Thank God for my family.

Hi!! 

I have had a few awesome days, and have been so busy I haven't been able to write. Last week was a week of checking things off my To-Do list. Moving day, change adresses, etc. Sunday night was my going away party and I was so happy to see all the faces! Brittany surprised me from Michigan, which made my day. And my momma came all the way as well just for a few hours, I loved it. ]

Monday, Brad had a "going away" steak dinner for us! We got there and didn't expect the 7 course meal he had prepared. Appetizers, salad, more appetizers, wine, champagne, steak, potatoes, garlic shrimpy, veggies, and crepes for dessert. So delicious, and so many laughs. 

Tuesday was moving day. We moved everything out of the manning house into storage. It was a long, tiresome day, but much needed. Tuesday night I repacked my bags, AGAIN, and set up a makeshift bed for our last night at 338 manning. 

Wednesday morning I woke up at 7:30 am in a great mood! The only sad part of this morning was saying goodbye to my baby son, (cat) Charles. :( mmmmm. After my little baby wining about me leaving, we took off for the airport. The airport was as per usual, Lines Lines and more Lines. Kenny's bag got searched because I accidentally left my ring in his bag, which happened to resemble brass knuckles, whoops! We started the morning right with airport ceasers, then almost missed out flight because of a ridiculous gate change. 6 hours later after uncomfortably sleeping and watching moneyball on the plane - we arrived in Los Angeles. My brother was there waiting for us, which was nice. All of our luggage came, Thank God, and we started our adventure through Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, South Los Angeles, Ventura. We drove along highway 101 which was mountains on one side and ocean on the other. Pictures would never do this scene justice... so breathtaking. 

Santa Barbara is my new dream home destination. Because of all the mountains, homes are built upwards. It seemed like a stadium, one street behind the other, but just a bit higher. Each street and house was on the mountain facing the ocean, it was the most incredible thing! 

Our drive .. ocean on the left, mountains on the right. 

We stopped for food at Jack in the Box. Two tacos fo 99 cents, WHAT?! The four of us spent only $16 and each had a plethora of food. Onion rings, tacos, burgers, curly fries. I of course had extra sour cream! heh. The portion sizes were insanely big. Only in Amuurrica. 

Anyway, we finally got to San Luis Obispo, such a lovely little town. We walked around and saw the downtown. It was so beautiful! We went shopping a little big, and then stumbled upon a Belgium frites spot, with Belgian fries and beer! Stupid me, left my ID at Tarik's so I didn't get to enjoy a lovely beer, but the fries were delicioso. After Belgian frites, Tarik showed us this alley called "gum alley". The entire alleyway was filled with people's gum stuck to it. So disgusting, but so cool to see. People stuck on receipts and pictures and everything onto the wall with gum. There were designs, and drawings made with gum! ... yuck. After that, we walked back to Tarik's place and crashed. An amazing 19 hour day that was, ha! 

The Gum wall! 

Today is Thursday - our plans are wine tasting, and going to the beach. Maybe nice dinner on the Morro Bay, then perhaps a pub crawl at night? The world is our oyster, so many options. Has to be an early one though, because tomorrow we are back off to Los Angeles for two days. 

Hasta Manana friends. 

Thank God for my family.  

Till Next Time .... 

Rage Blackout

Well hello,

First things first. WHO INVENTED ERRANDS?! Because, after 4 hours of running around downtown Toronto, during rush hour I might add, I despise every 1800 number and envelope with my name on it.I leave in 5 days, so I have the invincibility feeling right now. Bills? Nah, Ill just ignore them for the next 7 months. The worst. Between some thief trying to use my credit card at six hotels in America, trying to call Bell about canceling my phone, and City Hall - I want to crawl up like a hermit and stay inside until I leave before I have yet another rage blackout.

However, the reality is I can't do that .. So I did the right thing, and dealt with all my errands this afternoon, WORST! On a brighter note, I am headed up to a small town called Loretto in a few hours for my boyfriend (Kenny) and his brothers (Chris) going away party. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they are traveling with me for the next while! Anyway, the town called Loretto occupies about 1,000 people at best. We are going to celebrate at the Loretto Tavern (shocking) where Kenny's band will play their first show in months! I am excited to go, minus more ttc traveling. Have I mentioned I hate the toronto transit?

Moving on .. since my optimistic packing approach yesterday, I have gone into a rage about five times unpacking and repacking my bags. I ended up packing WAY too much. I have watched a few youtube videos and am just now starting to get the hang of things.

