A breath of fresh air.

As you may have guessed from the last post, the whole identity theft really threw me for a loop last week. Most fortunately, things are mostly back to normal in that respective and are certainly looking up. I was pretty busy making phone calls and dealing with the issue for a few days, but since then, it's back to normal. yay!

This past weekend was a lot of fun. A bunch of us (mostly my American friend, and just a few Aussies) decided to go ice skating at the rink nearby. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it- it was so small, and the ice was really cut up. I couldn't believe that this could be considered normal, but it totally was! It was really great though, and I had so much fun. I had my fingers crossed for not falling though- I don't think my knee would have appreciated it. Sadly, two of the Australians came with us weren't quite so good on ice as we Americans, and before the night was over, ended up with a broken wrist and a broken collarbone. We felt bad for them. Everyone else managed to stay on their feet (mostly) had a good time though!

By a stroke of luck, my friend Kiara and I happened to be awake early on Sunday morning and went down for breakfast early. It just happened our one friend was there to pick up some people to head out jetskiing for the day. He asked if we wanted to come along, and we were right on it. Who could say no to a day full of free jetskiing and beautiful Australian beaches? Definitely not me. I had so much fun riding on the jetski and tubing along behind it. It turned my entire week right around into something that actually turned out to be good. I didn't see that coming anytime soon.

I'm also trying to get back on the trip I recently canceled up to Cairns. The more I thought about it, the more it makes sense to try and go. I really want to go SCUBA diving again, and now's my only chance. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And can I just say sorry in advance for the lack of Christmas gift buying this year? I'm going to be coming home from Australia really broke, and I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Identity Crisis

One of my goals for coming to Australia was to take time to "find myself" and to try and rediscover who I really am. Sadly, since I've been gone someone else seemed to find me before I did. While I was away in Byron Bay over the weekend, someone hacked into my bank accounts back in the states and withdrew all the cash I had left. It's great that despite telling my bank a million times that I'd be in Australia from July 14- Nov 21, that on October 15th I waltzed into a branch office in Philly and took out all my money. Nice move, PNC. Way to be on top of things.

So where does it leave me? With a crap ton of paper work to work through, calling loads and loads of people internationally, setting up new accounts and trying to get my money back. In the mean time, I'm hoping I don't have to cancel my MRI appointment for me knee on Friday. I already had to cancel one of my trips back to the reef: I had a nice long weekend scheduled to do some more diving and to explore the rainforest, but due to unforseen financial circumstances, that idea was nixed. I'd love for someone to try and tell me that bad luck is a mental thing, because anybody who knows me and can remember event from less than two years ago will agree that I've been having a rough time.

Well, I need to go file a police report with the Australian federal government. Despite this all occurring in the states, it seems that I need to file it in Australia. What a joke. I love how Australia cares more about me than the USA.

To Byron Bay and Beyond!

So it's been a while since the last post, and apart from this past weekend, not too much has been going on. I've been taking it pretty easy lately, getting some work done and resting my partially torn acl (what's with me and injuries?). Anyway, this past Thursday, I left Townsville and headed south to one of Australia's famous surfing areas, Byron Bay. We had a little scheduled trip with the Arcadia group, but my friend Kiara and I went a day early...

We got to Byron mid-day, and immediately began meeting really awesome people. Byron is absolutely gorgeous, and this is definitely a place worth revisiting, if I ever get the chance.

We had the night free to do whatever we wanted, so we ended up bar hopping all over the town. We decided to be really friendly and talkative to other travelers and we ended up meeting so many cool people, and seeing so many different live bands. The list of people from other countries included: Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Austria, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, and Holland. That's pretty crazy, especially since we actually held full conversations with all these people, and we even learned some different languages too.

We tried not to stay out too late, since we we're getting up early on Friday to go SKYDIVING! 14,000 ft above Byron Bay, free falling for over 70 seconds. It was amazing. I won't lie though; I was really scared on the plane ride, once everyone started jumping off. Another little aside to that, on the flight up, we spotted 6 Humpbacks whales from the plane! They swim all around this area on their migration from the southern cold waters of the Antartic, all the way up the coast of Australia. So awesome. This was our baby plane; I kind of wish I spent the extra money to get the video and pictures of the jump.

Saturday was a walk up to the Lighthouse, and around the most easterly point of mainland Australia. It was so beautiful.


Afterwards, we went for a surfing lesson. Byron Bay and the surrounding areas are famous for their fabulous surf, and bring in some big name surfers year round. We went to some smaller waves, and gave it a go. Despite having done some surfing before, and loving it, I couldn't do it without causing quite a bit of pain in my knee, so I had to give it up. I still took pictures though :)



We spent Friday and Saturday night at nearby Lennox head. We stayed at Lake Ainsworth, which is said to behold healing properties. The lake is surrounded by tea trees, and their tannis run into the water actually creating a lake that looks like a giant pot of tea. The water was actually red- orange, and tasted kind of like weak tea. Pretty neat to swim in though, and super unique!

