Thank God for fine Australian wine.

I haven’t written in a while, I know. I’ve been busy trying to settle in and create a life here in Melb. Last Sunday we went to the St. Kilda festival which is a music and arts festival on the beach here in Melbourne. The festival had about 30,000 people attending with a bunch of different stages for people to perform. We figured out how to use the tram and city transport and got down to the festival at about 2 oclock. They’re were salsa stages with loads of people salsa dancing. Techno stages, jazz stages, funk stages, everything you could ever want. We were about to walk back and a few hours after the festival when we saw this thing called “Silence”… or something along those lines. We waited in line and when we got to the door this lady handed us headphones and said, “There’s three stations with three different colours. Keep your headphones on at all times. Enjoy”. That was it. And we had the BEST time ever. This was a silent rave. There were three Dj’s in this tent, one with a blue headset, one green and one red. Each colour DJ was spinning something different, and everyone in the room with a headset could choose which DJ they wanted to listen to. People were going nuts. We were going nuts. We immediately thought of Kurt and his love for dubstep.. he would’ve loved this place. We hadn’t even had too much to drink and we were breaking a sweat dancing so much. I couldn’t imagine what drunk Tara, or even slightly drunk Tara would’ve done to this place. SO, a lesson for the world. If you ever see a silent rave, or people going nuts with headphones on, TRY IT. You will not be disappointed. It is the most exhilarating experience, and also so funny when you take your headphones off and its silent and people are still going at it. Then we tried French fries, which were twisted on sticks (weird I know) and then went back home. A good day it was.

L’ecole:

Monday was all about rest. By rest I mean buying boxes of wine, watching the Manu/Liverpool game and playing a good game of gin rummy. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday week was my orientation at RMIT. It was good, but quite hectic, and mildly boring. I was accidentally assigned postgrad, masters classes rather than undergrad, which was a slight problem, and I had to wake up at 6am to attempt to fix them. I’m still trying to tweak my schedule for school, hoping that I can get a Mon-Wed schedule like at home so I have Thursday-Sunday off. I used to do that so it would make for an easier Jack’s schedule, but now that I am free of the Jackmare it wouldn’t be so bad to just take weekends to myself, or to travel. Kind of like a normal human being instead of Jack-slave.

Anyway, as it stands now I have 4 courses, which I get 5 credits for! I’m not sure why, but because I am “studying abroad”, I get a free school credit. My schedule this right now is

Monday 2:30-5:30: Personal Wealth Management (which counts as my Canadian finance class, which is amazing!)

 5:30-6:30: Strategic Management Tutorial

Tuesday 3:30-4:30: Accounting and Cost Benefits Tutorial (which is one hour of my day, so reastically I will never go, sorry mom. So, Tuesday off!)

Wednesday 3:30-5:30: Strategic Management Lecture

6:30-8:30 Accounting and Cost Benefits Lecture

Friday 1:30-5: Introduction to Australian Society (only 5 classes in the semester, because every other week we go on school trips, aka field trips. Our “school trips” involve wine tasting, a weekend retreat in north victora, st. Kilda beach to learn to surf, imagine that! The course is supposedly to show us a good time in Australia. This is the course I am getting two University credits for, so ridiculous. Two credits for drinking wine and surfing, then writing about it. They should tell everyone about this class when applying for an exchange. Enrollment would go up 98%)

So my schedule looks pretty good so far. I’m also considering taking another course so that it makes my last semester in Canada super easy. I need 10 more credits total to graduate, so if I take 5 classes here, it would count as 6 of those credits, which means I will only have to take 4 back in Canada. So, I haven’t decided if I want to have a lighter course load here, because I’m going to be traveling and such.. Or if I want a normal size course load here, where all the classes are pass/fail (no real grades), and I will have an easier semester in Canada. Advice?

New Amigos:

Theres not much more about school I can tell you as of yet. Other than the fact the buildings at RMIT look like someplace out of willy wonka and there’s a windsurfing team at my new school.  Anyway, I actually start my classes on the 27^th of Feb., and am excited to meet some aussie classmates. Speaking of meeting people, my orientation group is about 200 people from 24 different countries. I’ve met people from Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Denmark, and obviously the states and Canada. We have a pretty big group of Canadians that have stuck together, give or take some people from the UK and such. Everyone is really nice – given that we are being treated like kindergarteners.  Most of the people I’ve met that are on exchange live in the on campus residences or surrounding type places, where there are so many 17 year olds that just moved away from home- exactly the reason I choose not to live in a RMIT residence. I feel old. But those of us that can tie our shoes and count to 100 went to Brighton Beach today, which was nice, but nothing like Bondi beach in Sydney. That beach was to die for, and I should’ve taken more advantage of that beautiful place because it doesn’t look like Melbourne has anything comparable to that beach at all. BUT I do still have more discovering to do, so maybe I’ll find something even better.

