Life Lately via Instagram

I’m sorry I’ve been slack with posting these past few months, but I’ve been busy doing what travel bloggers do best, TRAVELLING! If you follow me on social media, you would’ve seen I visited Laos and Thailand, road tripped from Los Angeles to Seattle, and spent some time in Canada, especially touring around Tofino. It’s been a great few months full of new discoveries, experiences, and (good) challenges. And I can’t wait to share all these travels with you soon (stay tuned)!

However, my biggest update of all has to be that Alex and I moved to Melbourne this month! I can’t express how excited we are! Those close to me have noticed a complete shift in me since discovering the news. This move has been a long time coming!

Previously, I expressed my struggles since moving to Brisbane. I’m someone who is greatly affected by my surroundings, as I have a strong sense of place. Simply put, what brings me joy, such as meaningful work, family, and culture, doesn’t exist for me in Brisbane.

Nevertheless, considering Melbourne is my favourite Australian city, I can easily find my joy here again! Melbourne is full of culture, which means meaningful work for me. It also reminds me of my hometown, Toronto, which is much needed after experiencing years of homesickness.

Though our larger travels might slow down, as we attempt home ownership, I’m excited to experience more local travels (post to come soon). So for now, here are some of my recent travel photos from Instagram. But feel free to follow along on my next adventure @jauntandflaunt. And a big thank you to all those that hosted, guided, and supported us throughout our travels and relocation.

Getting Real with jaunt and flaunt

For those of you who follow me on social media, you would have seen that I was lucky enough to help out at TEDx Brisbane this past weekend. It was my first TED talk and it did not disappoint. In true TED fashion I was incredibly inspired by each idea shared.

It is fascinating how instances in life come together, as the day before I ran into a good friend of mine and her friend, in a place I would not think to run into someone I know. We got coffee and I was lucky that these two inspiring women also blog and were willing to share their insights with me. We all agreed that we respond to blogs that get real, bloggers who show their true selves.

But when I thought about it, I might not have done that with jaunt and flaunt, in an effort to stay positive. Well it all came together with the first talk of the day at TEDx Brisbane, by up and coming artist superstar, CJ Hendry (I might have a girl crush). Her talk related to Mike Tyson’s famous quote, “We all have a plan until we get punched in the face”. She referred to herself as a “planzilla”, something I can definitely relate to, only to receive wake up call after wake up call, ultimately forcing her to pursue her destiny of drawing, a career she was somewhat embarrassed about. Safe to say she is not embarrassed anymore, as her works sellout within five minutes of releasing the images to Instagram, for up to $50,000 each, with celebrity clients such as Kanye West (one of my favourites).

So here we go, I’m going to get real and expand on my little “About” blurb. If this had happened to me a year ago, I would not have taken notice, now I am grateful for how far I’ve come, appreciating what this experience has truly meant.

I was (and a little bit still am) a planner. Everything I did was to execute my master plan of a successful career. I was an overbooked high schooler. I was accepted into one of the top three universities in the country to study my passion of archaeology, or dinosaur science as I referred to it as a child (I now realise it’s called paleontology). I got as much work experience in my field as possible, so I would be sorted with a kick-ass resume when I graduated. Throughout this I always wanted to travel, so went on an exchange semester to Australia, then traveled after I graduated for about a year on and off. I was accepted into one of the top five universities in the world for my Masters. Continued to gain relevant work experience. But then I met a man who asked me to move to Australia with him. It was ok because it still fit in with my plan; I thought I could start my successful career in Australia, no problem. Then I got punched in the face (figuratively speaking).

My plan did not go to plan when I arrived in Australia and I’ve spent the past three years trying to adapt (that’s the short version, depending on how this is received I might tell you the long version later). I think it is safe to say I am out of the storm now. But I’ve had to redefine what success is to me, realising that it might not include a career behind the scenes at a world-renowned museum, or even a 9 to 5 job at a desk. However, throughout all of this, I continued to travel and quench my thirst for world cultures, my other major was anthropology after all.

So there you have it, jaunt and flaunt was born. It is the embodiment of my passion for travel. It inspires me everyday and I hope it inspires you.

