The teenager I never was.

Travelling through country towns has been quite the experience. I'm not a big city girl, especially after witnessing the hectic pace of Sydney's CBD, but I'm a city girl nonetheless. The job I have right now doesn't allow much time for proper sightseeing. We usually work in a town for a few days and hit the road again immediately. So when my South Australian boy and I get the chance we always grab the van and drive off in search for adventure while the rest of the boys chase after small-scaled nightlife.

Bonding through our casual use of pot and our appreciation of nature, we caught the sunset and then drove deep into the Mirima National Park in Kununurra, WA with the pretense of an attempt to find "Candy Mountain". Equipped with a pillow and blanket, we climbed onto the roof of the van, lay on our backs, and let the stars shrink us in size.

I (of all people) taught him how to find the Southern Cross, we made up constellations, we laughed, and we fell silent. And then we kissed.

I think of all my first kisses. They all carry nostalgia in some way, but I can't believe a five minute drive led me somewhere so beautiful. So, I envy those growing up in places like these. I've found more romance atop a six-seater Hyundai in the middle of a forest (or in the middle of a beach) than a dark closet full of clothes. And maybe it's because mSAb is seventeen, maybe it's because of where we are, or maybe it's because of both, but for once I felt like a teenager.

And maybe it's just fantasy. Maybe it's in my head. Or maybe it's in the moment and that's where I love to live; and somehow I find it much easier to do when you aren't distracted by the chaos of highrises and bright lights.

Man Urinates in JetStar Plane Aisle

And only gets a warning

The incident occurred six hours into a flight from Auckland to Singapore, when a male flyer is alleged to have relieved himself in the aisle, nzherald.co.nz reports.

The spray is said to have soaked a man’s leg and a female passenger’s scarf.

Passengers said the man was seen mixing whiskey in a Burger King cup with a friend before the incident.

"Everyone was yelling at him and he slowly became aware that he was being uncouth,” passenger Amos Chapple told nzherald.co.nz.

“He pulled up ... and wobbled back to the other end of the plane."

MEANWHILE I get told I can't board the plane unless I change out of my t-shirt that says "Calm your shit" because I'd be offending other patrons. This was with Qantas, who owns JetStar.

Whaaaa.

Update, update, update!

Never Forget You

Just a thank you to my lovelies that made it out to fare me well :)
Miss and love you so much <3

And of course I miss the ones that had other affairs and/or slept in ;)

Week 2: I got a freaken job

Just as boring as the other vid. ;)

A daily dose of humanity

I'm trying to look for the signs, trying to see what life really wants to tell me. I've learned a whole lot during my trip to Australia, but coming home as been a lesson in itself.

I returned to the same environment, to the same people, but things were different. I was different. Not radically, but definitely noticeably. At first I thought the things I saw in the people closest to me were newly risen, but I soon realized that the insecurities that they carried had always been there, and I was just too distracted to notice.

I had spent almost three whole months day in-day out travelling with Jen, my new best friend. She's smart, she's fun, and she's gorgeous... but she doesn't think so. And it killed me. It absolutely killed me that this beautiful person--on the inside and out--could not see herself the way I did. I had never faced anything like this in my life. All my friends are confident people, believe in themselves, and love themselves as I love them--or so I thought.

As it turns out, I was completely wrong. I came home to my introverted, self-hating friends. The same ones that make me feel incredible, worthy, beautiful are the ones who talk themselves down, lack belief in their capabilities, and deem themselves unworthy of love. And I was so torn.

How do I get people to believe in themselves? I could say all I want to them, I could give them all the self-help books in the world, I could send them links to inspirational videos... but there is no specific formula to light the spark of belief inside each individual. I spent my entire time with Jen battling with these thoughts, and when I came home I still found myself at the front-lines.

------------------------

One day on the SkyTrain I was heading home from downtown. A man was standing while another man and his wife were sitting down. The sitting man, clothes rough and stained from construction work, noticed the standing man, donning an expensive-looking business suit, and gestured for him to sit in the available seat before him. They both smiled, and the standing man took the seat.

An act of kindness, so small and unnoticed in this world, and I had the honour of witnessing it. I was almost moved to tears. There is goodness that need not be searched for, but simply paid attention to. But we cannot recognize it if we do not know of it in the first place, and the only place we can first know it is in ourselves.

