With all my living expenses taken care of, I can put all the money I’ve been making at work straight into the bank and have been able to get back on my feet, financially speaking, very quickly. Work is sometimes great fun, and other times, it’s a nightmare. I always wanted to try bartending and I discovered I’m actually quite good at it. I can now whip up some pretty fancy cocktails, serve people standing at the bar, and take care of putting all the bills through… all at the same time. Then, late at night, when the restaurant turns into a nightclub, an entirely different skill set is required. Lining up tons of drinks and doing quick math and tripping over the other 7 bartenders in my effort to get to the till as fast as humanely possible makes the hours between midnight and 2am go by faster than you can say “drunk idiot.” People don’t seem to understand that when I serve them a drink, they will be required to pay. I tell them the price and they look at me with dumbfounded expressions on their faces for a full 10 seconds before fumbling with their wallets to produce 2 tons of change for me to pick through. I’ll tell ya, being on the other side of the bar gives one a very unique window on the world of intoxication, and it’s highly unattractive.
But enough about work. I’m preparing to say another round of goodbyes and I’m not happy about it. Most of the friends I’ve made here will be leaving within the month. I’ve been so lucky here in Port in that I’ve found such amazing, supportive people with whom I share pretty much everything from secrets to late-night “illegal bakery” runs (the bakery here opens up its back door at about 2 am and sells pizzas and meat pies to all the drunks stumbling out of the bar). There is a cast of characters here to whom words can do no justice. We have Nico, our token crazy Italian, who gets fired from every job he has gotten here in town (he’s such a ridiculous person, he’s practically a caricature of himself). There’s Piet (pronounced “pete”), our roommate from Norway. He has the social sense of a 3-year old and good-naturedly steals everything “free” he comes across. He recently presented to us his latest conquest; a Palmolive shower gel left behind in the one of the stalls, and my friend Chris, our other roommate, was like “Piet, that’s MY shower gel! I JUST bought that yesterday!” Piet kept it and we all had a good laugh and teased him mercilessly about his thieving ways. Then we have Dahlia who absolutely kills me with her caustic and hilarious sarcasm. Here's a pic of us on a typical night out, and this is only about half of us:
Our group of friends ranges from 18-year old Jack to 32 year-old Richie, and virtually every country is represented in our clan. I feel more accepted here than I have ever felt in my life. I was always craving that kind of openhearted acceptance in NY, but the pretence and the general isolation I felt in the city always prevented me from feeling like I was ever truly a part of things. Either the people here are way different, or I have changed in some major ways. I’m sure it’s a little bit of both.
Anyway, I’ve been seriously entertaining the idea of doing some volunteer work in SE Asia for a month or so. I’d like to experience some real culture for a change, and I’m growing a bit bored of the local population here. If I may go off on a tangent for a moment, (this is a major generalization, and probably isn’t as true about people in bigger cities like Melbourne and Sydney), I have found that even the smarter and more educated locals can be truly bigoted and make inane remarks about people of other races and religions. One woman came up to me at the bar and asked if the old man she was with could take his unfinished bottle of beer home with him. I explained that because of licensing issues, one can’t take alcohol out of the bar. She informed me that the man was “old and Jewish” and that was supposed to explain why he was being so stingy about the beer. Hm. And that wasn’t’ the first time I’ve heard remarks of that sort thrown about casually. When I was in Yepoon, I was having dinner with a family there and my host said something about a group of people at a restaurant not tipping. He described them as real “Jewish types.” I neglected to say anything as I didn’t want to create tension, but in any other situation I would have, and have done so. Oh well, what can you really do or say? They don’t mean it maliciously; it’s just ignorance and lack of tact I guess.
So, where was I? Well, In terms of my travel plans. the only real problem I’m facing is that I have to come home in October, and that will make it very difficult for me to commit to a long-term volunteering stint. My other option is to come back at the end of October and do SE Asia right. If I learned anything from my NZ trip, it’s that one month is not nearly enough time to attempt to traverse an entire country. If I can come back after October, I can spend at least two months or more in Asia instead of trying to rush it now, and I can also ditch all the stuff I’ve accumulated and travel lighter. Oh, decisions decisions. I’m going to spend the next 2 days I have off of work figuring out my next steps.
PS, a few of took out some bikes today and rode over to the wildlife center. It was a really fun day… here are some pics of the sights we encountered along the way.
