Goodbye Barcy, Hello Road

ahhh it's happening. We're headed out. And it doesn't feel real yet...at all. We've bought maps, planned itineraries, started making to-do lists, bought a car and yet....it hasn't fully hit. Barcy has become home, and leaving just seems surreal. This is our family. These are people that have seen us at our best and worst and even on the roughest days we come back home knowing things will be fine. I have been here for the past 3 months and leaving seems so strange. In many ways this feels like leaving home all over again; except this tie we probably won't be back. Meg and I have talked over and over about how even if we do visit it will be off because they won't be in the same town or around the same people. The boys would be older and Mitch would be off elsewhere. It breaks my heart to think that this little family we have become---Mick, Sharon, the boys, Will, Mitch, Miia, Meg and me--will never be reproduced. We've had our time. It's been phenomenal but it's coming to a close. No more runs around town, no more freshly killed meat, no more laughing/dancing/being ridiculous with drunks on a Saturday night work shift, no more casual horseback rides, or water fights in the backyard. We have one more full day and then we're off. Goodbye Barcy. Hello Roadtrip.

Things that have happened in our last few weeks:

1. Found baby chicks wandering around while watering the horses. Had to gather them up in our shirts and put them in a bucket until we had a place to keep them.

2. Watched sheep get skinned and prepared...then had them for dinner.

         

                

                                                  A kidney....followed by a uterus.

3. Went out riding on young horses, saw a train was coming, had a brief freak-out moment and decided we'd trot up to the end and avoid the train whistle.

4. Watched puppies being born! Ended up being 12 in total and FRICK are they cute.

5. Saw baby guinea pigs hours after they were born. HUGE. I would not envy the mother.

6. BOUGHT A CAR!! WOOT WOOT!! But really. It's an older car, but Mick and a friend have checked it out to make sure it will get us there and it's got a SWEET sound system. boom baby.

7. Watched Captain America in a theatre built in the 1920s. It was basically a steel shed. Super cool albeit uncomfortable chairs though.

8. Dyed our hair purple briefly. I unfortunately don't have pics to prove this.

9. Watched Gabe (a baby palomino) get halter broken

10. In an attempt to register our car... Found out the court was closed and we might have to delay which we can't do. Panic set in but then we became adults figure out what to do and saved our butts. Long story. 

Barcy Updates--Good times, Great Friends, Grand Adventures.

This is long---sorry bout that. I tried to split it into sections so you can pick and choose=]

21/3/14

Oh my gosh. Sometimes God outdoes himself. I have been somewhat freaking out the past week or so about where to go/what to do next. I'm such a planner and not having at least a BIT of a plan is destroying me! Anyways. so i've been praying about that the past two days--for finances and where to go. Well, what do ya know a french kid gets a job at the cafe and ends up telling me all about this place he's been working. His gf is making around $20k in 7 months and the place is bigger than here with more free wifi, cheap housing and lots of backpackers to meet and hang out with. So all those problems? Where to go. What to do. How to meet some new people. Money. SOLVED. Something else could always come up of course, but generally I am planning on heading out of here around the beginning of May and working in this new place for a few months and seeing how things go. BUT, God is so good. I feel so much better about life, knowing that there's this place i can go where it's really really easy to get a job and i can make good money. Oh and the funniest thing about how this prayer got answered? This guy literally only worked here 5 days. Like came, decided he wanted to go back and left. hahhah In that time though he was able to tell me about this place, give me his info and tell me to let him know when i got there. hahah oh man. I love it. 

AND the adventure continues. God has been so so good since i've been here in a multitude of ways. But way numero dos was bringing a good girlfriend to Barcy in the form of the lovely Meg. We're planning a roadtrip at the end of May heading up to Darwin and then left towards the west coast. We're not quite sure on timing yet and everything, but so pumped to do even a short adventure. Now the biggest thing is trying to find a car before then. So Mick and the two of us have been on car search duty for a while hoping to find something cheap that can be fixed up a bit easily.

