South West Road Trip

My fellow North American nannies and I  have realised the clock is ticking on our time here in WA and we wanted to get in one last touristy weekend so we made a plan to drive to Denmark and Albany this long weekend. This should have been about a 4 hour trip to Albany it took us 9. One way . Highlights included ..

-Being lost in a giant, Blair Witch style Forrest for about 3 hours

-No cell phone or navigation signals for the majority of the time

-Searching for a waterfall that turned out to be down a 40 min hike

– Being literately the only car in most areas for many, many hours –

remember the weird cowtown we drove through on our last trip? Well guess what we got to see again!? Thats right! Good ol Cowmarup. More disturbing though we find a bunch more “themed” towns..

  We got so lost but we wouldn’t change a thing ! Mistake number one was driving through Margret River then Augusta (“are we sure we need to go through Augusta?” “Yah definitely”. Wrong. So wrong ). But We saw a huge pod of dolphins in Augusta so clearly getting lost was meant to be ! I’ve never seen dolphins in the wild it was amazing . And we were the only ones at this random spot to see them so that made it even better .

Augusta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More importantly though … We finally saw kangaroos in the wild ! Huge tourist check mark !

 

 

We got to Denmark by about 930 pm . We thought we’d be there around 2pm. Yah right . the next day we hit as many spots as we could though as soon as we got our lives together ..    The blow holes were most certainly NOT blowing that day. We treked down the fifteen min staircase esque pathway, stared at the rock for about 20 minutes waiting to see the water shoot up. No deal. Oh then it poured rain and i got to sit in the car with wet tights on for 2 hours. Great feeling. we hit valley of the giants on the way home and the next day, possibly the best part of the weekend…. GNOMEVILLE. As I said before, WA loves the theme towns.  We also found some sort of disturbing scarecrow themed town.. scarecreows with giant pumpkin heads. And of course we drove through it in the middle of the night , in the rain, just to make it that much creepier (naturally we got out and took pictures).

 

All in all, perfect weekend, grateful for getting lost!

Obsessed

Every once in a while I remember that I love reading and books and words , and I go insane and read ten books in a week . That week is this week . I started off with the fault of our stars , I’ve read other books by the same author and felt so so about them , but I literately devoured this book in a day . I laid outside all day on Monday (when it wasn’t raining) , and finished it in no time . I’m now obsessed with this book and it’s consuming my brain. I haven’t read an amazing book since Gone Girl and Fault of our Stars definitely filled the void . In love !

It’s not minus fifty but it’s almost as equally un fun ..

Now that it’s full on autumn/winter I am turning into a baby , I.e I am whining about the fact that it’s 18 degrees . I’m from Manitoba . Our winters live in the minus 25’s up to minus 50’s. I should be able to hack this so called “winter”. It’s the rain that’s the worst , the crazy, torrential downpours that come out of no where then two minutes later it’s beautiful out . Then rain . Then wind. Then sun. So confusing . I feel like my emotions are being toyed with constantly. Poor me , perma vacation life is tough .

bali time

Like a true W.A. resident I made my first trip to Bali a couple of weeks ago. I ended up with about ten days off cause Anzac Day melding into a week I already had off, so that was perfect. I’m always down for a solo trip,  so I booked a ticket and headed away for ten days in beautiful Bali! Everyone back home should note that Bali is like our version of heading down to Mexico, cheap, easy enough holiday and everyone and their dog goes like five times a year, so Bali’s no big thing to Aussies, but of course for me, the ever keen tourist, it was amazing! I ended up meeting an insane amount of Canadians which was so nice just to hear that accent and be around people who are talking about hockey playoffs, Tim Hortons and winter. I even met someone who worked for the same restaurant company I used to work for! So nice to have some familiarity a million miles away from home.

I generally avoided Kuta at all costs besides one big night of partying. Fell madly in love with Canggu and Sanur, everything just felt more calm and kind of zen in those areas. Kuta was everything Id heard it would be , tourist central and just a bit.. too much,  but if you wanna party then its the perfect place. I had an awesome, dance till 4am kind of night on my last day and it was great.  Canggu however, literately owns a piece of my heart, I can absoutley see why theres so many aussies and foreigners settled there. So peaceful, and had such a good mix of local people, expats and tourists.

