Click HERE for "Teaching English Abroad: Step 2" at my new site, First For Everything.
Sorry, this page has moved.
Click HERE for "Teaching English Abroad: Step 2" at my new site, First For Everything.
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One look at my iPhone weather app and I knew that this rare occasion of beautiful weather MUST be spent outdoors. The boyfriend’s mother is also visiting so this doubled as an excuse to make the trip to Phillip Island for the first time since moving to Melbourne. Located about 140km south of Melbourne, Phillip Island is a popular tourist destination, most notably known for the “Penguin Parade”. This unique experience allows visitors to watch the famous “Little Penguins” (AKA the smallest species of penguins standing at 33cm tall and the only penguins native to Australia) waddle ashore from the ocean, dart across the beach and wander into their burrow homes. Photography/filming was strictly prohibited at the Penguin Parade but this is a short clip of the Little Penguins eating at the Melbourne Zoo! We, of course, had to plan this trip out to fit our spontaneity, budget and time limitations. Spontaneity equaled expensive accommodation because of last minute planning, which didn’t agree with our budget. Work commitments also didn’t allow us to stay longer than one night but any kind of public transportation would take hours. Solution? Rental car! Goodbye $250 accommodation for ONE night and 32038413-hour-long public transportation and helloooo $47 rental car! (Thank you Europcar Rentals!) This would allow us to drive there and back in one day at 2 hours each way. Since the Penguin Parade is shortly after sunset (the Little Penguins have to wait for it to get dark to make it more difficult for predators to catch them), we started our day off hiking Cape Woolamai. This 3 hour (including time for photo opps plus appreciation of natural phenomenon’s), 5.5km hike brought us to a spectacular view of Phillip Island and The Pinnacles (bottom, left photo), as well as to the highest point on Cape Woolamai. For people that love hiking, this was definitely worthwhile, although not very challenging. If you’re in for a good walk and a breathtaking view of natural rock formations, then this is a must. If you’re looking for a difficult and dangerous adventure, then well, I heard you can climb these crazy steep rocks. After dinner, we headed for the Penguin Parade. We debated getting the “Penguin Plus” seats, which seated you in the very front, but were perfectly happy with our general admission tickets which allowed us a good view to watch our adorable little blue friends scurry across the sand in groups of about 20-25 and up towards their homes. The Boardwalk, or walkways back up to the main building, was the best part. We got as close as possible to the little guys in their natural environment, saw them interact, sit on their eggs and heard a little too much of their “mating” sounds (September is apparently mating season).
We also got to learn “heaps” about Little Penguins. While out at sea, they eat HALF of their body weight every day. During incubation periods, the male and female take turns sitting on the eggs (usually 1 or 2) and switch off every 3-4 days. Since they eat so much (imagine eating 50+ pounds of pizza every day…yummm), they are able to hang out for those few days while their spouse swims about. This conservation center also overturned the myth that penguins mate for life. They actually have a 17% divorce rate and often find new hubbys/wives every year due to divorce & mortality rate. Tips? Get there at least an hour early to get good seats! This was probably the main advantage of the Penguin Plus tickets – they were lead to the front right before sunset to avoid sitting in the cold for an hour/hour & a half. But the difference of tickets: GA=$22 // PP=$44 - One thing that might make a difference for you is the fact that they are a not-for-profit organization so all proceeds go to the penguins:) Do NOT bring food – I witnessed one of the dozens of crazy, ravenous sea gulls land on my boyfriend’s head and steal pizza out of his mouth. Seriously. This was the LEAST I have ever enjoyed eating pizza, having to guard it from hovering, fearless birds. They strictly prohibit photography inside/on the beach and as much as I wanted to photograph the penguins, capturing the moment where a bird steals my boyfriend’s pizza definitely takes the cake. One of the my absolute favorite parts of Melbourne that I can NOT get enough of is the street art. Graffiti has such a negative connotation - unless you live in Melbourne where it is a widely accepted form of expression and one of the most popular and creative forms of art. I realized today how precious this type of art is when I walked down one of the most notorious graffiti laneways, Hosier Lane. This street is across from the Atrium entrance of Federation Square and has some of the city's best street art. The last time I was here was a few months ago. As I walked down the alley way, it was like it was the first time I had ever seen it - and then I realized that's because essentially, it was the first time ever seeing it. Most street art gets painted over eventually - which makes sense since it's public domain. As tragic and senseless as this concept of painting over & defacing art seemed at first, I began to realize that it was all part of this urban culture. It makes the street art of Melbourne that much more exquisite - that it is ever changing. You can essentially never walk down the same laneway twice because there is always different artwork to see. It makes the city a permanent [not-so-blank] canvas that artists can continue to create amazing things out of. Had I known at the time that I had already photographed this laneway, I would have attempted to get the same exact angle/shot so I could compare. There's always next time:) Some of my Favorite Street Art I've Come Across:CBD LanewaysRandom/Unknown PlacesBrunswick Street LanewaysChapel Street LanewaysSorry, this page has moved. Click HERE to be redirected to "Teaching English Abroad: Step 1" at my new site, First For Everything. So I've been back in Australia a week now. Spent a glorious weekend doing absolutely nothing but hang out with the boy, watch movies (including the Dark Knight Rises for the 2nd time), sleep and relax. Come Monday, Nate had to go to work and I was left with nothing to do, seeing as how my cafe job would have to wait another week since they had already made the schedule (which didn't include me). I decide to apply for a few jobs since I'm going to have to pay for SE Asia somehow.
