A Christmas Never to be Forgotten

My housemates and I finally decided to have a mini dinner together for Christmas Eve. We invited friends and each brings a dish. I wanted to try to make General Tso's Chicken since this is my parent's most popular dish at their restaurant and basically at all American Chinese restaurants. I called my mom to ask about the recipe but she recommended that I don't do it because if we don't have a deep frying machine, the chicken will not come out crunchy. She gave me the recipe to make sweet and sour pork ribs. Christmas Eve came. After work, I went to buy the pork ribs and all the needed ingredients. When I got back to the apartment, all my housemates were trying to prep their food! I was expected 3 friends + 1 to show up for the dinner. Cindy was expected 2 friends + 2. Satie was expected 1 friend. Josh's friends already had plans before we were certain that we're going to have a dinner party. :< So we really had something going for the night...

I started prepping my stuff by marinating the ribs. I decided to start heating up a pot of oil. It was taking a bit long to wait for it to bubble, so I decided to put the lid on..... Worse idea ever. I didn't know I was not supposed to put the lid on because it cuts out the oxygen. I waited for a while and opened the lid. There was a big puff of smoke and then immediately the oil caught on fire. O_O I freaked out and expected it to go away like how I used to satay food and the food catches on fire because of the butter but it usually just for a second. But no... The fire just kept getting bigger. I immediately turned off the stove and moved the pot to the stove top that I wasn't cooking on. But the flame was continuing to get bigger. I was flipping out and all my housemates were panicking too haha... Satie was sleeping and didn't even smell the smoke zzz... Cindy went to wake her up and she started panicking which didn't help with the situation. Someone started suggesting to pour water over the fire... That would make it worse since it's burning oil. It would have made it even worse I'd assume. I finally thought of Cast Away when Tom Hanks couldn't start the fire lol... We needed to cut out the oxygen to the fire so it would stop burning bigger and bigger. Josh went over to grab a blanket that came with the apartment, wet it and tried to cover up the pot on the floor, but it wasn't covering properly and the fire was coming out around the blanket. I finally grabbed the blanket, folded it neatly, and dropped it on top of the pot. It cut out the fire, but we couldn't open the apartment door because if we set off the hallway fire alarm, we'd get charged for AU$2000... Luckily, our apartment fire alarm was broken, I guess. We turned on the fan, exhaust, opened the windows, and went into the girl's room and waited until the smoke clears out. Man, what an experience... We ended up cancelling the dinner and told everyone that we're not doing it anymore. :( We ended up cleaning up the house and making a small dinner just for us. This time, my pork was pan fried instead of deep fried. I'm never doing deep frying again. > >;

So never put a lid on the pan if you're boiling oil for deep frying!

The Life of No Worries

I think I'm at the state of relaxation now haha... I have Sunday and today Monday off. Saturday was 42 degree Celsius (107 Fahrenheit). I got off early because our manager didn't want us to work too much in such a hot weather. The moment I walked out it felt like I was baking with an oven -- the moment when you just open the oven door and a burst of heat smack you in the face. Even being in the sun for more than 7 seconds felt like your skin was burning. Damn Australia and their broken ozone layer. 

That night, Adriana and I decided to cook dinner together and we made Yakisoba! We bought beef at Coles, but we didn't noticed that we forgot to put the beef into the bag before we left the self checkout until we were looking for the beef to cook... We ended up using bacon! Haha... We talked into the night until like 2 AM. We really enjoy talking with each other into the night; it's weird. She said she felt closer to me than Nick which she lived with for a year before I replaced him. She's like Unkei in a way; someone who I really enjoy talking to for a long time.

Sunday, Adriana and I went to South Melbourne Market. Omg, this place IS better than Queen Victoria Market. It has so many different things; hand crafted jewelries and potteries, food, fruits, food stand, groceries, REALLY GOOD OYSTERS, etc. Man, Melbourne can only get better... This city has such a rich culture of everything. I finally understand why Lilly loves this city. It's not something that can be described or felt if you only stay here for a week. You just have to be here and live here for a while to experience it. I wonder if there's a place like this in America... We had Turkish pancake for lunch and I bought some groceries before heading back to the apartment. We got back to our apartment around 5 and I just decided to take a nap on the couch for 2 hours. I never felt that great before. I felt like I'm living the life of no worries. If I had internet in the apartment, I wouldn't have just laid on the couch for 2 hours taking a nap and just relaxing. But since I don't have internet, I wasn't glued to my computer. I had nothing to worry about, nothing to stress out about, nothing to ponder over, and I was just spacing out and enjoying the free time that I have. I don't think I have experience that ever. We plan on getting internet once the new girl moves in though haha... It's just really inconvenient without internet. But these two weeks without internet at the apartment is great. I just relax and chat with my housemates into the night.

