Arrived in Australia!

11.02.2015

I took the plane at 3:45 a.m. from Singapore.

When I tried to leave the country, they made me pay for overstaying my visa by 16 days. I thought I had one until May 15, but I guess it was only for one month, since I didn't get the work pass finalized, due to laziness and having no faith in my job.

They didn't tell me what was wrong, they just brought me over to some very stern looking people who looked at my paperwork with scary frowns. Finally they told me I'd just have to pay $100 and I could go free. I burst into laughter and let out a huge sigh of relief. I had NO idea what to expect as punishment for this mistake. Wow. I gingerly went to the ATM and gave them their money, I had already changed everything I had into Australian and Chinese money so this was a necessary evil. But I was happy anyway to be let go with such a small fine. Phew!

I had three seats to myself on the plane to Denpasar, then I switched and was predictably smooshed onto the plane to Perth. JetStar is a shitty airline that doesn't feed you, so when I showed up to Perth and my couch surfing host Luke (who picked me up!) took me to the grocery store, I was happy. He pretended to forget his wallet, but of course I happily paid for his groceries, PLUS he was making us pizza for dinner that night.

When I showed up at his house, Malee and Quentin, two other couch surfers were already there. Malee and I went downtown to meet some people she thought she would travel with. She didn't actually go with them, but I had a macaron ice cream sandwich with white chocolate ice cream. I think I deserved it, yeah?

When we got back, Luke was making us pizza and he had a bunch of free wine from his work that I couldn't even make a dent in. It was kind of a hilarious night, sitting on his back porch amidst the rusty trampoline, broken scooters and bird shit encrusted chairs. :P

Three seats!