Hidden Gems

Since, I’ve brought up discovering, I should tell you a few things I’ve discovered since I’ve been in Melbourne.  The Big W is our Walmart. People looovee frozen yogurt around here. They’re Mcdonald’s every five steps, as I think I mentioned previously in one of my blogs. There are so many German travelers, assuming that’s because they don’t pay for school so they are all rich. Canadians here introduce themselves as “Hi. I’m not American”. Also, I see signs all over saying $12 rump steak. I am unsure if that means I’m eating a cows ass, or what but it a $12 and they’re not bad. These aussies look at me funny though when I order it rare, jerks. Everyone here says “how ya going?”. When being asked how are you, when being asked are you okay, even instead of hello or hi, Aussies say “how ya going?”. Other than how they speak, Melbourne people are proud of these things they call “pop-ups”. They are different stands and things at night time that pop up out of nowhere. For example .. you could be strolling nicely along Swanston street at noon and see a blank sidewalk. Later, you could be walking down the same road and see a bar that has magically appeared there, or a shop, or anything else that they can “pop up”. Nothing like in Toronto, where it turns midnight and the prostitutes and crackheads take over.

Melbourne is pretty cool actually! This city prides itself in having mysterious things I think. Kenny and I went out for valentines day and decided to explore the city a bit. We walked down simple alleyways and as the night went on discovered so many tiny lounges and bars and restaurants open in literally alleys. You have to climb sketchy stairs, or sometimes those fire escape stairs to find them, but once you find them they are hidden gems. We wanted ice cream, so we saw a sign with an ice cream cone with sunglasses on it. We walked in, and climbed a flight of stairs. No ice cream store, but a bumpin red room with a huge bar, a lounge and these crazy tables that could close like a closet. So you would sit inside the booth and it closed for privacy or what-not. It was really cool. We were kind of in shock of what we found and walked up the next flight of stairs. This bar was another open concept bar with all wood hightop tables and a live band. Then, we walked up the next flight of stairs to find a small retail store with tons of unique jewelry and little things. One more flight of stairs to go.. all of this where we thought was an ice cream store. So we get to the top and the lady says “I can let you up but you have to be quiet okay”. We said okay.. and went up. On the top of this place was a rooftop cinema, with one large screen and bleacher-type seating for people to watch a movie. The movies were pre picked, but the place was packed. On the other side was an awesome rooftop lounge overlooking the city. We looked at each other and immediately ordered another bottle of fine Australian vino, aka there cheapest bottle which is usually $40 minimum. We picked a spot near the side of the roof and found out that there were SO MANY other roofs that had patios and fully established bars on them in the middle of complexes. Its like people find a flat roof wherever, put some plants on it and call it a bar. Awesome.  Immediately I fell in love with Melbourne.

Other things:

Among my other discoveries, I’ve also discovered that EVERYTHINGS expensive. Everything. A banana, $1.50. A small bottle of water, $3.50. Chocolate bars, $3. A martini, $18. A carton of milk, $7 (if you’re lucky). The boys and I quickly learned we need jobs ASAP. Everyone in our hostel has been saying how difficult it has been to find work, etc. etc, so I began applying online immediately. I ended up getting two callbacks this week, just out of the 10 places I applied – so I guess it isn’t too hard after all! They are both bartending positions, one to a more classy cocktail lounge, and another to a bar that is known for their live music. In Australia you don’t really have interviews. Instead they just put you on for a shift, and if you fit you fit, if you don’t you don’t. So, last night (Friday) I had an audition shift. It was at this bar called transit cocktail lounge. Ended up being fine, but too fancy for my liking. Black pants, black button up shirt, tie if I want – definitely not me. They only had four beers on tap, one being a cider (which I wouldn’t even count as real beer). They don’t serve pitchers of beer and there cheapest drink on the menu is $13, a 6oz glass of house wine. Martinis here started at $18. It was fun making espresso martinis and serving absinthe to people, but too many questions about single malts and blah blah blah blah. No thanks, but it does pay $21 an hour +tips. Impressive. Anyway, I had a good time, met a few new people, made a few bucks, and on to the next one. Id rather serve drunks than snobs anyday. I think this time, instead of applying online I am going to wander around and find bars I would go to – then apply based on that. Or maybe ask transit cocktail lounge if I can work at their pub downstairs, ha!

