Top 5 important things that has happened (not in order) ::: 1) We moved to Port Douglas, Queensland! One of the most amazing places I've ever been. And almost on the exact opposite side of the country than Perth. 2) Josh left. Dealing with that day by day. 3) I got a job teaching English in Xi'an, China for the next year! Gangbai! 4) Christa Rossell is flying all the way from Atlanta, Georgia to spend our last couple weeks traveling with us! and 5) I lost my favorite, most loved, possession... Kitty. Damn Jetstar and my sleep deprivation.
To compare my life now with the one I was leading a month ago would be completely ridiculous. Everything is different. Minus having Patty here and eating beans, that is. I have a tan. I'm finally working at a restaurant that has all the check points - it's cool, awesome coworkers, great management, fantastic food, amazing drinks, and a decent amount of hours. I'm living in a six person dorm in the hostel. I'm working basically as a maid for free accommodation, which means I get to mimic David Spade and say "Housekeeping!" at least thirty times a morning. Patty and I get up at 6:45AM (a good six hours before I'd wake up in Perth) to serve breakfast and play around in reception. I'm a two minute walk to the beach from either side since we live on a peninsula. The weather is paradise every. single. day. And the plans for the next month are outrageous.
July 26th (today) ::: Christa Rossell arrives with far too much stuff, some of the best mix CDs ever, familiar everything, and we cause a very embarrassing scene outside the hostel. Then we go watch the sunset and drink sangria.
July 30th ::: The three of us leave Port Douglas and go to Cairns to party and meet up with Melbourne friends for the weekend!
August 1st ::: We try our best to cram all our stuff and ourselves into a campervan and start our two week roadtrip! We also attempt to navigate the whole way sans GPS and driving on the other side of the car/road. Wish us luck!
~ ~ ~ Magnetic Island, Surfer's Paradise, Byron Bay, etc.
August 15th ::: We get to Sydney after seeing everything we can on the East Coast... see everything we missed at New Years, and probably call Kyle Melling begging him to come back.
August 17th ::: Christa flies home to the States while Patty and I fly back to Melbourne to say good-bye to all our favorite places and incredible friends.
August 22nd ::: Patty flies home to Ohio and I make my way to Hong Kong. I'm going to be preemptive and say this might be one of the hardest days of my life. Not to mention I'll be flying *down* to Auckland, NZ and then up to Hong Kong. Nice one Air New Zealand!
August 23rd ::: I get to Hong Kong and sort out my visa stuff / explore for a couple days. And by this, I mean I freak out, somehow manage to figure everything out at the last minute, and probably ending up looking like an idiot wandering the streets lost.
August 26th ::: I leave Hong Kong and fly to Xi'an - my new home for the next year! I'll get to meet my new apartment-mate (Alex, from England), see my apartment, explore the city, and I guess there's a huge welcoming party. Yes!
August 29th ::: I start shadowing a classroom and settling in. Do I have anything to wear to be a teacher? No. Will I remember any of the kids names? Not a chance. Am I pretty excited? Hell ya.
September 5th ::: I officially have my own classes and start as a teacher. This means, a real "big girl" job with responsibilities and a schedule. Something that is difficult to imagine after this year, but I'm looking forward to soooo much. Hello regular paychecks, predictable hours, and tiny children I get to hang out with!
Geesh... I lose my breath just thinking about all of this. I don't think I've ever felt so many emotions at one time before. I'm so happy and excited to be doing something different and something that stands out. I love the fact that I'll continue traveling, meeting people, and seeing a country completely different to that of Australia or the States. But at the same time, I've unbelievably devastated to be leaving Australia and ending the most amazing year of my life. I'm going to be more alone than I've ever been... and I don't know how I'm going to cope with it. I'm just counting on the situation overwhelming me so much that I don't have time to realize the down sides and just get swept up in every fantastic part of it.
So that's the update for now... Sorry it's not longer, emotionally driven, or super in-depth but at least I was able to get something down on paper. I'll get into the more heart-tugging stuff in a bit.
"Hey!" = "G'day Mate!" = "Ni Hao Ma!"
Gosh.
