[-1] 20: The Magic Number

One of the most common questions that people ask me when they find out I'm going to Australia is "how long is the flight?" To be honest, until about ten minutes ago, I didn't know. And upon further contemplation, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care, nor do I think it's an important piece of information to have. Useful, perhaps, but not important.

With the time difference, I will depart Thursday evening (New York time, so Eastern Daylight Savings Time) and arrive Saturday morning (Brisbane/Melbourne time, which is Australian Eastern Standard Time). To me, the total duration of the actual flight matters less, for two main reasons:

1. I'm stuck on the plane for however long it is. It's not as if I can get a faster flight if I think the flight duration is too long, or a slower flight because I like sitting on planes so much. And since I'll most likely be sleeping for most of the flight (almost half, if not more -- I can sleep for a long time when there's no sunlight streaming through my window to wake me up!), it's not as if I'll be counting the hours/minutes, either.

2. If I know my departure time and arrival time, that's all that really matters. When I get on the plane I will set my watch to the local time in my destination, so theoretically at that point (if I cared) I could figure out how long I'd be on the plane, without having to worry about working in the time difference. Since I'll be arriving in Brisbane at 6am, I'll plan on going to sleep by, say, 9 or 10pm (Brisbane time) on the plane to help minimise the effects of jet lag. (Yes, a bit early, but I find it difficult to sleep through descent and landing, so I'd effectively be getting up at 5am.)

But for those who are interested to know, the total duration of my two flights (JFK to LAX and LAX to BNE) is approximately 20 hours, with a layover of about an hour at LAX. So my total travel time will be nearly a full 24 hours, especially if you count checking in and going through security at JFK, etc. However, I'll lose all of Friday the 10th (sorry to anyone whose birthday I'm going to miss =P) between travelling and the time difference. (On the upside, I'll get to live November 28th twice when I return!) So there's a bit of fun maths for you.

In other news, it's been a bit peculiar saying goodbye to people. It feels different than our usual goodbyes at the end of the summer -- perhaps because I'm going to miss half the time we would usually have to spend together. It feels more like saying goodbye between senior year of high school and freshman year of uni, which makes sense in a way. Still, I think it's sort of interesting how my being in Melbourne makes me feel like I'll be so very far away from my friends here -- which I will be, but it's not as if I can just pick up and visit them when I'm at uni in Ohio, either. The physical difference is greater, yes, but the mental/emotional difference seems like it should be the same. But these goodbyes seem so much more final, as if I'll never see my friends again, which is silly, because I know I'll come home to them when the semester is over.

I should add that I haven't begun packing yet. This is going to be a fun couple of days.

For anyone who's confused by the countdown in my subject lines, that's the countdown of full days between now and midnight on Thursday. Even though I leave Thursday evening, I'll have to check in by 5pm at latest, and braving traffic to get to JFK airport is not exactly a breeze, so Thursday will pretty much be all travelling.

[-4] Happy 4th!

I returned last night from Florida, which was a nice getaway before heading to Australia. Which, in and of itself, I suppose is more or less a getaway also. It occurs to me that it hasn't really struck me yet that I'll be taking classes and otherwise being scholarly once I'm there, and I suppose it won't until I (at least) have finalized my schedule. It's more or less been confirmed that I'll be taking Music History I and II concurrently this semester, but other than that, I'll supposedly be taking two Political Science courses that haven't yet been confirmed.

However, aside from that, the majority of the logistical issues have been straightened out. My visa came through with no problem, and I received the scholarship I applied for ($1,372, which is a somewhat random number -- but money is money). It's not that huge, but since my Denison scholarship doesn't go with me to Australia ($15,000/year), anything helps. It'll certainly at least help me cover groceries and such.

