Sydney: Part 2

Before I even had a Bucket List, "holding a koala" topped the list--preceding "going to Australia." Although I haven't physically held one yet, petting one can come in for the next best thing. Sydney has a law that prohibits people to hold the creatures because they are easily frightened and according to Christian, my TEAN orientation leader, "Sydney actually cares about its animals and Queensland doesn't care about a damn thing." Now that I'm in Queensland, I'll scope out around the area where I can successfully check that item off my now existent Bucket List but I'll still remember this moment for a long, long time.

As well as this one...

Told ya I'm stepping out of my comfort zone!

The snake didn't feel like I expected; it was leathery and a little squishy but not at all slimy. When it started wrapping around in front of me, I was ready to hand it back to the zookeeper and keep composure. Also while I was at Feathertail Wildlife Park, a kangaroo ate food from my hand and I saw a crocodile too close for comfort open its mouth to the width of my body and stand still looking right at me. I respectfully walked away with a little faster heartbeat. There were peacocks and colorful birds lollygagging around the park while penguins marched and macaws said "hello" to me. 

It's places like this wildlife park that make me realize everything seems just so much better in Australia. Or maybe that I just feel so much better. Like, I can hold snakes at Brookfield or Lincoln Park Zoo, or visit the bird cages and get a bird to say "hello" to me. But it's this new surrounding I'm in that makes it just so great--and feel so rare to me. I like that feeling. I like to feel like I'm allowed to let my walls down and be scared but push through it and just do it. I don't know that I would hold that snake in Brookfield or Lincoln Park Zoo. In fact, just last year I ran like a little girl out of a backyard because there was a garden snake when I moved a rock. That should read "like a little girl who hasn't quite learned a limit on her scream decibel." I regret nothing. 

We spent our time at that park and then moved onto the scenery of Sydney. Bondi Beach is one of the most iconic beaches in the world so you bet your bottom dollar I stepped foot in the water. It wouldn't be my life if it went without a casualty so of course I should have expected a little surprise. 

It was breathtaking and inspiring and majestic. The views were nothing like I've ever seen and the people there were even more inspiring. Taking wave after wave and getting up each and every time; they love what they do and persist until they're satisfied. You can tell in their demeanor and speech. They're happy to be here and they're willing to help you with anything--directions, suggestions for restaurants, cheaper alternatives. I may or may not politely ask them to repeat what they've said so I can hear their accent more. 

I took on the public transportation (they're big on this, not many have cars) for the way back from Bondi Junction and I have to say I've never sat in a cleaner bus (in my three total trips on the CTA in Chicago). Or been in a cleaner city for that matter. Sydney really does a wonderful maintenance on their big city. We even saw store owners shampooing/power washing sidewalks. It's a friendly city as well. Almost all of the restaurants/fast food places have seating outside that connects with the inside, like a constant flow of conversation. But it does make for a cold seating experience if it's a little chilly out because there really aren't doors, just wide open space with fresh air. My kinda town. 

The best has yet to come! Wait for part 3! 

Sydney: Part 1

It has Begun!

If ever I doubted my feelings on flying before, this trip surely validated my hatred toward the “high in the sky” experience.  From home to LAX wasn’t horrible, but it was a tease compared to my Sydney flight and for that, I was miserable. We landed in LAX after four and a half hours and I then high-tailed it to Qantas gate because I had limited time to catch the connecting flight but made it with more than enough time to scope out and correctly guess fellow TEAN participants (with also making new Aussie friends). The airplane food was uneventful and wasn't eaten much by me. I caught a couple cat naps but no sleep was significant enough to help me pass time. We arrived at 7:30am--bypassing Tuesday, August 28th--and from that point on until about 2:00pm, was the series of unfortunate events. It was freezing when we stepped outside to wait for our bus. The bus driver dropped us off at the wrong end of the first hotel and we all had to drag our bags about a block to the entrance (mind you I have three rolling suitcases and a heavy book bag). We then sit there for twenty minutes because they can't figure out why we're not in the system. Oh, wait; it's because we were at the wrong hotel. Okay, commence dragging of the luggage yet again another block. That gets sorted out but then we can't find our meeting place to wait for the others to arrive from Fiji. The building was found and we pile into a meeting room we deem as the right one and park our butts down in anticipation--and severe hunger--to meet the other 26 people (there was 7 others who didn't go to Fiji, like me). Hours pass but finally we are shooed out of the (wrong) room and put into the right one by our Orientation leader, Christian (who arrived with the Fiji people). Everything became worth it when I stepped into the hotel we were staying in for the Sydney orientation and this was our view on the 71st floor...

Day 1 was capped off with a nice dinner by the Harbour where all 34 of us got to know each other more and shiver in the cold (it has only been about mid 60s here, low 50s at night). With the jet lag, I was asleep by 8:30pm and waking up by 5:30am--I think I'm done with that now though. Thursday morning we were up bright and early and until now, I didn't have a time to breathe! And wouldn't have had it any other way.

We had a city walking tour that led us to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We were all trudging up a hill and almost simultaneously all looked up and saw the sight we had all waited so long to see, some of us our whole lives.

Everyone in my program -- The Education Abroad Network.

I feel like I've known these people longer than a week. We've connected and related; we've laughed and enjoyed. I don't think I could have asked for a better group of people to be here with. Or to have some scary experiences with also! Our walking tour ended with us CLIMBING the bridge behind us. Yes, it is 134 meters in the air--about 450 feet--and has roughly 1,400 stairs. We were harnessed in the whole time and wore jumpsuits. The climb took about three and a half hours because of the introduction and we stopped at a lot of points to appreciate the view. I was scared but pushed through it and it wasn't until I was off the bridge that I noticed my legs were shaking! I'm convincing myself it was the residual effect of the bridge and not my nerves. 

