So everything was supposed to be set up because of this guy Will who helped us out and made the booking incredibly easy. not the case. Turns out Will had been stealing from the hostel and well as a few other questionable things that made him money. He was running it poorly and when we showed up he wasn't there because he had been given the ax. The other thing that wasn't there was our booking. Thanks a lot Will. So we could only book 3 nights because apparently they were fully booked. In addition the bus that would take us to the city of Margaret River was not running anymore. Another thing he failed to mention to us. So this complicated things and got me pretty upset actually. But I did what was right in that situation and all situations like that that are beyond your control. I stopped thinking about for a few minutes, sat down with a beer and chilled out. I even had a cigarette from the Welsh boys and then we were good. We accepted it and came up with a new plan of attack. So once we got this stuff all sorted we started having fun again. We met some more awesome people down at this hostel. It wasn't in Margaret River, it was at this location right on the beach like I was saying. It was called Prevelly Beach and it was awesome. The ocean was even more gorgeous down there. There was also a bushfire a couple months earlier the was supposed to be a controlled one but got out of control and burned a lot of the landscape right next to the hostel. It actually was kinda spooky but added a cool characteristic to the scenery. We would walk through this for 15 minutes to get to the beach. Again, beautiful area. That night Alex (the German girl we met on the way down) and me as her sous chef cooked a big pasta dinner with my leftover food that I brought down. We had some drinks, socialized with some cool Irish people that were also just got there and were pretty much in the same predicament we were in. Really we just called it an early night though. We were tired from a lot of stuff and we wanted to hit the town early the next day and get stuff done.
And the next day we did. We went to all the different labour agencies in Margaret River (All 3 of them) and the basically gave us the same response that they were full of backpackers and wouldn't be able to help us out. So fucking shit! We gave them our info and told them that we had a car even though were just looking. We called several people to try to set up a car appointment and barely got any responses. We printed out our resume's, stocked up on food for the hostel, looked into other accommodations and took down numbers for other job postings in the area not agricultural related. Plus with the cost of the cab rides to town we had already decide we couldn't afford to do that regularly and we were not going to until Thursday when we booked a campsite walking distance from downtown Margaret River. We still got back in time to make it to the beach and go for a dip. It was pretty sweet there too. If it wasn't cloudy we would've watched the sunset but alas we went back and cooked another phat pasta dinner. The poor Welsh boys were in a hurry waxing up there surf boards getting all set up to finally surf in Aus for the first time and there were absolutely no breaks close enough in for them. But hey, how much complaining can you when you're chilling in Australia on the Indian Ocean. That night after our nice large meal we proceeded to get drunk off of the best cheap Margaret River wine we could fine with the 3 Irish guys and 1 Irish girl that we had met the night before. It was a wild one. We talked with a lot of other people as well. Ryan and I had a very long chat with an Aussie women in her 40's and her 19 year old niece who were on holiday. Hugh and the Irish talked with some Canadians and I think some other Aussie's. The thing is, beer is very expensive in Australia. Wine however, you can get for cheap. Boxed wine known as "goon" here and it is known for just being absolute shit. I've had it's and it's not too bad. Drinkable but shit wine. We did not have that. We bought bottles of the cheapest wine we could find from the Margaret River region. $6 a bottle and it was actually quite nice. many different varieties as well. Over the course of our time since then we've been able to try pretty much every variety. Well some silly shenanigans happened but we had a good time. Apparently I was the first one to hit the hay and by a long shot at that. Usually not the case. Hugh and Alex stayed up damn near 4 hours longer than me.
We awoke the next morning and all basically just went Jesus Christ. We all lay in bed just talking about the night before and the ridiculousness of it. Ryan was on the bunk above me and said that I was being squirmy all night and that it bugged the hell out of him. Probably true knowing me. Alex was on the other top bunk but every time she moved the bed squeaked like crazy. Hugh just had his headphones in and seemed to be jamming/a ok with everything considering he had the most out of us. It was good times and we were laughing a lot. Finally I roused myself up and went to the kitchen to make phat breakfast burritos for all of us. Ryan was picky about what he wanted in his burrito and the temporary hostel manager Sky (remember her, she's important in the next 2 weeks) gave him shit for being a princess when he was having breakfast made for him. Rightfully so I say.