                                                          

Other than those two major additions to my life....things are fairly normal. I have such a routine here that many of the things I can talk about are things that really aren't all that exciting, but rather just fun thigns i've done since being here. Nonetheless i'll list some off so you can get an idea of how things go=]

1. FOOD

Meg and I have gone muffin and Sangria crazy a few times and made a bunch of different types of each at the shop when things have been slow. Delicious and wonderful. Plus experimenting with the two....so so good.

                                                    

2. BIRTHDAYS 

Will (Frenchie)'s birthday was early April so Meg and I went all out to make a hilarious card and present for him. Then we all got to have some pavlova that Sharon got, and a gajillion other desserts along with an awesome dinner courtesy of Mick. Some friends came by as well so it was all in all a solidly fun night.

                                                  

3. RUGBY 

I went to a rugby match about a week or so ago to see a friend play and OH MAN am I glad I went. I don't remember all the rules to rugby anymore, but the game got stopped mid-way through cause a guy broke his arm, and then about 2 minutes later all the sprinklers went off. hahah it was hilarious. And we still won the game! YAY! 

                                   

4. HORSES 

I got the chance to head down to the large paddock where they keep the rest of their horses a while back and bring back 5 more horses to the house. One of them was for their son to ride, one to break, one to sell, and 2 to shoe and muster (when you go round up cattle/sheep). It was so wonderful to see horses running basically free out there in their herds and just so much fun to see Mick and Sharon in their element. Also, we got to see a little pup who is half dingo, and then we may or may not have kissed a decaying pig-snout. Since being back we've gotten to watch Mick break a pretty little horse that Meg named Tia, as well as geld a little palomino colt named Gabe. Gelding Gabe was hilarious (albrit I was not there for it) because Miia, the new girl passed out before they cut off the second ball hahah. ahh well. 

 

          

            

Let's see....oh! And then Mick preg-tested Henri's horse Ginger. And SHE'S IN FOAL! To be fair a ton of the horses in the field were also in foal, but Ginger's a sweetheart so it was exciting. Plus it was funny to see Mick with his hand halfway up her bum feeling for a foal while Sharon and I tried to keep her calm.

5. WORK

Tourist season has finally hit Barcy which has been awesome. The shop make s abunch more money, we get to see and meet way more interesting people and it's just generally more exciting due to busy-ness. One day Will and I were working and we were running around like crazy due to a bit of a rush and in an attempt to get something out of the fridge i pulled an entire shelf out and spilled this giant box of jalapenos. And it was one of those days you just couldn't stop to clean for even a moment, so for like an hour there were just jalapenos sitting on the floor we had to jump over to grab hamburgers and bacon and whatever else. hahhaha ughh. But as annoying as that stuff is, you just have to learn to laugh at it and move on. We both were cracking up making our burgers everytime we wentt on that side ofo the kitchen cause it just looked ridiculous. OH! and on top of that Will ended up spilling a ton of chicken oil all over the counter out frontt because he wasn't watching it. So....it was an adventurous day. But, in general work is pretty good. Can get a little hectic somedays if lots of tourists come in. Will and Meg were working a few days back and when we came in tto switch shifts there were LITERALLY dishes all over the floor beneath thhe sink because they had run out of space in and on the sink to put them. Will was like on his knees cleaning trach off and trying to get them into organized piles just to clean. It was absurd. Then last week, two of the guys came in drunk to help Meg and I out for the late night shift (we get all the drunks post-pub) and ended up getting in a fight with one of the customers while the other one was getting hit on by old ladies outside. it was hilarious. And terrible.

6. DRIVING

The other day Mitch took me out to a nearby motocross track to help teach me to drive stick! Success!  Honestly, it wasn't too bad, I just can't reverse to save my life. Prior to this happening I should mention he tried to run down 4 emus that were chilling together and then we finshed our lesson with him taking me out to this place where guys go post-pub to do idiotic things with their cars and proceeded to give me a demonstration of a burn out and hard-core donuts. I wish I had a video. I was laughing and screaming the entire time. But, overall a successful afternoon.

