If you need me, I`ll be cleaning out my ears

Imagine opening an email telling you that in exactly one week, you'll be running a 20km obstacle course. This wouldn't have been so bad if I had not been spending the previous months eating cake and drinking full-cream cappuccinos. I had signed up for Tough Mudder when I was in Vancouver, six months prior to the event. Realizing that I had not trained at all, had no one to drive me there, and had no friends to do it with, I FREAKED.

Gunther, Me, (Jon), and Michael

But of course things always work out, especially when you're a couchsurfer. Michael picked me and my German couchsurfer, Gunther, up and we started driving to a farm in the middle of nowhere. I was running on 5 hours of sleep, having worked until 11:30pm the night before.

Hills, hills, and more hills

Taken by Gunther

 Being tiny has its benefits, especially when you have to fling yourself through some muddy water while trying to avoid the dangling wires charged with electricity. Climbing walls are a different story, but the comradery I witnessed there was amazing. Random strangers were pushing me up, pulling me over walls, high-fiving me. It really wasn't about our race time.

Gunther walking the plank

Friendly reminder

I didn't have any big problems with the obstacles until... we had to jump about 4 meters off a wall into a pool of water. Flashbacks to my 16th birthday, standing on the diving board in Watermania while my friends sat in the pool watching me and 7-year-olds were behind me coaxing me down. I fucking hate heights. But I had an ego, and I wasn't about to walk around a stupid obstacle. After a couple of minutes, I finally put my arms around Gunther and told him to jump and pull me with him. I screamed the entire way down but the important thing is I DID IT. In the final 2km, I heard a voice from a megaphone say "ice-cold beer" and I ran through the crowds yelling "FREEE BEEEERRR!!!!"

Two days after Tough Mudder, I couldn't walk. There was a scorching pain in my foot but the x-rays showed nothing. Will be going for a CT scan in a couple of weeks.
Also, I sincerely apologize to my friends, to whom I sent a picture of a dirty cotton swab. It took me days to get that mud out of there. Before I could finish getting the mud out...

The Color Run!

Attila doing his thing

 When Attila said he had yellow fever, I had no idea this was what he was referring to. <3

Stevan attack!

 Guess what happened next...

 So I guess pink eyelashes and red teeth aren't really my thing..

Vibrant Voyagers!

Jeff looking better than ever

Kids, I hate to sound hostile, but before I finish off this post, I just wanted to say something about me and my photos. If you are to share them, ask for my permission and if you are to use them, please acknowledge me. These photos convey my own memories and own experiences and are very personal to me. I get on the ground, I get dirty, I climb things, and sometimes I do slightly illegal things just to get the perfect shot. If you think I'm being unreasonable, maybe bring your own camera next time?

Thanks!

I fell in love with the ocean

Dear faithful readers from Canada, US, Oz, and Poland,
I know a couple of you guys are dying to get some photos from me, but it's end of semester and it's been CRAZY.

Yesterday I had one of the best days of my life.
My whole life I've been blessed with the ability to find joy in the worst situations and laugh at the most mundane statements. But yesterday I found a little more joy, and laughed a little bit harder.

Yesterday I fell in love with the ocean.

Niall hopping over some waves

We gathered at City Beach under some 33-degree sunshine for some fun in the water and on the barbie. It was the perfect place to wash off the explosion of colours that covered us from the Color Run. Unfortunately, this stuff is as permanent as they come. My nails are still purple.

"I caught a fish!", taken by Niall

We played frisbee in the water, jumped over waves, dove into waves, ran away from the waves and at times  just let the waves crash into us and knock us down. I don't believe there was a single person who got hit by the waves more often than Niall. There was also some man who lost his baby in the waves (but luckily found him!) I was constantly being caught in the breaks, tumbling, screaming, and trying to hold my bikini in place.  At one point, Anthony scooped me up in his arms and yelled "I caught a fish!" I could not stop laughing.

Sunset on the horizon

I don't remember ever spending 12 hours on a beach. We watched the sun set on the horizon while being carried by the ocean waves.

 It's just me and the Atlantic, taken by Anthony.

Attila and I

This is my new roommate. He's kinda cool. And maybe kinda sunburned too.

Niall and I

My favourite Irish guy, but probably my least favourite vegetarian after the past couple of days (just kidding <3).

The waves wrapped around us like a cool blanket. We played until the sun was gone and then some more. 