Homeless:

The last thing that I think is important enough to talk about is the fact myself and Kenny and Chris have joined a new social class. We have officially become a part of the homeless community. I haven’t quite begun digging in garbage cans or picking the bugs out of my hair (well, maybe a few times), but finding a place to call home is a lot harder than we thought. It is taking longer than I expected, but more because we have chosen to go through real estate agencies rather than craigslist or something online. I’m not sure why we have chosen this way, but it seems to give us the best chance at getting out of poverty. At least the properties are giving us accurate descriptions of the places unlike craigslist. We have probably gone to about 15 viewings so far. Maybe at first we were a bit picky, and we definitely didn’t get into the game fast enough.. but hopefully it works out for the best. We have our hearts set on a place on Collins street. It’s in a large Victorian building called Temple Place. It has huge windows, a full kitchen, dining and living room, and two nice size bedrooms. Comes completely furnished with leather couches and things. Even laundry and a dishwasher, weo! Its really great. However, there is a small problem with water damage in the floor – so the landlord is concerned about renting it out in case something happened to a tenant and it turned into a liability. We sent our application in on Wednesday and they take three business days to process, but we still haven’t heard anything back. Our fingers are crossed that Monday morning we hear great news, but we also have two other applications pending just in case we don’t get Collins street. The other two are really nice as well , but we don’t find out about those until Wednesday. Wednesday is fine too, but its $90 a night for the three of us at our hostel and we’ve already stayed 10 nights, so $900 for less than two weeks – way too much.

So that’s it then! Apartment hunting, school, work, friends, the boys, Melbourne. Not much more I can say. OH! And we opened Australian bank accounts, so no more international million dollar surcharges which is awesome. Now TD just has to transfer me my money and I can feel like a real aussie. Its about 5pm on Saturday night here, the boys are playing soccer with some other guys in the hostel. I’m going to have a laydown (shocking), maybe go up to the roof and read, make some dinner, and then off to a toga party tonight. The boys and I decided we are going to wear work out clothes and pretend we thought it was a YOGA party instead, haha. Just so we don’t have to make ridiculous togas. We’ll see how it all works out. Wish us luck with the apartments search. I love and miss you all.

This week I thank God for fine Australian wine.

Till Next Time…

Thank God for adventure.

Monday morning, we woke up early to get started on finding some kind of transportation for our great ocean road trip. There are these places in Australia just for travelers, called Peter Pans. They have 3 locations in Sydney, 3 in Melbourne, etc. and are for booking hostels, cars – pretty much any travel accommodations or advice you would ever need. They were really helpful, and we finally decided to rent a camper-van. Originally we wanted just 3 days, but the minimum rental was 5 days, so we stretched out our travel plans. The van was about $600 for all 5 days + gas and food and whatever else we would want. The price is not too bad considering this is where we would sleep for all five days also. Anyway, after booking our van, we rushed to the nearest local bar to watch the superbowl. A bottle of Bud in Adelaide was $7 per bottle, insane! We reverted to ordering Australian native beer called “Tooheys”. It reminded me of Heineken sort of. The superbowl was huge letdown to say the least, because if anyone knows me they know my arch nemeses in life are the New York Giants. Which by the way I realized I will have to reconsider my dreams of living in New York City simply because of my passionate hate for the Giants. However, I was thinking of you Ssica, and you too Sandra D- I’m sure you were ecstatic. It’s just too bad my boy Romo couldn’t stop you when we had the chance. Instead we became the infamous Choker Chokerston. OH! And there were some other people in AUS wearing Dallas shirts and things, which was a nice touch. They were also in tears at the result of the superbowl like I was…..

Enough about my football rant. After the game we went back to our hostel to collect our things and walked to the camper rental place called Wicked. When we got there, there were tons of graffiti covered vans and big signs saying “Extra day if you get naked”. The deal was, if you’re whole party got naked, you got a free days rental with the van. There were tons of pictures of people posing naked, some covering themselves and some letting it all out. I am usually never opposed of being naked after tons of locker room days and such, but considering I was with my boyfriend and his BROTHER I didn’t see the situation working out to anyone’s advantage. So, we paid our full fees and began our 5 day relationship with “Rambo”, our campervan. The van came “fully furnished”, ha! Meaning two spoons, three bowls, 1 pot, 1 pan, old pillows without cases, dirty mattresses, a pee-smelling propane tank, and 3 blankets. That was about it. After we picked him up, we took our new best friend Rambo grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping with these boys is like taking children to Toys-R-Us. They want it all. Normally I am the same and if I’m ever seen in a grocery store when I’m hungry – watch out. But when it comes to camping, I see no need for chocolate milkshakes or candy bars. We settled for some pasta, pack of 10 hamburgers, some canned beans, corn on the cob, chips, milk, water, among some other needs like toilet paper. OH – and somehow the chocolate milk shakes ended up in the cart, of course. Finally we got some gas, and we were off!

Also I found out traveling with Kenny and Chris.. Chris like to “rest his eyes” while driving and probably never did well staying inside the lines while a child. He definitely doesn’t stay inside the lines now… Probably the laziest driver I’ve ever seen! So Kenny took over most of the time, thankfully.

