1/14~ 1/21
Time passed so quickly, especially the time in Manjimup. This is sort of dilemma. When I was working, I hoped desperately that the time could pass as quickly as it could but in the other way, I didn’t want the time pass so fast because that means my time in Australia will become lesser and lesser. Sometimes I will wonder why I am in Manjimup. The main purpose for me is to save money and buy a car. After that I will travel “around” Australia, which means I should save enough money for that. Now I face a very big problem that is I don’t know where and when I should go. Sometimes it is good that you don’t have a plan because that means you have verity choices but sometimes you need a plan because it can give you a direction. Some times you just need to know what to do next step.
The weather in Manjimup is very weird. It is not like the other place in Australia. Seasons are contrary in Southern Hemisphere and now should be summer. When I stayed in Exmouth, I thought all the weather in WA must like it in Exmouth- dry and hot. But the weather in Manjimup gives me another experience about the summer. It is cold in the morning and at night but it is sometimes very hot in the afternoon. I got a bad quilt and pillow when I move in the hostel. The cotton in the pillow is loose and it is also seems very dirty so I didn’t even want to touch it, but I have to keep it until the day I leave here. I always put it under my feet. The quilt is also no good so I use it as pillow. That means I have to use the sheet as the quilt. I always wear my coat when I go to sleep but I still feel very cold when I wake up in the morning.
Because I don’t want to dirty my coat and because I don’t have long-sleeve T-shirt, I always wear short-sleeve T-shirt and a sleeveless garment to work. It is freezing in the morning. Fortunately, I didn’t get cold. Sometimes I have to go to farm for broccoli picking. Broccoli needs water and the farmer always let the sprinkler work before we arrive there, that means when we pick the broccoli, it is always wet. Water plus cold air that form an uncomfortable work place. I hate the cold weather in the morning.
After broccoli picking, I went for cherry picking for one day. Although I like to eat cherry, I never see a cherry tree before. The cherry threes are about two floors high. We got a ladder to climb up and pick the cherry. Although it is not right to eat cherry when you pick them, I have to say the cherry taste so great. This sherry-picking job is the first time that I work by contract. We have two different kind of way to determine the wage. First one is “by hour” and the second one is “by contract”. Most of the work in Manjimup is “by hour”; it means the farm will pay you per hour. I can get 16.69 Australia dollars per hour before tax. If you got a job that pay you by contract, it means you can make big money. I had heard that some people make 300 dollars a day before. Most of the Korean like to work by contract because they can make big money.
The contract in the cherry farm is the owner will pay 15 dollars per bin, each bin have to weight 10 kg. It sounds great! (Actually it isn’t. Someone in the hostel told me that 15 dollars per bin is very low.) But when I started, I realized that it was not easy to pick 10 kg within an hour and even if I could pick 10 kg per hour, the pay still lower than “by hour”. There were the other two guys working with me. At first, I would pick every sherry on the tree before I went to the next one. Some of the cherries grow on high branch so I had to use the ladder to climb up and down and that cost me a lot of time. The other two guys didn’t pick all the cherries so they could fill the bin so quickly. When I realized that, it was a little late. In order not to “have deficit”, I decide to eat as many cherries as I could. Two weeks later, I got 80 dollars check. (Usually I can make more than 100 a day.)
After cherry picking, I went to a nursery for two days. In there, they grow a lot of seedling. I like that place because I worked inside and we all got three times break a day which is better than other farm. My job there was to help seeding. There was a very cool machine that could put the seeds in the dirt in a very high speed. My job was to put the plate of dirt on the convey belt. Each plate has 100 holes in it. Each hole was full of dirt. When the convey belt process, there would be a facility to dig a small chamber in each hole. After that, another facility would put the seeds in the small chamber. When the seeds were planted in the chamber, the fertilizer would cover it. It was an easy job and the pay was good. I got 250 dollars cash in the second day.
Except cherry, I had never pick some fruit that can be eat immediately. But after the nursery work, I went to pick nectarine for four days. Nectarine is kind of small perch. It is red and normally as big as girl’ fist. It smells good and it tastes even better. The farmer told us they only want the firm one. If me picked soft one we have to throw it away because it was already mature. They only want the firm one because that can be store for a short time. Nevertheless, the soft one was great!! It was juicy and sweet. When you took a bite, the juice would spread out. That was great. I always eat a lot when I pick it and bring a lot home after work. Sometimes I only took one bite and throw away because there were a lot waiting for me. I even became a PNT-Professional Nectarine Taster.
There was a guy work with me. His name is Daniel and he is from Israel. He is thin and as tall as me. His hairstyle is sort of like punk. His English is great. We talked a lot when we were working. I always interest in the Jewish and Israel. Jewish is a very success race and Israel is a very strong country. All the countries around Israel want to invade it but every time, no matter the amount of the enemy, Israel can beat them. I inquired Denial a lot about the cultural of Jewish and the history of Israel and I also told him our country’s history. Daniel told me that Israeli couldn’t have other country’s working visa. Nevertheless his mother is Dutch so he has two passports and that’s why he can work legally in Australia.
Daniel is an interesting person. He is in the same age as me. He’d already stayed in Australia for one and half year. We talked a lot when we were working. We talked about movies, life, marijuana, sport, music and our country’ own history. I asked his opinion about the World War Two and German. Daniel told me that his grandfather witness Nazi shot his father, Daniel’ great grandfather, in front of his face. I told him I don’t understand why people want to kill each other. The funny thing is that Daniel’s girlfriend, Julia, is from German. Daniel told me that the misunderstanding between Jewish and German already passed. It shouldn’t be a question in our generation.
Daniel is good at ping-pong. I challenged him five times but I only won once. No matter how hard I tried to spin the ball, he could always makes it come back. It was very interesting to play ping-pong with Daniel. When he plays ping-pong, he seems like play tennis. All of his poses are like he’s playing tennis.
Talking about sport, in Manjimup, there are only a few sports for us to do. Pool and ping-pong are the basic two sports and sometimes European will kick soccer. There are two Korean in our hostel can do a Brazil dance. I had seen it in Taiwan before and I wanted to learn it. This kind of dance is a combination of dance and martial art. You have to move, spin and kick. Most of the time the hand are used to protect your head. My Korean teacher, Justin, can do some amazing spin in the air. People say that he was a very famous dancer back in Korea. He is good at breaking. He even served in the special force in Korea for four and half years. He is not good at English but he always smile and try to understand what people are talking to him.
I realize that most of the Korea guys would bring their military uniform to Australia and wear them when they go to work. Now I have seen Navy, Army and special force’s uniform. Military service in Koran is two years. They get very little pay per month, only 300 NTD or 10 AUD. That is terrible. In Taiwan, we get 200 AUD per month and sometimes I don’t think that is enough for me. One of the Korea guy, Jeremy, even went to Iraq for his military service. I think that is pretty cool. He told me that he only did the paper work and to his surprising, he saw snow in Iraq in winter.
Life in Manjimup is very sample and boring. I hope that I can have a car and I can go anywhere I want when I don’t have to work.
