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