So our plan was to take it easy that day and stay out at the hostel. One, we had to call places for accommodation and people to set up seeing some cars. We didn't need to go to town for that. and 2 we didn't want to spend $50 going to town for the day when we were going to based there the next day but not at the beach necessarily after that. Good decision. So Hugh and Alex were hitting it off with each other. They had kissed some the night before and decided to go to the beach together that day. Ryan and I decided to stay at the pool at the hostel and chill out there. This was after we watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in our room. Relaxed day for sure. So at this point Ryan and I were spending a lot more time with each other due to the blossoming romance (although I can tell you now it hasn't blossomed very far). That was cool though. Ryan and I got to know each other pretty damn well during our time in Margaret River. That day at the hostel we chilled in the pool, laid out on the lawn, chatted with Sky and a couple other people who were working at the hostel and just had a good day. We cooked another big pasta dish that night and had some more drinks and talks with cool people. The next day we woke up ready to get some productive shit done. I went off to walk to a campsite nearby to chat with them about prices and got completely lost due to terrible directions from the front desk. Again, I got a bit angry. It took us forever to leave from the hostel. We did catch a ride from the Irish neighbors of ours but by the time we finally got our tents set up at the campsite it was late in the day and we were all getting annoyed with how little we got done. Ryan said he could see a clear difference in my attitude. You see I had also been offered a job two days earlier but I couldn't take it because we didn't have a car yet. It was probably gonna be shit though because it started at 1 in the morning. Either way these thoughts were weighing down on me. When we got to the internet cafe in town we just started knuckling down and doing some work. We then had a moment that I think had to be very Australian.
So everyone here just seems to say don't worry. You'll find some work at some point. I've met loads of people that do that, especially backpackers, who just pick up work when money is getting tight and it just seems to work out for them no problem. In 2 hours our luck completely changed. We walked into the cafe and I saw a posting for a car. I called the guy instantly and he said he'd be there in 10 minutes to show us the car because he was around the corner. This older surfer, hippy dude rolls up in a 1977 Ford Falcon which they don't have in the States. It's basically a Subaru in a Ford model with a V6. This car was beat and in bad shape but man could she run. She had so much character to her too. There were surfer bumper stickers everywhere, the back window you could roll down from the outside. You had to crawl through that to unlock the car doors. The handles on the front doors don't work. There was a huge bumper rail on the front that apparently this guy Leon had accidentally hit a kangaroo with a couple weeks earlier. The leather on the seats were falling off. The car floor was all metal. Every time we drove her she squeaked very loudly. We turned a lot of heads just on the test drive. Man this car was heavy duty though. She was built to run for a long time and she's a beast. Basically a reliable car that was at the end of her tenure. Leon said he would sell it for $1000 and we said we'd think about it. Honestly we liked it a lot. But what really set us into gear was what happened next. Hugh got a call from this guy named Bruce that he had left a message with earlier. Bruce owned a hay farm and offered him and Ryan a job doing farm labour on it back in Perth. They then told me and said they wanted to split the car between the 2 of them because it would make it easier and I could just throw down on gas. Easy dude. I asked for Bruce's number and called him up 2 minutes after and asked if he had anymore openings. He said "yeah now worries, starts on Monday" and we chatted for a few minutes. $20 an hour, five days a week. Then we called Leon and they bought the car. Alex decided she wanted to come back to Perth with us and she got a job at a restaurant in just a couple of days. But in a matter of 2 hours we went from being down in the dumps to having a car and a job! Fucking awesome feeling. So we rung the boys at the Witch's Hat and told them we were coming back over the weekend, which happened to be just in time for a goodbye party for our friend Gavin. What good timing.
The next day we chilled in Margaret River. We booked everything for when we came back up and we had nothing else to take care of really. We had a leisurely day in town the next day, drank some more wine and cooked another festive meal...and then drank some more wine.
