Hostel Life in Adelaide and Interesting People with Interesting Stories

This is the first time I've ever stayed long term in a hostel.

Living here was the first time I think I was really consciously aware of a living space really BECOMING a "home". It's hard to describe, but after I first arrived, I could feel myself becoming more familiar first with the different spaces and corners. Then I started to feel that certain warm feeling of relief and security you get when you come "home". After that, I started to view the other long termers the same way I would housemates.

Speaking of housemates, there is a really eclectic mix of people staying here long-term: two hilarious Korean guys who are dishwashing at a restaurant, a young Nepalese man who is working at the hostel and a convenience store, a Dutch-Vietnamese guy who is taking a break from his university studies, an Australian guy studying for the seminary (more on him later), another Australian guy who is a martial arts kickboxer, an American girl who is interning at a lab and studying neuroscience, and an Italian guy who is working at a bakery and at the hostel. There is also a Chilean couple who are both working doing potato and onion packing. A lot of the "long-termers" that were here when I arrived have already left: a couple of German girls, another American girl, a couple of Japanese...but such is the way of hostel life!

However, because of the nature of hostels, most people come and go quite swiftly. It's odd to live in a place that is essentially a thoroughfare for most. I see new backpackers arrive and leave every day. Some stay for a night, others stay for a week or more.

Seeing so many people come and go from the hostel, one is bound to meet some odd and interesting people with some odd and interesting stories.

Here are a few of these people and stories:

Michelle

A few weeks ago, a group of three (an American girl, a Dutch girl, and a British guy) came into my dorm room. It took less than two minutes of introductory small talk to find out that the American girl, who we'll call Michelle, had dated one of my fraternity brothers back in Minneapolis. The conversation went like this:

"Where are you from?" - Michelle
"I'm from Kansas, close to Kansas City." - me
"Oh, so you went to KU?" - Michelle
"No, I went to Drake University in Des Moines." - me
"Oh, would you happen to know Adam _______?" - Michelle
"...Yea, he was in my fraternity." - me

Believe it or not, but this not the craziest "it's-a-small-world-after-all" experience I've had. I could spend an entire post writing about those experiences, which I will in the near future.

In any case, I have the American girl to thank, because I had just quit the sales job I had had, and she suggested I do what I have been doing for the past few years and what I will probably continue to do for the rest of my life: teaching English as a second language. She does it in Sydney and has way less experience than I did. Now I'm working a few hours at a private English institute and just got a sub-contract private tutoring job using her as a reference!

Michelle had worked very "successfully" in a marketing/advertising firm for a couple years after graduating from university. By the age of 27, she realized that she wasn't happy, so she quit and decided to travel...sound familiar? After getting a TEFL certification, she spent seven months in China, and while on vacation in Australia...decided to stay here. She's planning on traveling to Africa and Europe in the somewhat near future.

Ricky

Ricky moved into my dorm room a few days after I did. He was a skinny 40-something-year-old Australian who seemed to mean well. However, my intuitive alarms were set to "keep under observation" when he told us, quite soon after introducing himself I might add, that he was trying to get a mining job out west to get away from "ice". "Ice", for those of you who don't know, is the street term for meth. Not only this, but he been in a hospital in Adelaide being treated for a minor stab wound. He got kicked out of the hospital for leaving to get a drink at a pub. How did he get the stab wound? Oh, he just got into a little skirmish with a couple of guys at a pub.

In the course of a week, Ricky went from bad to worse. He was obviously still doing ice (staying out at all times of night) and sleeping through most of the day. He once brought back a homeless guy who seemed like a "pretty good guy", but then accused of him of trying to steal his phone (when clearly Ricky was just drunk sitting on the couch and it fell out of his pocket.

One Friday night I was trying to read in order to fall asleep and Ricky, red-faced with blood-shot eyes, kept on trying to talk to me (What's America like? What do you think about 9/11? Did you know that the Bush family ate dinner with the Bin Ladens?). I had already resolved at this point that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. I answered his questions rather tersely hoping that he would get the picture (of course he didn't). Finally, I said, "I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but I'm trying to read in order to fall asleep because I have work early tomorrow morning." After this he mumbled something to himself, including some audible curses. After a few more minutes he left, and while he was leaving he asked, "Where are you from?" (even though we had obviously just talked about this), and I said, "The U.S..." and he said, "That figures" and walked out. I rolled my eyes and was finally able to actually continue reading.