Rooftop frolicking in Canggu with my green hair. And sweating to death. Of course.

 

In a nutshell, I got a sick tan, lived like a hippie (showering, no.), saw monkeys, got lost for a solid 3 hours on foot, my hair turned green from pool water and I survived motor biking. As I’ve said before, I’m a fairly high maintenance girl so for me to do all of those things (and do them with a huge smile), is a big thing. So grateful I got that nice little bit of time off. And the best part is I go back in a few weeks w/ the family I work for, albeit for a bit more of a luxury kind of vacay and not the poor, dirty traveller kind of trip.  But I’m perfectly OK with that. Obviously.

 

Last day sunset in Kuta

 

 

 

Why finding a random family to live with abroad is a great idea :

Lots of people ask me about au pairing , how it works etc . And for me it’s always worked out pretty good. You literately cruise the internet for a family hiring , use your best judgement to determine if they’re gonna kidnap you or not and book a ticket . Which to many people I suppose sounds crazy , but hey it works !

Moving to another country requires alot of organization, finda job, home/hotel/hostel, friends, car, etc etc. However, choose to be an au pair and BAM none of that stuff is an issue, it’s pretty much done for you. Being an au pair has both pro’s and con’s of course, but it’s got a whole lotta pro’s…

1. You have an actual home to live in. Not a hostel, not a hotel and not couch surfing. Normal bathroom, bedroom, furniture. Having a TV w/ Foxtel/satelleite channels. I also have the huge bonus of a pool and hot tub or “spa”. You literately get a home away from home.

2. FOOD, most au pair jobs come along with “room and board” which covers your groceries. I’ve seen some families that only say they offer a strict “3 meals a day” kind of thing, but still thats 3 meals a day you’re not paying for. For the most part though most families I’ve worked with and what my nanny friends tell me, most families just tell you to throw whatever you need in the cart when you get groceries. My family even shares their wine 🙂

3. A vehicle- not all au pair jobs have this perk, but many do. I have a vehicle at my disposal every single weekday, and weekends and evenings, as long as I plan ahead. I cant even begin to explain what a plus it is to have a vehicle when you’re abroad. Lots of people travelling don’t get this huge plus.  I’m even still allowed to drive it after I’ve scraped into a pole .. or 3.

4. Family- You get an insta family. This can be good or bad, I’ve always had it work out really well personally. The family I’m currently with even came along with an awesome neighboorhood with the nicest people. Just on our street alone I met a ton of people who’ve been so so kind to me (boat trips! Parties! Extra side jobs!).

5. And you get paid- Sometimes I forget, this is actually a job. I have an amazing situation where I only look after one child, who is in school the majority of the day (besides school holidays of course, then I legit WORK).  This would be pretty plum even if all I got out of it was the room and board, but I do also get paid a good weekly wage.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but it’s a pretty sweet way to see the world, get paid and legitimately LIVE, not just travel through, another country.

Journey Down South

Right when I arrived another nanny I met told me she was going to Margaret River on the first weekend of April and invited me, so I booked into the same hostel as her, and I was good to go for my first out of Perth adventure. I drove the van (yes, in addition to the giant SUV I cannot drive, my lovely host family also has an even bigger vehicle, that, you guessed it, I cannot drive) up to Bunburry where American Leandra lives and she took it from there in her convenient little car.

The weekend itself was perfect, I didn’t’ realize how good a weekend “away” would feel. This is starting to feel like home, and the everyday vacation feeling is slowly evaporating so away time was perfect. In a nutshell though, mainly we spent our weekend going out and being social, and maybe having a beverage. Or several.

The Good: 

– The Hostel, Margaret Rive Lodge– dirt cheap, met so many people, got a private room without paying for one , and the owner was super nice. We checked out WAY late on Sunday and he didn’t charge us or anything. As an essentially poor person, that’s much appreciated.

– People– Met SO many great people from everywhere. I love meeting new people, I could talk to strangers for hours. And got to spend the whole weekend with my fellow north american au pair, which is always fun!

