Buckets of grapes -- Life as a migrant worker

Coming to you from the Deeeeep South -- Margaret River, Western Australia to be exact. My venture here has been less fruitful financially than I first intended, which is what has led me to sell myself to the world of picking grapes and being paid by the bucket. 

I initially came to Margaret River with sparkly dreams of working on a vineyard crew (with an hourly pay rate) for a vintage season. Small problem... due to my lack of any planning and my addiction to scuba diving, I arrived in Margaret River a few weeks too late to apply for those jobs. Nevertheless, I snagged myself a job at a brewery, and working wedding events at a vineyard as well. The flaw with this is that these jobs are mostly weekend affairs and I have entirely too much free time during the week during which I would like to be working to save more money. 

The funny thing about the town of Margaret River is the fact that it is surrounded for kilometers upon kilometers by vineyards. These vineyards all harvest during the period of time between early February and mid-April. Some do their picks using machines, and others do handpicks employing job-seeking travelers, like me.

As an American, I'm legally working using what is called a "Work and Holiday Visa." This is one specific subclass of tourist visa that allows you to be employed through one employer for no longer than 6 months at a time, within the year that you are given on the visa. You may leave and re-enter the country however many times you please, but once your year starts upon your first entrance to the country, the clock is ticking. Other countries' citizens are given a "Working Holiday Visa." This visa subclass allows for you to extend a second year of working in Australia, given you complete three months of "regional work." Regional work can include anything from working on cattle ranches, to fruit picking, to working specific jobs within mining, etc. 

Why is this explanation of visa subclasses important, you ask? Basically, because Australians know that people have to do regional work for their visas, they can get away with paying migrant workers absurdly low wages for whatever work they may be doing for them. Most people would never bother to do picking work at all, if it weren't for the necessity of doing it to get their second year working visa. I can't get a second year, but I do want to make money... this had led me to wake up each day of the week at 4:45 in the morning (okay, really I don't get out of bed until five) to pick grapes until our picking group gathers the tonnage that the vineyard requires for that particular session of winemaking. 

This particular day we were lucky enough to experience a torrential downpour for a solid hour during picking. 

The pickers (i.e. me) are hired through private contracting agencies. We are paid between $1 and $6 a bucket (pre-tax), depending on the size of the grape and the ease of finding them in the vines -- which translates to how fast you can fill a bucket. For the last week, we've been picking chardonnay grapes. These are small grapes that are found hidden in the middle of sometimes incredibly thick vines. Chardonnay bunches range from a handful size to bunches the size of a small plum.

A long way to go on filling this bucket of chardonnay grapes. 

Chenin blanc grapes hidden among the leaves and vines. 

Picking work is tedious. It can be somewhat back breaking due to the location of grapes low on the vines and the need to carry partially full buckets under the vines to the next row. If the row is particularly long and the picking crew is quite small, it is also necessary to walk the buckets down the rows to another panel. The panels are about three meters long, and you pick one side first, and then the other before moving on.

Each morning we pick, I get a ride from a friend and head to whichever vineyard we happen to be picking for on that given day. We pick from about six am until whenever we finish accumulating the amount of tonnage necessary. Sometimes we finish after a few hours, if we have a small amount to pick and a large picking team, and other times (generally on days where I feel less than enthused about being there) we have a large amount to pick and a small picking team.

Sidenote: I would not suggest picking grapes hungover. Ever. Motivation levels for picking fast completely dissipate, and all that’s left is a headache in the blazing sun and the lack of coordination that may or may not lead you a snipping your finger off with your grape cutting shears. Life lessons.

You are given a set of number tags at the beginning of the day and each time you fill a bucket, you leave a number tag in the bucket to be collected and tallied by the vineyard staff. I’ve averaged about ten buckets a day for most of the picks. This is far from amazing. There are some people that make it to twenty buckets a pick, but I’m positive that they cut off the biggest bunches and move on, filling their buckets with ease. You are told to leave no fruit, but there are not always supervisors there to watch everyone.

