Adam's Aussie Adventure

A Day in the Life of a Nomads Odyssey Housekeeper

Hello all! Yes, I realize that I haven’t written a blog in about 3 weeks or so. Internet is expensive here though, and these blogs can take some time to write. But I’ve come across some free internet, so I’m going to take my sweet sweet time updating all of you. Now my mom has told me that everyone’s under the impression that it’s all just fun and games over here in Byron Bay. Allow me to set you straight. This is what an average work day is like for yours truly: I wake up to the sound of my watch alarm. It’s 7:30am and I have a massive hangover. I reach for my water bottle; it’s half empty from when I was thirsty the night before. I then hop down from my top bunk and assess the room. There’s bags of goon (cheap, gross wine) and beer bottles lying here and there. A few balloons with faces drawn on them. Papers with guitar tabulature on them. It all depends on what happened the night before. Our room, Room 202, is the party room. It sleeps eight people on four bunk beds. Everyone staying there are staff members, along with Room 201 next door and Room 228 across the hall. Despite there being two other rooms the staff could party in, 202 is always rockin’. I don’t necessarily have a problem with it, except that if you want to sleep before 2am, you better put on some headphones and learn to sleep with the light on. Also, without fail, every morning our room smells like a hideous combination of B.O., booze and whatever everyone was eating that day. I then go off to the washroom. The shower, along with my water bottle, helps to cure the hangover. If I’m lucky I have time to eat before I start work at 8am. I don’t know why I got stuck with the early shift; mostly everyone else that day starts at 10am. I start off sweeping the lobby and common room, then move on to mopping. At 9:15 my other alarm goes off and I go to wake up Kyle, who in turn wakes up John. They completely rely on me since they don’t have any kind of device that has an alarm. After I finish mopping I’ll usually move on to vacuuming the corridors. I’ll also vacuum the rooms, depending on if the people in there are sleeping or not. The vacuum cleaner itself is like a proton pack; the bag goes on your back and the hose into your hands. I like to hum the Ghostbusters theme song while I vacuum. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to my dream job. If I’m not vacuuming I’m helping the 10 o’clock shift changing sheets on beds and cleaning rooms. This is the best job you can do. You will often find items left behind by backpackers too much in a rush to catch a bus to properly collect all of there belongings. I’ve gotten some body wash, conditioner, a pair of shorts, a couple of books, sunscreen, a towel and toiletry bag (both pink!), countless boxes of goon, a bunch of change, and more. Kyle and John, since they are on the room cleaning shift (10am is checkout time), are constantly finding “sweet scores”. If there isn’t much work to be done in rooms, I may just sit around in rooms talking to other travellers until one o’clock and I’ve put in my five hours for the day. Irene will keep you busy though. She’s the head housekeeper; a fifty year old flower child who has too much energy for so early in the morning. She’s assisted by Sharon, who always seems to have stayed up too late the night before, and Libby, who’s cool as nails. They’re a good crowd and it’s fun to work with them. On one special occasion (it was a Saturday) Irene called a staff meeting in Room 209. When I got there everyone who was on shift for that day was sitting on one of the king beds drinking Lime and Vodka drinks. It had just passed noon. I had a good day that day. When my shift finishes there are a few things that may happen. I may take a nap. I may read. I may play guitar (I’m learning!). I may go to the beach. I may, and probably will, do all of these things. Also, depending on how early I want to start that day (St. Patrick’s Day was an early one), I may start drinking. Drinking is a large part of the Byron Bay experience. If it’s a good night, I’ll be drinking beer. If it’s a cheap night, I’ll be drinking goon. Goon comes in large boxes, often 4 litres, for anywhere between ten and fifteen dollars. There’s one box that comes with 4.4 litres for $10. It is the closest I have found to the rumoured 5 litres for $9. It is a last resort drink though. Unfortunately, most nights are last resort nights. And Sundays don’t help; the hostel gives out free cups of goon. The party will start in 202. We’ve got a great group of people staying in the room. There’s Chris, a Swedish guy who loves raggae and getting completely smashed every night. Candis is a fellow Canadian from Winnipeg. She’s a photographer and has just recently gotten a job here. Sandra and Kathrin are German. Sandra is working at a travel place handing out flyers as well as the hostel job. Kathrin is supposed to be leaving the hostel in a week to travel with a Canadian girl, but we’re working on her. Rex is a 6’8 American from Montana. He makes Kyle look like a dwarf. Then there’s Kyle and John. They’re cool too. That’s only 202 though. In 201 there’s Timo, a German whose practically travelled the whole country already We were able to convince him to stay in Byron for a week longer. Kara adds to the Canuck roster. She’s the activities person and also crazy, but hilarious and awesome. Fransisco is a quieter guy; I don’t know too much about him. I don’t even know how to spell his name. Dave is an Irishman who works the night shift, but that doesn’t stop him from having a good time beforehand. Mauritz is German (they’re everywhere!) with a surfboard. He’s supposed to leave soon too. Simon and Ben (aka Cuz) are Welsh gentlemen who talk a mile a minute and don’t miss a beat when doing so. They both started to learn the guitar around the same time I did. They’ve actually started up a band. They call themselves No Water. Currently their only song is a cover of Wonderwall, but they’re working on their first original, “The Taps Run Dry”. “The taps run dry! The goon runs rich!” they sing. Keep an eye out for it. Then there’s 228. The interns are in this room. Susannah and Tuulia are from Finland, and Lisette is from Holland. They’ve been working at this hostel since it opened about a month ago, and at a different hostel before that. Also in 228 is Dan, rounding off the Candian staff members. Yeah, we’re taking over Byron. That’s the main group of people. Every night we’ll get together and drink, and drink for hours. New people will show up, since it is a hostel, and we continue to drink. Since we came to Byron Bay three weeks ago, pretty much every night has been a party. We’ll put our mattresses out on the balcony to sleep under the stars, we’ll steal milk crates to create storage areas for our stuff. So, as you can plainly see, it’s not all fun and games. It’s fun and games and more fun and more games. I’m having some of the best times of my life out here right now. I’m glad I could share a little bit of it with you, the people I care about. Until next time! I promise the posts will come quicker, but probably not as long. In the meantime, check out the photos of me on Facebook! I’ve been tagged in a whole bunch. And pass this blog onto whoever you think would get a kick out of it. I’m writing for the masses, after all.