I decided to go for the promotions jobs since they're rather easy, flexible and pay decent. I applied for three and the next day, I got a call back asking if I wanted to come in for an interview that day. At the time, I was actually out trying to find Nathaniel his birthday present. His birthday isn't until the 22nd this month but I decided it would be a fabulousss idea to get us some bikes so we can go bike riding! Although this plan doesn't seem super brilliant right now, as I look at the weather forecast and it's supposed to rain the rest of the week. Like it does everyy week. Anyway, I go on gumtree.com and find tons of bikes around the price that I want. Yes, I'm getting my boyfriend a used bike for his birthday. Sounds pretty lame, but the idea is that we'll go on lots of fun bike rides together - that is, if the rain EVER stops. So my one problem - actually one of my MANY problems, is that I do not have a car. So my idea is that I get a bike within about 10km of my house so I can just ride it back home. The first place I go - and yes, this blog is now ending up being about my bicycle hunt rather than my "big kid job" - I end up really liking the bike and so I buy it. It fits me fine and if the seat is raised, it will fit Nate too, so I figure it's a good bike to start with. So I pay for the bike and was meaning to ask this girl - or any person for that matter - if I'm supposed to be wearing a helmet. I don't know if that's a stupid question, all I know is that in California, you don't need to wear a helmet when you ride your bike. In Hawaii, you don't even need to wear a helmet when you ride a motorcycle (random, I know). So I text my friend Ash and ask him if I need to wear one. No response. I jump on the bike and see an older guy riding his bike and he's wearing a helmet - granted he's also wearing super short bike shorts with a matching shirt and helmet, so I figure this guy is just super hardcore. A minute later, I see another guy riding his bike without a helmet, so I'm like, wooo I'm in the clear! So I'm cruising down the street, headphones in, jamming to my music, thinking about how much I looove riding bikes and how free I feel and how it's going to be soooo awesome being able to ride my bike everywhere and then of course - I look over my right shoulder and I'm legit getting pulled over by the cops. Of course. "Do you have some ID on you?" he asks. "Am I doing something wrong?" "Do you think you're doing something wrong?" "Am I supposed to be wearing a helmet?" And at this point, the cops are just laughing at me. Obviously I'm not from around here. I explain that I literally had just gotten the bike 5 minutes ago and that in California you don't need to wear helmets, etc etc. They didn't ticket me or anything (luckily). I just couldn't believe I got pulled over within MINUTES. Anyway, I got one bike down, one more to go! So actually, as I was about to ride away, right after I texted Ash, is when this sports marketing agency called me about coming in for an interview that day. So I went in a few hours later and things went really well. There were a ton of people in there so I wasn't too hopeful I would get a call back, but a few hours later, they called me asking if I would come in the next day - today. They had explained that it was a sales job and that we represented a lot of major sports clubs in Australia, such as the AFL (Australian Football League), Special Olympics and so on. Today, I went in and along with a couple interviews, actually went and job shadowed them. Didn't really seem like my kind of thing, unfortunately. Sales has never super interested me. We went back to the office and I spoke with another employee and she explained how the entire company works. Overall, there's a LOT of room for growth and you can do really well if you try hard and are motivated. And I actually think it's something I can do and be good at. Unfortunately, this isn't the ideal job to get when I only have two months here until I start traveling for a month and then go back to The States. And they actually offered me the job at the end of all my interviews. I had a feeling I might get it because I was getting along with everybody I had met, and in my head, I said if they offered me the job, I would tell them I would have to think about it first. Of course when it actually happened and she excitedly offered me the job, I just said "awesome, sounds great!" which could definitely (and was definitely) interpreted as an acceptance. So now here are my issues: Do I take a job where I won't be able to make a lot of money right away (when I'm trying to save money right now for traveling)? That also has reallyyy long hours? But it will definitely pay well in the future. But if I go home, then there won't be a "future" and then 2 months could potentially be wasted. Granted, I'll probably learn a lot, but it's not really fair to me or the company to spend two months here to just quit after not even getting anywhere. And so if I decide NOT to go home, then that means...I won't be going home. And I DO want to go home. I have friends visiting for a month in December that I'm supposed to show around California. And that was just always the plan - to go home for the holidays. But if I stay, it could turn into a really good job because it IS a really good opportunity. But then Nate's visa expires in March and he might not be able to stay in Australia either way. And also, am I really ready to have a big kid job? I still wanted to keep traveling. i wanted to go teach English in Italy or Spain or somewhere in Europe. I don't know if I'm ready for real responsibilities. But I DON'T want to be working at random cafes/restaurant the rest of my life. And working at a million different restaurants doesn't exactly improve my resume. Decisions, decisions. Training starts on Monday so I have a few days to figure it out. To grow up or not to grow up... As my month-long holiday is coming to an end, I find it ironic how I take a vacation from my vacation (Australia) at HOME. But more than that, I realize how incredibly LUCKY I am to be able to do so - that my "home" is a vacation. Granted, Sacramento isn't the biggest tourist destination (ha), but that's my original home and I will always always ALWAYS love it dearly. I got to be in one of my oldest friend's wedding, spend time with my family and play with my nephews that are growing all too fast (reality check, or should I say a slap in the face by reality: when they're around 20 years old, I will be 40!! FORTY!!). Anyway, I got lots of good family time in and got to see some old friends as well, which is always nice. I absolutely LOVE summer days in Sacramento consisting of BBQing, swimming, going to the lake and ending with the most amazing warm summer nights! I was back and forth from San Diego to Sacramento a total of 3 times. That's three 8-hour drives & one flight. I didn't originally intend on going back and forth so many times, it just kinda happened. When I first arrived back in the States - OH and can we first talk about how I was reeeal reluctant to go back, BTW? I may or may not have been a little careless with my passport the week prior to flying home so I might have an excuse not to have to go back (sorry America, but I looove Australia and I reallyy wasn't ready to go back to reality) - I had landed in LA and then took a train to San Diego after hanging out with my mom in the horrible city that is Los Angeles (8 hours in the city really solidified my hatred for this place. From the exasperating traffic, to getting lost in the ghetto - thanks mom! haha - to rude employees at the train station.) After spending the 4th of July in not-so-sunny SD, I drove up to Sac for my high school best friend, Rosy's wedding. I drove up with my friend, Miles, and was close to deciding to just stay in Sac the remainder of my time in The States, until he ended up needing a ride back down to SD. My first few days back in SD were kind of a bummer. Everybody was pretty busy working & what not and I spent the weekend mostly by myself. The weather was perfect and I went on bike