Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

Oi, oi, oi!

Yup, that's right. Australia has sucked me in. I meant to write a post before I left for Australia on April 28, 2011 but time just escaped me or was sucked away by work and studying for final exams. Which means.....I'm DONE!! My business degree that is. I'm finally a graduate. Now on to real life. But first a couple vacations, hence Australia.

It was a family trip that we planned to last 6.5 weeks and we were going to cover the entire East Coast of Australia as well as both islands of New Zealand. However, as most of you may not yet know, we opted to come back to Canada halfway through our trip because my aunt (who is fighting cancer) became extremely ill and the doctors didn't think there would be much time. Either way, here I am back in Edmonton with lots of awesome memories. To many to tell all through my blog so you'll have to hear most of them directly from me.

For now I'll delve into the highlights. We started in Sydney, Australia on April 29 and spend about 4 days there. A pretty metropolitan place that is kinda like a combination of Vancouver and Hawaii (or so my dad says since I've never been to Hawaii). Because it is their winter, Sydney was a little chillier than we had hoped but it had also snowed in Edmonton a bit before we left so anything above 10 degree C was a nice change.

Soon enough we headed up north to Cairns. We actually stayed in an apartment in Palm Cove (30 min north of Cairns) for almost 2 weeks which was gorgeous. I loved getting to make our own meals, eat out on the patio and walk to the gloriously large beach. No swimming though, unless it was in the designated areas, because of stingers (aka. jelly fish).

My biggest dream for Australia was to dive on the Great Barrier Reef. So thats what we did. Janelle (my sister) and I signed up for our PADI Open Water Course and did two classroom days and then spent 3 days living on a boat in the middle of the sea. Freaking amazing. I can't even express how awesome this was. Just imagine waking up at 6am to put on your gear and greet the underwater creatures good morning. The sun was just rising by the time we entered the water and after getting out we would rinse off, pull on some clothes and go for breakfast. What a way to wake up!! After almost every dive we would remove our gear and I would just stand on the back on the boat in awe of the incredible sight that surrounded me. Essentially our routine for the 3 days was: Dive. Eat. Dive. Eat. Dive. Eat. Dive. Sleep. Dive. PURE AWESOMENESS.

After that both the weather and the experience was hard to top. It rained a lot of the rest of our time but we did get to see some other sweet things such as the Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation, Whitsunday Islands and Fraser Island - entirely made of sand and you have to 4x4 down the beach to get around. PLUS I got to squeeze in a visit with my good friend Vanessa in Airlie Beach.

We missed out on Uluru (Ayers Rock), Byron Bay, surfing lessons and Brisbane but the country is just too damn big and I already know I have to go back.

Until next time!

From A to K to Z

And by A-Z I mean Australia to Zanzibar; my summer travels that will span April 28-August 30, 2011. You'll find out what the K means as you read.

As I mentioned in my last post...a good 2 months ago...my family is headed to Australia and New Zealand for 6 weeks after school is over and I'm pretty darn excited. I've always wanted to swim in the Great Barrier Reef and I'm hoping to get my PADI diving certificate while I'm over there and maybe scale the Sydney Harbour Bridge while I'm at it. So far we just have our flights and hotel booked for the first couple nights and the rest will be an adventure of discovery!


You can tell I'm slightly crazy over travel considering my cousin asked me in October 2010 (while I was still in France) if I wanted to go with her to AFRICA in the summer of 2011 and I said, YES! Thats how far in advance I start planning trips...when I have yet to even be done with the last one. The plans for Africa were put on hold until I settled in with school and my Canadian lifestyle once again. And yes, after all the frustrations I mentioned in my last blog post, I have been able to make peace with Edmonton (at least for the time being).

During my last Reading Week I opted for the cheap idea and decided to fly to Vancouver on AirMiles to visit my cousin Jen and plan our trip to Africa. Jen is technically my cousin but basically we're like sisters. Our mom's were twin sisters and so we always found genetic rationale to prove that we were legitimate half-sisters. If you think about it, our mom's had identical DNA and we each have half our mom's DNA which means we share half of the same DNA, thus, half-sisters. Either way, I love it. And now, we've decided to embarq on this rediculously amazing journey to Africa together. How much better can it get?