The next day we set off back for Perth and excited to see all the people from the Witch's Hat again. We were glad that we got to go down there though and see a little bit outside of Perth in WA. So it all worked out basically. It was GREAT to be back at the Witch's that night and see the boys again. It was a phat party for Gav's goodbye and another guy's b-day. Free BBQ put on by the hostel. We had a serious party night for sure...again. It really is great people there that we've gotten to know so well. We spent most of Sunday recovering and getting ready to work on Monday.
Here's the thing with work on Monday that got us a bit spooked. At the party and on Sunday when we talked to people we heard a lot of negative stuff about this job. See we heard about the job from guys at our hostel who had worked there previously. There was a flyer for it on the hostel board. See what happened was there were a lot of guys that had worked the job for a day or two from our hostel and then just quit because of how hard the work was and the conditions. Colombian Dave quit after his second day because he got another job but also he got so much dust in his eyes that they were completely bloodshot for about 2 days. When I talked to my friend Martin from Ireland he said he would be surprised if I lasted a week. He sounded like he had PTSD from it. LOL. That really became a joke around the hostel about Martin. SO needless to say me and the Welsh guys were a bit concerned. But regardless we needed to work and there was no way we gonna quit before we even started. We got some tips from the guys, like wearing goggles and bringing our own water and so on and we got up early the next morning and went. It was fucking tough. It's supposed to be from 7 am to 3 pm roughly. We were there until 5pm. But we were not too defeated by it. Huw and I in particular said we were at least gonna stick through the week just not to give up on it but also to beat the running record of 3 days at the hostel. Ryan on the other hand didn't show up the next day. He came back after that but didn't come back the next week at all either. They ended up hiring a Swedish guy who we gave rides too work and even he missed a day as well. Huw and I gave it three weeks and then we were just sick of it. We didn't miss a day, we didn't complain and when we left I had another job set up and Hugh has had many other prospects since then. Let me tell you about the conditions though, what made it so tough and why we left.
Ok first off here's how it works. The hay comes in on barrels. They throw the hay on machines that slowly unravel the barrels. The hay then gets steamed and set to the person at the cutting machine that pushes it through the cutter. Then it goes through another sifting mechanism that sorts out the hay that needs to be re-cut and sends it back to the cutter while the rest passes on to the weighing machine where it comes into giant bags. There is a person running the bags guessing the weights (there is a formula to it). The bags then need to weighed exactly, then sewed up with a sewing machine gadget. Then the bags get thrown onto a palet that a forklift comes and picks up. Then it gets loaded on a truck and shipped off to wherever it's going. It could be WA or one load we did was going to the middle east somewhere for the cows there.
Here's why it sucked. The first day we got there they gave us about 30 seconds of training and threw us into this fast paced work environment where we basically had no clue and were just trying to get through it without fucking up too much. The weighing machine...there is an art to it and they had Huw working on while they adjusted the setting in these crazy weighs. Needless to say the weight of his bags were so far off and they didn't even take the time to explain how he could make some minor adjustments to it which honestly only would've taken 2 minutes. They had me at the cutting machine where I couldn't wear gloves because then I wouldn't be able to properly feel if my fingers were getting close to the blades. This meant that my hands were in hay all day. I started getting wort/rash type things in between my fingers which are only now getting less and less after about a week of not working there anymore. My zone was also the dust zone and they did not give me any goggles for me. My swimming goggles were just going to fog up too much. They ended up giving me goggles after the first break which they had the whole time. Just from those 2 hours of working on the hay there my eyes were still bloodshot for the next 2 days. My eyes had still been getting bloodshot at times for 3 days after I left. One of the long term guys named Craig was a fucking asshole. All he did was gripe and complain and he made our jobs incredibly difficult at times. He would do things like send far too much hay to go through the cutter so it jammed and wouldn't even stop until I got right in his face and told him to stop. Then he would go take a water break. He would take over the weight machine for Huw and send bags to him that were so far off it was unbelievable. He would yell "OY" at us and whistle to get our attention and not show us any common respect. I completely stopped responding to him when he would address me this way until he actually had the decency to come look me in the eye and ask me something the correct way. He would mumble cuss words as he walked by but he was really just upset about minor things. Just a negative guy and a fucking dick. The thing was, they just couldn't get rid of him because it was so hard for them to get people to stick around who knew what they were doing. He thought he was hot shit because he was technically the "manager". He made $3 more an hour than us and after 2 weeks we realized we knew how to do things better than he did. Also just the physical labor of it was tough. It was a good workout, which I liked but after a hard days work you don't want to do anything else but just lie around. The sewing machine could be tough sometimes too. It would break a lot, thus getting bags to just pile up and then lifting 300-400 bags of 50 to 60 pounds was really draining. All the jobs they had us doing were the shit jobs. Driving the forklift, taking your time loading the hay bags onto the truck, driving the trucks and putting the hay into the steamer through the machine were easy. Plus, getting up early and driving 45 kilometers to work was just getting old after a while. Especially for me because I was already sick of getting up that early to be at work at 7am (my shift at the hospital).
