This is a project , to record my working holiday year in Australia from April 15th 2017 to April 13rd 2018, in honor of this interesting year.
Hello ,world !
I am Dali from China. My friend Joy and I got the working holiday visa to work and travel in Australia for one year. Melbourne was our main stop. Generally speaking, the most livable city was pretty livable except for the willful coastal wind which destroyed a girl’s well-groomed hair in one second and once saw me in an awkward Marilyn Monroe pose.
The stay here was getting more and more exciting as the New Year unfolds, which is , after 8 months of staying. Near the end, We thought about whether to try some means to stay, extending 462 visa by doing farm work for three months in northern district, changing to a student visa or applying for Permanent residence. Carefully, We said no to the former two options and the last option easily says no to us. Being English majorers, we have to meet more demanding language requirement. In reality, it’s hard for me to apply for TESOL teacher and for Joy to apply for occupation as a banker. Who knows, maybe I will be back ,maybe not. When you look for it, there always will be a way.
I went through a lot of self-doubt when I am short of words on so many occasions. Book clubs, English corners and daily interactions. According to the biblical story of Babel, God deprived the universal language from humankind and scattered them at different corners of world and let them speak different languages to avoid them achieve any mission. Now, the feeling of barrier is like the tower of Babel, my free thoughts always face it and be bounced back. What a daunting daily setback.
Philosophy naturally seeps in while we go through a lot of reclining , couch potatoing and idling away in a foreign country. The emptiness in time and space grasp us in its hand and put a big question mark in our heads: what is the meaning of our life?
Joy looked for philosophy books and we turned to a friend, philosophy professor Kurt for reference, Joy started with Sophie’s worldand a bit Plato. I simply knew I could turn toTuesdays with Morrisin need and started watchingthe short history of mankind.
Along the way , What is the purpose of the trip, and what are the outcome of this journey? Have we changed after this experience ? Is the world getting bigger after our journey? Is there anything wrong with the life attitude that we simply earn a little money and idle our life away? How often do we stay in comfort zone, simply one bedroom can bring enough satisfaction ?
My gap year in Australia, such a detour on my time line is like my secret garden. When I get old and think of my life in retrospect, I won’t be regretful. For this year, my approach to it is rather laid back, and the trade-off could be earning 4,0000 dollars of annual hard work ( waitressing and fruit picking) which side of coin I missed.
Getting ready
The story goes back to April 2017, I left the self-sufficient and bourgeois life in my hometown Suzhou and embarked on a new journey on the land under. To have high hopes on myself, I compare myself to a peahen flying southeastern wards.
Since 2015, Australian government opened the 462 working holiday Visa for Chinese young adults with 5000 spaces each year, entitling applicants to have this once-in –a-lifetime gap year in Australia. This visa cost them around 800 Australian dollars to apply.
After some effort, my friend Joy and I quit our jobs, she as a manager in bank of China and me a language tutor. Both of us craved for western culture since we majored in English in university and dream to gain a different perspective of the world when we are still young. Also , we kind of ran away from the huge pressure from our parents to force us getting married as soon as possible.
One story before I went, My sister gave my 八字bazi or eight characters ( DOB and the precise time) to an online fortune teller. My sister asked him about my marriage , also which was better for me, staying in China or going abroad. He replied in an affirmative way, “ of course , going abroad, there you wouldn’t have to earn sweat money. “ My sister told this promising foreseeable future to my mom and she finally said yes to my gap year. Hurray, off we go !
Looking back, all my years of work in China is not so mainstream, like in big companies learning about corporate culture. Instead, I just revolved around private training centers and have my days dealing with test English tests and students . Soon, here, I will embrace another non-mainstream working life.
Melbourne, please be nice to us.
