Hi,
My name is Julien and i’m gonna talk to you guys, about my experience in Working Holiday Visa. The WHV for short ! Through this little stamp, you can live and work in a country for a year. On internet and in less than 48 hours, you can get this precious door opener.

As the famous french philosopher Philippe Bouvard said : « When you’re travelling without speaking English, you feel being deaf, mute and dumb ». This is exactly like that !
With my Working Holiday Visa in my pocket and a level of English close to zero that I decide to set off on the adventure. And even if I’m going to an English speaking country, let’s choose the sun ☺

Destination Australia with my friend Aurelien ! But my english is so bad that he prefers abandon me from the beginning.
For him, being alone is the best way to learn a foreign language. And he’s totally right…
… When I arrive, I do my first surprising experience with the english language when I order a coca-cola in a bar.

I ask naturally to the bartender :
« Can I have a cock, please ? »
He looks at me really surprised ! Really thirsty, I repeat : « Can I have a cock, please ? » The bartender bursts out laughing !
Finally, he serves me a coca-cola and tell me : « you have to pronounce “coke” ».
In fact, cause of my french accent, “cock” and “coke” have been pronounced the same.

And in Working Holiday Visa, there is WORKING. But without being able to speak english, not easy to get a job in computer science. I quickly understood than it will be difficult to get back my french job.
Me, who never worked in farms, I’m finally picking lemons, grapes, capsicums, apples…

… as well as pumpkins ! Certainly the hardest job I’ve never done. The job consists in carrying 8kg of pumpkins, all day long, for 8 hours per day, under 35°C… After a couple of weeks, I was so hard… that I was looking like a Playmobil ^^

But after doing your best, time to rest ! If I ask you an australian beer, which one do you think of ?

… The Foster ?

A big joke !!! No way to find some Foster in Australia. It’s even not brewed in the country. It’s an export beer that everybody are drinking … except the australian ^^

And otherwise when you are in Working Holiday Visa, hells can happen…

No car anymore, no more jobs, no money… So I do as any adult and responsible persons will do, I call my banker … … I’m kidding, I call my parents. Thanks to them and few dollars more, I take my travel up again. At this moment I decide to go for a broke; I take a plane to a mine town for looking for a job.

Over there, 40°C-45°C outside, lost in middle of the desert, no pubs, no restaurants, no cinema. 75% of the population are men.

No backpackers and it’s 500€ the night in an hostel… At this time, I’m thinking… FUCK … I can’t FAIL !

No way to find a job without car ! It’s so hot outside that it’s really hard to walk under this heat. With no real conviction, I give my resume to the boss of an electronic shop who asks me I know anything about computers… He asks that to me , a computer scientist, Hallleeeluuuiiiaaaaah !

He gives me : a job, a company accommodation in a brand new caravan with air-conditioner and a more than reasonable wages (almost 1000€ per week).

Lady luck is in a good mood and it’s a turning point in my travel.

I’m finally a salesperson in a local « k-mart ». Televisions, air-conditioners, epilators have no secrets for me anymore ^^ There is a slight, I have to sell some phone contracts. It’s already hard to understand in french and so even more incomprehensible with my poor english!

And in my australian shop, the ambiance is more relax than in the same shop in France.
This is cause of the language. « tu » and « vous » in french, are said « you » in english. So impossible to use the french politeness. And sometimes, to talk to the staff, the customers call me « mate », which means « friend ». Can you imagine that, asking to the salesperson in France : «Hey my friend, can you help me to buy a phone ».

Well, a part of my customers were aboriginals. Brief aside : the aborginals were living by hunting and picking 250 years ago and now we ask them to choose a 3G mobile phone. For a lots of them, it’s a big cultural choc.

And otherwise, in Working Holiday Visa, there is HOLIDAY.

And I enjoy ! We do thousands of kilometers by car, better by day cause by night, the kangaroos have the good idea to jump out of the pedestrian crossing. And a kangaroos is definitely cuter far from the windscreen.
And about dangerous animals, besides the kangaroos by night, I even bumped into some … crocodiles.

Ah, the crocodiles ! It will always remind me this sign that we thought being for tourists, except when we came, 10 meters after, face to jaw with one of this specimen. And as « it’s not more scared of you than you are of it », we ran !
It’s a good reminder that here, we’re not at the top of the food chain.

It’s followed by a 4x4 road trip to Uluru, the famous red large rock in middle of the bush. And this is on the road that we drive into a tornado. We are so excited that we decide to follow it, to see it closer, and bam ! We burst … in middle of nowhere…

My come back home to France was planned after a year. Finally, I extended my visa in Australia and been there 2 years !

Through the Working Holiday Visa, I’ve really improved my english and done some jobs I would never imagine doing. And with all the experiences acquired… in fruits and veggies and with my qualification in computer science, I think I’m ready now to apply for Apple ! ^^

For more images from my travels, check my video accounts : )
VIMEO & YOUTUBE