7. DAY TO DAY

I don't know that i've given ya'll a day to day of what happens here so i'll go ahead and do that. Basically you work either a morning or evening shift at work (8:30-3/4 or 3/4 to 8:30) during the week. I usually work mornings. So you day basically goes, work, come home, throw your stuff down, feed and water the horses, chooks and dogs. Let the dogs run, and clean out their cages. Water flowers if morning shift didn't already, and then hangout on the veranda. For a week ro so we went to the pool a lot but thhe pool recently closed so that was that. But, usually friends come over to hangout and have a few beers on the veranda or out by the horses for a bit until we have dinner around 8:30pm or so. Mick and Sharon are awesome cooks so we always have delicious meals courtesy of them, and often are eating meat that they've killed or caught themselves which is awesome. Every once in a while Sharon will take Meg and I out for a ride (in fact, one day we went out and ended up having to rescue thehse two other horses that had gotten out of their paddock haha). But, that's been awesome and It's so nice to just be able to be around horses again for a bit.=]

                

              

                                   

Random Aussie phrases i'm slowly and unintentionally adding to my vocab.

I'm chockers mate. -- I'm full.

Too easy! -- No Problem.

Crook -- sick

Feed the chooks, will ya! -- Go feed the chickens.

Ya reckon that will work? -- Ya think that'll work

So that's kinda my life right now. It's fun. It's so different from anything i'd be doing at home. There are a ton of great people here to hang out with, look at stars with (the stars are EPIC here), make sangria and laugh about stupid would you rather questions. It's funny cause there are days i can't stand it here, but overall i know that when i leave it's going to be like leaving home again. In some ways it will be worse, because i know that while I might see Meg and Will again, the chances of me seeing the Cann family again after this are slim to none. Tears will be shed. But, until then. Good times, great friends, grand adventures.=]

Whitsunday Dreaming

Oh I have far too many wonderful things to say about the Whitsundays. However, after a long bus ride to get there....Airlie Beach was not immediately exciting. It's a super small town that, unfortunately (or fortunately) for me you can get to know in about a day. So, when I got in on Monday, that was the first thing I did. I wandered what came out to two major streets along the marina, hung out at the beautiful lagoon and did some shopping. Nothing all that exciting, but I needed a relaxation day after Fraser Island insanity=]

Airlie beach doesn't happen to have an actual beach, so they've made a rather large lagoon in the middle of the town where people can hang out and swim and just generally have a good time. And so went my whole first day there. Tuesday, some friends from Fraser got into town and so we all caught up  at the lagoon before heading out to dinner and drinks together. $13 for a steak, chips and a salad? yeah. that happened. backpacker's paradise.Anyways, I had booked my 2-day 1-night Whitsundays sailing trip for the next morning so around the other girl and I headed to bed.

And so began the adventure....

DAY 1: Sailing Out

We headed out to the first place that we were going to snorkel. It took about an hour and a half to get there or so? Maybe I made that up. It seems like forever ago now. But it was a beautiful trip out. Unfortunately we didn't actually get to SAIL out as we needed to make time, and there wasn't much wind, but getting there was unforgettable nonetheless. Once we got there, our crew gave us a quick overview of the snorkeling and diving situation. Me, an Aussie girl and a Spanish couple all had chosen to dive at our first snorkeling spot. So as everyone else got geared up with their stinger suits and snorkels we waited for the dive boat to let us know we could head on over. I have to admit that I was TERRIFIED. First, I am legitimately horrified at the thought of seeing a jellyfish or shark. Second, you're not supposed to snorkel if you have congestion and whatnot--you're underwater breathing in anyway possible is important. I wasn't dying of a cold but I had had a bit of congestion the day before which added to my already oncoming freak-out sesh. So, while I put on a brave face prior to getting in the water (hey! i've snorkeled before! I can do this! no big deal!) I was actually internally completely losing it. Our skipper took us over to the dive boat where we got a brief safety and guidelines instruction from an incredibly enthusiastic Aussie dive instructor. Afterwards they suited us up with our admittedly VERY heavy dive gear and hopped us in a boat to the beach so we could practice the skills we'd just discussed before going on our dive.

