How to Start a Life in Australia

Ever wanted to become an Australian...or at least a temporary one? Well here's my way to do it!

First step: Establish a place of living.

After spending the first week being stranded at my friend Tim's house, moving to the Backpackers Surfers Paradise Backpackers Hostel Resort was the best move I could have made. It was just a block away from the beach and a short fifteen minute walk to the heart of downtown Surfer's Paradise. 

From the outside the hostel looked...well, pretty shitty if you ask me. A giant old brick wall surrounded the whole front of it, where a giant basketball court was situated in the middle with all of the dorm rooms and the kitchen and bar fanning around it. Then off to the side, behind the Office building was the pool. Behind the pool was a four story building where all of the apartment rooms were, and in the basement of that was the TV room, game room, exercise room, and sauna. And scattered throughout the whole complex were couches, hammocks, and picnic tables a plenty. 


Another really awesome aspect about most hostels (especially throughout Australia) is that the employees are usually foreign travelers as well. And let me tell you what...staff can make or break a hostel. Seriously. Last year in Cairns, Australia the entire staff was German and refused to socialize or even to speak to anyone who wasn't German. It made the cool hostel a little less awesome and I'll never forget that. But here...well that was a completely different story. 

The staff that I met my first few days was pretty much all from the UK but funny and wild as hell, who went out of their way to include me (and the other newbies) in activities and just normal goofing around. Within 24 hours I felt like I had found myself amidst a little family.



The hostel I was living in also catered to the social life (as you can glimpse in the above pictures). As most hostels do, they had two nights a week where a group called the Big Night Out pulled up in a giant bus and took us to town where we bar hopped four different bars all night. For the price of $30 you got your entrance into all four clubs, a free drink at each club, half price drinks all night, and a free bbq dinner that night at the hostel. WHAT A FREAKING DEAL. 


Yeah...that picture is just one of the larger nights we had for Big Night Out at our hostel. We kept setting records!! :]

In addition to the ridiculous amount of partying floating around, the hostel also had a volleyball tournament every night and the winning team was given free beer from the hostel bar. Sometimes the games got so intense we had some injuries...but it was always a blast. And a really great way of meeting the new people in the hostel. 



Second Step: Find a job (or jobs) and begin working ASAP.

My dad always told me "Network, network, network. It's the key to success." And well, I couldn't agree more with him. Jasmine, one of Tim's roommates that had helped me out so much the week before, also ended up scoring me an interview at one of the nightclubs on the main strip in Surfer's Paradise for some work. So, my third day at the hostel, I got up bright and early, got dressed, and hopped on the free shuttle bus into town with my fingers crossed...

Now, I hadn't asked much about what the job was, because Jasmine had explained that I'd pretty much be working as promotion girl outside the club, trying to get people to come in. Sounded easy, and something totally up my alley so I didn't bother questioning it. But the one thing I should've asked was "What kind of club is it?"

For those of you who aren't familiar with Australian nightlife in the famous Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise...let me tell you that it is NOTHING like Tennessee. The girls's working behind the bar at these clubs either wear only a bra and cheeky boy shorts, or a corset. THAT'S IT. And most of the girls who worked outside only had to wear skinny little dresses and heels. But when I walked up to my interview...I realized that it was at a strip club! Now, for those of you very Christian and Southern...DON'T PANIC. 

I kept an open mind throughout the interview and by the end of it walked away as a newly employed girl! I was hired to work outside as the promo girl for a whopping $21 an hour!! After midnight it went up to $22 and on Sundays it was $23! Gotta love Australian pay rates!

Now, my job was pretty simple: wear a nice black skirt with a red top or a dress, heels, and smile pretty. EASY PEESY. And after my first two weeks there, I was promoted to a hostessing position inside where I was given a headset and managed the floor. But the best part about all of this...it turned out to only be a topless bar! And I didn't have to wear anything like the bartenders had to at the other clubs. In fact...here's what I wore my first weekend...


After my first week of work at the club (I was working from 8 at night to between 3 and 5 in the morning) I was approached by one of the girls working at the hostel that changed beds in the morning. She and her sister were leaving the hostel in a few days which meant that her position would open up. She woke up every morning at 8:30 to change all the beds of people who had just checked out that day. She wasn't getting paid hourly, but her rent was being paid for. So she was working to live for free. 

