It should be a law of the universe to always follow exciting vacations with more vacations as a means of recovering from your first vacation. Does that make sense? The New Year has started at Tafuna High School, and it sure is slow moving. Over the holidays, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Australia to spend Christmas with family and New Years with a close friend. Those who have studied abroad before call this 'The Grand Return' (I spent half of my junior year in Sydney, Aus), and I'm stoked to say it lived up to that name. This trip was different than my experience studying there, though, since joining family and friends made it feel more as if I was visiting home - a truly comforting feeling after a few months without that in American Samoa. During the first week, I kept my cousin and her family comfort in Perth, a city in Western Australia. It seems more fitting to call my cousin a sister; since we look alike and when we’re together we get along so well. The times we are together, though, are limited, since we share the trait of wanting to travel the world. Paulina grew up in Poland and moved to Australia when she met her husband in Germany (only after living in Singapore and other places). Her mom still lives in Poland and my mom, her mom’s sister, is in Boston. This is how my family has been my whole life…spread out. From Poland to Boston to Australia and now to American Samoa, there’s nowhere that the wind doesn’t seem to blow us. As cool as it has been growing up, being away from such close family has many drawbacks, and so spending time with each other when we can is priceless. Christmas felt so natural; baking cookies and cakes like our moms would, making pierogi (which were a necessity in all Polish households at Christmas), and relaxing with family. It was the first warm Christmas I spent, but it didn’t feel too different after all. Paulina made sure I would have the opportunity to explore Perth and Western Australia as well. We travelled to Fremantle by bike, Cottlesloe beach, the Lancelin Sand Dunes, Perth CBD, and the Margaret River Valley. Each place was beautiful in its own way, and it was amazing to see the variation in beauty. Driving through Margaret River felt like driving through the bush. The wineries were magical and the beach was secluded and peaceful; no waves, no crowds (only a million flies to bother us). Lancelin Sand Dunes were vast and gave the feeling of being on another planet. Driving through them in a car was exhilarating and terrifying (only once when we were at a 90˚ angle facing downward), and sand boarding on them fulfilled my yearning for snowboarding, sort of. Fremantle was cute and comforting, and it felt nice to be in a city with air-conditioned stores for once. Spending time with my niece and nephew, Nina and Jan, was priceless as well. Being part of their lives while their young is important and an honor, and as they grow up I hope they remember their cool aunt from the states! After Perth I travelled to Brisbane, where I met up with a great dude named Graham. Graham studied abroad at UConn when I was working with the study abroad team, and because his Yankees hat made me furious right away and he owned the Ikea carrot to my Ikea broccoli, we hit it off. Since then, it’s become a small world! It’s refreshing to find people who enjoy traveling for the same reasons that you do and find adventure in the same ways, and it’s even more awesome to see their own country through their eyes. I was a Brisbane skeptic when I arrived, since I studied in Sydney, but I was quickly convinced that Brissy is where it’s at. A super chill vibe with good weather, cool people, great things nearby, and great ice cream places, it passed the test. Taking advantage of summer and festival season, we went to music festival called the Woodford Folk Festival, a hippy festival in the forest a little bit outside of Brisbane. It was my first festival and it was everything I imagined and more. Picture a hippy festival and you probably envision hula-hoops and butterfly wings and that was EXACTLY what this festival was. Throw in some henna tattoos, vegan food, a giant bamboo tree house and ukuleles and you have Woodford Folk Fest. Some of the musical acts included a full brass band that played some bumpin tunes guaranteed to get everyone off their feet and dancing at the end of a long day, and a Bosnian rock band that inspired everyone to hug and sway together. My favorite, though, was the band who called up the great-grandparents in the crowd, and mostly the great-grandparents who went up and busted a move on stage. Fittingly, the night ended asleep under the stars (mostly because our tent was broken, but I’m happy it was). Later we travelled to Graham’s avocado farm (omg right?!) to spend the night before hiking Mt. Warning for sunrise. Hiking for the sunrise is not something that someone who is afraid of the dark (like me) is always okay with, but for some reason, this time I was calm conquering my fear, not even flinching at the snake that blocked our path half way through. The view from the top was unbeatable – stretches of lush green grass, rolling hills, ending with a crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. On the other side, the mountains were covered in clouds, making it look like they were covered in snow, while in the distance; we saw the tall buildings of Gold Coast. We waited as the sun rose and blinded our vision, and then headed back down, with our legs feeling like Jell-O. We made it to the bottom tired, hungry, and having made a new friend…success! After breakfast, naturally we went swimming, in a creek and in the largest waves I’ve ever been in (though to locals, they weren’t too bad). Luckily, the only casualty during the bodysurfing session was my bathing suit, at times. A little bit of readjustment fixed that and the final feeling was exhilarating. The rest of the trip consisted of good times with new friends, meeting Graham’s dad, the owner of the avocado farm and the most passionate man of them all, showing some Aussies Samoan Palusami (coconut cream in taro leaves), eating one single avocado (blasphemy, I know), picking and eating dozens of passionfruit, and throwing tomatoes at street signs. On New Years Eve, after eating the best meat pie ever (and meeting the next best comedian) at Yatlah Pies, we made it to Brisbane to pick up Johannah…we could never be apart for too long. We rang in the New Year with some delicious passion pop and dancing (as usual) and just like that it was 2017, and Johannah was off, back to Samoa. I spent one last day basking in the glory of Australia – not wearing shoes, eating eggs benedict, swimming in Brisbane, and buying gummy snakes. By the afternoon, it was my turn to say goodbye and like clockwork, the tears came. Vacation had flown by and I was devastated about leaving, back to the island, back to school, and (the biggest sigh of them all) back to the heat. I’m not too worried though…I’ve learned to not say goodbye to Australia and see ya later instead. No matter what, I’ll always find an excuse to come back. Fortunately, our vacation was extended a few days while we waited for our flight from Samoa to American Samoa, and we enjoyed one more day of air conditioned rooms and continental breakfast. That gave me time to get positive, and I left excited for what the year has offer. 2017 is going to be good. My students will learn at least something from me, I’ll learn even more about myself, and the year will bring more adventures than 2016 did (bring it on).
4 Comments
fav "aussie" friend
1/25/2017 12:22:54 pm
bring me home some tim tams plz!!!!!!
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see above
1/25/2017 12:24:20 pm
for real though this whole post has me checking plane tickets :')
Reply
Marcelko tak pieknie opisałas swoj pobyt z Paula i Jej Rodzina,poczułam sie jakbym była z Wami..
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Sista
1/28/2017 06:59:48 am
Just read this post and the memories came back to me :) love you
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AuthorThe only way to find yourself is to get lost (and eat a lot of ice cream). Archives
January 2017
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