How did I get here?

Well, shoot. Where do I begin? How about at the beginning...

I arrived in Sydney, and after taking a detour via the Blue Mountains for the day (lovely hikes, camping, sights... if I had ever been to the Grand Canyon I might compare the two. The Blue Mountains, and subsequent canyons, are covered in Eucalyptus - the oils from which tint the sights hazy blue, supposedly) I dropped the car off at Hertz and made my way up the hill towards the hugely notorious Coca-Cola sign at the top of William street and at the edge of King's Cross. One week in Sydney, starting riiiight.... NOW!

Or so I thought. As usual, one week turned into another, into another... this is the reason I love traveling alone. I don't have to ask my Travel Buddy, "Hey, TB. Do you mind if we stick around? I really like it here." I just wake up, and ask myself questions like " Hey, self. Are the benefits reaped here outweighing the potential costs of future plans?" Or, "Is there any reason why I should leave yet?" The answers to each were obvious before the question entered the foreground of my consciousness. Stay in Sydney I did, for six lovely weeks.

What did I do for those six weeks? Well, in all honesty, on paper it might not look like much. I went to a few museums. Went to a lot of beaches. Took some ferries. Cooked Kangaroo. I made fajitas, they were awesome. Seared the lean, low-in-cholesterol meat, stir fried green bell peppers mushrooms and onion (with garlic of course), flash fried them together and served with fresh avocado and lime and pepper on top with flour tortillas. Man was I popular in the kitchen that night. One cool thing about living in a youth hostel is that you see all these people from all over making somewhat familiar things in the kitchen, but serious authentic shit. Breakfast was the best -- Koreans Italians and French, the boring American and English... I got so many free fresh crepes and yummies... I plan to make a cook book at some point with the recipes I've collected. BUT I DIGRESS.

The people I spent the most time with were the French, this time around (you might remember my UK & English buddies in Melbourne). I made myself a little niche in what I jokingly called a French colonization, somehow there were about 15 of them all in the hostel, and me. I have always had a fascination with French culture, history and language. We became a sort of family, taking turns to make dinner for ourselves, going to new beaches and hikes (a lot of the coast is lined with hiking trails), and carousing the nights away. It was really hard to leave, which in part is why I stayed for so long. But, I ultimately set a deadline for myself, as Sydney was expensive and also difficult to find a job in (since I have a precarious visa... uhm, situation). I purchased a ticket to The Good Vibrations Festival in the Gold Coast, planned to meet Frenchie there once he got back from Fiji, and set my departure date. "Hey, you guys, I'm leaving on Wednesday!" I announced to my table of friends. "Yea, right, but which Wednesday?" James quipped, triggering a wild fire of laughter around our table, and the one next to ours. (Ever notice how someone laughing makes you giggle even if you don't get the joke?) Ok fine. Maybe I had said every week that I was only going to stay "Just one more week." Fair enough.

When the news was finally taken seriously, there were lots of tears, promises to meet again, and other such nonsense. It IS sad, but what is it about leaving that prompts us to make unrealistic promises? We all live on different continents. Well, I do, they were mostly French. but still. I mean we *might* see one another again, but if we don't, does the diminish what we had together here in Australia? We came, we shared some laughs and love, made memories, got tattoos, broke hearts, mended spirits, and saw things for the first time. The ultimate, I cannot stress this enough, being the most amazing. Think about it: when is the last time you saw something for the first time EVER? It's so exhilarating and wonderful and to share that with new people as excited as you are makes you so close, you create bonds that you may never have had with anyone else. They're so unique, just like the places in which they're (the bonds) are being created, and just like the people you're with. Anyway. I'm not demeaning the emotions, because I had them myself. I just wonder what it is about human nature, what we share on the most basic level that we feel the need to keep something alive past it's expiration date. Maybe to cling to something that feels so good, you don't want it to end. Or resisting the end because it means you're one step closer to all of this being over.

Which brings me to yet another tangent (as you can see I haven't been as productive in writing offline, either, so this won't be very focused). I am going to be overseas until June 15th. I figured I would tell everyone here since I seem to get the question a lot. While that seems a long time, I haven't met anyone who is traveling for any amount of time less than a year. I'm really sad I have to miss Alexis' bachelorette party and bridal shower, but I wouldn't miss the wedding for anything in the world. So when I get asked "why 9 months and not a year?" I happily explain that I GET to come home for my best bud's wedding!! :0)

So back to the last few weeks: a couple of days prior to leaving Sydney (for reals this time), I met up with Jessie in Manly Beach. Jessie and I went to UCLA together, and had Milton for ten loooong weeks. We bonded. Lost touch 'cept for facebook - she moved to Hawaii after graduation, I to NYC. Facebook put us back in touch, due to my updates about being still in Sydeny etc. Turns out she was moving to the North Shore for post grad work in International Relations! Met up, she wanted to see Byron Bay and take a road trip before her classes started, I said well join me. And Join me she did. But not before Olivia, a South African traveler anxious for a change of scenery from Bondi beach, joined us during a rousing round of drinks the night before departure. Sweet - I now had two friends in tow to join me for the multi day road trip to Gold Coast / Surfer's Paradise for the Good Vibes fest. Good thing, too, because Jessie's darling friend Bush (his real first name, trust me I checked his passport) hooked us up with not only two extra tickets tot he sold out show for Liv and Jess, but also a free apartment to stay in for the weekend we were there and an entourage of hot local surfers to accompany us to the fest. Frenchie wasn't the happiest of campers once we met up, but it's good for him.

Before we got to the best festival of all time -despite, or maybe because of, the torrential rain toward the end of the last performer, Fat boy Slim- we stoped in Port Macquerie over night, drove to Byron Bay for a few days via Bellingen (I found B. Bay over-priced and -rated, the beach was nice but the people were not and compared to the Backpacker Mecca painted by nearly everyone, we were totally let down), a road & head trip through Nimbin (as in road trip and head trip, you filthy animals), then finally Surfer's. WHEW. If I get to it, I will go into more detail about all those places and the things we did along the way, but I'm finding I am enjoying keeping some of these things off paper, and saving them for myself. In some cases, it's totally better this way.

Well, after the festival, the girls went back to Sydney, and I to see where I wanted to look for work. Which is what brought me to lovely Noosa, a small Laguna Beach-esque town on the Sunshine Coast. I found job on day one working at the Halse Lodge, a YHA so close to the beach you can feel it in the air. I work for free accommodation, meals, and Internet - which is why you'll be hearing a lot more from me. I live in a flat with the others who work here, which is great because I finally feel like I can settle down for a while and save some money. I plan on visiting Sydney this coming weekend, to visit a friend for his birthday... hopefully he hasn't figure out that I have a blog (he's still learning facebook so I think the secret is safe here 'til then)!

Well that is the official update on the unofficial life of KLWM. Miss you all and I can't really demand more updates since I haven't given you any, but maybe if I'm consistent I can get a piece or two of juice.

smooches x