At this time, a fellow long-termer who was also staying in my dorm (we'll call him Steve) was warming up to Ricky a little bit (I have no idea how), and on a particularly "methed" morning, Ricky offered to pay Steve's rent. Steve had the money, but he just needed to go to the ATM to get it. Well, it turns out that Steve only THOUGHT he had the money, as he had not been paid yet by his employer. The days following this were clearly exasperating for Steve, because Ricky was constantly hounding him for the money, even going so far as implying that he was going to get some of his boys together to beat him up or take his phone.

After all of this came to light, and armed with the excuse that our dorm was being deep cleaned on Monday, I moved to another dorm on that Saturday and told the staff that I felt uncomfortable around Ricky, so to please not move him to my new dorm. The staff took note, and a day or two later, Ricky was kicked out of the hostel for having a couple of strikes against him.

Ricky was a man who clearly could not take care of himself, did not take responsible for his actions, and thought everyone was out to get him. Basically, exactly the type of person I would prefer not to be around.

A few days later, I was walking around and saw Ricky with his bags walking with a similarly dodgy looking fellow. I looked the other direction as soon as I recognized him and continued on my way.

Luckily, I have not had the displeasure of dealing with anyone as awful as Ricky since he left.


Kanu

I honestly can't remember this guy's name anyway, but it was actually something kind of close to Kanu. He was a Fijian who had immigrated to Australia. He was a massive man and a massively cheerful. He was also very generous with his food. He wasn't shy about telling people that he was staying at the hostel because his wife had kicked him out of his house (for the second time, in fact). He actually seemed pretty upbeat about the whole situation, to be perfectly honest. A couple of times Kanu brought back loads of bread from a local shelter that gives out free food for the homeless (basically all of the stuff that local bakeries were going to throw out anyway) and share it with all of us. In my mind I thought, "This bread might better serve people who can't afford food or a place to stay", but I certainly wasn't going to argue with this man.


Sam

I was initially very skeptical of Sam. Unfortunately, I have an automatic aversion to people that carry Bibles around with them. As Sam and I are both early risers, we would often be the only ones in the kitchen before 8:00 a.m. It's funny to admit this now, but I definitely tried to avoid talking to him because I was afraid he was just going to preach to me. There is probably nothing I want less than to get preached to by an Evangelical Christian at 7:00 a.m.

We had short interactions here and there, but nothing significant.

It wasn't until he came to the bar with us one night. At first I thought, "Wait, Sam the Evangelical CHRISTIAN is coming to the BAR with us?" Well, after I ordered a beer and Sam ordered a water, he and I had a conversation at length about his life and how he became a born again Christian.

I don't recall all of the details (not because I was exceedingly intoxicated, but more because this was a few weeks ago), but here goes. Earlier in his 20s, Sam had lived abroad in Europe and had lived the party lifestyle typical of that age (as if I'm so far removed from that...hah!). Sam then went to Africa (I can't remember which country) to volunteer, primarily as an English teacher. He saw widespread illiteracy, poverty, and much worse...the insignificance of human life. One day, he was running doing his morning workout, and some guys on a corner stopped him and called him over.

They said, "Those are some nice shoes there."
He said, "Yea..."
They said, "Let's see'em."
Sam smiled and said, "No" emphatically, but without sounding like a smart ass.

The men continued to insist, but Sam continued to refuse them. Eventually, they let him go.

When he got back to his host family he decided not to tell them about what happened. Despite this, word got back to the host family, and the patriarch of the family said, "Sam, did you get stopped by some men who wanted your shoes?"

Sam said, "Yes."
The father said, "We know who it is, and we will kill them."
Sam said, "...Um, sorry, what?"
The father said, "We are going to kill them."

Once Sam realized he was serious, he pleaded with them not to. Finally, he calmed down his host father, and nothing ended up happening to the men.

Sam having chosen to recount this experience with me makes me think that this was one of his main turning points to eventually becoming a born-again Christian, but he also made it clear that he had several more experiences that led him to discover his faith.

(Again, sorry for the lack of details and sort of mundanely written story, but his story

Sam has also briefly volunteered in India and is planning on going back there to do more work.

Sam is a Christian in the truest sense. He is completely selfless, sincerely humble, and he earnestly cares in the well-being of those around him.