Oh and this is what our room looks like. A shoe box.
And this is what I got to sleep beside, not what I envisioned as a bed buddy. (Can't sleep, clowns will eat me).
We got downstairs at 9:44am and they ended at 9:30am. Oh well, we used the free gourmet breakfast. It was actually a lot better than we thought. It was two toasts with an egg (bright orange yolk) and ham on each with one hash brown. After we finished that, we walked toward where our tram would take us to see one of the rooms for rent, by a guy named Brad, in Collingwood. On the way to the tram stop, we stopped in an Optus store to purchase a long distance SIM card. It was $30 and lasted for 90 days. Again with the expiry dates, WTF?! We got on the tram and it took about 10 mins to get to the place. Brad met us at the front and the entrance to the place was from the alley (as I suspected since there wasn't a side door/stairs that led upstairs beside the 1 hour photo store). Along the way to the back entrance, he asked if I was American, and I gasped and said 'no, Canadian, I'm a little more polite than they are' and he quickly apologized about that, but had a laugh. He seemed very down to earth and super laid back, but not like a hippie or high laid back.
More of a cool Mark Ruffalo, laid back (PS. He's the Hulk in The Avengers). He opened the door and the stairs were right in front of us, and to the left was a bunch of discarded items, which looked more like garbage, and he said "here are the stairs and that's um, storage". 'Storage? You mean garbage', is what I thought to myself. We walked up enough steps that would match half the height of a small store. There was a kitchen that looked really run down, the cupboards were stained with nastiness. Next to the kitchen was the small bathroom. Talk about shitting where you eat. It was even more nasty! Then Brad asked if I wanted to see the rooms and I thought 'no need, I ain't living in this dump' but seeing as how I'm representing Canadians and wanted to be polite, I responded "of course I do" with a fake smile. If he was smart, he probably would've seen my response as 'are you f-ing kidding me?'. We went up another flight of stairs and we passed by his room, which looked like a dump. Guitars, clothes and garbage were laying all around. We proceeded to the room that was for rent. I went inside and there was no bed. I asked if a bed was included, just to entertain, but he said no. Perfect way out, "oh ,I need a bed for sure, otherwise I can't sleep here".
The room also looked dirty and slummy, almost could be a room out of a horror film where someone would be tortured or murdered in (this picture is close to what we saw, minus the bed and sink, and maybe only half the gross stuff on the wall). He showed us the other room that was also for rent. It had 3 couches in the room and he was asking for $250/wk for it. Again, to no surprise, dumpy and slummy. Dead flies were all over the window sill that overlooked a busy street that had heritage park type of buildings. Nostalgic feel type neighbourhood/we don't give a shit neighbourhood. We said thanks and quickly walked out as fast as we could.
Our next stop was a couple of blocks from the Essendon train station. We had to take the tram back to Central Melbourne Station then take the train from there. At the station we decided to eat first.
I ordered hungry jacks (aka Burger King) and my sister had a chinese bun. We both sat at a table where there were 2 strangers on the other side of the table (not together) and we each asked the person opposite of us if we could sit there. There was a middle aged man in front of my sister having a big mac and I had an oriental chick who was eating a packed rice lunch. The man said no one was sitting there and the chick moved her stuff out of the way for me to place my food down. As I was eating, my sister used my iPhone as a hot spot for her iPhone to respond to some messages. I wanted to strike a conversation with the Chinese girl, but she seemed like she was really into her food. When my sister came back, I had finished eating and got up to leave. I told the girl "thank you for letting me sit there for lunch" and she smiled. Off to take the train. Luckily we bought passes for the day which included unlimited rides on trains, trams and buses until midnight. Each pass was $7.
We arrived at the Essendon station in about 10 minutes. We walked another 10 minutes to Mark's building. He buzzed us up. His emails preceeding to our meeting were very friendly. I told him that I was from Calgary, Canada and he said that he didn't allow line dancing in his lounge. He asked if I was a Sens fan as his girlfriend works in Ottawa. I said I'm a big Flames fan, but that I didn't mind the Senators. He was a 33 year old Jetstar pilot who just got home from flying. His apartment was very modern. Very much what I'm used to, compared to what I've seen so far.