I've got more stories about Perth, kiddos. Stay tuned for my updates on Color Run, Tough Mudder, breaking into an abandoned building, being homeless once again, and my potentially fractured foot!

A stranger is just a friend you haven't met

A stranger is just a friend you haven't met.
This was evident the moment a stranger offered  me a place to live.

On Thursday morning, realizing that I was 4 minutes behind Google Maps's schedule, I booked it out of my house and ran to the bus stop. I was out of breath and falling over but looked to my right and saw the heavenly sight of my usual bus. A lady to my left commented, "don't worry, you made it!"

I sat down first and she took a seat in front of me. Turns out, she works for my university doing administration stuff. She was really interested in my exchange experience so I told her my whole story, including the part about me being homeless in exactly one week.  Megan immediately suggested that I stay with her.

"For a whole month?"
"Yeah, if you don't mind."

Mind? This random stranger was offering me a room for a month, free of charge. She also suggested that I take their campervan, park it on the beach, and sleep by the water. We exchanged numbers and parted when we got to campus. This morning, when I was walking with Dito to do my groceries, she drove by, honked and waved.

I've been having problems with my debit card and since I forgot to tell my Canadian bank that I was travelling, they decided to freeze that too. So Dito and I stood outside the Freo markets while I shook out the last pieces of change I had. One dollar and fifty-five cents. That was the only money I had and I won't be receiving my debit pin for another 2 business days. And of course Vancouver is 15 hours behind so I gotta wait for the bank to open. Should've opened a visa account with TD (This one's for you, Sunny).

Fortunately, I've been making friends with this Chinese lady and her brother that work in the market. I purchase most of my groceries from their stand. Today I walked up to her, explained my situation and asked what I could buy with $1.55. "Poor you", she sighed, and gave me some chard at a third of the price and threw in a free banana. I now have 55 cents. 

Thank goodness for nice people. My next mission is to find something in Perth that I can buy with the remainder of my money. Any suggestions?

Thanksgiving eh?

Back in Vancouver, I've been known to organize parties that are way too big for me to handle, lose track of my guests, and never do the dishes because I'm passed out drunk on my bed. But my friends keep coming back for more, and they keep on washing my dishes and carrying me up to my room, tucking me in and making sure that I have a huge glass of water beside my bed. This year, I lost my cleaning crew.

But that whole day of prep and one hour of cleaning today was definitely worth the trouble. Despite never having made a gluten-free vegan pumpkin pie, the boys' constant worry that the party would be a sausage fest, and that I was only slightly acquainted with half my guests, it turned out to be a wonderful evening. We had a mix of Ausssie, Irish, German, Hungarian, Swiss, American, Finnish, Norwegian, Pakistanian, and Candian. The majority of this group had never celebrated Thanksgiving before and I'm still shocked that pumpkin pie doesn't exist outside of North America. Poor souls.

Chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, apple pie

We had a ridiculous amount of delicious food. I'm actually eating some of the leftovers right now and I have a feeling this food baby is going to stay for a while. My guests were eyeing the food and getting antsy, but there was one more thing we had to do before we started eating - say what we were thankful for. We were thankful for the people around us, for food, for couchsurfing, for our lovers, for learning how to cook, and for being able to live in Perth. I came to this city with no friends, no home, and no job. Thankful to be able to say that I have all three (although I'm about to be homeless in 2 weeks, but we'll save that for another story!)

Above all, I'm thankful for everyone who put up with my Canadian shenanigans. Happy Thanksgiving!

Road Trip #2, Look Out for the Kangaroo

One night, I received this phone call from Attila and he asks me to join him on a road trip. "Where to?" I ask. And he says, "North, south, east, west... I don't care". So on Friday night at the bar, he hands me his keys and at 3am I found myself stumbling into his flat and passing out on the couch. The next morning, about 20 minutes before we had to leave, I saw, for the first time, the map of our journey. We were headed for the north.

Atte, Lucy, Me, Serena, Attila

Shortly after we hit the highway, we were in "the bush". There was nothing around us but dusty unpaved roads, big trucks, sheep, and a lot of greenery. A LOT.

Atte looking suave as ever

A couple of bros chilling

We stumbled upon some old flattened cars

The first town we arrived at was Moora. The roads were completely dead and everything was closed. We stopped by a hotel that had a cozy lounge, a pool table, a kitchen and bar. Maybe it was the fresh oven-cooked vegetarian pizza they made or the owner that kept singing and told us to "get the hell out" if we didn't like it... but there was something about the place that made it special.