My housing has also been confirmed: I will be living for the semester in an apartment (presumably alone) at RMIT Village, which is a lovely apartment complex, complete with pool and workout facilities, not too far from the University. They're hosting an Orientation Week filled with events designed to help residents get to know each other, but I haven't decided yet if I want to participate. It costs $30AUD, which includes the cost of a t-shirt. It's not that $30AUD (approximately $24USD) is that much of an expense, I just don't know that I'm going to be interested in the activities they've planned. There's a "nightlife tour" which I assume will involve barhopping/clubs, which I genuinely am interested in, but the chances that the cost of drinks, etc is included in the Orientation fee are slim to none. There are also a few parties (including a theme party) that might be fun, but the movie night, the trivia night, and the sports day (no-one could ever claim that I was an athletic person) don't really interest me that much. I do want to get to know my fellow residents and make friends, but that week is probably going to be my main week for jobhunting, too. They also want the payment now, which is a little annoying because it's not like I can hop over there and hand them cash or swipe my credit card; I would have to send them credit card information via e-mail, and I'm not 100% positive I'm comfortable with that.

At any rate, here's what my schedule looks like so far for the next few weeks (all times local to where I am):

4/7 - 9/7: packing, work, etc
9/7: last day stateside; early dinner in the city; 19:10-22:10 flight JFK to LAX; 23:20 depart LAX for BNE
11/7: 06:10 arrive BNE
11/7 - 14/7: orientation in Caloundra
14/7: 11:55-14:20 flight BNE to MEL
14/7 - 18/7: Melbourne Welcome (University of Melbourne)
20/7 - 25/7: Orientation (RMIT Village)
27/7: first day of term (University of Melbourne)

So, the next few days will be extremely busy for sure, and then I'll be leaving! I'm extremely, extremely excited, but at the same time, I'm having that "I'm basically moving to another country for five months" freak-out right about now, and packing certainly doesn't help; anyone who knows me knows I'm a terrible overpacker. It's okay though, I will get everything condensed down to two suitcases in the end. I always do. And I'm determined to leave some space for the stuff I will inevitably accumulate in Australia, of course. (Whether or not this will actually happen is a different story entirely, but I'm hopeful.)

So. Hurray for amazing experiences that are about to begin -- and happy 4th to anyone in the US!

[-23] Woke Up This Morning -- I Suddenly Realised...

Okay, I'll start this off with something relevant: my Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE for short, which is a document from the school -- the University of Melbourne, in this case -- confirming that I am indeed going to be studying at their institution for such and such a period of time. This is required to apply for my visa) finally arrived in my e-mail inbox yesterday. Fantastic. So I applied for my visa this afternoon (finally) and am waiting on the decision. I'm actually freaking out right now because I'm nervous I didn't fill it out correctly; it didn't ask for the provider code on my CoE, which I sort of expected it to ask for since the e-mail that came with the CoE specifically pointed out where the provider code was...

In other good news, I made bank yesterday [Sunday] on a swing, which is a double shift. I got double-tipped twice on large gratuities, and walked out at the end of a 10-hour shift with $200 in my pocket, which would have been $250 had I not had to tip out. I've officially made the $1,000 that I wanted to make for Australia and then some, and ahead of schedule, too. To celebrate, I gave up my AM shift tomorrow and instead am going to spend the day cleaning/unpacking from school/packing for Florida. I wanted to go down the shore, but no-one else is available.

Anyway. Apparently tipping isn't customary in Australia (as far as I can tell from my research, which consisted of approximately an hour on Google), but of course it is in the United States. Which is where the topic of today's post (read: rant) comes in.

It is a well-accepted fact in the service industry that sometimes you will meet bad tippers. In fact, sometimes, you will meet awful tippers, and even people who play the fun game of "Dine 'N' Dash" -- which, for the more decent people among us who have never heard of this so-called game, is a somewhat awful (and possibly illegal, I'm not sure) pastime in which people eat at a restaurant and then leave without paying their bill, thereby sticking their poor server with the bill, which is often quite large. (Last summer a FAMILY of five dashed on their bill of $120 at one of my tables. I was shocked and upset. What a wonderful example to set for your children.) And sometimes you meet great tippers.

Look, my views probably differ from many people's views regarding tipping for poor service. I always tip, even if the service is poor. $2.13/hr (which is what I get paid in NJ) is not something to which I would subject even the worst server, even if the service was really that abysmal. I still think you should always tip at least 10%. Tipping is an odd beast because it's sort of compulsory, but sort of not. Supposedly it's to reward great service. But it's become so customary that the government (and the industry) thinks it's fine to only pay servers $2.13/hr and expect them to make up the difference between that and "real" minimum wage ($7.15/hr or something -- I haven't worked for "real" minimum wage in a long time, and it differs state-to-state I think, though there is a federal baseline) via tips.

