Thread: Life Abroad?

Hi, I'm mystery, the closet troll.

In real life I'm in my early twenties, farily succesful doing meaningless jobs like gigging, sound engineering, critique etc.

I currently reside in south africa and am having a blast, but I'm looking to live somewhere else for a few years for experience and to expand my horizons/cultural tastes.

The three big places I'm considering at the moment are:

1) Australia
2) New Zealand
3) Canada

I was just wondering if there are any Aussies/Zealanders/Canadians here who can give me a bit of info on what life is like there, average salaries, music scene, night life, living costs, quality of life etc. I'm also interested in how the job market is and what rental costs are. Like if I went to Australia I'd like to be in or close to sydney(because I want to hit bondi beach almost daily), but I figure living costs might be too high for a guy who intends to go there and do barwork or live gig work.

Keep in mind I'm a big bulky nord who lived on a tropical island for many years, so I don't have any problem with extreme heat or cold(in fact, where I grew up averages 40-45 degrees celcius in summer) and I'm used to excessive night life.

And now some info on me to help you educate me about living conditions there.

General info about me: I have a drivers license, I speak and write english, greek and danish fluently. I'm a professional sound engineer and barman(as in I mix 5 star bar cocktails), I'm also a professional musician. Hope that helps you help me.

Places I've lived: South africa(from Nelspruit to the Cape), Cyprus, Greece, England(guildford and colchester), Denmark, Sweden, Czechoslovakia.(Most of these xept cyprus and SA I stayed and worked for around 5-6 months).

Places I've visited as a tourist: Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, NYC, Jamaica, Romania, Italy, France and Germany.

Any information would be appreciated.

Keep in mind if anyone doesn't mind me drilling them for an hour or two on how life is there specifically, PM me so I can reach you on a more instant messenger basis.

Thanks.

I would recommend Melbourne over Sydney because I'm biased like that.
Melbourne is well known for the arts scene. Music, night life, cafes, bars. I don't like Sydney much, but then a lot of people from Melbourne will just say that.

They do have Bondi, and we don't have a beach so close to the city that compares. There are beaches around here, just not that nice.
Weather in Melbourne is known for being temperamental. Hot Summer and then pretty miserable/unpredictable the rest of the year.

Depending on the rental situation you're looking for, if you were to get a place alone in or around the city there's no way you'd pay less than $1000 per month in rent. Probably closer to $1200. Share housing however is obviously much cheaper. I know a bunch of guys living in a big house five minutes out of the city who pay $90 a week each. I rent a three bedroom house about twenty minutes away from the city and we pay 1600 a month for the whole house. But we have a backyard and a lot more space than houses closer in. Melbourne is pretty compact.

I imagine the hospitality industry wouldn't be too hard to get work in, and our base wages are generally pretty good. Anyone I know working in hospitality around your age earns between $16-$19 an hour.

Melbourne was named the most liveable city in the world for 2011. And 7th most expensive city in the world. But I guess you get what you pay for, maybe.
Feel free to PM me. I should work for Tourism Melbourne. Haha. I love it here.

Still looking for a zealander and Lumberjack informant, applicant's need not apply, you are being dry hired and payed with appreciation and attempts at decent conversation.

I'm an American who lived and worked in NZ and Australia and has traveled extensively in Canada. They are all great countries and my advice is spend time in all three if you can. I will give you my impression on each of those places and you can PM me if you are interested in more info.

Australia's economy is doing relatively well despite the global recession (unemployment of 5% vs 10% or more for US and Europe), so that is one big advantage of Australia. I'm currently working in Australia and jobs are easy to find if one is willing to work and the pay is good ($20/hour for unskilled jobs like waitstaff for example). The country is great - beautiful scenery, wonderful friendly people, and very big with a range of climates and landscapes to choose from.

New Zealand is the most beautiful country that I've seen. If you like outdoors then come here, the scenery is unsurpassed and the trekking wonderful. The economy isn't as strong as Australia, the pay much less and the jobs harder to come by. The people are very friendly here too, and it is the perfect place to work and save up money then buy a cheap car and explore.

Canada is a great country too, very scenic and the people are generally friendly as well (but not as much as the Aussies or Kiwis). I don't know much about the work situation, but Canada has some wonderful cities that would be exciting to live and work in - Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa to name a few. I would have done that, but never had permission to work in Canada. It also has spectacular scenery. The Banff and Lake Louise area is amazing, and Canada has lots of wilderness to explore.

I don't mean to sound overly positive on these places, but Australia, NZ and Canada are three of the best countries I've been to as far as living/working/quality of life goes. You would do well to pick any of them.

Good luck!

Melbournian here. We are the best place to live. Know why, we are the biggest multicultural city in the world. Talk about spot the Aussie... Ha ha. We have every race under the sun living here. A plethora of religions and all sorts of people. And of course the people are gorgeous. Ha ha, me modest... Never! Plus there are amazing restaurants and plenty of bars and don't forget Australia is still a young country. Fresh as a daisy.