dont you think its time

All that glitters... is on the Gold Coast

Its a week tomorrow since Kristen and I arrived to the Gold Coast. Im not sure why its taken me this long to update my weblog. I think that its because I wanted to have really fantastic and interesting things to write before I sat down and told you all about it. But.. that never happened and we have decided to leave tomorrow so I must write today anyways!
For the first four nights we stayed with Kristen's cousin Craig, his wife Lauren and their gorgeous one year old daughter Ava. They were incredible hosts and have a spectacular house. Its in a suberb of the Gold Coast called Pacific Pines where all of the houses are brand new and beautiful. Its about 20 minutes drive out of the main area of Surfers Paradise or Southport. Craig and Lauren would graciously drive us in and pick us up everyday while we were there. The buses here are terribly organized. They have ridiculous routes, overpricecd fares, no apparent schedule and no one has a map of where it goes. So we were appreciative of the rides.

Kristen and I only spent one day lounging around the house, Tuesday we hit the street with resumes. Well... actually we hit all of the agencies that are supposed to find jobs for you. We also starting hunting for cheap places to live. Neither was succesful. Wednesday we went to all of the posting in the newspaper saying that staff were needed. Still looked for cheap place to live.
The thing is- in Surfers Paradise- theres no such thing. Every place does its price per week, and nothing is out there (even one bedroom dives far out of walking distancee) exists for less than $200 per week.

I got a few job offers. Three actually. One at a nightclub called 'The Shack', one at a glamourous upscale restaurant called "Melbas on the Park" and one at a decent bar called 'The Bourban Bar'. Because of the turnover here of travellers and foreigners who come and look for work, pretty much its everyone heres first day. Or at least first week. Im sure that someone had the idea to create a legal 2 hour trail period for employers to invite job seeking candidates to come and work for two hours for free, see if they like it, and employers to see if they are crap or not. Im sure that it started out with good intentions. But Kristen and I quickly learned that they now abuse this and if they ask everyone who walks in the door to work two hours for them for free, then pretty much with the influx of people- they never really have to pay anyone. Or if they do its only for a week.

By Thursday night we realized that it was too impossible to work in town till 3am and then get back to Craig and Laurens so we checked into the hostel. Wednesday night for me was 'The Shack'. I started at 10pm. My training was- heres a try with an ashtray, some coasters and a highball glass full of straws- walk through the crowded place and pick up empty glasses and bring them back to the kitchen, take speradic drink orders and drop the otherwise unneccesary items on the tray that we insist you carry which are clearly not needed for the prior two instructiuons. No-they didnt tell me that. Thats what it was. Did I mention that in order to carry these simple tasks out- the tray needed to be carried in one hand above your head? At midnight I was done my 'trial' and I was done with the Shack.

The next morning I started at ten am at Melbas. They had, when they offered me the job, given me a manual intructing me on how much make-up I must wear, the high heels I needed to wear, how my nails should be done, etc. Im serious. To be fair- the spent my two hour trial fulling training me. The girls there, although with a reputation for being super snotty, were in fact really very nice to me and welcomed me. They were going to have me serving the next day. The thing was I just felt like in order to work there, it meant being someone Im not.
That night I started at the Bourban Bar. They actually didnt ask me for a trial- they put me on payroll right away. I worked with three girls behind the bar from New Zealand. All really funny, nice and helpful. Bartending was easy- it was trying to hear the customers orders over the music and trying to understand them thru their accent, and identify all of the strange beers they have here. But I worked till 3am and actually really enjoyed it.

Kristen had a much more difficult time finding work. She wants to waitress but her experience is in the office. Its a difficult transition. She also had a trial at 'The Shack' and although she managed the evening without dropping the contents of her tray unlike myself- we both mourned that they had suckered us both in for working for free at a crap place.

But yesterday was a meltdown for me. Ever since weve got here I have felt like a fish out of water. Surfers Paradise is a place for young, gorgeous, tan, rich party people. Everything is about appearance. And everything is super expensive. I just felt like this wasnt the Australia that I had heard about, read about or dreamt about travelling to. This is a tourist trap that has taken a gorgeous area of ocean coast and surrounding land and packaged it up and inflated the price. I was miserable in the morning when I woke up. And I couldnt figure out why we felt like we had to stay here and make it work.

So Kristen and I realised that, yes we started here because her cousin is here and we heard it was easy to find good paying jobs (once they start to actually pay you) but those werent reasons that were tying us to stay. Why would we stay in this city that we loathe? We are travellers here and are free to settle anywhere we chose. Why did we feel sucked in to staying here?

Well... we are over it. Whatever it was that made us think we should stay. Yes, we want to stay close to her cousin- but not at this expense. We have decided to pack up and leave tomorrow morning for Byron Bay. An area that is an hour south of here. I could try and describe what we have heard of it and why we chose to go there- but instead I will wait and just tell what it is really like once we get there.

It means handing out more resumes, looking for more work, looking for a cheap apartment, but the process might be worth it in the end. Whether we settle there or continue on.
And if I run out of money- at least I have a paid return ticket home to a place I love.

posted by Megan @ 5:21 p.m.