The other side of the bridge

Today was actually a big day for me since I had another interview to go to in North Sydney. While planning our study abroad trip we had told ourselves that we weren’t going to get a job while in Sydney, and instead enjoy our trip abroad but we have quickly realized that you need money in order to do so. We both came with enough money we thought, but rent and food quickly sucks all that away. I think we’re both just looking for something casual like one or two days a week that could give us a little extra ‘fun’ money. I had to get ready and be out the door by 9:30 in order to catch a bus which would take me 30 minutes into North Sydney. That would entitle me crossing the Sydney Harbor Bridge once again! Riley had initially said that he was planning to sleep the morning away for the first time in a while, but I think he quickly realized how much extra time he had and what he could fill it with. Eventually he decided that he would head to the library and work on catching up with his French skills. He hopes that he’ll be on more of an intermediate level whenever he gets back to State so he can just wiz through the rest of his French classes. He has finally been able to get onto this website called Mango again so he’ll be fluent in no time I’m sure! I was successful in catching the right bus and getting to my destination in exactly 40 minutes which is quite the accomplishment in my book. North Sydney is a lot different than the university area that we are used to, but we had been warned that all parts of Sydney are drastically different. North Sydney is still a business district with a lot of popular corporations but it lacks the hustle and bustle which is a nice change. It seemed to have more of a smaller city feel with the doctor and dentist offices as well as no car horns honking every five seconds. I was rather early just like I had wanted so I had about twenty minutes to kill before my interview. I decided to walk down the street a little further to see what laid beyond the offices and found a nice little community centre with many advertisements board set up to display what was going on in the local community. Time flew by as I read what North Sydney offered and copied down a few of the events that looked promising. Every second Sunday of the month they have a market with music and food so I think that’s something we’ll eventually check out. Knowing that I should be a little early for my interview I started back in that direction and found the medical office very easily. It was on the 11^th floor of this small skyscraper which housed a lot of other businesses like lawyers offices and other medical practices. The reception ladies were very welcoming and I was in the interview room in no time. My appointment was scheduled for 11 AM but I was already done by 11! Talk about a short interview, but I have come to notice that is how Australians like it – short and to the point. She just simply asked about my experience, my availability and then shared what she was looking for in an employee and what the job would entitle. She wasn’t turned off by the fact that I would be employed for less than 3 months since she figured it would be a turnaround job anyways since nobody wants to scan documents their whole life. I felt good about the interview, but I’m definitely not getting my hopes up for anything. Riley had packed our lunch for the day so I made my way back to the university which definitely took longer than I had expected. Riley looked quite comfortable at his library station submerged in learning French. We have this thing about trying to sneak up behind each other and scare the other person while they’re working on the computer. He does it to me all the time, but this time I was able to get him back pretty good! Riley was lucky enough to not have class until 4 o’clock so he resumed his French lessons after lunch while I headed off to class. Eating lunch beforehand wasn’t a good idea since I almost fell asleep within the first 10 minutes of my lecture. That isn’t the most interesting class anyways, but keeping my fingers crossed for next week since we’ll be studying the United States education system. That is also when I’ll present my tutorial presentation which I haven’t started, so I won’t be rushing that any time soon. The rest of the afternoon consisted of classes and writing our responses for our Australian culture class about our field trip to the Lawn Bowls centre last Friday. We are often confused about what our professor is really looking for in a response so it takes longer than usual to write them. With Riley’s only class done for the day he was going to start making dinner for us and sure enough by the time I was done with class it was ready; delicious spaghetti, and with leftovers for the next day! Exhausted from all the schoolwork we decided to relax with a little bit of television which doesn’t happen very often.