The Moora Hotel, Moora

Train tracks, Moora

To be honest, there is absolutely nothing to do outside the city. It's always the good company that makes the trip worthwhile. We were constantly stopping for photo ops and it became so evident that you can have fun no matter where you're from, where you're at, and what age you are.

Mustard fields!

It was getting late and we were hoping to find accomodation in a monastery in New Norcia. However, when we got there, we found out that nobody lived in the town besides the monks who led very private lives, and the people in the hotels. The rooms were all fully booked because there was a group on a 7-day walk that had travelled the same route we had by car. We were also interested in sampling products from the infamous New Norcia Bakery, but discovered that the bakery was actually operating in the city of Perth. We came a long way for nothing.

Basketball court, New Norcia

Once again, we were back on the road. It was dusk which meant one thing - the kangaroos were waking up. In the exact words told to us by a local, "kangaroos have no road sense at all". We would be at risk of driving into one and completely destroying the car. I was assigned to scout for kangaroos, but I was too busy sleeping. Thank goodness we didn't come across any, and even managed to pull over on the side of the road and look at the stars. This was the best I could do without a tripod and it doesn't even do what we saw justice. No city lights, no city sounds. It was just us and the milky way.

The Milky Way

We arrived safely at a hostel in the town of Cervantes. While we were outside, Attila's drunk inside voice was still too loud and we got in a wee bit of trouble. After everyone had gone to bed, Atte, Attila and I wandered our ways through some bushes and plopped down on the beach to tell our life stories. The waves hit violently against the rocks but we were so relaxed.

After a couple hours of sleep, we were off again. At Jurien Bay, we were hoping to do a bit of sandboarding but like everything else in Western Australia on a Sunday, it was closed. There were, however, people skydiving. Not just skydiving, but skydiving into the bluest ocean waters I've ever seen. I kid you not, this picture wasn't edited.

Jurien Bay

In Nambung National Park, we trekked The Pinnacles, only to find that we had been walking in circles around the same limestone structures. Everything looked exactly the same, nothing but yellow for miles.

The Pinnacles, because I'm deep and stuff.

South of Jurien Bay was Lancelin, another town for us to do nothing much. Attila did manage to find his new best friend.

Attila and pup, Lancelin

 We arrived in Perth in the evening, but not before we were pulled over by a police officer for speeding. My phone ran out of batteries twice even though Attila had 4 extra batteries. It probably exhausted itself trying to get signal. To summarize our little road trip (and pretty much Western Australia):

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.
- Arthur C. Clarke

Sundays are always good to me

Sundays are always good to me. They always have been. Walking through downtown, I caught traces of a city in development. On one side there were skyscrapers and construction sites, on the other there were golden one-story tall buildings surrounded by beautiful brick paths. The city takes after it's motherland, and the European aspects got me feeling like this was some sort of summer trip.

Downtown Perth

I was never a huge fan of coffee but there's nothing not to love when the barista hands you a flat white with the perfect blend of bitters and sweets, and with just the right amount of foam on top. Bocelli has been voted for having one of the best coffees in Perth and I haven't found anything else that disagrees yet. The coffee was $5, the sandwich was $14, and the cake was $8. So overpriced, almost worth it.

Flat white, and a vegetarian Turkish sandwich (eggplant, sundried tomatoes, spinanch, basil)

Cherry chocolate cake!!

I found myself walking in an area decorated with sidewalk art and a giant screen displaying short films and ended at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. It's free, except for their featured art section. It's Van Gogh and Dali right now! This was my favourite display (which they removed a couple days after :( ).

Allegory: After Courbet, by John de Andrea

This Sunday, I started by having brunch and walking the dog with my wonderful roomates. During the night Niall, Atte, and I headed over to Little Creatures in Fremantle (my fav area in Perth!). It's a brewery, restaurant, and a pub. I ordered the White Rabbit White Ale, which was light and fruity and a pumpkin oven-roasted pizza with almonds, linseed and sage oil. Their pizza makes going meat-free so delicious.

Little Creatures

White Rabbit White Ale, Little Creatures Pale Ale, White Rabbit Dark Ale

 This city has successfully made me fall in love with its beer and coffee. On days I feel extra rich, I even have both.