Sunday was sea kayaking, and some snorkeling along the rock jetty. We moved further north, to Surfers Paradise. We embarked on an aboriginal culture kayaking tour, which was actually really cool. We learned a lot, listened to some stories of the native people and participated in some small ceremonies and tracked wallabies and snakes.



Surfer's paradise was another beautiful area. The city skyline came right up the the beaches, and it created a pretty cool backdrop to an awesome area. We spent Sunday night hanging out, before catching our flight back up on Monday.

All in all, it was another really good trip. I love traveling around Australia, and wish I had some more resources to continue doing it. For now, it's back to work for me. There are only two more weeks of classes left, then I have a week off for studying (i.e. traveling to Cairns and Sydney) and then it's two weeks of exams and I'm done. I leave in just one month! Time is flying by, and there's still so much to do and see!

The Outback: Nightlife

After a long day of hiking, we'd hit the road to our next campsite. We never stayed in the same place twice, which was great to experience new places, but meant always packing and unpacking our campsites. Again, our group worked so well together that doing work never mattered. Some people would start dinner, others would find wood for the fire, others unloaded all our sleeping gear, and some entertained.

We didn't sleep in tents; each night we unrolled our canvas swags (complete with a sleeping bag and thin foam pad) right underneath millions of stars. The strongest source of light pollution came from the moon- which eventually set in the middle of the night to yield the most amazing stars I've ever seen. After waking up to see them for the first time, I actually thought I dreamt them... until everyone else confirmed how amazing they were.

We spent majority of our nights around a campfire- talking about what we learned that day, or what we liked and didn't like. One kid, Ryan, brought his guitar and a few people played it all week. And everyone was always singing and playing along. It really created a soundtrack for the whole trip. It was great.

The Outback: Aborginal Culture

Apart from the amazing people we went on this journey with, there was another group of amazing people that made it all possible: the Anangu aboriginal people. We had so many amazing opportunities to learn about their culture and to visit ancient caves and spiritual sites, and got to meet a few locals.

We began our trip at the Alice Springs Desert Park and had our first introduction to aboriginal culture. It was a good introduction into what we'd be getting to experience first hand. We learned about techinques for survival, and methods of finding water and learned a few of the "stories" of the people.

At the end of our first day, we stayed in a small, modern aboriginal town and begin to experience the culture first-hand. We ate our first traditional meal (rabbit, wallaby and kangaroo over an open fire pit) and many people got to meet a group of aboriginal kids. They were playing near where we were staying, and we're so excited to show off their playground. They were so proud of it. The next morning, we met our guide Nigel, and went for a hike through Wallace. Along the way were ancient symbols for watering holes, and ancient cave paintings. Nigel pointed out all the plants and animals that they would use for food and medicine, and told of stories about the old culture.

Throughout the rest of the week, we'd be getting to learn and experience more and more. We saw, we learned and we talked. We visited Uluru, the iconic Australian Outback image, and we understood it's significance. We met local artists, and bought artwork off them in the streets. We got to try painting ourselves, and learned the symbolism in their work. They paint the stories of creation, and of daily life and it's amazing to get to see all their artwork, and to understand it.

We all learned so much, and gained so much respect for these amazing people. One of our leaders, Lyndon, tried to teach us about the distinctions of being a tourist versus a traveler. After all we learned about this place, and everything we got to experience, I am proud to say that I fit into the "travelers" category, along with the rest of our group. The Outback is the kind of place where you would hope to fit that category too.

The Outback: The Land and The People

It's about time to start documenting this trip, and there really is no better place to start than to tell a bit about where we went, and the people who made the trip what it was. It was really the whole essence of the experience, and without it, there's no chance it would have been the same.

We arrived in Alice Springs, one of the largest and only cities in the Red Centre on Thursday, the 24th. We met up with our leaders, Mazz, Cam and Lyndon and met the others that we'll be spending the rest of the trip with. We totaled 20, and it was one of the most dynamic groups ever. Every single person was amazing, and I love them. The group just "clicked" from day 1, and it made for a fabulous time.


The trip consisted of 10 days in the Outback, and we traveled by 3 large 4WD cars and did a big loop from Alice to Uluru and back, including many amazing places along the way. Most the nights we spent camping in the middle of the bush: no electricity, bathroom, other people. The other few nights we ventured closer to the conventions of modern life (i.e. showers).


The Outback isn't quite as desert as you might expect: in fact it was quite chilly several days, and it even rained more than once while we were there. It's just as beautiful as I'd hoped, but in many unexpected ways. Almost every day we woke up, and went hiking; sometimes in more than one spot. It was hard at times with my knee, but the support from everyone got me through every single hike- including the 4 hour Orminston Gorge trek that was the most testing. There were so many beautiful places, and we all felt really in touch with nature and the spirit of the Outback.

Outback 09

Just wanted to send a quick note to say that the Outback was the most amazing experience of my life. I just got back yesterday morning, and I plan to write a better post once I can catch up on a few things. It'll be hard to try and write about a place that leaves you speechless, but I'll give it my best go. Sometime soon.