Livin the Dream, baby, Livin the Dream

Arvo bevvies at the Cloey Hotel



A Saturday night at the Gaff


Sooo apparently I'm not too great at this whole blogging thing :( Who has the time!? Life has been moving so fast lately; it's insane.

Generally, my life is as follows:
Work 8-5
Uni 6-8
Study, Sleep, Repeat
Saturday mornings: teach!!


Within the past week, however, things have changed drastically.

TUESDAY I received an email from the Managing Director of Sherborne Consulting. He had found my resume on a career website (who knew that uploading resumes would actually pay off?!) and wanted to have a chat. But he was looking for someone to start immediately, full time, and I still have work restrictions on my visa until 8 June. I emailed him back saying so, and he told me that he would keep me in mind for future openings. That didn't sound promising...at all. So upon the recommendation of a friend, I emailed him back telling him that I was available part time until uni was over, on the chance that he might want to bring me in for a few hours a week. Low and behold, he was keen on the idea, and asked me to go in for an interview.

WEDNESDAY I headed into the city for my interview, and I ended up chatting with the manager for an hour and a half! I knew straight away it was a good sign. The company is called Sherborne Consulting, and is located on Clarence Street in Sydney CBD. From the office (on the 8th floor) the view of the Harbour is FANTASTIC! One of the women I work with told me that she arrived early to work one morning to look out the window and spot a school of dolphins down below! Incredible. The position in question, advertised as a marketing role, is yet to be developed. The manager (John) was hoping to cater the role to whomever fills it, and so isn't quite sure exactly what it will entail.

THURSDAY morning at 9:30 am I received a phone call from John, with an offer for the job! That was fast. He even said that I could come in part time until uni starts, which is brilliant. It's a full time temporary role--3 month contract--and in a few months we'll evaluate and assess my place in the company (coughsponsorshipcoughcough) and see what happens from there. Woo hoo!

Meanwhile, I have been showing my room in Randwick to numerous people, in hopes to move to Coogee. I'm not really sure where or when this came about, but a combination of the incredibly small size, the dodginess of my landlord (don't get my started) and the disastrous state of the residence most of the time (Australians never understand when I refer to it as a "frat house," but that's often how I felt) led me to look around Coogee for rooms to rent. I have to say, everything in this regard has worked out absolutely beautifully. I found myself looking at rooms before my room was even leased out, and at some point I put up an ad on gumtree for my room (the equivalent of craigslist in Australia) and somehow, at some point, I managed to not only find a PERFECT room in Coogee but found a replacement to live in my room in Randwick. It all just, sort of...worked out.

So in a nutshell, I showed my room to a Swedish bloke (Ricardo) on MONDAY; he seemed keen enough. I went to look at two rooms in Coogee on TUESDAY, one of which I really liked (where I now live). (Then I unexpectedly had a great night out at The Gaff with some English and Welsh people I'd met a few weeks earlier...random.) TUESDAY was also the day I got an e-mail from John expressing interest in my resume. WEDNESDAY I went in for an interview. WEDNESDAY NIGHT I went to the palace for $5 steaks, and Ricardo rang to let me know that he definitely wanted to take my room and would be putting down a deposit on Saturday. THURSDAY morning I received a call from John with a job offer, which I graciously accepted.

FRIDAY I worked all day--my last day at Schenker Logistics. Lots of hugs, lots of congratulations, and lots of "call me if you need a recommendation!"s. Friday night I lesson planned as per usual, and SATURDAY morning I had two FANTASTIC lessons with Yamaha. My kids can play Hot Cross Buns!! Every week just keeps getting better and better and better and better and better. I love my kids!! (Side story: last week after my JMC lesson, I was quite violently attacked by one of my favourites, Maya, with a hug. About five seconds later, the rest of the class decided that they needed a hug, too. GROUP HUG FOR MISS MARIAH!! It....was...AWESOME!!!)

Anyway, SATURDAY ARVO did some uni work, SATURDAY NIGHT went to Coogee Beach for the last glimpse of warmish weather (dark by 6 pm, quite sad) and ended up first in the Palace, then at the Bay (big surprise, hey?)

SUNDAY morning I received a phone call from my landlord stating that Ricardo had, in fact, put down a deposit, and that he was moving in on TUESDAY. Ah! So I quickly got a hold of Troy, who had been holding a room for me in Coogee, and he was still holding it :)

Now comes the fun part. All of Sunday was spent cleaning, packing, cleaning and packing. I ended up cleaning the entire flat, because I wanted to be sure that I got all of my security deposit back. By Sunday night I had most of my closet (room) consolidated into bags and suitcases, and a mate helped me haul it down the road to Coogee in his ute (=truck). I was back in Randwick Sunday night, however, to work on a 3,000 word case study due the following day. That was a fun Sunday/first half of Monday. MONDAY I had class all day and more moving/cleaning; turned in the case study at midnight and finished up the colour news story which was due Tuesday. A few short hours later, my alarm reminded me that Tuesday morning was also the first day of my new job at Sherborne Consulting. It was a long but good first day. Not exactly what I expected...but more on that later :)

For now, let me introduce you to my new AWESOME room in Coogee. The location is AMAZING...about a block away from Woolys (grocery store), about two blocks from the Coogee Bay Hotel (this is clearly just as important as the grocery store) and hence about two blocks from Coogee Beach and the Palace. In addition, a bus stop with all major buses to the city is about 3 minutes up the road. Uni is about 20 minutes away, but with three weeks of classes left, it doesn't really matter how far away it is. My room..is..brilliant. And huge, and fully equipped with everything I could possibly need. And $30 cheaper! Woo!!!!

So I suppose I should shut up for now. Ya know, if I was a GOOD blogger, all of that ^^ could have been spread out evenly. But to honest, most of it happened within the past week!

SO happy in Australia right now. United States, it was great knowing you!

Alas, one can't have it all. It's getting COLD in Sydney. And by cold, I mean 70 degrees and sunny. Hey, that's not beach weather! And rain. And wind. And the necessity for a JACKET at night....what!? Crazy, I know. Now comes the long wait for September, when summer will be upon us once again!


As for tonight (Saturday night), I'm off to the city for dinner and drinks with mates. Living the dream, baby, living the dream!