Some cabernet grapes that have been feasted on by the birds. 

This is a side job for me, but for a lot of the backpackers, it is their sole job. It’s hard for me to imagine living and saving if you are making only about 150-200 AUD (Australian Dollars) a week. My weekly rent is 75 AUD and then I probably spend at least 50-75 AUD a week on food if I’m eating really basic/cheap foods and not eating out at restaurants.

If you speak to the locals or other pickers about the fact that you are grape picking for income and not a second year visa, they stare at you in disbelief. They also warn you about how corrupt all of the contracting agencies are and advise you to check your pay stubs each week. Hourly minimum wage for casual hourly-paid workers is 21.03 AUD in Western Australia. I pick about three to five buckets in an hour on a good day. At 4 AUD a bucket, that means my wages are anywhere between 12-20 AUD an hour.

I’m quite positive that bucket rates are calculated by averaging the amount of buckets that all of the pickers complete and then dividing it somehow into the tonnage in order to keep pickers just at the poverty level of wages. I witnessed an argument in one of the contracting offices between a picker and an office employee in which the picker shared his frustrations about leaving a well paying job in order to do vineyard work (probably for a second year visa). The office employee basically said it didn’t matter if he wanted to quit, because they would just find someone else to replace him.

In reality, you are an expendable employee in any job that you undertake. If you aren’t fulfilling the expectations set forth by your given employer, they have a right to get relieve you of your position. I’ve never felt quite as disposable as I do at this job. I imagine that all over the world, there are workers that are undertaking jobs similar to this as their staple income. Their migrant work is probably not undertaken by choice to support their travel addiction. Here's to a new experience leading to some insight and gratitude for the opportunities that have presented themselves to me in this life. 

Some other obstacles to avoid while picking.

The end of a hard days work. 

Remember that time I went to Japan?

In Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara -- Kansai Region (Central Japan)

I spent a little over a week exploring the cultural heart of Japan with some friends over New Years 2014. My friend Chloe and I flew into Osaka from Busan (the second largest city in the south of Korea). We spent a night walking around Dōtonbori Street in downtown Osaka and then spent a morning visiting the castle grounds of the Osaka Castle. We then took the Japanese Railroad to Kyoto, where we were greeted by Chloe's friend Emily (whom we stayed with during our time in Kyoto). Over the next few days we spent time discovering Kyoto, then Chloe left and I continued on to Nara, where Emily met me after a bike ride from Kyoto. Nara was quaint and beautiful; complete with an incredible Buddhist sculpture gallery that I spent a few hours exploring in solitude.

Rather than rambling on for a whole blog post with the blow by blow of what we did, I decided to chose a selection of my favorite photographs to give you a visual tour of my most memorable parts of Japan.

Pachinko is a Japanese gambling game that is quite popular throughout Japan. This is on Dōtonburi street in downtown Osaka. Dōtonburi is a really popular tourist area full of street food, shops, and bars. 

Pufferfish, or Fugu in Japanese, are a popular dish for Japanese people. They must be prepared specially by a highly trained chef because they contain a toxic chemical called tetrodotoxin. If they are not correctly prepared, they can cause death in those that consume them. 

Bicycles are a popular form of transportation for the Japanese. Vending machines on the streets are also ubiquitous -- some even sell beer. This is a small bar on one of the narrow side streets between Dōtonburi and our hostel.

Osaka castle is surrounded by beautiful park grounds and a moat. There are groves of plum and cherry blossom trees throughout the park as well. 

Arashiyama Bamboo Forest is located in Kyoto Prefecture. 

Some of the blessings and well wishes at a small temple in downtown Kyoto. New Years is a very important holiday for the Japanese. It's tradition for them to spend it with their family waiting at the temple to ring the temple gong and say prayers for the new year. 

The markets in Asia are some of my favorite places to visit. They are busy, vibrant, and sometimes overwhelming, but stocked full of life and characters. This man was meticulously cleaning and opening oysters to sell at his stand. At Nishiki Market in Kyoto.