Julie and Bruce (the owners) would come and work with us a lot. They were pretty nice people. They just wanted you to show up and work hard. Bruce was insanely chill. He was really an awesome guy and the most relaxed person I've ever met. It's funny too because Bruce is the "standard" name for an Aussie apparently. We didn't mind that they didn't always do the hard jobs because, well it was their farm that they had set up. Plus they would get in there and work hard sometimes and help us out. One thing though is that we never really felt that appreciated for the work we did. They never said Thanks to us or really complimented us for anything even though we were busting our ass and doing all the jobs that they didn't want to do. So at the beginning of my 3rd week I told the guys that I thought it would be my last week because I had something else set up and they decided that they felt the same.
So the other stuff that happened was Sky, the woman down at the hostel in Margaret River, took over as manager at the Witch's Hat. She's super friendly and helpful. But one day after work she approached me and asked me if I was interested in doing the night manager position at the hostel. Now I was but it ended up getting filled by a couple where one of them could also do the cleaning during the day. But, this lead to an opportunity. One of the other hostels that is owned by the same owner was losing both of their night manager's and they needed people quick. The manager at this hostel (The Emperors Crown) called Sky and asked her for a recommendation and she put my name out there immediately. So during my last week of work at the hay farm I was training to become the new night manager at the Emperors Crown which was a 20 minute walk from the Witch's Hat. So far it's supposed to pay a little less than what I was making at the hay farm but I get free accommodation, my own room, I can sleep in during the day and the weekends off. It's a pretty simple job. I've been at it for 4 days now plus one week of training which was far too much training. I wasn't even there for it but that's a whole other debacle that I'll get into later. I did something similar to this when I worked at the front desk in the dorms in college but there are some minute differences. One is I'm working with people from all over the world. Another is I'm aloud to drink on the job I just can't get drunk. I also don't always have to be at the front desk. I can close it up and go hang out in the back for a while as long as I have the phone with me and deal with calls. All these have been approved by the boss. The main downfalls are I have to have the phone on me over night and get up if there are late check ins as well as open the kitchen and courtyards back up at 5 am. But so far no problem. I have been getting up a couple of times in the night for the most part anyways so it hasn't been affecting my sleep thus far. And I don't have to work with fucking hay anymore. Another that is annoying is how many stupid lack of common sense questions people ask. Already that's getting on my nerves but hey, that's just part of "customer service" I suppose. They basically get a backpacker to do the night manager job because they get free accommodation at the least and all they have to do is pick from all the people at the hostel who they think is the most well groomed and gives the most professional appearance according to Sky and my manager Tom. But I've still got my ear out for other opportunities. Originally I was thinking I would do this and the hay job at the same time for a week or 2 and make a lot of money but after my first 2 days of training I recognized that it was going to be too hard. Now that I've got the hang of it I feel like I could pick up a job for 2 weeks and just save about 1G a week or so. Huw was telling me he got called for an interview to work at a warehouse and that there could be a possibility for me there short term like that. My Italian friend Niko works at a cheese factory very close by and it's the same sort of deal. He'll be leaving that job shortly too so when he does there will definitely be an opportunity. A lot of people come in and work these labour jobs real quickly to make some quick cash. Most of them leave without even telling their bosses. I figure if I tell them ahead of time that I'm leaving that's leaving on good terms. Plus they have backpackers phoning them a lot for work so it's not putting them in a bind. I can also switch to part time here pretty easily if I want. Tom said that he would be open to that. So we'll see but I'm keeping my options open.
