercial feel of everything.  NZ was just quirky.  I have not given up yet, and I'm sure with more time any city I establish myself in will be come the most liveable city for me.

City Living

The past three weeks has found me living in an apartment the size of a shoebox. I live with 3 other people, a couple from Chile and a guy from Singapore. I share a room with the Singaporean.  It is the same price per week that I was paying at the hostel in my last blog post. I thought 2 people in a room was an upgrade from 10.  The place is incredibly small as you can see from the photos.  I was initially excited to move into a city flat, at least expecting some nice views above street level, but of course I get stuck on the first floor. My view is that of the car parking sign directly to the left of out tiny 2' patio. I am one block from Melbourne's Chinatown, and according to the tourist map, my street is the Greek precinct, but it looks like Chinatown too. There is a nightclub down the block and the lines of revelers waiting to get inside wrap down the sidewalk under our patio on weekend nights. Its not common to hear people yelling and scuffling around 3am.  I seldom speak with my flatmates and I recently found out that the couple from Chile are actually brother and sister and I took the place of her husband during the sublease. Oh well, I don't even want to know.  The Singaporean is nice but he is a gamer and stays up all night and sleeps all day, forcing me to attempt to be quiet during the daylight hours. I'm leaving this week for a new place in the hipster capital of Fitzroy.

I have never lived in a city this big before. Melbourne has 4 millions residents, and according the The Economist, is the most livable city in the world.  I have not seen sustainable livability yet. I pay $165 a WEEK for a shared room, I remember paying $240 a MONTH in Nebraska back in 2009!  The construction industry has found me again, and I work on average four days a week and I commute by train usually leaving my place before 6am. When I get off work around 4, the trains are very crowded and people avoid me because I am usually extremely dirty.  I go against the flow of foot traffic during my commute.  The train depot closest to my place is Parliament station. I usually elbow my way up the steps against the stream of suits taking trains out of the CBD, looking very out of place in my grubby construction garb. I have received a few dirty looks on the train after I get up to exit and clumps of dirt remain on the seat I just vacated.


After I move to my new place I hope to be more settled. I hope my job gives me more hours and I will quite possibly look for a second job after my birthday in two weeks.  Its strange to have my second birthday in a row in cold weather. It's nice to have the change of seasons, but I really hate cold!

Nomads

I have spent the past two weeks nomading at this seedy hostel on Spencer street.  Nomads is a chain of hostels across Australasia. I booked the cheapest hostel in the city and I was not expecting 5 star service but I should have known better.  I was booked in a room with 12 people for my first week, then upgraded to a room with 10 people this week.  On the second morning at my residence, I was woken up by a very drunk Canadian girl at 7am.  She thought it would be a good idea to try to climb into my bed.  I was worried that she would vomit into my precious neck pillow, but all thoughts of this were dashed when her friend finished packing and had to leave the room. She also told me that she does not like American guys.  I guess she was not as bold without her mate.

The windows of the room were very drafty and the light always shone through, making sleep very unsatisfactory. I was relieved to move to a new room on the next lever that had a long corridor where I could store my stuff.  It was a quiet room until I arrived after dinner to only be queried by three people in the room if it was ok to smoke weed, as long as the window was open. The question presented to me was not nearly as bad as the smell permeating from the bedraggled laundry strewn across the room.

Not all the people were dodgy as there were two kiwi guys staying in the room and I got along with them well right away.  One guy was middle aged farmer from the south island who always wore a black jumpsuit and the other a Maori bloke from south Auckland looking for work.  They have only been in the room for a few nights and got me up to speed on what was happening.  There was a French girl, probably 20, was living in the room for three weeks previous.  They speculated that she was working at one of the three strip clubs that were only a block away.  They also told me that she told them that some Indian dude owed her $300, but we could only speculate for what.  There was also a strange Aussie guy there who looked like a vampire with prison tats.  On the window sill was a bag of garlic, so we did not know what to take from that.  The first night included the Aussie guy getting so high he fell asleep on the floor at 8pm, only to wake up at 4 am and rouse the entire room, screaming "Where is my Fucking lighter!" He then went up to the French girl and not so politely asked her to cook him some eggs.

Things got exponentially sophisticated this past weekend.  A group of Brazilians who were studying in Brisbane came to Melbourne to party for the weekend.  Like most Latinos, their idea of going out is drinking at the hostel until 2am, then heading to the nightclubs until 8am.  The Maori guy got almost got into a fistfight with them the first night and things only became more dreadful.  At 5am of their second night I was woken up by the guy above me who was trying to climb out of his bed.  He fell on the floor with a intense thud, then walked in front of the French girl's bed and began to urinate.  I yelled at him and woke up the rest of the room.  That did not stop this young Casanova from peeing all over the French girl's clothes and her computer.  I turned on the light to reveal that he also peed on her bed and she was not alone.  A random German guy got wet as well. The German woke up suddenly and ran out of the room butt naked screaming in his native tongue and covering himself with his hands.  The young Brazilian who did the deed then jumped back into MY bed, forcing the Maori guy and myself to pick him up and throw him back into the top bunk.  The other Brazilians nearly fell out of their beds laughing.  The French girl was too stoned to wake up.  She slept into 10am and when she rose had the nerve to ask why the entire room spelled like ass.  That's when I had a good laugh.  I  did loan her a few dollars to help her with her laundry later in the day because she had so much to clean.  At least this place has free rice and pasta.

Tonight is ladies night at the hostel bar. Many guys are wearing u guessed it: dresses and wigs to collect two hours of free drinks. The Aussie guy is wearing a tight striped  French shirt and a g-string, standing at the end of the bar wearing sunglasses looking over his next prey.

On Thursday I will start subletting a place until July 22, so these adventures will also be short lived.  I will also be arising at 6am to make it to work in time. Just another hassle of starting over in a new city.