Wanderlust

Going going Goa

misslynee — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 09:30:00 GMT

To celebrate the end of my first season in Goa …here’s a blog with all the bits you probably want to (and don’t want to) hear about.

As I approached the airport in my taxi today, I found it humorous thinking back to a version of Lynee from September. The Lynee that told her family that they’re silly for worrying about her so much and that Goa is safe and should be fine. That same Lynee got a government taxi from the airport and had a minor meltdown about what on earth she was doing here. Looking out the window of my taxi, there was trash everywhere, cows, of course, men peeing on the side of the road, homeless dogs running around everywhere, cats that were way too skinny, and run-down homes that were still being torn apart by the end of the monsoon rains. After about an hour into my taxi, I had already talked myself into the fact that my taxi driver is on his way to drop me off at the front door of some elaborate sex trafficking ring and I’d never see my family again. This poor girl had no idea about the magic that was about to happen.

I spent a few days on my own in a hostel when I first arrived to Goa. This wasn’t easy. I stayed a little bit south of the village I’d be living in, a town (village?) called Morjim. Later I learned that Morjim is a shit hole and it was a very poor spot to choose to spend my first days. The rains were wild, the restaurants weren’t any good and the beach was still a disaster from the monsoon. Really I don’t know what I did during those early days.

Eventually I found my way to Himalaya Yoga Valley Centre (HYVC from here on out) in the beautiful village of Mandrem. The centre is set back into the jungle, maybe a 10-15 minute walk to the beach. I’m not going to lie, the early days weren’t easy. I originally went to India to complete an internship with HYVC, which is 100hrs of continuing education for my yoga certification but also was an amazing opportunity to spend more time with all of the teachers at the school that I admired so much when I did my teacher training back in 2016.

I learned a lot in the internship. I learned that people are crazy, especially yoga people. The classroom management side of things is probably the most shocking. When I did my teacher training, I thought of the whole process as smooth and loved the structure. Seeing the behind the scenes, however, almost every teacher training has one or two people who are exceptionally difficult and usually at least one person who doesn’t complete the training due to _____ (insert anything here) kind of drama. I found it a bit difficult to establish myself as an intern and part of the team. I was the youngest person in my training group in 2016, and I was the youngest person in this group, and I didn’t know how to require respect from people older than me? (Thanks mom and dad.) Little things like getting people to listen to me when I asked them to tidy up the yoga shala became difficult. Luckily, the school very much expected the students to respect me and I had their support and assistance the whole time. So that was amazing.

I spent a lot of time trying to smell better. September is supposed to be the end of the rain, but a cyclone came and visited us in October which made for unbelievable humidity. I experienced heat rash for the first time, my armpits would chafe from all the sweating (TMI sorry), and there was nothing worse than taking off my yoga pants (warmly made for Idaho winters…) to cool down, and then having to put the same sticky pants back on because I only brought one pair! (I wasn’t supposed to stay for longer than a month and was trying to do a version of minimalism for my backpacking trip…) It was hard. I showered at least 3 times a day and my sleep was constantly interrupted by the dogs who’d bark outside my window, that is if I could bare the evening heat enough to fall asleep. We would genuinely pray for rain because it meant the night wouldn’t be so sticky …. Needless to say I’ll have air conditioning next season.

It was towards the end of my internship when I was sitting in the office and I heard discussion about advertising a marketing internship role. I thought about it for less than a moment when I raised my hand, spoke up and said: “Uhm just so you know I have a background in marketing and I’d be interested…”. Next thing I know, I was asked to stay after my internship and help out with the marketing team. I agreed, on the conditions that I still got to do my scuba trip I had planned with my dear Aussie friend Ellen, I would leave in March for grandpa’s surprise party and that I could call the role “Marketing Coordinator” instead of Intern…because, you know, it looks better on LinkedIn.

Ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom. Fast forward a couple months and I find myself living in Goa for( almost) the whole season. The months that followed weren’t as eventful, but much more special. I now spent my days working in the office with my new boss, Dan. I don’t know where to begin describing Dan, other than he was an unbelievable teacher. From the start he checked in with me about what I wanted to be learning in the role and the things I’d want to focus on. He told me that because it’s a small company, our projects are really dynamic and things can happen really quickly, which means our priorities change constantly. This became one of my favourite parts of the company. In the 5 months I worked in the office, I saw how the fluidity of the company was a major strength for them in terms of product development.

For example, they were considering what other courses we could run at the centre, and a Yin yoga training came up. Since the birth of that idea, they had sent a teacher on a training and are already starting to formulate the content. It’s officially on the calendar for next year after less than 3 months of work.

I was able to help out on a video project, where we had a videographer come in and shoot some really beautiful videos of our centre, teachers and trainings. Being on the behind the scenes of a project like that was really cool. I also learned a lot about being resourceful. Goa doesn’t have all the same amenities of home. When we wanted to do some internal branding at the centre, it took me months before I found a place that could do custom design printing on aluminium signs. I started playing around with a fancy DSLR and even got some compliments on my pictures. I learned how to use photoshop and put together videos. I dabbled in data analytics and did some email marketing campaigns.

That may sound super boring to you, which I get, but I honestly feel like I gained years of experience in those 5 months, doing things I could have never done in an entry-level marketing position. Which is why when they asked me to come back next season, I was really really excited. I had my hesitations and had a round of phone calls with some of the family / friends to help me decide, but ultimately it came down to me asking for what I wanted from the company and seeing how that went. We negotiated a bit and it was final. Next season I get to come back :).

I’ve met a lot of extraordinary people on this trip. Mainly, the team at HYVC. A lot of the other people I met here were quite transient, which made it hard to establish friends outside of the school. I’ll save names and stories for private conversations or this blog post would triple in length. But for my own interest when I someday look back at these blog posts, shout out to: Tara, Tomoe, Annabel, Dan, Lalit, Maeve, Simon, Jack, Rory, Ram, Sunny and Nithia for being a part of my first season here. It was extraordinary.

The run-down of my time here may sound quite bland, but it was genuinely

Wake up

Morning asana (yoga)

Work until 5pm

Beach until sunset, 7pmish

Dinner at HYVC, potentially out somewhere

Saturdays typically included a US$14 60min massage. Sundays were pretty much exclusively at the beach. I did the occasional outing to new markets, a couple workshops here and there, but living in Goa is best described as a bubble. There’s just enough to do to keep you from getting bored, but I didn’t enjoy going out very much for post-work drinks kinds of things, so it mainly was yoga-work-beach every day.

Despite my father’s warnings, I did learn how to drive a scooter. No incidents this season! That was a really nice addition, especially in terms of motivation to go to the beach. I know, how can I possibly complain about a 10-minute walk to the sea? But given the humidity and how strong the sun is, I stand by the decision.

I also learned how to surf, shout out to Swap the surfer for my lessons. Goa is a great place to learn how to surf because the waves are generally small. I’ve caught a couple by myself now! I need to get stronger and paddle faster, but I have a whole season to get better. I think I’ll even buy a board while I’m home to bring back…

One of the most extraordinary parts of living here is that I’m surrounded by people are interested in hearing about these issues and helping each other process things. You know who you are. I feel like I’ve been given so many tools to deal with a variety of issues in a really practical manner. Simple things like learning how to sit with the bad feelings in my stomach or how to go deeper than my initial reactions to things. It’s really cool to start trusting myself to work with and through various levels of discomfort.

Coronavirus...I mean you have probably heard all the same things I'd say about it by now. My best friend Annaliese was almost on one of the cruise ships that was quarantined off the coast of Japan. India is locking everything down now, I have no idea what it would have been like trying to get home even 2 or 3 days after I got to Texas. The timing was perfect.

Okay, really long story short, I’m coming back to Goa and I love it here. I get to escape another winter and will be enjoying the sunshine in India from September 2020 – May 2021.

Well, you’ve committed to almost 2,000 words of pure ramble…I’m impressed and I hope to be connecting with everyone soon. I’m sure you’ve got stories for me!

Lots of light and love always,

Lynee

Switzerland: Zurich & Thun

misslynee — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 16:36:00 GMT

Side note: Switzerland would be a MASSIVE place if all the mountains were ironed flat.

Leaving Barcelona we decided, because our flight was super early, we just wouldn’t sleep and would go out the night before. Clearly, that idea has some red flags around it, but it worked out super well! The lovely people AP had been on exchange with helped us with our bags all the way to the Aerobus. On our way, we realised how exhausted we were and got excited to nap on the plane. Upon check-in, Annaliese’s passport was missing. Deep breaths on my part, I held our spot in line while she searched. 5 minutes of stress later and it was in her secret pocket. Got to our gate and even had time for a snack.

Arriving in Zurich, Switzerland was hard. Our exhaustion had hit and Switzerland wifi is not easy to obtain. Annaliese’s data wasn’t working (I never had data), and we needed a phone number to obtain a verification code and blah blah blah. 2 hours of trying to problem solve, and a girl at a Starbucks just let us use her number. Could have thought of that sooner…but, delusion. A train and a bus later and we were at our hosts. We were Couchsurfing while in Switzerland, if you know what that is, skip the following description:

You use a website/app to coordinate free accommodation for travellers. After staying with someone/hosting a traveller, you get reviewed which increases your chances of being accepted. You don’t pay anything, and the hosts do it mostly because they want to interact with other travellers and it improves their chances of getting free accommodation when they travel. Obviously, there are some safety concerns, but the reviews are verified and we found them to be trustworthy.

Our hosts at our first accommodation were a lot of fun and showed us a lake nearby that all the locals swim in. Lucas, Chris, and Lewis were all students and shared as many stories with us as we did them. The first thing we did was sleep. This accommodation was lovely, we had our own room, plus the pillows and bed were plush. It was also the first time we were getting to sleep with cooler weather, as Barcelona averaged 90 in the evenings. Apparently, one of the guys Chris had knocked on the door to grab something from the room (it was kind of a makeshift living room as well) 20 minutes after we had laid down and we were both sleeping as hard as rocks. We woke up at 6ish in the evening and decided to go for a swim with the boys. We swam the entire lake because it was a bit more of a pond than a lake. That being said, the water was perfectly chilly and clean, much-needed refreshment.

The boys had bikes for us to borrow, so we did that to/from the lake. This was my first cycling experience in Europe, and the first time I had been on a bike in a really, really long time. Of course, everyone else bikes often. I did pretty well other than having to do some street to sidewalk manoeuvre. The bike slid out from under me BUT Annaliese was very reassuring and told me once I knew how to do it that it wouldn’t happen again. Apparently, you can’t come at it from an angle and I needed a bit more speed. It gave the boys a good laugh, considering they grew up on bikes and it is their main method of transportation.

We had stayed out too late to get dinner from anywhere, so the boys we were staying with made us dinner. Really lucky for us, because literally, everything in the town had closed by then.

The next day we took the train and gondola up to Felsenegg. Annaliese very quickly refused to stop trying to pronounce it properly and went we ‘Fesselberg’ most the time. To the top we went, if you’ve seen the pictures I just uploaded, it’s where the fabulous lake views were from. We had a bit of a wander, but there was very little to do up there. Food was insanely expensive in Switzerland, so we had a coffee, enjoyed the view and went back down. We quickly realised in Switzerland that transportation tickets aren’t monitored, so while we were supposed to only be up there for an hour, I think we spent 3. We were a bit nervous that someone would get mad on our way down, but the Swiss couldn’t be bothered with that and they’re way too nice.

The wandered around the town the rest of the day and enjoyed running into the old buildings and seeing Lake Zurich. Nothing overly special, but it was a fun town to wander. They were in the peak of tourist season while we were there and it never felt crowded, a major contrast to Barcelona.

That evening we had volunteered to make dinner for the boys, in return for their kindness. A pretty cheap meal, vegetarian pasta with a salad and garlic bread. That being said, they ate most of it and it facilitated one of my favourite evenings in Switzerland. After sitting around enjoying dinner, we decided to play drinking games. We did all the really childish clichés, 21, never have I ever, truth or dare. BUT one of the boys, Lewis, made a point to ask really deep questions.

So at first, we were asking pretty surface level questions and moved past that really quickly. We talked about all things from relationships, mistakes and dreams to life goals and what we want our families to look like. There were some really vulnerable conversation topics, to the point Annaliese and I made a point to check in with each other afterwards. Everything we discussed we knew about each other, but a lot of the perspectives and experiences we hadn’t been as open to sharing with other people before. In hindsight, we were both super happy we had been willing to open up, because it allowed the boys to do the same thing. Afterwards, the boys commented that the level of conversation we had would almost never happen in Swiss culture. “People here are way too reserved, it’s still odd for us to have certain friends over for dinner.” -our new friend Lucas explained.

Eventually, one boy had left for a midnight swim and the rest of us were drunk and tired enough to head to bed. Ended a super fun evening with hugs all around (also weird for Swiss culture) and took off the next morning for Thun.

To get to Thun (pronounced like tune..looney tunes) it would have cost $80 Swiss Francs roundtrip. We deemed that out of our budget and decided to go with the more budget-friendly option: hitchhiking. Hitchhiking is very abnormal for Switzerland, but it’s so safe there we felt pretty sure of ourselves. Our first carriage was driven by a local engineer who told us all about the university systems in Switzerland and how everyone served in the military for 2 years when he was younger (that’s still the rule, but only 70% of the population does it now). He also told us about how most people work in trades before deciding to go back to university, and that only 40% of the population really needs a degree.

He took us more than halfway and dropped us just outside the capital city of Bern. We got snacks at the gas station, had a laugh and sat for a bit at the rest stop. Annaliese went back in to buy a banana, and while she was in there the owner gifted her 2 blankets. Apparently, we looked a bit rougher than we thought. Or, he assumed because we were hitchhiking we would be needing them. Funny but random souvenir. We got wifi, found the best spot for us to put our thumbs back up, and made it all the way into Bern. The guy who picked us up this time was from Macedonia (north of Greece) and spoke NO English. It was a good effort on both our parts, but we decided it would be best to have him drop us at the station. We think he was Muslim and he motioned some sort of blessing over us as we left which we appreciated.

We were pretty close to hitchhiking all the way to Thun, but just some background. Thun is a lovely little town between Zurich and Interlaken, two pretty famous cities in Switzerland. Practically no tourists go to Thun, which is why we picked it. Locals would ask us how we found the place or what we could have found to do while visiting. So finding a ride to Thun was going to be pretty difficult, and it only cost $7 Francs for us to get there from Bern. So we decided to pay for it and not lose any more of the day. Plus! Absolutely stunning train ride which made it all worth it.

We couch surfed again in Thun. The man we stayed with is 72 years old and does all of his travelling by motorbike. He had been a widow for 10 years and since his daughters moved out he found living alone lonely. Because he had couch surfed a couple of times, he decided to host. Easily one of the nicest places we stayed in on this trip. The bathroom had a proper tub and he gave us fresh towels, we had a balcony, he gave us Swiss beer, made us breakfast and offered us a ride to the train station when we left. One potential with Couchsurfing is your host could want to hang out with you, but none of our hosts really made an effort to do that and encouraged us to go explore with their recommendations.

