job hunting.. again!

This time it's in Melbourne...

brett and i spent about a week in brisbane. we tried out couchsurfing for the first time and it was so good! Our host Ben was amazing! he took us to a reggae show, and completly opened his house up to us. heres the site if anyone is interested:

www.couchsurfing.com

brett and i went to the Australia Zoo, which is the Steve Irwin zoo, and it was really good. very expensive to get in (46$) but we got to feed elephants, watch a crocodile show (they move SO much faster than youd think) and watch baby tigers. Pretty sweet. I hung out for a few days after he took off for the east coast, and now im in Melbourne! Job hunting! yet again! I have high hopes though, when i called to book a hostel and i said i was looking for work, the response i got was "oh, good!". theres a few help wanted signs that ive seen just walking around, but if i can avoid working at subway, i will

And now.. a few handy tips for backpacking in australia:

- If you are at a book exchange and you see "The Backpackers Bible" do not trade your well loved trashy novel for it, thinking its a sweet guidebook full of backpacking hints. its not. its actually a bible.

- Do not waste any time looking for the dippers (big or small) they're not here. trust me

- "root around" does not mean the same thing here as it does at home. in fact, it has a very different meaning.. therefore, when you go into a shop and are asked if you need help, do not respond with "no i think ill just root around". what you will basically have said is that you are going to have sex in various places in the store. there will be a very awkward silence. trust me

Brett, burns and Byron Bay!

Im such a lucky backpacker! First i get a visit from my darling mom, then i happen to meet up with one of my friends from high school in Kings Cross, THEN brett arrives! Its like christmas! He got here just under a week ago, and recovered from jet lag amazingly fast which was good cause we had a lot to see. 2 visits to Bondi beach (we were a day late seeing Hugh Jackman) and 2 different sunburns, one aquarium trip, 1 walking tour and a whole lot of wandering we were ready for some mellow hanging out. Enter Byron Bay. this is my 3rd time here, Circus and i came here twice, and i love it just as much the 3rd time. we already have a tour lined up for tomorrow and other than that its the beach for us! or maybe the pool

god. life is full of tough choices

free internet! (and more pictures)

i lucked out with a hostel this time. its really cheap (about $15 a night), free breakfast (which is just toast so i cant eat it, but still!) and free internet!

the last couple days ive mostly just been wandering.. i met up with my friend david who happened to be here for a couple days. I made the supreme mistake of going to get a personality test at the scientology center, thinking it would be hilarious. No, it wasnt. It was rather scary actually. The test itself was alarmingly accurate, and the whole thing is very manipulative. i watched a brainwashing film which was funnier, but still unsettling. i left after about 2 hours feeling fairly violated and not very amused.

i tried to get some work in my hostel to balance out the cost of living, but that doesnt seem to be happening. i offered to clean the gross kitchen but no ones gotten back to me. i have to fight the urge to do it for free

Ive posted quite a lot of pictures in the last little while, so here they are:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54790&l=5438f&id=661120474 (everything before alice springs)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59952&l=101b3&id=661120474 (life in alice springs)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=68340&l=4d240&id=661120474 (pictures from moms visit)

Mom left about an hour ago for the airport, and its hard to believe its been 2 weeks already! Amazing!

We rented a car, whom we lovingly named Harvey and drove down to Margret river, which is the wine region (or one of them) in westeran australia (wa). It rained almost the entire time we were in WA, but we had a fab time anyways. Our first full day in margret river we hopped on a wine tour. altogether we tested about 60 wines at 6 different wineries, though mom was very sensible and passed on some. I didnt.. and as a result fell down some stairs and sprained my toe. Always the picture of grace.. after all the wineries we went to the chocolate factory and the cheese factory, and by the end of the day we were much poorer in money, but WAY richer in deliciousness. The next day we went to 3 of the main cave tours, which were amazing, but by the end of the day our legs were screaming from climbing so many stairs..

eventaully we made our way to the south coast to a town called Walpole. They have a tree top walk, which is about 40m above the ground and its beautiful! the trees are called "giant tingle trees" and they are indeed huge. most of them have been hollowed out from fires, and some of the trucks are big enough for a car to drive through. the rain stopped for a bit, so we had a nice view..

after a frustrating visit to rockingham (aka suckingham) we got back to perth and spent the night at our cousins. the next morning we ere off just north of perth to Yanchep, which is really small, but they had AMAZING beaches. so beautiful! the weather was sunny, but it was super windy, so we didnt really enjoy them as much as we could have. theres also a national park with koalas and another chocolate store! we only stayed for a night and before we knew it we were flying back to sydney!

now im sort of at a standstill.. brett comes down on the 10th which is a nice excuse not to do anything for a while, because im not really sure where to go! in any event, ill post pictures as soon as i can..