Acting on Aspirations

Well y'all. I started this blog to show my family back home what I was doing while studying abroad, but my travel bug didn't stop there. I went to Africa in November and I'm planning to backpack when I graduate! I've just started planning my journey. I'm definitely in the 'what am I doing?!' stage, but with a little research and all the travel ideas I've accumulated on my phone over the years, I'm giving this thing a go! 

So what has my scatterbrained self done so far? So glad you asked!

A) I've googled. Yeah, laugh it up but I am the google queen. There are so many people who are doing exactly what I am. Other people have been where I am and have wisdom from already doing it! Maybe that's why you're reading this right now!

B) I pulled out maps from different countries and made a trip map. Where I wanted to fly into (I've picked Ireland because a sweet friend of mine is from there), which countries I want to go to, which path made the most sense. (Although, google queen knows that the trip map has to stay flexible. Trying to stick to a rigid schedule can ruin a trip abroad.)

C) Social media it up y'all. What's the point of facebook if we don't use it to our advantage? Sure you have to put up with 50 baby pictures and a wedding every weekend, but Buzzfeed Travel is filled with amazing ideas for places to visit. There's hundreds of instagram feeds dedicated to travel. Figure out where you want to go. What are the most important things for you to see? You can't know until you do some research!

And That's All Folks!

It's hard to believe I've been here for two months already. I feel like I just landed in Cairns yesterday.. 

Today has been very bittersweet. I've finished my internship which was a huge accomplishment. I ran an entire unit with my students and taught classes by myself for weeks. I'm really proud of myself for all that I did while I was here, but I am sad to go. I absolutely adore my students and I hated saying goodbye to them today. This whole experience went by so fast. I don't know where the time went.

But there's a different kind of sadness as well. I've planned for this trip for the last two years and I find myself wondering, now what? My life was focused around this trip and now it's over. But this won't can't be the last time I travel. I got a taste of something wonderful and I have a feeling it will only grow. There is so much to each part of the world and I cannot wait to see it all. That's what your twenties are for, right?

Tomorrow is my last day is Australia. I'm going to Phillip Island to see the penguins and after that I'm off to the airport.

Thank you all so much for your love and support. I couldn't have done it without y'all. One love.

Texas, see you soon!

Kiwi is Not a Fruit

This is a kiwi.

It is the national bird of New Zealand! It's also the only place in the world you can find this bird. Hence why they call New Zealanders kiwis. But all of this gets rather confusing. Is it a fruit, a bird, or a person? Yeah I'm still not sure either..

Anyway! I spent four days in the beautiful country of New Zealand with my best friend in the world. But four days definitely was not long enough. It is hands down the most beautiful country I have ever seen in my life. I had never been so mesmerized by hills before. I would just took out the window and be astounded. Seriously though. Look at this.

And I took that picture from the inside of a moving car. It's breathtaking!

While in New Zealand, I stayed in Auckland and then traveled to Mount Eden, Matamata (aka Hobbiton), Rotorua, and Waiheke Island. It was a busy trip! 

Mount Eden was gorgeous. It was just a random little mountain in the middle of Auckland and from the top you could see everything. There was a huge crater that was gated off and a running trail that surrounded it. I couldn't believe that this was people's morning run. Maybe I'd run more if this was my view!

(New Zealand has tons of mountains and volcanoes because they are on the fault line. One of their islands is only 600 years old!)

Buttttt, I know what y'all all have really been waiting for.. 

The next day I drove out to Matamata. And when I say that I drove, I mean I sat in the passenger seat and held on for dear life while Collin drove of the left side of the road for the first time. Props to him for not killing me though. Anyway, so we made the long drive out to Matamata, which also goes by the name Hobbiton. It is where the movies The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were shot.

Now let me preface with how big of nerds all my brothers are. HUGE. They read all the books and watched the movies the second they came out. Me? Not so much. I was still pretty young when the first movie came out and I spent the entire movie crying in my mother's lap because Gollum scared me so bad. But really Mom? That guy was scary. Anyway, so even though I'm not a huge fan..to say the least..possibly scarred for life..again thanks Mom..but I went and did a movie set tour. Mostly because I knew that if I got all the way to New Zealand and did not go see this, my family would possibly disown me. 

The set directors of The Hobbit decided to keep the set up and turn it into a tourist location rather than tear it down each time they filmed. So while we were in the same location where Lord of the Rings was shot, there was nothing left from those films. However, The Hobbit is still being filmed on location. 

