Hi. Remember me? Has it really been nearly two months since I wrote anything? Sorry for the delay, but I guess I'm just "living" instead of "traveling" so haven't had all that much to report. We are still living in "the frat house," the boys are still as messy as always, but I am coping, because it is cheap, and I can't work here. So.
I did make a mini-visit back to Alpacaland where, goodness me, they've all been sold. I was very sad. I guess they got an un-refusable offer for the whole lot, so bye bye alpacas. But they did keep three, one of which was my favourite little baby from last year, so at least I got a little bit of quality time with the alpacas. And of course some quality time with my friends there too!
Next stop: Florida. I am heading back in July, via brief visits in Auckland and LA to see friends. I am not sure how long I will be in Florida, perhaps two months? It all depends on too many factors, the most important of which are my parents. I have to see how they are doing, if they are healthy enough and sane enough for me to leave them again :-) We'll see.
So post Florida, it looks like I either:
1) Come back to Melbourne for another few months while Windsor works and does his family thing. If we move out of the frathouse I might actually have enough inspiration to finish my book!
2) Go off to fill-in-the-blank country to teach English. That way we can BOTH work and feel useful. But we are not sure where we would go, if we would like it, and if we would be any good at it. We are open to suggestions!
3) Get a 1-year working holiday visa for NZ. Again, mainly so we can both work, but we have nothing/no one there really.
4) Stay in Florida a bit longer to look after the parentals. But that would mean either Windsor can't work or we are apart. Mom says "No hon, we are fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine." But I need to see for myself.
So that's it. I am slowly working through editing my book. Sloooooooooooowly (the aforementioned frathouse is not the ideal place for creative inspiration). I've been going Cuban Salsa dancing every other week or so, which has been wonderful and fun, and I've met some fun people too. And I'm just hanging out with my girlfriends and with Windsor, doing lots of baking to keep the house warm (and maybe fatten ourselves up for winter because it is COLD in Melbourne).
Oh, and if anyone knows of some short-term temp work in Florida, LET ME KNOW!
Hope all is well for whoever is still reading this :-)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Best Pre-flight Announcement Ever
Why can't all pre-flight announcements be this entertaining?
This guy is fabulous.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137883380?bctid=16920289001
This guy is fabulous.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137883380?bctid=16920289001
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Living with Boys
I've never lived with boys before, well, other than my dad, and my brothers who moved out of home when I will still a wee little thing. But in my adult life, I have never lived with boys. I've lived with girls, I've lived with my parents and I've lived alone. I have stayed in the same room with boys at numerous hostels around the world, but I have never lived with them.
I came back to Australia to live with my boyfriend (which, in itself, is a whole-nother-huge thing, but it is all going quite fine thank you for asking) and wound up getting two extra boy housemates as a bonus. It's like three for the price of one!
Luckily for me, my boyfriend has been house-broken and potty trained. He does all the things normal people are supposed to do, like clean up after themselves, share work around the house, etc. He's actually even better than that, he cooks too. I lucked out with this one! He's a keeper!
But the others ... well ... they haven't entirely been house-trained.
Let's see if I can give you a few examples.
1: The Shower. I frequently walk in to the bathroom and find myself stepping in puddles. I look down and see that both the bath mats are soaked and there are water puddles all over the floor. It is as if one of them takes a shower and grabs handfuls of water and, with a flourish, says to the world, "here I am," and flings the water all over the bathroom. If we had a detachable shower head, I would assume one of them had a water fight with his shadow. But we don't. So I guess the only logical explanation is that they shower, step on the bathmat with soaking feet, shake themselves off, and then walk to the other side of the bathroom to pick up a towel to finish the drying process. I, on the other hand, hang my towel over the shower rail so that I can get dry without soaking the floor. Logical? Common sense? No? Que?
2. The Smoking. They don't smoke in the house. If they did, I wouldn't live here. But I can't tell you how many times we've asked them to shut the door when they are smoking on the patio so that the smoke doesn't drift inside to the kitchen and then right in to our bedroom. We might have to resort to stuffing hairs in their cigarettes. I wonder how that would go over?
3. Dishes. We've all had roommates that didn't do dishes, but this is a bit ridiculous. I think one day the boyfriend said to one of the guys, "Um, your dishes have been waiting in the sink for you since Friday."
So combine this with drum lessons; shoes left in perfect "trip over me" positions; loogey-hocking sounds emanating from the bathroom; empty milk cartons, empty potato chip packets and glasses lying around; it is sort of like living in a frat house. So this is what living with boys is like. But really, it's not all that bad, I mean, look at the bright sides ...
um ...
riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight ...
uh ...
The drumming keeps would-be burglars away.
And ... um ... it's cheaper.
