*sigh*

If I can dig out of the financial hole I'm in, I'll be there come hell or high water. It'll take me awhile to build up the vacation, but after January I'll be accruing vacation time a lot faster than now since I'll hit my 5 yr mark with my company. *thinks, counts on fingers* Which means I'll be selling insurance here for another few years, I can see. Unless I win the lottery or have some absolutely great job w/enormous commission be offered to me or find a sugar daddy who wants only to coddle me and pay all my bills and indulge me...I'll be working where I am. *sighs more*

I doubt I'll make it to Quebec next year, sadly, unless the above caveats occur. Bonne chance, mes amis!

Marian wrote:

Maybe hotel won't be too costly with roomies? *hopeful*

Lots of cheap hostels in Australia, on account of it being the major backpacker destination. Think $15 (USD) for a bed in a small (4-bed) dorm room in a good quality hostel (and you could of course also book the entire room with a group). One caveat is that that's at today's exchange rate, which is extremely favourable to the USD; no saying what it'll be in 2010.

Well do so! SAGE is nothing compared to the greatness of a full-blown smarch meet.

*steals the shift*

*looks*

O.O

Sooo... just talked to that friend, and she at once said, "OK, we'll be doing that!"
*giggles nervously*

I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go I wanna go!

The trick is saving the money in time. -sigh-

Now I keep thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?"
*ridiculously nervous*
To quote my friend again, "We'll do that - but FOR REAL, and you will NOT chicken out. And you have to go back on your own, because I'll be staying there."
Now I have these stupid images of myself wandering confusedly through an airport, and never finding my way home, always returning to Australia, because everyone keeps confusing "Austria" for "Australia" and pointing me in the wrong direction. *laughs at self*

That's what I'm hoping for.

PirateJenny wrote:

*mumbles something about Melbourne YHAs*

Queensberry (err, Metro nowdays) or Chapman Gardens (err, Oasis, nowadays)? I've always preferred Oasis, though it'd gotten worse with a huge-ass TV destroying the lounge when I was there in July. :/
I guess they're opening that new Central one soon, too... wonder what that'll be like. Probably a boring "flagship".

Magpie: yay! You'll love Australia. And Melbourne airport is pretty small and easy to navigate, so no worries there. :)

And Miiru: you can totally do it! You gotta be there - it'll be N'awlins, but then even better! (Same for you, Sahi!  Ivo will just need to learn that he'll have to cave. *nods*)

And Magpie, finding your way around airports is nowhere near as scary as it sounds. They'll speak English in Australia, so you'll be able to read all the screens yourself. *has never seen an airport that didn't have screens telling you where you have to be and signs pointing to the gates*

Just bring a lot of carrots!

Aan`allein wrote:

And Miiru: you can totally do it! You gotta be there - it'll be N'awlins, but then even better! (Same for you, Sahi!  Ivo will just need to learn that he'll have to cave. *nods*)

I'm actively trying for it, I promise! I really want to do this thing.

Single income in a tanking economy, however, is making this difficult, but I am determined. Hopefully it'll be two incomes soon, which means money to put away (although by the same token, that money's going toward getting *two* people to Oz {and San Jose, actually, although that one's closer to home and closer to today}).

PirateJenny wrote:

Aan`allein wrote:

PirateJenny wrote:

*shifty* Staying at Oasis next week ;)

Cool, say hi to... erm... *scratches head* ... *ponders* ...this is stupid... *mumbles* ("That guy whose name I can't remember but who worked there and then moved over to Hall's Gap at the same day as I did to fill in for his sister and who fed whiskey to the cleaners and hung out with us long-stayers" probably isn't enough description for you to know who I mean, eh?) ...so, erm, never mind on the saying hi. *g*

LOL. That sounds like a fabulous holiday adventure in which you realize a little bit too late that you can't remember the person's name.

The loud YHA I stayed at (twice) was at Maroochydore. It was a happy place but the first time was around New Year's Eve. They always have BBQs and singalongs and it has a very rough and ready kinda feel to it, because the rooms open to the outdoors. Can't avoid the beery conversations happening just outside your bedroom, or the singing, or the fighting o . O  (though the fighting happened around New Year's Eve over some missing booze and I was mostly amused by that, hahaha.)

ETA: Hrm, also the Brisbane CBD one, but it was also a very comfortable YHA. Lots of partygoer-types though.