So the last time I blogged, I had just arrived in Sydney, Australia. I wrote about being nervous, scared, and seriously jetlagged. And I concluded my last post by saying, and I quote, "I'll continue to keep yal up to speed on my life in Sydney." Well it's now 11 months later, Sydney has come and gone, I'm back home in New Jersey and I never wrote a single blog post since then. All I can say is....my bad!
But I'm back now! Better late than never right?! These next few posts, I'll update you guys on EVERYTHING that went down this past year in Australia. I've divided my time in Australia into 6 distinct chapters, basically determined by where I was living at the time.
BUT before I get into everything, first thing's first...one of the most common questions I get about my time in Australia is: "How did you support yourself?" So a little background first...
As some of you may know, one day in November 2011 (2.5 months before I went to Sydney), I randomly started making jewelry and selling it online. I started my own little handmade jewelry business called the World of Tashii (www.worldoftashii.etsy.com). One week before going to Australia, I received a really big wholesale order from a major online store in Australia (ironically) for 100 bracelets! I shipped off the order right before boarding my plane to Sydney. By the time I touched down in Sydney and for those first few weeks, my email was FLOODED with messages from other stores around Australia inquiring about placing a wholesale order. So that one wholesale order expanded into SEVEN other wholesale opportunities and as of today, I run a surprisingly successful online jewelry store! (You'll understand later why I had to give you that little history first). Ok....
CHAPTER 1: THE INEVITABLE RETURN
February 21, 2012. The first thing I did when I got off the plane was run to the nearest Vodafone store in the airport and bought a cheap little cell phone and a pocket wifi.
It had been 15 hours since I texted, Facebooked, or did anything technological and I was itching! I then hopped in a taxi and $85 later I was at my new home. For my first three weeks in Australia, I lived with friends of the family near Manly (North Sydney). They were my family away from home and living with them made settling into a brand new life in Australia much easier! I was living the dream in their guest house where I had my own bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette, and living room. It was pretty damn sweet!
To avoid homesickness and the fact that I had no friends and was feeling quite lonely, I threw myself into job hunting. I came to Australia on what is called a "Working Holiday Visa." Basically every year the Australian government grants around 120,000 18-30 year olds from around the world a one year visa allowing you to travel their country and work to subsidize your travels. The Working Holiday program is so intertwined in the Australian employment system that many job posts might even specify "No Working Holiday Visas" or "Backpackers welcome to apply." The easiest fields for working holiday visa holders to get jobs in are usually hospitality, administrative work, food service, etc. because such fields are used to the turnover. The British, the Germans, the French, the Canadians...they've been taking advantage of the Working Holiday program for forever! Americans were just recently allowed to get this visa and, to be honest, over the course of the year, I only met a handful of Americans...doesn't seem like we like to travel too much or are even aware that a program even exists! Anyways, that's another story....
So for 3 weeks, I spent every waking moment online on Gumtree.com (Australia's answer to Craigslist) looking for and applying for jobs. I applied for all kinds of jobs from a bathroom attendant in a nightclub (my dad would be proud) to a sales position at a bikini shop on Bondi Beach. But I was wholly unsuccessful...the manager at the bikini shop needed someone with "experience fitting swimsuits" (really lady??) As I unsuccessfully looked for work, my jewelry business successfully was on the up and up. I came to Australia with only a couple of rolls of chains and a few strands of thread but my mom quickly had to ship me more supplies to meet the demand of all the wholesale orders and shop orders flooding in.
As much as I was enjoying my time living in my own little bachelorette pad in North Sydney, I couldn't kill my desire to live closer to the city and to meet people my age. At this point, my only "friends" were an Australian friend of a friend...awesome girl who took me out around Manly...and a Canadian girl who also just arrived in Sydney who I met online on Couchsurfing.com (yes I became that desperate for friends that I resorted to the Internet).