The Bad:

People– I’ve mainly only met really nice people here so far, then there was the mouthiest girl at the hostel, and guess what!? She was CANADIAN! I assume any Canadian I meet here will be my BFF, cause, hello, were in one of the most isolated places on earth, and were both from Canada! That should be enough to forge a lovely, forced friendship. This girl however.. not so much.

Packing-  I HATE packing. It stresses me out. What if I pack too much? Too little ? What if it rains? Nude heels? Black heels!? Thus I took an obscene amount of stuff. I promise I used/wore at least half of it.

Ill pack my runners cause of course ill work out while im there. Idiot.

– Showers- OK the one thing I couldn’t hack about hostel living was the questionable, luke warm showers. What if I saw a spider in there? I’d never recover. I basically stuck my feet in then ran out as fast as humanly possible, then lived on dry shampoo all wknd. I am a suck, what can I say?

 

And The Loser Tourist Moments:

– Lemon Tree’s,  I’ve never seen a lemon tree!! I took one off the tree and put it in my water bottle of diet coke and vodka and it was perfection! I hope you can just pop lemons off those tree’s and use them, and they’re not some sort of protected species or anything…?

 

– The Jewel Cave,  This was our token tourist activity for the weekend, and I loved it! Other then some unfortunate folks who smelled very questionable (think dark, cramped cave tour, close quarters..not good) , the tour was great! The lady who ran the tour was so into it and made it fun and interesting. Worth the $25 bucks.

– Cowtown..? On the way home we put “home” into the nav and basically zoned out until… we found ourselves in a town full of cow statues! Then we realized we definitely were taking the scenic route but oh well. I can’t remember what this little town was called but something with the word “Cow” in it, thus, they’ve decorated the town with cow statues! Have to put “Cowtown” on my tourist town to do list…

 

 

school holidays…

So it appears aussie schools love giving the kiddies loads (or should I say “heaps”!) Of time off , with a break after every term, even in elementary school. Why does this matter to me you ask? Well  that this means I go from working 3 hrs a day to working 12 hours a day, fun! Not. Its sick to say but im now used to have a weird amount of free time and actually working is killing me already (its only day 2 of school break..). My days are all jumbly, and I feel off and disoreinted (maybe even a teeny tiney bit grumpy). Anyways,  legitimately working all day is consuming me thus I have nothing good to post but in the past few wks I have..

1. Gotten a second job at a restaurant (the hospitality industry here is still confusing me to death)

2. Did my first little wknd trip to Margaret River (caves, surfing, weird, scary hostel showers, oh my!)

3. We went to the zoo today, this is big for me. I LOVE the zoo and I love aqariums. Two life loves .

Many updates to come.. if I ever get my unnecessary,  ridiculous , amount of free time back.

what I wish I knew before I came

Any time you go anywhere there’s almost always something you wish you knew beforehand and of course coming to the other side of the world was no exception …

1. Clothing sizes are different . My first week here I shopped a bit , k alot, and was feeling mildly disturbed by how much weight I’d apparently gained in a week since all of a sudden size 8 was skin tight or couldn’t even get over my ass . The first clue here should’ve been that there was no size seven, but I thought no big deal, 8 should accommodate for my vacay weight gain! Alas I Googled Australian sizes/North American sizes and bam! Confidence restored ! I didn’t magically go up 4 sizes, the sizing is different!!

2. Spray deodorant, Mio, and Crystal Lite : 3 things I’m seriously missing. All the deodorant here is an aerosol spray. I hear you can find “normal” solid deodorant if you look hard enough but seeing as I live in a pool of sweat everyday now, I wish packed endless deodorant.  I also can’t find Mio or Crystal Lite , two huge staples in my life (if you can’t mix your vodka with Crystal Lite what could you possibly mix it with..?). Bit heartbroken about it.

3. Its HOT: About that pool of sweat… literately the first two days here I thought “maybe I can’t do this”.  I was that hot. At home we get hot summers but it’s a humid kind of, 25C-35C kind of summer. Not 40C on an average summer almost autumn day. I’ve also found most people here don’t crank the A/C like we do in N. America either. Every night here, before bedtime, my host family SHUTS OFF THE A/C. Madness!!! I guess you’d have an insane power bill if you pumped the air constantly. But night time!? Come on! That’s the time you need the air the most! I think I’ve adjusted a bit since those first few days, but still gets me sometimes.