Love yourself, otherwise you will not know how to love others.

Here we go again

I know, I know, I've been doing a shit job of keeping updated. What can I say? I'll try my best the second time 'round :) Here's all I got for ya for now.

FUCK YEAH EVERYBODY

Let's play Zumi Zumi!

Currently volunteering for a 9-day bicycle tour. Last night we had a volunteer party and not wanting to just sit around sipping on white wine I got all our new friends (all of which were Asian! Woohoo! (basically the only Asians out of the 1200 people)) to play some drinking games. I don't know what you'd call it--conceited maybe--but it makes you feel awesome when you look around and see all eyes on your table because you're having the most fun! We even got some German girls to play with us too and they introduced to us a few of their own games.

My sincerest apologies for lagging behind on my blog. I've been on the move really often and it's hard to find motivation to keep up with this when it's the end of the day and all you want to do is sleep. I know I'm a million weeks behind on my vlogs :( I'll see what I can do!

I'm in Western Australia at the moment and I'm travelling around with the bicycle tour as a way to see WA and to not have to spend much money doing it! They give us food and we sleep in tents (like everyone else) and move from town to town every day. It's really awesome. The cyclists ride on average 50km a day... something I probably couldn't do daily... But it's been pretty fun! I'm here with the American girl, Jen, and she's seriously become a best friend. We're so alike! Evelyne decided to hit up the East coast sooner so she met up with some other people and is there as I type. Unfortunately they've been hit with a lot of rain :( I wish she was here in sunny WA!

That's all for now. I miss you all but I don't want to go home!! :)

Decisions, decisions.

My mom wants me home for her 50th birthday which falls on Mother's Day this year (May 8th), but I also want to make the most of my working visa. I'm pretty sure what I will do is fly home for that and fly back here afterward and officially leave Australia in July. But I would need to work super hard to pay for that extra flight, and then I'd have no money saved to travel elsewhere because this country is so damn expensive!

I considered just blowing all my money on the East coast and then head home in May and forget about working, but I thought about how I'd feel sitting in my room and I'd probably want to kick myself for not staying in Australia longer. I didn't pay $1800 just to visit a few cities, yenno?

I wish I had more time. I just really want to be back in Vancouver in the summer and for my birthday... and maybe for another person... Otherwise I'd never leave.

I guess I know what I want. I just don't know what to do.

On aurait du

Jen, Evelyne, and I headed down to Melbourne for a few days. I know Melbourne is supposed to be wonderful, but I guess because we arrived disoriented, stayed in a way-too-busy hostel, and found out we needed way more money than we had to do the things we wanted, we were really discouraged and that changed the way we saw the city for the rest of our stay.

One thing I really appreciated here was its architecture. It's simply amazing to see and every time you look up, you're guaranteed to be more amazed at the buildings than the sky.

I definitely want to come back in a few weeks with a fresh perspective and see things that I too quickly walked by. When we were hanging with a bunch of French guys, they split up and we hung out with just three of them, but Evelyne was trying to explain to me "on aurait du"... as in we should've hung out with the other guys instead. That's kind of how I feel about my trip to Melbourne. We should have thought things out better.

We are definitely going to plan the rest of our trips with care. Things always work out in the end, but they don't always work out fantastic, yenno? It's not like our entire stay here was terrible. The hostel wasn't really TOO bad, it was just the kitchen area that gets super busy all the time. And we did have our fun :) Apparently after a few glasses of wine I speak pretty decent French. Hehehe..

Australia Vlog: Week 1

Sorry it took so long. I know I'm a week and a half behind. This did not turn out as nicely as I had imagined, but whatever. Next ones will be better :)

CouchSurfing: Pros & Cons

Okay. This site is amazing! If you haven't heard of it, or the idea of it, it's basically a great way of networking with travellers. If you're travelling and need a place to sleep you can find someone in the area with a spare couch or bed that's willing to let you stay for a couple of nights for free :) Hold on. Sounds creepy right? Not really. It's easy to figure out if you can trust a person or not by the feedback given by previous travellers, looking through how detailed their profile is, and there's always something called trusting your gut feeling.

