Jypsie Shores Journal

Hot and Sunny Christmas! Not for me

jypsie-shore — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:07:00 GMT

its been a while since i have written in my travel journal and to be honest not a whole lot has changed. I am still living in Melbourne, in the same house. Working lots, still drinking lots of wine. although now its red wine opposed to the previous obsession with white wine and lemon.

Christmas is just around the corner although i have not thought a lot about it due to the fact that its 30 degrees and sunny in Australia right now! Speaking of christmas i will be heading back home for 7 weeks in December and am looking forward to seeing my beloved friends and family and not to mention drinking ceasars and cheering on the Canucks (i dont even know how they are doing this season)

anyway if there are any huge/fun plans for New Years this year . please inform i am very out of the loop at the moment.

thanks mates!

Live On the Edge

jypsie-shore — Tue, 4 Oct 2011 21:45:00 GMT

this afternoon i found out that im sub consciously addicted to being a klutz/doing really stupid things. When i first moved to Melbourne i went on a trip to Port Fairy i slide on some rocks and got dragged in the ocean, not only twisting my ankle but scratching all up the side of my leg. To this day i will still blame it on getting chased into the ocean and for a dramatic effect ill maybe add in that i was tackled. Only a week later i tried long boarding for the first time, wearing only my sandals. I found it was a terrible idea when blood was pouring from the sides of my feet, leading to a foot infection a couple days later. I also blamed that one on the peer pressure that was put on me to try it. A week after that a few friends and i went ice skating at a local rink so i wouldn't feel so homesick. The only problem was that i didnt bring socks and the rink didnt have any (Can i also blame this one on the rinks inability to stock necessary equipment for the activity). Resulting in a huge blister that was more like a open war wound then a bubble of puss. and lastly this afternoon, as if i couldnt get enough of being hurt i had to go and put my hand on the ground at full speed to stop the stupid long board. Lets just say my whole palm of my hand is non existent, and not aesthetically pleasing to look at. The good thing that i can think of coming from all of this pain is that ive come accustomed to it and therefore it doesnt hurt as much, or at least i ignore the pain really well. No the question needs to be asked, will i continue to be an idiot until my whole body is covered in scars and bruises.

Im going to go with probably!!!!

The elements of Change!

jypsie-shore — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:54:00 GMT

When in Indonesia i asked numerous Australians where is the best place for someone like myself, who loves style and culture, but needs to be near the ocean. They all responded with Melbourne, in the state of Victoria. Luckily my friend Bonnie, who had lived in Canada for 2 years had recently moved back to her hometown Melbourne. With a couch to crash on and a one way ticket to Australia i was set to go on my epic Australian adventure.

2 months later i am still living with Bonnie and her two male room mates. The topic of discussion in this journal entry is the culturally differences between North America and Australia.

1. There is a huge coffee culture here, its one place that does not have Starbucks growing like weeds on every corner. You cannot order a regular black coffee here, they give you a weird look and ask if your American with pity, better to ask for a long black with a side of milk. Unfortunately there is also no Tim Hortons :(.

2. It is not a requirement to tip here. Employers pay their employees fair wages. enough said

3. They drive on the wrong side of the road. I can even count the number of times i've walked to the passenger side of the car only to realize that in fact I'm in Australia and its the drivers side.

4. Footy is the national sport. No Canucks riots in Australia.

5. Theres no Ketchup here. theres tomato sauce (same thing) and actual tomato sauce is called pasta sauce. wierd!

6. Lots of mispronunciations. words such as basil, H, oregano, depot are all pronounced different.

and thats about it so far. Ill post more as i remember them.

-Jypsie Shore

Ditch the Itinerary - New York City

jypsie-shore — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:24:00 GMT

My first experience with travelling began when i was 19 years old. I Had never been anywhere apart from the West Coast of North America and decided that i was so interested in fashion i NEEDED to go to New York City. Realizing that if i made huge plans for weeks in advance i really would never get around to going, so i called up one of my best friends in the whole world who was currently residing in Virginia. Hannah was at the time going to school full time and was excited to hear that i was coming to visit her in a weeks time, what she did not realize was that i had a devious plan to get her to come up to New York with me for the weekend.

Within one week i was on a plane to the East Coast of North America for the first time. Hannah picked me up at the airport in a small town in Virginia. I waited a couple hours then propositioned her a trip up to New York. to my surprise she agreed with very little motivating, She would skip class on Friday (those who know me know i'm a bad influence) and we would head up Via greyhound. After 10 hours on the greyhound and a stop in Washington DC we were in New York City. I remember it so well, it was one a clock in the morning and our bus dropped us off right beneath times square. The first thing we saw when we walked out were bright city lights everywhere, like nothing i have ever seen before. Hannah later on told me that my eyes literally were popping out of my head the second i saw the city. I was in love with New York and still remain in love with it to this day.

