Life in Byron

Thanksgiving dinner

Dave and Anton

Morgan and "Morgan"

Kooteney, Roman, Sandra and Morgan

Carla, Morgan, Roman and Robert

Wake up, shower, hit the beach, have a couple of drinks with new international friends, sleep, and repeat. This is how our last week has gone, including a few other fun activities, so here we go. Thanksgiving Monday Dave and I decided to celebrate together a long way from home. We kept it simple and bought a small rotisserie chicken from Woolworths (stuffing included), packaged gravy, and cranberry sauce, some delicious local veggies, as well as mashed potatoes that came from a local farm that we purchased from the Byron Bay farmers market. We invited a fellow Canadian to sit down and enjoy this dinner with us, and to be thankful for our experiences in Australia. It definitely wasn’t mom’s home-made stuffing, but it felt a bit more like home.

This past week has been filled with memories with new great friends from all around the globe. What do 2 Swedish people, 2 British, 2 French, 1 German, 1 Chilean, and 2 Canadians have in common? We all live at the Holiday Village in Byron Bay long term. We spend all of our waking hours together, and have the occasional visitors from Denmark and Holland. Our days are spent relaxing by the pool or beach, and nights are spent socializing around the picnic tables and at some local bars. We have learned a lot of new international customs surrounding the holidays (Christmas, Halloween, and the lack of Thanksgiving), and learned some new and interesting drinking games! Although we are pleased to say that games such as ‘bus driver’, ‘f*** the dealer’, ‘kings’, and ‘bull-s***’ are internationally renowned drinking games. Our mashed up little family is making the Holiday Village feel like a home away from home.

Last Sunday was one of the highlights of our trip in Byron Bay so far, as we celebrated our new friend Anton’s birthday with Swedish traditions. We had a BBQ and played many interesting games that covered us from head to toe with flour and egg, as well as some beer. It was a very full day of games, and we finished it off by surprising Anton with a decorated apartment filled with balloons, a new shirt, some cake, and of course his favorite: Jaegermeister.

This week hasn’t been all play, as Dave and I have both acquired new jobs. Dave is busy 3-4 days a week working at the hostel we are living in, while I started working full-time at a cafe across the street called ‘One One One’! It is nice to be now saving money and not just spending it. We will see how this week goes getting back into a routine. We moved in to Anton and Sandra’s room this week so it is nice to have familiar roommates, however we may be on the move again if we are put into staff rooms in a week or so. The hostel job is not permanent but a nice in between to live for free and make a bit of cash. Dave even leads the sunrise tour in the mornings when he works to make a couple extra bucks, and of course to see the sunrise from the most eastern point (he gets to be the first to see the sunrise in Australia!) and some whales while on tour. Although the work is easy and very relaxed it will be nice to get the next few days off to relax again and continue the job search.

Becki after the first birthday game

Becki's new work

Dave and the shuttle bus

The hostel, Holliday Village Backpackers

We are enjoying the sunshine, as I have heard how cold it has been recently in Canada! We are averaging 25-30 C every day which is great, but we also appreciate the occasional overcast day too. We miss our very good friends and family from back home, but we are making new ones quickly, and it will be nice to have places to stay around the globe for years to come. We have learned to look rights, and then left, before crossing the street, and Dave has even learned to drive on the left side as well! We learned to like Rugby and Aussie Rules Footy, but we are definitely missing the baseball playoffs right now (GO TIGERS!). Thanks to my dad, we are getting the play by play in all of our beloved sports (Thanks dad :)).  As requested by the wonderful Heather, I have uploaded some pictures of our daily lives and workplaces for you to all understand what we do day to day! We miss you and hope to talk again soon!

Dave and Becki

Anton and Marvin

Chris, Emm, Roman and Becki