One of our days we spent walking to a castle over the lake (also featured in my facebook pictures). We made it most of the way, but Annaliese had some bodily issues halfway there. Major knee ache and some back pain, we decided not to push it and hopped on a bus. We both explored the castle without each other and without paying for it. I had been waiting for us and got bored, so I just wandered it when the attendant happened to not be there. So mine was by accident, and I explored the upstairs of the castle and everything to the East entrance. Annaliese, having heard my experience, decided to head in while I was filling in my postcards. She made an effort to get through the castle without talking to any of the different attendants and covered the part of her shirt where everyone’s entry tickets were. Stealthy. She got through the entire castle and dungeon before heading out. Very admirable was to save $15 Swiss Francs.

We set up our evening at the edge of a lake and watched the sunset. It was funny because I kept telling Annaliese to turn around so she could see the sunset, but she kept telling me to turn around to see the different colour lights being cast on the mountain we were facing. Two boys had wandered our way and we got to chatting pretty quickly. They were both tradies, but I don’t remember what they did. They found our stories and July plans to be crazy and really wanted to hear about our different interests. They both agreed it was boring living in Thun, which we understood. Other than nature, there was little to nothing to do/see despite how gorgeous it is. I asked the boys where they would live if they could choose anywhere in the world…their answer was Bern. Remember Bern? The capital city less than 30 minutes away from Thun… Their answer gave us a really good perspective through which to understand the boys. They had no prospects of leaving what they knew but were very happy to complain about it. This isn’t meant to paint them in a bad light, they were both really kind and we definitely enjoyed our chat, but they hadn’t experienced much which is why our travels were so interesting to them.

Finally, the big event. The next morning we had planned to head back into Zurich, see the lake and pick up the bigger bags we had left with the boys who hosted us the first night. Luckily, I had decided to check my email (for the first time on this whole trip). I saw an email from our airline saying our flight had been moved up 4 hours. Those 4 hours had already been carefully allocated, and we were now very behind schedule. We packed our belongings as quickly as possible and headed for the station. Heck of a way to wake up. We thought the train we had got was going to take us all the way to Zurich, but luckily I checked with a local when we arrived in Bern and we hopped off that train with seconds to spare.

Had we stayed on the train, we would have been stuck going the wrong direction for at least 30 minutes and missed our flight. Then we found our new train but didn’t realise that it was at the other end of the tracks and sat on the empty side for 10 minutes before it left…embarrassing. Caught the next train all the way to Zurich, sorted our bags, and made it to the airport. You may see a picture of Annaliese and me during this venture smiling, but with tears in our eyes. We ended up having just enough time to buy snacks before getting on the plane to Budapest. Success!

Switzerland was absolutely one of my favourite stops on this trip. For future Europe trips, I’ll mark it down as a great place to get out of the hyper touristy cities and take a breath in some really, really fresh air.

Ciao for now! Budapest, Amsterdam and England to come.

Xx Lynee

Barcelona

misslynee — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 13:32:00 GMT

Heimweh (German): home isn’t something we can expect from a place, but something we find within ourselves

^ Saw this quote at the beginning of the documentary I watched on my first flight out of Sydney and feel like it’s a great way to start this update. I recently spent 5 weeks wandering through Europe and have a couple stories to share. Please excuse any rambling.

After finishing my last exam, I packed my backpack and left within 24 hours. My journey started with a 36-hour commute through Shanghai and Munich to get to Barcelona. This is partly my own fault for buying the cheap ticket, but one of my flights was also delayed which of course through everything else slightly off. I was pretty beat by the time I got to Munich, so I splurged on a $6 face mask in the airport. Obviously, I looked ridiculous and I’m sure you can imagine some of the looks I got. BUT it was totally worth it and I felt very rejuvenated.

Barcelona:

Upon landing in Barcelona, I took a bus and met Annaliese at Plaza de Catalunya. When my bus pulled up I saw her, so when I was getting off the bus I ran back to where I thought she was. She had the same idea though, so we literally passed each other running to find the other. After 20 seconds of confused looking around, we spotted each other and had a proper reunion with lots of tears and smiles.

Annaliese had just finished a semester abroad in Barcelona so she was in the know on everything and was thrilled to be showing me around. Our accommodation was in El Born, a really famous street 10 minutes from the beach and nearby Las Ramblas (the famous markets). Our room had a balcony overlooking the street which made for excellent people watching. After dropping my stuff off and doing some wandering, we went out for tapas. Annaliese was recommending basically the entire menu, and because I’d never had proper tapas before I wanted to try everything. We ordered 5 of the 7 options, which killed Annaliese because she typically orders 1 per person. “We are literally eating like queens.” -Annaliese.

Not having done any research into Spain or their culture before getting there, I didn’t realise Spaniards aren’t the most accommodating of people. After my long flight, being in the heat for the first time in months, and being generally privileged person, I ordered and ice water with lemon. Annaliese just about rolled over as she watched me order it and was SHOCKED when the waiter said yes. 9/10 times in Spain you have to pay for tap water, so I must have had some beginners luck. After that I came to realise getting water at a restaurant is pretty uncommon. When asking for it, your chances of getting water increase dramatically when you ask in Spanish. ‘Ague del grifo por favour?’ became my phrase for the week.

Annaliese had an abundance of amazing food places to show me. The next morning we went to Brunch & Cake, and my love of breakfast food soared. Everything from Nutella pancakes, Eggs Benedict and waffles with sweet potato fries…mind blown. A girl Annaliese knew from exchange joined us with her family. They’re from Pocatello, Idaho which was a cool coincidence. Not like I’ve ever been there, but still, small world.

After we went to the beach with another one of her friends from exchange named Mattias. He was described as a gentle giant which I fully agree with. He’s a massive 6’3 German guy with a super deep voice, but is such a kind hearted gentleman. He told us a story about almost getting his phone robbed: a guy ‘accidentally’ bumped into him and Mattias was aware that was a trick pickpockets use. He quickly checked his pockets for his phone and realised the guy had stolen it. The guy was trying to casually walk off, so Mattias caught up to him and literally picked him up and pinned him against the wall. As you can imagine, pickpocket was very quick to return Mattias’ phone. Annaliese and I about cried laughing at this story because he truly has such a kind and gentle soul, so to hear him describing the situation was such a juxtaposition.

The beach in Barcelona was pretty but crowded and the water was a bit dirty. On a normal day, you could reach out from your blanket and touch your beach neighbours. There are also lots of vendors who walk around trying to sell water, beer, sangria, tapestries and women offering $5 massages. It was funny to watch Annaliese haggle with them because she is so good at it. She knew all the tricks and knew how low vendors were allowed to go, so she would never pay more. She about died when she gave me a $2 coin to get water and I came back without change not even realising I had been ripped off…

One of my favourite stops in Barcelona was this gorgeous little town called Sant Cugat. It was on the train from Annaliese’s university into the city and had no tourists. Everyone there spoke Catalan and there were almost no English menus, so we got to practice our Spanish. The local markets happened to be on the day we went. Everything was so cheap I felt bad trying to haggle, so after a while, I just gave up because we were spending more time trying to understand each other than negotiating. Bought a couple cute dresses as my Spain souvenirs.

There was a really beautiful church next to the markets that we wandered into. As you can imagine, 85-90 degrees in Barcelona meant our shoulders and knees weren’t covered. Walking around admiring the stained glass, a little old woman approached us and was appalled that we came into the church dressed so inappropriately. Unclear at first with what she was upset about, she raised her voice quite a bit before pointing out everything that was wrong with our (mostly my*) outfit. She quite literally chased us out of the church. At first, I felt a bit guilty. Then, thanks to Annaliese, the liberal feminist in me took over and found it so disappointing that people think God wouldn’t welcome everyone. Imagining that had been my first experience with the Catholic Church, I’d have never gone back into one.

La Sagrada Familia (the famous cathedral) was one of my favourite stops in Barcelona. The architect is pretty famous, Antoni Gaudi. They’ve been constructing it for a long long time, and it will double in size from its current state by the time they’re done. They say on the 100^th anniversary of his death in 2020 it should be completed, but I heard lots of speculation about that. The outside is a Gothic masterpiece. Everything has so much detail and a depicts some biblical story. Every piece of the cathedral has some symbolic or literal meaning, which is hard to appreciate until you see how massive and intricate it is. The outside is completely different from the inside. I put a link below to give you an idea because no words nor my camera phone could do it any justice. The columns were made to look like trees which was probably my favourite fact from the whole tour.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inside+la+sagrada+familia&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi60_XzxN_cAhWLE4gKHewbBIgQ_AUICigB&biw=1027&bih=595

I wouldn’t even begin to say this sums up my experience of Barcelona, but it’s a good start.

More on Switzerland, Budapest, Amsterdam and England to come!

Xx Lynee

NZ: pt 2

misslynee — Thu, 8 Mar 2018 09:31:00 GMT

New Zealand: South Island

We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton. I had a night out saying goodbye to lots of fabulous people the day before, so when I found the quiet room on the ferry I was thrilled. The ferry was delayed and our 3hr ferry turned into like a 6hr journey? I’m not sure if those are the right times even, but my sleep was fantastic. At one point, I walked out onto the deck because as we arrived into Picton it was such crazy pretty views. I quickly learned how windy that was and didn’t last more than 5 minutes.

Once on the bus from Picton to Abel Tasman, I had a couple of interesting conversations with Adam and Pina (I'm not sure how to make my computer do the accent above the ‘N'). Adam likes to think deeply and has more meaningful conversations so he was asking us questions about how we break into real conversations with other travellers and what our intentions were with this trip. This is all post my really good nap so it made for good entertainment. He’d also spent a bit of time in India and had just done a silent retreat so that was definitely cool to hear about. I told him about my interests in yoga and aspirations to live in India and the more he got to know me the more excited he became to one day hear about my experience of the country.

ABEL TASMAN

Abel Tasman national park was a bit of a bummer because the cyclone hit that night and all of the activities were cancelled for the next day. That evening I cooked a delicious pasta with Pina and spent the night playing bottles (21) with a group of 10(ish) people. We played the entire game until every number had a rule which I found really impressive, and the rules got better and better the more we played so it was really entertaining. Lizzy and Ellie introduced the game to us; they're both British and by the end of it I'm pretty sure I was attempting to say ‘bottles' with a British accent. The best perk of the game was not knowing half the people but running into them throughout the trip after and laughing about the impressiveness of our game. We were supposed to have an extra day in Abel Tasman to do activities, but I skipped it since there wasn't much to do and went on to Westport.

WESTPORT

So not that Westport wasn’t affected by the cyclone, but there were more indoor activity options that gave us more to do. It's supposedly a big surfing town, which obviously wasn't an option for us. The other option was a brewery tour. So I went on that with Ellie and met such interesting people. We concluded the brewery pitied us tourists because of the bad weather and decided to just give us lots of beer and less of a tour.

I'd never been on a brewery tour before, so this may actually be more normal?

All the tastings gave our group lots of opportunities to chat and I met two 50-something ladies who had met at burning man (picture an artistic version of Woodstock that happens in Utah every year) and had travelled to New Zealand to attend NZ's version of Burning Man. I met Tim who is from Switzerland and is studying at uSyd this year for his MBA; we connected and got to talk all about the university and plan to meet up now that he's in town. I met this guy Florian who's German and after a couple of ‘tastings' struggled to follow the guides English during the actual tour bit which was pretty funny. I walked down to the beach with him afterwards and learned lots about Berlin and his obsession with the Netherlands, which I'm always keen to hear about. After an hour or two, a local biked passed us and told us that the bridge we crossed to get here wouldn't be there in less than an hour. The water was rising quickly so that was super lucky.

The next day I was hoping to get on the bus despite not having reserved a seat. Not very logical since no one wanted to hop off in the small town of Westport and everyone who had the day before was keen to get out of there. Another Dutch guy named Bas was hoping to do the same, but the bus was full. He and I were stuck together and decided to try hitchhiking! I'd never hitchhiked before but New Zealand was definitely the place to do it. So we scavenged the hostel looking for a pen and piece of cardboard, but in the process met an American girl with a car who was driving an Italian guy towards Franz Josef. So our search for a ride wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. She had a pretty small car so we had to sort quite a bit of stuff, but perfectly manageable.

GREYMOUTH

Our car arrived in Greymouth around the same time as the tour bus. They told us that the road to Franz Josef (our destination that day) was closed and everyone was stuck in Greymouth. I would relate the town of Greymouth to…Post Falls. It’s not empty, but it’s not very eventful. All the hostels were full since the road was closed, and I ended up sleeping on the floor of Lizzy and Ellies room. The hostel was so dingy and it was absolutely freezing. Sleeping on the floor wasn’t actually bad, but the lack of blankets was. I'd remembered coming in that night that there were a couple blankets and pillows on a random couch by the entrance, so I grabbed those (it was like 12 when I came home, so I assumed no one was using it). It didn't end up making much of a difference; I still ended up using our towels as blankets and Ellie's jacket to cover my face. Plus, the next day the owner asked all of us if we knew what happened to the blanket/pillows…so I told her and she wasn’t very pleased. I accept the bad karma, but at least I survived the night!

The next morning we all piled on the bus even though we didn't know if the roads would be open. We were delayed for a couple of hours and our poor driver was SO stressed. I felt quite bad for her by this point because lots of people were becoming impatient. Luckily, we were eventually cleared to head to Franz Josef!

FRANZ JOSEF

On our way to Franz Josef, Lizzy and I signed up to do the skydive. The main activity there was hiking the Franz Josef Glacier, but given Idaho's proximity to Glacier National Park, I decided not to spend the $500. Everyone who did it said it was amazing though and since our skydive was cancelled due to weather I was disappointed to have not done it. Luckily there were lots of good walks with great views of the glacier so I did those! Since Ellie had done the glacier walk they gave her a pass into the naturally heated hot pools. She gave me her ticket when she left and they let me in, so that was a big win! Also, finally did laundry here which was significantly overdue. The first night we paid for the all you can eat pizza and it was impressively good and so worth it.

I properly met Ed, another British guy, here because we snuck him a couple slices of pizza. He had played bottle’s with us back in Abel Tasman and we somehow got onto the topic of another guy we had been travelling with, Eddie (Ed & Eddie, don't get confused). Ed was talking about how Eddie is a 30-something and owns his own business. I could have sworn I met Eddie on my first bus trip up to Paihia and he told me he was 18. Those are obviously very different sounding people so we went back and forth clarifying his appearance to make sure we weren’t talking about the wrong person and eventually made a bet about how old Eddie actually is. We literally hunted Eddie down after to ask him, and I was super wrong. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out where my brain had made up this fact but I felt bad telling this 30-something that I could have sworn he was 18. The more we chatted the more clearly he was not 18…

I paid to visit the Kiwi Conservation Centre here. I wasn't entirely sure it would be worth it, but it's the only time I saw Kiwi's while I was in NZ, so totally worth it in hindsight. I learned lots about why Kiwi’s are becoming endangered and about all their efforts to save the Kiwi which I found exciting. In case you’re confused, Kiwi’s are a type of flightless bird native to NZ, not the green fruit.

The next night I didn't pay for the all you can eat pizza but got snuck a couple of pieces anyway. I would have thought 2 nights in a row of the same pizza would be boring, but it was equally good and I was very happy. My friend Niels and Brom both encouraged it and I had a hard time saying no…but they also made for such good conversation. Brom wanted to get into film directing when he went back to the Netherlands and had all of these really interesting ideas for storylines to start with. Niels constantly made for a good laugh and was one of those people I consistently ran into throughout the trip; I was super grateful for that because we eventually met up when he was in Sydney and I got to show him around.

