Darwin...work work...

It's a good experience for me to work at a big company like Crowne Plaza. My position is actually houseman, public attendant and housekeeper, that means I have to run around quite a bit. The guy who trained me would get super stressed and be in a hurry all the time but I do admire his work ethics. I was only trained for 2 days and I was on my own to cover that guy's shift. I ended up working over time without getting paid for it and got really stressed. But now I just go at my own pace and take full proper breaks. One good thing is that I get free food, and in the evening, I even get to order whatever I want directly from the chef. That really helps with my finance.

Now it's crunch time to make some bling, so what else is interesting?

A Taiwanese girl asked me to cut her hair, and that's actually the first time for me, but it turned out decent :). She's hardcore, she biked around Australia! Driving or riding a motorcyle is difficult enough, let alone an Asian girl on a bicycle. (I went with her and another friend to Kakadu National Park which I will talk more about in my next entry, hopefully.)

I finally got paid back from "the guy." Hopefully, the other guy back home will pay me soon too. I now know that I'm not going to travel with him on this trip, so it's somewhat of a relief.

Darwin is not super interesting but quite rich in indigenous culture compared to other cities in Australia. A lot of their art is sold and displayed here, and many didgeridoo players, like at the market. A group is quite good, it consists of a super talented drummer and a didgeridoo guy. It's basically dnb beats, which gets alot of attention at the market, and even the "abbos" would get down on it.

There are aloooot of Taiwanese in Darwin, so some of my Tw friend don't want to stay here for this reason. Asian people would ask me if I'm Taiwanese instead of Japanese here.

I quite enjoy living in a tent in the backyard of my hostel. I have moved under some palm trees and I like the view of their silouettes when I am inside my tent. People usually pay to get wallpaper of similar visual from Ikea or something. I have a mattress and only use a thin sheet, so camping in Darwin ain't too shabby at all. I have my own space and it is much cheaper that a dorm room. The hostel prices in Darwin are ridiculous and most in the city don't even let people stay for long since they want to sell tours to newcomers.

A lot of friends come and go in Darwin but cest la vie. I should be leaving soon and a Taiwanese girl I met in Broome is going to Bali with me. I can't wait to get cheap massages everyday.

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More to be written...just want to post it before it starts this entry starts to rot.

updates:

• I booked my flight to Bali for September 12th, so that is very exciting.
• Kakadu National Park was awesome.

In Darwin

So I left Broome. I ended up meeting some really great people and had some awesome dinner parties. The people from my housekeeping job was like a family. For awhile before my leave, everyone there was calling me "cheeky." We had a lot of go away drinking parties because many backpackers were on the go. My last one with them which is for me and 2 other people, it was held at a beach in the evening. One of the woman who was also leaving cooked Indian curry and rice which was so damn good. A 63 year old co worker was definitely quite a character. She joked alotand always wanted her wine. Whenever she got drunk, she would dance then get a little sad and go home.

I started to develop a crush on my Korean co worker, but guess what, he had a girlfriend...again. However, I really enjoyed his and his friend's prescence and I was happy that they really wanted me to stick around. I have talked to him recently and from the sound of it, he might be single now. He would say "I love you" in Fijian which he learned from our co worker, but I really don't know what he truly meant by that. It doesn't matter too much though because we have parted our ways already and won't be likely to meet again on this trip.

When I got to Darwin, I was excited to be in a real city after more than 2 months of little towns and nothingness. I could do things like shop in the mall, wow hehe. The beach market here in some evenings is quite nice. People would catch the sunset at the beach while having a picnic with market food. Sometimes I tell myself how grateful I am to be able to try out life in a tropical place. I love palm trees, tropical flowers and animals. However, there are tons of mangrove (trees that live part time in the ocean according to the tides which ends up growing sandflies in the mud) here just like in Broome. Well, I really hate sandflies. They make me miserable and unsexy.

Jobs have been lining up for me quite quickly. I started working at a meat shop. Yes, a chicken meat shop for a semi vegetarian (this reminds me of a phrase that the 63 year old said, "I'm a vegetarian, I eat fish, chicken and sausages."). Surprisingly, I have been enjoying working there. I mainly make skewers/kebabs/satay sticks. The texture felt like clay, but not as much as some mix which I got to mold into rolls. The owners are from East Timor and really nice, but it also means that I am underpaid and being paid under the table. I had 2 more interviews and at the moment, I'm probably going to change my job doing housekeeping at a hotel instead. The pay is better and I can get more hours. One Saturday, I had a one day job at a big banquet at the casino for 3500 rich beautiful people. I worked for 9.75 hours waitressing which was very tiring, especially when my shoes were totally killing my feet. I was psyched to get a $50 tip from this guy, and a co worker actually got $160 herself.

Starting from scratch in another city can be tough. I've met up with a couple from Broome and my friend has been here to visit for a week, but I'm still traveling alone. I think after 2 weeks, I have finally made a couple of friends to hang out with now. The thing is that the people at my hostel can be a bit strange, or people like to hang out with their own kinds. I still find making friends with Asian people much easier, but I still have met alot of people from other cultures. I was fortunate to meet a local who drove me to see a nearby park and around the city. He even took me out to dinner at a seaside all you can eat seafood buffet.

Right now, I have moved into a tent in the backyard of my hostel because of the cheaper price. For the first few nights, I had to sleep on the hard ground with pebbles since I had no camping gear. The owner has offered me a mattress so it is quite perfect as I have my own space now. The weather is nice enough that a sleeping bag is not necessary for me. The only drawback is that I don't have a light at night but I'm working on it.