However, a few things I take offence with:

1. The generalisation that all servers are women. Furthermore, that (as one particularly intelligent YouTube commenter wrote) one should be "lucky enough" to get a "waitress who thinks the world owes her and her three fatherless children." Excuse me. I am getting a college education at one of the best liberal arts universities in the nation. I have no children, "fatherless" or otherwise, and I am trying to make a living here. I can't say anything for how good or bad of a server I am, but since I've been serving for two years now and I've been in the restaurant industry for nearly three, at least I haven't been fired yet, and trust me, my restaurant fires bad servers. Many of my coworkers are not only not women (i.e. men), and have B.A.s or Master's degrees. For many of them, serving is their second or third job, a supplementary income.

2. Treating servers like they're your servants. I am an intelligent human being (we can argue test scores and IQs some other time). I'm sure you have to deal with people in your job, regardless of what it is. Do you enjoy being treated like crap just because the person treating you like crap is the one who writes your paycheque? No? Then don't treat me that way either. Expecting good service is fine. Expecting me to do backflips for your entertainment is not.

3. Being ignorant to the fact that I really do only get paid $2.13/hr, and, worse yet, not caring if/when you find out. Furthermore, you might be surprised to realise that I never actually see that $4.26 for those two hours I worked. I do have to declare my tips, and the taxes you get deducted from your paycheque get deducted from my paycheque as well. Since I leave with my tips at the end of the night, I occasionally get a "white cheque", which is basically a $0 paycheque -- because there was nothing left after taxes were taken out of it. You might say that it was my choice to work a job that pays a low hourly. Fine, that's a valid point. But if no-one was willing to work a job with a low hourly, no-one would be around to put up with your bullshit, or to feed you when you don't feel like cooking.

4. Likewise, being ignorant to the fact that many servers (myself included) have to tip out of their SALES (not their tips, since those numbers can be changed easily and aren't really dependable anyway) to hosts, bussers, and other untipped staff who partially depend on tip-out to make a living wage. So if you don't tip me, that means I have to pay money out of my own pocket to put up with your bullshit. Fan-fucking-tastic.

5. Not understanding that a restaurant is a business. This sort of follows up to the points above. Look, if restaurants couldn't depend on tips to help them pay their servers, their hosts, their bussers, their service bartenders (for restaurants that have them, the service bartender is a bartender who spends his/her shift making drinks only for servers. They often don't get a cut of the tips that the rest of the bar makes, and the servers often tip out to them for their services), etc, then all of those people would have to be paid much higher wages -- "real" minimum wage at best, possibly higher. What does this mean? This means that each dish has to cost more money in order for the restaurant to stay out of the red. For the guest, this means that their checks are going to start being much higher. I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that.

I just don't understand the idea some people have that not tipping is okay. I realise that serving isn't rocket science -- I know, because I am a server. It doesn't exactly take a genius to be a good server, but it does take a lot of work, even if you don't think that person gave good service. I would never presume to say your job was easy unless I'd done it myself. And even then I would never say you didn't deserve to be paid for your labour, no matter how poor a job you did. That's basically what you say when you don't leave me a tip. So I'd like to see you work a shift in my restaurant and then tell me you couldn't spare at least a dollar or two. If the service was that bad, you should say something to a manager, rather than just not leaving a tip. All that does is make the server think you were a total ass (which they might think anyway, to be honest, but at least you were a constructive ass), and perpetuate poor service. Furthermore, if you can afford a $50 meal, you can at least afford $5 more to tip me; and if you can't, you shouldn't be eating out.