WANAKA

Leaving for Wanaka the next day turned into quite the bus ride. The night before, Ed and I figured out the groups we had been travelling with were splitting up and agreed to be bus buddies. Hence, he's in most of the following stories. The first bus stop was at a lake. We decided to try it and ended up getting SOAKED in the rain. Luckily I was wearing sandals (: by the time he offered me his hat my hair was already dripping and it just wasn't worth it. Eventually, we got back to shelter after looking at the lake for maybe 10 seconds. We ran into Eddie again here.. it's great being reminded of being wrong. The second stop was at this massive waterfall; if you stared at the waterfall for 45 seconds and then looked at the rocks next to it they were wavy and moved and it was trippy. I did the same thing again but looked at my hand, even more trippy. No one could explain why it happened but it didn't happen with the other waterfalls I tried it at?

It was a long day of travelling by the time we were getting into Wanaka. Luckily, Ed shared his earbud with me and we watched a David Letterman interview with Obama and Liv had suggested the book 'Lean In' to me a couple days before. Reading on my phone is never ideal, but all that coupled with really good conversation made the bus ride not so bad. Getting into Wanaka we stopped for a lot of pictures because the lake views were crazy. Around this time my recently shattered camera lens made pictures not an option. GoPro was a good second option, but if you have one you know how quickly it dies and I was not very responsible charging it.

Arrived in Wanaka and went for a walk to find the tree that grows out of the lake. It was much more wondrous than I expected and found it to be a cool highlight. My camera still didn't work and you may have seen the blurry picture I uploaded on Facebook, but it's supposedly one of the most photographed things in NZ so I'm sure there are much better pictures out there. Ed and I walked around town for a bit and wasted time at a park until we were hungry enough to eat. We'd planned on some kind of Mexican food, but throughout conversation discovered our mutual love for Indian food. We’d ran into a couple on our bus earlier that day on their way to meet their local family at a local Indian restaurant, so we knew that was a good option and headed there instead. This may have been the best meal I had in New Zealand. We were both super underdressed to be in the restaurant, which didn't matter until the end when I was stared at by another customer. I've never been so blatantly stared at and it was rather uncomfortable, but the food was too good to let it bother me.

The next day I’d signed up for an aerobatic plane ride. SO COOL. The plane did barrel rolls and loops and other crazy spinny things and I don't think I'd smiled so much since arriving. It wasn't scary but definitely got that rollercoaster drop in your stomach feeling. I got to help steer a bit which was also fun, I don’t think the pilot ever actually let go but I was more than okay with that.

After that Ed and I went to rent bikes and decided to bike to the bottom of Roy's Peak and then do the hike. This bit was horrendous. About 20 minutes into the most consistently steep hill I've ever seen I knew it was going to be brutal. I warned Ed at the beginning that I'd be the more out of shape one on this hike, but it consistently got worse and about ½ way I think I started to overheat. My legs started getting shaky and the nausea started…long story short I didn't make it to the top. It was pretty disappointing because the views and sense of accomplishment at the top would have been pretty rewarding, but given how steep it was and my existing state it wouldn't have been a very safe walk down. I told Ed I wouldn't quit if he didn't finish it, so we parted ways and I slowly made my way back down. This bit was pretty hard on my knees and most people ran down. I bumped into the guy I hitchhiked with, Bas, on the way down which was random but exciting! Once at the bottom, I did a bit of yoga and a random lady asked to join me. I had my sarong to do it on and warned her the ground wasn’t very comfortable, but she went for it anyways. 5 minutes into it she agreed but appreciated the stretches! Ed met me at the bottom a bit later and showed me all the cool pictures. We still had our bikes which we then realized was generally just a bad idea. So we biked back to town but took the path by the lake and stopped to watch a guy playing piano in front of the tree growing out of the lake. One of the more random things I saw in NZ, but fully appreciated it given the day.

Spent the next morning at Puzzle World which I found random. Met some people who were travelling on the Kiwi Bus, which was the same tour bus concept as mine but more aimed at younger people and partying. They were all lovely but agreed there was a focus on going out so I was happy I'd chosen my bus. That being said, they didn’t have nearly as many bus issues and their buses were much nicer. Eventually, we took off to Queenstown!

QUEENSTOWN

So, Queenstown is one of the more anticipated stops in NZ and I fully understand why.

On our way there, Ed and I booked our Skydive. By now, I had tried to skydive twice and both were cancelled so I was super excited to do it. We stopped at the AJ Hackett Bungy bridge coming in and watched a couple of people jump and barely touch the river below. Our bus driver didn’t tell us that this was the time to pay for our bungy the next day, so that caused some running around/discombobulation. We got to Queenstown and our skydive was supposed to be that afternoon, so I went to drop off my stuff at the hostel but couldn’t find it. No, my sense of direction still hasn’t improved. Eventually just ran back to where our skydive was with all my stuff only to find out it was cancelled because they didn’t have enough people. UGH. In hindsight, Ed and I both agreed it was a blessing in disguise not doing it that day. It had turned into a stressful travelling day trying to sort our dive and bungy jump and all the rushing around; ended up enjoying it way more by rescheduling it.

We walked around that night and got to know Queenstown. Everything in the city is a 3 minute walk which was so convenient. They had so many good food options. There was 1 fresh food/ buddah bowls/ smoothie place right outside where I was staying which became a go-toJ. Got a salad bowl from there and ate down by the lake with Ed. Taking a breath and appreciating the Remarkables (mountains surrounding the lake) totally changed our mood. After, we read every menu in Queenstown and decided on Mexican for dinner. I wanted some weird taco with the toppings of one of the nacho options. The waiter looked really unsure, so Ed blurted out it was my birthday. The waiter asked if it really was and asked for my ID. I, way to confidently, reached for it but it worked because he said never mind and laughed.. I got my special tacos to say the least.

After we walked around town more, saw a guy get out of a harness & chains (picture Houdini) in under 2 minutes. It was pretty fascinating actually. There were tons of street performers in Queenstown and they were all really good. One guy sang Country Roads and his dog howled along with him at all the right times. Saw hang drums a couple times, which are quite rare but make such pretty sounds.

The next day was Ed's birthday and we had scheduled the bungy jump and canyon swing for that day. SO MUCH FUN. I don't even know how to begin explaining experiences like that but I very strongly considered jumping twice. I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be. We took a lift out to the gondola we would be jumping from. They had pretty exciting /hype-y music on so I just got that jumpy thrilling feeling. They were chatty hooking me up into the ropes which helped too. Everyone tells you to jump as soon as they do the "1, 2, 3, BUNGY” and I almost wished I hadn't. I didn't take a moment to look down and get properly scared. I just jumped on "BUNGY" and didn't realise what was actually happening until I was staring at the bottom of the canyon.

It was 134m (440ft) to the bottom which was 8 seconds of freefall; I don't totally remember when I started screaming, but I was told after that it was very distinctive. I immediately pictured my sister's scream and playing back the videos I'd say they're creepily similar. Anyways, after the 3^rd bounce, I had to pull a rope by my feet that would let me sit upright. It wasn't a big deal if you couldn't get the rope to come out, but then you'd have to go up upside down which I really didn't want to do. I don't know how many times I bounced, but when I started to struggle to get the rope I was super motivated not to get stuck. I instantly threw all of my energy into pulling it and finally found myself somehow sitting up. The canyon swing was next which we did together and backwards. We told the guy in charge to surprise us when we dropped; while we were hanging there to get pictures and mid-directions we dropped. Such an instant drop. Hanging there was so fun and my mind was racing with ‘wow's' after.

That night I cooked Chinese food in the hostel with my friend Lexi. She’s from China and definitely knew what she was doing so that was fun to learn and delicious to eat. Our hostel had an incredible view of the Remarkables and as we ate we talked about all the stories we'd gathered along the way. She was hitchhiking the entire south island which made for really different perspectives and it was amusing to compare.

The next morning I met Ed for our skydive! I think I had adrenaline withdrawals after these couple of days. It was a short drive to the site and we were in the first group to jump. They gave us red jumpsuits which made me feel really official. On our way up the professional jumping with me gave me a small tour of all the things we were over and showed me the altitude a couple times on the way up. That’s when I started getting really nervous. The first group in our plane jumped at 9,000 ft and watching them fall out of the plane made me realize how crazy it was that I was about to do the same thing. I was the first to go at 12,000 ft and the guy jumping with me fake jumped a couple times which was cruel but really funny. Jumping was surreal. 45 seconds freefalling and I don’t think it felt real at any point. After pulling the parachute my guide let me control the canopy for bits which was super fun. We did some spinny things and it was a definite highlight. After the landing I was electric for hours.

Ed had family in town visiting and invited them to watch our skydive. They got cool videos of our landing and my massive smile walking away which was super appreciated! They also took us to lunch by the lake after and told all kinds of fun stories. His dad reminded me of mine a lot and it even made me a tad homesick, which hadn't happened since Wellington. It was a cool concept bonding over such specific values with someone from a different culture/from the other side of the world. People are fascinating.

MT COOK

I left for Mt Cook the next morning. Drove over a couple glacier rivers on our way with the most jaw-dropping blue water I saw the whole time I was in New Zealand. We stopped in a random little town for lunch and I met a guy who made gourmet coffee out of his van. I doubt you are picturing something fancy but it was really clean and looked nicer than café coffee machines. I watched him freshly grind some beans and make a proper coffee for someone while eating my lunch. I hadn’t drunk good coffee since I was in New Zealand, and I’m not a big coffee drinker but there were days on this trip that definitely required it. Anyways, I got to chatting with the owner and he made me the best almond milk flat white that I’d had in ages. Really funny guy; he opened the coffee van in his retirement to give him something to do and it ended up being really profitable between two or three rural towns. He acknowledged the bad coffee in NZ and because his coffee was so good people were always willing to travel for it.

Mt Cook is NZ's highest mountain and had a glacier that fed all the water up there. Once we got there we dropped our stuff off and went to do the hooker valley track. It was pretty flat so it was a casual walk to the glacier lake. A couple people jumped in; I could barely stand in it long enough to get a picture. It became painfully cold so quickly, I honestly don't know how they did it.

CHRISTCHURCH

Christchurch was the beginning of my ending. I arrived on February 11^th (you’ll understand why I’m telling you the dates in a minute). I didn’t know any of the people on my bus at that point because everyone hopped off in Queenstown or Mt Cook, but I ended up making friends with some people staying in my room. One girl, Mollie, is from California and her boyfriend, Dave, is from London. They had moved to New Zealand for a working holiday and had arrived 2 days earlier. I spent the next day with them and a German couple who had also just arrived; it became this fun opportunity to advise them on all the places I’d just visited and answer lots of their questions.

We went to the pier and enjoyed a day at the beach. The weather was wild. When we arrived at the beach it was gorgeous skies and warm, we walked into a grocery store and by the time we walked out, it was the most depressing beach scene ever. The boys still wanted to swim so we let them; this was a blessing in disguise because by waiting it out we got to enjoy seeing the murky grey skies and fog clear out. Transformed back into turned into a gorgeous afternoon, we enjoyed the warmth as long as possible.

Mollie and Dave had just done a southeast Asia trip which was unbelievably inspiring. Mollie is a photographer and everything about her pictures made me want to plan that trip. The next night some of the Dutch people I'd been travelling with arrived in Christchurch and we went for an end of the trip beer. We all agreed that our hostel felt rather luxurious. The sides of each bed had a little nook you could plug everything into and store a water bottle or book in. They even had two pillows. We definitely had come to appreciate the little things.

Caught my flight from Christchurch to Auckland the next morning, February 13th. Waiting for my flight, I bought a really cool black sweatshirt that had "THE REMARKABLES" written over the top of mountains. After boarding my flight, I thought to myself, "I wonder what time my flight leaves to Sydney on the 15^th?” So, I do the logical thing and check. Looking at my itinerary I read, 'Auckland to Sydney VA81 6:45 AM 13 February 2018'. Yes, this is stamped in my head. So my flight wasn’t on the 15^th, it was literally earlier that morning. I had failed the test of adulting and frantically texted my father. A quick SOS and then got to turn my phone off for the hour-long flight and try telling myself everything would be okay. Luckily, this plane ride had incredible views of all the nature that is New Zealand. I checked in on my budget on the plane and figured how much I had left…$400.

AUCKLAND

Arrived in Auckland, checked into my hostel and took a deep breath. Walked to a flight centre and explained my predicament to an agent and he couldn't help but laugh. He looked worried when I told him my budget because last-minute flights never go that cheap, and I had to check an extra bag internationally which gets really pricey. Originally most the prices he was coming up with totalled around $600… He stared at his computer in awe when he decided to check first class prices. He had figured out I would get to check my extra bag for free and fly first class on the 15^th for $350 with this random Brazilian airline. He kept reiterating how lucky I was to find a flight that cheap and I was so pleased that I booked it immediately. Happy with my remaining $50, I treated myself to dumplings.

The next day, I walked to the domain and saw Auckland’s famous gardens and got a really cool view of the skyline. This was the day I got caught in the rain. I was about 2km from my hostel and was wearing sandals, shorts, a tank top, and that black sweatshirt I'd purchased in Christchurch. When the rain began to pour I attempted to run for it; didn't last for long because I hate running and was soaked in 3 minutes anyway. Decided to dance in the rain when I accidentally stepped into a massive puddle and got to appreciate my wet feet. I got under a bus awning at one point so I could see where I was going and figured out I'd gone in the exact opposite direction that I had meant to. Luckily for me, a bus arrived 1 minute later and was going right by where I was staying. $2.40 for a ride home sounded really good at that point. Got back, had a warm shower, chatted with an Italian guy staying in my hostel and learned about all the places I need to visit. Went to bed and flew out of Auckland the next morning! I took my still soaked sweatshirt on the plane with me because I didn't want to put it in my suitcase. Mediocre logic but I ended up forgetting it on the plane anyways. Super bummer but everything else happened for a reason on this trip so I'll trust that did too.

I had journaled lots throughout this entire trip which helped me be so overly detailed in everything you just read. Seriously sorry about the length! I linked some videos below of my skydive, bungy, and canyon swing. Enjoy a good laugh, I won’t be offended.

Skydive..I’d skip to 2:26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Foq4-w4Tq1E

Canyon Swing..I’d skip to 1:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDG8nhmvpQY

Bungy Jump…I’d skip to 0:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=800b_rxT0mI

Being back in Sydney has gone splendidly. My incredible bosses gave me a raise I asked for and have been super grateful to have me back. I got all kinds of good things sorted with the university and still plan to graduate by the end of 2018. Celebrated the gay & lesbian Mardi Gras parade which was fabulous. It was the 40 year anniversary of the parade and the celebration of the ‘yes vote' that helped legalize gay marriage. Spent good times with friends and wrote half of this in the sun this morning and half of it this evening listening to one of my neighbours play the saxophone. Life is so good and if you are still reading this I truly hope yours is as well!

Sending love from Sydney

Lynee

Summary: New Zealand's North Island

misslynee — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 15:48:00 GMT

If I had to summarize: New Zealand’s North Island

This was hands down one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It was my first time backpacking which was an adventure in its own, but learning how to repack my bag so that everything fit every day was a skill I'm hoping to keep/make a lot of use of. Above is the map of where I went, but I also went north of Auckland to Paihia or the Bay of Islands. It's where the 90-mile beach is but I didn’t get to enjoy this bit as much because the weather wasn’t very nice. Made for a good couple of days of de-acclimating from the snow though.

