I got a job!

After many interviews, and a few almost positions. I finally have found the right family and am starting my job as a live in Au-pair on Thursday! I have been a nanny and babysitter before, but never an Au-pair. I am nervous and excited about living with a family for the next 6 months. The lovely family I will be living with has a wonderful house in Woollahra, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Mom Mum is English and Dad is Australian. Mum is a horse vet, and has a Thoroughbred at the near by Centennial Park! I'm hopeful that maybe down the line I can ride her horse a bit! The family has a almost 2 year old who I will be looking after 2 days a week alone, and then the rest of my job is to be an extra set of hands to help out the family; making dinner, doing laundry, cleaning up after myself/the family. Mum is also pregnant, and due in mid-February.

The family was SO nice when I met with them, and I'm looking forward to spending the next 6 months with them. This is their first time having an Au-pair, so we get to navigate my role together. Since Mum is due in February, and a lot of her family will be coming out from England, I will also be taking a month off to travel and come back and continue on with the family until May.  I am excited that I now have a job and will be able to start saving for my travels next year.

Bye for now <3

Assimilation

I have been in Australia a little under a month now, and I am trying my hardest to assimilate to the language and culture of Australia. In my short time here I have learned a lot heaps of new words, and am constantly learning more Australian words/slang.

I do not have to think about what side of the sidewalk footpath to walk on (it's the left), and it doesn't seem strange to get into the left side of the car as a passenger and be in a car on the left side of the road.  I have driven a few times, and find it to be easy besides the fact that I keep trying to use the windshield windscreen wipers as the blinker indicator.

I now understand when people say "Ta" that they are saying thank you, and that "how ya going" is the same greeting as "how are you". Earlier this week, I bought a bottle of water, when the man handed it to me I said "cheers" without giving it a second thought. As soon as I heard the word, I felt strange and was a bit shocked that so quickly I am using Australian speak without thinking about it.

For the most part, I understand when someone says "today it's going to be 38". I am able to convert that to Fahrenheit so that I know the temperature. FYI, 38C is 100F, 30C is 86F, 22C is 72F, and 16C is 61F.   

I am enjoying the small differences in Australian living and culture, and learning new things on a daily basis.

Bye for now <3

1st week in review.....

So I have officially been in Sydney for 12 days now. I have some great friends that live about an hour away from the city center and they picked me up from airport and spent the day with me. We went to the famous Bondi Beach. My first hostel was in Kings Cross, which is known for being the party area of town, with lots of bars, clubs, and strip clubs. I did not end up taking advantage of the "party area" while living there. The hostel was sufficient, with free breakfast and free wifi. I met some wonderful people from all the over the world in the week that I stayed in the hostel. I defiantly enjoyed the Free Wine Friday that they offered. I spent several days wandering the city, seeing the sights. The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour, and the wonderful malls. The girls came out and we did a beautiful coastal walk and saw a bunch of the different beaches near Sydney. Saturday night my friends and I went to the International Fleet Review event in Sydney, where Australia celebrated and saluted the sailors across the world. They had a wonderful fireworks celebration, followed by an evening out on the town. The girls are showing me a great time and I am enjoying meeting all of their friends and family. Everyone has been so nice, caring, and supportive.

I've been applying to jobs like crazy, and have had several interviews over the past week for live in au pair positions. I'm hoping that I will have good news in the next few days about a position, and will update you all at that time.

I'm currently staying with my friends out in suburbia, and am enjoying seeing how Australian life is different than the American life. The biggest difference that I have noticed is that they seem to be more active, and watch less TV tele than us. I have been enjoying comparing things, such as words,  slang, language, and emphasis on different syllables. Also realizing that America super sizes EVERYTHING, not just food.   All of there stores shops are smaller, and they have separate shops, such as a butcher, a fruit/veg shop, bakery, pharmacy chemist. I am trying my hardest to assimilate, but find that I am constantly asking what does that mean, or huh. Some of the hardest things is that I feel they use a lot of slang/shortened terms, and the emphasis. For example, "this afternoon" would be savro (said savo), aluminum here is, al-u-min-i-um instead of al-lum-i-num; oregano here is or-e-gan-o instead of oreg-e-no.  Some of our words, such as bell peppers are not the same, it would be a capsicum here, and they do not say their "r's", so it would be wata, winta, summa, etc. The unfair part is that Australia gets A LOT of our tele shows, but we do not hear many Australians on our media, so they all understand me, but I struggle sometimes. Between the words and the accent, they also use the metric system, so I never know the temperature, distance, or usage of anything. Thank you Google for converting everything!

I will try and update on a regular basis with information, once I get onto a regular schedule. Here are some pictures from my first week.

Bye for now <3

Goodbyes are hard

Over the past several weeks I have been saying goodbye to a lot of people. 2 weeks ago was my last day at work, where I had to say goodbye to my co-workers and clients. 1 week ago I said goodbye to family and friends on the east coast, and set off for California. After a busy few weeks attending weddings for a few friends from college, I will be saying goodbye to the house I grew up in, the area I grew up in, my friend I grew up with, and my nuclear family parents and sister. When I come back from Australia my parents will no longer be in my childhood home, they will have moved across country to retire. I am so excited for the adventures and experiences that I will encounter over the next year, and the new friends and family I will add to my ever growing list; however it doesn't make saying goodbyes any easier.
To all my friends and family out there, thank you for being supportive and caring through this process, and I appreciate all the goodbye dinners/parties/events. I will miss you all more than you know.