The system sucks, okay? That busser who never bussed a single table of mine? I hate tipping out to him. And my poor server friend who was sick yet couldn't call out of work because she needed the money might have a terrible day because she was puking between taking care of her tables, and then she might be unable to make rent or buy groceries because she didn't make as much in tips as she needed to -- that's awful. Especially considering the rich guy at her table who didn't leave a tip can take a day or two off work to hang out with his kids and still make the same six-digit salary at the end of the year as he would have if he hadn't taken off those days. That's not fair either.

It's certainly not the guest's fault that the system could be better. Whatever happened to the "golden rule"? I'm not any less worthy of respect just because I'm a server, am I? If so, there's something wrong with the world. If not, then why, when I put on my uniform shirt and an apron, do people think it's okay to treat me like crap, to snap their fingers at me like I'm a dog and make rude comments bordering on sexual harrassment? I'm not asking you to surprise that server who gave crappy service with a 200% tip. All I'm asking is for you to show a little humanity; after all, what goes around comes around.

And, even if you don't feel like it sometimes,
we're all in this together.

[-41] Bureaucracy, or "Why the TSA Sucks"

So, because of our two-week vacation at the end of June, I'm trying to get everything for my trip squared away now. Has anyone else heard about this new TSA thing where everything on your documents have to match exactly?

Here's why this serves no purpose: People who use their full legal name (which, I imagine, could be way too long for normal use -- I know someone who has four middle names. Can you imagine?!) on legal documents now have to go through the hassle of using their full legal name on airline tickets, cruise tickets, whatever. The thing is, if I have both documents, this is doing nothing except creating more work for me. If, say, a terrorist got ahold of my passport and was going to use it to travel, don't you think they'd just change their airline ticket to match my passport? Sure, a bit of hassle for the terrorist, but they're laying down their lives to send a message to the US, here. I don't think they're going to mind being on hold for an hour or so with the airline to change the name on their airline ticket (although I'm not 100% sure about that, as I'm fairly certain it's a key human trait to hate being on hold). So I don't see this new regulation serving any purpose. It's not as if there would be discrepancies between the two documents and you'd catch anyone that way. Someone in possession of both documents could easily make them match each other.

Here's why, aside from serving no purpose, this is dumb: NJ driver's licences don't ask for your full middle name to begin with (only your middle initial), whereas US passports do. Therefore, my two main methods of identification do not match, and will never match. Which means that, when booking an airline ticket/cruise ticket/whatever, I'm actually going to have to think ahead about what method of identification I'll be using and book accordingly. How ridiculous. And God forbid that I might have to show both IDs at some point.

I'll put up with a lot in the name of homeland security. I never complain about lines at the airport to get through security, and I always follow their little liquids rules. My carefully packed bags getting torn apart because of a music stand in the bottom? Fine. Getting stopped at security because someone thinks my flute is a gun or some sort of weapon? Fine. Changing my name on my airline ticket? Now that's just dumb. Like it's going to hurt anyone that I prefer to use my middle initial rather than my full middle name.

I'm off to call Qantas, then. Here's hoping they won't hang up on me eight times before I finally get put on hold (for two hours).

[-43] Days Like These

I think it's days like today that I will miss most once I'm abroad. It was on a day not terribly unlike today, with not much to do, that my ambition to study in Australia was born. In many ways, Australia is one of the most exotic places you could imagine spending a semester. No, they do not speak a foreign language there (well, not if you speak English, anyway), but they have fun accents (which I hear can make them as unintelligible as if they were speaking a language you didn't understand anyway) and animals you can only find there. In one country, there is vast desert and an incredible, self-sustaining ecosystem that we call a coral reef (to be specific, the Great Barrier Reef), but which thousands of species call "home". Not to mention hundreds of things that can kill you.

On the more academic side of things, I'm curious about the development and evolution of music on an island whose society (as we know it) began as a penal colony, as well as gaining a less US-centric education.

But instead of spending this day becoming fascinated by a place I've never been, I spent it catching up with old friends and enjoying a place I've lived nearly all my life. Is it odd that I'm using these first entries of my "Australia Blog" to write about American life? Maybe, maybe not. This is where it starts, after all. Hopefully in the next few days I'll have some slightly more relevant information to write about. Things will become much busier in the next few weeks -- after all, you can't just pick up your life and move it halfway around the world for a semester without some significant preparation.