Socially things are going great as well. On the weekends in between the work week we stay up late with people from the Witch's and sometimes go out to a couple of the bars since were now making money. We still wouldn't spend too much though. Hanging out at the Witch's is good enough for me. Huw had one helluv a night though. So in our first week Huw was always staying up until 1am or 3am drinking and then getting up at the last second and going straight to work for a hard day only getting 3 hours sleep sometimes. I was up a little late about 2 times during our 3 week span but especially in the first week I just slept early. On the first Friday we all were drinking and Huw decided to go to a bar with other people. He ended up having to go to the hospital because he thought his drink was spiked. He left the bar and was falling over and couldn't remember anything when all the sudden before that he was completely fine. He went to the hospital and the report was just that he was too drunk!!! He was basically exhausted from hard work and no sleep and then drank too much for his body to handle. Moron man. Ryan had to help him out and he told me how he was acting. It was pretty embarrassing. I think he felt pretty bad about it too. So he kept it cool after that for a while. That was a big joke though for a little while. Still is to be honest.
I've also just kept on meeting more and more cool people through the hostel mainly. More people have been coming and going now. Some people that work at the mines and always stay here on their week or 2 weeks off. Some others that stayed there previously but then came back after being away for a bit and some new people as well. Christina from Ireland, Kate from Ireland, Sophie from England, Ali from Aus but working in the mines, Nick from Germany, Kiwi Jay who's travelling with his 2 German friends that are sisters (Micah and Nicola), this other Kiwi girl that works in the mines as a cleaner and so on. Just great people to spend some good quality time with.
In addition to that I've gotten to know some more people from all over at The Emperors Crown as I am staying and working here. And today I'll be moving into my own room with solo access to the TV lounge after hours, a desk and a double bed for the same free rate as my dorm room that I was in. Solid! Now I still spend a lot of my free time at the Witch's but that's also to get away from where I'm working all night. Now it actually started off a bit rocky here but it has to do with this bitch named Gemma. See I agreed to work starting on St. Paddy's night. I didn't want to but it worked with my schedule. Now there are a lot of Irish people here including this person named Gemma. She was one of the night supervisors and one that was supposed to train for the week leading up to my first shift. She didn't. Instead what she did was sit at the computer, not show me anything, get annoyed if I asked her a question, tell me she had it under contorl herself and not let me practice any of the computer stuff such as checking someone in. Dirk, the other Night Supervisor who trained me on my first 2 days actually trained me. He had me doing all that stuff and was open to all questions I had. He was a cool guy. When Tom asked me about this I told him and he said he wasn't surprised. Apparently Gemma had gotten mad over this tiny thing relating to a policy that she wasn't following and really neither was Dirk. They weren't reprimanded, they weren't chastised, they were just told hey you can't do this anymore. She took it personally and became incredibly rude and disrespectful to everyone. I mean the guests, her co-workers and even the owners. And she was just vile with Tom. I know this because she had a similar interaction with me. Dirk gave me a great review. Gemma for some reason went straight to the owner and said that I wasn't that good. Well I wasn't there for the last 2 nights because she was wasting my time and Tom gave me the approval to not even be there as long as I met with him beforehand. Tom stood up for me and then tried to make peace with her. They talked about her poor attitude and one of the things he pointed out was how she hadn't been training me. She flipped out and starting yelling and cussing at him and completely talking over him. Tom just stopped the conversation completely. She then came in as I was walking by and started spewing this shit at me in front of little kids at that. I basically just had to shut her out like Tom. I told him that even if though it was my first night if she spoke to me like that again I was calling the police and having her kicked out fo the hostel. Fortunately St. Paddy's went off without too many more problems. Apparently last year a ton of Irish people got deported for the way they acted in public so since no problems happened I say it went well even though Gemma was saying foul stuff about me to all of them. She gave me a half ass apology the next day and has just been akward since then. I don't have anything else to say to her. Doesn't matter now cause the bitch is gone and all those people that she talked shit about me to have come up to me and told me they thought she was fucking crazy. Other than that it's been chill like I said.