I started to think of possible places to move when I remembered a place a friend recommended to me where he had lived when he came to Sydney to do an internship. The place was called Jack's Place and it was a share house/student dormitory/glorified hostel kind of place. Located in Elizabeth Bay, an affluent area of Sydney and just down the street from Kings Cross, Sydney's vibrant red-light/nightclub district, Jacks Place offered housing for 40 people where everyone has their own bedroom, but residents share bathrooms on each floor, a common room, and a kitchen. The building was newly renovated, there was even a huge rooftop for sunbathing, BBQs, and views of the bay, wireless internet, and everyone living there was either a student, intern, backpacker, basically my future friends! And did I mention the perfect location?? 10 minute bus ride/30 minute stroll into Sydney's CBD, 30 minute bus ride to the world famous Bondi Beach, stone's throw from some of the city's greatest nightclubs. Sounds great to me...sign me up!
But I'm back now! Better late than never right?! These next few posts, I'll update you guys on EVERYTHING that went down this past year in Australia. I've divided my time in Australia into 6 distinct chapters, basically determined by where I was living at the time.
BUT before I get into everything, first thing's first...one of the most common questions I get about my time in Australia is: "How did you support yourself?" So a little background first...
As some of you may know, one day in November 2011 (2.5 months before I went to Sydney), I randomly started making jewelry and selling it online. I started my own little handmade jewelry business called the World of Tashii (www.worldoftashii.etsy.com). One week before going to Australia, I received a really big wholesale order from a major online store in Australia (ironically) for 100 bracelets! I shipped off the order right before boarding my plane to Sydney. By the time I touched down in Sydney and for those first few weeks, my email was FLOODED with messages from other stores around Australia inquiring about placing a wholesale order. So that one wholesale order expanded into SEVEN other wholesale opportunities and as of today, I run a surprisingly successful online jewelry store! (You'll understand later why I had to give you that little history first). Ok....CHAPTER 1: THE INEVITABLE RETURN
February 21, 2012. The first thing I did when I got off the plane was run to the nearest Vodafone store in the airport and bought a cheap little cell phone and a pocket wifi.
To avoid homesickness and the fact that I had no friends and was feeling quite lonely, I threw myself into job hunting. I came to Australia on what is called a "Working Holiday Visa." Basically every year the Australian government grants around 120,000 18-30 year olds from around the world a one year visa allowing you to travel their country and work to subsidize your travels. The Working Holiday program is so intertwined in the Australian employment system that many job posts might even specify "No Working Holiday Visas" or "Backpackers welcome to apply." The easiest fields for working holiday visa holders to get jobs in are usually hospitality, administrative work, food service, etc. because such fields are used to the turnover. The British, the Germans, the French, the Canadians...they've been taking advantage of the Working Holiday program for forever! Americans were just recently allowed to get this visa and, to be honest, over the course of the year, I only met a handful of Americans...doesn't seem like we like to travel too much or are even aware that a program even exists! Anyways, that's another story....
 |
| Lots of jewelry orders! |
As much as I was enjoying my time living in my own little bachelorette pad in North Sydney, I couldn't kill my desire to live closer to the city and to meet people my age. At this point, my only "friends" were an Australian friend of a friend...awesome girl who took me out around Manly...and a Canadian girl who also just arrived in Sydney who I met online on Couchsurfing.com (yes I became that desperate for friends that I resorted to the Internet).
I started to think of possible places to move when I remembered a place a friend recommended to me where he had lived when he came to Sydney to do an internship. The place was called Jack's Place and it was a share house/student dormitory/glorified hostel kind of place. Located in Elizabeth Bay, an affluent area of Sydney and just down the street from Kings Cross, Sydney's vibrant red-light/nightclub district, Jacks Place offered housing for 40 people where everyone has their own bedroom, but residents share bathrooms on each floor, a common room, and a kitchen. The building was newly renovated, there was even a huge rooftop for sunbathing, BBQs, and views of the bay, wireless internet, and everyone living there was either a student, intern, backpacker, basically my future friends! And did I mention the perfect location?? 10 minute bus ride/30 minute stroll into Sydney's CBD, 30 minute bus ride to the world famous Bondi Beach, stone's throw from some of the city's greatest nightclubs. Sounds great to me...sign me up!
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