Octopus, or Tako, for sale at Nishiki Market in downtown Kyoto. 

My favorite green tea mochi of the entire trip, in the markets of Kyoto. Mochi is compressed glutinous rice that is filled with sweetened red bean paste (served warm in this particular case). So. Delicious. 

Fushimi Inari Taisha (shrine) is a 4 kilometer hike up a mountain through the orange torii (gates) seen in this photo. The park is full of various shrines and fox statues (they are regarded as messengers). 

Sunset over Kyoto from Fushimi Inari. 

Traditional meets modern in the Kyoto rail station. 

A small shrine down by the river in Kyoto. Kyoto was full of lovely hole in the wall bars, delicious foods, and beautiful temples. 

Lanterns at Yasaka Jinja (shrine). We rang in New Years outside the gates of this shrine with a few thousand people a few days after this. 

Gojū-no-tō pagoda at Kōfuku-ji (temple) in Nara at sunset. 

Small Izakaya in the town of Nara. Izakayas are like the Japanese equivalent of a pub. They serve cheap drinks and greasy, but totally delicious, food to go along with them.

Tōdai-ji Daibutsu (Eastern Great Temple of Buddha) houses the largest bronze Buddha statue in the world; the statue is pictured on the right. Buddha Vairocana is the embodiment of the Buddhist principle of emptiness. 

Visitors praying to Tōdai-ji Daibutsu. 

The Nara park grounds are full of deer that are docile and love to be fed. The deer are believed to be messengers of the gods, so they are allowed to roam freely. 

This lovely old lady was selling biscuits to feed the deer. Emily and I bought some and spent a few hours strolling around the park and feeding the deer. 

Last but not least, my trip to Japan would not have been complete without these two compadres. 

Visit to America and Blog Revival – Complete with Name Change

From Doha, Qatar – Hamad International Airport

Upon this visit home, and my more extensive and frequent traveling, I’ve decided to revive the blog (previously Lost in Translation: Adventures in Korea). My goal is to post twice a week. It may be a video, some photos, or just a small greeting from wherever I happen to be at the moment.

Many people ask me what my plans are. I will say that I have a loose outline for where I’ll be going in the next six months, and a loose idea of what I’ll be doing. It involves working in Australia, and traveling and hopefully working in Indonesia.  I may throw a couple other random countries in there. Why not? Just got a fresh stack of visa pages added to my passport! I need to put those to use, as I am not one to waste paper. What I will be doing will be dictated by what I feel most drawn to at that particular time (and how much money is or isn’t in my bank account).

In the mean time, enjoy this video with some wise words from Alan Watts.

Nine Months!

Nine months. Nine months I’ve been living in South Korea. If you told me five years ago that I’d be living in Korea teaching children English now, I would probably have laughed in your face. I had a life of graduate school (for something science related, of course) and a secure job planned for myself after undergrad. We all know that things don’t always work out that way.

I am writing this post more for myself than anyone else right now. I am feeling a bit introspective after a visit from a very dear friend from home, a goodbye to one of my first close friends I met in Korea, and a sudden announcement of an early retirement from a Korean co-teacher. 

Last weekend I was on a camping trip with some of my close friends and my visiting friend. A Korean girl by the name of Adele came with one of my friends. Her English level was above average and we started talking about traveling and we had a long conversation about moving abroad. She expressed her desire to, but also how scary the thought of moving away from Korea was. It was one of the first times I’d really stopped to think about and articulate what I went through emotionally and mentally moving here. While it was happening, it was exciting and there were so many things to get done that I really didn’t stop to think twice about what was going on; I just kind of went with it. Now that nine months have passed, I can look back and really start to see legitimate changes in the way I view life and where I’d like to see myself in the future.

