Roopashree: Tutor in an Indian Restaurant

My other best friend who is also planning to stay with me for 6 weeks as housemate on Hamilton Island if I get the "Best Job in the World" is Roopashree and I would like to tell you a bit about her and our friendship here:

Roopashree and I used to work together in an Indian Restaurant in Beverly Hills. She was of great help as she is originally from India and gave me essential advice in how to deal with Indian costumers. Firstly, you have to be decisive in taking the orders and suggest who will make the first order otherwise you will lose a LOT of time until they decide who goes first. Secondly, and most importantly as this can get really dangerous if done wrong:

Once you bring the bill, take a step back, because immediately every single person at the table will desperately try to be the first to give you their money or credit card. At the same time they will each try to snatch away their friends' instrument to invite everybody. Don't forget not to step in before the fight is over, because if you did that you would be blamed for taking somebody's card over everyone else's.

Roopashree worked as an art director for national commercials in India. In 1998 she moved to the United States to study film and television at Templeton University in Pennsylvania. After finishing her degree she moved to Los Angeles and that is where we met. She is one of my best friends, along with Katalin, of course ;-). Katalin and I are always surprised by Roopashree's ability to cause men to give her flowers for any occasion and without them expecting anything in return apart from her smile. I guess, she is an Indian princess at heart.

This is what she has to say about me: ""Having good friends from many cultures has enabled Mirjam to understand different kinds of people and be open to new journeys that life will bring along her path."

Katalin: A person to contact in case of an emergency

As one of my best friends who would stay with me as a housemate in Hamilton Island for at least six weeks if I get the "Best Job in the World", I would like to tell you a little bit more about Katalin.

Katalin was my „emergency contact“ in Los Angeles. Obviously apartment managers and insurances don’t want to call your family abroad for an emergency, so you need to fill in a person residing in the United States. My person was Katalin, which made her sort of my family there. She took the responsibility with joy. She is the kind of person that really calls you later that day, when she had to hang up and told you “I will call you later.” This was another thing we had in common as foreigners in another country: we really thought “later” meant “later today” rather than “later in my life” or never.

Together we learned the differences between our old continent and the brave new world. Katalin was born in Moscow, her mother is Russian and her father is Hungarian. Her family is till today filled with journalists and as her father was one, they moved a lot and she grew up in Washington D.C. as well as Budapest. She studied ballet in Moscow at the Bolshoi Ballet. She danced on various stages in Russia and at the Hungarian State Opera House. In 2000 she relocated to Los Angeles and has stayed there ever since. I met her in Los Angeles during my studies at the Lee Strasberg. She works as a freelance dancer and ballet teacher, last she was seen dancing in the Nutcracker. She also worked as a multilingual translator and editor at a famous toy company. No advertisement here, though she really looks like Barbie whenever she puts on her pink dress.

This is what she has to say about why I should get “The Best Job in the World”:
“I once heard about the definition of professional in a tv ad "Professional is someone who does things till they dont get it wrong" and thats Mirjam , she is a perfectionist and thats why she is the one for this job.”

In case I get the "Best Job in the World" I will be packing...

The winning candidate in the "Best Job in the World" competition does not have to live in his or her gorgeous Hamilton Island pad (HIP) on their own, but gets to choose who to bring along for all or parts of the journey. So, among other questions I was asked by Tourism Queensland was the one about whom I would bring with me.

I do not have a partner or children, so I am quite free in my choice of housemate for my HIP if I should win. Of course I have my parents, but they will have to stay behind in Germany to take care of my cat Cessa. My brothers and their wives have jobs and commitments, as do many of my friends - I am talking jobs here, not wives :-). So most of my family and my friends would visit me for 2 weeks at a time or so.

However, my two best friends, whom I met during the course of my studies in Los Angeles, would be staying with me for at least six weeks at a time. Katalin and Roopashree, these two young women are very precious to me and I am grateful that our paths crossed. In the course of a week I will introduce them both to you. For starters, a few short facts about them:

Katalin is Russian-Hungarian and originally hails from Budapest, while Roopashree is from Bangalore, India. The two of them still live in Los Angeles and would be thrilled to leave the city of angels to walk on heavenly white beaches. Whitehaven Beach sounds predestined for this purpose. The content of quartz crystal is 99,7% on Whitehaven Beach, which makes it the whitest beach in the world. For eight kilometres one can walk this heavenly white beach, even if you are not an angel or come from an angel's city!