If anything, Australia has been a good life changing moment for me. I hope things continue to go well for me. After Christmas, Australia has Boxing Day which is exactly the same as our Black Friday after Thanksgivings. I have some things on my list to get including new shoes, new socks, a vacuum for the apartment, and maybe a blender because we want to make smoothies! Cindy, the Hong Kong girl, is going to move into the apartment tomorrow. She didn't seem to excited meeting us on the day we met up to do a tenant transfer, but I hope she turns out to be awesome! She seems like a really nice person based on first impression! Haha... Good stuff.

Second Job and Onward~

(So this was supposed to be posted on 16 December, but I don't have wifi in my apartment and I was too lazy to use my computer...)

So I decided to get a second job for a time period… Since I was working from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM, I thought maybe I can get another job for the afternoon into the evening. I got an email respond back from Fukuryu Ramen restaurant saying thank you for my interest in working there and they gave me an interview. The interview was pretty good and I guess I don’t have the pressure of NEEDING to get the job, so I was more relaxed for the interview and was not nervous at all~ I first agreed to taking the job. The manager wanted to find someone that can work from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM, but can work around it for me since I work in the morning. I would have to go in for a trial (which is like a try this job to see if I can actually perform the task) and the manager wanted me in for the whole day unpaid… 10 hours of unpaid work just to see if I can handle working there. At first, I agreed to it without thinking. I told my housemates about it and they were kind of concerned. They said I am already doing labour work at my hostel. It’s going to be hard working all day of labour work. Also, I can speak perfect English, so I shouldn’t settle with kitchen job. They convinced me. =_=; I emailed the manager the night before my trial saying I’ve found an opportunity that better suit my interest and that I won’t be going in for a trial. I guess my housemates are right. They’re just looking out for me and want me to make better decisions for myself. I was just thinking about earning more money to cover my past three month’s expense.

I haven’t thought about getting a second job since. There were a lot of things that I thought about when I agreed to work at the restaurant. I will be working almost 7 days a week. I will work at YHA from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM for 5 days a week. Those days, I will start work at Fukuryu Ramen from 5:00 PM to possibly 11:00 PM. On days that I won’t have to work at my hostel, I would be working from 9:30 AM to possibly 11:00 PM (as the manager wanted me to work full day). That means I have no time to relax or do anything fun for the time that I’m in Melbourne. I kept thinking… I’m in Australia. I shouldn’t be spending all my time working my ass off. I came here to meet new people. I’m here to try new things. Being a cook that’s more of an assembly line than actually cooking isn’t going to make my life here any better or experiencing anything new.

So now, I don’t plan on getting another job. Josh and Nina (housemates) have been going to a bible study care group and I joined them last weekend. The people there were super nice! Especially Kay and her husband Nat. I really wanted to get to know them better. But if I get the ramen job, I wouldn’t have time to hang out with them anymore. The care group meets on Friday night for dinner, bible study, and sing together. On Saturday, they have church as they are a Seventh-Day Adventist Church group. I have no idea what that is and why it’s different, but as long as it’s not Jehovah’s Witness lololol… Aside from that, I’ve been looking into a Toastmasters club to join around here. Even though the people are so good at it, I think it’s still a good environment for me to get better at speaking in public. The more you do, the better you get at it, right? I really think the opportunity in Lenovo really helped me. I also started going to a ukulele/guitar lesson thing with Josh at the University of Melbourne last last Wednesday. Maybe I’ll pick up ukulele! :) I want to make my time here fulfilling and special; not just work my ass off for a couple bucks more. I want to make this journey as memorable as I can and make the most out of it; fill it with wonderful stories and experience.

Yesterday, YHA had a Christmas party at the Crown Casino. I decided to go instead of being a loser like all other company parties that I’ve skipped (Radius, but because we had a snowstorm on the day of the party and it was all the way in Boston). The party was great! I’ve met a lot of employees from Melbourne Central YHA as it was a combined YHA party. I’ve also met a lot of their housekeepers of which one of them was from Taishan named Ann! She was so excited to meet me and know that my mom is from the same city of China. On top of that, I’ve found out working as a housekeeper at Melbourne Central is so much more chilled! They have 4 floors, each floor has male and female bathroom, each bathroom has 2 toilets and 2 showers. They work from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM and usually have around 6 people working. We have 3 floors, each floor has male and female bathroom, each bathroom has 7 toilets and 5 showers. We work from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM and usually have around 3 to 4 people working with a maximum of 6 during busy days. My god. They say Metro is a dirty hostel, but that’s really because we never have enough time or people to actually make sure that everything is clean… I don’t get why we’re so tight on schedule and have so less people working thinking that we can keep this hostel tidy, but for the amount of work we do, it’s hard work compare to Melbourne Central YHA. The other day, I soloed the bathrooms and my god I was so sore the next day. What a bitch hostel to work for. Ann was talking to her manager asking to get me transferred over to Melbourne Central YHA lolol… I don’t think I want to leave though. Even though we have it tough, I have some of the chilliest colleagues.

