My job in Australia

Sunday 10th July

Hi guys!

It is nearly mid July and the smell of the end of this magical experience is getting stronger everyday!

Yesterday was my last day at work, it was a really great and useful experience but I have to admit that the end of it is a relief! Real holidays have now begun!

Speaking of that, finding a job and then work has been quite an experience! In fact, I decided a few months ago to look for a job (instead of an internship) in order to take advantage of my time in Brisbane not only to improve my English but also to experience the real life of Aussie students who usually have a part time job during their semester.

So I began to look for a job and (as usual!) I started my research on Gumtree. There were a lot of ads about jobs especially for waiting jobs. I had a few tries in some of them but I decided to keep looking in order to find a job which would require me to speak English all day long, and so I found "the Smart Group".

The Smart Group is an Aussie company which works on the behalf of TRUEnergy. I was part of a group of 75 "sole traders" all aged around 20/25 yo, so the team work was, as you can imagine, a real bunch of fun!I was a door-to-door trader and my role was to knock on people's door in order to convince them to switch from their current electricity retailer to TRUEnergy.As the only student and non english speaker (I was the only one whose mother tongue is not English) I was kind of an exception but I fitted quite well in the team and my results were quite the same as the others'.This work was a really good thing for me as I spoke english all day long with real Aussies but also because it required me to use some selling methods, which fits my courses perfectly. Add to that, being part of such a great organisation was really nice. It made me learn a lot about management especially the management of young workers (either students or backpackers), I am pretty sure that it will be of great help someday!

I worked for The Smart Group during two weeks (10 days) but I decided to switch jobs after this period. I really liked my work but I have had a better proposition Frim another company called Auzion Solar Power.

I have been recruited by Auzion with the help of "La Gâchette" who was part of Auzion's recruitment team at that time.
My role at Auzion was quite the same as before. In fact, I was a door-to-door trader but the difference was that I did not have to "sell" anything to people, my work only required me to offer people some free appointments with Auzion's experts in order them to receive information and quotes for solar panels installation.

I really liked this job which allowed me to make some good money while improving my english and my self confidence.

Now that my work is over, I can look back on my whole "working experience" in Australia. Even if it was not easy everyday my research and my work periods made me grow as an individual, really improved my English and also made me learn a lot about management and work spirit in Australia.

Cheers!

Japan needs you!

The title of this article sums everything up in itself! Indeed, this is the kind of phrase you could see everywhere after the terrible earthquake which hit the “Land of the rising sun” couple months ago.

In Australia, there has been a very huge reaction to this catastrophe. Indeed, even if the origin of this very big reaction is somehow hard to determine, the thing you cannot ignore is that every single individual got really involved in actions aiming to help Japan. 

The proximity between Australia and Japan is very important in this story. This is probably the main reason for the Australian reaction. Indeed, Australia is really close to Asia and there are a lot of Asians living here, but also the Asian culture is very present in this country. Thus, people were really concerned about the near future of Japan and Japanese people.

This proximity brought two big concerns to this country. The first one was that a lot of Asian people living in Australia have relatives in Japan, so a lot of people here were really sad because they lost some close friends or family or they were kind of worried about what will happen next to the people they know up there. The second concern was basically the “homeland security”. Indeed, all Australian people were very worried about all the radiation clouds that were supposed to come down directly above Australia and that meant a lot of health problems for the people in here.

This reaction was, like I said, huge! There were a lot of actions taking place in all Australia, especially fundraising actions. Indeed, there were a lot of individuals or associations that organized events such as Japanese food sales in the streets. Also, there were always updates of the situation in everyday news on television. You could really feel the concern that Australian people had for the situation. Every newspaper had at least one double page article about Japan for like three weeks; it was really like you were there! Finally, all these special events came to some kind of an end after approximately one month, but even now you can still be asked for support for the Japanese people in the streets of a big Australian city.

Cheers.

The Aboriginal culture in Australia

Australia’s history is kind of recent; however Europeans were not the first humans to settle on this big island. In fact, some people known as “Aborigines” are present in Australia for more than forty thousand years.

First, what you need to know is that: Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up more than 2.5% of Australia's population.

Nowadays, Aborigines only live in special reserves where their spirituality and practices are just like rules. There are a lot of different tribes of Aborigines each with its own unique mixture of cultures, customs and languages. In present day Australia these groups are further divided into local communities, who live in different areas. Even today, you can still find approximately two hundred different Aboriginal dialects in Australia.

Most of these Aborigines live in special reserves that are mostly located in the “Red Centre”, near Alice Springs, where some places are considered as highly spiritual for Aborigines. Uluru (which is the aboriginal name of “the Ayers Rock”), is for example one place filled out by memories and spirits for these people, which is why they ask tourists for silence and respect in those areas.

