new beginings

so.. i moved house last week.
its been a fun little change. the thing i like the most is i dont waste time as much. this is due to three things...

one: i dont have internet. i used to spend/waste alot of time on the net.

two: i dont watch television. this is cause other people are watching crap on tv or i just dont feel like it and do something else instead.

three: i understand that my time i precious and i want to make the most of it.

I am loving this. The other day before i went to uni at 12pm, i made breakfast lunch and dinner, cleaned my room, washed my sheets and clothes, walked to the shops and did a grocery shop, and read a chapter of my text book. I was so proud.

I am also surounding myself with creative folk at the moment. Not intentionally, just the only people that seem to have stuck around in my life. I had a fun ole night last night with morgan. I made yummy veggie stacks with like 7 differnt veggies. Then we started our collages. I am doing mine from Jude 1:2b. It goes..

'Relax, everything's going to be all right; rest, everything's coming together; open your hearts, love is on the way!'

When i read this the other night i was so excited. It was so timely, and much needed. Will post results soon.. and photos of my new creative haven soon..

limbo land..

so its been a while.. ive been living a self imposed internet ban or more like restriction.. in an attempt to live life more. Its been good but ive hit a wall.

I finish Uni next year and the questions have begun.. 'What will you do when you graduate?'
and honestly my answer is 'I have no idea'

I am caught in a limbo between two lands..

The first is the belief that i need to change the world, and be heavily involved in environmental, and social reform.. This is a heavy conviction i have, and i want to work hard out toward this but this brings me to my second..

The second approach is that i am young and i need to enjoy this. Its true i am only 21.. and do i need to be getting too heavy with my life and loose my youth?? but can i do a life where i just sit back and work a pointless job

i feel a real sense of urgency about this, i mean if we dont make drastic changes now, more crap will just continue and the earth will fall into even more turmoil, but i dont want to loose these days of my youth..


agghh. why do i think so much.. sometimes i wish i could just settle for whatever, and do what all the other 21 year old girls i know do..

resuffle..

In an attempt to organise and document my life...

ive moved all my old myspace blogs onto this one.. they have been tagged 'old blogs' and are from 2006-2007

there is a bit of a mix there.. got poems for my friends, pictures and different ramblings.. but if your keen cheak them out.. more to come as i find time..

blahhh...

why do we compare ourselves to others..


why do i look at other people and want what they have.

why do feel inadequate..

why am i not happy where i am..


these feelings come an go, right now they have come..


i hate that i am not content with where, who, and what i am..
but right now.. im am..

time..

what i hate is the restrictions we place on our time.

when i was away traveling i made a few decisions on how i wanted to live my life when i returned home.. these were things like.. buying a bike and riding places, spending more time worshiping God without singing, have tea parties more often, and go out of my way to accommodate people travelling.

I can safely say of all those things and more that i decided i would do when i get home.. i have done none.

I hate that.. i hate that i made all these decisions out of my exploration of myself, and how i wanted to live and haven't followed through..

I know why this is so too.. its Uni..

I spend so much time of my life studying and i know im meant to as in a uni student but sometimes i wish i could just slow down a bit you know. But its not just uni, its everything else as well. My week is so full that i am scheduling people in to have coffee weeks in advance. I have every night of the week full of one thing or another, and work Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Uni Tuesday and Thursday.. and you know how fast weekends disappear, and i soon find out the week is gone..

This is not good when your at uni cause as weeks disappear so do days appear when assessment is due and your still not quite finished.

I must admit, i have been pretty good so far this semester, and submitted everything on time and to a standard i am proud of. And i also havnt been a hermit doing nothing, i have been to gigs, and spent time with friends.. but today it has just hit me..

I am over being busy. I was looking at a friends pictures of facebook today and that rekindled the ideas that i had while travelling. The ideas of going to the beach, and walking in parks, and painting, and riding bikes, and living life..

I was chatting to my sister, and i was trying to work out if i could drop something in my life to find more time, and she was saying, even if i do that i will soon enough find something else to fill that hole again.