during the practicing of the skills, I couldn't quite get one of them right--so add that to the list of my things to freak out about while being underwater. But, after this quick session to determine that we understood generally what we were doing he took us under the water to see some coral and fish! Now Michelle and I (the Aussie girl) had assumed that we would go on a short dive--come up, determine everyone was okay, and then continue on the longer 45-minute or so dive we were to do. YEAH NO. What actually happened (p[robably for the best honestly) was that once we were in the water after the skills session, we were IN. There was no i'm done i'm getting out. Well, okay. You could do that if you wanted to but then your dive was over for good. But it ended up being so incredibly wonderful!

One of the first things he did once the instructor got us down there was clap two rocks together and called a fish over. I swear this fish was basically a puppy. It would come right up to you and let you pet it, and play with it and push it around...it was so funny. Also..it was GIGANTIC. I mean at least 3 -4 feet long and maybe 2 feet high (do you say high for fish? that seems strange). Anyways, as silly as it sounds, playing with Elvis, as he is known helped calm me down tremendously. Which, at this point was rather good because I had been pretty much hyperventilating up until then hahah=]

After our scuba adventure (everyone else had been snorkeling at the time) we headed back to the boat to move to our next location where we would be able to hop in with some more fish and coral. I've really loved getting so many chances to scuba and snorkel. Especially because it makes me so nervous, each time has been a bit of a boost and it's getting slowly easier. It's so silly to love the water and being on boats so much and yet be so scared of the animals in it hah. Ah well. I'm getting better!

Finally, after our second snorkeling session we headed to the place we were going to anchor the boat to sleep for the night. On our way we got to watch a bird scoop a fish out of the water. SO EXCITING. hahah having written it out it sounds a bit dumb. But it was amazing!! hahah That evening, Joost, the Dutch guy who was one of the crew made nachos and we all sat out drinking whatever we had and enjoying the insanely beautiful stars. I seriously have never seen so many. It was surreal to be floating in the ocean (which seems endless) and looking up only to feel as if you are drowning in sky as well. I have never felt quite so small. It was incredible and I wish i could go back right now.

Eventually we all headed to bed. I'll admit I was on the earlier end. It had been a rather long day, and with no lights available...it seemed much later than it was. I feel the need to justify going to bed early on vacation. But, i love sleeping on boats and honestly going to bed early was just a nice treat.

                                                                                                                                          

   

sorry but can we just compare the size of my hand to the size of the fish?

                       

                                                                                                           

DAY 2: Whitehaven and Returning to Airlie

The second day on the boat started with a bang to say the least. My bunk was in the middle of the ship right next to the kitchen with these 3 Brits. So Joost started getting breakfast ready around 6:30ish whilel playing some music quietly. Okay, fair enough. A lot of times at camps and things (beach week? hahha) people will play music that gets slowly louder to wake everyone up. HAHAH NO. Joost went for the straight loud approach. At some random point he decided to just turn it up a lot (while smiling and laughing to himself) much to the dismay of me and the Brits. Nonetheless, we got up, grabbed some food and were just sitting and eating breakfast as the captain made his way to Whitehaven Beach for the morning. Unfortunately the water was a bit rough and there was a hatch above where we were sitting. So, in a wonderful moment of hilarity a HUGE wave came down through the hatch as one of the Brits yelled and jumped up from his seat with his breakfast. ahhahhah We all about died laughing. It was spectacular. And we were all nice and awake then. Nothing like having the ocean come down on your breakfast to get you up and going!