Day 1 of driving was the worst. Quite the adventure, but nothing like we thought our Great Ocean Road would look like. We hear its the most amazing, but noone ever mentions the stretch from Adelaide to where the ocean actually hits the road. This is about a 5 hour journey of nothing. It looked liked Saskatchewan, but with sheep and signs to watch our for the roo’s. (We saw two kangaroos!!) We had to find a place to stop before it got dark or there was no hope for any dinner or arranging beds to sleep. We found a road that said “scenic route” and had signs for bathrooms and tents. We decided that would be our best option in the middle of nowhere, because there was no chance that we were making it to civilization before dark. That was the WRONG decision. We went about 20 kms down this road and didn’t find any campground or signs of life at all, other than rabbit poo all over the ground. We decided to just set up shop anyway, until we saw a huge hole next to our camper. This hole was not the size of any rabbit, or even kangaroo, and we did NOT want to find out what was living in it. So, back out to the highway we went another 20 km on a dirt road. Rambo must’ve wanted to kill us by then. It was getting down to about half hour until dark so we found the next semi-safe looking camp area, and parked. We gave eachother jobs in a particular order of importance: Change into warm clothes (layers, layers and more layers). Flashlights. Move bags to the front of the van. Find the toilet paper. Take contacts out. Then each of us divided and 1 set up the propane tank, 1 got the food ready, and 1 set up some sort of beds. It started raining on the grilled cheese we were making, but we ended up with some sort of half boiled mr. noodles and wet grilled cheese. As bad as it sounds, it was delicious. We ate, played some cards, and went to bed.

These boys have to pee more than anyone I’ve ever met – I think I’ve even mentioned that in previous blogs. So I was awake pretty much every hour with one of them opening the door to pee. There was one point at about 6am where I started to freak out a little. The propane tank smell made me want to vomit and I felt extremely claustrophobic, like I was suffocating from no fresh air. Earlier on our trip I asked Kenny what his sleeping method was. We all have one. Mine is generally to count – but then I just end up thinking and not knowing what number I should be on. Kennys method is a four step method: 1. Make sure you are warm. 2. Find a comfy position. 3. Get a steady breathing rhythm going. 4. Don’t move. This method has been working wonders for me, because I am one to move around a lot. Step 4, (don’t move) puts me right to sleep. So, in this time of feeling like I’m going to vomit I decided it was best to stick the the 4 step sleeping method and hope for the best. Finally, I fell asleep and was awoken when Chris had to pee – shocking, but at least it was a few hours later. We were up at about 8:30, had some cereal (which did not sit well) and started off for Mount Gambier, our first REAL stop.

Day 2 we woke up in the middle of nowhere and went on to Mount Gambier. We drove into what was called the “blue lake”. My mom loves the colour teal, and this water was more blue/teal than I have ever seen before. It was unreal almost. We stayed there like tourists taking pictures and then moved on to drive up to the Grampians. The Grampians is an area just inland near Mt. Gambier that has a huge national park, wineries, and lots of wildlife. I studied the map for a while and decided to take the Mt. Sturgeon hike in the Grampian National Park. At the time it seemed like a great idea. The pictures showed waterfalls and flowers and streams. When we actually walked or hiked this mountain, 7 kilometers of uphill. No stream, no waterfall, nothing fun about it, except when we finally made it to the top. I have never climbed anything other than a rock-climbing wall, so I felt very accomplished and the views were amazing. We even made some videos from 1000 feet high! Oh, and we saw a porcupine and some kangas on the way up, that was cool too. After our hike, it was getting dark (the hike took 3 hours about) and we found a place called Grampians Retreat and decided to ask where we could find a shower and/or place to park Rambo. We met this lovely couple; Marie and Dennis. They began by telling us about a park back in Dunkled (a small town we passed through), which was fine with us to stay. After talking to them for a while, they offered to let us sleep in their retreat center and use their shower facilities. We didn’t except that kind of hospitality and were really surprised! Marie even told me that my University has a class that takes its students to her retreat center, and it happened to be the same class I am enrolled in, ironic huh? So I will be seeing a bit more of Marie and Dennis when I start school out here. Anyway, we settled in at the retreat center, made some burgers and called it a night. Because our camper only had one light and we didn’t want to kill the battery, we pretty much went to bed when it got dark at night which was about 9pm… lame, I know. But! Day 3 we woke up at 7:30am to get back on the road.

Day 3 was all about the Ocean Drive. We drove south down from Dunkled to Port Fairy and passed through small towns along the coast; Warnambool, Apollo Bay, and some others. This was where the ocean hugged the side of the road. On one side we had mountains, and another was the Pacific ocean. We stopped at a million tourist “lookouts”, and even found a few on our own. The most famous was the 12 Apostles, which are huge rock formations in the ocean that have eroded to be now 8 Apostles over time. My personal favourite was, ok well my TWO favourite spots were Worm Bay, and an awesome Gorge we found. Worm Bay was a small lookout area, but you could walk right down to the beach. It reminded me of the beaches of Bermuda, which are incredible. The Gorge we found was a bit of a hike to get to, but the trail led us to a “river” which led us to the ocean. I stood on some kind of rock formation, and a wave so huge came in, that I literally held on for my life. These currents were stronger than I have ever seen and really scary, but exhilarating at the same time. I learned my lesson quick, and decided to join the boys on the dry land. Day 3 was one with lots of sun, and lots of stops, so we were tired early. We ended up in a small cove along Great Ocean Road and slept next to the ocean.