The tour bus I did was convenient in that it was a hop on / hop off scenario. So, they laid out where we would go and would reserve a bed for you the night we arrived, and if you wanted to hop off and stay in a location for a couple extra days you could and then just hop on one of the buses coming the next day or the day after.

AUCKLAND

One of the first hostels I stayed in was a 12-dorm bed that I ended up sharing with all guys. I met a LOT of Germans quite quickly because they are much more encouraged to take a gap year and spend time abroad.

The city of Auckland is really just a city. While I was there I met with a mutual family friend to store my luggage for the month I was travelling-- which was SO nice. It would have cost $14 per day to store my luggage at the airport so that saved heaps of money. In Auckland, I went to Waiheke Island with my new friend NaNa. It was the first sunny day since I had been in New Zealand, so we took the ferry, shopped at some of the local markets, ate world famous oysters, and had the perfect beach day. At the markets, I noticed everything was ‘sustainable’ or ‘recycled’ or ‘repurposed’ so I asked the lady selling honey if that was the theme of the market. She explained that it’s more the theme of New Zealand and everyone on the island just preferred to keep things as clean as it should be. This is where I first realized how much I was going to love this country. From there we had Thai food with an incredible view of the ocean and chatted with some locals about where we would be stopping and got all kinds of good advice. Taking the ferry back into Auckland was the best bit. We thought we had missed the ferry that would let us see the sunset, but it was later than we thought so it was perfect timing for us to come in and see the sunset over the skyline. Not to sound overly cliché, but it was one of those ‘this is exactly where I’m supposed to be right now’ kind of moments and made me even more excited about the rest of my trip.

So, the next day I went to get on the bus, even though I hadn’t reserved my seat. Our bus drivers nickname was Shorty and she ended up being my driver for the majority of the trip, which I loved. It was a lot of luck that I even got on the bus because there were some people on the waitlist who had priority, but there were exactly enough seats available so I hopped on and didn’t have to stay in Auckland for an extra day (one of many blessings from this trip).

HAHEI

From here we drove to Hahei. This was the first of a couple bus issues when the aircon stopped working. It was SO hot on the bus at one point I was blowing on my arms to cool down, and I was accidentally blowing on the guy I was sitting by, Felix. I realized how weird it was about a minute into it and apologized and he begged me not to stop because we were all dripping with sweat. As we got off the bus in Hahei the grounds manager, Glen, said it was hilarious to see our excitement about the fresh air. Glen had been waiting outside and worked up a sweat for his normal activities, so to see us think this air was refreshing was quite comical.

We rushed to check in so a group of us could go kayaking around cathedral cove. Our guide was awesome and told us all about the marine reserve we were in and about some of the bays along the way where I later swam with stingrays. Once at Cathedral Cove, we had a nice swim and our guide made us gourmet tea/coffee which was random because it was really hot. Kayaking is where I met Zoe, she's from Oregon and is studying in Queensland this semester so it was fun to chat about all things American/Australian with her.

After kayaking, we went to Hot Water beach. So, I probably won’t explain this very well, but that beach is one of the closest points to earth’s crust and because of the vents below, if you dig a hole in the sand really hot water will fill it. I mean really hot water, like it could boil an egg. Once we were comfortably in our hot water pool, it was humorous to watch people casually walking and step into a hole and yell out a couple of curse words.

That night in Hahei definitely became a highlight. No one could explain why, but on the beach, phytoplankton (not even sure that's what they're actually called) washed up on the beach and they were essentially glowing blue dots. As they'd wash up on the beach we'd catch them in the water or on the sand if they'd get stuck, and Zoe figured out if you tap on them, they'll start glowing again after fading. I couldn't even begin to guess how long we did that for but I was incredibly entertained. We brought blankets down to the beach too because the stars were unbelievable. I don't think I've ever seen so many shooting stars and at no point did I make a wish because life really couldn’t get better (wow I’m so cliché, sorry).

I just realised I’ve written over 1,000 words and have only covered 2 of the places I went...so I apologize in advance for the length of this.

RAGLAN

In Hahei, I also met Anna and Lauren. They had just met but seemed like they had been best friends for years and were a laughter-filled duo that blessed my trip. The bus trip from Hahei to Raglan was the second of our many bus issues. We had to physically rock the bus back and forth to get air bubbles out of something in the engine (insert car lingo here). So, we all hopped on the bus to rock it from the inside and some guys pushed back and forth from the outside which made for lots of good videos and provided proof my balance still hasn’t improved. This made for a funny experience before getting to the awesome surf town that is Raglan. “Home to the biggest left hand break in the world" …whatever that means. The town itself had the surfer/hippie feel which I really enjoyed and here I met Ana & Jill, a British mom and daughter travelling together. They are both intelligent people to have around so they made for good conversation for a large majority of my trip. In Raglan, we visited Bridal Veil Falls & a black sand beach which were both gorgeous.

By the way, if you didn’t already know, New Zealand is known for its incredible nature more than anything else so that was central to this trip.

On our way to the black sand beach, I met Robin & Jacob. They’re two Swedish boys travelling together who seemed like polar opposites. Jacob was soft-spoken and a bit more serious, while Robin acquired lots of attention and loved to laugh at himself. They had tons of Swedish pride and said by the end of their trip they would be solely responsible for increasing Swedish tourism. Such good guys to have around and, in all honesty, inspired me to visit Sweden so they had a good point.

Leaving the black sand beach allowed for another bus issue. The battery had died, so we had to push it to jump start the battery. This had worked while leaving bridal veil falls, but not the beach. Eventually, a local came to help us out and towed the bus behind his truck until it eventually jump-started? Not entirely sure how it worked but by that point we were all starving for dinner and didn't ask questions. Had dinner overlooking the ocean which was rather movie like. Upon our departure, we had similar bus issues, except this time we couldn't get it to start. We blocked a guy trying to get to the airport, and I can't imagine how stressful it would have been to be him. We waited 3 hours for a mechanic to come who replaced the battery. Stopped at a giant park which was entertaining for 20 minutes and upon trying to leave the town the bus died AGAIN. This time, blocking the entrance to a gas station. The owner yelled at us because we couldn’t all wait there so we found a dinky little café to sit at while another mechanic came. A group of girls started the game ‘bottles’ (aka 21) which is supposed to be a drinking game, but we hydrated instead. It ended up becoming one of my favourite games. The mechanic didn't do us much good since the bus broke down again once we got to Waitomo. After that, they finally drove us down a new bus from Auckland. A portion of our group ended up having to wait around for that bus to come, but I had signed up to go caving in the Waitomo Caves.

This was an absolute pleasure. A group of about 7 people and 2 guides went onto this farm that had lots of caves on it. The farmer still owns the land but apparently makes a fortune leasing it to the caving companies for tourists. We walked through sheep poo towards a ladder that took us down to the caves, then we realised our hands followed where our feet step on our way down the ladder… We wore wetsuits but as soon as we were in the water it got quite chilly. The word cold wasn't allowed so we called it ‘refreshing'. In the caves, we let our eyes adjust for a bit before seeing the glow worms. Not to ruin the picturesque idea of glow worms, but it’s not actually the worms that glow, it’s their poo. Evolution did this for them so they could attract other bugs trying to escape the cave. Still really fascinating to see, it was kind of like looking at stars but they were more blue than white.

After a couple hours of caving, we emerged to find the rest of the group in the shade waiting for the bus. We ended up getting a brand-new bus with USB charging ports and seats that reclined. Really fancy stuff. The aircon did break on this bus as well, but we stopped at a mechanic and it was fixed rather quickly. This was the LAST of my bus issues. Some people got more irritated than others and a couple got a refund for the delays, but it wasn’t quite worth the headache for me.

ROTORUA

Rotorua is a really well developed little town. It’s where a lot of the hot springs are; there’s one street in the town that smells very rotten-eggy. Similar to Lewiston, if you’ve been. The town was centred around a lake that had black swans. Never seen those before! I met a girl named Lexi on the bus trip here and learned she’s Chinese and moved to Bali last year to do the digital marketing for some 5-star hotel. Lexi lived in the hotel and got to eat whatever she wanted from the kitchen and loves the people of Bali. While walking past the lake, we passed a couple and I smiled at them and they smiled back and the man asked, “how are you?” I replied, “good, thanks!” and continued walking. Lexi stopped and asked if when people do that if they genuinely care about how the other person is. The answer obviously being no, I explained to her it’s just a weird developed cultural greeting and she explained how annoying people of other cultures find it. When Lexi studied in America, she was always confused when she would call to make appointments and they’d ask how she was. “I’m calling you about something important, not small talk, that’s such a waste of time” she stated. Funny American things.

In Rotorua, we incredible Indian food. We walked around town looking at a huge array of multicultural options, and when we saw an Indian family had rented out a traditional looking Indian restaurant we knew it would be delicious. We went all out and got garlic naan and samosas as well. Hands down one of the best meals I had in New Zealand.

LAKE ANIWHENUA

Quick fun fact, in Mauri (NZ’s indigenous population), anything with a ‘wh’ is pronounced as an ‘f’. So Aniwhenua is pronounced ‘ani-fen-ua’. This was definitely one of my favourite facts to use throughout the country. Dorky side note.

We arrived here next and it reminded me a lot of summer camp. My favourite part was stopping along the side of the road on our way there to walk into the national forest and see the oldest Mauri rock carvings in New Zealand. They told stories about how the people came from Polynesia to NZ through navigating the stars in a canoe. Sadly, some of it had been destroyed so there were large fences up to keep people out.

The family who owned the area we stayed in were incredibly hospitable and made a traditional hang-hi dinner (no clue if that's spelt right). It's a meal fully cooked in the ground which is pretty cool. Our driver told us it'd be the best meal we had while travelling NZ, but I ordered the vegan option and I don't think that statement applied to me. They made me a vegetable soup and a salad which was nice and I was so grateful they accommodated me, but I probably could have cooked something myself. The focus of the dinner was definitely the meat so that was disappointing. A cool part of the dinner was all of the leftover food. Because in Mauri culture it's extremely rude to run out of food, they made heaps. In the end, everyone helped package the food into containers and the leftovers were taken to struggling local families. In the school year, the next day the guests (us) would take the food to the local school and give it to the kids. Similar to my Holy Family days, those kids wrote thank you letters to the company and they passed those cards around for us to see. Lots of funny spellings and chunky sentences which made everyone smile. Definitely a feel-good place.

That night a group of us thought night swimming sounded like a good idea. We walked down to the lake (about 10 minutes through lots of mud), and eventually found the dock. The owners warned us in advance that the eels would be out…but we weren't concerned. That is until we all saw the eels. I thought they wouldn't scare me but they look way too much like snakes. This could have definitely been my imagination/fear, but at one point I thought one of them brushed past my leg and I knew I was done. A couple of the boys still swam, but every time the people on the dock pointed out an eel they ran out of the water as quickly as I did.

BLUE DUCK STATION

Next, we took off to Blue Duck Station. It was explained that a station is 1 level larger than a farm, which made sense because it was a 7,000-acre farm. The station had Manuka trees everywhere so bee companies pay them to host their bees and make lots of money off the Manuka honey. The station obviously got to keep some of it and had hugeeee jars of it for so cheap. If you have yet to hear of Manuka honey: it's a natural antibacterial (like tea tree oil) and is a really awesome option over antibiotics. They use it in hospitals for burns and I use it every time I'm getting a sore throat. Downside! It's super super expensive. Depending on the measured antibacterial strength, it can cost up to $150 for 250g. At the station though, I bought 1 kilo for $50-ish. My excitement could not be contained. I bought two kilos and shipped it back to Sydney when I arrived in Wellington. Even with shipping costs, it was ¼ the price of buying it anywhere else. We rode horses and had really incredible views at the top. As far as we could see the land was part of the station which was crazy to think about.

One of the other activities there was goat hunting. Goats (or any other mammals) aren't indigenous to NZ and are considered a pest. As a result, goat hunting is one of the station's conservation efforts. I did not choose to participate, but when we got back from our horse ride the group that went hunting was skinning the goats in the barn next to ours. I watched for a minute and handled it well until they cut the goats head off and tossed it in my direction. I made eye contact with the goat head and decided I should go.

TONGARIRO CROSSING

Upon leaving Blue Duck, we took off into Tongariro National Park to do a 19km hike. If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, it’s the mountain next to Mount Doom. It’s a set of 3 really high peaks, but it’s considered disrespectful to Mauri’s to hike/summit Mount Doom (never got the story about why). I believe we started the hike at 10 am but I was not in charge of timing us. The land was rather bare on the walk up, but the views were stunning. We passed a red crater which blew my mind, but it obviously didn't show up well in pictures. I hiked it with 3 girls, Ellie, Lizzy, and Ana. Lizzy is like a freaking mountain goat and blazed the trail to the top. The hardest bit was called the “devil’s staircase”. It seemed endless, but we eventually found a flat part which was a nice breather. Next was an equally steep bit up the side of the mountain, but it didn’t last nearly as long. This took us to the top of the crossing. It was a satisfying accomplishment to get to the top. You could see 3 sulfuric lakes at the top that were all different shades of an extraordinary blue colour. Definitely weren’t allowed to swim in them but by the time we were at the top it was cold enough & we weren’t too disappointed.

The way down was definitely my favourite part. Leaving the top of the volcano the ground was so unstable, we just accepted with every footstep we’d slide down a couple inches. Some people ran down which may have been easier but I’m not sure my lack of grace/coordination was suited for it. Over another hill and eventually we started the gradual decline with endless zig-zags and a fabulous view of a lake. The end seemed so close, but it wasn’t. At one point, one of the girls, Ellie, asked if anybody else’s quads were burning and we all had a group yes at the same time. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as going up the mountain, but tensing to protect our knees on the way down definitely wore on our legs.

The first time I stretched on the hike was halfway down while reapplying sunscreen and I instantly knew my legs were going be sore. The hike’s finale was walking through a really incredible rainforest. I felt like an amazon woman at that point and had been looking forward to it all day. We got there just in time as well because a thunderstorm had just started when we got under the trees. Enjoyed the majority of it, but when we asked a group passing us how far we were, and they said 30 minutes, we got very excited to be off our feet. It proceeded to be the longest 30 minutes ever and the first thing I did when we got to the end was celebrate by taking my shoes off. We did the hike in about 4.5 hours which put us back in time to catch an earlier shuttle. This came in handy as we indulged in fries while waiting for the rest of our group to arrive.

WELLINGTON

Once in Wellington, one of the first things I did was ship my Manuka honey back to Sydney. There was no room for an extra 2 kilos in my backpack. Called my Dad because it was his birthday and had a quick cry. I’d say this was the first time I felt homesick on this trip, I hadn’t really had the time before-hand. Wellington quickly became a town of goodbye’s because a lot of our group hopped off here for a varying number of days.

Wellington is the windiest city in the world, but we had perfect weather which was a happy convenience. I meant to go to some of the museums while I was there, but didn't plan very well. Jacob, one of the Swedish boys, gave me a pamphlet he had been handed on the street earlier. It was for a Bhakti Yoga studio about 10 minutes from where I was staying. This was the first time I'd considered finding a class while in NZ because it was post the Tongariro Crossing and my body needed yoga. I stopped into the studio around 2 pm to see if I needed to sign up for the 5 pm class ahead of time and ask about the prices. They told me the yoga class, mantra meditation (chanting), study session, and a vegan dinner would be $15. IT BLEW MY MIND. They explained that it was all non-profit and they were just trying to share all things yoga with the community. This obviously resonated with me so I showed up at 5 pm for what proceeded to be one of the coolest blessings on my trip.

