I got a job!

I am employed! And it is about time because my bank account is looking pretty meager.

I am working at a company called 2evolve which does fundraising for NGOs like Amnesty International, UNHCR (the Refugee Fund), and some other great organizations. So even though it's a call center, it's pretty legit and I can definitely put it on my resume when I get home (something I was not quite expecting to be able to do with the job I got here). Megan got the job at the bar and is looking for another job...she's interviewing at 2evolve today which she is totally going to get. Then Emmy, Megan and I will all work together.

So now we are all employed which is a fantastic feeling. I have never been so relieved.

The charges went through on Kelsey's card so now we can see where the perp spent all of her money. Half of the charges were for taxis. He opened a $300 bar tab. And spent another $500 at none other than good ol' Ed Hardy. Go figure. Hopefully between all the places he spent money, some security camera will have a clear picture of him.

I think I'm going to go lay out now....rough life, I know.

Oh and if you get the chance - you should wish Erin Dose a happy 26th birthday!!!!

Trouble in Paradise

Well, we have run into our first real problem.

On Friday night we went out (for our 3rd time since being here). We started out in Bondi, then came back to Coogee and went out at the hotel right by our house. It was a pretty fun night....nothing too wild. The next afternoon, Kelsey and Brigid realized that they were missing some of their credit cards. Megan and I went out to get dinner and stopped by the internet cafe to check up on the girls' accounts. Kelsey's checking account said zero. Someone had pick-pocketed the girls and went on a wild shopping spree. They spent all of the money in Kelsey's checking account and charged some on Brigid's credit card.

What is most surprising is that our experience so far is that people are pretty strict in stores about checking the signature and ID....so I'm not really sure how the person got away with it.

We have a pretty good idea of who it is (or at least we think we can narrow it down) and hopefully when the charges go through and show the places the money was spent, we can check security tapes and figure it out. And hopefully the banks will reimburse them for all their lost money. The girls went to the police station today to file a report, so hopefully he is caught soon.

But the good news is that both Brigid and Kelsey got the jobs at the Palace Hotel in Coogee about two blocks from our house! Megan has a trial run at a bar in Sydney on Tuesday and I have an interview in the city on Tuesday also. So hopefully we are all employed soon!

I don't have much to post about....but I feel like it's time for an update.

We watched the news all day on the day of the dust storm and found out that it is not a normal occurrence, like we had originally believed. Apparently, this only happens once every 70 years. I kind of just thought it was a weird sunrise and since it was 6 am, we were too lazy to get up and take pictures (which I'm pretty pissed about). But about 8 different news channels said that it was like waking up on Mars. So I guess I'll just take their word for it.

We discovered a RedBox to rent movies from. Which was great because otherwise we were going to have to pay a $50 membership fee to the video store in town...something I was not prepared to do. So we rented New In Town last night. Good flick. (Did I just blog about a movie we rented? We really need to get lives.)

Brigid has her trial run as a bartender tonight and Kelsey had a trial run as a waitress during the day. So hopefully they both get those jobs so they can support me while I go on not having a job. But I have heard back from a few places....so hopefully something works out.

We also learned the joy that is $2 steak night on Wednesdays and $1 burgers on Thursdays. So we will be regulars at those places.

I forgot to write about the class we had to take for 6 hours one day last week. It's called the RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) and you have to take the class in order to work in the food or bar industry here. We spent 6 hours learning about how to tell if someone is intoxicated. It's called we went to college. We got it. But they have a big drinking problem here and are taking strides to control it (let's hope the US doesn't jump on this trend). They have drastically increased the price of alcohol (a 30 rack of beer costs $40 - at home it costs $15) and made some other laws that bars now have to follow (like kicking people out if they show 2 of the 4 signs of intoxication). I'm not sure it's working though because we're getting down to the Rugby League finals and I haven't seen a sober fan yet.

We are planning some activities for the week - so expect better posts/pictures to come. I know, you're totally excited, huh?

Dust Storm/Red Sky

I woke up at 6 am and looked out my window and saw a red sky. Kelsey and I's window was open and our room was covered in a thin sheet of dust. Apparently, we are in the middle of a "dust storm". I'm not sure if this is normal....but from what I hear, the weather is acting crazy everywhere today. 103 degrees with rolling blackouts in Danville and it's snowing in Boulder. I think it's safe to say we can blame El Nino.

Things are looking up on the job front. Brigid has a trial run as a bartender on Saturday night. She's pretty nervous - but I feel like it might be easier to bartend here than in the US. All they have is beer, which we know how to pour, and pre-made mixed drinks. So it ain't no thang. And we might be packing boxes of wine for 17 dollars an hour for a couple days. I think this is a sign of more things to come.

Otherwise, I don't have much of an update. I think we're going to stay inside today....the wind is crazy.

Still no job

Update: We still don't have jobs. We've been looking and haven't had any luck. But today is Monday and I'm giving myself until Friday to get one because that is when I run out of money.

We haven't really found any attractive men. We have found a bunch of 19 year olds. I now appreciate the 21 year old drinking age because then the minimum age at bars is much more appropriate for us. We went out on Saturday night and I chatted up three sophomores in college....one of whom was a spitting image of McLovin'. Hopefully when we find jobs, we make friends with people our own age and kill two birds with one stone.

And our final issue at the moment: we met our neighbors across the hall. They are two Irish men. One of them says, "how are you guys living here? It's so gross. We couldn't even deal with it so we found a new place to live." Let's just think about how depressing this is. First of all, they are guys and second, they're Irish and even they think our apartment is uninhabitable. We had started to convince ourselves it wasn't that bad until we had this conversation.

So thinks are looking gloomy in the lives of Mallory, Brigid, Megan and Kelsey.... but I guess we can't complain too much because we still have beautiful scenery.

Pack of Cigs

I thought this was kind of funny. This is a picture of a warning label on a pack of cigarettes. This was pretty much the first thing we saw when we landed and walked through the duty free store at the airport.

More Productivity

G'day mates!

I'm not sure what is going on....but I am a new woman. I have accomplished more in the week I have been here than I ever did in a week at home. I hope I keep up this work ethic for the rest of my life. Oh, and I haven't been napping either. Kind of a metaphorical 180 for being on the other side of the world....not sure if that made any sense, but you know what I'm saying.

Yesterday, we were able to move into our place (no more sharing with random people!). We then hit up K Mart and got a bunch of cleaning supplies and scrubbed the sh** out of that place. Then we made ANOTHER trip to a grocery store and stocked up. We have more food at our house now then I ever did at school. We also fixed our resumes and sent them out to a bunch of places (still no job...but I'm making a solid effort).

We are also only one week in and already have some landlord drama. The other night we went out to the Coogee Bay Hotel (C to the B to the H as we locals call it) and our landlord, the Saudi Prince (SP as he will further be referred to), was there. We weren't really talking to him but we did start talking to these Irish blokes....who turned out to be the boys living in our apartment who SP evicted. SP got mad at us, the Irish guys tried to turn us against SP, and we basically got put in the middle of something that has nothing to do with us. The next day was rather awkward seeing as though the Irish guys were in the apartment above us and SP was in the apartment below us. Luckily the Irish guys are gone and SP told us he wanted to "start fresh" (something I personally didn't understand considering we didn't do anything). I think part of the reason this even became an issue is that SP is only 24 and doesn't quite get how to be a good businessman yet. Not that I'm one to give any insight since I am only 22.

Today is a little gloomy...so again we're trying to send out some resumes and try to find some work. I'm running short on the funds - so I need a job stat. Ok, I'm gonna find one. Right now!