Life in Adelaide

Three days have already passed since I arrived in Adelaide, which is located in South Australia. This city is really beautiful and quiet. I can't believe more than a million people live here. 

As Adelaide is not a popular city for working holiday makers, there are much less Asian people than Auckland. When I walk around the city, those who I can see are almost Australian and a few of Chinese. When I first arrived in YHA where I am staying, I was disappointed because a Japanese couple was checking-in in front of me and another Japanese couple was waiting for checking in behind me. The reason I came to Adelaide is that I wanted to avoid this situation! But nothing wrong with that. It is natural that some Japanese are in YHA. I shouldn't feel bad about that. I shouldn't think about avoiding Japanese too much. Funny enough, though, I haven't seen Japanese here after that time. As I wrote above, the city is full of Australian and Chinese. 

This should have been what I desired. I wanted to be surrounded by native English speakers so that I can improve my English skills. But now, no matter how many Australian are there, I can't communicate with them because they speak so fast, maybe faster than New Zealanders. I strongly feel being away from them. In addition to that, I have no one I can rely on. I need to arrange everything all by myself. Moreover it is too hot here to think calmly. This climate is nothing like Auckland. It was so hard that I was kind of depressed these days. I became to think that it is very difficult to find a job here due to a lack of my English skills and these tough situations.

In line with this, I finally decided to do fruits picking job which will allow me to have a right to apply for a second working holiday visa as long as I do it for more than three months. Since I don't plan to get a second visa, I may not do it for more than three months. I just wanted to experience a seasonal job because I haven't done fruit picking before. This will be the first experience for me. I've heard that this job is not good for money even though it is tough. But at least I can make some money. What I need the most is to experience something new and get a opportunity to communicate with some people. I get really nervous when I think about following months, but I hope it will be all right. I am supposed to leave Adelaide on 24th December. It seems to be too fast to decide to go to another place, but I have no choices other than that. I don't want to waste time and money. 

I will probably change my next plan. I was planning to go to Perth after staying Adelaide, but because of this situation, I may need to go to Melbourne or Sydney to get a decent job I can be satisfied. If I go to Perth I am totally not sure whether or not I can get a job. On the other hand, there must be lots of possibilities to find a job in the big cities I mentioned above. Either Cairns or Gold Coast would be good as well because these cities are popular places where a number of travelers visit.

Anyway my life in Australia has just started. Don't think too much. Be more optimistic. 

No sense of solid

I can't believe I am going to Australia the day after tomorrow. I have even been getting unknown that I am in New Zealand now. I feel no sense of solid. Am I really going to Australia? The world is sometimes strange. I just do usual tasks even though only two days left. It is very weird like a dream. I guess I can feel some sense of solid after the arrival but now I can't feel anything. I am just not sure where I am standing. Weird....

Need to focus on what I do

I have been constantly disappointed in a number of mistakes I had stacked up. What I need to do is to concentrate on each task not to make mistakes, isn't it? I always can't help but focus on how fast to do tasks to finish it early. I already got used to work in this place and I haven't been careful of what I did so much because I believed I could do it perfectly. That's why I have been making a lot of mistakes. I'd better reset myself otherwise I will make mistakes one after another.

Anyway I need to work only twice more. I have to focus on everything I do. Since I am one of the senior staff members, I should take responsibility for what I am doing.   

Ten more days

It has been raining strongly since yesterday and I feel a lack of energy. Something is different. I have no eagerness to do anything now. I have one and a half weeks until I leave Auckland. However, I can't do anything because I already finish my school and I can only work sixteen hours per week due to my visa condition. I currently think I need to do something exciting that I can use my full of energy. What a shame! What on earth am I doing?

Whenever I think about what my friends are doing now in Japan, I always feel a kind of inferiority. They must work hard and grow up day by day. How about myself? I don't think I grew up in New Zealand compared to how much they did. I considered coming to New Zealand as a "challenge" or "restart", but it seems to be a sort of "run away from the real world". I still have no clue what to do next. I don't have any specific interests or special qualifications. What I am doing is to just do a thing I already can do. No challenge, no growing up.

Oh, that is a bad sign... Everytime I got a long holiday, I turned into depressed because of too much thinking. I am always anxious about my future.

Ten more days, the situation will change. I need to remind myself not to forget "challenge" thing.

Tokyo Podcast

I found an interesting podcast which is called "Tokyo Podcast". This podcast is hosted by Joh Anthony who was born and grown in Canada, USA and eventually settled in Japan. He talks about Japanese life style, latest news or his experience etc in this podcast. As I am familiar with the article he talks about, it is very easy for me to listen to. I can sometimes hear him using Japanese and it sounds nice and interesting.

Whatever nationality you have, it would be great to listen to this podcast if you are interested in actual Japanese life style, especially Tokyo. Please refer to the link below if you want to know more about "Tokyo Podcast"!

http://www.tokyo-podcast.com/

What a bad way to start the day

I've so depressed this morning. While I was having breakfast, I was told that I made a mistake for the reservation. I checked the account after breakfast and it was undoubtedly my mistake. I booked a wrong room for a customer. Since our hostel was fully booked yesterday the customers seemed to get angry because they couldn't move to another room. I felt so sorry for the customers and the stuff who delt with them.

I was not supposed to work this morning, but when I was checking the system the customers who want to check out kept coming. For this reason, I worked for approximately one and a half hours with another stuff. What I got depressed more was that I couldn't deal with customers well. Firstly, I got a call from a customer who I guess is Kiwi and I couldn't get her words. Because of my lack of listening skill, she got angry and she said she wanted to talk to someone who can understand her. Secondly I was asked by a customer about a tour around Auckland. I should have been familiar with this thing because I am a receptionist and a travel consultant at the same time. However I couldn't explain to her well and she seemed to be irritated. After all she's gone to another place.

I was so terrible this morning. If I had been a customer, I would have got irritated as well. My customer service was terrible and horrible. What I could do was only a basic thing like check-in and check-out procedure. I should have learned more about Auckland or other general knowledge.

This must be a good lesson from my mistake. I need to keep it in my mind and make use of it to the next step.

Finished studying

I finally finished my course in the school. I finished the roll play which was the final assessment of this course. I passed all the assessments and completed the 100% attendance!! I am proud of myself. To be honest, it was not that difficult since this course was just a national certificate level 4. However, learning travel & tourism was my first experience and I think I did well. I hope this experience would be usefull for my next career.

What is left is the lunch with my classmates next Friday, and the graduation on 13th December. As there was a huge difference between my classmates and me, I can't say I got along with them well. My English skill was not good enough to keep up with them. In addition, they are so young that I felt the generation gap, even though I felt culture gap at the same time. I wish I could have talk to them a lot more. This must have been a great opportunity for me to make friend, have new experience, and improve my English skills. But I couldn't. What a shame! I should have tried harder. I could have done that. This is the biggest regret in my New Zealand life.

Since I finished studying I have to think about my next career. I need a job hunting in Australia at first. If I am asked what the most important thing is to get a job overseas, I would have to say "English skills". No matter how good qualification I have, no matter how hard I can work, I can't get a job in a foreign country unless I have English skills. To improve English skills is the most important objective in Australia.

The preparation for the journey to Australia has almost done. What I need to do is just to wait time comes.