The girl who led the study session told me about her partner’s book on Krishna farms. It’s essentially a version of sustainable farming that coordinates with the earth and animals and is basically everything I’ve ever talked about in reference to my dream farm. She also studies from the Bhagavad-Gita which is one of the ancient yogic texts and offered to answer my questions throughout my studying. This is huge for me because it’s definitely a complicated text and I enjoyed her explanations so much more than reading bits and pieces online to answer my questions. They also sold a couple books that I’ve had on my reading list for months at insanely cheap prices. Unfortunately, I had already shipped my honey back or I probably would have stocked up on more books than reasonable. Maybe it wasn’t that unfortunate. Anyways! That was an absolute pleasure and she told me Sydney has a similar studio that I’ve been meaning to check out.

Took the ferry to the South Island the next day. Slept the majority of the way. I developed some form of tonsillitis back around Ragland/Rotorua but decided if I ignored it that it would disappear. This started happened around Wellington which I was so grateful for. The lack of solid sleep in hostels didn’t help the recovery but it was never truly debilitating.

I have decided to write a different post for the South Island because, again, you should not keep looking at your phone after how long this probably took to read! So much for a summary…can you tell I had a good time? 4,000 words later, if only uni essays were this easy to write!

If I had to summarise: Being Home

misslynee — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 08:00:00 GMT

Hey hi hello! First, happy belated new year to everyone. I hope so far, you've received all good things! As for me, I just returned to Sydney after being home with the family for one month and spent the next month in New Zealand (if you're reading this you probably saw my abundance of pictures). I’m splitting up my update on the two months just because they both held really incredible stories and people. Also, you shouldn’t look at a screen for as long as it takes you to read both of them!

If you know me, you know being home with my family made my heart really happy. Yes, I was spoiled rotten by my everyone. Grandma & Mom always accommodated my vegetarian meals and I got to help cook lots. When my Dad and I cooked we made a strict ‘only 2 people in the kitchen at a time’ rule. It was fun to be given the authority to control who enters the kitchen, but Grandpa didn’t listen very well. The weekend I arrived home, Allie was on her search weekend. 2 days just with my parents was awesome, then I had the opportunity to surprise her when she got back which made both of our reactions rather grand. After we drove back to the house together and gab about all search things which was really special as I got to remember my search experience.

Christmas with my cousins, the Elliott’s, was a blast. They bring so much fun when they come over and it makes me appreciate the craziness of Christmas. Plus, Gavin always says 1 or 2 random/odd/silly/funny comment that makes my stomach hurt from laughing so much. My Aunt CC & Uncle Larry came to visit as well! We hung out for the last 2 weeks I was home and went to Leavenworth for a weekend. It was a pleasure seeing my German Uncle Larry enjoy the little German town. He always buys the best sweets. Enjoyed life bonding with my Aunt lots, I feel like we get more similar every time we’re together and we compare pictures where we look identical. Lucky me though—as I’ve gotten older she’s become such a source of guidance and that’s something I’ve just come to recognize/appreciate.

Seeing my best friends was a hoot. (Does that saying make me sound old?) Almost as soon as I got home, I drove to Missoula to see Annaliese. Shocked I was willing to go even deeper into the cold, but it was incredible to see her again. If you know her, you know how contagious her laugh is. My stomach hurt by the end of our days on end together. Seeing her family was also really lovely. Her parents are so welcoming and her brothers have finally started to accept me into the family and stop being awkward (6 years later). Plus, her dad always stocks the best food and her Bernie’s mountain dog, Gus, is so excitable and so cute. Annaliese is also willing to discuss her previous depression with me which is so enlightening. Fortunately, I don't think I've ever struggled with any mental illness too much of an extent, so when she explains what coming out of her depression is like it always blows my mind how strong she is. Through awareness of what that experience entails and knowing I still can’t comprehend the intensity, I feel as if my understanding of the people of the world continues to grow. As much as I enjoy learning through my travels, it’s a good reminder that there’s a lot to learn from my favourite locals. Annaliese is in Barcelona studying abroad right now, so of course, I'm planning that trip. It's a fun challenge to come up with those funds after blowing all my money on New Zealand, but it's a trip we've always wanted to do together so it'll be more than worth it. She's going to show me the highlights of Spain and we'll spend 4-5 weeks wandering Europe. I hope one day my travel bug starts to fade because it's where I direct 90% of my money at the moment.

Liv went to Florida for the first half of her break –so lame. But as soon as she got back we picked up as normal despite being away for a full year. She's always up for an adventure and the way we effortlessly chat about life is really helpful for honestly checking in with each other. Her sister, Paglia, is also fun to have around because she's super goofy and she and Liv are such a funny duo. Liv and I did our conceal and carry weapons permit together with my dad. It was really fun going out to the range with them and we learned so much. Liv looked like a badass too which was fun to watch. At the end though, I realized I wouldn't be able to register for my permit since I wouldn't be in the country when I turn 21 and there are lots of regulations I couldn't get around. I guess that is a good thing but still bummed. Liv's mom always makes guilt-free food. She's such a good cook and I meant to learn how to make a proper sourdough with her while I was there but didn't plan well enough. Very high on my list though! She was also my inspiration for starting my own kombucha (if you don't know what that is, http://bit.ly/kombucha_).

The last couple of days my Dad helped me pack my backpack for New Zealand and Mom helped me put together my suitcase. It was not easy. I honestly don’t know how I accumulate so much stuff but I promise one day I’m going to commit to a minimalist purge. When I looked at everything I thought I needed for my backpack, I had no idea how I would make it all fit. Luckily my dad helped convince me to toss out lots of nonsense. He was right about everything (naturally) except taking 1 swimsuit. Who likes putting on a wet swimsuit?? So, I took 2 and I don’t know if I was trying to prove something or if I was truly content with my decision, but I’m standing by it. I truly don’t understand my mom’s ability to organize. My suitcases ended up weight like 49.5lbs and 48lbs…seriously how she made it fit is some kind of sorcery. Mom goals.

So that's a halfway decent summary of how lucky I was to go home for Christmas! New Zealand to come :)

December Update

misslynee — Sat, 9 Dec 2017 12:18:00 GMT

Hi dear friends/family!

In the quickest of summaries: lately, I’ve just been following life’s weird path and appreciating every moment of it. I’m really happy, healthy, and consistently inspired.

Okay, so I finished my second semester at uSyd and am so thrilled. Classes went well this semester, I took Consumer Behavior, Strategic Management, Services Marketing, and Franchising. So, Strategic Management could have been the death of me, talking about strategy for a semester was pretty boring but it ended up being my best grade so clearly, I learned a thing or two. Services Marketing had good case studies, and Consumer Behavior was interesting because we did quite a bit of psychology and I got to do a report on how to market sustainable fashion. Franchising was also boring, but really that’s my Dad’s fault. I knew way too much going into it and it made sitting through a “Franchise Agreement” lecture 5X more painful. Now that I figured out the uni system a little better my grades improved from last semester as well and I have a Distinction average (B average) which keeps future options open if I decided to do any postgraduate stuff. Not that I’m actually thinking about that at all, but options are good.

I went to Palm Beach a couple weekends ago with a group of girls I met last semester. My friend Helena’s parents live there so we had a place to stay and she gave us a proper tour of the area. GORGEOUS. 'Million dollar views' isn’t even accurate because those homes are worth more than that hahaha. Apparently, they film an Aussie show there called Home Away? I bet that’s not even the right name but we saw them filming on the beach which I found interesting. They also film a lot of car commercials on the beaches there. Probably because the water is so clean and the beaches are endless.

Palm Beach is on a peninsula so you can go to the ocean side or the bay side to swim. I preferred the bay side because the water is calmer. I’m getting much better and handling salt water in my eyes too. Plus, the water could not have been a more perfect temperature. It’s weird because Palm Beach is technically North Sydney, but it doesn’t feel anything like Sydney. We all agreed by the end of the trip that it felt as if we had properly gone away.

We walked up to a lighthouse that had views of both sides of the peninsula. We decided to take the stairs instead of the ramp because we’re 19/20 years old and should be very capable. I’ll let them speak for themselves but I was sweaty by the time we got to the top. It made the breeze that much better though, so it was all worth it.

Random side note: Ellen (one of the lovely ladies on the trip) taught us this game while we were studying for exams called the picnic game. It starts with “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing…” and the person doing it comes up with a rule of thumb for what’s allowed at the picnic. For example, if the rule was words with consecutive double letters I could say “I’m bringing an apple.” Then the next person would try to guess what they’re allowed to bring. So, if they said, “I’m bringing a banana” I’d say, “nope can’t bring a banana”. But if someone said, “I’m bringing my cell phone” I’d say, “yeah you can bring your cell phone!” & the rest of the group would have to figure out the pattern and you go in a circle until everyone gets it. We’ve played this as a group lots and I suck at coming up with rules (they’ll attest) but it’s actually such a fun game and I highly recommend it!

The first day there we rented a boat and found a totally empty beach (only accessible by boat) and had a lovely swim. We found a jellyfish! My smart friends decided to lick it and it stung their tongue…. Also, there were parts of the sand that had oxygen under it? So, it was kind of mushy and fun to walk over. Helena said it’s because crabs burrow under the sand and something about high tide and low tide? So essentially, we destroyed crab homes walking over them which made me sad… but it was an interesting feeling. Helena also explained to me how to understand where a rip is. I’ve been here long enough that it’s silly I didn’t already know but now I do so all good. (If you don’t know what a rip is: it’s when the ocean pulls water back into itself after the waves hit the shore; basically, it’s impossible to swim against so if you don’t know what to do and you’re caught in a rip it’s super dangerous).

We collected firewood that evening and had a fire in Helena’s backyard. Girl chats and such. I have a really vivid memory of all of us discussing what constitutes manslaughter and murder in bullying cases. I love them.

The job at Pelo Hair is going super well. Still in love with both of my bosses. Kelly & Bridget (the owners) are seriously best friend goals. They just celebrated being in business together for 10 years and it was quite special to see them so proud of their hard work. Because I always get my work done and I’m good with clients they are always appreciative and treat me super well.

We were pretty short staffed for a while, so I was working a lot for 2 or 3 weeks right before exams started. One Saturday (our super hectic day), I made & screwed up Bridget’s sister’s hair colour. I felt SO bad. Bridget checked in with me later because she could tell I felt bad and I started to cry…ew who cries at work right? It was a definite combination of trying to juggle too many things and not balancing my energy properly, but either way I started crying which made her feel bad. Then she got super appreciative and was like “I’m sorry we’ve been working you too much! We literally couldn’t do what we do without you” and that kind of stuff which made me cry more and it was a disaster hahaha. Mid-cry she goes “do you want to leave? We can go get drunk right now if you want” and “what about cash? Cash makes everything better, right?” Super funny but she definitely made things right. Seriously, working with good people is such a blessing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a genuinely bad boss, but I know one day I’ll appreciate them even more than I do now.

I’ve been on a couple of really interesting dates lately. If we’re close enough for you to ask, please do because I shouldn’t talk about it on this forum. Most recently I’ve been hanging out with this (nameless) guy and really clicked with his dad? “Such a Lynee thing to do” according to Helena…but regardless I’m in Australia to experience life so I’m not going to question what the universe throws my way. So, his dad took me kayaking for the first time on Wednesday. The guy didn’t come, just his dad. Sounds weird, but it wasn’t. (Shout out to my parents for making sure I am capable of adult interactions).

I LOVE KAYAKING. We put the kayaks in at Watson’s Bay and kayaked to Clark Island & Shark Island which are both in Sydney Harbor. I ‘capsized’ (flipped my kayak) in between the islands; in my head, I freaked out because I was literally by SHARK ISLAND. I pretty quickly realized there was no point in panicking though. The sun was making everything this really pretty orange colour and the views of the harbour were stunning. So, if I was going to go down at least it’d be a good story. I enjoyed a quick swim before hopping back in, which I have no idea how I would have done without his help. When we got to Clark Island we were the only ones there and did a quick adventure. They have really old school European urinals there where you can see over the tops of them which I found funny. We both agreed it’s crazy how in a city with 5 million people you can find totally empty spots like that.

Also, the sailboats were racing because on Tuesdays/Wednesdays they do twilight racing. We literally kayaked through sailboat races. We would get so close to them, I was nervous at first but it ended up being such a “woah” moment. My mom told me to bring my GoPro, and it’s one of those things that would have had such cool pictures but I’m so grateful I didn’t I definitely don’t believe it was my last time doing it so I’ll do it next time, but for now I’m really happy I was present for the whole experience and not trying to take pictures. We started around 4:30 and got out around 8 I think? Saw the sunset and the harbour bridge and the prime ministers house and it was all around incredible. Then we got Thai food for dinner and he didn’t even know Thai was my favourite so that was such a good end to the day.

I went to a Lorde concert a couple weeks ago super randomly. My friend Helena had an extra ticket and extended the invite so how could I say no? It was outside the Opera house and the harbour bridge was lit up so it was really a gorgeous venue. I didn’t realize how much I liked Lorde until the concert. Of course, I knew her mainstream music but when I was flipping through the album before the concert I was really impressed. Then at the concert, she was such a good entertainer and so lovely to listen to. Helena’s sister Marjoule (Helena, I know I spelt that wrong I’m sorry) came as well and we all danced together and it was all around such a good time.

I don’t know how much everyone has kept up with Australian news (I know I was totally unaware before moving here), but they recently put out a survey to get the public opinion on legalizing gay marriage. They spent millions of dollars on this stupid survey. It’s so dumb too because of all the dumb laws governments debate on passing, they never ask the public opinion. It was just a way to waste time, AND the vote wasn’t even binding. So, if the population had voted yes (which they did) the legislature could have still voted it down. SO RIDICULOUS. Anyways, the law passed yesterday and gay marriage is legal in Australia now.

It was such a cool experience to be there for the yes vote. There were lots of parties and celebrations, they even lit the opera house up with the LGBT+ flag. It was overall such a generally ‘happy’ day and it was nice to focus on love for the day and not any of the other chaos going on in the world.

I taught my friend Ellen how to make kombucha this week. Super funny to see her react to the scoby (the bacteria that ferments the tea). Then we were going to go to this vegan Vietnamese place called the nourishing quarter. When we got there the waitress was super rude and they only had four (quite expensive) dinner options. We both wanted the pho, but then she came back and said it wouldn’t be ready for a couple hours so we just gave up and left. Literally, a block down the street was another Vietnamese place where we got double the amount of food at half the price and it was so delicious. As much as I’ve been working on improving my spice tolerance, but Ellen likes things way to spicy for me so we had to divide the food we were sharing. Then we went to Opera Bar. It’s seriously at the top of my list to take people to when they visit me. I don’t know how I’ve never noticed it before, but it’s right under the opera house and it looks out on the harbour and it’s lovely.

On our way out these 50/60-year-old guys stopped us to ask our opinions. They asked us if we thought the gay community is more promiscuous. I tried to take it as an opportunity to correct their stereotype and educate them but it was so pointless. They had clearly had a few and I was speaking more academically that the situation called for so they said everything I was saying went over their heads. Then they tried to flirt with us? It was gross, we missed our train, and didn’t learn anything. Very unfortunate interaction but we laughed about it.

