Monday, January 7, 2008

Aussie girl appears in local paper on other side of world

I totally forgot to mention this is my post yesterday...

Just before the New Year I was hanging out in downtown Mountain View while Amy and Ian were at work, and a girl came up to me outside the library to ask if she could ask me a question for the Mountain View Voice. It was for the 'Voices About Town' section, where random people are stopped in the street to answer a simple survey question.

She was asking people whether they had ever made and kept a New Year's Resolution, and 2007 was actually a pretty good year for me in terms of making and keeping resolutions so we got chatting and she wrote down mine, took my photo, and it made it in. I know some people think New Year's Resolutions are silly, or that they shouldn't necessarily be tied to the new year, but I find them helpful. So if you're wondering what mine was, it was to drop three sizes in 2007 - and I did!! Actually, I probably went down by more than that, depending on which country's clothing sizes you go by. It's still a long process, but I'm so excited that I want the whole world to know about it. I have lost more than what my backpack weighs! So... yay me!

Also the girl who interviewed me was lovely, and we got talking about Australia and travel and all kinds of things, and ended up going for coffee for an hour and a half. She was amazed to even find an Australian in Mountain View - it's not exactly a tourist hotspot. But her sister is planning on coming to Australia at some point so she was asking me lots of questions, and we're now friends on Facebook.

Funny how being in the right place at the right time can lead to meeting new and interesting people.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Ringing in the new year, California style

Has it really been over four months since I left home? It’s hard to believe – it seems like such a short time, although I have packed in a lot. I know it’s been a while between posts (again). My last month in Vancouver absolutely flew by, filled with much singing, dancing, and socialising. Oh, and some work was also fit in at some point too.

Leaving Vancouver was so much harder than I expected it to be. When I left Melbourne in August, I knew I would have tons of adventures on this trip and that I would miss friends and family at home, but I didn’t expect the places I was visiting to have the same hold over me that home does. I’ve lived in Melbourne for over 27 years and there’s no question in my mind that that’s where my home is – but how can it be then that just 3 months in Canada can make me feel the same way about a place? I think I knew within a week of being there that if Melbourne wasn’t home then Vancouver easily could be. No wonder so many Australians end up there… there’s something about it that really gets under your skin. (And no, this is not me saying that I plan to suddenly move across the world and not come back, but should I ever think seriously about it, there’s a good chance it’d be there.)

I’m back in California again, staying with Amy and Ian in San Jose, and I saw Seattle and Portland as well on my way back from Canada. Christmas and New Year was one big blur of fun, food and family (primarily Ian’s) as I think I’ve been to no less than eight dinners/breakfasts/gatherings in the past week and a half: two on Christmas Eve, two Christmas Day, one New Year’s Eve, one New Year’s Day, one dinner last Wednesday for Amy’s 21st Birthday (Happy Birthday Amy!), and a small party yesterday. Then tonight is the last dinner with Amy's family. Every celebration has been with different groups of people and different sides of the family. My family doesn’t get together this much in a decade! Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and happy to have an outsider tag along, which has been great since I can’t be with my own family at the moment while they have various stresses in their lives. The hardest thing about being on the other side of the world is feeling so powerless to be of support to the people I love when they need it. But since I have no control over anything going on at home, I’m trying as much as possible to enjoy every opportunity I’m given over here.

I could spend days recapping everything else I’ve done since I last posted in November. I have even more people now telling me to update! Sorry guys. It’s coming…

But for the moment, I wanted to post these photographs: this was my very last sunset of 2007, taken in San Jose on the way to Ian’s family’s house in Mountain View last week. They aren't great, but it’s the best I could get from a moving vehicle. I loved that the last sunset of the year was this beautiful though, and I found it fitting that such a great year had such a great finish. It made me reflect on how many things I’ve done in the last few months that I’ve never done before, and how many times I’ve said yes to giving something a try and not regretted it for a moment. I used to be the kind of person who liked to stick with what I know, who didn’t like being out of my comfort zone, and even when I did try new things, it frequently scared the hell out of me. But if I’ve learnt one thing since travelling it’s that life is so much better when you challenge yourself and exceed your expectations. Doing something I’ve never done before doesn’t fill me with dread the way it used to. I have no idea what 2008 holds for me, but I know that I’ve never looked forward to the unknown quite as much as what I do right now.