Day 4 we woke up in the most beautiful spot. The night earlier, we had just pulled off the ocean road, not knowing what the sight was going to be like in the morning. We woke up to the sun in our faces and the sound of the ocean, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. We took off at about 8:30am and found ourselves in a Koala haven! Well, not haven.. but I saw 5 or 6 koalas. I fell in love with them, and learned that they sleep REALLY high up in the trees. We had been looking a lot lower than they actually were, and found some babies even! They made my day :). The rest of Day 4 was spent with a lot of driving, some aimlessly because I let the boys decided where to go, and eventually we ended up in Geelong, a really nice town about an hour from Melbourne. We went to the Geelong waterfront, which apparently is world renowned, and found an awesome “ocean playgound”. Diving boards, slides, all kinds of stuff for adults to play in the ocean. It was really cool, AND they had showers! Which was a huge bonus. We ended up soaking up the sun in Geelong, and reading our books as the sun went down. As for our sleeping spot on Day 4, we ran into some trouble. Rambo decided he didn’t want to come out of forth gear. So pretty much, our gear box was shot. It was black outside by this point and we couldn’t find any campgrounds or deserted streets to park. We ended up in this really weird open land off of some lake. Kenny decided to park in the middle of the open grounds, which kept me up all night because I was worried cars wouldn’t see us and run straight into Rambo. Many cars came and went, but again we woke up to sun and the sound of the ocean in the morning.

Day 5. Not only were we woken up by sun and the sound of the ocean, also by this creepy man staring at our camper. He took his shirt off, and looked like he was on some crazy drugs and hadn’t been to sleep yet from the night before. He came right up to the camper a few times and did not stop staring into the van. Finally, the boys said something and he stepped back – but the staring continued. So weird. We decided to get outta there, and when we left, the creepy drug man waved goodbye. I hated him. Finally, on our way to Melbourne! But… as if any part of our trip could be easy. Rambo decided to overheat because of the gear box. We made it to some BP petro station, and had to wait over 2 hours for a tow truck. When it got to us, we had to pay for a $30 taxi back to the Wicked Van rental place, and were out 4 hours with the van by this point. In the end, the people in Adelaide had rented us the wrong van. Rambo wasn’t supposed to be ours, and we paid for a much nicer vehicle we found out. Rambo wasn’t even running properly, which could’ve also explained why we ran out of propane after 3 uses. (I forgot to mention that) So, we asked for another van so we could at least get our luggage to a hostel – this van was much much MUCH nicer than Rambo. We had the new van for a few hours, found a hostel that had room for us for a week, and here I am. Sitting in the 8 bed hostel bed, room 102 in Melbourne Australia. It feels nice knowing that this city is finally “home”, for the next 6 months at least. Now the boys are returning the second van, I am settling in – and its almost 5pm. There is a bar under the hostel called the Velvet Underground, which reminds me of the one in Toronto. Anyway, happy hour is 5-8 and the reception gave us tickets for a free drink because we will have to change rooms on Tuesday. The hostel is right next to my school (I think) so I can be all ready for orientation on Tuesday.

I am going to stop writing stories now and start living the dream here in Melbourne, ha! This weekend is the St.Kilda beach festival and they close down the streets and open all the bars. I have one more weekend of freedom until I have to get into school mode.

Bye for now! Thank God for adventures.

Till Next Time… 

Thank God for Airport buggies

My experience in Sydney started off weary, but turned into a lovely mini-vacation. 

We were in Sydney for 5 days total (Tuesday-Saturday). The first four days were rain, rain, rain and more rain. I have never seen so much rainfall as I have since Fiji and Sydney. It just loads, and never seems to stop. Anyway, Wednesday was just spent moving from the airport to our hostel and settling in, trying to learn a little bit about our location and such. Thursday we woke up yearning for some adventure, despite the rain. We decided to trek the city to find some "indoor activities". We, we meaning the boys, decided to go to the Sydney Aquarium. I did come face to face with sharks, a HUGE fear of mine and it was terrible - but I happy that I got it over with. We walked in the rain about 10km, to the habour and back - but I didn't mind because it was warm rain, ha. We discovered on day 1 that McDonalds has $1 cheeseburgers, so we found quite a liking to little McDonalds burgers as snacks during our stay, ha. We also noticed, they had McDonald's everywhere! And Canada's burger king is called Hungry jacks here. We didn't really see a taco bell or any other sort of fast food. But after the long day of walking in the rain, we went grocery shopping a bit and I even bought some Iron pills, surprise! We got back to the hostel and Kenny was pretty sick and it lasted until early Saturday. He was covered in blankets and still freezing, had a few really high fevers, and sweat more than I've ever seen someone sweat before. Chris and I convinced him to go to the doctor, only because there was a chance he picked something up in Fiji (which wouldn't be good). After googling Malaria several times and talking to the local "chemist" (Australian pharmacy), turns out just some jetlag and the flu. 

