Off to KALGOOLIE...OUTBACK?!?!?!?

 What do you do when you have been fired from a job???? GO ON HOLIDAY...DUH!!!!

Go to the beach

take a tour of the prison at night....yeah I guess.

walk around town...play a game of lifesize chess??? 

Go to the market.

watch street entertainment.

hangout at the park and read a book.

Go out with cute foreign boys??? 

Check out new career paths

Think about getting a job so I don't become homeless.....

Meet another AMERICAN in time for THANKSGIVING!!!! YAH!!!!

Thanksgiving feast....not my favorite meal.

After spending two weeks in Perth (technically one week in Perth and one week in Fremantle), I have two job options. I can work on the beach all summer

 or work in a mining town bartending. I would LOVE to be so close to the beach but if my main goal is to make money/ save money then I know that I need to head towards the mining town of Kalgoolie....so off I go. One 7 hour train into the unknown....

I have been in Kalgoolie for almost a full week now. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT SO FAR. I have my own room, tv and mini fridge which seems like the biggest luxury EVER after spending the last 7 months sharing a room with 8-10 people. I have a boss that is wonderful and kind. I have a manager that is simply amazing and the people I work with are FABULOUS!! I am going to work so many hours at a wage that is worth the work at a job that is fun! I love everything here. The people are not small town people. They are mostly miners that are working in one of the many mines around Kalgoolie or live in Boulder (the town I actually live in) doing random jobs.  I have joined a gym that I attend daily and have to run 12 minutes to...its in Kalgoolie so technically I have to run to the next town just to go. (thats dedication). My room smells like campfire 80% of the day thanks to the pizza makers that cook in a wood burning oven. (campfires are my favorite smell in the world). I feel happy. Energized. At home for the first time in a long time.....I could not be more happy with my current location....even if its miles away from the beach. I plan on being here until the end of March (near my birthday)....and then I only have a few weeks left on my VISA. I can’t believe I am buying plane tickets to leave this country that I have called home for the last 7 months....and by the time I leave it will almost be a year. I am trying to slow down time.....how is it going so fast?!?! I am realizing that I am not going to get to see everything I intended on seeing....One year is not long enough.... It's December so I bought a plane ticket to the Gold Coast to retrieve all my belongings that I left at Ji’s house and to Sydney for NYE!!!! I couldn’t be more excited about the holidays!!! I will miss being home but this is the next best thing I can do! LIFE IS SO FULL OF BLESSINGS!!!!!!!

Blessings in DISGUISE!!!!!!!

This was the first thing I saw when I got into town....
.maybe just for a second I thought about getting back on the bus....lol

I have been in Broomehill for almost a month. I work at a small country pub in the middle of NOWHERE. Seriously. In town there is one petrol station, one post office a couple of houses, an abandoned Catholic Church, and my pub/hotel. I share my job with a Swedish girl (whom I don't love) and my job is fairly easy.

Swedish roommate/girl I work with. 

 I work one week in the pub with crazy racist locals and one week doing light housekeeping making beds and helping in the kitchen. I live at the pub for free but only get paid 400 dollars a week which is not much in Australia especially for the amount of hours I work. I guess I like the town enough but there is literally nothing here to do. Luckily I have made friends with a German backpacker and he keeps me sane! 

Funny story: I hung out with him for the first time and then he invited me to celebrate his 21st birthday.......true life I am too old for that. Bahaha He is really lovely though.

German friend on his birthday. He is drinking straight out of the battle of Jim Beam.....classy.

Well I thought I would be in Broomehill until right before Christmas until I was surprisingly FIRED! 

I went to work and was sat down during my lunch break to say that my roommate and I were not working out. My boss gave us our notice and said we could finish the week if we wanted (it was Friday at noon) and said if we needed to talk it over then we could get back to him. I was surprised how I handled it...I didn’t cry (I think I am finally a real grownup). I did ask how come I hadn’t received any negative feedback before today and he didn’t have an answer. They were changing management over during my time at the pub and there was a lot of miscommunication over several issues going on in the hotel. I was angry but I wasn’t having very much fun in Broomehill so it was a nice way out. I booked my bus back to Perth, hostel and packed all of my things in a couple of hours. Thankfully my wonderful German friend Stephen came and collected all my belongings and let me stay at their house for the night and dropped me off at the bus station in the morning. My last night was simply perfect and spent with the people who were my sanity in my 5 weeks in the country. They were also leaving on Sunday so timing could not have been more perfect. I am really embarrassed to say that I was fired but I don’t think I could have done any better than I did. I think it was a mistake and I still don’t really understand but I do truly believe it was meant to be.

I was doing my daily devotional the morning of my firing and came across this verse that was very fitting for my day and days to come: 

Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.

-Psalms 104:2

The devotional said each time you’re tempted to wish that life was other than it is, give thanks. Each time you’re  tempted to fall into despair, sing God’s praise.Each time you’re wondering if this is really all there is, sing of God’s wondrous deeds, for they are great, and our troubles really are comparatively small. 

So I am back in Perth and I have had a series of wonderful days and feel refreshed, happy and excited about my upcoming adventures. I thankfully had 5 free days stay at a hostel in the city, got to catch up with a friend from my previous job, met several other lovely people and was surrounded by love. I know I am lucky that losing a job that is replaceable is my biggest trial and I am working hard at being so thankful for blessings in disguise.....Better things are bound to come!!!

6 months in AUSTRALIA!!!!!!

I have been living in Australia for 6 months TODAY!!!!!! Weird?!?!?! I have seen quite a bit of Australia but I still have loads to see before I leave this country!!! I still haven’t cuddled a Koala, seen Melbourne, Sydney or Darwin...

I am loving my time traveling and learning about a new country, its culture and loads about myself. I started this journey just because I wasn’t ready to grow up and get a real job or start graduate school...and I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life.

 Being in your 20’s is difficult, especially when you don’t quite fit the mold of “normalcy”....I had no desire to get married and settle somewhere and start a family. I had zero desire to settle whatsoever. I wanted a life that is full of unexpected twists and turns and unknown people and places...I wanted the kind of fairy tale that most people only dream about. The kind that doesn’t begin with Once upon a time or end with they lived happily ever after.....I wanted to create my own adventure. So here I am.

Australia has been such an eye opening part of my life. Most people assume that I am just vacationing by the beach everyday and well I WISH I WAS. I have worked the majority of my time here so far and plan to work the next six months straight. The money I make in Australia will go to future travel plans and towards paying off my stupid loans. I have plans to go to South East Asia on my way home and to Guatemala  sometime next year....my hearts desire is to keep traveling!!!!!!

I have so many great memories, met amazing and inspiring people and really fallen in love with my life again. I have a hunger for traveling that is only satisfied by more adventure. I thought I must be so strange to have this huge desire for such a silly life until I met so many people exactly like me. I have met people who have lived life in the most astonishing way....people that inspire me to dream bigger and truly believe in doing something amazing with my life. The lessons learned while traveling are not something I can get out of a book....the experiences have taught me just how strong, passionate, and incredible I can be....it has caused me to really look deep in myself and challenge myself to new and (sometimes) terrifying things. 

I have realized that life is quite simple. Love others and the rest will fall in place. Maybe thats part of growing up. Simplicity has been my favorite part of Australia....I read books (lots of them), I have conversations with strangers, I indulge myself in other's cultures, I talk about things that often make me uncomfortable, I write, I run, I live life with passion. Everyday is not perfect...believe me I have been in some uncomfortable situations that have really opened my eyes but I am feel so blessed to be a little traveler!!!!!! I am excited to see where the next 6 months take me!!!