Hey. Look. Listen. Okay. I know I haven’t posted since dinosaurs roamed the earth and I know I owe you a lot of content. But it’s my birthday so I figured I’d post a little update. I’m 23 today. That’s so crazy. I know in my brain that’s not old, so don’t feel like you need to yell at me and tell me I’m young and have a life to live- I KNOW. But in my heart it feels old. It feels like I’m not qualified to be 23. I literally think I have pink eye again. That’s way too much pink eye in one year!! I’ve been dealing with a painful lump in my armpit for a while. I’m breaking out. I’m a mess. And I’m not even being dramatic and/or #relatable about it- ask anyone who knows me and they will agree. I am a confirmed mess. A. WHOLE. ASS. MESS. Usually it’s kind of funny. You have to laugh so you don’t cry, y’know? You’re young! You’ll get it one day! Birthdays are tough, though. You reflect on things on your birthday. And it’s kind of like, “Shit. A whole year and I’m arguably worse off than I was before?” Like… did I waste 22? All I did, essentially, was get pissed and waste my savings. And then when I wasted my savings, I wasted my income. And got pissed some more. I came to Australia to maybe find some clarity, some inner peace, something that would help me transition from college to the real world. I’ve been here for 9 months and all I’ve found is myself… sitting in a hostel hallway… crying… trying to write about my feelings.
…I did just realize my period starts tomorrow, though. So maybe that explains some (all) of this. Whatever. Life is stressful. But hey! At least Australia has adequate gun control laws! Recent events (mass shootings) and discourse (the president on Twitter) in America have honestly made me feel relieved and safe to be here. I truly never thought I’d feel safer traveling the world alone than I would at home in Corpus Christi. That’s fucked. Today in Sydney a man decided to go buck wild and try to stab people in the street. He stabbed maybe three people? One died. (She was in a hotel room, though, so there was something else going on with that one? The police are investigating the whole thing. I don’t know. I recommend giving it a google.) And then a few witnesses grabbed chairs and milk crates from restaurants and chased him down the street, cornered him, and pinned him down for the cops. It happened a few blocks from my hostel, near a train station I used to frequent to get to work. Scary stuff. But imagine how much scarier if he had a gun? And in America, he would’ve had a gun. It shouldn’t be this complicated or controversial to pass gun safety legislation. It really shouldn’t. If you’re a responsible and law-abiding gun owner… literally what do you have to lose? If you’re the NRA… literally why are you the worst? Okay I’m done. Back to my petty and small personal thoughts and issues.
You may be wondering why I’m in Sydney. Well… you should be wondering why I’m in Sydney. Since I told you I moved to Melbourne in my last posts. My friend British Katie leaves Australia forever tomorrow. (Ok, not forever forever, but for now. Which feels like forever when you’ve spent every waking moment with someone for like four months.) She wanted to spend her final days in Sydney, saying goodbye to all of her favorite Sydneysiders. And obviously I had to go with her. Because I couldn’t let her leave me but still be in Australia. That’s not how this relationship works. I’m her little parasite. Long story short: we left Melbourne, traveled from Uluru up to Darwin (#adventure is #everything), then flew to Sydney, where we’ve been for approximately a week. If you don’t know what Uluru is… or what Darwin is… google it, you uncultured piece of shit. I don’t have time to explain- I’m busy having an existential crisis. I’ll make a whole post about it at some point eventually in the future probably most likely. Because it was honestly such an iconic 10 days.
You know what… now seems like a good time to take stock. Here’s a list of things I need to write about, because it’s actually been a really eventful few months. If I don’t write about them, feel free to send me hate mail. #Accountability is #everything.
Things I Need to Write About:
- East Coast Part 3 (Airlie Beach, Magnetic Island, & Cairns)
- Melbourne (Alison’s visit & my possible employment???)
- Melbourne (Sarah leaves & LANY happens)
- Uluru to Darwin (from the Red Center to the Top End)
Alright sick. There it is. All my shit. Facing my demons. Feels good. Good to be me, good to be 23. (I have no idea why the numbered list starts at 0 that’s so random? I don’t have the energy to fix it. I need to go to bed because my probably-infected eye is aching. Deal with it.)