On Friday, we were all feeling a bit under the weather - probably because of our rainwalk. We managed to get out a bit more and see the Sydney Naval base and some local hotspots. We went back to the hostel and rested, then went for happy hour at a nearby hotel-bar. It was pretty cool, with floors overlooking the city streets and some live music. We didn't do much else Thursday. It was more of a relaxing, stress-free days - much needed. 

Saturday we woke up to some sun, finally! We had been waking up really early every day, between 8-9am for a few reasons. First, we get free breakfast (just tea/coffee, bread, and cereal) at 9:30, so we ate that most mornings. And secondly, because of our jetlag, we have been going to bed at about 10 at night lately. But anyway we woke up a bit later on Saturday, so about 10am, and decided to take the Sydney/Bondi Beach 24 bus tour. We figured we could hear about the history of the city, discover other nooks and crannies, and have free transport for 24 hours. (Free other than paying $30 for the bus, ha!). We went on the Bondi Beach tour first. When we arrived at the beach, it was packed with tourists, locals, surfers, every kind of person. The asians were easy to spot, because they were walking with umbrellas, which seemed odd on a clear sun-shining day. We laid on the beach for probably 2 hours and went bodysurfing in the ocean. There were jellyfish EVERYWHERE! I picked a few up, and they moved in my hand. I saw a little boy playing with one, trying to eat it until his mother took it away, haha. We also saw something that looked like a child olympic surfing team. These kids were about 8-12 years old just running up and down the beach into the ocean and out on these surfboards. They never actually went up on their boards, so we thought maybe they were training for lifeguarding. Either way they were doing drills and working out with their coaches yelling "faster!" for the entire time we were on the beach, it was shocking. 

After the beach we went back onto the tour bus. Chris and I realized we looked like lobsters. We were so sunburnt it was ridiculous. I guess we got carried away with the whole rain week turning so beautifully, we didn't use any sunscreen. Our plan for a night on the town turned badly because were so burnt, so we just watched some californication and called it a night. 

This morning (Sunday) we woke up, packed our stuff and took the Sydney part of the tour. Then we caught our flight to Adelaide at 2:25. We flew Quantas, and of course ran into problems. You check your bags yourself, weigh them and everything. So we spent a half hour on the airport floor moving things around so each bag would fit the requirements. It is stupid because each airline we have flown have different size and weight requirements, so we have to change our bags each time. Anyway, we did that forever it seemed- then NOONE even checked the weights of our carryons! So we pretty much spent all that time for nothing ... and then when we got to our boarding gate, our flight was delayed over an hour due to maintenance, again. We finally arrived in Adelaide at 5. Kenny's bag didn't make it to Adelaide, which seems ridiculous after an hour and a half delay and all that work to make sure our bags fit the requirements. But, we made it here and it seems a bit like the a ghost-town. We are staying one night so we can wake up to watch the superbowl in the morning, which by the way I could care less about because it is the Patriots and Giants, two teams I dont care for. As long as the Giants don't win, I will feel satisfied, sorry Sandra D- but you're my rival.  It is 10am here with the time difference so it may be interesting. After the superbowl, we are renting a van and heading on the Great Ocean Road. The plan is to get a car big enough to sleep in, so we don't have to worry about finding hostels or hotels on the way. We'll see how that all works out. 

This leg of the trip we have worked out already quite a bit, with places to stop from Adelaide to Melbourne. And then .... we are FINALLY THERE! This trip will have taken its (almost) final destination and we can start apartment hunting. My orientation is in 9 days now, so I have to start to get into school mode soon, which seems in another dimension at this point. 

Overall, I will keep writing with updates on the great ocean road trip! Our roommates here in Adelaide have been traveling for 16 months in Australia, and I thought 7 months was nuts, ha. They are British and really nice. 

Thank God for American Football. 

Till Next Time ... 

Thank God for good company.. Finding Beauty in the Beast

This post is going to be VERY long and tell you about the last 8 days. I haven’t written in about a week, for a few reasons. One: I haven’t had free WiFi anywhere, and even when I’ve paid there were connection problems. Two: Most of my posts would’ve been disheartening to read because of how furious the past week’s events have made me. Three: I haven’t really had time, nor known what time or day it was. Either way, there have been a few bumps in the road to say the least.

Where to even begin….

