(no subject)

[ria_oaks]

MY LUGGAGE IS HERE THANK FUCKING GOD. *cries* I'm so happy. :) I want to cuddle my pundit!dolls to me and never let them go. Poor guys, what an ordeal. ;) And I got my cell phone so I have something to do with my new SIM card! And my graphics tablet!! oh yeah, and clothing. ^^

AND. I got a place to live! It's a shared apartment (and a shared room...) but I don't care because it beats living in a hostel (bloody 6-person mixed dorm where one of the guys has been in there ALL DAY sleeping so I can't spend any time in there). It's in St. Kilda which is a suburb about 25 minutes by tram from the city core, but it's near the beach so booya! And St. Kilda's supposed to be pretty cool, I've heard. Am still researching Internet. Virgin has a prepaid service where you shell out $150 for the Internet USB stick then prepay for usage ($100 for 6 gigs... yup, not gonna be doing much downloading). But it's convenient since I'll be travelling all around the country and can use it anywhere (or at least anywhere with coverage, so all the major cities and such).

(and on a random note - ROFL at this: http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2009/04/01/Snooze/April.Fools.Issue.Exclusive.Rahm.Emanuels.Speech-3687648.shtml
He should totally do his speech like that. ;) )

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Julia I have a little question, I finally got that e-mail asking me the open a bank account etc from IEP, but they ask for your IEP number, WHAT is that?

any help would be greatly appreciated :( hope you are having a fun time

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

It's your IEP membership #, it should be in the welcome email they sent you... have they sent you an email with instructions on how to set up your account on their website? It should be in there, I think. But I don't think you need it to open an account, if you just go to the Commonwealth Bank's website (the address I sent you earlier) then you can just do it directly through them.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks. They sent me an e-mail but no number anywhere! I'm kind of frustrated. Don't I need it to get that Tax thingy too? :( Will the card still be there to pick up if I go directly through the bank? Sorry to bug you with all these questions...

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, you should get it soon - it's okay if you don't have it yet, none of this is absolutely urgent (you can do it all when you get here, it's just nice to get some of it done ahead of time). Were you able to open the bank account okay? For the tax file number (TFN they call it, and it's just like our SINs), yeah, you can apply for it through IEP's website once you are registered on there. It's not required though, I don't think, since you could always just do it here. Either way it takes awhile to process - I applied online before leaving, and when I got here they gave me a letter stating that it was being processed so I can show that to employers. I should get the actual number soonish.

I just took a look through my email, and the email that had the information was from IEP and the subject says "Work Australia News". That had my IEP number and info on registered on the website. I got it March 2nd, so yours should come soon if it hasn't yet.

You can also request your mobile # online once you're registered on IEP's website - when I got here they had my sim card all aready to go. :) Tried to use Dad's old phone which I unlocked and brought with me, but turns out there was a reason he replaced it - it doesn't work. XD XD Oh well. I bought a new phone, $79 and it's decent enough.

And yes, once you've opened your account online the card should be there for pickup when you arrive (mine was, anyway). You can also wire money ahead of time (I'm inclined to recommend it, since taking cash is obviously a bad idea and any cashier's cheque/bank draft/etc will probably take awhile to clear.

And no worries about asking questions, I'm happy to help. :)