Life gets oh-so-normal, oh-so-quickly..

Now. where were we.....

a standard evening spent lounging at The Nunnery

Ah yes, the days are getting shorter and colder with summer disappearing oh so quietly, and thanks to a bedroom shared with / heated by 9 other bodies, this fact was easy to escape, for a little while at least. My days were a mix&match of different elements, usually starting with me stumbling out of bed at 9:45 to get the only-till-10am free breakie. Next, a long sitting-chatting-drinking-tea session, then an extended getting-clean-and-dressed phase, mixed in with a distraction or two of some kind: facebook? ukulele? laundry? reading? Then it's probably lunchtime already... 2 hours later I'd emerge from the hostel, ready to face the world. I'd head to the library to work on my CV or hand out a few resumes, then suddenly it's already 5pm - time to start thinking about making dinner, preferably before the kitchen-rush around 6.30 or 7. Dinner would be followed by a night of poker? beer? tea in the kitchen? wandering up and down Brunswick St? Music improv in room 20? Finally, I'd go to bed, usually later than I'd hoped as I'd spent at least an hour wandering around the hostel chitchatting with diff people, unable to tear myself away from the stimulating company of others. I'd get out of bed late the next day, rinse, and repeat.

Our housewarming party; yes. that's beer pong. Chrissy's at the front, Carly's at the back

After about 6 weeks of this odd routine, I finally got an apartment and a job!! I got the apartment first; not the usual order of things, but ah well - needs must. Sometimes you have to seize opportunities as they come to you and worry about the details later. So now I live in a lovely share house with three other girls: Kayla - whom I met in Byron Bay back in September, Carly - an energetic and outgoing American gal, and Chrissy- a modest, funny Kiwi who works as a nurse at the local hospital. They're FABULOUS and I love them ever so much. Moving in, tho exciting, was also a bit saddening as I had made some great friends at The Nunnery, the hostel I'd been living in. Then I reminded myself that The Nunnery is about 5 mins away from my new place; Yay!!

Being in my new place that first night, in my first ever OWN apartment and OWN room was a very odd feeling. It was so.. quiet. I had space to think, to stretch out in all respects, and that felt very very good. I don't really have any furniture - save a bed&bedframe donated by an aussie friend whose family lives out of town, and a lamp I bought at IKEA, but it doesn't matter one lick! I've already committed a few housemate faux-pas; situations where i've displayed a shocking lack of awareness of those living with me, but I'm learning real quick. Noisy poker game in the backyard till 1am, just under my flatmate's window? when she has to work early the next day? Probably not a good idea. Derrr.

The front counter of yumminess at my new workplace

After the singular most frustrating job hunt of my life to date, I got a job! A selective job hunt was proving unfruitful, I needed to cast a much wider net. I resorted to handing out resumes on Lygon Street - a 6 block strip renowned for it's absurdly high concentration of family owned italian restaurants. A 10 minute walk down this street is either hilarious or annoying depending on your mood; big, old italian men planted about every 2m along the sidewalk lay the charm on thick as they attempt to lure you into their particular pasta and pizza eatery. This strip is also renowned for high staff turnover and employment of (read: exploitation of) backpackers. CV in hand, dressed all in black, I tried to convince any one of these people that YES I had waiting experience and NO I'm not leaving melbourne any time soon. *cough cough*. 4 days and one restaurant trial-shift later, I landed a job at an authentic french charcuterie owned and operated by a french man and his aussie-of-french-descent wife. (THANK YOU french-speaking-ability!!!) The pay is good for the work, and it's 4 days a week which gives me plenty of time for ukulele playing, blog writing, and a desperate attempt to get back into shape...

I was somewhat uneasy at first in thuis new job; the owner is a bit of a character. Her bluff manner initially intimidated me, but then quickly grew on me. Though always first and foremost our boss, she clearly sees the 6 of us who comprise her staff as "her girls" - asking about our love lives, trying to set us up with delivery boys, giving us food to take home at the end of every shift. And because we are a small staff we are quickly given responsibility: 4 days in, I had a key, the safe code, and was closing alone! I speak more french in an average day at work here than I do in Montreal, which is a good thing. Also, I am finally doing my French heritage proud by learning the difference between brie and camembert. The temptation to not continually snack alllll day on cheese, bread, and terrine is almost too much to handle. All in all, the job is great, and to top it all off, it's only a 5 minute walk from my apartment along Lygon. Well. 10 minutes if it's around dinner time.

Friends and more friends! L: Grant and Kayla in the living room, C: Rich and Jenny in my kitchen, R: Halifax friend Rob with other new friends at Trivia Night at the Royal Darby (where Kayla works.)

And thus is my life at the moment; living and working in a cute area called Carlton that is wedged between hipster-town and the university ghetto, in my all-black uniform for work AND play. I spend my days peddling paté and comté to melbourne's foodie community, and my evenings biking or jogging, trying out new soup recipes, and hanging out with my flatmates - aka doing normal things (how very unbackpacker of me.) I do, however, happily reunite with my backpacker buds from the nunnery and the arts factory on a regular basis, and even random friends from canada; keeping my toe in the water so to speak. And I manage to throw in the occasional new experience, like my first Aussie Rules Footie game...

Yup. Life is good.

2 blocks from my place, Melbourne at night...