Bye for now <3 

Getting Ready for the Big Trip

So I've been saving and researching for several months now, and have finally started buying things for my trip. I figure that it would be helpful to buy things while I still have a full time job! I think I have about everything that I will need for my trip, that I can buy beforehand. Let's start with the luggage. Last time I traveled to Australia (yes I've been there before) I took a rolling duffel. Well lets just say that quickly I wished I had a backpack like the rest of  the "backpackers", because rolling it in and out of people on busy streets, hitting bumps and rocks that made it flip over, and having to carry it up several flights of stairs with the hand straps was NOT fun! I did a lot of research and knew that I wanted a front loading backpack, not a top loading one, because it would be easier to get things in and out of, sort of like a suitcase. Last time I traveled to Australia, I had one friend with a top loading, and one with a front loading. The top loading one looked like it took too much time and effort to unpack and pack at each location, and be able to find your things you want/need. I decided on the Osprey Farpoint 70L bag. The Osprey bag seemed to check all my boxes, it has 70L of room to keep my all my stuff, and it has a detachable daypack that I can use when I hike glaciers, wander rainforests, or go to the beach and need to bring more items than just my purse. I also liked the price, and the style of the bag. I will do a post about packing, and how much stuff I was able to fit in it, closer to my trip.

I also bought Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes to keep myself organized. I remember at each stop during my last backpacking experience, I had to reorganize and rearrange at each location, I'm hoping that these bags will help condense my clothes and keep myself organized. More to come on if these are effective for me. Along with those cubes, I've also bought Compression Bags to put my bigger and bulkier things in, to help save space. I've heard amazing things about these bags, so I hope they live up to their hype.

I searched high and low for a good, somewhat compact toiletry bag, that will fit bigger things than just travel size items. I'm going over seas for a year, I figure I don't want to have to continuously buy travel size shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc. every few weeks. I bought the medium size toiletry bag from LL Bean. I have already put items in it, and I feel it will fit all that I would put in a toiletry bag, minus make-up, that's it's whole own bag! I like the fact that it can sit or hang, depending on where I am. It is a bit bigger and bulkier than I would have liked when stuffed with all my stuff, but it holds a lot and I think I might just keep it in my daypack instead of the big backpack.

I have found REI helpful at finding other small things that I will need like adaptors, travel towels, locks for luggage or lockers in hostels, travel cup, etc. Click here to see all the things that I bought for my trip. That's the majority of the stuff I've bought so far for my trip. I'm excited for my trip, and continuing to find creative ways to condense my life into a 70L backpack!

Any suggestions or products you have found helpful/useful in your travel adventures?

Bye for now <3

Work and Holiday Visa

It's been a busy month at work, but I wanted to write about my visa for Australia.  I finally applied for my visa, and it was granted!!! So it's now official, that I will be going to Australia for a year! 

I applied for the Work and Holiday Visa, which for those that don't know, it's a visa for 18-31y/o who want to travel Australia, for up to a year. The visa grants you access to work, but your primary reason for entering the country is for holiday. You can leave and enter the country as many times as you want, but once you enter the first time, your 12 month period starts and any time after that spent outside Australia will still count towards your 12 months. The visa requires that you have $5000AUD in your bank account, health insurance, and limits you to only being able to work for one company for a max of 6 months. The visa process was fairly easy, you can access and apply for it online, and within a matter of an hour I was granted my visa. The visa is electronic, so it will show up when my passport is scanned at customs.

I am so excited that I have the visa, and am now one step closer to my trip! Over the past few weeks, I started buying items that I will need for my trip, I will update in the next month or so with more details of things that I have bought for my year long backpacking trip.

Bye for now <3

Research, Research, and more Research

I have started doing my research about what hostels to stay in, where I am going to look for work, what area I would like to live/work, where I want to travel, the list goes on and on. I spend my weekend researching so many aspects of my trip so I have plans when I get there. On top of planning for there, I'm planning for the trip, I will have to buy new luggage, new travel gear, etc....all the stuff to "backpack" for a year. I've found a travel backpack I plan to buy, and the packing boxes (cubes), I would like to use to stay organized. On top of saving for travel expenses, food, hostel locations, and travel gear; I'm also saving to pay all the wonderful bills I will have here, such as student loans, credit card payments. I feel like I've come along way on saving, but it's not cheap to get away for a year, and as the date keeps creeping closer and closer (still 5 months away), I'm starting to buy things now and then when I occasionally have added money.  Any thoughts or comment people have on the travel gear, organizers, backpacks, etc. I would appreciate any advice! If you have used these brands or suggest different kinds for organizers/backpacking for my trip, I would like some feedback!

http://shop.eaglecreek.com/store/MyWishList.aspx?CID=em_wishlist&utm_source=tran&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wishlist&WLID=bJNEetCUqFg%3d

http://www.ospreypacks.com/en/product/backpacking/farpoint_70?tab=description

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/73882?feat=osbsr&page=personal-organizer-toiletry-bag-medium

Bye for now <3