How I make decisions basically. Some people may say it is “rash” but the outcomes of all of my spontaneous decisions have been the best decisions yet. To name just two: Australia. Applying to study abroad had always been a lingering idea, but the act of applying and choosing which country/continent I wanted to be educated in was based in a 30 min-1 hr time frame; transferring schools occurred to me one sunny day, and I applied to three, all in a days work.

These past few days, or really, this past week, I have done heaps of thinking. So much to the point where I had to physically give my mind a rest and separate myself from myself. I know that sounds illogical, but it made sense at the time and I was successful. My accomplishment was aided by watching a plethora of nonsensical reality TV shows and consuming my weight in chocolate. That sure did the trick, but it also put me in a lethargic, diabetic coma.

The time I spent pondering about my life lasted a good weekend. What I have come to realize is that you don’t fully understand yourself until you are taken out of the context of comfort and placed in a foreign world. Now Australia isn’t “foreign” to me in the linguistic sense, but it is definitely “foreign” in that it is on the opposite side of the world. I have expressed my emotions to close friends on how much of a bummer it is that I am beginning to see who I am, what I want in life, what makes me happy, 15827.37 kilometers away from home. But then again this is fantastical. Had I not made this spontaneous decision to choose the farthest location from home, these emotions would still be taking up space in the Twilight Zone. Though, some may argue that I am merely experiencing culture shock, but I rebut the preposterous thought and I’ll just say, false. (you were expecting something witty huh? Sorry to disappoint). When I traveled to Africa, a place where I did not share the same language or life style, I felt more at home then, than I do here or even back in America.  Yes I am quite odd. Anyways, as I am learning in lectures, and studying some in my prized cafe, I am quickly learning how much I enjoy to write. That is the most shocking. As you all know, my blog is quite lengthy in word count, (as my best friend always reminds me), and I just cannot help it. I like to write, and it is a form of a stress reliever. I am the type of person who isn’t normal..ly good at verbally communicating my feelings to people, so the solution to that is by writing. I am infatuated with letter writing and writing postcards. Now in the modern society, writing posts on FB, tweeting, and blogging is a one hit wonder just like One Direction, and it will suffice… for the motion of “being in the moment”. Writing letters and postcards just mean so much more to me and hopefully to the people I write to. Family and friends who receive them are gifted with not only a colorful picture/drawing, but the ultimate gift: deciphering my hand writing. For those who have not seen my fantastical printsive (print+cursive) penmanship, I think it is completely legible, though many may argue otherwise…

During the early stages of contemplation, I met up with a (new!) friend- Dana, who is also from Gainesville, and we explored CBD (Central Business District) some more. Exploring is my favorite, if you haven’t noticed. We met up at Flinders Street Station and skipped over to Hosier Lane. No, not to see ladies hoses, but to see the famous graffiti alley! And it was lovely.

Dana and I

Me and Heath. oh yes.

I don’t know if you guys have ever wondered about this, but do you know (the muffin man) the type of graffiti art that are words? What I am trying to portray in your mind, is that work of art you see on a graffiti wall, that looks like a few letters smushed up together to create the illusion of a word? Have you ever tried to read it? I did. No comprende Senor. One of the (many) words I attempted to decipher, I concluded that it wasn’t a word. To my and Dana’s belief, most word like graffiti is often gang related…? Don’t quote me on that, I’m not friends with any gangsters, just wannabe ones. As Dana and I gawked over the graffiti and paparazzi-ed  our surroundings, we ran into some spray-painters that were starting up a new masterpiece. The End. We stared for awhile and decided to head back into the heart of the city to gun down some eateries. We settled on a burger place called Grill’d. A sensation on my tastebuds. I savored every single bite of my burger and by the time I was finished, I shamelessly admit, I was a bit sad. Writing about it now is making me salivate just like when I watch Man V. Food.

eeeee!

After our heavenly grubbing, we wondered along and ran into Little Cupcakes, and you bet your bottom dollar we went in. I ordered a brown mocha (surprise surprise) and it was the most decadent thing  that has ever crumbled in my mouth.

The little shop reminded me a lot of Hello There Cupcake back at school. These were the tiniest cupcakes ever. You could eat 5 of these and it would be like you just ate one regular sized cupcake! Probably not, but you could tell yourself that.

We waddled on out of there and came across another graffiti alley. I shrieked in excitement. After we were done gazing around, we decided to go shop a little. On our way to the stores, we ran into a pride parade going down Bourke Street!

“smash homophobia”

After a little money spending, we ran into my nemesis – The Sugar Station. Oops? I bought another fully stocked up bag of candy, but this time I didn’t splurge on gummies, but on chocolate. I finished this bag the very next day. Which, if you have been following, was the day I did the whole me separation ordeal. This was such a great day.

OK, so getting back to the title of things, spring break is coming soon. 5 weeks to be exact. What to do what to do during spring break when PCB is back in Florida and it’s winter over here? The only thing to do is to travel. I would like to do a road trip, but seeing as I don’t have a car or would know how to drive on the opposite side of the road, I am settling to flying. For some time now, I had been looking into flights to Iceland, Ireland, Turkey, Switzerland, UK…the list goes on, but unfortunately for me, airfare is just too costly. I am quite bummed that I won’t be able to go to Iceland, seeing that that is no. 1 on my list of travels. I then thought about Fiji – island hopping perhaps, but a better idea lightbulbed. I purchased 3 one-way tickets and 1 round trip ticket. I am doing a scalene triangle travel for spring break. I will be traveling to Western Australia. These four tickets combined was cheaper than my original plan of purchasing only one round-trip ticket. By doing this, I get to visit three major cities, and however many little towns in each one, as opposed to my original plan- just one city. I snaggled a pretty great deal if I must say so myself. My first stop is Perth and will spend 4 days there, and then I will fly out to Broome and stay there for 5-6 days. Broome is the place I have my eye on. Kimberley, I believe, is a region in Broome and I have big plans for this place. After Broome, I will fly out to the great 43 wallaby way, Sydney. 4 days there and then I will return to Melbourne on the 29th, and have one day of rest on Sunday, (biblical right?) and classes resume on Monday. Much traveling within the short 2 weeks, but it’ll be worth it. I’ll get to experience the luxury of living in hostels, and I have big hopes in befriending people whilst my stay, and I’ll also be praying to the Gods to keep my gullible-ness away at bay. Can you all picture this for a moment? An Asian gal, traveling by herself, checking into a hostel… need I go on? I am playing all the different renditions of the movie Hostel in my mind. I can just see all sorts of mishaps that could potentially happen to me. But for now, I’ll share some plans I have up my sleeves: in Broome, I plan on diving off of cliffs and go camel back riding across beaches, and in Sydney, I plan on being an Asian tourist.

Lastly, I end on work. I have quit the Tuscan Bar because I have landed a job as a bartender! I was so keen on being one in OZ, I would not give up on the search. (The same goes for being a barista). Now that I am flipping and serving drinks, I am elated. I popped open my first bottle of beer the other night, and strangely enough it felt rewarding…? I even squeaked a high one I was so excited. Oh the irony, how I love it so. Cheers.

“Life is a thing that mutates without warning, not always in enviable ways. All part of the improbable adventure of being alive, of being a brainy biped with giant dreams on a crazy blue planet.” – Diane Ackerman.