Hey y'all.

So, number one, I say y'all a lot more now that I'm not in the States. It's an easy way to group people without any association of gender but it's also probably tied in with trying to appropriate and get in cultural proximity to blackness and the coolness that our society trades on that. I'm going to think about this more deeply in the next few days and see if it is too problematic for me to be saying.

Number two, I'm still in Melbourne, I'm still staying in the same hostel I was living in last year, I'm still in a 10 bed dorm. Yes, I share a room with 9 other people and I've pretty much totally adjusted to it. I've been working at the hostel for 7 months now, 2 months as full-time paid staff. My job title is All-Rounder, I do maintenance, deep cleaning of rooms over the winter, and night reception, also known as night audit. It's pretty good work, not that well paid for Australia but it is really fun to work with friends and be able to have a 30 second commute. I love living in the middle of a big city that is so walkable and pedestrian-friendly; I get around mostly with a smooth-rolling skateboard which is often-times as fast as taking the tram to the nearby suburbs. Since I started getting paid I've been eating out a lot, almost all of it good food and almost all of it East Asian cuisine. Most of the good less-expensive food in the Melbourne CBD is East Asian so that's what I've been eating: dumplings, lahksa, dry noodles with pork wontons (mmmmm had that last night as drunk food), curry, pho, the list goes on.

Number three, I've been drinking alcohol here in Melbourne more than any other time in my life. Before coming, I was afraid perhaps I would become a person I didn't like under the influence of alcohol, or that my idea of self was partially tied to the truism that I didn't drink much. Since being under the influence here many times I've lost my worries, and since I didn't drink much before I don't feel the need to drink on every night out or to have a good time. Living in a hostel kind of lends itself to acquiring alcoholic tendencies but I feel comfortable with my control, and now that it's going into winter here things will be less crazy. No more 4-5 nights a week of sesh. I'm sure my tolerance has gone up and my ability to presage/cope with a hangover has definitely improved, but that doesn't make it any less harmful to my body, so I'm glad I'll be toning it down a bit.

Number four, I've been working for money for the past two months and plan to for another 3-4 months. I'd like to save enough to travel up the East Coast of Australia and then go home home to Minnesota for a bit, maybe only a couple months before I get itchy feet but I've been away too long. 18 months. That is long enough to lose friendships, miss both my brothers' graduations, and not feel sure about what home is anymore. I've been living in a state of transience in a hostel for a year. I know this place inside and out but it's not a home. I need to get a home.

Anyway, this is the first of 30 posts for this month. I am participating in the Xavier D’Leau 2017 Summer Writing Challenge and will be writing hopefully-not-nonsense for the next month, if that's your bag. And yeah, I know this isn't a story but I figured I need to let the people know a little bit of what's up with the this one over here.