Aside from work, Nina is leaving. :( She’s going to Tasmania for a potential job offer. I wish her the best of luck! I’m going to miss her because she’s like the most energetic housemate in our apartment. She brings a lot of energy to the place and super friendly. She finally found another housemate to take over her spot; Cindy from Hong Kong. She didn’t seemed too excited when she met us during the tenant transfer, but I hope she’ll turn out to be just as good of a housemate. I’m loving it living in this apartment. It’s small, but it’s warm and cozy. Yes, I don’t meet as many people as I do at hostels, but it’s great to have a place where I can rest and chill away from crowds of people. I get my own bed rather than a bunk bed! Adriana and I are like besties too! Not really, but we can talk into the night as if we’ve known each other for a really long time. That’s when I start getting annoying AF haha… I feel myself annoying her and she tells me that I’m annoying, but she’s really patient and doesn’t really mind it. I should really tone it down… Josh is like my activity buddy haha… We do a lot of things together on our free time; just like how he showed me the guitar/ukulele lesson, the care group, and we’ll be going to the Camberwell flea market this Sunday! I can honestly say I love my housemates. :) I hope all goes well with us! +the new girl.

Time to get some sleep zzz… I haven’t been getting enough sleep because we always talk into the night and I got kind of drunk last night at the Christmas party. I invited Sungwook to our house Christmas party on Christmas Eve/Day, but I don’t know if he’ll make it. He’s a nice guy but a bit shy, so I want to expose him to more things. He said he has been in Melbourne for like 2 years now? Doesn’t really have that many friends and usually just goes back to his apartment after work with his PhD stuff. I hope we can be friends instead of just me being a participant. Welp, good night!

Finally Settled Down in my New Apartment!

Whew… So I’m 4 days into moving into my apartment. Boy has it been awesome! My roommates are all super awesome and friendly! There’s Nina from Taiwan, Adriana the Japanese from Brazil, and Josh from South Korea. The apartment is not has small as I first thought it was when I first came for an inspection. The space is just right. It’s actually like the size of my parent’s room at home, but it’s enough for me. It gives me a warmer family feel where everyone is squeezed into a small area. It gives me the feel of being in Hong Kong too; with the small area and the constant vent buzzing sound coming from outside. Chris was afraid that I’ll not like it because it’s so small and the people were going to be bad that I’ll be running back to the hostel crying. But in the end, the roommates made me feel welcome and really get me into fitting in with them. I already feel a great bond with them. ^_^

Yesterday, I completed a three part study with Sungwook and we kind of just became friends haha… He’s doing his PhD and I was one of his participants. We have so much to talk about and he seem like one of those shy guys. He told me he lives alone and doesn’t really have that many friends. I told him that maybe we can keep in contact after our study is done and maybe we can hang out when he has free time away from his study! Hahaha… I think he’s a cool guy. He’s Korean, lived in Singapore for 8 years for his study, and came to Australia to study for his PhD. I hope we’ll become closer friends than just me being a participant. :P

I was going to go to Ikea yesterday, but Chris lend his myki card to a friend, so he couldn’t take the
tram with me to Ikea and asked me to wait for him until today. So today, we went to an audio store in South Melbourne because my in-ear headphones has been bugging me and I wanted an over-ear headphones. I should have brought my Razer Kraken, but it was not travel size and it’s USB only. =_=; I’ve been reading on reviews and thinking about buying something below $200. People praised the Oppo PM-3 but it’s $400… So I decided on the Audio Technica ATH-m50x. We went to Soundcorp and I ended up buying the ATH-m50x for AU$187 ahahah… I can’t believe I bought it so casually. I usually put a lot of thoughts into buying expensive things. I guess that’s what Australia did to me. I should just buy what I like because money is earned to be spent. I got a job here, so spending some money on things that I like is okay. Chris on the other hand though, he was so passionate about the audio machines and equipment. He keeps having no confidence in himself of getting a job with audio and lighting, but I think if he put a little bit more effort into it, he’d get some awesome gig. If I was in this field and see how passionate he is with these things, I’d hire him right away. It’s what he loves to do, so do what he loves. I even helped him ask if Soundcorp had any position opened but unfortunately they don’t. I bought the m50x right away trying out a few other in the same price range. The headphone fit on me perfectliy unlike the other ones that I’ve tried (they were either too big and heavy or the cup was too small that it was squeezing my ears down and uncomfortable). I know I won’t regret buying this. :)

Went to Ikea right after and bought myself a quilt/blanket and a pillow. The pillow that came with the bed was all yellow and nasty….. I don’t know how many people have used it. There was no blanket. I think I’m going to sneak some bed sheets from the hostel after working. I also bought a cactus! Giving myself another chance at it since I’ve killed the last 2 that I’ve had. I even decorated it with seashells and made a little sign that says “Smile Everyday!” :) The apartment need a little green to lighten up the place. My roommates was so happy that I bought the cactus and reorganized the living room and it actually made sense (I moved a single seat sofa away from the corner and put a desk there so someone can actually sit on the sofa instead of being in the corner where no one can sit on it comfortably).