Los Angeles. LA both exceeded and failed to meet my expectations. The weather and the beauty of the surrounding areas exceeded my expectations. The “glamour” and the “Hollywood” aspect of LA failed to meet my expectations. When thinking of Hollywood and Los Angeles, I think bottle service, celebrities, fashion, glamour, all of the things seen in the magazines and on tv. I didn’t really find much glamour and the only celebrity I saw was Ben Mulroney (who? Yeah that’s exactly it, F list). I finally got over that my Hollywood fix was different than expected, and focused on the palm trees and beautiful weather.

We stayed with my brother in San Luis Obispo, and that is the best time I’ve had on my journey thus far. We drove along the coast, which took my breath away, and then ended up at the Santa Monica Pier. It was gorgeous, and we had the best burgers I’ve had in a long time! Then we found the Thompson Beverley Hills, checked in, and started to “live the life” on the rooftop pool. The rooftop had cabanas, lounges, poolside chairs, and a view of the entire city of Los Angeles and all of Beverly Hills. I just laid by the pool, being served cold beer, feeling like a Queen. That night we went out to a few different Hollywood bars, saw some live music, and met up with Tarik’s friend who showed us around the local Hollywood area. Overall, the Thompson was everything I expected and more.. The roof was even more beautiful at night when you could see the city lights and sunset.

The Thompson was right off of Rodeo Drive, so of course we had to go take a look. We saw cars worth millions of dollars and I’ve never seen rocks so big on the left hands of women as I did in Beverly hills. I went into Tiffany with a mission to get myself an “adventure beginning present”, but the boys wouldn’t let me. I was frustrated at first, but have now realized I don’t need to be a Tiffany wearing backpacker, anymore than I am already. On our last day, we went to see Hollywood Blvd which reminded me of a place like Dundas Square, just with a bunch of Michael Jackson look-a-like’s running around in it. The cool part was seeing Frank Sinatra’s hand prints outside of the theater. After Hollywood Blvd. Tarik drove us to the airport. Kenny and Chris needed their last Subway fix for a few weeks, so we found a subway, ate, and then finally got to LAX. The three of us were so excited to get on the plane, have a nights sleep, and wake up in the morning for a week in the Fijian Islands. Little did we know ..

THE NIGHTMARE

We arrived at LAX with 3 hours before our flight departed to find out that our flight has been cancelled. Sorry, “delayed”. We were told to come back in the morning for a 9:30am flight, then told it was going to be 3:00pm instead of 9:30. Air Pacific put us up in a hotel, the Marriott, which was really nice, and we googled Fiji to see what the problem was. We discovered that the flood was said to be worse than the one in 2009 and that the local Fijians were started to become diseased by eating contaminated flood foods. Nadi, the city where the airport is, was covered in water, and the flood was only going to get worse. Air Pacific had known our flight was cancelled since Thursday, and decided not to let any of the passengers know. After finding out we were about to fly into a “state of emergency” and natural disaster, we started trying to call Flight Centre and our trip interruption insurance company. Because it was now Sunday, we couldn’t get ahold of anyone to help us change our flight arrangements let alone give us a clear and timely (yes, I said it) of our vacation plans.

After no sleep, we went to the airport in the morning to try and change our flights. We had two options, fly straight to Sydney and never see Fiji – and waste our $900 on that leg of our trip. OR fly to Fiji, despite weather conditions, and continue on our way. After back and forth, pro’s and con’s, we decided to go to Fiji anyway and give it our best shot. We got on the 10 hour flight, and landed at 9:45 pm Fijian time. We then waited in a line for 2 hours for Air Pacific to give us promised accommodation because of the delayed flight. The lady that gave us a hotel for the night, asked us why we even flew to Fiji and said we should start looking for the first flight out…. Anyway, when we got to the hotel there were toads, cockroaches, and rat droppings all over our room. We went back to the lobby to find more guests wanting to leave this hotel. We waited for another shuttle, and then got to another hotel. This one wasn’t a hotel, but more like a hostel. This hotel wasn’t anything like a Marriott but it didn’t have cockroaches, so we were more than happy with a place to sleep. We woke up in the morning, and were still not sure where we should stay, if we should stay, or what to do – pretty much stranded in Fiji. Normally, I would have NO complaints and would be fine sleeping on the beach and enjoying the sun, but with two tropical cyclones heading straight to Nadi, I felt like I was in a bad dream.