It's kind of like being at University again.
As my dad would say, "Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you."
I came back to Australia to live with my boyfriend (which, in itself, is a whole-nother-huge thing, but it is all going quite fine thank you for asking) and wound up getting two extra boy housemates as a bonus. It's like three for the price of one!
Luckily for me, my boyfriend has been house-broken and potty trained. He does all the things normal people are supposed to do, like clean up after themselves, share work around the house, etc. He's actually even better than that, he cooks too. I lucked out with this one! He's a keeper!
But the others ... well ... they haven't entirely been house-trained.
Let's see if I can give you a few examples.
1: The Shower. I frequently walk in to the bathroom and find myself stepping in puddles. I look down and see that both the bath mats are soaked and there are water puddles all over the floor. It is as if one of them takes a shower and grabs handfuls of water and, with a flourish, says to the world, "here I am," and flings the water all over the bathroom. If we had a detachable shower head, I would assume one of them had a water fight with his shadow. But we don't. So I guess the only logical explanation is that they shower, step on the bathmat with soaking feet, shake themselves off, and then walk to the other side of the bathroom to pick up a towel to finish the drying process. I, on the other hand, hang my towel over the shower rail so that I can get dry without soaking the floor. Logical? Common sense? No? Que?
2. The Smoking. They don't smoke in the house. If they did, I wouldn't live here. But I can't tell you how many times we've asked them to shut the door when they are smoking on the patio so that the smoke doesn't drift inside to the kitchen and then right in to our bedroom. We might have to resort to stuffing hairs in their cigarettes. I wonder how that would go over?
3. Dishes. We've all had roommates that didn't do dishes, but this is a bit ridiculous. I think one day the boyfriend said to one of the guys, "Um, your dishes have been waiting in the sink for you since Friday."
So combine this with drum lessons; shoes left in perfect "trip over me" positions; loogey-hocking sounds emanating from the bathroom; empty milk cartons, empty potato chip packets and glasses lying around; it is sort of like living in a frat house. So this is what living with boys is like. But really, it's not all that bad, I mean, look at the bright sides ...
um ...
riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight ...
uh ...
The drumming keeps would-be burglars away.
And ... um ... it's cheaper.
It's kind of like being at University again.
As my dad would say, "Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you."
Monday, February 23, 2009
Working from home?
Does anyone know about LEGITIMATE work-from-home jobs? Do they actually exist? I've been searching and searching for US-based work-from-home jobs (proofreading, data entry, whatever) and everything on the internet appears to be a scam or requires some start-up fee that will eventually turn in to a scam. Even links from careerbuilder turned out to be "just pay this small fee to sign up" type stuff ... and I'm just not falling for that. But something US-based that I can do remotely is all I can legally do at the moment, so ... calling all home-based workers ... where did you find your job?
Monday, February 9, 2009
Australia, revisited.
Three months in NZ was coming to a close so it was time to decide where to go next. Back to Australia with Windsor? Back to Florida alone with a failing economy and questionable job opportunities? Somewhere random to teach English? Apply to extend my tourist visa and stay in NZ a bit longer?
I applied for another tourist visa for Australia, because the idea of a 16-time-zone long-distance relationship didn't appeal to us. But given my past immigration interrogation fun, would they grant me another visa? I was on a time crunch, because I had to leave NZ in less than 4 weeks. How long would it take to approve/deny the visa?
It was a bit of a mission to get the crazy thing. I submitted my very lengthy application on line, since that was the quickest way to get it processed, only to have the internet connection I was using die, causing me to lose almost the whole thing. Bad omen? But I pressed on and finished the application.
A few days later I got an email, to my email address, yet addressed to some random person named Silviu something-or-other with a case file number that definitely was not mine. I emailed back saying that person wasn't me, but did they have questions for me, only to realize that they don't actually check the email address these things are sent from (either that or they were embarrassed about using an old form letter and not changing all the relevant bits).
As I re-checked the body of the email sent to Silviu, I realized the questions were actually addressed to my situation, so I then had to answer all their questions. They wanted a detailed description of the activities I planned to undertake, a detailed itinerary of my travel plans, what my intentions were, how I would support myself, and could I back up my assertions that I would return to the US later this year?
Phew! Where to begin? It was a bit hard to do since I haven't booked anything travel-wise, thinking they would reject me, and my activities basically involve hanging out. I have an open-return ticket but of course am not going to set a date until I know the visa outcome. But I persevered and wrote them a novel, explaining my reasons for going back, who I planned to visit (with phone numbers for character references), what I planned to do despite not yet booking anything, and attaching flight itineraries, emails stating the date change policy on said itinerary, bank statements, etc.
