week 1 in Melbourne!!!

MONDAY:
Today I learnt how to use public transport! woohoo go me! I caught the train from Frankston into inte city (hour long train trip) and met the kiwi boys (Andy and Chris) at Flinders Street station. We walked around the city a bit and found an internet cafe where we spent the next couple of hours checking out flats/apartments/houses to rent.
We walked around a bit looking like tourists but trying to act cool until we finally gave in and asked an info guy where we could find a supermarket. Had a good time walking around their version of Woolworths deciding on the cheapest lunch...eventually decided on some rolls and ham. This was hilarious as you have to get a ticket with a number on it if u want to be served, then they call out the number and u go up to the counter and order. We didn't realise that...for quite a while...so we stood around like idiots wondering why everyone else was just standing around! finally we clicked and tried pulling out a ticket each, in my case that meant somehow pulling like 10 tickets out at once.fail. so yeah that was amusing. While we were in the shops i got a phonecall from this sales and marketing company asking me to come in for an interview!! I honestly couldn't remember which one out of the 500million job ads this one was related to but luckily the lady e-mailed me and i realised it was from the ad for a promo's job. I was stoked with life :)
The boys and i had lunch and took turns calling estate agents. We had a look at some amazing apartments in these massive buildings over in the Southbank area of the city and got all excited imagining ourselves living there...although we all knew they were waaay to expensive.

TUESDAY:
I got ready for my job interview in Richmond (like one station out of the main city loop), tried to look as business-like and professional as I could and pretended like I knew what I was doing! Found the office ok and got the fright of my life when I saw how smart everyone looked- this was not a normal promo job like the ones we do in Cape Town...the interview went super well (the guy who interview me was suuuper hot too, it helped!) and I was told to come back the next day for round two! yay!

Met the boys in the city again and hung out at their hostel- the Melbourne Connection- and looked for more apartments. We then had to find our way to Kew East, a suburb on the outskirts of the city, to check out a townhouse. After aimlessly wondering around the big train station we agreed that once again we should stop pretending to be locals and ask for directions. So we hopped on a tram and after a long and extremely hot (it was like 40 degrees!) ride we met Tony the agent and a very average townhouse. Managed to catch a bus back to the city where I hopped off and made the long trek home.

I stayed at Alex's flat where we made stir-fry and possibly the worst rice I have ever eaten.

WEDNESDAY:
I woke up at 5:30am to catch an early train to Richmond for my second interview! Got there in time for the group interview which was so chilled. Then had an individual one with the owner of the company and got offerred a job! Woohoo! Had to be back there for the afternoon training session but some hours to kill so met the boys in town again to fill out a million application forms for flats.

The job: this company uses face-to-face marketing to raise money for charities. We stand in the streets or outside shops or at events and convince people to sign up for monthly donations.
Training was cool- was mostly Aussies then a girl from Liverpool (Ellie) and an Irish girl and me :)

THURSDAY:
Second afternoon of training. Only three of the nine were asked to come back! So it was Ellie, Lily (a local) and I.
Finished training round 4ish so got the boys to meet me so we could get to Brunswick to check out another house. Took us forever to get there, mainly cos we had no idea what we were doing!Turns out we took the longest way possible and in fact we could've caught the train literally to the road the house is in! sigh. Anyway, this place is awesome!

So we were in good spirits and the lads convinced me to stay in town and hang out with them. This involved buying 2 bottles each of this $3 wine they'd found and getting $5 pizzas. We hung out at the hostel with this Swiss guy Sean (he's massive, was in the army for two years) and his Russian friend Olla (they met on gumtree....ya, i know). So we played all these drinking games, me trying to keep up with two kiwi boys fresh out of dunedin and this huge swiss dude....yeah. Fun night! Stayed at the hostel with the guys. Woke up the next day feeling..um..fantastic! So we just chilled out and watched some skiing videos...until I managed to get up and go home.

Alex, Jenna (Ally's sister) and I hung out in the evening and watched a movie. It honestly felt like the cyclone had hit us it was so stormy outside!