Anyway, back to my birthday. It was actually a good day- sad hallway breakdown aside. We went to Symbio Wildlife Park, this zoo about an hour outside Sydney. It’s not really possible to get there via public transportation, so I made my Aussie friend Tara drive Katie and me. I heckled her for weeks to make sure she was free on my birthday (also known as Katie’s last day in Australia) just to go to this zoo. To be completely honest and cheesy, Symbio is really special for me. I followed their Facebook page a few years ago because they consistently upload top-notch koala content. They have the most perfect koalas. I cannot stress enough how angelic these koalas are. Like they are koala celebrities to me. These koalas got me through the emotional rollercoaster that is college. And then when I didn’t know what to do with my life after graduation, these koalas gave me the idea to go to Australia. To visit them. At first I just wanted to travel for a little bit, hopefully with a friend, and then go home and sort my life out. Somehow I accidentally conned myself into this year-long Working Holiday thing instead. It took me 9 months, but I finally got to visit Symbio to see the little bastards. They’re even more perfect in person. I paid $20, even though I am dead skint, to get a photo standing next to Harry the koala with Tara and Katie. Harry leaked some of his eucalyptus drool on my sweatshirt sleeve and I’ve never been more honored to be spat on. Yeah. Here’s the photo. This is my third koala photo and I look equally bad in all of them. I’m just too excited to be there to worry about angles, y’know?
Oops my finger slipped here are some bonus koala photos I can’t believe that happened.
Then we went to lunch at the Scarborough Hotel, which is a beautiful pub on the coast with stunning ocean views (pictured below). I ate some deliciously overpriced seafood pasta and stained my hoodie with some red sauce. I know it’s stained because I did laundry when I got back to the hostel. (Yes, I did laundry on my birthday. That’s just what being 23 is all about, baby.) And I used stain remover. And you can still see that goddamn red sauce.
Then I took a cheeky little birthday nap. Then we went to the bar downstairs so Katie could say a final heartfelt goodbye to her old roommate. The bouncer scanned my ID and this weird exchange happened:
Bouncer: Birthday?!
Me, thinking he said “Rough day?”: What? No-?
Bouncer: It’s your birthday?
Me: Oh, yeah! Oh my god it is! Sorry- I forgot and also thought you asked if I had a rough day. And I was like… not really? I had a nice day. Went to the zoo.
Bouncer: Haha. No. Birthday. I’ve had a rough day, though.
Me: Oh. Haha?
Bouncer, handing me a free drink card: Here- birthday gets a free drink.
Me: Thanks.
And then I left the bar after an hour and went upstairs to cry and blog! And that was my birthday! And that’s my life update! See you in three months! (Jus kiddin! I’m gonna post sooner than that. I promise. And this time I mean it. Maybe.)
Oh wait! One more thing! So I’m moving back to the same hostel I was living in before in Melbourne. But someone accidentally set the fire alarm off in their room on Monday night, and then something went terribly wrong and the pipes got all fucked and the hostel flooded and they had to evacuate everyone in the middle of Boozy Bingo. And now it’s shut down indefinitely (probably just for a few days?) to fix everything. So I had to book into a different hostel nearby for a few nights to wait for Base to hopefully open back up. Easy. Sorted, right? Wrong. Things got #hectic when I remembered I left a random assortment of my shit in a locker in my room at that flooded hostel. I had a few hours of panicking that my things were ruined. Or if they weren’t ruined yet, they’d be ruined soon because I wasn’t there to retrieve them. It was a stressful birthday eve. One of my old roommates (And friends. We’re also friends. Not just roommates.) came to my rescue and safely collected my belongings. Big shoutout to you, British Molly. Prayer hands emoji.
One more one more thing… thank you to my GBF Matt for being thirsty as all hell for my content. Without you, I definitely would’ve continued to forget I have a blog. :’)
reina snophia 