2nd Best Job in the World

I’ve been a professional street performer for over a year now. It has to be one of the best jobs in the world. Playing my trombone in the sunshine at Sydney Harbour, people throwing money at me. Busking around Canada, Business trips to New Zealand, Canberra, Blue Mountains and Picton- it’s a tough gig to top.

Summer was golden. I was working 10-15 hours a week, getting paid more than most of my friends and not paying tax. The last few months have been harder. It got cold. Less people, less tourists, no cruise ships and it’s harder and less pleasant to play. I was going to have to find employment elsewhere. Now I find myself about to begin my very first full time job. You heard right; I, Maya Sebestyen, have a real job with a contract and leave and everything.

I bet you’re all wondering what else you can do with a Bachelor of Arts aside from being a street performer/ sailor/ hotel manager/ bartender/ bingo caller.

There was a job advertised a few years ago as “The Best Job in the World”. Tourism Queensland was going to pay someone $150,000 to live on Hamilton Island for 6 months, do all the cool stuff and blog/ vlog about it. I don’t have that job. I’m not getting paid $150,000 but I am getting paid. I’m not going to Hamilton Island, I’m going to Hayman Island which is slightly further north and I’m being employed by Hayman Island Resort not Tourism Queensland. Other than that it sounds pretty similar.

Got Questions?

Where is this place?

Hayman is part of the Whitsunday’s, a group of islands in the Great Barrier Reef. Far smaller and more expensive then Hamilton, this privately owned island is home to a luxury resort and that’s about it.

What exactly will you be doing there?

Writing blogs, making videos, taking photos etc. I will have a better idea once I’m up there, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to go snorkeling, sample the lobsters, test out the masseuse, jet ski....

How did you score this?

A girl I went to high school with hooked me up.* I made a 2 minute video (busking turned out to be an excellent topic) and voila!

*To all those people who delete people on facebook they “never talk to”, I say; think twice.

When do you start?

Training in Sydney this week. Fly to Hayman July 10th-ish.

How to Get the Most out of Your Sub

For Catie,

Subway. It’s the fast food joint you go to when you want to feel less bad about yourself, or you accidentally walked past it and forgot how darn good it smells.

It’s a well known fact that the employees at subway are called ‘sandwich artists’ I am completely agree with the assessment that a sandwich can be a work of art. I won’t go into my sandwich beliefs now- I simply don’t have time.

Although the subway worker is known as the artist, I believe the customer is the conceptual artist, after all you’re the one who has to get the vision across to the artist. What will your sub look like, smell like, feel like, taste like? How can you control the subtleties of your sandwich; the ratio, the order of ingredients etc.?

My personal aim is to get as much on my sub as possible. Sure, the flavours might not mingle as well as they could but at least I know I’m getting value for money and also taking out some of the decisions I have to make. I used to say “I’ll have everything” but as my friend Catie pointed out, this was a rooky mistake. When you ask for 'all the toppings', they only give you a little bit of each, the trick is to ask for a few at a time. “I’ll have tomato and carrot” then you wait til they’ve put the tomato and carrot on, then you say something like “and onions”. Wait. “Black olives….. And green” Wait. “A dozen cucumber slices should be plenty. Wait. ”Oh and LOTS of pickles”. Wait. “Are they jalapenos? Yes I will have some of those”. Wait. “Actually I will have some lettuce” etc.

Another important thing to consider is in what order should you ask for toppings? To be honest I’m undecided, here are a few options that you might want to consider:

• Favourite toppings first- sandwich artistry isn't rocket scientist, but after a while I think they start giving less of each topping.
• Smaller items first- they put a lot of the smaller items on first then if they put fewer larger items on, they will take up more space, if that makes any sense.
• Sandwich order- where items go in relation to each other is of vital importance; in terms of flavour but also texture. E.g don’t go putting tomato next to your bread or it will go soggy. A waterproofing topping like cheese or lettuce is a much better option.

Disclaimer: The sandwich artist will almost definitely hate you if you use this approach.

Disclaimer disclaimer: But it's totally worth it.

The Graduate

I have some shocking news to tell you all. Seriously, you might want to sit down for this one. OK, here it goes: I’m having an affair with a much older woman, but now I’ve fallen in love with her daughter and things are getting awkward. OK so that’s not true at all, I’m not that type of graduate. I’m the other kind, the kind that GRADUATES!!!

On the 25th of April 2010 at around 8pm, I stumbled out of my last exam. It was Canadian studies and the last word I wrote was ‘eh’.

You may be wondering why if I finished uni over a year ago I’m only graduating today. It turns out there are a few things you have to do when you finish your degree whilst on exchange. I lie, there’s only one; you have to ask. After putting it off for over a year, I finally picked up the phone sometime in May.

“Good morning, Sydney University Graduations office this is Helen speaking”

“Hi Helen, ummmm I was just wondering if I could graduate?”

“What is your student number please?”

“306124749”

Typing noises

“Yes that’s fine Maya, we’ll send your invitations out in the next week”

-------------

Dear University,

Thanks for allowing me to receive this very expensive piece of paper. I’m sorry I didn’t give you the attention you deserved and that I hated you with a fiery burning passion. Thanks for helping me qualify for youth allowance and letting me go on exchange to Canada, that was really fun. I’m sorry that I didn’t pay you any attention there either.

I did learn some things from you, and I appreciate those times when I can pull out a fun fact about language, or meditation or one of the sculptures I made, even if it is only at pub trivia. I have a great respect for what you do University, and I hope we can still be friends- friends that don’t talk or write or have any contact with each other.

Sincerely,

306124749