Here was the only problem though, our bus got to New York City at 1 in the morning and i assured Hannah that we would get a hotel no problem. Except for it was a problem, a huge problem, everything within our price range was booked up, we had nowhere to stay. We wandered aimlessly around the city to all hours and even came close to staying in Starbucks all night. Eventually 2 guys from California helped us in finding a extremely small room in the comfort Inn for a incredibly high price but we were content to have a bed so we paid the price.

To this day that was one of my favorite trips i have ever been on. and i'm thankful that i had an easygoing friend who just came along despite my poor itinerary.

Thanks Hannah miss our crazy adventures together!

-Jypsie Shore

4 months in Indonesia....

jypsie-shore — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:34:00 GMT

In 4 months in Indonesia i have

Ate copious amounts of Nasi Goreng

Learnt to surf & became part of a surf crew

Heard the words Massage and transport a million times

Learnt to speak a new language

Travelled to Lampung, Bandung, Jakarta , and Bali

Had my first creambath and became addicted

Went to several fashion shows & met famous Indonesian fashion designer and actresses

Lived beside the ocean

Tryed Papaya, Dragon fruit and Durian

Lived in a dirty city with no sidewalks (one of the most polluted in the world)

Rode on a motor bike for hours on end

Kissed someone a million times

Worked for Fashion TV

Lived in a 3rd world country

Find What it is that you seek!

jypsie-shore — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:13:00 GMT

For those of you that know me well, you will know that i worked my butt off working a full time job and doing fashion school full time for the past few years. When i finished i had to make the decision between starting a career in Vancouver BC or travelling. With advice from my closest and mostest the decision was made to travel for a couple years. I sold everything, got rid of two huge bags of clothing (thanks Sarah for taking those off my hands) and got rid of my Kitsilano apartment. After, a couple glasses of wine, 2 stops 1 in LA and one in Korea, enough kamsahamnida (thank you in Korean) to last me ages, and 40 hours later i was in humid, bustling Jakarta Indonesia. What a huge culture shock i was in for in the following months. What i found out when i got there was that i was not allowed to wear half the clothing i had brought, because not only did i stand out for being white (bule) but i was not muslim, a big disadvantage in the country. Needless to say i made it through and am now in Melbourne Australia working at a cafe. Although i miss the aspect of fashion design and working towards something i must say that i have become quite addicted to travelling and have made the decision to travel for many years while building a writing career. Stay tuned to hear more about my adventures all over the world.

-Jypsie Shore

Please God give me Patience... but Hurry i'm in Jakarta!!!

jypsie-shore — Thu, 2 Jun 2011 09:50:00 GMT

Jakarta Indonesia, a city im sure that is not on many peoples ideal travel list. The traffic here is the worst in the world, the constant pity beggars on the street, the overfilled polluted sewage that stinks up the city and the inability to wear tank tops and shorts in the hot murky weather because of the culture, is enough to make any single person never want to touch foot in this city. The corruption is a pity and the stray cats make you want to pick them up and care for all of them a nice idea but not realistic. As well as the lack of function anywhere you go from the washrooms with their squatting toilets to their traffic lanes that nobody follows anyway.

I just so happened to follow a man here. Of all the places in the world I could not have followed anyone to a worse place were my primary thoughts. Don’t get me wrong im adventurous and love to travel. However it took weeks of breakdowns, where I thought my lungs were going die on me because of all the pollution and the cigarettes that every single Indonesian was accustomed to smoking. I thought my stomach was going to shrivel up and never work for me again because of the unsanitary water and street food that my body was not used to. I thought my ear drums were going to burst from the constant noise pollution be it the constant honking of horns, the 5 hours of pray interjected on the speaker everyday, or kids screaming something that any self respecting Jakartan would not admit was even a real thing, just a fictionist detail that the bule made up to complain even more.

One day about 3 weeks into my visit something happened. Something I cannot fully explain even to this day. I had just came back from Singapore and got stuck at customs due to the fault of the airline and not my own. The immigrations officer would not let me through and there was no way of figuring it out without the help of my countries embassy. Nobody was there to help they all lied about having internet at the airport even though I saw one of the women on face book and they all looked at me like I was crazy because I had nowhere to go for 4 hours while my country tried to figure it out. Thing about this moment was I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t frustrated, and I wasn’t in tears as I normally would have been in this kind of situation. Perhaps I just didn’t care if they never let me back into their country again, perhaps its because I was in a air conditioned building with nowhere to be, or perhaps I was to tired to care. Regardless something changed in me that day, I acquired a skill called patience.

Now when I walk down the streets of Jakarta I embrace the smell of the city. I slow down and smile at the friendly people that grace the streets who may not have a lot but they are some of the friendliest people in the world. When im in a taxi or on a bus for 2 hours I get a chance to catch up on some dreams im conjuring up in my head. When I use the squatting toilets I see it as a chance to work out my leg muscles. When the internet is slow I use it as a chance to read or spend time socializing with people I care about. Im not saying come to Jakarta for your next vacation, im saying that sometimes in developing countries that are in contrast to our own we learn virtues and skills that are not possible to learn in a functioning country.

-Jypsie Shore