Well, me being the little go-getter and penny-pincher backpacker I am, I immediately walked up to the owner, Brad, and offered him my name in the hat to fill the position...

So, low and behold, within the first 10 days of me moving to Australia I had a place to stay and TWO jobs!!! HELL YES.

Step three: Make a family with your friends.

Traveling the world can be pretty damn lonely...especially when you do it alone like me. But the beautiful part is that I'm never the only one. Everyone else in the hostel are lonely, scared travelers as well and when you get together...well the combination can be explosive. Within my first few days of being at the hostel I had begun to form a family with everyone there. 




...but the real kicker...the part I had no idea would ever happen here...was that I had finally fallen for someone. Fallen very very hard. :]

...But that's for the next post. 


~Little Blonde Traveler

My First Week in Australia and the Generosity of Strangers

I landed in Brisbane, Australia on the evening of August 26th, 2012...a very important date to remember since I will have until exactly August 26th, 2013 to live and work here.

It was hard to believe that I had actually made it to this point. After almost two months of backpacking through Hawaii and Indonesia I had finally arrived in Australia (aka my launching point to backpack the world).

Last year when I had backpacked through Brisbane and Cairns, on the flight in between the two cities I made quick friends with an Australian named Tim and for almost 11 months we had kept in contact...and waiting for me at the Brisbane airport was he and his new girlfriend to pick me up and take me to his home almost an hour south in a town called Gold Coast, Australia.

He had promised me in January of 2012 that if I ever decided to come back to Australia for a more long-term visit, he would happily house me for free for as long as I needed to get situated and on my feet. I was more than thankful to accept his offer and was crazy excited to be there my first night.


He had an awesome little mattress/bed set up in one of the extra rooms...and perfectly fit me and all my travel stuff :]

The next day he took time off work to show me the popular areas of Gold Coast, get me an Australian cell phone, start hunting for possible jobs...and to let me see the famous Surfer's Paradise Beach.



Everything was going great. I was excited to have a few days to relax without having to worry about work or money and recover from my month and half of adventures in Hawaii and Indonesia. Tim worked an hour north in Brisbane and that's also where his girlfriend lived...well after my second day, he went up to work...and didn't come back. Leaving me alone with his three roommates: Andrew (aka Ridley), Jasmine (aka Jaz), and her boyfriend Jeremy. 

But thank god, those three people were absolutely AMAZING to me. They took me to the grocery store so I could buy food to eat while I was in the house, they taught me how to cook Kangaroo meat, and showed me around the city. I will forever be gratefully indebted to those three...who made sure that my first few days in Australia were going to be worth it. 

After a few days there I knew that I would need to get an official Australian RSA (which is like an ABC license to serve alcohol back home in the States) and while I was at it I also took a barista training class...just in case. And after two days of classes and testing, I had all my qualifications! 

Near the end of the week I realized that I was going to need to get out of that house eventually (since Tim was still AWOL and I was starting to feel super guilty bumming rides and favors and help from the three of them) so I started planning...

Initially I was going to buy a car with the rest of my money, then pick a city to live in and start working. My choices were between staying in the Gold Coast, moving an hour up to Brisbane, or going down to Byron Bay (where I had heard only amazing things). But after talking it out with Jaz and Jeremy, they made a valid point that it would be better for me to secure work and a place to live somewhere BEFORE buying a car. 

So I hoped on the internet and started doing some serious investigation into hostels and apartments...but in the end I realized that whatever city I chose, I would need to make friends first so a hostel was the way to go. After calling around to a few I found one down at Surfer's Paradise that had a weekly rate discount...and immediately booked a week.

The next morning I packed up my few belongings (and without letting Tim know anything that I was doing) I said my goodbyes to Jeremy and Jaz before they took me in their truck to my new home.


After just a week of knowing them I knew I was already gonna miss the hell out of them and their kindess...true Aussies right there!! 

But Jeremy helped me bring my backpack into my new domain...Surfer's Paradise Backpacker's Resort. And within the first thirty minutes of being there...I knew that I had made the best decision. 

What I didn't know was how much love, friendship, and good times were in my horizon...


~Little Blonde Traveler