Living and Working at the Hostel

I now work at the hostel where I'm staying. The deal is a work exchange: I work 3 shifts a week and get a place to live in return. It's nice for someone who doesn't have a place to stay or know anyone in the area. I get my own private room, furnished with a bed and dresser, and I have access to a full kitchen, free wi-fi, and free laundry. Essentially, free room and utilities in exchange for 24 hours of working a week. With my rent taken care of, I now have to find a job to buy groceries and other things that I might need. The nice thing is that they're really flexible here, so if I do find a job, they'll try to work around it.

I like being at the hostel, to be honest. At least for right now. I meet so many interesting people every day. Here's a brief list:

Young British people (several individuals) who quit their jobs to travel
A cycling crew going from Tempe to Tucson
Students from Ohio taking a week-long nature course
A young woman heading out to LA, who is writing a book about her crazy life
A massage therapist
A yoga teacher in training
Foreign exchange students from East Asia
Students from Virginia who brought quail eggs for cooking
Egyptian army men - parachuters here for training (it's fun to watch them cook in the kitchen)
A cake decorator from Buffalo - she's my age
A Dutchman biking across the southwest
A gem seller from Toronto who lives London
Two young women (not together) traveling around the US figuring out where they want to live
A man who practices shamanism and likes wheat grass cocktails in the morning - he told me he liked my energy and that I was like his spiritual "sister"...which made me chuckle :). He's a nice guy.

I like meeting all these people and hearing about their lives. It's reassuring to find people my age and older who are in transition and don't always know what they're doing with their lives. It's also great to meet people who do know what they're doing and to find out how they got there. The gem seller, for instance, told us about several jobs he had. One of them was a pillow factory. He had to jump off a high platform and land on the pillows as part of his work. I imagine that's fun :).

Every day is interesting and it's never the same. The only thing I wish right now is for a little more privacy. I don't have my own room yet, because the famous gem show is coming and all available space is given to guests. I also need to spend my first two weeks as an employee living in the dorms - it's part of the protocol. So I'll have to wait a little longer before I really have my own place.