There's No Place Like Home

I'm usually not the type to get homesick; home is wherever I'm staying that night. But when you're new to a city, constantly moving from place to place, and trying to study at the same time, things get tough. It's been about a month and a half since I've left Vancouver and I have stayed in 9 different accomodations. I didn't always have access to a kitchen and found myself eating all three meals in the school cafeteria. This city may be diverse, but it's definitely not as open as Vancouver. For the first time in my life I became conscious of my skin colour, and every stereotype and racist remark thrown at me hurt a hundred times more. I'm sick of explaining how I learned to speak such fluent English. Shit, I didn't just get off a boat. On nights that I had to trek 30 minutes to get back to my accomodation in the dark (because buses stop running at midnight), I wondered what the hell I was doing in Perth.

But last night I moved into my final home, well, at least until the end of November. The area is magical and more importantly, a dog lives here. I've dropped my thesis project to take creative writing, visual arts, and Italian. I went for a long run across a bridge during the sunset, got lost, then made friends with someone who walked me back. I bought hibiscus tea leaves, just made a marvelous dinner, and am listening to Backstreet Boys. Things are great. Now I'll need to find a job so I can afford to be here!

Anyway, if you know me, you know that I'm in a really good place right now from the photo. Tell my daddy I'm alive please. I'm finally home.

Current Status: Vagabond

Help me stay in this beautiful city!

I'm from Vancouver, and flew to Perth planning to study and thought I had everything set for me. But things happen, and sometimes you end up homeless. The place I'm looking to rent isn't available for another two weeks. I don't expect someone to host me the entire time, but just a little bit of lovin' here and there would be amazing.

Help me stay in this city, I haven't even seen the wallabies yet!

I posted  this on Couchsurfing. Within hours, I had 5 replies.

Ever wake up, late for class, knowing that you're homeless? Then fall off your longboard on your way to school and come home to find that your tomatoes, olives, and tomato paste have all gone bad? At the same time, you find out that you can no longer do your honours thesis, which was the main reason for moving away in the first place. All on a Monday. I actually had a good cry, thinking that no one in the city wanted me there. I could've said this was the worst day ever, but I'm just grateful for all the good people in the world. For the next two weeks I'll be crashing at the homes of strangers with my 70L backpack. I won't even mention how many days I've worn the same pair of socks. The important thing to note is that although I'm stressed as fuck, I'm alive and happy. There's nothing more important than being happy.

Oh and I made pizza for dinner. There's nothing more important than being happy and having pizza.

Travelling to Margaret River with Four Strange Men

When Murray and I first met, we discovered that we both wanted to go to Margaret River, looked around the bar, grabbed a couple of guys and said "Let's do it". To be honest, I had my doubts. Four dudes meant four people that weren't going to plan, wake up on time, and show up sober. And that's exactly what happened.

But by some miracle, we got to Budget, rented a car, loaded the trunk, and was on our way to our destination by 11am. Who the fuck were these people? I had about 30 hours to find out.

Murray (Scotland), Meng Hui (Singapore), ME (Canada), Atilla (Hungary), Atte (Finland)

Our first pit stop was at Miami Bakehouse. Apparently meat pies are somewhat of national dish in Australia. This little kiosk was situated in the middle of nowhere, but thank goodness it was because we were hungry!

Classic Steak meat pie @ Miami Bakehouse

After we checked into our motel, Dunsborough Inn, we made our way to Centennial Park by the water. The waters were shallow and seemed to stretch on forever. It was so beautiful we decided to take some band cover photos. Finally a foot in the Indian Ocean!

3 guys, 1 girl, and a midget

 Since we already covered meat pies and beaches, we had to complete our Australian adventure with "barbies" on the beach. Although we didn't get to go on the wine tours (which is what Margaret River is famous for), I did manage to finish a whole bottle of Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc by myself. Good enough for me.

Free barbies by the beach!

I woke up with vague memories of rolling around in the grass, harassing strangers, never-have-i-ever and skinny dipping, and there was sand all over my bed. We stopped by Evviva for breakfast and it was ridiculously expensive but I had been craving eggs benedict for a little while now... so goodbye $22.50

The most expensive eggs benedict I've ever had @ Evviva

Perth locals usually make their way down to Margaret River for some nice waves. We were keen on seeing some big waves, so we drove to Yallingup Beach and some other beach. This was the first time I've ever seen waves like this! Can't wait to actually ride them.

We went on a obligatory cave tour at Ngili Cave. It was meh. 

 And finally, tired and ready to go home, we headed north back to Perth. It was such a good weekend and an unforgettable experience. Thanks, guys. Bros for life.