I know. I know. My mother has asked me to blog on multiple occasions. I keep telling myself “Oh I will blog after this event.” Or “I will wait until I have some free time and can focus.” OK well apparently neither of those happen. So here I am on a bus. I am almost out of data on my phone and it has 1% battery left. And we have another 2 hours to kill until we arrive at our destination. So I’ve decided to take advantage of the down time, take my charged laptop out, and write my blog in Microsoft Word. That way all I have to do it cut and paste once I get to WiFi. No excuses.

With that said, be ready to read a lot!

Last time I wrote, it was my 2nd night in Sydney (I think). I was determined to jump on a plane home the following day. It was rainy. I knew no one. And I had no idea where I was or where to go. About 24 hours later, I had made friends with my entire room and making friends has been the easiest thing ever since. One thing I’ve learned about hostel life… The moment someone new walks in the door, you initiate the conversation. “Hey! Welcome to room 102. What’s your name? Cool, my name is Rachel. Where are you from?” And then later on you be sure and invite them with you wherever you are going that evening. I know how I felt when I first arrived and the moment someone had that conversation with me, and it changed everything.

My attempt at writing this in an organized fashion is already out the door so excuse the random stories that will be totally out of order.

OK let’s start with the first week I was here. I joined up with a whole new crew and did the “Ultimate Oz” tour for a week. It was basically an intro week into Sydney. I had two leaders: Evie and Alex. Evie was from Belgium and Alex from Canada. The amount of energy those people have to have…. Mind blowing. Constant energy from the moment they wake up to when they close their eyes at night. And they work from Monday-Saturday. Rest on Sunday. And do it all over again on Monday. It was Alex’s first time as a guide. He’d gone as a participant awhile back and came back to be a tour guide.

So that week we saw the Opera house, went on boat rides, saw dolphins, hiked up to beautiful view points, slept in tents, figured out banking situations, and basically got us prepped to live and work in Australia.

A few stories from that week…

In these groups, you obviously tend to find your few little friends and connect with them. I noticed a much quieter girl and decided to befriend her. Turns out she was from Germany and we ended up connecting on one of the boat rides we took. Her name was Katrin and she did her very best to speak English. When we would talk, she would ask me what certain words were. She would describe something and ask me what the word for it was. She told me to correct her if she used a word incorrectly or didn’t put words in the right order. I told her of all people to teach her correct grammar, she chose the worst. My English teachers can vouch. I write how I talk and I’m lucky to get a grammatically correct sentence out. She would use words like “littler” instead of “smaller.” I never realized how many words we have for one thing. She also used a lot of hand gestures to try and describe things to me.

Katrin was a good friend to have. Because of the language barrier, it was a bit of a relief to be around her. I didn’t HAVE to talk and answer 500 questions. Both of us were fine just being in each other’s company without talking. It was almost too much trouble.

Probably the funniest moment with her was when we were walking to the Ultimate Oz office to meet up with our crew. I was just going on and on about how bad my ankles hurt. I was telling her how we have cars in the states and walk nowhere and all the walking was really starting to hurt my ankles pretty bad. I went on about how I didn’t know if it was my shoes or just weak ankles. After she let me go on for a bit, she finally said “What is ankles?”

Apparently there isn’t a word in the German language for ankles.

I check in with Katrin every now and then. Her and the guy she’s traveling with. Jakob, headed up the east coast on their own.

That week was my first time on a train! It was awesome. I loved how much smoother it is than a bus.

Majority of people are here call me Texas or Tex. I have a feeling half the people I’ve met don’t even know my real name.

A guy in my Ultimate Oz group, Jordan, when he sees me, either says “alright, alright, alright” like Matthew McConaughey (had to look up that spelling. Whew.) or he quotes Forest Gump “My momma always told me life is like a box of chocolates.”

Every Sunday night, a guy named Dave White plays live music downstairs at the hostel. If you know me pretty well, you know live music is one of my favorite things ever. It’s just him and his guitar and a microphone. So Sunday nights are probably my favorite night. He’s got a crazy good voice and I don’t care if he says the same jokes and plays the same songs every week. After last Sunday, I befriended him on Facebook and after talking for a bit, he told me to come sing a song with him the following Sunday. Long story short, he completely lost his voice that week and mine was shot as well. Maybe when/if I go back to Sydney I’ll sing a little tune with him.

