Living It Up In Wine Country

Did you know that being American and graduating college is no guarantee that you will do well at an Australian pub trivia night. With four Americans on our team, we ended up coming in last place and the grand prize winners more than doubled our score. It was a little embarrassing, but when you know nothing about Rugby, cricket, or British queens things don't go very well at all. We decided that the next time we need to recruit an Aussie from the street to answer those questions.

The next day we were up bright and early, dressed in our waitstaff uniform and headed down to Sydney CBD to take our bar service skills course. Now, we thought it would only last about 4 hours, but it turns out that it was a whole day affair. We went to a pub on Darling Harbour called James Squire and actually got to work behind the bar for a bit, pulling draughts (I had no idea that you want a centimeter of foam on top and it needs to be smooth and creamy. It's beer, people'll drink it no matter what, right?) and mixing pretend drinks. That part was neat, but I feel like we aren't that much more prepared for a bar-tending job than we were before we took the class. I think it's more of a job where you just have to jump right in and you learn along the way or you fail epically. Hopefully the former one.

Wednesday we rolled into Cessnock, in the Hunter Valley again where we got picked up and went to the hostel. At this point we've been at the hostel for about 5 days and truly it feels almost like a home since we've got a regular crew of people who are living here for a longer period of time and we're getting to know the owners, their sister, and their parents. It's better than just being around a rotating medley of backpackers who are there one day and gone the next. We've got Chris, a Scot who's here with IEP as well who is working in the vineyards suckering the vines. Suckering is basically pulling off all the lower leaves on a wine so the plant doesn't spend energy growing those leaves when they can use it to make grapes. There's Ian, a Kiwi who drives the buses to and from concerts at the wineries on the weekends and who is taking flying lessons during the week to get his pilot's license. Then there's Stefan, a German backpacker who is traveling around on his own and finding work every now and then.

The cleaning we've been doing at the hostel is pretty easy and doesn't take that much time, just tidying up the rooms after people leave and cleaning the commons area and kitchen. We've helped pack up all the comforters and got out the fans since summer's on the way and it's getting hot here at night. Today we spent most of the day painting two of the rooms. I'd forgotten what a pain painting is.

This past weekend was pretty much the best weekend I've had in Australia. Carolyn got us work setting up and tearing down for a concert at Bimbadgen, an upscale winery about 15 minutes away from the hostel. Steve and I, Stefan, and Chris got up early Friday morning and spent the day laying out 2500 chairs for the concert, setting up barricades, and putting screening up on the fences.

I also got to set up the dressing rooms for the stars because as a female the stage crew guys “knew I would do a better job.” Now if anyone knows my decorating skills or my artistic inclinations, you are aware of the fact that what I think looks cool doesn't necessarily look cool to anyone else, so I was a bit skeptical about the job, but I did my best. However, it is more than likely some of the singers sat down in their trailers and wondered what kind of crazy person set up the room so the rug was cockeyed, the couch was situated in the far back corner, and the mirror was set up at a 90 degree angle to the door so it cut off everyone's view of the door from the couch. Eh, oh well.

Saturday we did our cleaning at the hostel and that night we got a ride to the concert because Whitey, the manager of the show had given us free tickets to get in to sit in the grass. Sh, we're not supposed to tell anyone that. Well we rolled up and got to the gate, told the lady our names were on the list for tickets, and discovered that we'd actually been given seats! After watching a thoroughly drunk man shout insults at passing people as he was handcuffed and lead away we found our seats, right in the middle of it all. Now, these seats cost around $130 for paying customers so we got an incredible deal.

The artists were interesting, two Australian artists, Vanessa Amorisi and Jimmy Barnes. Didn't really like Jimmy, but Vanessa was really good. She was an ultimate entertainer and she even ran into the crowd to get everyone into the music. I'm pretty sure her security absolutely hates it when she does that since they have to deal with unruly fans and Vanessa was just dashing all over the place. You could see the frustration on their faces as she ran about 5 feet away from us with them speeding after her. She even tried to run up the hill into general admission where there aren't any barricades and it's just chaos, but her people managed to head her off and averted that disaster.

Sunday we headed over there again to tear down everything. The day was filled with stacking chairs and moving barricades again, sprinkled liberally with water breaks which the crew basically forced us to take. We were working steadily, but apparently we did all the work in about half the time that it takes most of their backpacker help to do it. I think we broke the mold for them. Afterward, the guys took us back to their homestead, a nice house with a pool and a penthouse suite. I think it started out as an obligation, a couple beers to thank us for our work, but it turned into an awesome time. We drank a few beers there, used the pool, then headed to Harrigan's, an Irish pub, for food and Whitey bought us each two beers a piece. Then we headed back to the homestead again to play some pool and darts. It's the first time that we've actually gotten to spend time with real Aussies since the majority of people you meet at hostels are fellow travelers from all over the world, but it's a rare find if you meet an Aussie. I tried Vegamite for the first time on toast, made to perfection by an Aussie and it wasn't horrible. Probably not ever going to be something I choose to buy and eat, but it was good to try at least. I can say it didn't kill me. Oh, I forgot, I also saw my first pack of kangaroos in the wild. Right behind the homestead and the pool, it's just open vineyard and in the evening about 10 kangaroos were out there cooling off and lazing around while we played a game of backyard cricket. I now understand cricket. It's just like a skewed game of baseball, but somehow more entertaining to play. I still don't think it's the much fun to watch though.

We didn't get back till midnight and I think the stage crew really liked us. We came out way ahead. We got paid 20 bucks an hour for a job that back home would pay about $9 at the most, had tons of drinks provided throughout the two days we worked, got concert tickets for free, had about 10 drinks bought for us by the crew at their place and the pub, ate their food and snacks, and they still thanked us for all the hard work. It was incredible. That's how it is at the hostel though as well. Every time we do something other than just the room cleaning they end up giving us stuff. A 1.5 liter bottle of water, a coke, a candy bar, lunch, the list goes on and on. This is the best i've eaten since I got here.

On an entirely unrelated note, in the past 24 hours, Steve and I have been asked twice if we are twins. Apparently, we look about the same age and that's the only explanation they can think of for why siblings are traveling together. It's a bit bizarre.