I do love uni. I love that i have this amazing opportunity to learn, and the stuff i am learning i love, and i am challenged in my ideas.. but i feel i cant process this stuff, i am just running around.. learning learning learning and doing assessment so i pass.. But what good is a degree if i havnt lived my life.

I dunno, maybe wishful thinking.. better stop winging and write my oral presentation.

im finally home.

so after a very very long journey.. i am finally home. i left athens on the 23rd to fly to london.. then had 13 hours there and flew to dubai and 2 hours there and then to brunei and 13 hours there, then finally arrived in brisbane on the 26th at about the same time i arrived in the airport in athens.. 3 days to get home..

it was insane.. the pic above is of the airport in brunei. it was so small so all there was to do for 13 hours with practically no money is.. sleep. but it was never very good sleep and i woke up every hour wondering what time it was and where i was. It was so weird being without esther, and i was so confused when i realised she was gone..

Now i have been home for nearly 4 days and its all back to normal.. or whatever that is. Its strange i love being here, and i know i have exciting days ahead with this new uni semester, and with work.. but apart of me really misses the freedom you have when travelling.

I miss being able to meet different people, and just chat to them, then say goodbye and take something from them and move on. I miss no knowing what we were going to eat, and that it was always exciting in the mystery. I miss the fact i got to see Gods amazing creation new each day. I miss that i used to expect to see God move in every situation. I miss being able to spend time with Esther.

Esther is such an amazing lady, and it was an honour to travel with her. She is so good at it, and is totally made for this trip. She makes friends so easily, and makes you feel so special when you talk to her. We talked about alot of stuff, and it was great hearing her stories of her life. I loved how free she lives, and how that made me want to live a better life. I didnt really know esti before we met that day in London. I had never hung out with her, just me and her. Then we set out for just over 4 weeks together, to see 12 countries together, and it was amazing. Sure there was times i wanted her to hurry up, but learnt so much from her about taking it slow and not rushing through life (even though she probley didnt know it). I just want to say.. i love that girl. and i hope when she returns in december we can still find time to hang out every know and then.. and have more adventures together.

For now.. i have one little adventure before me.. a trip to melb..
My favourite Jo, has got engaged to this awesome guy Tim. They are an amazing couple and i love them both. I love that Tim is such a rad, honest, compassionate, and genuine guy.. and is very worthy to marry my favourite Joanna Marie. I am so excited to see what lies ahead of them, and honoured to be apart of their lives. Im so excited to party it up at the engagement.. and ready to hit melbourne once again.

So the adventure overseas is over.. but my life isnt. and im very excited to start living here on the coast... and implement some of those lessons i learnt while i was away, in my life here.

I will finish telling the journey from salzburg to home soon.. gotta go read my textbook now..

back on up..

So im on the train again.. (writing blogs is a great way to pass the time on trains) this time im leaving Budapest (Hungry) and heading to Salsburg (Austria), with a stop in Vienna for Lunch and sight seeing.

We have hit the intense period of our trip as days begin to run fine, and have opted to cover more ground and fast. In 6 days we will be in 5 countries, ending in Greece for a few days before I fly out back to London.

Since I last wrote I have been in Krakow (Poland) and Budapest. After Slot we made our way to Krakow and had a fun time there. We stayed at what has been the best backpackers so far in the heart of the city. It was on the third floor and had a great atmosphere. Everyone was so friendly cooking up big meals to share, and the staff so helpful, giving great advice on places to go. Not to sure about the European men though, very free in their dress code, with lots of partial nudity.. We got told about this awesome restaurant which we went and checked out. We ordered out perogi, and because there was no seats upstairs went down stairs to eat our meal. It was amazing little cellar style thing all dark with candles and so beautiful. I wish the sunshine coast had somewhere like that. We ate our meals, and I had a great Polish beer and it was grand!

