I'm in love with...

~John Green, Paper Towns

Some of you may of heard of life cycles, that’s to say repetitive cyclical events reoccurring throughout your life. Some people talk about them in religious or spiritual contexts; like the 7 year cycle of Chakras and human development. Or, some people talk about them in the context of relationships; a great friend once talked about a 7 year cycle of relationships – if you can make it 7 years, you can make it for life!

Well it has recently occurred to me that I have a traveling cycle, and not until I booked my trip a couple of weeks ago, did I realize that I have a 2 year max before my feet get too itchy to handle. So let’s take it back to the first trip – Honduras Summer 2006 ( I caught the international bug and it STUCK) – South America trip 2008 – 2009 (found my home away from home) – Southeast Asia 2011 (tried something new and different) – and now 2 years later, I’ve booked my trip to Australia !! Now keep in mind this isn’t a conscious decision, something just bubbles up in me and that little voice in my head (which I highly recommend listening to) says “it has been too long…. Let’s get moving…”

So, Australia you say!? Some of you may be totally excited, some of you may be surprised, some of you may thinking you’d like to visit me, some of you may be disappointed it isn’t Croatia or something obscure. Well as “normal” (I use that hesitantly) and “familiar” as Australia may sounds, let’s take a closer look at this country I’m headed to….. see below…. Hold your laughs/screams. 

You see that extremely gorgeous amazing face in the south? Your eyes do not deceive you, that is not Marilyn Monroe, it’s ME!  While you may see danger in that I’m surrounded by sharks, mosquitoes  stingrays and Tasmanian devils…. I see opportunity. Now while I don’t always wrestle Tasmanian devils… out swim sharks…. And remove DNA from a mosquito and petrify it in tree sap in order to bring it back millions of years later…but when I do, I drink Dos X’s . (Wow there were so many pop culture references in that, I amazed myself! )  Anyways, I bring that up because I want to emphasize that hopefully I’ll be weekend warrioring.  

[Now after that intermission, I return back to reality]

I will be living in the city of Melbourne, going to school there for a semester (trimester). I’ll be in school, in classes, studying global studies subjects, getting ‘er done like a boss. I leave June 25 (and will be back before the end of the year). I’m very excited for this opportunity to be an exchange student, I think this trip will be very memorable. While being a backpacker is fantastic and I love that lifestyle, I’m excited to try a different way of traveling. This will mean that I’ll have a home base (don’t know where yet), and I hope to get involved with some kind of work or volunteer opportunity to get even more involved in the culture.

I want to encourage people to come visit me, if they’re interested. It would be a fantastic opportunity. And if you are a student (or under 26) , you can get some pretty decent discounts on tickets.

So what do you say, let’s throw another shrimp on da barbi!!!

Cheers