Well, now that I've ranted for a few minutes - and it is already dark out. Time for dinner and a few drinks, then off to Loretto. I'll keep you updated for more stories of the small town, even some pictures if i ever figure out how to post pictures on this thing. Then tomorrow a nice day of hot yoga and work, then Sunday is my going away party! I am beyond excited to see many familiar faces.

I thank God it's Friday.

Till next time ....

The Trivial Pursuit of Packing

Well hello again, 

I woke up this morning to a big dose of reality - only six more days! Todays biggest task is one that I have been dreading for months, packing. I have separated my clothes into 3 piles: unnecessary to bring, maaaaybe I will wear these, and I wear all the time's. After careful deliberation, I finally decided which of the 90740183 articles of clothing I have to leave behind and which to bring. Seeing as Melbourne is 30 degrees today (86 degrees for my fellow Americans), I'm considering only bringing a few sweaters instead of the original 10..... 

Despite my success in choosing the appropriate clothes, I need help in a few particular areas. Maybe some of you will be able to help, because I have been struggling. 

1: I have discovered is that there is, in fact, a WRONG way to pack a travel backpack, which I might add is about twice the size of me. Apparently, heavy in the bottom is better, I think? I'll have to spend some more time googling the best and worst way to pack an expedition backpack. Good thing my boyfriend has already accepted that he may have to carry two backpacks. Shhh, don't tell! 

2: Another challenge, which some of you may think as insignificant, is determining how many bottles of nail polish a traveling girl needs. One? Two? My favourite six? I am seriously troubled with this, because it brings up the question of how important grooming is while overseas for 7 months. I mean, I will be living in Melbourne for 4 of the 7, so I am allowed SOME effort into my appearance, right? Do blow dryer and straightener and curling iron count? Is it reasonable to bring 3 brushes, if they are all different types of brushes? Help! 

3: This third challenge I have come across today is toiletries. I need some suggestions here... Do I bring my own shampoo and conditioner? Or do I just buy new ones in each place? Should I funnel a big one I have into smaller bottles and carry them with me instead?

I'm sure I will come across several more questions of what to bring and what not to bring. This is not easy. Packing is much more of a trivial pursuit than I ever anticipated.  

At least I have Los Angeles and Fiji to look forward to next week. We finally booked our hotel in LA, the Thomspon Beverly Hills - a buddy even hooked us up for the platinum suite! Ooh lala! It is safe to say I am beginning to get excited. 

Finally, once again I thank God for google. 

Till next time .... 

One week to go!

Hi! 

In one week from today, I will be partaking in the journey of a lifetime. 7 months of adventure, fun, and experiences. Because I am going to be taking over the world for the next 7 months, I wanted to give my family and friends something to read about my travels. In other words, I am blogging in order for my mother to sleep better at night, ha! 

As far as I know my journey consists of leaving from Toronto and traveling to ..  Los Angeles, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, and then back to Toronto. I will be studying at RMIT University for about 4 months, and traveling for another 3 months. I have been to my share of islands and various forms of tropical paradise, but never have I ventured this far into the world.Everyones first question, Are you excited?!". Is it terrible that I am not... yet? Well I mean, I AM excited, but I have a many more things to check off on my to-do list before I depart next Wednesday. 

So, with one week left to go, I am going to make a new checklist .. all the things I want to do in the next 7 months:

Los Angeles:

- Go on a wine tasting tour

- Stay a night in Beverly Hills 

- Disney land?!

- Take a picture on Hollywood Blvd

- Hike the mountain up to the Hollywood sign

Fiji:

- Go into the local villages

- Get involved in Fijian ceremonies 

- RELAX

- Stay at Beachcombers resort one night 

- Snorkel

Australia: 

- Skydive 

- Surf!

- Touch the Great Barrier Reef

- AVOID SHARKS (that should be my number one)

- Try many new foods 

- Road trip down Great Ocean Road

- Make my way up the East Coast from Melb to Great Barrier Reef

- Go to Byron Bay 

- Go to an AFL game

- Go to the Australian Grand Prix 

- Hold a baby kangaroo, a joey! 

Thailand

- Ride an elephant 

- Get a massage on the beach 

- Go the "The Beach"

- Go to a new moon party

Thats all for now. Thats a pretty large bucket list for my first ten minutes of drafting! Maybe some of you will have some things to come up with for me. All I know is I have lots of postcards to send, and skyping is going to be much more difficult because I will never know what time it is anywhere!

Thank God for google. 

Till next time .....