Friday night started out great with beers and then a thirty minute train ride to Fremantle to attend a UV party, where glow sticks, glow paint and EDM were aplenty. Saturday night took me to a ruckus electro club called ‘Ambar’ which played fantastic music and was a great place to dance with some new friends. And then Sunday was spent lounging in the front yard of the hostel, soaking in the sun and recovering from the weekend. One thing I instantly realized about life in a hostel was that you sacrificed your privacy and comfort, but you gained company and a sense of belonging. I felt that I could make the switch.
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| My humble hostel home. |
So after a full weekend of partying and chilling with the hostel crowd, I deemed the venture a success and moved in for the long haul. For $210 a week, I took top bunk in a room with three others. Luckily, this room was one of the few that had air-conditioning (or air-con as they call it here) which was amazing at night as it got quite hot. I quickly made myself at home in my room, putting up photos and constructing a bungee-cord hanging system. There was also a common room with a large TV which was great for linking up my laptop to in order to watch a movie or two. Unfortunately, we were not allocated much fridge space in the hostel due to the large amount of guests so I had to deal with a smaller selection of food at a time. Although, this did not stop me from eating healthy. Those who know me best are aware of my abysmal dietary habits. However, I have done my best to improve them, including adding apples, grapes, carrots and oranges to my lunch, yogurt for breakfast, and stir-fry for dinner.
Now that I was living in the hostel, I was only a 20 minute bus ride from work. Rolling out of bed at 7am as opposed to 5:30am did much for my morale and my sleep. I continued working away at the office job, but also began a new wave of geo job searching. I had been in touch with a TA I had in first year who now lives in Tasmania. He emailed me in the middle of December with the news that someone may be looking for a geological field assistant. Now, it wasn’t a geologist role but at this point I just wanted to get out into the field and experience the Australian outback. I quickly organized a meeting with the head geologist at the project site and was offered the job a few days later. I was also in talks with another company about a geo role but that fell through, leaving the field assistant role as the only option left and I gladly accepted the job.
Up until this point I was unsure of how long I would be staying in Australia. If I hadn’t found a geological role by the beginning of January 2013 I would have started planning my exodus. A bit of travel and an arrival in Canada for the end of February would have occurred. This is because the Toronto PDAC conference is held in March, at which I could search for a new job. But none of that occurred as I would be starting my new job as a field assistant on January 2nd, 2013.
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| Surfing Dude!! |
So now that I had employment for the next few months, I decided to broaden my horizons. Besides the weekly trips to the beach, I also decided to give surfing a go! I took a lesson and was deemed a natural from the first wave. It felt great riding the waves of Trigg beach, letting them bring my board and myself closer to colliding with the shore. The board I used was being offered at a steal of a price and I bought it. I look forward to using it a fair bit in the future. On top of that, I also went cliff diving! It was such a rush to dive and flip into the water a fair distance below. We even had a photographer from the paper paying attention!
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| Cliff Flipping! |
I also took a day trip to Rottnest Island with a few friends from the hostel. We spent a whole day on the island, biking round to various coves and beaches where we snorkelled and had tons of fun. The island was also home to furry creatures called Quokkas. There are so many of them on the island that Australians refer to them as rats, however I could not see the physical resemblance at all.
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| Rottnest Shenannigans! |
As‘Dexter’ was my November, ‘Once Upon a Time’ became my December. I was transfixed with the show. Not only was it from the producers of Lost, but it also was very similar to a graphic novel series called ‘Fables’ that I am fond of. The television show chronicles the adventures of fairy tale characters in the real world, transported from their magical world by the evil Queen and left with no magic and no memory of their past lives. Fables also has the characters travelling to the mundane (human) world but they are instead forced there by the armies of the Adversary, an unknown villain who has upset the Fable world on a horrendous scale, likened (with no exaggeration) to dictators of the past and present of our world.
It did not take long for December to pass and I found myself at the hostel for Christmas. It would have been nice to have returned home for the holiday season to be with my family and friends, but such a trip would have cost a fair amount of money and would have majorly messed with my sleep cycle. So I celebrated with my fellow backpackers in what was a very different Christmas altogether. The day started off with beers and a water fight! Someone had picked up a small inflatable pool so that had everyone’s attention. We also did a Secret Santa gift exchange which lifted the spirits of everyone at the hostel. The owner generously bought some turkey and chicken for us and the girls at the hostel whipped up a fantastic dinner. It was an appreciated gesture and tasted delicious! I also received a Christmas package from my family back home which I was pleased to receive.
Not long after Christmas, I took a drive up to Kings Park with a friend. This city park is a popular spot and offers a botanical garden and an unbelievable view of the city. It literally felt like I was staring at a different city than that of which I had been living in for the past few months. From this vantage point Perth no longer looked like the large town it is, but as an actual city. It was stunning.
New Years soon arrived and passed with the usual countdown. Although, I would consider being chased by drunk aboriginals a new chapter in my New Years shenanigans, along with dancing to electro music till 3am, the standard trip to McDonalds (affectionately known as Macca’s here), and finding $20 on the ground!
And then after a couple days of recovery, I was ready to begin my new job! The arrival of which begins the third phase of my Australia journey and the subject of my next blog entry.
Check out Australia Adventure: Phase I!
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