So I thought I’d try to narrow down my list of small triumphs I’ve had since August to just a Top 5: the top five great moments I’ve had that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t seized the day, or pushed myself just a little, or that I could quite easily have chickened out of but didn’t. In no particular order they are…

1. Hiking in the Rockies

OK, so it doesn’t sound like that big a deal really, but when I climbed the Saddleback track in Lake Louise, and Parker Ridge on the Icefields Parkway, it was the most exhilarating feeling to see the world from the top of a mountain and to know without a doubt that a year ago I would have been incapable of such a task.

When I climbed Parker Ridge, there seemed to be about five times when I thought “Oh good, I can see the top, it must be where those people are”. Nope. The path just kept going up and up and up. Several times I considered the merit of going all the way to the top – how much better can the view get from another fifty metres elevation? It was pretty spectacular already, and I didn’t have anything to prove to anyone. “Is it worth it to go the rest of the way?” I asked people coming in the other direction, hoping they’d tell me that no, it was pretty much the same as from where I was. But they didn’t. “Yes, it’s amazing!” they said. “Keep going, you won’t regret it!” I was dubious, but continued up the path, stopping when I needed it but determined to get to the top despite being a good 10 minutes behind most of the other people in the Moose group.

Well, there are no words to describe the view from the end of the trail. To think I almost turned around before I got to see it! It’s a view that doesn’t even begin to compare with the bits of the Rockies you can see from the road. When you get to the top you can see right down the other side to a completely inaccessible part of the Columbia Icefield – most people see only the Athabasca Glacier which is the tiniest portion of the icefield. I was so elated I practically ran down the mountain on the way back, and I made sure to tell everyone I passed that it was absolutely worth it to keep going.

2. Thanksgiving Dinner

I already mentioned this a few posts ago, so I won’t go into details again. Just about everyone I have told about spending the holiday with three complete strangers in a house I’d never been to have looked at me with an expression of incredulous disbelief. “You did what?” was the most common reaction. And although I couldn’t see my mother’s expression on the phone, I could hear it!

Yeah, I guess it was a risk. You never know what kind of freaks are out there, I’ll grant you that. But for those who were wondering, I made sure to tell someone where I was going, and if it had looked like the kind of house you wouldn’t get out of alive then I wouldn’t have gone in. As it turned out, it was a true highlight of my time in Canada. I ate some of the best food I’ve ever had, and laughed harder than I’d laughed in ages. Yet I could just have easily sat home that night watching bad TV had I not said to myself “Oh, why not… it might be fun.”

3. Joining the Cathedral Choir

Again, something I’ve mentioned before, but I realised how different my time in Vancouver would have been had I not ‘seized the day’ and introduced myself to Rupert Lang when I had the opportunity. I doubt that I would have been quite so likely to end up in the choir if I’d just sent an email saying “Hi, need another soprano for two months?” No one ever really needs another soprano since we tend to be everywhere, but I’m so glad I got the opportunity to sing with this fantastic group. I made some really good friends, sang lots of great music which I would never get to sing with Concordis (not a criticism, just that they’re very different choirs), and I’ll probably be going back in summer of 2009 to sing with them on their next tour to Mexico. Carpe diem – doors will open!

4. Blues dancing in Seattle

This is not exactly a risk I took, or something I pushed myself to try, but it was something new that I wouldn’t usually do in Melbourne. I gave it a go and loved it, and enjoyed it all the more for being with a great friend. We ate Haitian food (also new, and also good) and danced the night away, and it was the perfect end to my one day in Seattle. Also worth trying was swing dancing in San Francisco!

5. (The Elusive)

OK, Number 5 I’m not going to share – sorry if you’re feeling cheated! The question is, which of these is more likely?
a) I could only think of four things but Top 5 has a much better ring to it; or
b) Number 5 is a secret.

You decide!

If you’re feeling similarly reflective about 2007, I’d love to hear your own highlights of the year. Little or big things, it doesn’t matter – your best achievement, best meal you ate, best conversation you had, best piece of music you sang, best new thing you tried, best photo you took, best ‘A-ha!’ moment, best decision you made… add a comment to this post and share away, or post it on your own blog.

And in the tradition of all good ‘blog challenges’, I hereby tag the following people to add their own Top 5 of 2007 to their blogs: Heather, Ross, Lisa J, Amy and Martin. Add your list and then tag five other bloggers who you want to see add their own lists.

Coming soon: Photos from Seattle, Portland, and San Jose. And maybe a few from Vancouver I never got around to putting up.

That’s all for now. Happy 2008 everyone!