Hershey’s is apparently gross to people in other countries and I may have to agree with them to a certain extent. It’s not gross necessarily, but y’all… The chocolate over here is pretty amazing. I’m sure we have access to it in the states, but I just always choose Hershey when I’m at home. The English folks know their chocolate.

Pasta Pasta Pasta… These English folks love their pasta. Pasta is a delicacy to them. When someone said they had pasta for dinner, their response is “ooooo that’s so nice.” I don’t think it’s a specific pasta. It’s just pasta in general. Probably pesto, spaghetti, any type of pasta dish.

Helicopter Insurance. No… this isn’t like coverage for the actual Helicopter. This is something that people in the outback have. Because there are so many deadly snakes in the country, farmers that are a certain distance from the nearest hospital have to have helicopter insurance in case of a snake bite. Evie was telling me she has a friend that doesn’t live far enough to be eligible to this insurance, but he is too far to drive so if he gets bit, he’s up a creek. #outbackprobs

On the same topic as Helicopters… Another way they use Helicopters on the coast is to look for sharks. Helicopters spend the days flying in circles covering a certain amount of space mostly over the popular beaches. IF a helicopter stops and hovers over one spot, it means they see a shark and everyone has to get out of the ocean. There are lifeguards on duty to be on the look out. SO if you’re ever in the ocean and see a helicopter hovering, I would highly recommend making your way to shore.

Sunscreen around here… they RARELY sell anything less that 50 SPF. Because there is no ozone layer, the sun is killer. There is nothing to protect you from the sun. They don’t joke about sunscreen either. The surf instructors at Surf Camp wore this paste on their face, tops of hands, and tops of feet. It was the texture of clay and it looked like they put a ton of foundation on and didn’t rub it in. Apparently it’s like 100 SPF or some absurd coverage. I was worried about not getting a tan and they laughed at me. That’s the least of their worries.

Guys from the UK have really bad handshakes. Limp fish all the way. I miss my Texas handshakes ?

OK that was only one page of notes from my phone…

During that first week, we had an informational meeting and a guy came to talk to us about Surf Camp. He was by far the funniest person I’ve met. His name was Mitch and his calling on life is sales 100%. And yes he sold me on surf camp like a champion. I had a hard time saying no to humor.

With that said, Ultimate Oz ended that Sunday and I left for Surf Camp the following morning.

Let me remind you how much I packed for this entire trip. It has been such a hassle. I only needed clothes for a week at that point so I packed in the backpacker backpack I bought in Thailand. I had to unpack everything, choose what I needed, and repack all 5 of my bags and my procrastinating self had this grand idea to do it the next morning before we left. Bad idea. We had to leave at 9. I was planning on waking up early, grabbing a nice breakfast, showering, washing some clothes, having a calm moment repacking everything and surveying everything I actually had… No. I woke up an hour and a half early, but somehow managed to be running downstairs at 8:57 asking to put 2 of my bags in storage (which I couldn’t carry at the same time on the elevators), returning my pillow case and key (that’s how you check out) but I couldn’t turn my key in until I made two trips back up to my room to get my suitcases. This hostel doesn’t have staircases and they only have 2 elevators that are the slowest elevators on this planet but the doors only stay open about 3 seconds so if you don’t hop on or hop off quickly, you’re stuck. I was the very last person to get on the bus with no breakfast. I did shower. Shocking. I know. Strong start to Surf Camp.

On the bus I was on Facebook and another guy from the Netherlands that was in my Ultimate Oz group posted a blog so I thought, “GREAT! I’ll read it and see what he thought about the week.” I click on it. It’s in Dutch. #converterapptotherescue

Surf camp was good. Every day we had the same schedule. Brekky, Wetties, Surf, Lunch, Wetties, Free Time, and Dinner. I don’t even know how to explain my experience. I’m really bad at surfing. I stood up a few times with the help of my instructors Shane and Hosea. Hosea was from Chile. It was just really intense. A guy, Jordan, broke his leg that first day within the first 30 minutes. Another gal sprained her ankle (yeah she milked that for all it was worth). I saw her riding piggy back on the instructors backs all the time.