Anyways, we finally made our way to Whitehaven beach and oh my goodness. I can't even begin to say how incredible it was. We had about 2.5 hours to kill there and spent them VERY well. My pictures don't do the beach justice...so please google whitehaven beach to get the full experience. The water is insanely clear, and the sand is so white and powdery that you have to be careful not to get it in electronics as it will completely destroy them. We also weren't allowed to track it back on the boat cause it's so hard to get rid of. But it made for an incredible place to spend the morning. the water came in waves on one side of the beach so you could run into the ocean, while the other side was a large shallow pool of water that you could just sit or walk around in. Of course, with this type of setting, you can't let things go to waste. So, we naturally took a shameless number of jumping photos and pyramid shots, and just generally ridiculous pictures. (sidenote--I have none of these pictures because I didn't want to ruin my camera...so you'll have to wait for those pics to appear on facebook)

                                            

                                          

                                         

What we didn't get pictures of though---well at least I didn't--were the big sting rays and smaller sharks we saw swimming around. The boys had seen them and I immediately demanded to know where they were so i could also chase after them hahah. Thankfully one of them was willing to lead me to where they were so I could freak out about how close we were. Then, finally after a day of silliness, we headed back to the boat for lunch and the ride back to Airlie Beach. 

Since we had been unable to sail on the way to our snorkeling locations the day before due to lack of wind, we decided to do so on the way back. It was so beautiful. BOATS ARE THE BEST. I've actually always thought that, but being there pretty much solidified it. Anyways, the best (albeit the most intense) part of the ride home was when we hit a bit of a storm the last 10-15 minutes before shore. But, thankfully between Joost, the captain and the Brits, we did quite well. And, to top it off we were informed that every Whitsundays Trip gets free pitchers (and discounted ones after) of beer at the bar next to our hostel! SUCCESS. So around 7:30ish or so we all met up to have dinner and enjoy all of our drinks. OH and ALSO....there was a club like 3 doors down that was having its grand opening and you could get in free before 11pm. So due to my insatiable desire to dance...myself and a few of the others headed over to the club for the rest of the evening.

In all seriousness, my Whitsundays trip was probably the best trip I have ever taken. We had incredible views, a phenomenal crew of people, wonderful weather, and it ended with free drinks and a chance to dance. God knows me so well.

DAY 3: To Cairns!

Unfortunately the end of my time in Airlie Beach meant waking up VERY early the next morning and catching a greyhound to Cairns. curses. (it was worth it though...Cairns was great..i'll catch ya up next time)

American Girl, Australian Adventure.

AHHH I am flipping out right now! The past two months of dreaming, planning, hoping and praying for an insane adventure are actually happening. As of an hour ago my Year-long Working Holiday Visa for Australia got approved!!  Alright, to be fair the likelihood of it NOT getting approved was slim-to-none, but when you're looking forward to something as much as I am looking forward to this coming year, there is always that thought in the back of your mind that it is too amazing to really happen. Well, guess what? IT DID.

For those of you who weren't aware prior to this post, around October of 2013 I am planning on heading to Australia  for a year. What started as a joke has officially become a reality. I decided a while back that I couldn't go straight into the workforce after college, Knowing myself,  I would immediately get wrapped up in whatever job I did. While that's not a terrible, I also know that I would end up regretting not having taken the chance to do something crazy first. So, here we are. Beginning October 2013 I will be working my way around Australia.


Things You Should Know:

1. I cannot work anywhere for more than 6 months
2. I'll hopefully be making Brisbane my home-base
3. While I will be looking primarily for office-work, fruit picking is the number one job of Working Holiday-ers and i'm sure i'll fit a bit of that in
4. I'll absolutely make sure to see Uluru
5. I'll be making a ton of lists as I plan out this adventure! YAY!

So let the planning begin. As of today (after I go watch LES MISERABLES at the National Theater with some incredible friends!) I will be figuring out where I want to go, what I want to do, and what hostels I want to stay in. Planning might be my favorite part of travelling. There is no better way to increase your anticipation for an upcoming trip than to be constantly looking at the possibilities for your adventure. In fact, the only not-completely-planning-related task on my to do list is to make enough money so I can actually fully enjoy this adventure. Prayer Request: That God provides the finances for this. He has already put me in an awesome place where I am currently working two jobs at home and one at school. I just pray that He continues to provide. 

Well, until next time....I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas and an INSANE New Year!