Creepy Crawlies

Autumn garden clean up

Living in Australia comes with its fair share of wild tales. A lot of my non Australian friends say they could never live in Australia because of the spiders and snakes. I used to think that was silly because one would never really encounter them when living in the city. But summer was in full bloom here and the creepy crawlies came out to play. This was my first summer in Australia living in an old house with a backyard and lush garden; we used to live in a modern apartment. The backyard is incredibly inviting on hot summer days, but it takes work to keep up. It was through my maintenance of the property that I came across spiders and snakes that finally made me question how Australians survive in this wild land.

A spider that is not afraid to hang around our house is the huntsman spider, which does not spin a web, but hunts its prey. You can see where it gets its name. But to give you an idea of its size, its favourite prey are cockroaches, and the cockroaches in Australia are not your everyday cockroaches. They come in all shapes and sizes, but most of them are large to my standard, and take full advantage of their wings (yes cockroaches fly!), flying into houses at night. Does it sound like your nightmare yet?

And I finally encountered snakes, something I honestly did not think would happen. One day I saw a long black snake with red radiating from its underside slither across our driveway. I mentioned what I saw to my boyfriend and neighbour, who should be accustomed to this stuff, but they were shocked, saying I should be careful, as that snake could really do some harm. Its name is a red-bellied black snake, another creative Australian title.

Later, I had another gruesome encounter, when I went to grab something from under our house (picture a house on stilts with the laundry, deep freezer, storage, and tool shed under the house) at night. As I turned on the lights to guide my way, there was a bit of a delay, but I kept walking and noticed something squishy under my foot. The light finally turned on to reveal I stepped on a little, grey, furry creature with big ears and a long tail, whom started to jump at my leg. I forgot what I was meant to do doing and ran upstairs screaming. We think it was a baby possum, the baby of the big possum living under our house. A few days later my boyfriend checked to see if the possum was still there, and it was gone. We originally thought I had scared them away by accidentally stepping on the baby, but my boyfriend came across some news a few days later that put all the pieces together and frankly, scared me even more.

Apparently, python snakes like possums, and are not afraid to hunt possums sleeping in houses. Here is another piece of the puzzle, the day after my incident with the baby possum, we woke up to the sound of kookaburra, which you might think is an everyday occurrence in Australia, but in our neighbourhood, it is not. Kookaburra actually make their lovely (annoying) laughing noise to warn the other birds that there is a snake near by, so the birds can protect their eggs. We think a snake might have had something to do with getting rid of the possum under our house. It could also explain why the baby possum did not move when it saw me coming, as possums are usually scared of people and see well at night, the snake could have already injured it.

So summer is almost over, even though it is still hotter than ever, and I have survived! But honestly, this is all part of the adventure of living abroad. I like to think I am a stronger and braver person for it, but now the fleas have invaded our house. The snakes don’t seem so scary anymore…

Wholehearted Tips for Living Abroad

Mount Coot-tha lookout over Brisbane

Living abroad is amazingly exciting, but at the same time it is hard.  To deal with those tough times, I rely on these wholehearted tips to get me through.

1. Be Mindful
   This is something I have trouble with.  I have always been a worrier and therefore, a planner.  I find it very hard to be present and stop thinking about what I should be doing.  But a psychologist helped my understanding of this.  As an avid tea drinker, she said “When having a cup of tea, enjoy it, sit there and think about how great it is to be having a cup of tea in that moment”.
2. Stay Grounded
   Yet another concept I have had difficulty with since living in Australia.  This has been the first time I have not had anything familiar around, such as a relative, friend, even favourite food or shops.  Believe or not, however minimal they might be, can greatly assist in grounding one in a foreign country.  So to stay grounded, I try to find those reminders of home abroad, whether it is calls to family, emailing friends or even finding and snacking on my favourite Canadian treats.
3. Be Grateful
   Being so far away from friends and family, I start to feel as if I am missing out.  My boyfriend always reminds me that even though I might not hear it from all those far away, I am still in their thoughts.  So it is important to appreciate what you have now, even though it might be different from those at home or what you had in mind.  Try to enjoy the little things.  I am constantly documenting my silly, ginger cat and fun and little nature discoveries here.  It probably is not exactly like home, yet that is what makes this experience exciting.

Claude hanging out after a visit to the vet

Butterfly cocoon in our garden