I've Got the Travel Bug

Finally! I have some adequate time to catch you up on my activities here in the Southern Hemisphere!! Sitting here in the cozy warm living room with a nice hot cup of jasmine tea with rain pouring down outside, I will attempt to cram all my stories into one post :)

Wow have I had experiences these past 2 weeks....so many that I've been hesitating to write since I know that once I start I usually can't stop. Where to start? Where did I leave OFF?!

My mom and a dear friend of the family, Judi, who's really like an aunt to me, took a trip down under to visit me. During that time we took a road-trip to Australia's capital city, Canberra, for a weekend, and then went and explored New Zealand, the best way possible, for about 5 days. I originally thought my mom's visit came to soon (I am only 2 months into my service time), but it ended up being the perfect time for her to come. I needed space and needed to get out, and for various other reasons, it was on-the-dot timing.

Canberra was absolutely gorgeous. Mom and I drove down, took about 3 hours, in the reallyyyyy cute car they rented (Judi was already there). The drive was just to die for- so much greenery and so serene. Mom was freaking out most of the time, nervous that we would hit a random kangaroo that would jump out from the forest haha. Nothing happened, just in case you're wondering :) The highway use to be a lake, from what I've heard, so it was lush (but not an intense lush, like New Zealand would be) and there was a lot of farmland- it was kind of like driving from LA to Fresno, which is mostly farmland in the middle, but all dry and all ugly- this was all wet and all beautiful. When we got to the town, I said to Mom, “Well...I feel like I'm in Orange County....” Stayed with a fantastically nice family who knew Judi from when she was pioneering in South Africa in the 70's-80's. It's so great to see my mom and Judi have these friends all over the world whom they met when they were in a distant country serving the Faith. I feel like, with the Faith, you always have a connection, and you're relationship is always moving forward, where as relationships from school or clubs come and go since it's just a period of time. It's nice to see that friendships formed 30 years ago can continue and progress.

The second day in Canberra, the family took us to the Canberra Baha'i Centre where we saw wild kangaroos! There were 30 or more just hanging around, and some people were saying that they're so use to humans that they get close to the Centre and you can actually pet them. I'm not going to take their word for it. But it was really awesome to see them hopping about :) Then we were taken to the annual Floriade event, a flower/tulip festival in the city. Gorgeous. Flowers everywhere. I went picture crazy hahaha. The landscape of Canberra is very symmetrical- I was told- organized, which is probably why I liked it hahaha. The family also took us to Embassy Row, where you can see every country's embassy- it was so cool! It was like Disneyland's “It's a Small World” but in life form! All the buildings' architecture reflected that country's culture and style. So awesome to see. America's was embarrassing to the max! Took up, like, 3 blocks, smack dab in the middle of the whole lot; big, loud, and so unnecessary. Helloooo, you don't have to be the center of attraction all the time! Lordy lord. Anyway, the trip was overall very relaxing and fun. Oh! On our way home we stopped at a wildlife zoo and petted koalas and kangaroos!! It was really cool. I was pretty hesitant to go close since, they are wild and I didn't want to get eaten. When I went up to pet the koala (in the below picture), he stopped eating his Eucalyptus leaves and turned suddenly facing me and stared, I thought I did something to alarm him and therefore Ibacked up and took a picture far away, just incase he was going to swing his giant, razor sharp paw at me :)

New Zealand, which we went to 2 days after Canberra, was everything everyone was saying it was. Everyone says New Zealand is gorgeous and raves about it, and I just thought they were exaggerating so I wasn't particularly waiting to be impressed or anything. But as we left the city (after staying and exploring one day) and drove more and more into the country and farm area....Man! It's gorgeous! The greens are so lush, and the colors are so vibrant. The land goes on and on and on, never ending fields of 10 shades of green. It's like looking at the ocean and seeing the magnitude of the world and really seeing how small we humans are- same thing, but on land. I felt like I could stare at those patches of never ending fields forever, watching the herds of cows and sheep and horses go back and forth, living a life of careless leisure. The downfall of the trip, a bit, was that it poured rain every day that we were there. Each day had a couple of hours of sunshine, but mainly rain. Being a person that likes rain, and someone who hasn't had a rain storm in a while, I was quite happy with the cold weather (nice change from dry heat all day), but my travel mates...hmmm, not so much. I do think that if the sun came out more we would've seen so much more beauty. But I enjoyed the trip immensely even though blue skies were mostly absent. The family we stayed with (another one of Judi's friends, they served together in Haifa, Israel in the 80's-90's) were just absolute sweethearts. So loving and so kind and really funny! They took us around town, to an arts fair, took us to their Baha'i Feast (which was about a 25minute drive, like on the other side of town haha) where I saw how a smaller Baha'i community goes about their events, they took us to touristy spots 2 hours away....so sweet! On our last full day there they drove us to this farm area where Judi treated me to horseback riding for my birthday. It was to die for. OMG. SPACTACULAR. The scenery that we saw cannot be described adequately with words, and pictures can't translate them either. If you go to New Zealand, go horseback riding in the mountains, you'll get the true experience. I really wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride, but this was just as great!!!

Overall, my journeys around the world have been very memorable and very enjoyable. I'm so thankful for my mom for the trip here and for the trips that I got to take with her and Judi. I really do enjoy expanding my world view. I know it's not an easy leisure, so I'm very thankful!!!

While I was on vacation, I actually got to a point where I was itching to get back to work. Never thought I'd see the day where I want to go to work! I felt like “I need to be at work, I'm missing out, I have stuff to do people!” And I do enjoy working here. Some think because it's office work etc it's not enjoyable, but I like having a task that is continuous, and I like being busy. I guess it's true that when you enjoy your work you want to work. So, I believe you are now caught up on my life. Sorry it took so long for the update, but I'm sure the length of this post has made up for that! Loves.