rides to the beach and ate all of my favorite food - alone. I decided to go back up to Sac early and then of course, my last 2 days in San Diego, everybody was around and reminded me why I love this place so much. It's funny because I was seriously questioning whether or not I ever wanted to move back to San Diego and then did a complete 180 and am now excited to move back here when I return from traveling. I guess loneliness will do that to you. Anyway, I spent my last couple of days in San Diego wishing I wasn't going back to Sac and wanting to stay there. I had a flight from Sac-LA and then my international flight from LA-Melbs and so I decided last minute to change my Sac-LA flight to Sac-SD so I could spend my last few days back in SD. Talk about last minute plans. So I made the drive back up to SacTown and spent more quality time with the fam. My dad came into town, which is a kind of rare occasion, so it was nice hanging out with him. And then my mom came up for my sister, Mallory's birthday a few days later and so we had a BBQ with each of them (one perk of your parents not being able to be in the same room as each other = more family events because of having to separate them). So here I am back in Sacramento and you can probably guess what I'm thinking by now - I just want to stay here instead of going back down to SD! (Yes, I sometimes wonder if I am clinically bipolar as well). I literally thought of every possible way to just stay in Sac and worked out a pretty good plan, but decided last minute to just go back down. So now, I'm in San Diego on my last full day of vacation before heading back to Aussieland (and for some reason I'm inside blogging instead of laying on the beach...hmmmm...). And of course, I'm not completely 100% thrilled on going back (I may or may not have delayed getting my visa to enter back into Australia, at the chance that I may not have to go back). Not that I'm not incredibly excited to see Nate, but this trip back and pretty much my entire trip to Australia, has made me realize how much I love my home. How much I love California and honestly, America overall. And I've never been one to be super pro-'Merica. But I love this place - this country - and I love living right by the beach (No - Australia is NOT all beaches like how their propaganda leads us to believe!) I love cheap alcohol you can buy everyyywhere. I've missed my friends and my family so much. I'm LOVING watching the Olympics from America. I miss having a working iPhone (damn you AT&T for making it impossible to use iPhones with foreign sim cards!) I miss driving, In-N-Out, California Burritos, having toilet seat covers in public restrooms, Sacramento water (it tastes amazing! Although I may be a little biased since I grew up there), seeing all American sports on TV, driving on the RIGHT side of the street and the rest of the familiarities of home. So as much as it seems like all I've done is whine and complain about where I am or where I'm going, from all of this, I've come to really appreciate so many things - everything really. Not only am I blessed to be able to travel to all of these places - my homes included - but they're all so amazing that whenever I arrive at each one, I don't want to leave. Overall, I had an amazing time catching up with old friends - one of the biggest things I've missed while being away is having a lot of friends. I've made a few good friends in Australia, but most of the friends I made at all have moved back home. I've missed the nights of going out with a big group and then passing out on a friends couch with the pizza guy banging on the door because your drunk friend ordered a pizza and then decided not to wake up when he came to deliver it. I don't miss getting hammered 5 nights a week (well, every so often I might), I just miss making crazy memories with friends.
I'd love to think that one day I will decide to just live in some exotic city like Nepal or Tuscany or something, but I honestly don't think I could permanently live anywhere but California. Six Days of Fiji. Definitely not enough time to see all the beauty this country has, but enough to fall in love with it. Nathaniel and I flew into Nadi, which is on the main island on Monday, June 18, after a looong journey consisting of closed airports (damn you Avalon Airport - always fly Tullamarine in Melbourne, it's not worth paying less to fly Avalon!), waiting for them to open at gas station cafes, sleeping on airport floors, and racing to catch our connecting flights. Our first stop was the Hilton Resort, also on the main island. Our funds limited us to only one night here, but I'm glad we were only on the main island for a night since there are so many islands. The Hilton was GORGEOUS. 7 pools overlooking the ocean and beautiful rooms. We spent the day by the pool reading, drinking and watching the sunset. After continuously checking the weather in Fiji weeks prior to leaving, only to finally accept the fact that it would rain 5 out of the 6 days we were there - we were welcomed by perfect, sunny, warm weather. It ended up raining a total of 1 morning we were there and the rest of the time we were blessed with the best weather we could ask for. The second day we went on the South Sea Island Cruise, which wasn't so much a cruise but more of a ride to South Sea Island where we would spend the day. This little island was beautiful and TINY. You could walk around the entire thing in 5 minutes. Day 2 was spent going on a glass-bottom submarine, snorkeling, drinking our unlimited supply of alcohol (included in the cruise package), kayaking, laying out and eating. It was my first time ever snorkeling, which was amazing seeing all the underwater life. They took us on a boat to snorkel the outer reef, which was 10 times more amazing than the reef right on the island. After missing our boat back to the main island and having to catch a separate ride, then getting lost on the way to our second accommodation, we arrived at Tropic of Capricorn, which was....no Hilton. We only spent one night at Tropic of Capricorn and then we were off to the Yasawa Islands. Well, we tried, anyway. We arrived at Denarau Port, which is where all the boats depart for all Fiji islands and attempted to get on our boat, only to get rejected because our travel agent failed to let them know we were supposed to depart that day (Fiji only has one boat to go through all of the islands - departs once a day for the far islands like the Yasawas. Make sure you're booked for the exact days you plan on departing/arriving or else the boat might be full!). Luckily, they made room for us and we started our 4 hour cruise to the northern islands. We got to pass through all of the other islands, which was awesome for the first half until I started getting sea sick. It was all completely worth it when we arrived at Blue Lagoon Resort on Nacula Island. All white sand, completely clear water, a beautiful resort and a welcome song by the Fijians. We snorkeled, hung around the beach and then had dinner. Everybody at the resort has dinner together and so we sat with a Kiwi family and the Fijian people served us our delicious dinner. We started the next day off with a snorkeling trip on one of the Yasawa Islands outer reefs. We took a boat out about 20 minutes out and then all jumped out into the middle of the ocean. The reef here was, by far, the most amazing reef we had seen yet. The water was a little bit cooler - so about 77 degrees or so? (Compared to the 80 degrees at the shore... and compared to the 65 degree water in San Diego). After snorkeling for about an hour or so, we rode the boat closer to shore where they did a "fish feeding". They had us all jump out of the boats and then threw this corn bread/cake kind of stuff where hundreds of fish swarmed us to get the food. It was the craziest, scariest experience ever being surrounded by so many fearless fish. They're completely harmless, hungry fishies, but I was still slightly terrified they were going to eat my face. After the snorkel trip, we went on a hike. The island was much bigger than South Sea Island