We did thanksgiving as well! Okay, so no one ever explained to me how hard it was to plan those kinds of events. The house was happy with not having a turkey so we basically did all the classic Thanksgiving sides. I tried to make my grandmas Watergate salad with real ingredients. She uses cool whip, jello pistachio mix, and canned pineapple. So, I made my own homemade whipped cream, blended pistachios, and cut up a pineapple. If you know much about cooking you can probably picture how poorly that turned out. I also over whipped the whipping cream so it was too thick. No worries though, there was PLENTY of food. Jeremy (the other American guy I live with) is the king of leftovers, so he reaped those benefits for quite a few days. It was an adventure and such a blessing. I was really grateful for my friends who came and my housemates, good conversation and lots of good food. That being said, thank god Grandma and Dad are in charge of the Christmas feasts.

I went to Manly last weekend (one of Sydney’s northern beaches) with my friend Jack. It’s funny hanging out with him because he tries to train me out of my bad American habits. For example, on the ferry over I (supposedly) was yelling so he purposely whispered to try and train me to talk more quietly. He is also my go-to for Aussie sayings I don’t understand. I’d elaborate but most of them are either inappropriate or include vulgar language. Me and Harry (my housemate) just talked about how I need to quit swearing. I’m never around people who care and 90% of the people I’m around can casually use really bad words because in Australia it’s significantly less offensive. So, it’s worn off on me a little, but I’m working on it!

Okay, I feel as if I have babbled for way too much of your life. In short, I really really love my life. I’m thrilled to spend Christmas with my family, but I definitely wish they had been coming to Sydney instead of me coming home. It’s hard to be homesick when I literally brush my teeth on my balcony with a million-dollar view of the city every day/night. I have so many stories I could ramble more through but I’m officially home for the month so we should just get a meal together and catch up properly! I’m home until January 15 before I head to New Zealand where I’m going to backpack for a month. I’m sure you can imagine my excitement for that. If anyone who’s read this far has been I would love recommendations!

So much love. Sending light always!

Lynee Cavanaugh

What's new?

misslynee — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 18:53:00 GMT

So my mom said updates have been asked for. I know it’s been a while which makes it hard for me to start summarizing.. so bare with me.

As of recently, university is going super well. I figured out how to apply more of my NIC units to my degree, so I get to graduate a semester earlier than I planned. December 2018 and I'll have a Bachelors of Commerce degree with a double major in marketing & management. No definite plans for what's to follow. I'm really interested in doing Woof for a couple of months, it's a website that connects young people with different farmers. You don't get paid but they supply everything you need to live and teach you all about operating a farm. I'd be really interested in doing it in Sweden or the Netherlands, but just dreaming!

This semester went pretty well. It’s not over yet, but most of my group work is done besides one presentation. They all ended up functioning pretty well this semester, but every class I enrolled in had a group assignment and I am so over them. Individual assignments move so much faster and the sense of control is way more comforting. All my big assignments were due last week, so recently I did a really bad job calling home. Luckily my family is patient with me!

My last exam is November 23, Thanksgiving. Leftovers will be calling my name! Mom said they might wait for me to get home to celebrate, but frankly, it might be easier to pick at leftovers than listen to all the "are you sure you don't want turkey?" jokes. Hahaha love my family but I know what's to come. I might try to come back for New Years, but I'm not committing to a flight plan soon (sorry, mom). I'm planning to go down to Melbourne and Tasmania during January/February. It's summer here, so Sydney will be warm and humid, but it obviously gets colder the closer you go towards the Antarctic circle. Plus, southern Australia is too cold for me to have an interest in visiting during our winter.

I got snorkelling gear! I haven't used it nearly as much as I would like to. But I swear every day I've had free we have random bad weather?? I'm just going to suck it up and go even if it's bad on Friday because I just love how quiet it is with my head in the water. Goggles changed my life.

I’ve been taking piano lessons from my housemate, Harry. He is really supportive sometimes, and sometimes he puts on this funny but scary intense teacher act and is really strict. I have to play along or he won’t stop, and after a couple minutes he’ll say, “that was your classical music lesson for the day.” I actually learn a lot during it because I try SO hard to get him to be happy with whatever I’m doing, but it’s quite strict like my palms get sweaty and I get properly nervous. So far, I’ve done twinkle twinkle little star, worked with a metronome, and now he's making me learn to sing. If you've ever sung in the car with me you are probably cringing too. I have apps for the metronome and to play tunes and measure the tune I'm singing in. I resent them a little bit, but I really want to learn an instrument so I'm committing. Practicing reading music and jingle bells…

I went to the Sydney Tea Festival. A little crowded for my liking but loved it of course. So much quality tea and it wasn’t super expensive! Plus, lots of tasters and the whole house got little tea testing taster cups which we now use all the time. My kombucha is going well! It hasn’t made anyone sick, so I'm doing a good enough job! Some batches definitely turn out better than others, I should keep a journal with the steps /batches I like… (solving my own problems via this blog). I need to figure out what to do when it gets hot here? It's supposed to be in a cool place and I don't want my scooby to die. Welcoming all suggestions!

We’ve been understaffed at work for like a month. The salon I work in isn’t huge to start with, and we’ve lost 3 assistants since I started working there. I really love my bosses and wouldn’t really blame them for the turnover. They’ve sent me home with flowers twice (LOVE) and work with my hours really well despite being understaffed.

I started an internship this week with IndieGetup. It's a sustainable fashion platform supporting and promoting sustainable fashion brands. The idea, assuming it all works well, is for me to be the social media manager. This week I started making some practice rounds for the different social media we use, and my two bosses I coordinate with have already been super helpful answering all my questions. Sometimes I feel like I should be more technologically capable for being my age? But hey I learn fast so I think it'll be fine.

Seriously though, Christmas is coming up and instead of contributing to all the waste it produces, maybe consider getting some gifts from some of the brands featured on our website! http://indiegetup.com

Me and Aleisha (Harry's girlfriend) started growing mushrooms! We ordered the mycelium and I water it every morning and evening. They do not appear to be thriving in their current conditions, I don't think it's dark enough and we might add some coffee grounds to the soil. Hopefully they work out, I love mushrooms but they're so expensive to buy organic. The community garden I'm a member of is thriving. Every time I've left the past couple weeks I've had huge handfuls of lettuce and kale, my favourite of leafy greens.

Annaliese’s birthday is today in the US! Even if you haven’t met her, send her good birthday wishes. She doesn’t have Facebook, but she’s amazing and deserves them!

Seriously couldn’t be happier here. If I think about it too much I get a little homesick, but it’s hard to lose time not appreciating where I am. Forever grateful for all members of my support system, love & miss you all!

If you are one of the people who asked for an update you owe me one as well! Message me soon, please :)

So much love & light from Sydney,

Lynee Cavanaugh

P.S the phone works both ways, Grandpa.

Back Home & Back to Sydney

misslynee — Tue, 1 Aug 2017 08:24:00 GMT

Well to say my trip home was great would be insulting to all the amazing people I got to see who made it so amazing.

My trip home started with a long flight from hell. I took melatonin for the first time because if a 15 hour plane ride doesn't warrant it I don't know what does. The plane also had lots of turbulence. Long story short I puked twice, once into a cup, and once in the aisle. Luckily the cup was a contained situation, but the aisle scenario was much confined. The flight attendants were not very happy with me, but neither was my stomach so I didn't feel too guilty.

By no means did I get to see everyone that I had hoped to see, but the quality time I had with all my family was priceless. My extraordinary parents picked me up from the airport of course so that was instant tears and some really, really good hugs. Joe and Allie met us at the house and my best friend Annaliese was waiting for me when I got there. My amazing Aunt Cathy came out with Poppi (my Dad’s Dad), and we got to float the river and ate really good food. I went to Canada for a concert with Annaliese, and when I returned my other grandparents (Mom’s parents) came home early from their trip to surprise me. I had absolutely no idea, so when I got home late and saw grandmas car it was such a pleasant surprise.

My beautiful grandmother then put together dinner with the Elliotts (my mom’s sisters family) and it we gathered and ate more yummy food. My grandparents had brought some friends into town who picked on my grandpa (mom's dad) as much as I do and had travelling stories like I couldn't believe. Grandma and Grandpa also got a new boat (figures they wait for me to move out right..) and I got to go out on that twice with them. If you aren’t aware, boats are my happy place. So being able to go out on theirs with family was such a gift.

Poppi (dad's dad) came with us one of the times and he out swam all the kids. He told me stories over this trip about how he used to teach people to swim when he was in the military and I'm not sure if I have this part right but I don't think that was his job? He was just that helpful and kind of a person and the stories I hear about him the more infatuated I am with the amount of love that man possesses. Every time I get to see Poppi I also get to see so much of my Dad and having my Dad, Aunt, and Poppi together might be my all-time favourite trio.

My sweet sweet Mom took on the challenge of taking me shopping for some of the goodies I needed. I have taken on the responsibility of buying ethically produced clothing always, and second hand preferred in efforts to reduce my contribution to the pollution resulting from the fashion industry.

https://www.academia.edu/1059123/Waste_couture_Environmental_impact_of_the_clothing_industry (7 pages pdf, you have to click through a couple things to see it but credibility is the purpose)

https://www.ecowatch.com/fast-fashion-is-the-second-dirtiest-industry-in-the-world-next-to-big--1882083445.html (This says (basically) the same thing from a less academic source and in fewer pages)

I would have never imagined finding workout shoes to be so difficult. So few companies have taken any stand on any environmental issues, and I absolutely deem that unacceptable in 2017. The app Good On You has been pretty helpful in rating different brands and doing a lot of research for you, so I would highly recommend that if this topic interests you (please let it interest you). That being said there is still research to be done beyond the app so don’t limit yourself!
The family also took on the challenge of accepting my meatless diet restrictions. Both grandpas were not pleased. I welcomed the challenge and it made for good debates. I don't think I had anyone convinced... Mom & Dad still won't change their weekly meal delivery service to meatless. I plan to make more progress over Christmas.

My parents also took me to see the Gyro Shack site. It was definitely still a construction site but it made me so proud to see all the work that had gone into the place and how excited they are about it. I remember going down to Boise with my Dad to see the Gyro Shack and meet with the franchisors for the first time less than a year ago. I’m so excited to be home in Christmas and see it up and running.

Speaking of franchising, I’m taking a class on it this semester. I’m also taking Services Marketing, Strategic Management, and Consumer Behavior. I’m pretty excited about them, the due dates for all the classes don’t clash a ton either so I’m hoping I will keep school stress to a minimum. I also have Monday’s and Friday’s off of class and am planning to travel to surrounding cities this semester. Last semester I got to see a lot of Sydney so it will be cool to spread out (assuming I can find cheap hostels?). Classes start this week and I’m just hoping I don’t have to go buy books. I swear it should be considered stealing when classes make you buy books that they don’t use/need.

Since I got back 3 days ago I have been pretty homesick. It doesn’t even compare to when my mom left in February though which is super comforting. My parents are so supportive and it is so very helpful it’s as hard on them as it is for me. (Already crying haha). But as my Dad said “when you quit shedding tears it’s not a good thing. Tears mean things matter and YOU do to me.” WOW MORE TEARS. It truly makes my gratitude lists easy to fill out when I think of my family, and as hard as it is to be so close with my family and yet so physically far I love being able to recognize how fortunate I am.

I know this post was kind of jumbled but I wrote some on the plane, some my first night home, and some my first day of class. So please forgo judgements on my scattered writing! I obviously plan to be home for Christmas! My exam period ends November 26, so if my exams don't run the whole week I'll even get to be home for Thanksgiving. I'm also trying to plan a trip with my best friend Annaliese to meet her in Barcelona in February since she will be studying abroad there. So as if I don't have life going on here, staying connected with people from home is still a huge priority for me. I'm lucky to have such strong roots and if you are one of the people reading this you probably have something to do with that.

Sending so much love from Australia!

Love & light

Lynee

Survived grocery shopping & midterms

misslynee — Wed, 10 May 2017 18:37:00 GMT

So if you weren’t aware, my sister got a kitten. I practically begged her to wait until I was home so I could see it when it was little, but nooo. SO now we have a kitten named Riley. Luckily Allie pretty much took over my room so when I’m home the medium sized kitty will hopefully be in my room…I’m just so excited to have a nice cat around again.

Okay, so I've learned many things lately. I have visited New Castle and salsa danced… I've recently finished writing through an entire journal so I bought a new pen for my new journal to celebrate. (I realize how lame this sounds but I felt extra accomplished, it's like finishing a whole thing of Chapstick)
New Castle is crazy beautiful, it’s about 3 hours north of Sydney by train. I went for Easter weekend with my friend Bridget and had a really lovely time. It’s a kinda big city with 500,000 ish people and it’d compare it to Spokane if Spokane was on the coast and clean. The cafés were really trendy and had lots of personality and we went to the bogi hole? I don’t actually remember the name of it but it’s basically a swimming pool in the ocean. The waters weren’t cold and I didn’t get a sunburn which was fantastic. Bridget had really fabulous friends she introduced me to and her mom and sister were so welcoming and it made being away for Easter not a big deal. They even bought me really yummy chocolate, so yes very thoughtful and I was extraordinarily grateful.. and I should have written a thank you note because ladies do that right? Anyways, Bridget and I genuinely bond over yoga, so she took me to her favorite studio. I don’t know many other people as interested in yoga as I am, but she has lots more awesome qualities. We chatted about what makes good teachers and our favorite postures and experiences we’ve had and such. So going to her favorite teachers enlightened me more on what she loves about yoga and long story short it was my favorite part of the short trip!

Salsa dancing was an absolute blast. As we left we said we were going to start going every week..we haven’t actually done that but we definitely should. I went with Bridget and we forgot our ID’s. The Establishment is known for their “Salsa Tuesday’s” and we just wanted to go for the class not the after drinking part, so Bridget was extraordinarily resilient and talked us in. We learned quickly that it’s best to switch partners every song or two and that it’s best to ask someone before someone asks you. We both were asked to dance by some... odd characters? That’s a nice way to say it. But we also danced with half professionals and it was so much fun. We agreed it was the best to dance with a guy only two or three skill levels above you; we felt bad for the guys who were really good and tried doing lots of spins and fancy stuff, but you don’t learn anything with a guy who is worse than you.

I was sick last weekend which was super unfortunate. I went to work anyways because I only work one day a week and feel guilty calling in sick, plus in retrospect, I wasn't that sick I just hadn't been sick in a really long time and forgot how much it sucks. Emily, the lady I rent from, had lots of vitamin C and shared so that was sweet.

I also went to an Ayurveda specialist, Dr. Prasad. Ayurveda is alternative medicine based on a traditional Hindu system that works a lot with nutrition and balance. So he asked me to stick my tongue out at him and in 10 seconds he told me everything that was wrong with me. It was funny because as he was telling me my tongue was still out so I would just nod in agreement. Anyways just from looking at my tongue, he told me all about how my right hip is being pulled forward because of the pressure from my small intestine because of blah blah blah. Anyways it was really informative and has worked really well for me, so I'd highly recommend looking into Ayurveda if you are interested in naturopathic medicine!

