Now I realize what some of you are thinking- "Australia is hardly a foreign experience. They speak English and the only real difference between us is their cool accents and affinity for crocodile hunting."
But you are wrong. There are an excess of adversities I will be facing when living in this country, so I will cite some examples to help you understand.
1. They have no dryers. First world problems, I know. But when you have to hang dry your delicates in front of your three male roommates, it gets awkward.
2. There are seemingly more Asians in Brisbane than white people- I'd like to see you try and communicate with someone who has a half Asian/half Australian accent. It's like I went to Russia- I don't know what anyone is saying.
3. A kangaroo tried to eat my jacket yesterday. I really like that jacket.
5. There is WiFi nowhere, and the places that do have it only have limited amounts. Example: The purchase of one Starbucks drink gets you a voucher for 30 minutes of free WiFi. To continue using it after the 30 minutes, you must purchase a new drink. I'm sorry but this just goes against everything I feel Starbucks stands for.
6. Final point which will lead to the heart of this blog post- Ice cream is 4 dollars a scoop. A venti caramel macchiato is $7.50 (compare to $4.50) and a normal caesar salad is $15. WHO CAN AFFORD TO LIVE LIKE THIS?!
My measley savings sure can't, and John's (aka dad's) bank account certainly isn't happy either. Things here are expensive to a whole new level.
Over the past week I kept a list of everything I have bought to give my parents an example of what the cost of living is like here. I will highlight some of those items below:
$7.50 - spiral notebook for class
$60 - 18 + card (they will not accept my American license at bars, so I had to buy this to prove I am indeed above 18 years old and able to drink. The woes of looking like a 12 year old)
$10 - Croissant and Latte
$4 - gatorade
$5 - slice of pizza
$10 - 6 inch turkey subway
$35 - fifth of Burnett's
While this might not seem completely outrageous to you- the fact that you can't leave McDonalds here without spending at least 10 dollars is seriously a problem for those of us who earned an 8 dollar minimum wage in the US compared to their 16 dollar minimum wage here. On a two week vacation, this kind of spending would be fine. But paying prices like this for 6 months puts John and I on the fast track to being broke.
So the logical next step in this situation was to look for a job. Given my lack of experience really doing any sort of job because soccer consumed my life up until a year ago, the job search turned out to be quite a challenge. I handed out applications to 20 different stores, to then hear from none of them. So when I applied online to be a "door person" at a new club, I thought it would lead me to the same empty inbox that the other job applications had.
But alas, I finally got a reply! They emailed me back asking what the best time would be for me to come in and interview. Within five minutes I had replied with the date and time I would be coming in. This was definitely over eager, but I was so excited to have finally gotten a reply that I couldn't help myself.
When looking back over the email from the club, I noticed that they needed me to verify that I was above 18 years old and a female when I came to the interview, which struck me as odd because never in the initial job posting did they specify that the applicant needed to be a female. It just said "door person" which I took to be a sexually ambiguous term for hostess. Most places hire only pretty girls, so I applauded this one on their attempt to at least act like they would consider males to seat people. How progressive of them.
I was discussing how excited I was for my interview with my roommates that night, as we are all struggling to find a job, when one of them burst out laughing. He asked me if I had actually looked on the club's website to see what the place was like, which I realized dumbly that I hadn't.
I took that as my cue to check it out, so when 8 nude girls and the words "Brisbane's Largest Strip Club" popped up, I stared at the screen stunned. JJ had many rude remarks to add in about women's rights and how the strip club could be the place for me. I promptly cancelled my interview, but as the strip club has been the only job interview I have gotten to date, my self worth is dwindling a bit.
Given the failed job search, it is looking like John won't be able to retire for a while, if at all. Maybe in the next couple of weeks things will turn around, but for now, me and my dignity are going to carry on without a set source of income.
So until next time.
-F
PS- Here's a picture of an emu
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