and was pretty "hilly" so we wanted to hike up the hill to get a good view. From the resort, it didn't look very high and so we decided to go on our own. What I assumed was a brief stroll up a hill (in flip flops - or barefoot in Nate's case) ended up being about a 5 mile, treacherous hike. Okay, not so treacherous in regards to steepness or even general difficulty at all - but we were literally walking up a mountain of reeds taller than me. Granted I'm not very tall, but they were a pain in the ass, to say the least, and made this allegedly leisurely stroll extremely unpleasant. Of course, the view made up for it at the top. You can't complain about a hike (oh wait, I guess I just did..) when you see this from the top. Our last night on Nacula Island, we had another delicious dinner and then did crab racing with wittle baby hermit crabs! They had us buy a hermit crab (FJD$5 - which would be donated to the schools on the islands. & BTW - their conversion rate is a little over half. So $5 Fiji = about $2.65 USD/AUD) and then all of them were put on the sand where a circle was drawn out. First to make it outside the circle wins. Our hermies made it to the final round (1st 12 to make it out of the ring the first round) and one of ours ended up getting 4th - not too shabby, but unfortunately only 1st-3rd got prizes. The next morning, we went on a tour to the Sawa-I-Lau Caves. We took a boat about 30 minutes out and after our janky boat died about 3 times, we finally made it to the caves. We got out of the boat onto shore and then walked a short ways to a man made staircase that lead to the opening of the cave. You climb up and then back down the staircase into the cave. The bottom of the staircase is just water so you have to jump into the water. After our tour group of about 20 debated about who would jump in first (our guides decided to let us endure the entering part on our own while they waited by the boats), a girl around my age ended up going and we followed her in. The ceiling of the limestone caves were super high and we couldn't feel the bottom either. When the entire group was in, half of the group went through the underwater tunnel, which was about a meter under water and 2 meters long, into the other caves. One of our Fijian guides was on the other side with a flash light, and the other guide was on our side to help guide us through. I had a slight panic attack but made it through fine without somehow getting lost in the tunnel and drowning. The other side of the caves were completely pitch black. It was also mildly terrifying because images of all of those scary movies where the tourists go on these adventures and then a boulder blocks the entrance and they all die - were involuntarily flashing through my head. After buying some souvenirs made by the Fijian people and packing up our stuff, we were off to Island #4: Bounty Island. We decided to stay one night here - it's a smaller island close to the main island and it would be convenient for transportation to the airport the following day. Bounty Island was surprisingly nice. We had low expectations after our maaany hours spent on tripadvisor.com and other Fiji resort review websites. Not that these sites had so many bad things to say, but we were expecting a low budget resort on an island not nearly as amazing as the Yasawas. The resort may not have been as nice as Blue Lagoon or Hilton at all, but the people there were one of the nicest we had met. All Fijian people are super friendly and hospitable - everywhere you go, they all greet you with "Bula!" (which is their normal greeting). The Fijians at Bounty Island were especially friendly and really made you feel comfortable and at home. We arrived in the late afternoon, so we mainly just lounged around the beach and bar. The dinner wasn't amazing but they sang us songs throughout the entire meal, which more than made up for it. After dinner, most of the people at the resort, including the employees, hung around the common room area and played various games like monopoly or pool ("snooker", as the Aussies say). A lot of people gathered around the shore for a while taking pictures of the little baby sharks that swam right up to the sand. The next day we left Bounty Island, all too soon, and were back on our way to the main island. We hung around Denarau Port until leaving for the airport where we had to say goodbye to this beautiful country. FIJI DOs & DON'Ts:
DO pack light (just carry ons) - the weather is usually so warm anyway and you'll be in your bathing suit 80% of the time! (& you'll save $ on not having to check luggage!) DO visit the outer islands away from the main island - they're more expensive but definitely worth it! The Yasawa Islands were the definition of PARADISE. DON'T be scared of the crazy humungous bugs - even though I was. The bird-sized bug that resided in the bathroom for almost 24 hours prevented me from being able to use the bathroom without an escort (AKA boyfriend). DO bring your own alcohol - duty free!! It's cheaper this way and will save you lots of money. DO bring a waterproof camera/go pro - hence all of my amazing snorkeling pics ;) DON'T forget to negotiate a cab price before getting into the cab - they sometimes try to rip off tourists. Cabs shouldn't ever be more than about FJD$30. DON'T stay on the super small islands for more than a night or two. They're small and you'll run out of things to do. DO island hop as much as possible! Our original thought was that islands are islands, but each of them have different personalities & different things to do! DO bring bug repellent - I got eaten alive. L I F E . V I A . I N S T A G R A M "When you belong nowhere, you kind of belong everywhere. When you have nothing, there is the possibility of everything" - Ann Brashares a few random things:Officially had my LAST day of class! Possibly my last day of class I will EVER have. But maybe one day I'll decide to go to Grad school. I now have 2 papers, 1 group project and an exam to go until I'm officially DONE! Graduation at SDSU was a couple weekends ago. Extremely bittersweet. Wish I could've gone but I knew from the beginning that living in Australia > a boring 2 hour ceremony wearing an unflattering, polyester gown. But I'm not gonna lie, I reallyyy wanted to wear it anyway haha. Or at least decorate a cap. I had the most ODD job working my promotion job yesterday. I got an email for doing a campaign/promo for PomLife at 3:30am-7:30am. Obviously that was a typo on the email because who in their right mind would have us do a promotion at 3:30 in the morning? Unfortunately it was NOT a mistake and so yes, I did in fact wake up at 2am yesterday to catch a cab at 2:40 and start work at 3:15. F.M.L. We went to this huge warehouse a little east of the city to give away samples of PomLife pomegranates to retailers. Not only was it FREEZING cold (4 degrees to be exact. Celcius, anyway) but it was the biggest fail of a promo I've ever worked because all the workers were you know, working and not super interested in trying samples of pomegranates. Most of them had no idea what pomegranates even were. "Ummm what do I do with these?" "You're supposed to eat it sir. It's fruit." My coworker, who I had met that morning, and I ended up just talking the whole time and pretty much learned each other's life story for the next 4 hours. So I still need to figure out my whole Visa situation so I can come back to this country. It'd be a real bummer if I left to find out I couldn't come back, especially since all my stuff will be here still. I guess there's a US Embassy at St. Kilda beach so I'm attempting to venture that way sometime next week. Amidst all the "studying" (aka facebooking & blogging to procrastinate. I'm actually supposed to be doing my project right now). My biggest distraction is actually watching the NBA playoffs which I am miraculously able to watch on Australian ESPN! I unfortunately have to watch them at 1030 in the morning but we usually DVR them and watch them later anyway. I just have to stay off facebook so I don't see a status about the game haha.