It was a fair bit of work for a simple tourist visa, but the work paid off as a few days later, I received an email: VISA APPROVED! Ohmygoodness. I had to sit down. I was surprised to receive a response so quickly, and surprised to be granted a year long tourist visa! I was expecting at best three months. But I got a year! So needless to say I was happy (and scared, I've never lived with a boy before, that is a very grown up thing to do!!!!! But most of all happy!!!)
So after the visa approval it was a mad dash back up to Auckland to try to sell the car, which had acquired a cracked windscreen right after we got our safety inspection done! There was lots of running around, cleaning, organizing, test drives, negotiations, and stress. We ended up selling Subi on to two nice Finnish backpackers, who will hopefully love him as much as we did. It all happened so fast, and we were sad to see him go. Then it was back to our friends' house for some crazy last minute packing (how did we wind up with so much stuff???!!!) and then a quick flight purchase and off we went to Melbourne two days later.
So I am here now, in Melbourne, doing a bit of couch surfing, until we find a place to live. It is strange being back, since I wasn't planning to come back for a while. But it's also business as usual, not too much has changed in the four months I was away. I am excited and nervous about moving in with a boy, but tons of people do it, and I can too! Haha. I will have lots of time to finish my book, so hopefully when I go pick it up again for editing I won't think the first draft is horrible! I just have to do it!
So that is about it from me for now. Wish me a good place to live and some book-writing ispiration.
I applied for another tourist visa for Australia, because the idea of a 16-time-zone long-distance relationship didn't appeal to us. But given my past immigration interrogation fun, would they grant me another visa? I was on a time crunch, because I had to leave NZ in less than 4 weeks. How long would it take to approve/deny the visa?
It was a bit of a mission to get the crazy thing. I submitted my very lengthy application on line, since that was the quickest way to get it processed, only to have the internet connection I was using die, causing me to lose almost the whole thing. Bad omen? But I pressed on and finished the application.
A few days later I got an email, to my email address, yet addressed to some random person named Silviu something-or-other with a case file number that definitely was not mine. I emailed back saying that person wasn't me, but did they have questions for me, only to realize that they don't actually check the email address these things are sent from (either that or they were embarrassed about using an old form letter and not changing all the relevant bits).
As I re-checked the body of the email sent to Silviu, I realized the questions were actually addressed to my situation, so I then had to answer all their questions. They wanted a detailed description of the activities I planned to undertake, a detailed itinerary of my travel plans, what my intentions were, how I would support myself, and could I back up my assertions that I would return to the US later this year?
Phew! Where to begin? It was a bit hard to do since I haven't booked anything travel-wise, thinking they would reject me, and my activities basically involve hanging out. I have an open-return ticket but of course am not going to set a date until I know the visa outcome. But I persevered and wrote them a novel, explaining my reasons for going back, who I planned to visit (with phone numbers for character references), what I planned to do despite not yet booking anything, and attaching flight itineraries, emails stating the date change policy on said itinerary, bank statements, etc.
It was a fair bit of work for a simple tourist visa, but the work paid off as a few days later, I received an email: VISA APPROVED! Ohmygoodness. I had to sit down. I was surprised to receive a response so quickly, and surprised to be granted a year long tourist visa! I was expecting at best three months. But I got a year! So needless to say I was happy (and scared, I've never lived with a boy before, that is a very grown up thing to do!!!!! But most of all happy!!!)
So after the visa approval it was a mad dash back up to Auckland to try to sell the car, which had acquired a cracked windscreen right after we got our safety inspection done! There was lots of running around, cleaning, organizing, test drives, negotiations, and stress. We ended up selling Subi on to two nice Finnish backpackers, who will hopefully love him as much as we did. It all happened so fast, and we were sad to see him go. Then it was back to our friends' house for some crazy last minute packing (how did we wind up with so much stuff???!!!) and then a quick flight purchase and off we went to Melbourne two days later.
So I am here now, in Melbourne, doing a bit of couch surfing, until we find a place to live. It is strange being back, since I wasn't planning to come back for a while. But it's also business as usual, not too much has changed in the four months I was away. I am excited and nervous about moving in with a boy, but tons of people do it, and I can too! Haha. I will have lots of time to finish my book, so hopefully when I go pick it up again for editing I won't think the first draft is horrible! I just have to do it!
So that is about it from me for now. Wish me a good place to live and some book-writing ispiration.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
New Zealand Wanderings, Part 2
Where oh where to begin ... I've had so little intnernet access, so I am way behind on the "where in the world is Mandy" catch-ups.
New Zealand has been wonderful to travel around, and perhaps one of the most tourist-friendly places I have ever been to. They have (I think) government-run tourist offices called "i-site"s in nearly every tourist center, and generally the people are super genuine and friendly. It would be an easy peasy job for me ... they don't work on commission so just genuinely want to help people! But I am not job-eligible, so that is a moot point. I'm just glad they've been here to provide any and everything tourists need to know.
