Day 12 - Free Coffee, Australian Hipster, and Helping the ESL

A cold drip coffee maker! Want.

April 20th, 2015

Woke up, ate, gym, wrote, and headed into town with Andy to buy some things and to meet strangers. One of the first people we spoke to was the manager of a cafe; they weren’t hiring, but they were giving away a free first coffee (1st and 10th coffees freeeeeeeeeeee), which is pretty great. I don’t see how they’d stop people from abusing the system, but hey, free coffee.

We wandered a bit more and spoke with an Australian Hipster, Eloise, who couldn’t recommend any particularly good bar in Perth, but she could recommend less bad bars. We shot the shit about Canadian celebrities, some of which I forgot about (Kenny vs Spenny) and got a feel for the city. She was an interesting character, very open and blunt, and could keep a good banter going. We said goodbye as she finished her sorbet (she's got vegan powers) and continued on. Part of todays polling was to get a feel for the reputation of different sections of Perth, starting with where I live, Northbridge. Apparently Northbridge in particular has a problem with violence/aggressive men. Some people have said that if you’re not aggressive, you won’t catch any flak, while others say simply being there can cause a problem. Still trying to pin it down, but neither outcome really worries me at this point. Drunk idiots and jerks are the same everywhere.

Perth, near the Horseshoe bridge

We grabbed a bite to eat, bought the things we need, and listened to some street performers while devouring our food. The sun was going down, but I was still wearing my prescription sunglasses. I left my normal pair at the hostel, figuring we’d be back before sunset. No such luck. 

We got back to find Japanese Yuko about to head into town to figure out her phone. Her english isn’t very strong, so I offered to go with her, effectively roping Andy in for the ride. We walked around for some time, trying to find her cell phone shop (she bought credit, but it didn’t work (answer: she bought $10, but $30 is require to reactivating)). After wandering around for a half hour, we eventually found it and her friend (Japanese Asuka from yesterday [Ask-uh]), who happened to be right near us just as we found the store we were looking for. Yuko was hungry, leading us to track down this fairly nice restaurant called “The Standard.” (Pic) We all got a beer, and Yuko got these very overpriced chicken wings - $12 for 5 wings!

Me and Asuka

We continued the drinking back at the hostel with the box wine I had bought the day before in Subiaco. I learned some phrases in Japanese, and met a guy named (Korean) Yang Suni [Yang-zun]. This guy has only been here for 11 months and could only say the words “yes” and “no” in English upon his arrival. Now, he is pretty near fluent, though his accent is confused due to learning from all sorts of international backpackers.

Andy and Yuko

We didn’t stay up too late this night because Andy was leaving the next morning at 6:30am for his week tour to Exmouth, and I had agreed to FaceTime my parents at 9am. We said our goodbyes, goodnights, and turned in for the night.



Bonus Pic: Japanese girls attacking an iron man

Yuko is the crueler of the two