He also directed me towards more foods I should eat which is always exciting. I’m getting more creative with cooking and the whole house cooks together quite often. It’s really enjoyable eating as a house too, I’m so used to family dinners I’d imagine it being quite lonely… I have discovered zucchini noodles (SO YUM) and pumpkin soup and couscous and this apple pear cinnamon stew thing..ugh so good. I’m also always welcome new recipes if anyone has any suggestions. Annaliese called me the other day and we probably chatted for 5 minutes about all the ways we cook sweet potato’s, so I can admit I’m a foodie but it’s nutrition based so I see no issue :). Grocery shopping is so much less fun here. At home everything went on Mom's card and now that I'm concerned with prices and how much room I have on my shelf in the fridge it is so much more stressful. Also it's hard when I'm really out of stuff if nobody in my house is driving to the grocery store, because I can't carry everything so I have to really plan on what I'm skimping on. That being said I love not driving, but may look into those unicycle hover board things.

School has been going well, I think? It’s really hard to tell in all honesty because I’ve only gotten one assignment back. I feel confident in most of the material and all but since most my classes are based on a one or two essays, maybe a presentation, and maybe a midterm I won’t actually know my stance in class for another weekish. But that being said I think my marketing midterm went really well & my essays for anthropology made sense to me..so fingers crossed. My Future of Business case study came back already, I scored a 70% on that. Obviously disappointing, right? I’m relatively just grateful for passing because our tutors said most of the grades were “50’s & 60’s”, but I definitely had to adjust my expectations. Anyways I got really helpful feedback on the case study, so hopefully next time will be more successful! It’s annoying how long it takes to find out our grades. I understand the logic of the volume of students being an issue, but anything longer than 3 weeks is absurd. I don’t even remember half the stuff I said in essays from 3 weeks ago? That being said I actually really enjoy all of my professors so I’m grateful for that. Working in groups has been kinda stressful. My marketing group gets on quite well but my future of business presentation is coming up next week and I'm starting to feel anxious about it. I think everyone is motivated after seeing what we got on our case studies though, so I'm sure it will all be okay...!

I’m coming home in July if you were unaware! I am going to Canada the 12-17^th but am going to be in town or at the lake or river the rest of the time so please reach out! I don’t know what my phone number is going to be but I will update that when I do. I miss the family a lot (especially with the new kitten and grandma and grandpa at home), but I’m not homesick much. It comes in waves definitely, 5 minutes of sadness or so but usually a text home is all I need to recover.

Much love to everyone!

Lynee Cavanaugh

Exploring & studying

misslynee — Mon, 3 Apr 2017 22:37:00 GMT

Before anyone gets snappy, I know it’s been 3 weeks since my last update and I apologize… but despite the 'drop bears' I’m still living so no worries.

Last weekend I took a trip up to the blue mountains with my roommates. Jeremy (roommate from Michigan) and I took the train out to Kutoomba and stood the entire 1 hr 30 min trip. Apparently on Sundays here you can go anywhere for $2.50, so that probably had something to do with it. On the bright side, I met this cool guy from India getting his MBA in business systems; he told me all about his travels to Norway and now that is on my list of places to visit! From there they took me up to see the three sisters, because it’s the “tourist site of the blue mountains” and they didn’t want me to miss out.

The beauty was so different fromthe lakes, mountains, snowy Rocky Mountains type beauty I’ve had the blessing of growing up with; while I didn’t expect anything different, it was still so new and I loved the excursion feeling. Even the different kind of green the forest was made me look up more, so I tripped a couple times but no bruises. I didn’t want to lead ever, because then I felt as if it were my job to watch for snakes and I just could not be in charge of that. My roommates said since I wanted to walk in the back, I should watch for "drop bears" instead. I asked what those were, and it was explained that drop bears are evil-looking black koalas with really pointy teeth that occasionally drop down from trees and are very dangerous. It wasn't until the next day, while telling my Dad about said drop bears, did I realize they were Australian folklore and I'm really gullible. If you know my Dad you know how much humor he would find in this.

We did an 18 km “bush walk” (aka hike) from the ridges, down through the valley, and then back up. I tried to make a GoPro video, it’s on my FB timeline..yes I know my video editing skills could use improvement. I had no idea going into the hike how different it was down in the valley. I felt like I was in the rainforest/jungle/Indiana jones movie for most of it, and there were a bunch of tiny waterfalls from all the rain we’ve been getting. I didn’t get sunburnt (I’m getting better at re-applying!), and made it up the “staircase to hell”. During the last part of the loop I swear it took us thirty minutes to get to the top of an endless amount of steep stairs. Jeremey didn’t even break a sweat on it, so we were all annoyed when we finally summited the staircase. We (Jeremey and Harry) are already figuring out the next trail we want to do, but the weather is starting to get crummy so we will see.

School is going. To be honest, it’s slightly boring. A lot of business classes are so theory based, so the lectures are only interesting if I have a really good professor. Our tutorials, which are 20 ish person classes that help us with the lecture material, are pretty interesting. Usually we have a case study or activity we do, but they are always interactive. I have a Case Study do for my future of business class, 2000 words and 25% of my grade. It’s terrifying because it’s worth so much, but luckily I’m a pretty descent writer and got on top of the research early. I’ll finish writing it tomorrow probably, and have lined up a couple people to review it before I turn it in. I also have a Marketing presentation coming up. My group seems to work really well together so I’m grateful for that! We are doing a macro & micro market analysis for a product we came up with, and I think it’s come together really well.

Long story short, fell free to send “smart” vibes/prayers/thoughts my way!

In my anthropology class we were asked “what bubble do you live in within Sydney?” My simple answer was Darlington, because I walk everywhere and still don’t know the suburbs. I took the spirit of the question and applied it to home. In Coeur d’ Alene, anything North of I-90 didn’t feel like Coeur d’ Alene, and I always forgot the Shepard st. took you around the lake because what’s past 4^th street? In Spokane, anything North of Francis just isn’t an option, and anything south of 29^th was considered a trek. Everyone has such a different view of this, but the point was to examine how your patterns shape how you see the spaces within your city. Interesting food for thought!

In anthropology I met this girl Elen, who asked me what Idaho was like. I started to tell her about the North and the mountains, lakes, skiing and such, and she said “for some reason, I thought you guys were the potato state? But I think that was on an iCarly episode or something when I was 12.” SO funny, but I explained that was south Idaho.

I found a yoga studio I loooove. It’s called the Humming Puppy. In the studio they a combination of frequencies at 40 hz (associated with ‘Gamma’ brainwave activity achieved during peak performance) and 7.83 hz (the frequency of the earth=grounding). My roommate Harry quickly commented on the “hippy-dippy”ness of the idea, but even if it’s a placebo thing I’m loving the space. The teachers are knowledgeable and learned my name exceptionally quickly, admirable for a yoga studio. Plus, they always have yummy teas out for before/after class. They even told me about the internship they are looking to fill, sadly it’s unpaid.. but I’m going to do a little research and meet with the manager to figure out what I’d learn/take from the experience.

I was accepted to go on the Project Everest trip to Fiji to meet with local business’ and do social consulting for the month of July. Although a unique opportunity, the University won’t let it count for credit because of *insert red tape nonsense here. Plus, I would have to pay the fees to go with the organization on the project, and the University fees for the credit. Since I’m already graduating early and don’t have room for more classes it didn’t make sense. So exciting news! I’m coming home from July

So if you are one of those kind people still interested in this blog, you’ll be expected to visit.

No extreme home sickness yet! Sometimes my Dad makes me teary eyed, and Allie has a boyfriend I don’t get to harass so that’s a bummer. I always think of my mom when I’m making my bed, no that’s not everyday. I continue to feel supported in all my adventures and hope to hear from everyone soon. Seriously send me postcards or something?

Lots of love from Sydney,

Your favorite Lynee

Week 2 of School

misslynee — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 22:18:00 GMT

School School and more School..

So school has been off to a good start! Getting my credits in order has been a bit of a doosey, the long story is the following paragraph, I’ll summarize with the last sentence for those who don’t want the “chick version” as Mr. Seaman would call it.

So I had my statistics course approved, which was very exciting! That is one less class I have to take, but my accounting course has been another story. The credit team accepted my application, but the faculty member who reviewed it did not. After an informal appeal, another application, and a phone call with a very rude university employee (I even used my nice customer service voice), my credit was still denied. I am fighting this though. I sat through the first lecture of the accounting course they are trying to make me take, and not only do I already know the material, but I genuinely think I could do a better job making the material interesting (S/O to my accounting teacher at NIC). He wasn’t a very nice professor, he started with something along the lines of “there are 1,300 of you and 1 one me, so there really isn’t time for individual attention.” While practical, this discouraged me even further from taking the course. I have contacted Kristi Mendoza, my wonderful accounting teacher at NIC, and she provided me with her chapter notes to submit and show that the material was covered in my accounting courses in more detail. At first it was a casual goal to get out of this class, but I have adopted it as a personal mission at this point. SO long story short, statistics credits approved, accounting credits TBD.

The marketing class I enrolled it has greatly excited me! The material is so practical, and really interesting to sort through what makes certain ads effective. Our first group project is a presentation on a new idea we develop and do the market research for. My group has decided to create a device that detects skin cancer. My group also seems like they will be good to work with, they are all Australian but the boys in the group seem very interactive and the other girl seems very studious. It’s only been one day, but I am definitely optimistic! If anyone has any ideas they want to throw at me, they are gladly accepted :)

My anthropology class is even more interesting than I originally anticipated. We are learning about a tribe in South Sudan called the Neur, don’t worry I still am not sure how to pronounce it. They have no monetary system, and their entire lives revolve around cattle. Cattle are symbolic of every aspect of their lives. The only reason to kill a cow is to honor it to God or in extremely rare rituals, such as funerals. They bathe in the urine of cattle, and use the ashes of cow dung as mouth wash. It sounds gross right? BUT that is called ethnocentrism, when you use the standards of one’s own culture to evaluate another culture, which is a big no-no in anthropology. (See Dad, I’m learning lots)

Emily, the house owner, has been terribly sick lately. She was in Germany when I moved in, and on her way back came down with a horrible sounding cough, and three days ago she got flu like symptoms. She got on antibiotics today, but she bought the house vitamin C to take because she was worried about us getting sick. Super sweet gesture, and they taste delicious at first (until they turn sour). I’ll definitely keep taking it until she’s better though, it is not something I am interested in having! Plus, I don’t even know how I would handle being seriously sick here. I never asked my mom for things when I was sick, she just brought me them while I’d sleep away my days in Grandma and Grandpas room.. I’m a spoiled rotten brat, trust me, I know. I’m paying for it now!

It’s hard balancing life and school at this point. There is so much reading to do for my classes, especially since it’s the beginning of the semester. It’s all doable, but some of the readings make me very very sleepy, so I have been finding different locations to read in. At first, I tried the dog park by my house. I’m not sure what I was thinking, dogs or reading? The distraction level was quickly noted and I have crossed the dog park off my list of places to be productive. The learning hub in the business school was the next go to. It feels like a very productive environment, but it is very crowded and hard to find a space. I asked the front desk if it was always that busy, she said by week 4 it clears out. I shall return then. I got lucky and one of the booths in the business school was open, so I sat there and got a significant chunk of my reading done! In general, I’ll make it a point to get my readings done somewhere other than my room.

In the fewest of words: I am loving life. I am meeting lots of people every day, and am slowly accumulating people I genuinely enjoy/click with. I miss my family everyday, but they are constantly supporting me (through the big AND little things) as I navigate through this adventure. i.e. my mom is cheering me on as I fight the admissions credit team. Life has treated me well, and I have an abundance of gratitude for everything and everyone that got me to this place.

As my housemate Harry always says,

“Much love! Ciao Ciao, Darling”

Lynee

La Escuela

misslynee — Tue, 7 Mar 2017 23:33:00 GMT

WOWOWOWOW. So school started this week. A full load here is considered four classes, and I’m taking 1. The Future of Business 2. Cultural Anthropology 3. Qualitative Business Analysis (Statistics) and 4. Accounting, Business, and Society.

Fun fact about my school, my class has the highest ATAR scores of any other class ever admitted to the university. ATAR is a ranking system for all students applying to university in Australia, with a 99.5 being perfect. It is all merit based, in efforts to get rid of patronage (so I’ve been told at least). The lowest rank accepted in my class was a 97, which I’m assuming was me because I don’t know how I qualified for this! Either way, every professor has commented on it, and said given our scores we should all be more than capable of handling the material.

So I love love love my future of business and anthropology course, so far. The professors are really excited about what they are talking about and I’m already engaged in the material.

We’re doing a live case study with Unilever in the future of business, and I’m excited to continuously apply what we are doing in class to the case study. If you don’t think you know this company, google it. You have probably used many of their products in the past day! The professor is pretty young and got his PhD from Arizona State University. He is actually quite upfront about the difficulty of the course. He told us what will be truly difficult, what type of grader he is, and what material we should breeze through. So far in my studies, I’ve always followed the logic of my business courses well, so I’m hoping it will be similar situation. That being said, I’m going to apply myself more than usual because everyone else is making it seem incredibly difficult…

Anthropology is just getting started, but it is already feeding my desire to travel. Still being in the early stages, we are doing lots of definitions, but the small studies within the readings are right up my ally. For example: Did you know there are tribes in Papa New Guinea that homosexuality is valued over heterosexuality? Heterosexuality is stigmatized and allowed only for reproduction. Or that in some cultures people are taught to defecate while standing? These examples are few of many that makes me want to know everything there is to know about the rest of the world.

My statistics class and accounting class I am less excited for. I am still trying to get my credits from NIC properly applied to my courses, and until that happens I need to be enrolled in these units. I’ve already taken these at NIC, but the university system is choosing to test my patience J. Those classes are also the only units I’m required to buy a book for, and at over $100 each I’m going to postpone that until I know it’s truly necessary (love you Dad).

I am meeting lots of people! The hard part (I’m nice, I promise) is finding people to genuinely want to spend my time with. I took my relationships at home for granted, and forgot how much work it took to have such an amazing group of people surrounding me. I thank yoga for this, but I feel quite capable of identifying people I want to be around. I also have little interest in wasting my time/energy with people I know I don’t “click” with. So of all the people I’ve met, I have hit it off with 3 girls really well. This gives me lots of hope and having that connection has really helped with the “settling into life” phase.

My housemates are lovely. Harry, the cello player in the process of getting his masters, takes me to lots of places I would never see on my own. He took me to a park that looks weirdly like Tubbs Hill, to a hill in Sydney park with incredible views of the city, and to a coffee shop that had an incredible view of the harbor fifteen minutes outside the city. He invites me to gatherings him and his friends are having, and his girlfriend Alicia is so friendly. Emily, Harry’s mother, is quite the lady. She is going back to university to get some kind of art degree. She has been working with glass blowing and clay sculptures, so her stories have been fascinating. She is Dutch, so her general culture and way of thinking has been an adventure to understand. She is very strong willed, and is very educated on world history. I genuinely feel like I learn something from her in every conversation we have, and she makes really funny “off-color” jokes that I’m never expecting.