We also went to Auschwitz when we were in Krakow. It was an hour and half bus trip out there and was a horrible yet amazing experience. It was disgusting, the stuff that happened, and the things the victims were forced to endure. The Nazi’s used the prisoners of the concentration camp for every thing. They were used for labour, their hair was shaved and sold to make material, their possessions sold or given to Nazi personnel. Everything was taken from them, so much that when the camp was liberated there was so much stuff still there, and it is all on display. It made the whole things so real to see a room full of the victims hair laying before you and within it all a plaited pony tail. To see thousands and thousands of shoes, all sizes including children, and all the suitcases people bought with them, unaware they were heading to extermination. It was so hard to believe that the paths that I walked and the rooms I was in was the camp itself. That so many people had lived in those rooms, hundreds at a time, and died either by the gas chambers, starvation, disease or exhaustion. They also had photos of many of the people who came and died there. As you walk through the halls it is so painful to look them in the face. With each photo is the date of birth, arrival to the camp, and death. They documented everything, its incredible, and horrible. We must make sure an event like this never happens again.

We had a great second night and met some fun people. Some Italian guys shared their spaghetti with us, very tasty, and we got chatting with some other Aussies. The next day I went exploring while Esther had a sleep in and found heaps of Pope stuff. There was a big photo exhibition with images of the past Pope, John Paul II and the current Pope, Benedict IX (I think). John Paul was the Archbishop of Krakow so was very special to the city. There was some more memorial stuff, and beautiful gardens. I went back to the hostel and then me and Esti set out to see the Castle and find the Jewish sector. About 20mins into our walk circling the city it begins to spit, then rain and then soon enough its bucketing down and we are getting soaked. There was no shelter anywhere and the rain looked like it was setting in for a while. We were close to the hostel so tried to get back, get changed and head out with an umbrella. As we got closer, and wetter the rain eased up and we were soaked and it was no longer raining. We got changed and head out for round two. This time we made it to the Jewish sector of town to see the buildings and find me a music store to buy a CD I want of a Polish band. By the time we got there it was closed. We had an amazing dinner that night at this great vegitarian place. We ordered this one thing which was like a sample of everything to share, it was massive and so good. We raced back to the hostel, and then back to the rain station to get our night rail to Budapest.

Ok, so a new day now. At the moment I am on the train (once again) heading to Bari in the very south of Italy to catch the ferry over to Greece tonight. It has been a crazy few days and ill try and catch you up.

Budapest.. The train trip was great as we only had seats but it was very empty so we could spread out and lie down. This meant we could actually sleep and arrived in Budapest ready for a big day ahead. We found the hostel and went adventuring. This was a crazy busy day, but very fun. Budapest is actually 2 cities separated by the Danube river. You can climb Castle Hill in Buda and look out over the two cities, it was great and once again saw this at sunset. Before this we went to the thermal spa and had a great afternoon just floating in the water and restoring our sore muscles. My favourite pare of Budapest was we climbed another hill and found the Fishermans Bastion, which was an amazing building, kinda like a castle looking out over the city. As I walked out on the ledge I looked over and saw the full moon, shining red. It was amazing! On our way home it rained again, and we got drenched once again, and after a 30min walk wet, we got to the hostel. The next day we head out straight away back to the station to train to Salzburg, via Vienna (where I began this blog).

We broke this day up to have the day in Vienna and the night in Salzburg, Austria. When we arrived in Vienna we ditched out bags at a locker and head off to see this beautiful city. After a confusing start we found the city centre and after a disappointing lunch (I ordered a Viennese Hamburger, and just got a meat patty) set out on the tram around the city. The city has a circle tram that goes around and sees all the amazing buildings, so we could just hop on and hop off. We saw some amazing stuff, there was big buildings everywhere, and were very impressed. We also found a 1950’s style coffee house and splurged on coffee and cake. It was so lovely, and my cappuccino had whipped cream on the top. After some more wondering we got back on the train to head to Salzburg. On our way to the hostel we befriended a Dutch girl who was looking for a hostel, so she followed us to ours. We got a room and proceeded to plan our days ahead. After hours of trying to work things out so we could go through Switzerland to Italy, we decided to can that idea and stay in Salzburg another day.

and we did.. mwahh hahah..

ok.. so ill catch you up to athens soon.. but for now.. just know we got to salzburg..