Reflections of a Traveloholic: Saying Goodbye & Taking the Next Step (Again!)

I just climbed my way onto the Amtrak train, with my arms full of miscellaneous bags containing raw food, books, a yoga mat, photos, some clothes and hiking boots… heading south. While I waited for the train to arrive I laid in the sun on a bench reminiscing the last four months since my arrival in the United States. I am an Aussie, taking on the World; it is a powerful thought. I remember the sensation of bringing home my Ikea bed in a taxi and assembling my baron room into what would later become my home, my escape, my place. Last night, I dreamt my last dreams in that bed and said au revior to my life in Berkeley . My housemates became family, my colleagues became friends and I feel an incredible sense of gratitude for all the people that have impacted my life over the last few months. Saying goodbye felt trivial as it is impossible to comprehend that I won’t be coming back to Euclid Avenue any time soon. I found my place, and now I am packing up and leaving again. For what, though?

A career move and another life experience is the short answer. But when will all my travels become enough travelling? Saying goodbye time after time is hard, especially when meaningful relationships are formed with people and place. My farewell celebrations over the last week reminded me of my last week/month in Australia. The question travelers with sentimental bones often ask themselves is, is all this travelling and are all these new experiences worth being away from those you love and always having to say goodbye? Well, of course it depends on who you are, where you’re from and what you value. Knowledge, career, learning, experience, new friendships, culture, new food and environments are among a few of the benefits of traveling. The opportunities I will experience in the coming months will be unlike anything I’ve ever experienced and there is a thrill of excitement, anticipation and freedom is packing up and going where the wind takes you. In some ways, I am closer with my family now because I make an effort to write to them, keep in contact and share more with them rather than take them for granted. Or at least I feel closer to them in heart and spirit. I know that I have definitely learnt to love more.

Currently, I am sitting on an the train, on my way down to Salinas from Berkeley. It’s 3pm; my favourite time of day. The sun glares a perfect warmth across everything it touches, and creates a soft shadow over everything it does not. I’m wrapped up in a blanket feeling cosy and relaxed but still very aware of the icey chill I face when I will get off the train. This is my first winter in the Northern Hemisphere and despite living in one of the warmer parts of the country I always seem to forget just how cold it gets. The temperature has been warming up lately though and I am incredibly excited for the joy that summer brings.

I’m feeling an overwhelming sense of groundedness and awareness as I sit here with a gentle smile staring out the window, waiting for ‘what next’. There are what looks to be floodplains out to my right with the winter sun reflecting over the water and the famous Monterey peninsula mountains out to my left in shadow. The towns and industrial civilizations I am passing are quaint and still. They remind me of rural Australia, and feel nostalgic for home. It is in this perfect moment of quietness that sparked the urge to reflect and write the way I used to at the beginning of my journey; my journey on a one way ticket. When I was ‘travelling’, before I settled in Berkeley, I always had time by myself on trains, planes, buses to just sit, as I am now, and contemplate as I journeyed from one new experience to the other. I guess day to day life consumed me and it’s been a long time since I have not only contemplated and reflected, but had time to.

So here I am again, on the road, ready to tackle yet a new challenge, experience and life lesson and I couldn’t be more at peace about it. 

Australia Day & Farewell Celebrations

The 26^th of January, Australia Day, marks the day I am leaving my life in Berkeley. What, where, why? You ask. Well, it’s time. I was offered a job in SoCal (the local term for Southern California) on Catalina Island working as a Science Teacher whilst simultaneously scuba diving, kayaking, hiking, boating every day. Anyone who knows how much of a water baby I am will understand why this is a dream position for me; it combines my love for the ocean and outdoors with science and education. “Catch a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; you feed him for a lifetime”. Educating our youth about the environment and science is fundamental in creating sustainable futures, and this position will not only give me invaluable experience professionally in the education field, but did you read what I just wrote? Scuba diving every day! The weather is getting warmer, and summer is fast approaching. It is just an opportunity I’d be mad to turn down.