Tonight, we had a dumpling night. We all contributed into making it, but it was all Nina’s idea and she even invited a few of her friends over to do a farewell party before Nina leaves within the next week. I believe she got a potential job at Hobart Tasmania. Happy for her, but I’ll miss her even if I only know her for a maybe two weeks. She’s super active all the time and very enthusiastic! I think it’s a good thing because she lightens up the room. Josh is a bit quiet but really into doing a lot of activities. I went to a guitar lesson with him, but once again I’m a super fail at string instruments ahah… Adriana or we call her Sachi is really nice too and talkative once she’s engaged! She’s like me. If a person doesn’t really talk to me, I wouldn’t have much to say. But when we spark up a conversation, we can go on and on.

I’m so happy. ^^ It’s different from the hostel and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to meet anyone once I leave the hostel, but I’m glad that I met these roommates and they already feel like a family to me after 3 days. I think this 5 months is going to super awesome. I’m going to participate with Josh at more activities like going to church so I can keep meeting new people like I used to do at the hostel. I’m going to make my time in Australia the best one and the most memorable one! I definitely made the best decision in my life coming to Australia instead of staying at Radius and living my boring miserable life. I do miss my friends, family, and Dexter though… But they will be around if I do decide to go home.

I have work tomorrow, so time for me to take a shower and get some rest~ Until next time, <3

Work and Searching for House Share Week

So I started work on Tuesday and turns out that part time means that I won't have work every day! D: They will only assign me to work when they need me. Though luckily, it's busy season because it's Australia's summer and people are going on vacations + a lot of sports events in Melbourne, so I can stack my hours. I do 5 hours a day and I've been working everyday since I started~ I don't have work over the weekend though.

How's work? Work's alright. I think it's better than sitting in a cubicle all day but it's not an ideal job... Housekeeping at the hostel. I basically change bed sheets, clean up rooms, and clean the bathrooms in the morning. It's not something that I hate doing, but it's not something that I would like to do long term! Lol... I told the manager Dooshyant that I would commit to 6 months, but I'll probably do 5 months and then head off to Queensland to look for farm work! If I do 6 months, I won't have enough time to work at a farm and extend my visa! I think I mentioned that in 2016, Australia wants to develop north Australia, so they're permitting 462 visa holders to extend their visa if they work up in Queensland and North Territory. I think I'll get myself qualified for that and use it before I turn 31. Don't know what will happen in the future and I don't plan on planning that far into the future, so we'll see~

So work's alright, but I never knew searching for house share was so stressful x_x I guess it's because I've never had to deal with looking for apartments back at home that it can be quite overwhelming at first. I want to stay closer to the city, but damn is it expensive AF... AU$250 per week to share a room with like 4 other people in a room or even a living room... It's ridiculous. So many people want to stay near the city that people can setup their living room with curtains and call it a room... I went to one place today to inspect the place because I thought $135 per week was pretty cheap. Apparently, I'll be living in a corner of the living room blocked out with curtains and with 2 other people... I was thinking that if it was just me living in the living room, that'd be okay with me, but with 2 other people and paying AU$540 a month for that... Some people recommend that I should just look for places in the suburbs. It's a lot cheaper and you might get your own room. But the thing is, taking the public transportation into the city makes up the cost anyways... Melbourne public transportation allows you to travel up to AU$7.50 something before it stops charging for the rest of the day for any additional travels. That comes out to be AU$52.50 per week additional for taking the tram to and from the city. It's not any cheaper then if I were to pay $125 per week + $52.50 to live an hour away from the city. I found another one that is really cheap in the city, share the room with one other guy, and share the place with 3 other people (total of 4) for $115 per week + bills, but when I went to inspect, the guy's phone wasn't working and he said he doesn't have a computer so he can't check his email all the time. It's frustrating none the less and being kicked out on Sunday isn't helping. :( I guess I'll try to find a good hostel to stay at until I get something. Hopefully things will turn out for the best. I shouldn't stress out too much about things that I can't control, mirite?

But yeah, that's what I've been doing all week, work and looking for house shares. Before, I was thinking of getting an evening job, but I don't know now... After working as a housekeeper in the morning, I feel so exhausted afterward that I just want to lay back and take a long nap zzz... Maybe I'll give it a little more thoughts and once I settle down, just keep looking for jobs and not worry if I don't get an evening job. Good good? Good!