Swampy's

Wow. What a place. Imagine the Real World house but not nearly as nice, lots of bunk beds, people from all over the world, and freezing. That's Swampy's. And where I spent my past 2 nights. Everyone who was staying there had been there for at least 2 weeks, one guy 5 months. They were all there to work on the vineyards and Swampy's was the closest, cheapest place to stay. I arrived Friday afternoon and people were all ready gathered around drinking, playing poker, reading, or just sitting by the fire talking. Everyone knew everyone, so me coming into this was a big shock and I immediately felt like the outsider, especially when I said I would only be staying 2 days.
No one was from New Zealand. There was quite a few from the UK, Canada, Germany, Ireland, 2 others from the states and I think one from Malaysia. It was an international family. We all sat around and played drinking games on Friday night and I had soon been welcome into the family (know by how much they were making me drink!). The next night one of the Canadians and Germans cooked a feast of a dinner and it just added to the familial dynamics. I had a few people tell me to stay and I really thought about it for a while, I could stay, work for a bit and then keep on. I decided not this trip but it's a possibility for the future.