Friday, October 3, 2008

Craig's What?

This morning, to my delight, I woke up to find an e-mail from my friend Jess in my inbox. Jess is helping me out with my transition to Melbourne, her hometown. During my five weeks in Europe, I did a three-week Contiki Tour, and that's where we met.

Along with supplying valuable information on the two airports in Melbourne (apparently only one of them is really used for international destinations) and neighborhoods in Melbourne to research and avoid, she also said that some of her recruiting contacts may be able to help me out with my PR aspirations once I arrive. How exciting!

One thing that I did find interesting was that when I asked if Craigslist was a good resource to find a part-time job or even housing, Jess replied that she hadn't heard of the site. I did take a peek at the one for Melbourne and it is nowhere near as active as the Philadelphia listing. I know that I have furnished entire apartments, found internships, and have even sold items with the use of Craigslist. I'm interested to discover what types of websites are popular forums in Australia - I'm sure there's an equivalent of some sort that Americans have probably never heard of. I have so much research to do!

Plan for tonight: Watch the Vice Presidential debate - should be interesting, to say the least.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Perks of Chinese Food

Fortune cookies are one of life's little pleasures that never cease to provide me with amusement. After nearly two months of traveling to both Central America and Europe, my first meal of choice was some Chinese take-out from my favorite restaurant. No matter how full I get, I always make room for those mysterious cookies. Up until this point, my favorite fortune (which I have pinned to my wall) reads:

Good clothes open many doors. Go shopping.

What girl doesn't like having an incentive to go out and spend money? The cookie made me do it! Having spent so long without Chinese food, I took the liberty of stealing two of the four cookies for myself - and I must say, I was quite pleased with my fortunes. The first cookie declared:

You are soon going to change your present line of work.

Most excellent news! Considering I am an unemployed recent graduate who has no idea what to do with herself when not booked to the minute, any change in my current routine will be welcomed with open arms. I opened the next cookie to receive even better news:

Good news will come to you from far away.

Now, that may sound too vague to mean anything, but I was elated at the sight of this fortune. After spending five weeks traveling around Europe with a troupe of Australians, and after coming to the realization that I don't know where I want to live in the United States, I have decided to apply for my Work and Holiday Visa, Subclass 462 to Australia. Perhaps this good news will be my accepted visa!

The purpose of this blog is three-fold. In keeping up with posting, I hope to:
  1. Chronicle the steps that I take to prepare for a smooth transition to life in Oz.
  2. Keep up with my writing! As an individual with a public relations degree, it is imperative that I not only write regularly, but familiarize myself with new communicative technology.
  3. Stay up-to-date with current events and how they will impact me now and in the future (the DOW did drop 700+ points yesterday, right? Exactly.)

I'm excited to move forward on this project and learn everything I can to take full advantage of this experience ahead of me!