Reception Dinner & RSA

I woke up early, had breaky, and spent the day walking around town comparing prices between the supermarkets. I first went to Thaikee in Market City (Haymarket) which had a lot of Asian stuff. I was starving so I stopped by Chinatown at Mama Zhu’s and had Taiwanese Beef Noodles, brought back memories. Went out the other way of Chinatown and came to World Square which was just around the corner. Inside there was Coles, I got myself a coles bag which I’ve seen lots of backpackers have to keep their food in, then I went back to Thaikee and got meself some instant noodles, salt&pepper, maggie sauce, tabasco, eggs, onions, and some dumplings. Back at the hostels I cooked up some dumplings, then got Cam to go grab some beers with me at Liquoreland back at World Square and just hung out with people at Railway. I also met a little Cantonese girl today named Elizabeth. For some reason she was super excited that I could speak Mandarin, and gave me her contact on a piece of paper. She was super keen on finding work, already got herself newspapers and calling up employers, and constantly out looking for share houses. Unlike me and Cam who're still on vacation....

Over the next couple of days it just poured in Sydney so I didn’t want to go anywhere. It was also the weekend so the bank was closed, I decided to use my Cdn visa to get started on the RSA course since the conversion rate wasn’t too bad. I registered for the 5 state package which included NSW, QLD, WA, SA, and NT, so everywhere except for VIC which had Melbourne and Tasmania. The course was pretty straight forward, but either the internet at the hostel was slow or the website itself had glitches it took forever to load. I probably spent more time on FB waiting on the video. I had to finish the rest of my dumplings because they were melting and the hostel didn’t have a freezer. When I took them out it was basically a pile of goo, it was pretty gross to eat by the end of it… I was able to finish my RSA the next day and got my temporary certificates printed. I’d still need to get a photocard taken as my actual certificate, but I’ll figure that out another day.

Ultimate offers a reception dinner for all the new arrivals on Mondays, and since me and Cam both arrived mid-week they said we could definitely make up for it that night. It still raind during the day, so I just took my laptop and went over to Ultimate to pick up my TFN and use some free WiFi. I also asked them about the 5 day Jackaroo school and did a little research on my own. It seemed pretty good as they teach you everything from mustering, whip cracking, horseback riding and natural horsemanship, etc. They also offer you job contacts after successfully finishing the school. They’d pick you up from YHA Tamworth, and take you to Leconfield, about 2hrs north of Sydney where the actual school takes place. I plan to do the course some time in Dec, so maybe I could head up there a couple weeks ahead to check out the town, then after the school I could go to Nimbin, a hippy town where people buy weed and smoke up, and continue east to Byron Bay and up the coast if I don’t get a job right after.

At around 6PM I met up with Cam and we headed over to WakeUp for the reception dinner, and to no surprise it was held at SideBar. It was definitely a much younger and rowdier crowd at WakeUp. We got to sit with a table of French and Germans who didn’t speak much English except for a ouple of them. Everyone got a free drink voucher, and we got served pizzas, chips (fries), and wedges that came with sour cream and chili jelly mix which was delicious! Me and Cam didn’t stay long because the French and the Germans basically talked among themselves, so we went back to Railway and had more beers there with the other backpackers. There were quite a lot of us and we got pretty rowdy as the night went on and people were getting kicked out. By then me and Cam had separated ourselves from the bunch and just sat and had a very long chat till 5AM without knowing… Super tired I was glad to be back in bed and slept in the next morning. Also in my new room I had 2 Canadian girls, Emily and Natalie, from Lethbridge, AB along with the Aussie lady who’s leaving early next morning. 

The next day I was reading about getting my photocard for my RSA and it said that I need to book an appointment with the post office. Apparently the post offices in OZ takes care a lot of the official stuff including passports and money transfers… weird, but convenient. So I booked an appointment for next morning, but then I read that the name on the certificate must match exactly as the passport or else the post office won’t process it. So I got my temporary certificates out and they’ve got my English name that I used to sign up for the course, rather than my legal name as is on the passport. I didn’t recall it asking me to put my legal name except for the part where it asked me to fill out my passport information at the end of the course. I was so confused and was freaking out, so I quickly googled and found an amendment form for changing my info, got it done and quickly emailed it to OLGF (their license office) and cancelled my appointment for next morning. It also said to bring the application form with me to get my photocard, but I did my course online so I wouldn’t have gotten an application form! I was so confused!! I asked Cam about it and he said to just go to the post office and ask them about it. So I went there with my temporary certificates and the guy there said exactly the same so that didn’t help.

I took a break from all that stress and decided to finally do my laundry. It cost $4 to wash and $4 to dry, and $2 for laundry soap. The machines were limited so it took me a while to finally get one. Then a bloke walked in looking for a machine as well, I saw that he didn’t have that much laundry so I suggested that we split the cost for everything which saved us time and money. I had everything in the wash except for a pair of shorts, a jumper, and whatever undies I’ve got on and went over to Ultimate to ask them about the RSA. It was so sunny and hot but I couldn’t take anything off, and I bumped into Cam on the way there and later on he told me he wondered why I wore so much and I explained why…

The girl at Ultimate also told me that I needed the application form. I explained to her that I did my course online and showed her what I thought were my temporary certificates, that’s when she told me that they were just papers that says I passed the course. She said I should get an email with my interim certificate in a couple days, and that’s what needs to match the name with my passport and to bring with me to get my photocard. Now that I’ve finally got it sorted I quickly went back to the hostel and called the OLGR office to tell them to cancel my amendment and process my application as it is, and also made another appointment for my photocard.

After dinner, I went to pick up some booze with Emily at Red Bottle down the street, opposite direction from World Square as it was closed, and found that Liquoreland was cheaper. For the rest of the evening we all just sat in front of Railway as usual drinking and chatting. It was a quieter crowd tonight though, and we all went to bed at a more normal time.