The Hostel Shuffle

If finding a job wasn't hard enough, finding a place to live is almost harder! When I first arrived to Queenstown I booked in the cutest hostel ever. It had everything I needed, the people were so friendly, and I made myself at home immediately. Unfortunately, this place only has a two week maximum, so after I had gotten cosy, it was time to get out! It's hard to leave a place where you made friends and then start all over at another hostel, well, it's not hard but it's annoying.

Off recommendation, I went to another hostel right in town, and conveniently a two-second walk from my new work establishment. This place isn't quite as nice as the last one, but the people here are amazing. The only down fall is that with Queenstown being in it's busiest, the hostel book up extremely fast. So I constantly have to move rooms every few days, and some days it's totally full and I might have to switch hostels for a day. In order to avoid having to move around so much, and the longing to just unpack my suitcase and not look at it for another few months, I've been looking for an apartment or house to call my own.

But damn, it's not easy. Everyone wants to be downtown, so it's really hard to find that. Otherwise everything is advertised for an area about a 30 minute walk away. Today me and a few other girls thought we had hit gold by finding an ad for a shared room that was 100 per person per week. This is really cheap for Queenstown so we thought it was too good to be true. We called the woman up anyway just to view it. Turns out it was a complete hole and there were way too many random people living in it for my liking. As in, worse than the college ghetto. So that was a dud, but the apartment quest shall continue! Dreaming of the day I can have my own room and decorating it however I wish!

Happy Monday :)

Feeling a little inspired today!

QT Baby!

View out my window!

Well I have been a terrible blogger. I pretty much failed at updating at all on Asia, but rest assured, I had an amazing experience! I spent three months traveling all around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, and I encountered some of the most interesting people. Since I failed at updating on Asia, I feel that I should make it up by posting about my experiences in New Zealand.

I didn't know where I wanted to settle so I decided to go to the biggest city, Aucland. I'd give it a week and if it wasn't my cup o' tea then I'd try somewhere else. After arriving in the evening, I came to the conclusion that Kiwi people are very friendly, but that Auckland was not the city for me. I just felt like it had no character and that I could have been anywhee in the world. After a week of feeling a bit lonely and I decided that I would go to either Wellington or Queenstown. Welly is meant to be a bit more funky, but still a bigger city, while Queenstown is a party ski town. Naturally, everyone told me to go to Queenstown and I ended up heading that way!

Celebrating Xmas in June with new
hostel friends!

Since it's in the south island of New Zealand, it's much much colder here! The scenery is breathtaking, with mountains out my window and beautiful trees lining the parks. Everyone is very chilled out and most people are here for the winter ski season.

I managed to find myself a job as a waitress at an American diner opening up in a few days, so I'm really excited to start working again. When you don't work for several months you start to feel a bit useless. So I'm pumped to feel like I have some purpose now! And especially pumped to get a paycheck. Accidentally spent a lot of my savings in Asia, whoops! In the next few days I'll begin working and have more money to explore the mountains and do some of the extreme activities around Queenstown. Keep you posted on how it's going!

Walk Off the Earth

This was introduced to me by a good friend. I think I like it better than the orig.
 Walk Off the Earth - Somebody That I Used To Know

Australia is Done, Now What?

Adios Australia

So to catch you up, I spent my last few months in Oz working like a slave. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it. My co-workers were awesome, the venue was fun, we got to dress up sometimes - all in all it was a good experience! My roommates and I had decided that we were going to spend New Year in Sydney, which was perfect for me because my flight back to the States was scheduled just a few days after, so I needed to end up in Sydney soon anyway. My last day working at Barkly was Xmas Eve then a few days later me and four other girls packed up everything we owned and shoved it into a tiny baby blue car and drove 10 hours to Sydney. Talk about a good time!

Impressive, huh?

Three of us stayed at a friends house while others dispersed with friends they knew around Sydney and we all just met up for outtings throughout the week. Sydney was so much fun, it was really refreshing just getting out of Melbourne and going to beautiful beaches and not having to worry about work. Shortly after New Year my friends who were staying at the same house as me had to fly to Perth to start their farmwork. This was pretty depressing because A)I didn't know when I would ever see them again, and they had become really great friends of mine, and  B) this meant I had to spend the next week on my own :(. I didn't think I knew how to be alone with myself anymore without feeling awkward?? But it ended up being totally fine. It was actually a really good time to reflect on everything and just spend some time with myself. The past year I hadn't gone more than a day of "me time." It also served to prep me for getting in the mind set of going home. It was definitely bittersweet, as is any ending/new beginning.  

Arriving home was just as good as I thought it would be. You forget how much you miss the comforts of home until you are in it's presence again. Familiar faces, smells, driving...everything is refreshing! But I was well aware, before I even left to come home, that after the honeymoon phase of being home I would get bored and get an itch to do something else. That's just how I am. I constantly need to introduce new things into my life otherwise I start to feel like I'm in a rut. That's why before I came home I made a plan to have one last adventure before I "settle down."

Thailand

While I was in Australia, I had met sooooo many people who had travelled SE Asia and couldn't stop ranting and raving about how it's a must do.  So I figured hey, I worked hard and saved money when I was in Oz, I might as well treat myself and go see SE Asia for myself. I deserve it. It's funny though, I realized that the longer I was home, the harder it was becoming in my head to get myself to leave again. It's really easy to get comfortable, and it's not so easy forcing yourself out of your comfort zone. So my remedy to fix this was to tell as many people as possible about my future Asia plans, that way I couldn't back out. I mean, how embarrassing would that be to tell everyone you were leaving again and then not do it? Sure enough that was the push I needed because a few days later I booked my ticket to Thailand and got all my vaccination shots. As of now my tentative plan is to leave March 5th, 2012 and arrive in Bangkok, Thailand. Travel Thailand for 1 month, then visit Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Bali (if I have the funds), then last but not least end my trip in New Zealand. I had always planned on seeing New Zealand when I was in Australia, but I just got caught up in working and figured I'd just see it after my visa ran out.

New Zealand is set up a lot like Australia visa-wise. You can do a one year or a 6-month visa and work while you're there. So I decided that when I get there I'm going to attempt to do something that is career-oriented for work. This way I can build my resume while I'm away and gain a little more experience in the professional world. I hope this works out as planned. I'll do that for a few months, then travel NZ, then head home! For the sake of my family's sanity, hopefully I will be ready to settle down by that point. As of now I don't think I will stay there an entire year, but we will see. You never know what's going to happen, which is the joy of life.  

Adios Australia, you'll forever have a very special place in my heart.