I heart Coogee Beach

Wow, it's been awhile since I last updated my blog.  I'm still alive, if you were wondering.  Since my last entry, I've been staying at a quaint budget accommodation place on Coogee Beach, which is one of Sydney's eastern suburbs, called the Coogee Beach House.  It's been comfortable, fun, and relaxing.  In fact, if I were staying in Sydney for an extended amount of time, I would more than likely settle here.  The beach is decently sized and beautiful, but not as popular as Bondi.  During the weekdays it's easy to find a patch on the beach all to yourself.  There's a path cut along the cliffside all the way north to Bondi Beach that provides 3+ miles of ocean scenery for my running pleasure.  Not to mention, I can run on the beach whenever I want to.  There's a grocery store, laundry mat, bus stop, and bars within walking distance.  The Coogee Beach House is clean and the staff is very nice.  There are only two dorm rooms among a handful of private rooms, so the place is less hectic and more welcoming than the other hostels I've stayed at.  It's been my home away from home.

Park Hyatt

The job search hasn't been going as smoothly as I expected (or as I was told it would).  I took the overnight bus back from Melbourne, so I arrived in Sydney around 7 AM Monday morning.  I made my way to Coogee Beach, discovered the Coogee Beach House, showered, and set out to create my resume.  Then I spent the next three days hiking around Bondi, Coogee, and Sydney's CBD passing out my resume.  Either the employers don't like me or they don't want to hire someone who's only going to be around for a few months.  I've talked to numerous back-packers who have shared these same headaches, especially in Sydney.  Apparently the key is to lie and say you'll be able to work for years.  Employers are terrible about not calling you when they say they will.  I sat around all weekend waiting for a call because I was promised a trial run....geez, I was so naive!  Needless to say, the call never came.  After my first wasted week, I decided to turn to the temp agencies.  I submitted my resume to about five different agencies, but have yet to hear back from any of them.  My one success was an agency called Pinnacle that specializes in hospitality work.  I got an interview with them right away and had some hours scheduled within a week.  I worked as a bartender at a ritzy 5-star hotel on Sydney Harbour called Park Hyatt.  The establishment is listed in my guidebook.  The rooms are priced at $500 and suites at $5500, although the guests are mostly just paying for the view.  People who'll pay that much for a room obviously aren't going to be ordering draught beers at the hotel bar.  In other words, even if I actually had the job experience that I falsely put on my resume (I've worked two years at Jimmy's in Peoria under the supervision of the imaginary Dave McCoy), I wouldn't have been suited to work the bar at Park Hyatt.  So, I dried dishes all day.  I've touched every cup, plate, and piece of cutlery in that place!  Money's money though, so I'm definitely not complaining.  Unfortunately it took me two weeks to get to this point and that was the only work I could get before my parents came to visit.  I didn't want to work while they were here, and I was going to have to wait an entire week after they left for more hours.  A person gets antsy hanging around Sydney waiting for work that's not available when they only have two more months to explore an entire continent.  Although my employment with Pinnacle was short-lived and completely unprofitable by the time I paid for the license and the uniform, I'd like to think I've become wiser.  If I ever come back to Oz on a working holiday visa, I'm heading straight for the flexible work with steady demand, decent wages, and locations nationwide...fruit-picking.        

A Walk Through Centennial Park

The gist of the first two paragraphs is I don't have a job or a permanent place to live.  Minor details.  I have made some good friends though, so (in the words of an awesome band) "everything's not lost."  When I first came to the Coogee Beach House, I was put in room 7 where I met Yuka.  She's Japanese, but she's been moving around the world for several years now.  She just moved from Thailand, where she's been living for the past five years.  She has a working holiday visa in Australia that's good for one year, but she's also having difficulty landing a job here.  Later, I had to move to room 5.  I went to talk to Yuka one day and she introduced me to another girl, Anne, that had just moved into my old room. Anne is from Chicago, so we're both looking forward to meeting up in the Windy City when we return to the States.  Both of the girls are fun, intelligent, and have had interesting experiences, so I really enjoy hanging out with them.  And Anne has also been a great running partner.  There are two hotels on Coogee Beach, each of which house a few bars (although none that would offer me a job).  We've hit them both up, but my favorite has been the Beach Bar at the Coogee Bay Hotel.  There's always a cover band playing, and we invariable meet crazy Australians when we go there.  Anne has a lot of friends of friends here, so she's found out about several fun things for us to do, including a wine festival, Watson's Bay, and Tim Tam Slammers.  I have to elaborate on the latter because they are incredibly awesome.  Despite sounding like a shot you'd buy someone on their 21st, Tim Tam Slammers are really pretty tame. In Oz, you can get these chocolate covered biscuits (aka cookies in America) called Tim Tams. They come with all sorts of fillings, like caramel, chocolate, strawberry, etc.  They're good on their own, but they're irresistable when you "Slam" them, which means nibbling off the corners, dunking them in hot tea, and sucking the tea through the Tim Tam like a straw.  The hot tea melts the filling and makes the biscuit disintegrate, turning the Tim Tam into a chocolately, gooey mess of deliciousness.  They're addicting. 

Slam into a Tim Tam!!

There's quite a bit more to write about, but I'm not trying to write a novel.  Like I mentioned, my parents came to Sydney for a visit.  We did an amazing amount of site-seeing, so I'll be creating another entry about that shortly.   

Sunset at Watson's Bay

Three Sydney Icons