We've been sleeping in Subi. I think we've spent about 30+ days in the car, and about 15 days in hotels since we left Auckland. We worked out that we're spending less money doing this (and our hotels have been nice ones, not ghetto budget ones) than we would have if we'd just stayed in backpackers the whole time. And after sleeping in the car, we appreciate the creature comforts of the hotels that much more.
We had an uneventful Christmas, just took the ferry to the South Island. Shortly after, we volunteered at a music festival for a week over New Year's. It was a lot of ridiculous work, as we got there about 3 days before the rest of the volunteers. We worked our arses off, building a fence out of tree branches, hauling felled trees from the forest, going on a mission to collect flowers and plants for decorations, creating said decorations, it was madness. We worked a lot. But after we had our fill, and the other volunteers finally showed up, we took off to have some fun. It rained on New Years Eve, but we did have a few rain-free hours, and I got to dance outside under the stars. We also had a good time exploring the area around the festival. It was atop a place called Takaka Hill at Canaan Downs, and was full of sheep pastures, hills, dry river beds, more hills, more grass, the occasional river with a waterfall, just heaps of beautiful scenery, so it was easy to escape the chaos of the festival.
After we left the festival we passed through some highly over-rated areas and some nice surprises too. We've found fantastic places to camp, surrounded by pine trees with the sound of the ocean to wake us up. We got attacked by sand flies near the top of the South Island, so have decided to stay firmly away from the West Coast, where they like to hang out the most. We're in Christchurch now and are pleasantly surprised by this quaint city.
But suddenly, the fact that my visa is up in 4 weeks has crept up on us, so now we need to think about what to do next. We need to sell Subi soon, but are having a few minor issues with him so have to figure out how best to sort that out. We're working on it. And my visa issues are beginning to be a pain in my bottom, but again, we're working on it.
I hope to update again soon. In the mean time, I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays and are so far enjoying 2009. (2009!? Already?! How did that happen?)
Oh by the way, photos are here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205645&l=ade86&id=791230081
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=207415&l=1f939&id=791230081
New Zealand has been wonderful to travel around, and perhaps one of the most tourist-friendly places I have ever been to. They have (I think) government-run tourist offices called "i-site"s in nearly every tourist center, and generally the people are super genuine and friendly. It would be an easy peasy job for me ... they don't work on commission so just genuinely want to help people! But I am not job-eligible, so that is a moot point. I'm just glad they've been here to provide any and everything tourists need to know.
We've been sleeping in Subi. I think we've spent about 30+ days in the car, and about 15 days in hotels since we left Auckland. We worked out that we're spending less money doing this (and our hotels have been nice ones, not ghetto budget ones) than we would have if we'd just stayed in backpackers the whole time. And after sleeping in the car, we appreciate the creature comforts of the hotels that much more.
We had an uneventful Christmas, just took the ferry to the South Island. Shortly after, we volunteered at a music festival for a week over New Year's. It was a lot of ridiculous work, as we got there about 3 days before the rest of the volunteers. We worked our arses off, building a fence out of tree branches, hauling felled trees from the forest, going on a mission to collect flowers and plants for decorations, creating said decorations, it was madness. We worked a lot. But after we had our fill, and the other volunteers finally showed up, we took off to have some fun. It rained on New Years Eve, but we did have a few rain-free hours, and I got to dance outside under the stars. We also had a good time exploring the area around the festival. It was atop a place called Takaka Hill at Canaan Downs, and was full of sheep pastures, hills, dry river beds, more hills, more grass, the occasional river with a waterfall, just heaps of beautiful scenery, so it was easy to escape the chaos of the festival.
After we left the festival we passed through some highly over-rated areas and some nice surprises too. We've found fantastic places to camp, surrounded by pine trees with the sound of the ocean to wake us up. We got attacked by sand flies near the top of the South Island, so have decided to stay firmly away from the West Coast, where they like to hang out the most. We're in Christchurch now and are pleasantly surprised by this quaint city.
But suddenly, the fact that my visa is up in 4 weeks has crept up on us, so now we need to think about what to do next. We need to sell Subi soon, but are having a few minor issues with him so have to figure out how best to sort that out. We're working on it. And my visa issues are beginning to be a pain in my bottom, but again, we're working on it.
I hope to update again soon. In the mean time, I hope everyone had safe and happy holidays and are so far enjoying 2009. (2009!? Already?! How did that happen?)
Oh by the way, photos are here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205645&l=ade86&id=791230081
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=207415&l=1f939&id=791230081
Monday, December 15, 2008
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