Teaching has undoubtedly been one of the most positive and constructive experiences of my life. It has forced me to step outside myself and push my boundaries of comfort more than any one thing I have ever partaken in. It continues to teach me infinite lessons in patience. The language barrier also plays a huge role in developing my patience and interpersonal communication skills in general. The kids can be completely frustrating a lot of the time, and I feel like a circus ringleader at times. Then there are those days when I have a good lesson and what I’m teaching the kids jives and they get excited, things flow, and it feels natural. It’s one of the best feelings in the entire world. The tricky thing is that the things that click for each group of students is totally different, so I have to stay on my toes. Lately, it seems the days where everything clicks are happening more often.

Yoga. I cannot say enough about how positive regularly doing yoga has been for me. I go to a Korean yoga teacher who has been such a positive influence in my psyche since I have moved here. I have seen noticeable mental and physical changes since starting my practice with my teacher. The classes are entirely in Korean, and I absolutely love it. Another lesson in language interpretation and patience!

The next hugely positive thing in Korea for me has been rock climbing itself, and even more importantly, the climbing family that I have accumulated throughout the whole of Korea. Amazing, talented, and loving people that I get to hangout with every weekend. They push me to climb harder and test my limits, more that I ever thought possible. Climbing takes me to places of incredible natural beauty, and strikes just enough fear in me to challenge myself mentally to overcome the thoughts holding me back. I feel lucky to be involved in a sport with such positive mental and physical benefits and an awesome community on top of everything else.

Now that I shared the positives of my life here, I will move on to the original motive for writing this article: the goodbyes.

I shed a lot of tears for the departure of my friend from home and my friend from Korea; soul crushing, mind numbing tears. Then I had a really constructive yoga session, and I started to make peace with the goodbyes. The next day my co-teacher called me down to her classroom and announced that it would in fact be her last day and she was retiring. She embraced me and started to cry. (Side note: this is NOT a common occurrence in Korea; Koreans tend to avoid being emotional.) I was on the verge of going back to my depression from my other goodbyes, and I started to put up a wall and shut down. Then, I was awestruck that this woman who I had taught with two days a week, for three months was genuinely upset that she would no longer be teaching with me. Something clicked in my brain; I realized I had to be the one that was strong and positive for her.

This is not a lifestyle where you can expect to avoid saying goodbyes. You form meaningful, loving relationships with people within short amounts of time, and then those people leave Korea or you leave Korea (or wherever else you may live and travel for that matter). They move back to their home country, they travel indefinitely, etc.; sometimes they come back, but more often than not there is no guarantee of when or if you will see them again. There is this constant flux of coming and going of lovely souls. It’s hard. It really sucks sometimes. It’s par for the course though.

I am not a pessimist, so I will try my best to put a positive spin on this constant shift of loved ones. We all have goals that we want to fulfill for ourselves; these goals take us along paths and places that we may never have thought we would be on, or exactly the paths that we thought we’d be on. We meet people that for some time have the same goals and lifestyles as we do. We form loving bonds with those people. Then maybe we decide that it’s time for a new place or new experience.

Our gut reaction is to push those people away, or to keep from forming a strong bond in the first place. Why? It makes it easier for one of us to leave. It's a defense mechanism. Who wants to live their life on the defense though? In reality, the best thing we can do is continue to love. Love freely. Love without expectations and prejudices. This lifestyle makes this more pertinent because of the constant arrival and departure of wonderful people, but I do not think that this attitude is mutually exclusive to those of use who are world travelers and expats of different countries. I just think it’s a philosophy that is easier for us to understand and apply because of our transient lifestyle.  

Goodbyes to those we love will always be bittersweet. When you form a bond with someone and get used to that person in your presence, thinking about him or her not being there makes you sad. It’s natural. If I didn’t get sad, then I would probably consider taking a step back to reevaluate how much of myself I was investing in the personal relationships that I do have (relationships aren’t one sided). Goodbyes remind us of who we really do care about and they serve to balance out the highs of life. They lead to new beginnings, and new experiences. And if we are lucky enough, those that we say goodbye to we resurface in our lives at another time. 

Some of the climbing family, and some other friends mixed in.