There were two BEAUTIFUL days in a ROW the last 2 days. Today isn't looking too shabby either. It's another MIRACLE! So I suppose I should go enjoy it now:) I should have some sort of symbol or warning or something before each blog entry. Saying that the following isn’t a “travel entry” but more of a “life entry”. I realize that I started this blog to write about my travels, and I feel like I’ve done a decent job covering most of it thus far. However, I said in the beginning that I’ve kept a journal since I was in 3rd grade. And that I also stopped writing about 2 years ago. And so maybe it just feels nice to write again. Even if it’s about nonsense that people actually aren’t interested in reading. So I suppose this is my warning: this is more of a LIFE entry :)
Every now and then, I would go back on old journal entries and read them. I would always claim that I liked to write in a diary/journal because it’s therapeutic and don’t get me wrong, it really is. But I also have this guilty pleasure of going back and reading old entries. I’m not sure what I gain out of it, but it’s just nice to reminisce sometimes. Sometimes I read about old mistakes that I’m still making today. And as terrifying as that is, that I’m still not learning, it’s also amusing in a way. Like I just said, I stopped writing about 2 years ago after my life got erased (dramatic pause) – via computer crash anyway. Luckily, I still had quite a few blog entries on my “Myspace” account, that I randomly decided to read this morning (& I put “Myspace” in quotes because it really is quite an irrelevant & seemingly juvenile site these days [Sorry Tom]…Although I’m still so reluctant to delete it ha. I’m telling you, I have an issue with letting go of the past). First of all, I can’t believe I actually posted all of those things for the public to read. Secondly, I actually was maybe getting at something. Some of the things I wrote weren’t half bad. I mean, they were awful and embarrassing and I would delete them if I had the balls to, but they were somewhat meaningful. I read about my high school days and saw how absolutely obnoxious I was. I mean, I already knew how annoying I was back then, but seeing myself write was just way too blatant of evidence. Regardless, it was still rather entertaining. My favorite bits were (& when I say “favorite”, I mean “the worst parts were…”) about how I “hated drama” yet every single blog I wrote was about drama. There were perhaps 20-25 entries, all spaced out between my sophomore year in high school, up until my sophomore year in college. It was funny seeing how I at least matured a little bit but how the boy problems never went away. The last entry was my favorite. A completely inappropriate entry completely calling out a guy I had semi-dated for a year and a half. I think I made that one private after I finally got over him. I never had the heart to delete it because in all honesty, I did a pretty damn good job calling him out on his shit. (We're actually friends now, so it's okay). I wish I had the passion, or maybe just the balls, to write about the things I wrote about back then. I suppose I’m a little more conscious to the fact that this IS the internet and everybody can read what I’m writing. I think back then I just didn’t give a shit. I envy that girl just a LITTLE. It’s funny seeing how my life has just been a cycle of the same thing. And not in a bad way at all. I went through high school thinking my biggest problems were these 4 guys I couldn’t decide between. But I’m sure in 10 years from now, I’m going to think back on how stupid my problems were when I was 23. I managed to document the greatest milestones in my life, which I’m so glad I did. Graduating high school and moving away for the first time ever. Dealing with far too many deaths at a young age. Going to college and having the hardest time adjusting and all the while, just drinking my life away (sorry mom). Almost having to drop out and going through horrible “heartbreaks”. And then now here I am, about to graduate college and I feel just as vulnerable and immature as that 16-year-old girl that wrote about how “crazy” sophomore year had been. Everybody is leaving San Diego. I don’t know where to go after this. I’m almost scared to move back home because I don’t know if I have a home anymore. Well, I pretty much know I don’t. My friends are dispersed across the country, from Northern California, to Texas to Georgia. So where do I go from here? I would love to keep traveling but is it because I want to travel, or is because I don’t want to grow up? Everybody else around me is growing up, it seems. I know I’ll eventually have to do the same. But then there’s still that other side of me that is saying I don’t NEED to grow up yet and I can travel and do what I want because THIS is the ONLY time I’ll be able to do it so carelessly and freely. As much fun as it all is, I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing in my life and that I should figure that out. There’s this void in me that I’m not quite sure how to fill. But in all honesty, is a JOB going to fill that void? I highly doubt it. There always seems to be something in me that I’m missing, that I’m always trying to fill. Something I’m searching for. But maybe that void is just what keeps you going. Keeps you looking for more, keeps you hungry for life. Maybe it’s meant to be there forever so you don’t get too comfortable and set in routine. Maybe it’s not a void at all. Maybe it’s just drive to keep you from settling for anything but amazing. **I also took the liberty of stealing the title from an old "MySpace" blog entry (which was a quote from Donnie Darko or something). Funny how things from your past can help you figure out the present. Sometimes even the future. It may or may not be such a bad thing to want to hold onto the Past. *Cliff note version of my fabulous week in the land of kiwis! So I’m sitting in my room, back in Melbourne, listening to the same playlist I made while I was in New Zealand. So of course, I’m getting very reminiscent, which seems odd since I just got back yesterday and I can barely call that trip a memory since it literally JUST happened. To sum it up, my 8 days in New Zealand were the best 8 days of my life. Which is quite a bold statement since I think I do have a pretty great life with amazing people. I got to explore an amazingly beautiful country and do crazy things I’ve always had on my bucket list. I got to go with my best friend, Michelle, and made more great friends while there – 2 which I can honestly say feel like family now and who I can definitely see myself really being friends with for longer than the duration of the trip, regardless of how far away they live. And when I say friends, I don’t just mean “facebook friends” ;) Anyway, this very well might be the longest blog entry in the world but I’ll attempt to give a detailed, yet brief summary of these amazing 8 days. SYDNEY: April 3 - 6 The trip started last Monday, April 9th. Michelle came to Australia the week before and we traveled to Sydney for a few days, which was “heaps” of fun as well. We walked the city, visited the Opera House, then decided we HAD to go to a show and bought tickets to MacBeth which was AMAZING. We cruised around Sydney Harbor on a Showboat and watched a cabaret show while getting unlimited bottles of wine and champagne, along with a delicious 3 course meal. And the Captain & crew guys even let us drive the boat around for a bit! We went to a few bars and watched annoying 18 year olds and played catch phrase. We walked through Hyde Park and saw a gazillion crazy bats in the trees. Our hostel wasn’t the nicest, but we met some nice people staying there also – which somehow ended with the front glass door getting shattered because, well, drunk people are crazy. Sydney was beautiful and Bondi Beach was gorgeous, but New Zealand is what took my breath away. It is honestly the most beautiful country and I didn’t even get to explore the South Island, which I hear is even more beautiful. AUCKLAND: April 9 Anyway, the trip started at 3am on Monday when Michelle and I had to wake up to catch our flight at 630am. The 4 hour flight landed us in Auckland where we checked into Nomads Backpackers Hostel. I must admit, I was slightly nervous to stay at another hostel after the hostel we stayed at in Sydney because I may or may not be a slight germaphobe. Fortunately, Nomads was actually pretty nice and Michelle and I