Aside from using it as a way to save money on accommodation, it's an easy way of seeing if like-minded people are up for the things you want to do.

For example, I've been super down this past week because I really need to get my adventure started but have yet to find any motivation to do anything :( I was looking through the message boards for Australia and found someone in Sydney looking for a travelling buddy! So I messaged her because we both want to go to Melbourne and other places in Australia, and we met up to go to Manly Beach yesterday with another girl that she met through CouchSurfing. We're going to Melbourne next week! And then we'll find a way to Adelaide, Uluru, and Alice Springs. I FINALLY HAVE PLANS!! WOOHOOO :)

Unfortunately, some people misuse the site as a way to hook up with people, like this 26 year old guy from Sydney who messaged me. At first it seemed all friendly he was just asking how I liked it and how long I was planning to stay. I asked him where he'd recommend to hang out and places to avoid and he immediately says, "I know some bars around my neck of the woods," which was not really what I meant to imply. I complained about the price of alcohol here and he says:

So the first thing I hear when I read this message is Ms. Jack's voice telling me a few hours before I left to the airport, "Don't be too trusting. Trust your intuition." That and the whole okay this is creepy alarm starts ringing, especially after having a look at his profile to see that he's 26, and that his preference for CouchSurfers was specifically female, and that the only two people that gave feedback were girls talking about him showing them good beer or something like that. So I stopped replying. I told Evelyne and Jen (the two girls I met) the story and they had stories of their own. I wait for the day women don't have to worry about what men are up to. HA.

But seriously... the only cons I've found so far are creepy guys, which most often only women have to deal with. The fact that I met two awesome travelling buddies has said a lot :)

I'll tell you more about the girls once I get to know them!

Travel expenses: Week 1

$2 - Wifi card at the library x2
$19.95 - shampoo & conditioner
$39 - cell phone
$30 - cell phone top up
$11.50 - pho
$6 - swimming pool
$4 - bank account fee
$8 - currency exchange fee
$21.50 - groceries
$4.30 - train ticket
$4.70 - Japanese food (udon)
$5.30 - ferry ticket
$10 - a mixed drink
$8 - Asahi beer
$22 - taxi from a train station to home
$15 - gay club
$4 - fries after club
$64 - taxi from club to Ale's home
$5 - Church donation

Grand total of: $284.25

That's week one... and I didn't even remember EVERYTHING. Oh dear :((((((

Staying away from alcohol and taxis.

You don't know art.

I'm sorry Canada, but forget your "mosaic". You've no idea what multiculturalism or diversity is.

Granted, Sydney's suburbs are divided and it is clear what cultures are strongly present the way the neighbourhoods of certain streets are in Vancouver... but travelling to the city made me feel like there was more diversity here than at home. It wasn't that there was a better proportion of Caucasians, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indians... but there were more ethnicities from absolutely everywhere.

If only the rest of the world could look like this.

Ma crib

Love at first sight

It wasn't an immediate attraction, but I knew I was going to be open and give it a chance. I had to. What else was I going to be here for? I mean, the first few days started off pretty slow. Nothing much happened. But the moment the ferry took us through the waters, I fell in love.

Sydney, you are too amazing and I have yet to even get to know you.









Jocelyn, Vicky, Linda (cousin), & me

Journal Entry #1

So I've been documenting my trip in so many ways! Pictures, videos, blogs, journals. It's kind of hard to put everything together. Ariel got me a huge notebook which was exactly what I was looking for!! It's nice to finally write on paper for once, with the intention of just speaking to myself and not an audience. But I'm posting them up anyway, just because. They're really scattered thoughts, and just things I wrote down while on the plane from Auckland, NZ to Sydney, AUS.











I walked home from the library yesterday. It was getting pretty dark. I almost got lost.... But I made it! BAM! I know my way around :).... almost. AND I HAVEN'T CRIED SINCE. Yay.

To Anonymous #1 from my last post: Yea! I've watched quite a few episodes before and I am SO JEALOUS. To the point where I actually can't stand watching more because I feel like I should be doing those things rather than watching them do it :P

To Calvin: The legal age in Australia is 18. Guess how old I am? BOOYAH!