So I found myself in the middle of a world that made me have nightmares for months, but it was absolutely beautiful. Even though it rained and was freezing (I'm noticing a theme with this side of the world and the rain..), I had such a great time. I went into hobbit holes, drank cider brewed from the Green Dragon Pub, and stood on the same ground as Orlando Bloom. That's got to count for something..am I right ladies??

It was really interesting to learn about how they shot the films to make Frodo so small and Gandalf so large. Did you know that they filmed each scene individually and then pasted them together? So you think they're standing together, acting out a scene, but in real life they were talking to themselves! That makes me appreciate acting more. It's one thing if you're pretending to be sad or happy with the other person. But to pretend to be happy or sad with a person who isn't sitting next to you, but will be edited in? That's crazy.

If you notice though, there is nothing on the inside of these hobbit holes. All filming for the inside was shot in a studio, so the actors only spent about five weeks in Matamata for the last Hobbit film. Everything else is a replica back home. But spending five weeks here wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, which is why a lot of the actors brought their families.
Trivia fact, most of the kids in The Hobbit are the actors real kiddos. You're welcome.

It was such a great experience. Who knows? Maybe I'll go home and be over my fear of the Lord of the Rings now.. But I may not chance it.

More on Rotorua and Waiheke Island to come, but for now, it's more lesson planning. Only a few days left of my internship. I've got to make the most of it!

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road lives up to everything people tell you it will be and more! It is the most beautiful part of Australia I have seen, and I've been scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. There's just something about standing on the edge of the world and seeing the apostles rising out of the ocean. It's breathtaking.

I went through a tour company called bunyip and they did an amazing job. They picked me up in downtown Melbourne and did all the driving for me. That's definitely the way you want to do it. It's not fun if you're the one driving and can't look at all the beautiful scenery surrounding you.

  

Trivia fact for you! We went through Torquay Beach. It has the coldest waters in all of Australia, but it's a huge surfing community. Since it's so cold and people wanted to suft, they started creating different kinds of wet suits. This created the companies Ripcurl, Quicksilver, and Billabong.

  

The weather was a typical Melbourne day. We drove through pouring rain and into random sunshine and back into pouring rain. The wind was blowing hard enough to move the van around and it was freezing cold..especially for a Texas girl like me! All this would usually make for a terrible day, but it was just not possible to be upset with the amazing view around me.

  

Our first stop was at the Great Otway National Park. There they had wild parrots and cockatoos.. The second I got out of the car, one decided I was his new best friend and landed on my head! It freaked me out pretty bad at first, but then when he realized I didn't have any food for him, he moved on to someone else. It's pretty funny watching these birds swarm onto people searching for seed. It's like feeding the ducks back home..only the ducks don't land on you.

Not only did they have wild birds, Otway has wild Koalas! It was the most amazing experience looking up into a tree and there is a little grey koala just casually taking a nap. The further we went into the forest, the more koalas we found. They were everywhere! It was amazing. I really wanted to take one home with me, but apparently that isn't an appropriate souvenir..

  

After we had all taken hundred of pictures of sleeping koalas, we packed into the van and went to the Otway lighthouse. The Otway lighthouse is on the Bass Straight and where two different seas meet. This creates large winds and crashing waves. It was gorgeous.
It was also where the weather stopped cooperating with my trip.

The twelves apostles is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. But the name is deceiving. There are only nine left standing. Erosion and the ocean have destroyed the others. While I was there, there was a brief moment there was a glimpse of sunshine, but mostly we were bombarded with freezing rain and high winds. The rain stung every time it struck my face. I was soaked, losing feeling in my fingers and my shoes were filling with sand. I stood in the terrible weather, barely holding onto my camera in the fierce wind and I just started laughing. This place is so beautiful that even the worst weather couldn't taint the view. I sat on the railing of the cliff with two backpackers, all of us soaked and freezing, but not wanting to leave.

(I didn't take this picture..obviously because the weather is perfect and not all these are still standing.)

The Great Ocean Road was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. Not even the terrible weather could ruin it.



Teacher Nerd Out

So teaching in Australia has been a blast! I absolutely love my school, my fellow teachers, and my students. I could not have asked for a better internship. Why you ask? Well, I'm about to tell you!

It's not as structured.

There aren't any "TEKS." They have guidelines to follow, but Australia has this really weird idea that teachers can be trusted. What an interesting thought. Letting teachers actually teach. And you wonder how it's working? Fabulously.