4. That damn left side of the road: Ok, part of me not getting excited to come here until I was safely here included zero Australian research, clearly. On the flight it occurred to me that “heeeey maybe they drive on the wrong side of the road maybe? Naaah. ” Wrong I was . Once I got here and realized I mainly decided “oh well no driving for you” (no soup for you!). But host dad took me out once for a test drive then that was it, I was on my own in the big SUV (I drive a tiny car at home).  I’ve been left hand driving ever since ! With minimal issues.. mostly minimal anyhow.

5. Restaurants & Tipping : Tipping is not a big thing here. I’m not sure if that’s all of Aus or just Perth, but from what I can gather tipping’s not really expected. That being said, service is not really expected either. Most places I’ve gone, you go in, wait for a server to wander past you at some point (theres never a hostess waiting to greet you) ,maybe they’ll seat you or point at a table you can go to, then you order your drinks from the bar/counter whatever, grab a stick w/ a number on it, and then your drinks/food will be brought to your table number. A server will drop your stuff, and that’s basically the last time you’ll see them. I’ve gone to a few restaurants where you sort of actually have a server, but still INCREDIBLY different then what I’m used to. You’re also not allowed to split bills here, the whole table has to be paid as one. My server friends at home would LOVE this (no bill organizing! No seat numbers actually mattering for billing! How nice would that be for big parties!?).

This goes to show, maybe some mild preparation before a large, life changing trip is a good idea. Oh well.

 

making it to aus

I am a perpetul worrier , lots of people asked how excited I was prior to leaving and my response was ” not yet,” I cannot be fully excited till im in Perth,  in one piece, with my luggage and once I see that my host family aren’t murderers or selling me into white slavery. Once all of those are check marked then yes im excited .

all in all my trip over was flawless, the worrier in me is still shocked over this. I even ended up with an empty seat beside me for the biggest chunk of my flight from LAX to Melbourne. Not to mention that flight was perfect, Virgin Australia has amazing customer service and people working for them. Then getting into Perth my luggage WAS THERE. It made it through 4 airports and all the way to the other side of the world ! I fully accepted when I packed those 2 suitcases that I’d never see them again. Getting through both American and Australian customs was a breeze and Tara, the nanny before me,  and little M were both waiting for me at the airport upon arrival and my host family turned out to be the normal, awesome family I was lead to believe they were! NOW I can be excited.

au revoir

When I decided to come to aus ( I don’t understand why people spell it “Oz”, it’s AUStralia. Oz makes me think Wizard of Oz..) and leave my lovely little Canadian life , I decided this only about a month before I actually left. I told my boss about two weeks before I left, my parents about two wks and 2 days before and my best friend/room mate about two wks and a day before I left . Most people I didn’t tell at all. Thats what Facebook and gossip is for riiight? Right. I find goodbyes unnecessary at best. Texting, skype, and the Internet keep people so connected I feel like it doesn’t matter all that much weather or not I’m in the same country as everyone, you can always stay connected. I refused any sort of going away party thing despite my lovely friends trying to name our last night of drinking just that. My mom lured me into a “last supper” by buying me a  a DQ ice cream cake (I have a mad love for DQ cakes).

I hate telling people I’m leaving despite the fact I rarely stay still for more then six months, I still hate telling everyone when I leave . I sweat, I panic, I stumble my words. Exactly why I prefer to just sneak away, but I don’t think my parents, job, friends etc. would appreciate  that all too much.

I made myself a list of people to tell, work, parents, roomie, and slowly checked them off. I also kept a running list of “things to do before I’m allowed to be excited”. The bulk of that was telling all the key people in my life, booking my ticket, actually seeing if I could afford this, successfully flying across the world, and last but not least meeting my host family. I booked my one way ticket one week prior to leaving and did absolutely no organizing what so ever in that week, cause hey, what if it doesn’t work out for some reason….maybe it does! Maybe it doesn’t! Stay tuned….