He had a big screen LCD tv, PS3, and apple tv. (pretty much like the picture, only He had an L-shaped couch). His whole apartment was very warm, which I like very much! We mentioned that and he said that he liked warm temperatures at all times and can't stand why Australians leave their houses so cold. He's from New Zealand. He showed me the room that was available and it was medium sized. He opened the closet to show me the size and inside was the exact same MEC bag that I bought to travel Australia! Only his was smaller than mine, I hear that more often than not. We asked about the area and he showed us a Google map on his tv. Super nice guy. After about 10 minutes, he started talking to my sister about Air Canada as he wanted to apply either to Air Canada or Westjet since he was planning to move to Canada next year. After another 10 minutes they were done talking. He said if we have anymore questions to not hesitate to ask him. He also said he would be busy tomorrow as he was watching the AFL championship game at a friends house, even though he didn't like the sport. He also said that the entire city shuts down for it as it's the best sport in the world (according to Australians), and it's only played in southern Australia. He says it's a bunch of grown men that push each other and that it should be called gayFL.
We walked back to the train station and started our way to the last place to see for the day. It was in Yarraville. We got there about an hour ahead of the scheduled meeting time so we spent some time at a cafe shop. I ordered a coffee, but the barrista asked what that was. I thought, 'really? you work in a cafe shop and don't know what a coffee is?'. She said they had lattes and cappuccinos. So I ordered a latte. My sister and I also shared a carrot cupcake. It was pretty good, with lots of nuts on top of the icing.
It was time to go and it took us about a 15 minute walk, in the cold as it was raining, to get to the house. The ad said that they had 1 room available and that 3 girls currently lived there. Sweet. Eve answered the door and welcomed us in. Terry was the other girl that was there too. Eve offered us tea, but I usually don't bother with things like that, but since I was really cold, I took the offer. I had white tea, which was Terry's favorite. Eve looked like a regular 22 year old student. My first thought was that she had thick dark brown eyebrows. Terry looked kinda awkward, but she was a friendly 23 year old student. Maybe it was her posture. Eve told me that since she never really slept in her room, she might as well as rent it out. She was saying that she always stayed in her partners room and that last night was the first night she slept in her room. She said that her partner was away for a week and that SHE would be back in the next couple of days. Lesbian alert! Awesome! I asked about who the lumber in the backyard belonged to and she told us this story of how she used to live in a warehouse with her partner and her partner built rooms with the lumber that was lying around in the warehouse and how that she also built stages and a bar and how they turned the warehouse into a night club basically. A little far-fetched, but interesting to hear. Obviously we know who is the male counterpart of the two lesbians. After about 30 mins in the cold house, we were about to walk back to the train station in the rain, but then Eve offered to drive us there in her moms car. What a nice lesbian. She dropped us off and we thanked her many times.
We were done our tours of places for the day. Now to make a decision while we ate at the Curry house again. It was sooooo good last night that we went again. This time I ordered the Ban Mee Dry dish and my sister ordered the Mini Crispy Spring Roll and Curry Famosa and a Coconut House Cendol.
Eve's place was $110/wk and it included utilities. You can't beat that. Plus I think they would be fun to hang out with, lesbians and all. Mark said he would be gone all month next month, so I would have his place to myself, but I think I would be super bored.
Then there was Zeena, aiyiyiyi!! $175 not including utilities. I think the best choice was to save money, so I called Eve back and she said she needed to discuss with Terry and that she would either call or text me back. You would've thought they discussed it right away, so my sister was thinking they already decided no. I don't think they wanted a guy there anyways. So no possible threesomes. Oh well. Another time? I called back Zeena as she emailed me the night we saw her place and she wanted to offer the place to me. I called her back and asked if they could lower the rent to $160 not including utilities and they were good with that deal. Hurray, I have a place to live finally! That night I went to sleep happy and only had one more worry, to find a job.
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