got our 6 bed dorm to ourselves. We explored the city that day and night and walked along the harbor. People call Auckland the “city of sails”, and as you can see, there are heaps of sailboats at the harbor. We went to the SkyTower casino that night and made friends with the bartender there. The next morning, we met up with our TopDeck tour group! BAY OF ISLANDS & ROCK THE BOAT: April 10–11 We met them outside our hostel in the afternoon to find about 9 or so others, including our tour guide, Tara. She walked us to the bus and we met about a dozen others who would be venturing to the Bay of Islands with us and then departing, since they have already explored the rest of the North & South Island. Tara introduced us to the “morning song” which she played far too many times, in my opinion, but because everyone else was obsessed with it. “Glad You Came” by The Wanted will forever remind me of this trip, and even forced me to like it a little bit. So we started the drive and were on our way to the Bay of Islands. Michelle and I had already signed up for the “Rock the Boat” excursion that was separate from the TopDeck tour. 6 of us total ended up going and my expectations were pretty low. Not in a bad way, but I didn’t even know we were staying the night on this house boat and thought it was only for a few hours. We separated from the group after just meeting them and took a little motor boat to our house boat. We started the trip with a little bit of paintballing off the back of the boat at a rubber ducky target they had dragging behind the boat. I was the first to get close & hit the wooden board it was on, but that unfortunately didn’t count so I didn’t win the free drink. After paintballing, we kind of just lounged around a bit and got to know everyone. Everyone there was super nice. We did some fishing once it was dark and tried to catch our dinner, which was relatively unsuccessful – so we had steak instead. After dinner we did a short moonlight kayak to check out the bioluminescence or whatever it’s called – the green glow in the water you see when you move your paddle or move something in the water. I guess it only works at night when it’s super dark so the middle of the bay was a pretty good place to see it. If you put your hand on the surface of the water and wiggle your fingers, it looks like your fingers are dissolving. So weird! We only kayaked for about a half an hour and then most people, not including Michelle or I, decided they wanted to jump in the water and swim around. The water wasn’t even that cold but we decided to be boring and drink instead :). It was getting to be relatively late so most people headed to the rooms while about 8 or 9 of us drank around the fire and played silly games like “Never Have I Ever” and other inappropriate games to get to know each other. The next morning everybody woke up around 7 – the skipper told us that there was a possibility that dolphins would be around our boat around that time so if we wanted to swim with dolphins, we’d better get up early. Unfortunately, there weren’t any dolphins but regardless, it was a beautiful morning and the best view to wake up to. We ate breakfast and then half of us kayaked to the beach while the other half rode the little speedboat. We did a short hike to a great view at one of the higher viewing points on the islands. And then of course spent a fair amount of time having a photo shoot up there. Pretty much everyone went snorkeling but Michelle and I were grandmas again and decided not to haha. It was cold and we’re girls. Most people came back early and said it wasn’t all that great so I didn’t mind that we ditched it to go kayaking more. Tried to explore some caves but our kayaks didn’t let us go far enough into them. We went back to the boat and killed and ate the sea urchins that the others had snorkeled for. There’s all kinds of crazy stuff in the sea urchin (it’s body parts I suppose?) but the eggs or whatever the tan-ish slimy stuff was, is what we ate. I guess that stuff goes for like, $500 a kilo or something in the US. That could honestly be completely wrong but I do know that it’s real expensive to buy it. As you can see, there’s not much of it in each sea urchin so I reckon it takes quite a number of sea urchins to get a kilo. (Oh & I actually had to just go on my measurement-converter thing on my phone to figure out how much a kilo was in reference to pounds. This whole metric system is real confusing). Anyway, the rest of the boat trip was spent playing/watching horrible attempts at pool and playing other card games and what not. It started raining while we were on the boat but it was kinda cool, especially since we were sheltered. We got back to the hotel and had one night there. There wasn’t much to do in the Bay of Islands when you aren’t on a boat, AND it was raining, AND I was exhausted, so I enjoyed a nap and then we all went to dinner together at the restaurant in the hotel. After that, a bunch of us drank a bit in the rooms and then headed to a bar to catch the end of happy hour. It was a pretty small dive bar but it was fun. We met up with some people that were on the boat that weren’t on our tour. This was also the night that Michelle and I met our new besties :). And of course, it was through our love of shots and we spent most of the night (& our money) on jager bombs. I can always see eye to eye with others that enjoy jager bombs as much as I do hah. But anyway, that’s when we first met Vince and when I decided him and Ashley were definitely going to be our drinking partners for the remainder of the trip. And it was literally just the beginning of the trip. Crazy right? Especially since I’m already 3 pages deep into this blog entry. I went a little crazy on the details and forgot to be brief. ROTORUA: April 12-13 Anyway, the next morning we had to be ready by 6:45 to start the trek to Rotorua. We made a few scenic stops to see a ginormous 800 year old tree and what not. This night we stayed at a Maori Murae. The Maori people are a native Polynesian tribe that live in New Zealand. We learned about the culture and did a little ceremonial welcoming kind of thing where we had to sing a song to them and they sung a song back to us and then we had to line up and do this traditional bow kind of thing where you touch your nose and your forehead with the Maori person. It was all really cool. And then they cooked us a delicious dinner and we walked around their town a little bit. I was honestly expecting to be staying in tipis or something, but they were actually quite modern. We stayed at their Murae, which is kind of like a church/temple kind of place but not really. They gave us a ton of mattresses and sleeping bags and we all had one big slumber party. For some reason, most people decided to go to bed at 10 and those of us that chose to stay awake, got to listen to half a dozen of them snoring or making other strange noises in their sleep. It was definitely an experience. Luckily Vince had his laptop and we just watched Green Street Hooligans until we were tired. The next day was an “activity” day where we got to choose from a dozen things to do in Rotorua. You could go white water rafting (cat 5), which is what most people did, go sit in their natural thermal pools, go zorbing and so on. Vince and I were pretty set on sky diving and so us and “Team France” (a French couple that were on the tour with us… oh & ps - Michelle & I were known as “Team America”) had about an hour to kill in town to wait for the skydiving shuttle to come pick us up. Vince and I went to the internet café and then Wings, our bus driver who is AWESOME, came and told us that it was getting postponed for another 2 hours (11:45am). I guess they lost the plane or something? Something about getting the maintenance done and them sending the plane to the wrong place or something along those lines. Regardless, there was no plane. So we walked around while waiting and ended up trying a “Mana Ball” or Zorb ball or whatever they’re called – the huge plastic inflatable balls that you can climb into and then we got pushed into the water. Well you wouldn’t think, but that was definitely the most exhausting 5 minutes of the entire trip. You try to stand and balance in it or even just walk or run if you really want, and you just end up going at it hard for 2 seconds and then falling dramatically. And then you repeat that 50 times until you’re pretty much asking them to pull you back in. Don’t get me