See what's been happening is the owner of these hostels wants to kick out long termers...like Gemma... but he's also kicking out good people. So everyone can't stay at the hostel with all the people they've gotten to know and have these bonds with and they all hate that. But, something else is happening that I've noticed. I have stayed at a couple of different places myself. I now recognize some backpackers from all over that I haven't met at the Witches hat. And some of the guys that stayed at other hostels too ended up bringing people out to something that I met from another hostel. So what's going on is all the backpackers in the area are just getting to know everyone not just people from their hostel. Give it more time and that will expand even further. Some of the degrees of separation are ridiculous but they're there.
I've also taken up yoga since I got the new job and have days available. There was a deal for Bikram yoga ($20 for the first 10 days with unlimited courses during that time) and it's been great. I only had my second class today but I could really see myself picking it up when I get back to the States. This is the yoga that is 40 C, or roughly 110 F with a 40% humidity. It gets all sorts of toxins out, it raises your heart rate so much it's considered a cardiovascular workout, it strengthens and improves flexibility like yoga in general. I feel like I've had a good all around workout at the end of it and I just feel refreshed. It's tough though for sure. I've also been playing a little bit of rugby with some of the guys from the hostel. Yesterday it was after yoga. It's cool learning a new sport and just getting out there and being active. I could also see myself pick this up when i get back to the States. It's been a good way to meet up with people from the hostel as well.
Basically things are going great. I feel like I'm studying abroad which I never got a chance to do in college (my fault though). I'm getting to know this city and this region well but not in a long-term way. I've made friends and have a nice little community going here. It's people from all over the world that are doing some similar things and different things. I've met a few locals as well so I'm getting a pretty decent taste for what Aus and WA are like. It's pretty awesome.
The other thing I'm doing which I'm glad I'm doing because even though I was open to whatever I kind of wanted this. I'm doing completely different things. Not working with mentally ill kids but I haven't given up on that field, just taken a hiatus. Between the hay barreling, night manager at the hostel, yoga and rugby I've gotten a nice taste of a lot of different things. And I have a feeling I'll continue to do more since I'm keeping my options open. It's also refrshing me to get back into when I get back. Not yet, and not right when I get back but it should help in a lot of ways. Not just the break but to get a little more of a taste of what else is out there. And maybe pick up some new habits along the way as well as travel which is always good.
I don't want to sound hokey but another thing this has reaffirmed for me is my love of the US. I will miss everyone here but I know for sure I want to be back in the US and more than likely the west coast. The perfect job opportunity would be the only thing that could bring me back to Chicago for the long-term at this point. Like a supervisors job. But I think about all the people and all the opportunities in America that even Australia doesn't have with all the jobs here. Plus the culture. I was brought up in that post civil rights era in Nor Cal and I just think that way in general. I'm not too PC but out here Jesus Christ I am. There's just so much racism in the world I've learned and while what's going on in the US in that regard is bad compared to Europe, Australia and pretty much every other part of the world it just does not compare. That open mindedness to different people that is "more" present in the States I really like. And it's just beautiful all over compared to so many other places. My friend Dave from Miami and i were having a chat about this and we both agreed, America is the shit. Seeing and living in all these places is fun. Each place has something different to offer and can be better in some ways than the States but overall there's just so much good stuff in the States. Plus I've talked to many people that ask me "Why did you even want to leave the States?" I explain why but most of the time they tell me that if they had the chance they would move to the States and work rather than Australia. I've learned through conversation that because of film and media giant that the US is people all over the world grow up almost idolizing the States. Now to each their own but I will say i have gained much more of an appreciation and gratitude for being born in and living in the States. Even though things are tough now it's really not that unbearable at all compared to most places.
Well that's what's been going on with me for the last MONTH! Sorry for how long it took. I'll try to be more frequent with these things. To everyone back at home I love you and I think about everyone daily. I really do and I miss you all. Hope you're well.
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