It could have been worse, apparently mangos spray acid
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 9:29AM Rachel's RTT post yesterday included a bit about how lovely the orange blossoms are smelling in her corner of Florida right now. Which I'm a little jealous about, because there is NOTHING growing here at the moment, never mind blooming. But I'm really not that jealous, because up until very recently the smell of orange anything made me want to puke up a lung.
You see, once, my friend Fashionista and I went on a little tour of the South Pacific. And somewhere around Sydney, we ran out of money. We probably could have held out longer if we weren't treating it like one big extended lunch-and-shopping date, but hey, it was OUR vacation, if we wanted to spend money on sushi and Golf Punk shirts and the quest for a decent cup of coffee, we were going to do that. So shut up.
Anyway, we spent about a month in the armpit of Australia picking oranges to make some cash. Approximately 4 or 5 bins of them a day. The bins were 8 feet by 8 feet by 2 feet deep. Which is like...(counts on fingers)...a fuckload of oranges. And oranges, when you pick them? They zest. They spray the lovely scent of themselves all over you.
Also, orange trees have thorns. Did you know that? I sure as hell didn't. Fashionista and I had deep gouges on our forearms that no amount of Polysporin could allay. We spent a whole month aching, bleeding, with crabbed hands, reeking like fucking oranges.
You could see how there might be some negative connotations there.
Oh, and there were spiders.
Not as many as there would be during other seasons, but enough of those big hairy bastards for me to worry that one might crawl on me while I was picking the oranges at the top of the tree. Because my first instinct when a spider touches me is to leap four feet straight backwards, and that is EXACTLY what you want to do while at the top of a ladder.
I was pretty sure I was going to die there on that Australian orange farm.*
But at least I got to drive a forklift. I can always be distracted by letting me play with machinery that can potentially cause a lot of damage.
After a month we took our money and ran. We managed to run for at least one week before we were broke again, because clearly our experience had taught us NOTHING. So we landed back in Sydney and found employment making candles, which on the whole was preferable to the orange-picking, but that's a story for another day.
*It wasn't the worst place to die, because the Australian orange farm was populated with Australians. And Aussies, as we all know, are some of the nicest, kindest, most generous and welcoming-est people there are. I'm pretty sure they would have honored my wishes and buried me somewhere other than the orange grove. In a ceremony possibly involving wallabies, because they're cute.
Reader Comments (35)
i'm just jealous you got to spend all that time in australia. very cool!
I love to travel but I need a plan. I am jealous that you are relaxed enough to go with the flow to such an extent that you need a job to continue your exploration. I am amazed.
oh no need to be jealous of the orange blossom smells. yes it is that time here in florida. and at first whiff it's delightful. but eventually the sweetness becomes sickly sweetness. and you can't escape it. even worse is if you ever happened to have morning sickness during orange blossom season. blech! you know how those certain smells trigger the memories. yep, i'm one of those unlucky ones. yuck, yuck, yuck!
K first what happened to the clicky boxes? and then how did you get work out of country? was this the kind of work we expect from say Handy Manny? you know you work never "really" get paid and never pay for your tools? hmmmmmm? (just saying...)
Lovely story! I am thinking oranges would not be one of your favorite foods these days.
Now that you've opened the box, I need to hear about the candle making!
But how amazing was that experience???? I think it's fantastic that you even have a story like that to tell.
New life change for GiGi [after the working out, the non-cursing, etc is fully applied] -> find a crazy friend with whom to make a memory as fun as this one!
PS: I live in Florida. I smell no oranges whatsoever, anywhere. I do have a mango tree in my backyard through that promises to have me on a mango diet soon!! Yummy!!
I would have LOVED to travel the world and pick up work along the way. Too cool!
I live in Florida and get my oranges from California. How bad is THAT? (I could have totally made this an RTT mention!) (I think I will!)
man, color me jealous...even if you now hate oranges..I have only been as far as canada...never off the continent, let alone in a different hemisphere!!
I should have been wilder while I had the chance.
I'm jealous of your travels.
You are SO lucky to have had that experience, spiders and all! I joke about the time when I was young(er), when I tried to get work on a cruise ship...now it doesn't seem very funny. It would've been Hella Cool! :)
ps - Maya was in my mailbox today...I'll keep you posted!
Too bad Cesar Chavez wasn't Australian. You should have taken that opportunity to revolutionize the labour movement in Australia! Slacker.
What a cool experience! I would have put up with the orange zest, thorns and spiders to hang out in Australia...especially if I got to drive a forklift! ;)
You gave JS-Kits the boot? I've got my trigger finger ready...I've been thisclose to doing the same...
I'm cracking up. Glad you lived through the orange farm. I'll keep these things in mind if I ever run out of money in Australia!
I still love the smell of orange blossoms (probably because I have only smelled them once IRL... and the experience did not involve spiders). The spider thing? The thorns? Those would make me think twice...
What a great story. I love it.
Great memories, I'm sure.
Thanks for telling this one. Very cool.
if you've got a story to ruin the smell of magnolias, i'm gonna smack a bitch.
:P
I'm with FoN on the activism.. slacker!
Picking oranges must have paid HANDSOMELY and been well worth it. Oh wait, did I miss your point?
That is ridiculously cool! I want to have a cool story like that... I can see, though, where you might have acquired just the slightest aversion to oranges... The bigger question is, do you hate candles?
ahahahhahaha! Yes, I was looking forward to reading this. Well, I think the blossoms smell better than the oranges and don't burn. Eventually I might get tired of it, but I doubt it! :)
I'm still trying to figure out how you didn't fall off the ladder when those nasty spiders got to close to you.
Where's the candle making story?
I'm totally going to send you a fruit basket for your birthday.
Shit, the orange trees are blooming here also, glad I never said anything. Great story though. This is so something I would do. Which makes me happy because JR thinks I'm a total weirdo. You've just proved I'm not. Bless you.
I'm so freakin' jealous right now, I could spit orange juice!! I want to spend a few days (months) on a super cool trip like that!!!
Thanks for sharing. I'll never be able to eat an orange again without first thinking of yoU!!
Wallabies are so much cuter than kangaroos! ;)