Prior to my move to the island on the 10^th of February, I am going to be working on an organic farm for a few weeks in exchange for food & accommodation with a man called Llyod, whose story I have yet to learn. I will elaborate more once I arrive on the farm in Big Sur and can give you more insight.

In the meantime, I had to go through that awful process of saying goodbye. As I mentioned, my departure coincided with Australia Day, so what better a reason to throw a party? Further, a week or two before I left we had another Australian move into the house, Nick Nelson. His story and mine are uncannily similar. For starters, we both have Brazilian partners who we met in Australia at the same time, were long distance for the same time, moved to the US with and their birthdays are a day apart. We also both studied in Canberra and have similar social circles in Newcastle/Sydney and now we are living in the same house in Berkeley. The list of unfathomable connections goes on and needless to say I made a great friend in him who I will somehow hold dear forever despite our short-lived friendship. So Nick and I stocked up the Fosters (yes, that awful American beer they claim to be Australian except it isn’t even sold in Australia), snaggers (cheap sausages, ketchup and white bread), goon (boxed wine) and played the Triple J Hottest 100 (alongside some John Williamson, ‘I still call Australia home’, and various other Australian tributes). Everyone came in thongs (flipflops) and boardies or footy shorts. We started the party with a sunset BBQ, and as the night got rowdier the dancefloor took place. Needless to say, the Aussies were the last ones standing (no one can handle goon like a true blue, dinky die).  It was a fantastic way to farewell my friends and wake up the next day with that feeling, ‘yes, I laughed a lot last night’.

On my last night at Euclid Manor all the housemates that could make it went out to Indian food and we ate until we exploded and somehow rolled back home to bed and crashed out early.

On a side note, earlier in the week Nick and I went to see ‘The Way Back’, a film director but Australian director Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society). There was a Q&A with Peter after the film, and a small reception with champagne and au d’ouvres where we got to meet Peter after as well. It was really lovely, and in some ways I wished I had harnessed the cultural scene a little more in San Francisco whilst I was there. I guess I will just have to come back. 

A Very VEGAS New Year

“So what will we do for New Years Eve?” was the question floating around as December was coming to an end. Last year I was celebrating in my favourite place in the whole world, the Margaret River region of Western Australia, with my nearest and dearest. It was a celebratory moment of finishing university, coming back home, and preparing for the next step. Well, now I have taken the next step what else was there left for me to do but PARTY?! New York was originally on the cards, but when Vegas came onto the table (excuse the pun) we immediately thought: Road Trip! So Diogenes and his two housemates Tiago and Mario and one of my housemates Summer packed up and travelled east to the state of Nevada; aka the land of legal prostitution and gambling and regrets.

We left prior to sunset on New Years Eve for the sweet 7 hour drive to a little random city in the middle of the desert, Las Vegas. The drive went really quickly as we covered all those taboo conversation topics like sex, religion and politics, played celebrity heads, I-spy, and all those other road trip favourites. We passed the snowy Sierra Nevadas which were glorious in their appeal on our way there, and the desert landscape was stunning surreal. Just like in the movies. We got lost on our way into Vegas, but somehow managed to take a short-cut. We arrived at our hotel The Sahara (yes, the cheapest last minute pick on Expedia – at least it was on The Strip!) to be greeted with an hour-long line out the door for check-in and an overwhelming amount of coin slots, cigarette smoke and flashing lights and sounds. The hotel, despite its aged facilities conveniently had a shop (filled with 80s/90s fashion – no thanks) where I scored myself a much-needed purse which happened to be the only not-completely-hideous item in the whole store. Actually, I really like it. We celebrated in our room, laughing, drinking, and enjoying each other’s company until mid-evening when we hopped on the monorail and head down to the oh-so-glorious Bellagio. On the way, we all managed to get lost and somehow all manage to all find each other in a bathroom line in a completely random hotel called the Flamingo. We never asked how or why, and then ventured down to the Bellagio to watch the water fountains and fireworks at the countdown. Much love was in the air and we had an amazing, grateful, blessed, freezing start to the New Year. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, it was -2C. We spent the rest of the night playing at the Bellagio and ended up with a late night Subway feast (the only place we ate the entire time).

