My day off (again)

I was thinking just the other day about my whole trip here. This whole thing started for me mainly because I got laid off back home and once I lost my job I had to do something. Rather than stress about finding a new job in a bad economy and worry about everything that goes along with that I just decided to pack it up and move here for a while. I knew a few people here but no one REALLY well. So, it was a big adjustment for me moving here alone with just my backpack and my wits.

My first month here was rough trying to adjust to a whole new country with no one to depend on but myself. But, I survived my first month and still doing fine even now. I really have grown to like Australia a lot and have really adjusted to life here. I have everything I need to be happy and healthy. Some people would consider this just "traveling" and not really anything else. I consider myself really lucky and don't regret doing this at all. That being said, I don't consider this just some trip. Sure, I have been backpacking and traveling but I have also been working hard for money to support myself. So I will really look back on this whole experience with fond memories knowing that I did learn a lot and wasn't just traveling for the sake of pure travel.I have some great skills and knowledge I can rely on and use in future jobs and down the road in life.

I have learned a lot about myself as a person and what I can do for myself. When I was back home I had a whole network of people to depend on and support me and here I just have me. You know back home I never had to cook. (Because my dear mother is an amazing cook!) so I never really knew how to cook anything because I was never forced to try. Well here if I don't cook I don't eat. So while I still can only cook basic stuff at least I can cook something. Sure I can eat out but it is expensive here so cooking is just cheaper. Ben and I split the grocery bill 50/50 so it is a good money saver. So I have learned a lot of new life skills with my time here and new work skills too. I do laundry with no dryer and wash dishes by hand, live with no Air Conditioner and just generally don't have all the creatures comforts from home. I learned how to read a map well and use public transport. Sure I miss my friends and family back home but have really enjoyed my time here so far. Now that is drawing to a close here I just have a bit left before I go to New Zealand and learn new stuff there!

I had another unscheduled day off today. It really is a bummer that I am not working five days a week currently but it has been slow lately. I have had stuff to do though so I have stayed busy which is better than just laying on the lounge doing nothing. Today I went to get a new charger for my computer which was luckily still under warranty so I didn't have to pay for anything! After that I went to Target to return something I bought.

The "interesting" part was actually getting there. I had to take two trains and three buses throughout my day. So that was a drag because it seemed to work out that all day I JUST missed the train/buses so I ended up waiting like a half hour each time :( and normally if you have "continuing" travel on the public transport network, with our "Go Card" we can get free travel (once you pay the initial fare) but, if you spend more than 1 hour "off network" and you go to "tap on" and ride again it isn't free anymore. On the train today for the first time that I have noticed they had "undercover" officers checking for tickets on the train. Normally they are uniformed officers and people have found them fairly easy to avoid if you want too. Well not anymore. Lucky for me I had no issues because I had "tapped on" and paid for my ticket.

So due to all my friggin delays it meant that for most of the day I missed the "free" travel window :( I even missed one bus because I was at the bus stop and the driver clearly saw me I was even waving my hand and he drove right by! It made me really mad that he was such a jerk! But there was a nice lady at the bus stop to talk too. Anyway I got everything done I needed done so it ended up being an ok if not long day.

Well thats all I got for now.-Ty