I’ve landed in Sydney

I’ve been here in Sydney for a few months now, just getting used to the city and the Australian way of life. I landed at the end of April and was picked up at the airport by my cousin Harry who took me to his house and showed me my new room. It was great to catch up with family again and they were all interested in hearing of everything that I had been through over the past few years. 

During my first afternoon in the city, my cousin Cindy took me on a tour, driving me through the Rocks in Sydney where we parked, went for a walk and I got to see the Harbour bridge and the famous Sydney Opera House, which was really impressive to see in person. 

I explored and got to know the city quite well by now. I usually catch a train to the city, wandering and seeing various areas. I’ve also visited Kings Cross a few times for its restaurants, pubs and nightclubs. And yes, Kings Cross has some seedy parts, but after walking through some of the more interesting streets in Thailand, this didn’t really face me much. 

Besides from nightlife, I’ve also explored some of the beaches around Sydney, mostly just to see them and not to swim in them as I arrived here just at the start of winter and day temperatures have been around 16-18C. I always saw plenty of people surfing so I guess it doesn’t matter what time of the year it is. 

Seeing the ocean made me want to start diving again and after looking into it, I joined a course and completed my Rescue Diver certification in September (when the water temperature was around 14C). The course was fun but quite intensive and in the end, I was happy to do it when it was a bit cooler. I also travelled with my cousins down the coast to a small town called Gerroa where we rented a house for the weekend. Harry and I then went spear fishing and also found a lot of abalones, which were very tasty.

In terms of employment, I spent my initial weeks reading the classifieds and saw that there was lots of work available. I was initially very optimistic about it all however kept getting answers that I was unsuccessful which had to do with my visa. As I’m only here on a Working Holiday Visa, I’m restricted to 3 months for the same employee before I have to move on. So I kept getting answers stating that I wouldn’t be employed as I’d hardly finish their training and then have to move on. So from here, I contacted some agencies and got a job where I was supposed to stand in a supermarket and hand out free samples of a new product, I even completed a two hour training for this, but in the end, another agency contacted me with an opening in Telemarketing.

This was a bad idea however as the job required you to contact people over the phone and try to sell life insurances. I absolutely hated it and only lasted two days before I had to leave. My next role was in Parramatta with a company called Capital Finance. Getting there took two trains and about an hour of travel, but at least I got some time to read. The job itself was not great but at least you were only talking to persons that already had finance and just checking to see if they wanted to refinance, and I got to work with some great people of various backgrounds. 

I lasted there for the full three months before I left and got another job, this time with ASX Perpetual, again on another three month plan and this time I was answering phones and informing people of how much they made from their investment stocks. All in all, another boring job, however something good came from it as I met Suz and after a few work drinks, we got together and are calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend. However, since she’s technically my supervisor, we had to keep it a quiet but still managed to catch up in secret in the lunchroom during the days!

Finally, I’ve also been looking into the option of staying here longer than a year. One of the options is for me to move to the country, work on a fruit farm for three months and then get another year on my working holiday visa. The other option is for me to apply for residency, with Harry as my sponsor, and apply under the Skilled immigrant visa. Becoming a resident would make things a bit easier in relation to work and also to give me a bit more time to explore what this country has to offer. At the same time, it would give me a place to call home as I don’t think that a move back to Sweden will ever be on the cards.

We’ll see what happens, as for now, Suz and I are looking forward to our upcoming weekend getaway to Melbourne.