Day 259! This morning I got a nice deep dive into one of the most controversial food items of Australia, Vegemite. I also went on an expedition to find work clothes with my friend Immy. We didn’t hear anything about our house situation yet… but hopefully we will soon!

Today, Immy and I were going around the city looking for clothes for our (potential) new jobs.

But before I set out, Sam whipped me up two pieces of, what he claimed to be, the best Vegemite toast. It was butter with a very light spread of Vegemite, allegedly this is how you properly eat it.

I actually really enjoyed it! I have a memory of trying it at summer camp, with one of the Australian counselors, and hating it. But this ended up being a nice way to start the day. I could see this going well with avocado toast or eggs too.

I then set out to start my day! The first order of business was trying to finish setting up my bank account. I went to the middle of town, where I tried to open the account the other day. But this time I was dealing with a man called Patrick.

He uploaded the same information as last time, with no luck… He told me he escalated it and the account would either be open by the end of the day or by the end of the week. It was a little frustrating, but there wasn’t much else I could do but wait again!

I then got on the train at the Middle Brighton Station and headed down to Flinders Street. I changed over to the Upfield line and rode that to Brunswick. It took a bit over an hour in total to get from the south to north Suburbs, but I arrived around the same time as Immy so it worked out great.

Sam suggested three shops Savers, Vinnies, and Salvos. These were the shops most like Goodwill and the Savers suggestion in Brunswick was a great one!

I found everything I needed, which was black pants and a black sweater in case I get cold. I have a feeling if all goes well on Thursday I’ll get some sort of shirt to wear at work, but we’ll see. Immy found most of what she needed too, but we needed to go to a few more shops to find the rest.

I started getting pretty hungry and at one point we walked by a Banh mi restaurant. So I popped inside and got a fried tofu Banh mi for $10 (7x the amount I’d pay for one in Vietnam).

It was really tasty though and reminded me of all the amazing Banh mi’s I had over my 2 months in Vietnam.

Right after I finished eating, I received a text from my new bank saying my account had been approved! This was a great message to receive, so now I can make some money!!

We finished up shopping for Immy and then got on the Upfield line back towards Flinders Street. I had to switch lines, so I said see you later to Immy and wished her luck on her trial shift at the bar tonight!

I spent the long journey home staring out the window of the train and getting very excited to start working in a couple days. I guess school got out around 3pm too because the train was crowded with high school students. I couldn’t imagine having to take train home after school. I’m sure that must’ve been daunting the first few times. But I guess it’s kind of similar to taking a bus to and from school.

When I got back home I took a nice and long hour nap. I was exhausted and I was ready for some sleep.

I woke up and played some guitar and applied for my overseas ballot for the upcoming US general election! I’m glad I’ll be able to cast my vote even while I’m abroad.

Everyone was out of the house, and Sam’s mom asked me to help with some dinner prep. So I started boiling a pot of water for ravioli and got the pasta sauces warming up for when she got home.

Sam was still at work by the time we started eating. So I enjoyed chatting and eating with his mom, Jane, and his sister Lucy. We haven’t really had a ton of time for them to get to know each other fully. So we asked more questions about each other’s lives and I asked a lot about their life as ballet dancers (and now teacher).

It’s such an interesting sport/art. One of the craziest things about it is you have to be able to move each toe individually… I can barely move my big toe without the other four moving too!

Sam eventually joined us for dinner as well and we continued the chit chat and laughter. After we finished and cleaned up, Sam and I jammed out on the guitar some more.

I also found out that Immy’s shift went really well and she got a part time job out of the deal. So hopefully that bodes well for my upcoming trial shift in two days!

This is quite random, but Sam had a coin on his desk and Bluey was on the back of it! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cartoon on any currency before!

Before I went to bed, I got a message from Bee with a couple pictures of one of her dogs. It seemed to have kidney stones and she sent me some pics of them too… not really sure why… but she says the dog is okay! It’s very lovely that she’s updating me and I asked my friends on Koh Tao to go give the dog and Bee some love for me!

I don’t really know what I’ll be getting up to tomorrow, but it’s probably my last day of unemployment for a little bit (fingers crossed)! Which… crazily enough, up until diving, it had been over a year since I’ve worked.

– Elie