The trip idea started since her late-husband was from Africa and his ashes are to be spread in Cape Town and Kreuger National Park (both in South Africa), but look to Jen and I to take a simple trip and take it as BIG as it can go....on a student's budget. Seems a little counter intuitive, I know. We decided to go for the cheapest flight possible (still too expensive) which has a 44 hour travel time to get us to Cape Town, South Africa AND we have a 12 hour layover in Doha, Qatar (where?!?). Needless to say it should be interesting. We're going to spend a couple weeks in South Africa, travelling from Cape Town to Johannesburg and then we plan to fly up to the United Republic of Tanzania for the last few weeks. In Tanzania we are going to relax on the beaches of Zanzibar (voted the most mythical place in the world) but before that, the crazy part...

We have put our deposits down with TK to hike up MOUNT KILIMANJARO (the highest free-standing mountain in the world) which summits at 5800m. Woohoo!! I am so incredibly excited for that but I have to say it's pretty difficult to start training when its still -20 Celcius outside.

I'm super pumped for such an incredible summer (even though it will be Winter on both continents) where I will be able to check so many things off my "Bucket List" and experience so many breathtaking moments and sights. It really is making it that much harder to get through the last 2 months of school but at the same time its pretty much the greatest reward for being a 2011 Bachelor of Commerce graduate! :D

Home?

I guess I've decided that I'm going to continue blogging since my travelling adventures will resume in May with a trip to Australia and New Zealand. However, I do have to warn you that things will probably be pretty bland throughout my school semester so I can't guarantee this will be an interesting read, especially compared to my fun filled weekends abroad.

After my ski-trip-filled-holidays things have kind of settled down in regards to my location as I'm stuck in E-town until at least the Family Day long weekend due to classes and my need to make some $$. I've been here for 5 days solid now -- which feels like ages to me -- and a full week of school under my belt. My course load is not too heavy (only 3 classes) so long as I passed all my classes in France (I'm still waiting to hear as grades are not due for the profs until Jan 28). I'm back to work as a server at Hudsons Bourbon Street to try and fund my August adventure. I'm keeping the location under wraps (for those who don't already know) until I'm sure about it because I think it might make me more bummed if I talk about it and get excited and then it doesn't work out for some reason.

Well...what do I have to say about being back in Edmonton? It's been mentally challenging -- I am definitely experiencing reverse culture shock even though it might not be outwardly obvious. Maybe I was expecting more comfort from seeing my friends and family than I actually feel but something still feels "off" for me. It's like everyone went about living their lives and not much changed but a whole lot in me changed, and being planted back in this monotonous seeming life is just kind of a let-down. I know I can't expect that I can travel to different countries, on weekends, for the rest of my life but it still feels strange. I am still enjoying being close to family and friends but that also means that I'm further away from other friends.

Another thing I already knew from my experience in Montreal, Panama and Bolivia, is that when you stay somewhere for either a long period of time (over a month) or when your life is affected significantly during the trip, you leave a piece of your heart behind. What you thought was your home (in my case, Edmonton) slowly becomes more simply a "home base" with numerous other places you can now call home. You leave your heart behind in the environment, in the culture of the country, in the language and in the relationships you built. All this just makes it that much harder once you've returned to the "home base."

On a lighter note, there are some things that I appreciate more now that I'm back in Canada -- things I had in France and am only working towards in Edmonton.

1) I find more peace in solitude. For those of you who know me, you know I'm an extrovert with a jam-packed social schedule. I realized I actually quite enjoyed the nights to myself in France when I was done working on homework and could just pour myself a glass of wine and read, watch tv or enjoy my dinner. Don't get my wrong, I quite enjoyed hanging out with friends in Grenoble and my busy weekends of travelling but the peace and quiet was nice every once in a while. BUT it is still a constant challenge for me to slow my life down, especially after being away for a semester, but I'm trying...always trying.

2) I have too much stuff. I kind of started learning this lesson a long time ago but it was more in the sense that I became grateful for the things that I have in comparison with those I met in both Bolivia and Panama. Ultimately, I think I still felt like I needed to have those things around me to feel comfortable. Living in France with not much to furnish my room really showed me that extra things I have don't keep me happy and don't add anything to my life. Don't get me wrong, you won't see me tossing my things and living with the bare minimum but the clutter in my life is actually getting to me now and is most definitely going to be reduced.

Just some of the stuff that has been on my mind as of late. Some of it still needs to be processed too so I'm sure you'll be hearing more in the coming months. Enjoy your weekend!