Life Down Under

So it's been 6 months since I moved to one of the most curious and expensive cities of the world: Sydney. To be honest, it's been such a busy half year that this is the first weekend in months that I can finally sit on my computer and start writing my little bitácora of the journey of a lifetime. 

There's many aspects about Sydney that make is such an interesting city, and I must say this: it's an even weirder city if you're a single gay man, even more so if you're latino. Australia is full of adventures, that's something everyone can agree on. So, why don't we divide this post in the different aspects that make this city make me feel like I'm the sanest person in the world?

Work Life: Work in Sydney, and possibly in most places in Australia is what we all wanderlusters must go to if we don't wish to starve to death. Australia is a very expensive country, specially if you're from a third world country where the big sums of money gets reduced to a few thousand dollars after you exchanged it, so we all start looking for jobs as soon as possible. One of the first things you're told when you arrive is what the minimum wage is and that you're shouldn't accept less than that, and I stand by it. What they don't let you is that many ilegal or semi-legal immigrants are going to do the same job as you for less money and they won't mind. Why? Because of English. English makes a huge difference in what you do or can do, in some cases there's also a "racist" factor involved, but that's not something I'd like to get into right now. Don't even get me started.

Anyhow, most people apply for hospitality jobs as it seems to be quite simply to get in, but the truth is that in my experience is a nightmare. There's three kind of "contracts" you can get; full-time, part-time, and casual. Casual is what usually hospitality places choose when it comes to hiring people. It technically pays more, as casual jobs have a higher minimum wage of 20AUD per hour, BUT it means you can get fired overnight for no good reason and with hardly any notice, that's the trade off. Word to the wise, be a suck up, otherwise, they can tell you au revoir whenever they wish to do so. However, there's another option: temp jobs. Many companies are badly understaffed and they need to hire people to do jobs Australian won't do. In my experience is the best option there is if you're on a Working Holiday visa like me. I get paid 25AUD to do an easy job, I'm on a 6 months commitment and I fucking love it. I couldn't recommend it more to be honest. Yes, some waiters can easily make 200 AUD, but let's be honest, that's only if you're a woman and are pretty, if not hot.

Housing: damn this is tricky. Housing in Sydney sucks, no matter how to look at it. It's expensive and the closer to the CBD you want to be, the crazier it gets. It's not surprising to find about a dozen of Asians living in a two-bedroom apartment in the CBD and to be honest I can't blame them. If you're not patient enough, my best recommendation is to look for places in Redfern and Newtown with a fairly good night life and good places to live in, and you can always catch the train to work. Many people choooses not to live there as they realise how slow transportation is in Sydney, and it is indeed. You need like two different apps to move around the city you're not close to where you want to go, and if you're close enough, you end up walking because it's faster. The other option is to secure is a decent/cheaper place outside the city and continue looking for places in the CBD until something good comes up. 
PS: for some reason internet also sucks in Sydney, it's not unheard of to find that people have been weeks without internet just because. It simply sucks.

Routine: or the lack of it to be more accurate. Australia is anything but borng. There's about a thousand things you can do on weekends or even week days, it's amazing. Sydney is a great place to start, to live during the week. However, during the weekends one must go out and explore. If you don't have money, get on a train and visit Morisset Park, it's up north, about a 2 hours train ride (all trains are 2.50 on Sundays round trip) and it's for free and full of kangaroos. Or you can go to the Featherdale wildlife reserve or the Blue Mountains. It doesn't matter what you do, you're gonna love it. And if  you're ever lonely, remember there's many people like you in this adventure called Australia. I'd recommend you to download meetup, it's a good starting point. There's also heaps of stuff going on in Sydney all the time, like just recently we had the Vivid Sydney which is light shows all over the city with an amazing display of projections and lights.


Ubicación: Sidney Nueva Gales del Sur, Australia

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