wrong, it was really fun, but I just didn’t anticipate how exhausting it would be. So we meet back at 11:45 and then our tour guide comes up to us just shaking her head and Vince is like “noooo!!!” and Tara says that it’s not gonna happen. She said that it could be another hour and if we decide to go then, we might miss out on the rest of the day (we were going to watch a Maori show and then take a tour of the thermal pools). Team France said they could just go skydiving tomorrow but Vince and I were already planning on doing the Tongariro Crossing hike. Vince was touring the south island after (Michelle & I were only doing the north island) and he said that he could wait as well. I, on the other hand, only had today and so I insisted on waiting and that she call them back to see what they could do. Yes, I’m a brat. Anyway, she called back and they miraculously found the plane and were able to come pick us up in 15 minutes! Oh & by the way, it was Friday the 13th, so needless to say, it was a very sketchy way to start off our mission to jump out of a plane on an already-notoriously sketchy day. & no, I didn’t mean to just rhyme. Anyway, we got to N-Zone and signed our death waivers and watched a video of someone else who had previously gone skydiving there. Then of course they come in and tell us that, oh & by the way, the brakes on our plane aren’t working right so it’s gonna be delayed a little bit longer. Of course, right? So sketch. But it actually all worked out and I’m obviously here writing this blog so I didn’t die fatally from falling 12,000 feet to the ground. Vince and I were first and so we got suited up and took off on the little janky plane. They flew us a little over 12,000 feet after instructing us multiple times on the correct procedures and didn’t waste any time jumping out. It all happened real fast. I didn’t even have time to get nervous. Well I suppose I had time during the 15 minute flight up, but I surprisingly didn’t get nervous until I was sitting on the edge of the plane and Ricky, my tandem partner, lunged us out of the plane. It was absolutely the most surreal feeling I’ve ever had in my life. You lean your head back on your tandem “master”’s shoulder and then he jumps out and so I had a split second to semi-freak out and then I was flying. All I saw was just the Earth in front of me spinning. Of course I was the one spinning but it was all just happening so fast. I had 45 seconds of free fall where I had time to gather that this was the most outrageous feeling in the entire world, and then I got yanked up by the parachute all too fast. That was surprisingly the scariest part for some reason. Once I got yanked up and started floating, I really got a grasp on how high up I was. We floated around a bit and enjoyed the scenery. Ricky pointed out different landmarks, like mountains or the huge stretch of sulfur in the water that was readily visible from 4,000 feet up in the sky. We turned and glided and then after 5 minutes, we landed. Best 7ish minutes of my life! We met up with the rest of the group and all shared stories about sky diving & rafting while touring the thermal pools. Rotorua is known for their geothermal activity and so they have all kinds of geysers and thermal pools and hot mud pools where people still go today and take baths. There were some areas that had pools that were hot enough to send people to the hospital with third degree burns. All of them had different purposes, like washing clothes or cooking food or bathing in. It was pretty fascinating, I honestly didn’t even know places like this existed. The Maori people are the ones who utilize it and while we were there, there were little Maori children swimming around. Our tour guide was Maori as well and their tribe is so small and everyone is related that she could pass every person and say that it’s her cousin or her uncle or sister and so on. TAUPO: April 13-14 That night we drove to Taupo. We had one full day to spend there where there were similar activities like bungee jumping, sky diving etc. Our little crew (Ash, Vince, Michelle & I) all decided to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is where a bunch of scenes from Lord of the Rings was filmed. It was a 19.4km trek that they told us would take 6-8 hours. We spent the night preparing – you know the usual planning of costumes, what kind of alcohol to bring and what games we should play while we’re at the top. We chose characters and I was obviously Frodo (“Frodes”), Michelle was Legolas (AKA “Legs”), Vince was Gandalf (or “Gandy”) & Ash was Smeags! Which for some reason, was the only nickname that really stuck. We spent a fair amount of time considering wearing costumes and bringing things up the volcano from a bag of goon to a washing machine (we weren’t even drinking much when we were planning this originally). But we ended up only seriously packing lots of sandwiches, snacks, water & enough vodka for each of us to have a shot or two. We meant to only have a couple glasses of goon, which naturally turned into us finishing off the box within an hour or so. I’m pretty sure everyone thought we were crazy for drinking when we had to be ready to leave by 530am the next morning. We actually did end up being on time and started the 45 minute drive to the crossing right at 530. We didn’t end up actually starting the hike until about 730 because the boys had to rent stuff once we got there and I had to use the disgusting bathrooms which weren’t even bathrooms, but more so a hole in the ground with a toilet seat above it. Awful. Anyways, we started our trek, which began as more of a pleasant walk. But then we reached the Devil’s Staircase, which is named appropriately so. Our group separated a bit but we all met at the top where Ash decided he was going to climb to the summit of Mt Ngauruhoe (or MT DOOM from LOTR), which was an extra couple of hours. The rest of us didn’t even think twice about climbing this ridiculously steep, active volcano so we parted ways. After the Devil’s Staircase, which was supposed to be the hardest part of the hike, we walked across a moonlike kind of valley/crater, which was a nice break from the staircase. Then there was a lot more climbing in and back out of a few other craters/mountains/volcanoes, which kicked my ass. Most of it was all really loose rocks/tephra and dirt, which made it more difficult to climb than a staircase. When you would hike down the volcano, it was like skiing back and forth because you were pretty much just sliding down the mountain trying not to fall. This actually became quite fun after a while, though. After the hardest parts of the hike, we came across the Emerald Lakes and the Blue Lake, which were so incredibly beautiful. I couldn’t take enough pictures to try to capture exactly how astounding it was. It’s crazy how much a photo can really downplay something. At this point, we were a little over halfway done maybe? I’m not even sure. It was quite a ways walk though, probably at least 7 or so kilometers left but it wasn’t difficult, besides the fact that we were just getting tired. We finally reached the end at about 1:30 and of course, took our celebratory shots :). That night, we went out to an Irish Pub with the entire group for dinner. Which of course lead to more drinks since we were at an Irish Pub. Somehow we ended up drinking Absinthe, which was probably not the best idea, and I turned into mute-Kirsten, which happens maybe half the time I drink too much. It was a good night though. There was a live band that played a lot of good cover songs of different music and there were more shots of tequila and lemon drops. WELLINGTON: April 15-17 Most of the next day was spent driving to Wellington, which is at the bottom of the North Island. None of us could sleep that much, surprisingly, seeing as how we didn’t get too much sleep the night before. We got to Wellington in the afternoon and spent the first hour or so driving around the city while Tara and Wings pointed stuff out to us. It’s a really pretty city that surrounds a bay. The houses at the tops of some hills have gondollas that can transfer stuff down to the main road – so weird! We were staying at a Travelodge, which was probably the nicest accommodation we had the entire time – not that any of the others were even bad at all, but this place was just really nice. Since Ash, Michelle & I were all leaving the group the next day, we roomed together so they could check our room out.