We went back to the airport three times Monday and were waitlisted on flights to Syndey for the next three days. The nice people at our Fijian hostel advised us to “get out while we can” before the hurricane and cyclone hit. He said we were in the eye of the storm, and it would only get worse from here. Luckily, we got on our first waitlisted flight and arrived in Sydney at 10:30pm Monday night. In Fiji we were told they would put us up in a hotel for Monday night because we were never supposed to be staying in Sydney to begin with. When we arrived, several airline staff told us that they weren’t advised about the hotel and we were on our own. The nice lady at the customs desk told us we should wait until 3:30am and speak to an Air Pacific rep directly to get our accommodation. So, we slept on the airport floor from about midnight until 3 in the morning and went upstairs to wait by the Air Pacific desk. Air Pacific Rep didn’t show up until 5am – and checked in an entire flight before even considering our situation. Finally at 6:30 he apologized for the “inconvenience” and gave us a hotel voucher until 6pm. Thanks for the 12 hours, jerk. After spending the last 5 days in an airport, we were happy with the 12 hours with a bed and waited for the airport shuttle. We got the airport hotel, ate breakfast (now 7am) and then went to bed. At 2:30pm we woke up, had lunch and started hostel searching. We called about 6 different places, found one with availability and we took another shuttle to the hostel. FINALLY! We had a place to call home, at least for two nights.

Finding Beauty in the Beast

Yes, the last 6 days were nothing short of inconvenient and exhausting. But while in the shuttle to this hostel I read something on the streets of Sydney “Found beauty in the most ugly”. I didn’t know who they were talking about or what, but in chalk on the side of the Sydney road, I was inspired.. and decided that rather dwelling on the trip of a lifetime being a disaster, I should take it all as it comes and enjoy the ride. I think between homesickness and lack of familiarity, combining with the tropical storm and airport sleeping, I was making myself miserable. This trip is probably the one thing in the last year that I have actually planned. I was really proud of the planning and precision I took in choosing our flights and saving thousands of dollars to make it “perfect”. When it didn’t work out as I planned I became frustrated and regretful. Also, I may add .. its difficult traveling with two grown men who have backpacked before. I lived with my boyfriend and his brother for a few months in Toronto, but traveling together is another thing. I am so thankful for their company, but sometimes it is hard to make three people happy. I have no decided to take a back seat, instead of taking the reigns as I normally do. I am sitting in the hostel now, taking some time to myself while the boys went on a run. I enjoy “my time” and have accepted that it’s okay for me to take some, without feeling selfish.

Today, we are going to take the siteseeing tour of Sydney. It will show us the Opera House and many famous landmarks. The best part is the tour is a hop on- hop off tour for 24 hours. So we can have a free ride to our next hostel tomorrow near Bondi Beach. Our hostel is called the FunkHouse and it is right near Kings Cross, in central Sydney. The architecture reminds me of a European culture, so detailed with little quaint roads and patios everywhere. The weather isn’t good at all, raining every day actually – with the overdraft of the Fiji flooding, but it wont stop us! The boys want to go see the Sydney Aquarium later today, which means, I have to come face to face with sharks. Yesterday I felt sick even thinking about it, and anyone who knows me knows the one thing in life I am afraid of; SHARKS. But, the boys have made sacrifices for me this trip, I will 100% cry, but I too will make sacrifices and face a shark. I may give it the finger though.

I apologize for writing a novel, but it’s a week’s worth of details. I really wish I could’ve enjoyed Fiji. The culture was amazing; it was just an unfortunate circumstance. I did learn though, that “BULA” means hello.. and they use the word Bula for almost everything there. Hello, goodbye, how are you. I feel like they sometimes just say it. I also learned that the government is a dictatorship and that the police in Fiji are all working under the same person – so they aren’t really there to help the middle class Fijians. In Fiji you are not allowed to do ANY sort of business, even have a meeting, unless the government has approved it without getting into serious trouble. You can’t do research either, even if it is part of a University program or just your own research.

Oh! I forgot to mention the Melbourne man we met, named Josh. He told us a few tips about the city and said that we are able to start renting a place in the middle of the month, because in Melbourne you are charged weekly rates instead of monthly. This was great news, seeing as we arrive to Melbourne in the middle of Feb. Now we can just start apartment hunting immediately. He also said there were lots of furnished places, and the two bedrooms were about $1200-1800 a month, which is not bad compared to Toronto. I’ve also discovered, I don’t enjoy “backpacking”. I mean, I love city hopping and bunk beds, and makeshift kitchens, new places, etc. But with my scoliosis (my spine being crooked), the actually BACKPACK part of backpacking isn’t working too well when carrying a backpack twice my size. My body is getting furious with me, and my shoulders and back are refusing to cooperate. Im hoping that by the time Thailand comes – I figure it out. I either ditch everything I have and literally travel with nothing. Or revert to my rolling suitcase and send my backpack home. Sorry mom, I thought I would love it! Maybe it just needs a bit of repacking or shifting the weight, or changing the way it fits. Either way, I have to fix something.. or I will become a cripple by this time next year.

Anyway, the boys just got back from their run – the rain is picking up I guess. So we will probably play some cards, maybe some gin rummy. Europeans vs Canadians. Also, Chris tricked me by feeding me vodka and mango juice in his canteen for breakfast, by telling me it was water. I’m sure there’s more where that came from. This adventure is only beginning and the streets of Sydney will be seeing us in full form tonight.

Thank God for Good Company.

Till Next Time ….