The Grand Canyon was on the original agenda but, given the traffic and snow and our later than expected stumble out of bed, we decided to just enjoy our day in Vegas and see the sites. We started down at the opposite end of the Strip and slowly perused various hotels and shops. Some highlights being the New York, New York Rollercoaster; possibly the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced, Hard Rock Café and just the general nonsense that is Vegas.

As night fell we wound up at a Hotel called The Venetian. We fell in love. The Venetian had rivers flowing throughout with Italian-trained men giving Gondala rides and singing beautiful Italian throughout. But wait! Here comes my favourite part. The Sky! The Venetian had this incredible sky that when you walked you felt like the clouds were moving. Despite the darkness and freezing weather outside, every moment in this hotel felt like you were enjoying a glorious summer moment, just before dusk, in Venice. The boys watched a band and played some games in the Casino and the girls induldged at the ‘Oxygen Bar’. In hindsight, paying for oxygen doesn’t make any sense, however we did receive a massage, some herbal teas, electrotherapy and my blood did feel a little more oxygenated (great for a hangover!).

Then came the highlight of my trip! A surprise call from Australia from my Dad. “Where are you right now?”, “I’m at the Venetian”, “Oh, the Blue Man Group is playing at the Venetian, there is a 10pm show, I really want you to see them, they’re amazing. I want to buy you some tickets”… THANKS DAD! The shows in Vegas are almost the sole reason it’s worth going to Vegas and unfortunately we were on a budget that didn’t quite have room for the $150 a pop it costs to see a show. So when my Dad bought Diogenes and I surprise tickets to see one of the better shows in Vegas I was blown away. It was awesome! I have tried describing it to so many people but there just aren’t words to do it justice hence I've embedded a YouTube video for you to see for yourself. Nevertheless, in summary, it was a mind-blowing, interactive rock show with three blue men who always eat cereal.

After the show Diogenes and I went on a date by ourselves and ate gelato by the rivers in the Venetian. We finally arrived home (after a quick detour to Subway) in the early hours of the morning in preparation for our big drive home. There was a traffic jam for 300miles (not kilometers, miles!) and then there was snow, heavy rain and ice all over the road, so our journey took… well, lest just say a really long time. The boys did not go to sleep before starting work in the morning and after a weekend in Vegas, I can only imagine how hard they struggled. On the plus side, I got to see falling snow for the first time in my life. Happy New Year! 

New Years Resolutions

So here comes the time of year where you not only reflect on all you have achieved but you start preparing your goals for the New Year ahead. I just completed my eastern-horoscope 7-year cycle of change. This year is going to be a grounding year for me and I hope that by 11/11/11 (my birthday) I feel like I’m no longer transitioning, but I am on a very solid path. So what am I going to do to achieve this groundedness?

1. Get healthy. Too long I’ve been dreaming about running 10km or swimming 2km with ease, looking–I mean–feeling HOT in a bikini, enjoying the benefits of eating a Raw Food lifestyle; not ingesting chemicals into my body every day be it through cosmetics, food or drinks. Enjoying being natural & connected to nature. All round physical and mental health
   
2. Give more love. I absolutely love my family and friends and boyfriend, but sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in one’s ‘self’ and think that whatever you’re doing, feeling or thinking is more important than giving love to those whom you… well, love! That includes myself. Self-love is the most important, but giving love creates peace, harmony and brings in more love!
   
3.  Get that Job/Masters. By the end of the year I want to be in a job or Masters that fulfils me long-term (both personally and professionally) and that I will be committed to for a while. Certainty, stability and advancement in my career is my goal. It’s not just about getting experience any more; it’s about using my experience and abilities to succeed. This is the year for that to be put in place.

My New Years Resolution(s) came in three because life is holistic and this is the year I truly feel things are going to start falling into place for me in all aspects of my life. What are your New Years resolutions?