I’m not even exactly sure what we did that night, but I’m pretty sure it consisted of drinking a lot of goon. We went to the store and bought 2 boxes of goon and maybe finished off a box and a half that night? I think the 4 of us were in our room playing ridiculous games like Thumper and Power Half Hour (drinking a shot of goon every minute for a half hour). We all met up for dinner in the lobby at 730 and met up with another TopDeck tour group. I always give Vince a hard time about smoking and so when we were in the lobby he tricked me into keeping him company outside while he smoked (he said he wanted to “show me something”… god I’m so gullible) and after about 10 minutes, we realized that the group probably left a different way (we were just going to follow them when they came out) and so we went back into the lobby and everyone was gone, of course. So we spent the next half hour or so walking around the city looking for them and managed to get egged in the process – literally had about 5 eggs thrown at us from somewhere from above us. We actually ended up somehow finding them at a pretty nice (Italian?) restaurant. It was a mellow dinner and Vince and I just chatted with Tara and Wings most of the time. Everyone had a pretty early night that night and crashed around midnight. The next day, Ash, Michelle & I were supposed to depart from the group. However, we were staying in Wellington another night so we were just going to be at a hostel not even a kilometer away. We checked out of the hotel and put all our bags in Vince’s room and then finished the rest of the wine. At 10 in the morning. (Sorry mom, I know you’re probably reading this! I’m on vacation though). Then we went to the Te Papa Museum (because it was free, and we heard it was good. And we spent all of our money so that was one of our only options. That’s what happens when you spend $600 to go skydiving) which actually ended up being really cool. And not just because we were kinda tipsy, but it was a really cool hands-on kind of museum with simulations and lots of variety and what not. There were random exhibits like one room that was completely dedicated to this colossal squid that was like, 5 meters long or something. It was ginormous, I don’t remember exactly how big, but I do remember that the eyes were as big as a soccer ball! But ya, they had lots of cool exhibits like that and we spent a good couple hours there until we were hungry and had to get Habitual Fix (a super good little fast-casual restaurant that has good salads & sandwiches & stuff). I’m pretty sure we got another box of goon after that and drank the entire thing in our hostel before meeting up with Tara for drinks at 6 that night. Most of the friends that we made on the trip came and we got to hang out with them a bit before we all went home and they left for the South Island. After that I think Michelle, Vince and I got sushi and then met up with everyone else at a bar down the street called Base or something. It was actually really fun. They randomly had sumo wrestling and so people signed up to fight & Ash & Vince fought each other (pretty sure Ash won haha). And then they blind folded them both and had them try to catch these four girls which was, for some reason, the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen because they couldn’t catch the girls if their life depended on it. Then lots of shots and drinks and beers later, we all went back to our hostel (getting lost of course on the way home) & crashed at maybe 3am. Michelle had to get up at 6am to catch her flight and so we all said our tearful (on my end) goodbyes. Ash and I happened to be taking the same flight back to Melbourne (oh ya, he’s Australian and lives in Melbourne 5 minutes away from me!) so we hung out for a few hours and tried [unsuccessfully] to get over our hangovers. Overall, it was the most amazing trip I’ve ever gone on. I can’t decide which I loved most – Rock the Boat, skydiving or the Tongariro Hike. Or just hanging out with my little Goon Fam and mocking each others languages. Well, we all speak English but like I said, Ash is Australian and Vince is from England (or France…he’s French but he lives in England? He even confuses it himself when trying to explain) and so we’d always joke that we spoke the same language but there was still such a huge language barrier because we would all use such different words. They became like family and I feel like I got to know them so well in such a short amount of time. Obviously Michelle is like my sister and we know each other so well already, but it never gets old hanging out with her and we always have the best time and we always meet the best people when we’re together. I already miss them all so much. Maybe not so much Ash since I just saw him last night when he dropped me home from the airport, and I’m about to see him in an hour when he comes over to watch Lord of the Rings. But I forgot how nice it was to have good friends around all the time. I haven’t been able to make too many real good friends in Australia yet so living with them for 8 days and seeing them constantly just got to be the norm, and now I’m just a little lonely without them. We’re going to try to reunite in Vegas sometime this year, though, so hopefully that works out. And I’m sure I’ll see Ash all the time, Michelle will always be my bestie and I promised Vince I’d be coming to England soon. And there’s always facebook right? Ha. It was a great trip and I’m sad it’s over. I suppose it’s nice to be home and start living a normal life. But I’m not even really doing that because I’m still abroad. And I’m not really home. When I was on the boat trip I was seriously confused at where I was and when I was going home because I was on a separate trip from my tour in New Zealand. And New Zealand is a separate trip from Australia. And I was just in Sydney right before New Zealand and I just moved to Melbourne 2 months ago. From San Diego where I moved from Sacramento, where I was for the month before I left for Australia. I felt like I needed to make a flow chart or something hah. Anyway, this blog has gotten long enough. I already miss these people and I already miss New Zealand. I may or may not be catching the travel bug ;) |
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