Jeremy, the PhD student who wants to bring sustainable water to the Pacific Islands, is quite (self admittedly) introverted. He doesn’t usually have much to say, but at the same time is so friendly and I think he is warming up to the house more. Him and I went down to the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade together. SO MUCH FUN. Keeping in mind the festivities that go along with Mardi Gras, the flamboyance and glitter of the Gay & Lesbian themed parade was even more exciting.
Side note* Gay marriage isn’t legal in Australia, but there were government floats in the parade. The police, firefighters, emergency services, and a marines group all walked or had floats in the parade. It’s great that they all support the LGBT+ community, but I just thought that was really interesting.

I found a job! I’m assisting at a hair salon up the street from my house. It’s about a 15-minute walk, and I haven’t sorted out all the details yet. I’m supposed to meet with the owner on Saturday to make my hours and discuss my pay. I have been told to negotiate, but I already can’t comprehend minimum wage is $17/ hour or $21.25/hour (it’s different for the kind of work you are doing, and I’m not sure which category I fall into yet). The job is pretty simple, but the two ladies who own the salon are quite free spirited business women, and create a really fun work environment. I’m going to continue looking for jobs on the university website that will hopefully pertain more to my degree, but I am grateful to have this opportunity as of right now!

Also, I had an interview with a group called Project Everest. In place of an elective, I could do a four week trip with the group to bring a sustainable business to developing countries. For example, they were responsible for the microloans with low interest rates in India or cheap straws that filter water for people who don’t have access to clean water. My phone interview went really well, but I’m not fully convinced if this is something I am interested in pursuing. More research to come though, and I have another interview this Sunday so I will ask lots of questions then! But the trip would count towards my degree and is cheaper than what I pay per class at uSyd, so maybe just to save money? (love you Dad). Apparently it is really competitive though, so we will have to wait and see!

I miss my family every day. It’s unfortunate that I forgot my phone as often as I do, because I could truly be talking to them non stop. It has gotten significantly easier. For about a week I remember thinking how badly I just wanted a really genuine hug! Don’t get me wrong, I could still go for one, but it is less consistently on my mind. My mom mentioned getting my Dad out to see me, and I told her we had to wait. As much as I would kill to hang out with my Dad for a week here, I need to know I’m capable of handling this preliminary process on my own. I’m getting there, but I know having family visit right now could set me back more than help. Otherwise, I would have asked Grandma and Grandpa to visit and I know they’d already be here! I thank my lucky stars for my family every day. They have given me many tools to prepare for this experience, and I’m thrilled to show them, and myself, what I’m capable of.

I didn’t proofread this, so please excuse any grammar/spelling issues.

So much love from Sydney!

Lynee

oWeek

misslynee — Wed, 1 Mar 2017 22:49:00 GMT

Hello/Gooday/Greetings!

Lots have been going on this week, I will start updating more because I feel as if I'm already forgetting things!

It was definitely rough finding my footing, and I don't think I've perfected it yet (will I ever?), but this week has been one opportunity after another.

I am doing the intro-pack at the local yoga studios to try and find one I enjoy. Currently I'm doing yoga synergy's 2-week package, and I already know I won't go back after I get my money's worth. Definitely not my style, and the teachers are all slightly..quirky. One way or another it introduced me to Bridget, a lovely girl from Newcastle, Australia. We seem to be very like minded and we bonded over our love to travel and annoyingly close relations with our family (we both are struggling with the homesickness/missing our family). She happened to have just moved in down the street from me, and is attending uni as well. I made sure to thank my guardian angel for the blessing!

O-Week (Orientation week) started Monday. It started with an international student orientation, which had a couple of good speakers. It's really interesting, every presentation starts with an acknowledgement to the Eora aboriginal community as the original owners of the land. I recently learned about the genocides that took place on the aboriginal tribes throughout the settling of Australia. Apparently it wasn't even included in textbooks here until the 80's, but I think it's a really unique tradition to honor the community.

Mostly we just sat and listened to people who wanted us to join their clubs. Followed by morning tea and "delicious pastries" (that weren't actually very good), we went to a BBQ and, even though the food still wasn't good, I met a handful of other international students. Moving from group to group the questions got old quickly. Where are you from? What are you majoring in? Why didn't you go to school in America? How did you choose uSyd? They were good ice breakers, but it became repetitive quickly. It was exciting showing people my Dad's facebook page though. Nobody believed me when I said my family owned guns, I had good aim, and lived through 4 months of snow every year. My ignorance was exploited when I met a couple of really interesting students from China. They mentioned to me that they purchased air to breath. When I asked for clarification it was clear that this is a norm of their society, and they giggled. The pollution effects most people's ability to breath, especially if they leave the country and come back. I was familiar with the masks they wore, but purchasing air? I sure do take my Rocky Mountains for granted.

Today (Wednesday) I had the business school orientation. It was significantly better than the international student orientation. There were a couple of professionals from corporations (Nestle, Google, P&G) the university partners with to talk to us about what they are looking for in the job markets and how to begin developing our resumes. They also had a panel of students to answer some questions. They were all international students, so I asked if there was any benefit in doing an exchange (study abroad) if I already was an international student. They basically said no, unless it's something I'm simply interested in it wouldn't significantly add to my resume. The follow up question was where I was from, when I said Idaho the whole auditorium giggled. It was very mature (if you don't get the joke, you're better off). They also talked about the Industry Placement Program business students can apply for. In place of one class you can do an internship at a corporation in Sydney that relates to your major, and it's something I definitely have an interest in and am excited to learn more about. The career center also told us about all the services they offer (developing resumes, cover letters, interview skills) and I am excited to take advantage of that! Apparently there are odd laws here, like you can't include your picture on your resume or age? Things I definitely need to learn.

**Side note, I just spent 2 minutes chasing a small bug through the spaces in my keyboard. The bugs here are not underrated and the spiders are HUGE and everywhere. I was walking on the sidewalk, in the middle of the city, glanced up, and there was a spider the size of a plum that looked like it was straight out of the Amazon. Nobody seems to mind but me?

The job hunt is going! I keep getting lots of almosts, but it hasn't quite worked out yet. I was offered a job as a sales representative for a company called Too Good To Go. It's based out of Europe and their goal is to reduce food waste, so they partner with local cafes to sell food at a lower price, that would otherwise be thrown away. It sounds like something I'm interested in, but the details of the job aren't promising. My Dad advised me if I were to do it, to plan on it as a short term job, and I agree (shocking). I'm hoping to find something more long term, but if I don't by the end of the week I will probably take it. At least until I find something else/experience the job enough to decide if it's for me.

The safety here continues to amaze me. Harry (my flatmate) and I go on walks pretty often. The other night we walked to Sydney park around 9:00 PM, it has amazing views of downtown. I noticed a girl running through the park on her own, and made the comment that I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. Harry looked slightly confused at first, and said he understood why I was saying that, but it’s not something to be concerned about. “Women could run alone at midnight here and not think twice about it.” He said it’s always smart to travel in groups at night in general, but women in Australia aren’t brought up with that fear. “If you were murdered here, it would probably be super premeditated and have little to do with the fact that you’re a woman. You’d have to seriously piss off the wrong person.”-Harry. He has quite the way with words, but it’s one more source of comfort.

I cut my hair! Sorry, I sound superficial just talking about this. I'll attach a picture underneath the facebook post. I had an undercut done, I couldn't think of better timing and had been looking to change my hair up. Less hair, less heat, cuter messy bun.

*men be warned, periods discussed below*

Fun fact about Australia: You can't find tampons that come in the plastic or cardboard tubes ANYWHERE. I need to just ask someone about it. I'm sure it's an effort to cut down on the plastic the country produces, but oh my gosh have you ever tried to put a tampon in when it's literally just the tampon?! It may just be the privilege/ignorance in me coming out, but wow the learning curve was steep.

All in all, meeting people is going well. I told my parents today that the hardest part is feeling like I'm starting over. I know it's part of the adventure, but it is really hard missing that connection I have with my best friends and family. All of the friendships I'm making are still very surface level, and I know all good things take time..but I just want to skip this part. I know, I know, that's not how it works. It had made me substantially more grateful for the connections I've formed, and even more excited about the connections to come. Missing Allie's birthday was not fun, but she went to my go to birthday restaurant. It was a really cool thing for me, even though that’s silly. I don't know if she did it intentionally either, but it made it easier for me to be there in spirit!

My glorious sunburn has finally faded (don't tell Kaye), and I have beach plans this weekend (don't worry, I learned my lesson). Hopefully the job of my dreams is around the corner, and I will have everything school related prepared by Monday (first day!).

I am so unbelievably grateful for this opportunity, and thank you to everyone for your prayers and support since I've been here. I genuinely feel that I'm where I’m supposed to be (thanks, Mr. Seaman) and plan to fully take advantage of the opportunities ahead of me.

Love from Sydney!

Lynee

Officially independent?

misslynee — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 22:59:00 GMT

So this morning my beautiful Mother's time to head home arrived. Somehow she found it just to leave me in this country on my own? As if that was what I wanted or something..who knows. To mention the difficultly of the goodbye makes me cry all over again! My mom says it's a Cavanaugh thing, but whatever it is I sure am grateful. It is SUCH a blessing having a family that makes goodbyes difficlt. I hadn't felt homesick being here yet, but it's like she ripped off a huge bandaid. Luckily Annaliese, my "soulmate"/bestfriend called me to talk me through the tears and made me laugh as LOTS of strangers gave me concerned looks walking through the train station.

Before Mom left, we talked about the difference of when she left me in Georgia (for the week I spent going to University there). "It was a worried cry, but now it's just an 'i'm gonna miss you' cry" (paraphrased, but more or less). It is such a different homesick for me as well. It's the saddness of knowing the conversations and memories I'm missing, but the optimism of adventure I'm on. I have yet to doubt my safety here, even on the late night walks back from the train station. That's something I absolutey take for granted in my gorgeous town of Coeur d'Alene, but is so appreciated being in a foreign place.

We have done lots this week! We did more sight seeing, walked around the Opera House and peaked inside on Monday. We considered doing the tour, but we both agreed that was an excursion to do with Dad. That night we saw the documentary The Coming War on China by John Pilger. We aren't sure if it's even being shown in America, but it was fascinating and would highly recommend it to anyone, but it is controversial and recommend doing your own research after the movie.

My room is officially set up. I'm awful for not having pictures to upload yet, but I promise they will come. Thank goodness for the motherly touch is all I have to say. It truly makes me feel like home and that has been beyond comforting today.

WARNING POLITICS DISCUSSED:
One interesting part of my adventure so far has been talking politics. "I voted for Trump" is quite a statement to be making in this country and EVERYONE asks. I haven't ran across anyone who has been antagonistic about it and I'm not a die hard Trumpster, but the anti-Trump message is pretty prevalent. My flatmate Harry has been incredible to talk to and is the first Australian I've met who said "I actually understand what he's doing and see the purpose of it." But, he also said he wouldn't dare tell his mom that. It's fascinating how divided America is on the topic, but even more captivating how involved other countries are on the issues. It made me feel quite ignorant when I had to ask who the Prime Minister was! Today I also met Ari (a guy from Davis, California on a work visa who lives with Harry's girlfriend). He was/is "with her" and was very educated on the events of the election. I loved to hear about the genuine difference of philosphy we have. I don't think I had actually had an educated conversation with a liberal before where it wasn't aggressive. (No that was not a statement as to say lump liberals together as aggressive, but that has been my experience.) In general, it was fun having another American around to explain the small things I questioned (Concession card = student public transport card; Why are there no parks?!=Parking spot etc).

The job hunt hasn't actually started yet, sorry Dad. I've made up resumes though and am going to start making my rounds this week. I've been warned that the job market here is slim multiple times. Apparently entry-level positions are unbelievably minimal, but it's generally pretty easy to find a job you have experience in. The youth unemployment rate here is 22% as opposed to 10.9% in America. Luckily I have lots of hope and with a little bit of luck and lots of American charm (is that even a thing?) I'll end up where I'm supposed to be. Prayers are always accepted though ;)

If you are still reading, I should probably apologize for any ramblings. Sorry.

Sending love from Australia always,

Lynee

Settled in!

misslynee — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 22:14:00 GMT

Well, after 6 days I can finally consider myself set-up!
Getting here went much better than I had expected. Besides getting hopelessly turned around in LAX (6 times to be exact), the traveling went smoothly. We were supposed to have a two hour layover, but ended up with about 15 minutes by the time we found the international terminal. We laughed the whole way, but I think we both secretly wished my dad had been there to keep us on track.

Getting everything set-up was the next adventure. We started with my bank account, followed by my cell phone, a couple trips to the enrollment office to figure out how school here works, and today we finalized my housing!

The enrollment office was more than helpful, and I confirmed my major as econometrics. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do with it, but I know I enjoy it and I know the rest will follow. Walking around the business school was incredible. College here is much different, for example: ALL of my classes will be in the same building, I won't have to take electives that don't apply to my major, and I was not assigned an advisor. All of those things are awesome to me, besides the advisor. The lovely people who helped me figure out enrollment made it clear there is no "hand-holding" in their uni system, so the learning curve has been steep. It's really given me an opportunity to practice independce in my schooling, which I hadn't yet realized I had a dependence on my advisors. The university is gorgeous, I will make a point to get lots of pictures!

Figuring out where I was going to live required lots of praying, from everyone. We told my Dad we would get life figured out before we "played", but we took a well-deserved trip to the beach on day 5. We viewed a total of 7 apartments. Two of them were simply not-livable. We viewed two terrace homes across from Victorian park, a large park near the university, where the rooms were good options, but the 'good vibes' were missing with my potential roommates. We narrowed it down to two options.

The first option, I would have been living with two forty-ish gay men, who weren't a couple. That may sound weird at first, but they were lovely and they have an adorable dog that my mom instantly fell in love with (you could say she misses the dogs).

The second option, which we went with, has me living with Harry, a cello player who occasionally teaches, his mom, who travels to Melbourne often to see her boyfriend and enjoys crafting and DIY projects, and a PhD student who was renting the other room in the house (I haven't met him, but he is from the US and studying some kind of sustainable engineering). On our way to view the house, the sky was the prettiest pink. I made the comment to my mom how I wish we could see the sunset, but there were lots of buildings in the way. We viewed the house while enjoying conversation with Harry, and by the time we got to the loft area (where my room is) I had the 'good vibes' I was looking for in a flatmate. The room has it's own ensuite (it's quite small and I'm quite excited for the challenge of adjusting from the double vanity I'm used to, I'm a brat I know). It also has a terrace facing NorthWest, and it so happened that you can perfectly see the sunset from it. You can also see my school. I had been asking my angel for guidance in finding the right place to live, and took this as the perfect omen. Before leaving my mom and I knew we loved it, and said that we would take it. Harry proceeded to tell us he had more people lined up to view the room, and he was also looking for 'good vibes' from his flatmates. So, we conversed for a couple more minutes and left with our fingers crossed. He texted me the following night to offer me the room, and the relief was spectacular. We started gathering everything we would need today, thank goodness for my mother.

The people here have been incredible from the moment we landed. My mother and I look confused often trying to follow a map, and everytime we are offered assistance from a local. We have never been brushed off when we ask a local for help, and all of our questions are answered fully (typically we're overwhelmed by the information).

The city is unbelievably clean. The street cleaners run every morning, and they have side-walk cleaners. Am I the only one who didn't know that was a thing? We have only been out at night twice, and have never doubted our safety.

I am so lucky to be here, and so grateful my mom chose to come with me.
It's crazy to think my adventure is just starting. The job search will start in the 2 weeks I have between mom leaving and school starting. Wish me luck!

Love & light

Lynee