My kids are well behaved.
Imagine a classroom where the students want to learn. Now isn't that nice? They listen and take notes. It's crazy! I actually have a student who thanks me after every lesson. It's the sweetest.

Teachers are allowed to teach.
What a concept! My two supervising teachers are phenomenal. They are so creative and really get the kids engaged. My first week in class, they had moot court and put the Holes characters on trial. It was such an amazing activity. And guess what! The kids are learning!

As much fun as it is, teaching here is incredibly difficult. It's not like back home where you have a classroom, the students come and go, and you teach the same lesson to 5 different classes. Here, you teach English. All English. My teachers teach the entire secondary school. Years 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. That's crazy. And they don't have their own classrooms. They are constantly changing rooms and running around. They have 24+ different lesson plans a week! It's nuts, but they love it. I, for one, will be glad to go back to teaching the same lesson over and over every day.

Teaching here has been such a rewarding experience. I love every second that I'm at my internship. I have been beyond blessed at Glen Waverely and I couldn't be more thankful to my teachers for putting up with me!

International Fleet Review

On my last day in Sydney, I got to be a part of the most incredible experience to happen in the Sydney harbor in 100 years. The International Fleet Review. It was the 100th anniversary of the Australian Royal Navy and the largest fleet review to be publicized. (Little war fact for you: The largest fleet review was kept a secret because it was in the month prior to D Day and no one wanted to reveal their ships to the public.) Over 40 warships and 11 tall ships sailed into the harbor to be a part of this tremendous event. Prince Harry even paid a visit.

Sadly, I didn't get to meet him. But we walked down the same street as him 10 minutes later. That's basically the same thing right?

The fleet review attracted millions of people, so to get a spot for the fireworks we left the house at 10 am. I have never seen Sydney so packed. There were people everywhere. We followed the large crowds to Circular Quay (pronounced Key..don't ask me why), but had no luck seeing the ships. It was just too crowded and there was a large cruise ship in the way. (I seriously wanted to know who let that giant boat park right in the way!) So after a failed attempt to see the ships, we walked down to Macquaries Point, which was a firework viewing spot right on the harbor. When we walked in, the war ships lined the harbor decorated in banners and flags. It was amazing. 

During the day, airplanes and helicopters flew over the vantage points. They had choreographed flight routines that kept everyone entertained while waiting on the fireworks. They even had a rescue reenactment where someone jumped into the water and a helicopter saved them.
 

 We spent the rest of our downtime putting on fake tattoos, laying in the sun, and eating from food trucks.

 

 

When the sun finally set and the ships were all in, the most amazing firework show in the entire world went off, accompanied by a projection show onto the world famous opera house. It was absolutely breathtaking. I stood next to the water watching five firework shows explode from naval ships surrounding the harbor. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I didn't take any picture of the firework show because pictures would never do it justice and I wanted to soak in every moment of the fleet review with my own eyes, not behind the tiny screen of my camera. But believe me when I tell you it was beyond beautiful.

Luckily for you, the local TV stations filmed the entire thing and posted it to youtube.

I was a part of that. I will forever be a part of that.
I couldn't have asked for a better last day in Sydney.

A Birthday Abroad

21!

Well y'all, it's official. I'm 21 in a country where it does not matter at all. But that's OK! Not many people get the chance to celebrate their 21st in Sydney, Australia! Which reminds me, the school term ended and I've spent the last week and a half in Sydney and New Zealand.

On my actual birthday, the other interns, our amazing director Ross, Collin, and I all went out for dinner at the Glenmore Hotel. It was absolutely gorgeous. It has a rooftop bar and beautiful dinning rooms. The food was great and it was nice to have the whole group together! I bought myself an outrageously expensive drink and enjoyed the night with my GlobaLinks family! 

But since it was a Wednesday and we all have big kid internships, we went home at a decent hour and went to sleep..

Butttttt, the next day was Thirsty Thursday and we went out for my 21st! I could not have asked for a better birthday. It was absolutely amazing.

If you're ever in Sydney, hit up World Bar. We had such a blast! We even met, Kieren Jack, a rugby player for the Sydney Swans! We had no idea who he was..but that's not the point!

Bars in Australia stay open until 5 or 6 am, but at about 4, I was birthdayed out. You can only dance in high heels for so long! We ended the night in true American style..FOOD.

Birthday pizza to finish off my perfect night. 

Until next year..