Sydney – Episode 2: Manly fundraising

One of the things you learn quickly arriving in Australia as a backpacker: you can not survive without working.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I started looking for work the moment I arrived. It hasn’t been easy so far, but after two weeks of spreading out resumes, I found something. Not exactly what I first had in mind, but still an enjoyable new challenge! As I’m working, I’m trying to keep on discovering and seeing what Australia has to offer.

Manly

“Visit Manly”, my housemates offered!
“Are you talking about the hometown of the Expendables? Is this a place where Sylvester Stalone and Chuck Noris are training?”
Ok, enough jokes with the word Manly.
Apparently it’s a thing in Australia to play with funny names. So had I my first Golden Gay Time! Delicious experience! We made a video of me experiencing my  second Golden Gay Time.

Manly is a suburb north-east of the Sydney CBD (central business district). It’s known for it’s nice beaches and scenery.
Having Koh Rong fresh in my head, these beaches don’t appear to be so appealing but they’re definitely nicer then the ones from Mui Ne in Vietnam! By taking one of the ferries it’s really easy to get to from the CBD. From the pier you can easily get around Manly. Walking through the shopping street, you automatically arrive at the one of the beaches for surfing or snorkling.
Or you can take a bus to North Head or the National Park. I did the Manly Scenic Walkaway, a hike that combined all these things into a four hour walk. Definitely a recommendation if you ever come here!

Fundraiser Mats

Yes, you read it correctly: Fundraiser. I’m one of those lovely greenpeace guys you see in the street who wants to talk with you.
Finally I’ll be able to share my outgoing enthusiastic energy to the lovely Australians in the street. After being selected from a 20 head group interview, we had a four hour training in face to face fundraising. The week after, we were released on the streets to convince people to sign up. I’m representing the HRI: Heart Research Institute, one of the largest companies working on medication and methods to cure people with heart problems. We’re trying to sign up people for monthly donations for 1$/day.

I think I can easily say that I have decent lvl of English, but it’s a different story when it comes to objections from native speakers in fundraising. Similar to programming, you have to have different solutions for different problems and act on those.
After a couple of days and too much coffee, you mind is working on topspeed when fundraising! It’s also a big boost for your confidence! After every shift, I forget that my shift is over and I would start talking to everyone on my bus.

Getting people to sign up is a lot harder then I expected. We’re supposed to hit 10 signups in 10 days, and for the moment I only had one single signup…

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Life in Sydney

As I’m getting used to the Australian habits, prices and people, Wallace is still my home. In a couple of weeks I’ll have to leave this amazing house in Kingsford so I try to enjoy every moment here! Eating unhealthy stuff in the weekends, watching Korean movies at 4am, going for bubble tea all together, checking out the Mardi Gras parade… For the moment we have two more friends crashing in our couch. David and Oscar, two students looking for a place to stay around the University. The Wallace family counts 8 heads now! Crazy you would think, but there is a really good balance and a laid back atmosphere.