What the hell am I doing in Australia?!

Travelling for twenty four hours is pretty brutal. I felt incredibly gross :( The vegan airplane food was pretty sweet stuff, though! Plus sides: you get food before everyone else, it actually tastes really good (compared to other stuff I've had, besides Cathay Pacific food (that stuff wins always)), no animals were harmed in the making of your meal. Down side: nil.

Answering everyone's questions all at once:

• There are a lot of Vietnamese people. Seriously. Think of all the Chinese people that you see in East Van/Chinatown/Metrotown/everywhere and replace that with my people. I can't decide whether it's awesome or not. We'll see.
• What is awesome is walking through Cabramatta (a suburb insanely populated by Viets) and finding vegan Vietnamese restaurants so easily. Like damn. So proud.
• It is pretty hot and humid here, which is another reason why I feel like I'm in Vietnam. I just want to jump into a swimming pool every minute I'm standing outside.
• It is currently 7:35pm here. Which means it is 12:35am in Vancouver. Do the math if you're elsewhere :)
• I'm staying at my cousin's friend's house and paying $50/week for rent.
• I will not bring home and/or ride a kangaroo or koala bear. You're asking a VEGAN?!
• I have yet to run into any hot aussies, sorry ladies.
• I have only spent a day and a half here, I have not done anything yet besides eat and swim outside.
• I have no plans, are you kidding?
  

I spent five minutes crying inside a library (where I currently am) because my cousin had left to go home and that was my first time literally being alone. It's so scary. I just want to be able to crawl into my bed.

Anyway, I'm going to keep updating my Facebook status since it's the easiest way for everyone to know what's going on. End of the week will have a video hopefully! Sorry if I don't respond to all of your messages quickly. I'm trying to keep my time on the computer limited.

Until next time!
<3 V

Good morning, Vancouver, and good night

Click for a larger view! And to find the airplane underneath the moon!

Stayed up for the sunrise yesterday. I actually haven't even slept yet since, and it's been almost thirty hours in total. This past week has been so hectic. I didn't give myself enough breathing room from one activity to the next. It's been really nice seeing everyone before I leave, but all this running around has left me so tired that I can't even sleep... At least I said no when I knew I couldn't do something. (Sorry KT & Flowers. I promise you delectable vegan baked goods when I return ♥)

When I was admiring the sunrise, I was about to walk away when I noticed an airplane taking off. It was a pretty beautiful moment. I'm not going to say that it finally hit me that I was going to leave the next day, but the feeling of anxiety did grow stronger.

I'm still not excited. I'm still only just scared out of my mind.

"Are you excited?"

I wouldn't call this excited. I'm scared more than anything. I don't know what to expect.

And honestly? The biggest thing on my mind right now is how I haven't started packing yet and how I still have to clean my room. Seriously, of all the shit going on in my life that is currently my biggest worry. As it should be, it's a fucking disaster zone.

A part of me wishes I hadn't told so many people about my trip just so it'd be easier to back out and cancel my flight :P I don't know if I actually would but that's how I'm feeling right now. I think it's mostly because I feel so unprepared, but this is coming from someone whose life is defined by spontaneity and does everything on an impulse.

Anyway, welcome to my travel blog where I will update about my five months (pending) in Australia. If you are new here and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a comment (or anything remarkably witty to say, like: OMG SOOOO COOOOOL.) If you are a frequent reader, a "Bookmark" button should be located in middle of your Internet browser's menu bar for simple access to this fantastic blog, which is provided for free by some really cool hippies. Take some time to read through the safety precautions located at the bottom of this blog post, grab a soy latte, fasten your seat belt, and enjoy the vicarious ride :)

Read this before I talk too much:
I promise to all my teachers that are reading this to not swear so fucking much (haw haw), but if I get too excited about something I hope you'll understand! A 12-year-old looking girl like me? Vulgar language? NEVER!!! (100% of my friends are rolling their eyes at that.) But I definitely will keep this Safe For Work, so that you can read this while your class writes about a journal topic that they think is for marks, but isn't really.

Now that I think about it though, I don't know how this could even get N(ot)SFW to begin with....

TALKING TOO MUCH. Enjoy! :)