There have been a lot of laws concerning Aborigines in Australia. At one time, some of them were banishing them from some cities and other  “public areas”. Now those laws do not exist anymore.  Nowadays, the Aborigines are still living in those reserves and the only ones you can see outside of them, would be the ones who have been chased from their tribe. That is probably the reason why, all the Aborigines you will see in big cities, will be doing some paintings or Aboriginal music in order to earn some money to live.

Here is a video of an aborigine playing Didgeridoo (aboriginal instrument) in the middle of Sydney.

(For some reasons, including the very poor quality of the Australian internet connexion, it would have taken approximately 12 hours to upload this video directly, which is why I did it through Youtube).

  Australia is very rich culturally speaking, and Aborigines definitely represent a great part of this culture.

Cheers.

Creamfields!

Sydney, 30th April, the time for ear spoiling has finally come!

It has been a long time since we bought our tickets and the big day is coming at last! For those who are not familiar with electronic music, Creamfields is a festival taking place every year in different places such as Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Spain, and other cities in Australia.

This electronic music festival yearly brings together some of the world's most famous dj's. For example, this year we have had the luck to listen to Deadmou5, Martin Solveig, Surkin, Dada Life, Chuckie, Skrillex and lots of other very talented artists!It was a really great day! 

We had so much fun! Listening to these artists with so many people around was extraordinary! One of the best day of my life!

Here are some little videos of that day taken either by me or someone else,... I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did!

"Cinema", Skrillex Live @ Creamfields Sydney

"Hello", Martin Solveig Live @ Creamfields Sydney

"Ghosts N Stuff", Deadmou5 Live @ Creamfields Sydney

I <3 music, I <3 Australia!

Cheers

Sydney !!

Wednesday 27th April,

Easter break has now arrived and after having spent a few days showing Brisbane to the Goonies we all took the plane to go discover Australia's most famous city: Sydney!

This country is one and a half time bigger than Europe but the flight from Brisbane to Sydney takes only 1hour, which surprised us. We are not used to these little flights anymore!

This city is impressive! It really is bigger than Brisbane and Melbourne and there are a lot of things to do! We spent 6 days there and despite this lack of time we have seen almost all the interesting things to see! The main reason for that may be that our guide was a really good one! (haha! The Bra-Bra crew will understand!)

In this city we have seen lots of impressive landscapes, beaches and monuments such as Manly beach, Palm beach, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and a lot more...

Sydney is definitely one of the cities that you have to see in your life! And if you did not have the chance to be there yet, here are some pictures that will, for sure, make you want to!

Cheers!

Brisbane city!

Hey guys!

I know you have been waiting for it, And there it comes, my article about my city here, on the other side of the world! Brisbane is a very pretty city. Like all other cities in Australia, it is organized in a simple way. You have the CBD at geographic center which is basically the center of the city. It is often set on a river which in the case of Brisbane is the Brisbane river (how imaginative is that?!). The CBD is full of residential and offices buildings but there are not many people living in this area, at least not many locals...
The city then organizes itself around that CBD and there are a lot of residential suburbs, sometimes it reminds me of the US way of living...

When you arrive in Brisbane, the first thing that hits you (actually this is the second one after the heat! :) ) is the sweet perfume of holiday you can smell  in here! Seems to me that brisbane has some kind of a surfer way of life and that is probably why people are so destressed and always nice and cool to each others.
In Brisbane it is common to walk in the street dressed up just like you were at the beach and that does not shock anyone. In a comparison, when I went to Melbourne in The middle of the summer and was unaware that that "surfer style" was not Australia wide and I found myself walking in the street with a tee shirt, a surfer short and my slippers... God I felt so alone and different!! :)

Add to that spirit that I like so much, Brisbane is also a very beautiful city. From the street beaches of southbank, to the valley, passing by the famous and impressive story bridge, this city has some beauties that can that your breath out for few instants.

I hope the following pictures will make you want to discover that wonderful city and make you love it as much as I do!

Cheers!

I Love Tassie !!!

Tasmanie blog

It is the beginning of March and my timetable gives me enough time for a little trip. In this amazing country it is terribly difficult to choose where to go because there are a lot of things to see!  Considering the time we had and the season, Tasmania seemed to be the best place to go, and it sure was!!!

We went there with the whole chicho band and it was amazing! There we did a tour all around Tassie departing from Hobart.
The tour last only 5 days but we have seen so many wonderful things it appeared to be a one month trip! Among all the things we got the chance to see, those that I prefered are the Henti dunes, the Craddle Mountains and the Bay of Fire. But I also saw the Montezuma falls, one of the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen!
Tasmania is a very rich region on a natural point of view and those five days were really breathtaking! We had  a lot of great times there, this was Actually the beginning of "The Goonies"!