Meg Goes Global

(Well, Working Holiday Visa pt.2)

It’s been an eventful couple of years since I was last living here but I’ve finally got my next visa. Shoutout to the Free Trade Agreement! I am so happy to be back but this time is definitely a different experience. The whirlwind travel and hostel partying has been swapped for settling into the Gold Coast life for a while. But you know what, I’m more than happy with that since I’ve swapped my nights out for being in bed by 9pm most nights anyway.

It took a good few weeks of relentless resume dropping, and a lot of rejection that made me feel like I was getting nowhere; but once I got the ball rolling the offers tended to come all at the same time. The only way to go is just consistency, and be confident that something will come up. I guess you just can’t be fussy to begin with, and you’re going to need a job before you can afford anything else.

One of the biggest challenges has been Medicare. No one seems to talk about this all too much but my God has it been a frustrating process. Don’t get me wrong I am blessed to have reciprocal healthcare but they definitely don’t make it easy. As someone (like many young people) who has only ever lived at home, getting documents for proof of UK residency was hard. I had no bills, written work contracts or child school enrolement to send off to the government. Going in person to Medicare offered no solution, only giving me the forms I had already started filling in from online. MyGov log in wasn’t working as I had changed phone number, and of course the app kept crashing.

To cut a lot of back and forth and a painfully long story short, I sent off bank statements and pay slips, and my Medicare card is on its way (yippee). After 6 weeks of being here, when I started the process as soon as possible, but better late then never right? I had to keep pestering them and calling to see where my application was because if you don’t do that you just get forgotten about!

The next thing on my list was accommodation. Things get snapped up quickly as with many of the cities in Australia. I am so beyond grateful to have the help of my friends (with cars and knowledge of rentals etc) that I don’t know what I’d do without them. All I can say is just message, message, message. Anything and anyone on flatmates might be worth a look even just for comparison or a feel of budget. And yeah you might be in for some shockers: some leaky showers, broken bits, dirty rooms and even a lady giving you an oh so professional house tour in her PJs; but something will come up.

So basically my experience so far has been a big fat form of rejection therapy (and the former tropical cyclone Alfred added for a bit of fun), but these are the battles I’d pick over any. Well, maybe not the natural disaster.

On a lighter note I’m very much enjoying being outside more, getting up earlier, the generous minimum casual wage, and just feeling like where I’m mean to be right now.