Patience friends, patience

It's been ages since I've tried my hand at this but that's because it's a really hard thing to do when you're traveling and busy and lying on beaches and taking overnight buses and meeting new friends and then some...it's even harder when you have no electricity or running water, let alone internet access.

In short, Vanuatu was an incredible experience, both wonderful and horrible at the same time. It was so hard, but so rewarding - in four and a half weeks, we built a school. I want to write about everything that happened in Vanuatu but time does not allow it right now - so what I'm going to do is slowly but surely start posting some of my journal entries on my blog so that I can try to make you understand what was in my head for that six weeks. I'll also post oodles of pictures once I manage to get them on cd and on a computer, but I'm going to be MIA again for a while (going sailing, woo!) so hang tight, they'll come eventually.

The most important lessons I learned in Vanuatu were:

-Self defense, island style (drunk man touches bum, punch drunk man in face)
-The fact that you are living in the middle of a gargantuan cocoa plantation does not mean that you will have access to chocolate. Ever.
-In a community that rarely sees white people, they will stare at you all the time and watch everything you do very carefully, however no one will tell you when your skirt is tucked into your underwear.

I'm safe and sound and happy and healthy in Australia, I'm in a little town called Noosa Heads right now, after having had gastro in Sydney and marriage proposals in Byron Bay. Beaches are plentiful, boys are plentiful, and the sun is good for my soul. I might just not come back.

Love you all, more to come from me soon.

Peace,

Jo

I don't give a flying fox.

So I'm here.

Sydney is lovely...but it is, as expected, a generic western city. I've seen the Opera house, the Harbour Bridge (had a nice Middle Eastern man and his mail-order bride take a picture of me in front of it), the Taronga Zoo, Manly Beach, the bar...but the highlight of my trip so far has definately been my trip up to Katoomba. I met up with Becca last weekend and we decided to head up to the Blue Mountains (about 2 hours inland from here) for a day, and four days later I found myself still there. We did a whole bunch of hiking and took a tour to the Jenolan caves, and stayed in this unbelievable hostel called the Flying Fox. Becca went back to Sydney a little earlier than I did, but I was busy hanging out with my new friends Chris and Olly. The email that I was going to send out following this trip was to be entitled "Love from Australia Part 2 - Marrying a Brit and never coming home", but I was too busy getting to know them that I didn't have time to write. We had bonfires in the backyard every night, and the last night I was there the hostel owner Ross cooked us all dinner. When I first got to Australia I was a little bit disillusioned because travelling alone was not as I had anticipated - the people in the gargantuous hostel I'm staying in in Sydney were not so friendly and I was a little bit lonely wandering around this huge city full of people by myself. But in Katoomba I found what I was looking for, which was personality and intimacy, and have returned to city far more comfortable in my own skin as a traveler. I also got to pet a kangaroo.

I'm now met up with the whole YCI group minus one, named Zachary, who will probably be overwhelmed by us tomorrow because we've been talking about him all day and we have labeled him the hippie even though we haven't met him yet and for all we know he is a capitalist bastard who hates granola. The group is pretty chill and tomorrow we start our training, but tonight, tonight there is free beer at our hostel in honour of the hostel's fourth birthday.

I feel like I have more to write but I have seen so much and done so much and thought so much and felt so much over the last six days that words can't do any of it justice. Pictures might help, so check out my photo album (link on the side, if I can figure out how to post)

New things I've learned:

-In Australia they don't know what a bathroom or a washroom is, it's just "toilet", and that's not rude;
-In Australian toilets the lights are all fluorescent blue to deter heroin users from being able to shoot up - you can't see the vein in that kind of light;
-Australian money doesn't rip, no matter how hard you try;
-Pizza didn't come to Australia until 1970.

That's all for me right now folks - off to dinner, laundry and bar.

Peace and love from Sydney,

Jo

3,2,1, Takeoff.

So, last Friday, my life became mayhem - and today things are about to become far mayhem-ier (this is my space and I therefore reserve the right to make up words as I do so choose, and for those of you who have ever played scrabble with me you know I like to do this, and always get away with it. I should write a dictionary of Jo words and Joanna-isms - maybe later.) Anyway, I just spent two weeks in Hamilton and an amazing weekend in Montreal where I got to spend time with good old friends (and where Jessie, Sheree, Meg and I managed to polish off all the liquor in my father's house) We went to a fabulous karaoke establishment (sans liquor license, pour le moment, but glorious nonetheless) with private rooms and funny little cartoon dancers. I then proceeded to Ottawa for convocation and goodbyes...I am now officially a university graduate and I am very sad at the loss of some very important people - I hope Susan, Anne and Lauren really enjoy grad school in Vancouver and Halifax, because it damn well better be worth them leaving us behind!

I'm leaving in just about an hour. I have no expectations and am looking forward to finding out what's in store for me. I'm nervous (especially about the excruciatingly long plane ride) I'm excited, I am, as the great Marc Elias once said, a "ziplock bag full of (many) emotions". I've got my bugnet, a couple of pairs of underwear, a good book and an open mind and I'm as ready as I'm going to be....

Til next time from Down Under!

Peace and love.