This past month.

Over this past month since moving to California, life has been surprisingly hectic. I mean, for two pretty chill kiwi guys without jobs or agendas - we have kept fairly busy. However, things are finally starting to pan out. Yay.

The search for employment had been a tad strenuous. Amidst the economic downturn, California boasts the highest unemployment rate of all the US states: currently between 18 ad 25 percent. On top of this, the surging US dollar, bolsted by the government, virtually halved our savings in the exchange rate when transferring our funds into American currency. With no income filtering into our bank accounts, Paul and I devised a bit of a financial plan. We figured that, if we spend ten dollars or less on food per day, we could last unemployed in California for at least a couple of months.

We started our job hunt with hotels. Fortunately, we have been really blessed in meeting some awesome people along the way, one of them kindly offering us a car to borrow for a couple of months (cheers Christian!). So, we were able to google-search hotels in areas where we wanted to live - Huntington, Newport, Laguna beaches - and drive to them rather than take the dreaded public transport. Yeouch. Yet at almost all of the hotels we went to, we were told that you had to fill out your application online. So, a little bit down on ourselves, we went home and did just that.

Filling out the applications was painful at best. We really wanted to talk to someone about a job, but apparently human interaction is no longer cool, as the IT age continues to 'revolutionise' our lives. Meh. Filling all those forms out felt robotic - there was no way to emphasise your personality, or get 'a connection' with anyone. Our motto for finding a job was "people are everything", meaning that in order to fulfill anything in life, all you need is a positive personal encounter with somebody. We spent hours everyday filling out applications, and feeling like we were getting nowhere fast.

In between job hunting, we were constantly on the lookout for accommodation. There seemed to be plenty about, so we figured we might as well get the best place we can, so we could officially live the dream. We were initially torn between Laguna and Newport - and live a life of the rich and famous. However, Laguna was beautiful, but it didnt seem to offer the sort of young community (or surf) we were after. Newport was also great, yet it was overpriced and lacking a main town hub. Five minutes north of Newport was Huntington Beach, and it seemed to offer everything. Pumping town vibe, pumping surf and pumping beach scene. It was just such an active community - always things going on, people volleyballing, skateboarding and frisbee-ing. Exciting stuff. We must have emailed about 50 people about accommodation, and checked out maybe 8 or so of them in person. We finally settled on a place in Huntington, which was close to town and about 3 houses from the beach. With the house now sussed, there was evermore a need to find work, as a deposit was promptly required.

 

With the funds running lower day by day, we started searching other possible areas of employment. We'd jump on craigslist.org everyday to check their daily postings, which seemed to be full of those 'too-good-to-be-true' type jobs, where you can in fact be a millionaire - right from the comfort of your own home. Naively, we inquired into a couple of these places, and we were (amazingly) hired right on the spot. We later found that one job was selling cutlery to hapless families, the other running around a parking lot, stalking unsuspecting customers to buy into a 'once in a lifetime' beauty salon treatment offer. 90 percent off!

We had rarely put God into the equation during our quest for employment. I mean, He was the reason for making it to the States in the first place. I pondered over the words of Philippians 4:13. After a quick prayer, I figured it was high time to follow-up all of the hotels that we had applied for...I was frustrated at not hearing back from them. My first couple of calls went nowhere, but I figured hey, I have nothing to lose here. Then I rang the Hyatt Huntington Beach Hotel, where Paul and I had applied for the position of recreational attendant a few days earlier. I talked to a nice lady named Anna, who actually seemed willing to help. She said that she would forward our files to the recreation manager later that day.Less than 24 hours after I had prayed, we recieved phone calls saying we both had interviews at the Hyatt hotel in Huntington that day. We were both stoked, but figured that there would only be one position - so we wished eachother the best of luck.  

We dressed up as fancy as we could for the interview. Paul went first; my interview was about 20 minutes after his. I eagerly waited him to return, but after 20 minutes, he wasnt back. I shot off to my interview. Just before I was in the intervew room, Paul burst out, sporting a huge grin on his face. "I got the job!" he shouted. "and you'll get it too..its super chill! There are a couple of jobs going...you'll get it bro!" I jumped into my interview with a refreshed sense of confidence. I was met by Anna, the lady I talked to on the phone. She introduced me to Dane, the recreation manager. He had just interviewed Paul, and knew I was coming. "Ah, you must be the other New Zealander!" he proclaimed. He sat me down in front of his desk, and asked me a few questions. Really, it was more of a casual conversation than an interview, which I liked. It was as if I had the job before I had even entered the room. Sure enough, he promptly stuck out his hand, and offered me the position. Full of stoke, I ran out of the hotel buzzing, even jumping a couple of times on my way back to the car to meet Paul. "I got the job too!" I screamed. Finally, our hunt was over, and our real lives were about to begin. Yes.