I stepped outside my comfort zone so many times within the first two days of Sydney. I tried crocodile (don't recommend it) and took on a big city without a map. I flew across the World by myself and survived a week without internet to communicate with you all! Won't happen again, I promise--I flew to Gold Coast this afternoon so I'm all settled in! I tried these new things with a new feeling in my heart and mind--euphoria. Sometimes I talk about moments when I just feel like everything is right in the world and I know that I am where I'm supposed to be, at that specific moment. I've had that feeling for a week straight now. I can without a doubt say these have been the best 5 days of my life and I've only updated you on the first 2 days so stay tuned for more on the Zoo, an Amazing Race and a Harbour Cruise dinner. 

A famous "meat pie." It's beef, peas, mashed potatoes and gravy in a pot pie. Not too shabby.

Am I There Yet?

Surprise, I already made a pre-departure post! 

So what do I possibly have to say about this adventure even before I've left the States (since I obviously didn't at this point)? Well per usual, I've conjured up some overwhelming, exciting emotions that I hope simmer down before my flight (with the help of Xanax) because they sure didn't when they were inconveniently wiggled through my daily routine this whole summer.  I looked at the kids wearing flippers at the pool (like hopefully I'll be doing scuba diving) or would see something about Australia and I would do one of those That's So Raven motions to signal to my whole body to stand still so that my mind can concentrate on a future vision of what I will be doing. I kid you not. Never have I looked forward to something as much as this in my entire life; I think it's worthy of note to say that the previous event that held that honor was "the day I can pick out a pair of shoes without: crying, trying on 52 pairs, and/or getting bribed by the store owners with crowns, or costume jewelry." (Right, Mom?)

I've saved and then saved more on top of that savings. I've begged for jobs to do around the neighborhood or for my family. I've worked twelve hour shifts too many times to count and closed my wallet and walked away dignified when it came to me wanting a Starbucks Frappuccino or new running shoes. And with only about four days until departure, I am pretty proud of myself. But I'll be honest, I didn't realize it was going to be this expensive but what is a dream worth (excuse the pun) if it doesn't take sacrifice and persistence? One that isn't worth following, I'll tell you.

When I was going through one of those I'll-show-everyone-and-find-myself stages last year, taking a year off of school and traveling throughout the World was the only thing I wanted to do. I didn't see any option other than that because I felt I had to cure an insatiable need for diversity and originality. That transferring schools and switching majors and doing all those new, conventional routes wasn't going to be enough. Some of you cheered for me to take that year off. Some of you gave unrelenting advice to stay on track with college and find alternatives to cure that need. The obvious is known that I did stay on track but I couldn't tell you why I chose to; I really wanted to go and do all those volunteer programs for a year. A part of me still wishes I had. I wanted to pack up everything I could fit in a carryon and go to the farthest place possible I could with my minimum-wage supported bank account. Do what others usually don't. But whatever forces unknown to me directed me to subconsciously finish that Dayton application and complete the transfer process before I could really say "I'm not sure I want to do this."

Then come August, I was thrown into feeling like a first year student again in a place I really wasn't sure I intended to be. But it turned out making the best out of that situation came easy and it was the campus, everyone there, and my family that made me put my two feet back on the ground and starting running forward again. And it was the correlational feeling to that--confidence--that allowed me to dream bigger realities and tap into the ones I had all along. So, I ran those half-marathons, made the Dean's List, and completed service projects. But little did my conscious know that my Id--or subconscious (can you tell I'm a Psych major?)--had been brewing up another reality for me the next year; one that was so pervasive, it became a chronic thought ever since I stepped foot in the study abroad fair in September.

And that all brings me full circle to the here and now--a wonderful place to be. I've created my originality and diversity in this experience. I could have gone to Europe and done the backpacking in between classes and been with the multiple other people I know studying abroad there right now. But I chose a different continent where the majority of people don't always go. And in that, I became lucky enough to have one of my best friends studying at the same place. But I think there's a preconceived notion when it comes to studying abroad people make, that doesn't necessarily pertain to me. People assume others do it, besides getting a cultured education, to go and find themselves; and I even had that notion when I wanted to set sail last year. So, maybe that's majority, but that's not why I'm doing this. I'm doing this to validate who I already feel I am--finally allowing myself to become who I've always been. I want to know that this dream that's finally coming true--the one I've dreamt for as long as I can remember--means I really know who I am, after all. And that I don't need the Elizabeth Gilbert kind of soul-searching trip to really begin my life. I want to experience and savor and explore what this World has to offer.

I'm going to surprise myself on this trip. I'll do things maybe I'll never do again. Skydive? Scuba dive? Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge? Those are some scary things, but so fascinating in the same breath. And by the end, maybe I'll even voluntarily take back my words of thinking I won't "find myself." Maybe I'll become someone better. I may even be taking them back within the first day there but no matter what happens, I know that this experience had to happen--and that it was never going to not happen. All the loops and obstacles and sweat (from sitting in the sun at work, obviously) have made me that much more excited to be there already because it has meant I haven't given up despite things not going so smoothly. And even saying that much has already started the validation process.

So, if you're reading this now because you've gotten my word saying I've arrived, I welcome you aboard and may my validating-of-the-self journey not disappoint.