The instructors were really cool. They were the stereotypical Australian surfers that we see in movies. They don’t own hairbrushes. They wash their hair maybe once a week. Majority have beards. All they do is surf, do camps, cook and sit around. That really is all that their life involves. It’s hard for us Americans to wrap our minds around it because we are surrounded with SO much all the time. Or at least it was for me.

On the second day, I opted to just go watch the second surf lesson that day (we had 2 a day). I was exhausted and earlier that day I had a little scare. About 5 of us decided to take the same wave at the same time and we were all waaaay too close. Surf boards went flying. People went flying. I was rolling around underwater in the wave not knowing when I’d make it back up to breath. Salt water went in every possible outlet on my face. Ears, mouth, nose, and eyes. I was a bit shook up. SO I hopped on the van that they pulled the trailer behind that held all the surfboards (everyone else walked). Pascal, one of the instructors, asked me why I wasn’t surfing and I told him I was really tired and aggravated that everyone was already standing up on their boards and I wasn’t. He said “You will never get anywhere in life if you are constantly comparing yourself to others.” I know I’ve heard that my entire life and read quotes every day on Facebook about it, but he said it with this authority/seriousness behind his tone (which you don’t hear out of surfers) and it really put me in my place. I think I have a strange respect for these guys. I can’t imagine living this lifestyle. I don’t always agree with their morals and decisions, but I admire their ability to appreciate what they have and enjoy life for what it is. They barely have cell service out there. I don’t think I ever saw one with a cell phone. Some don’t have cars. They live in the middle of a trailer park. They all work together as a team. They look out for each other. There is just something to respect about that. Goes to show how much we don’t need to survive and how much material things can really take away from the simple things in life. This whole trip is about learning and growing as a person and how funny that God used little ol Pascal at surf camp in a gross van to put me in my place and really make me think about how often I compare myself to others. It has stuck with me ever since and it’s still a daily battle but I find myself putting myself in check so much more often.

Overall, the surfers life is a different life. It’s not for everyone but I think everyone can learn something from it. Hilarious guys and girls. Lots of laughter. Lots of joking. Lots of pranks. And whether I’m good at surfing or not, it really is about having fun and by all means that was accomplished.

We got back from Surf Camp on Friday and it was such a strange feeling arriving back at the Hostel. I instantly saw a ton of people I knew. Everyone was hugging me. They were so happy I was back. It really was like walking back into a home. Everyone starts saying “How was Surf Camp? What are your plans tonight? We are going to this place for dinner. You should come.” It was a nice feeling to feel that welcomed walking back into a hostel. At that point, I had been in 2 different rooms already and made good friends with those two rooms (10 people per room) and then all the people from my Ultimate Oz Intro week.

From that Friday, April 17th until Monday, April 27th, life was a bit of a blur hence why there weren’t very many posts on Facebook. That was a time when I was really battling what my next steps would be. I started looking for jobs in Sydney. I really couldn’t find one that interested me. I started looking in other cities. Nothing was jumping out at me. So I started to consider going to work on a farm. Yes… that’s normal for people in my situation. So I started looking at those jobs in regional New South Wales and Regional Queensland (those are 2 of the 5 states in Australia). I was having a hard time finding one that paid. I applied for a few but never heard back. Then I posted an ad on a website over here saying what type of work I was looking for. I had a few responses but none that worked out. I also decided I may actually want to do Au Pair which is still an option.

On Monday April 27th, my fuse was pretty short and realized I had to do something. I needed to make the change whether that was moving into a flat (apartment), take any job I could get, just move hostels, or (drum roll please) continue traveling. As most of you know, I chose the last option. I walked across the street of the hostel to the Ultimate Oz office, told Danny that I needed counseling on what to do with my life and as the manager of Ultimate Oz, he did his duty and sold me on traveling with Loka up the East Coast.

OK now it is 7 weeks past the last time I blogged. Everything but the previous paragraph was written 3 weeks ago and uploading it as soon as I got to wifi didn’t work out very well… I haven’t had wifi since Sydney and I still don’t. I am going to bring this post to a close though because starting my travels up the East Coast with Loka has been a whole new experience.