How do you even get that job?!?

Hello everyone!!!!

I think it's time for an update!  After all my adventuring I ended up in Melbourne!  I was in Melbourne for a couple days and got a call from the dive instructor who took me diving for the first time on my boat trip in the WhitSundays saying "Come back and work".  I considered... contemplated.. and then somebody said to me "Why would you NOT take that job!"  So here I am.. working in paradise... on a boat.  The link to the boat I work on is... http://www.airliebeach.com/Sailing-adventure/Boats/maxi_apollo.html if any of you want to look into it!  No Pressure!

I am working up here in Airlie Beach for the next 3 weeks or so.. then heading to Sydney/Blue Mountains to go camping with a bunch of friends and then back up here for a couple more weeks of work and then I head off to California!!!!!

I went for my dive medical today.... I'm "fit".  Tomorrow I go to dive school to get my open water certification.  Would love to stay here longer and get my dive masters and my dive instructors.. but that would take MUCH more time then I have unless I extend my trip.... 

If you look up names like... "Whitehaven Beach", "Hayman Island" and "Langford Island"...."Daydream Island".. that's it I think.. Those are the places I see on a nearly weekly basis.  Langford Island is the island that if there is a commercial made in OZ that has a beach... that's it.  Gorgeous. 

What do I do on the boat, you ask??  I will tell you.  I cook... for about 30 people... 3 meals a day, for 2 1/2 days.  It's a TON of work.  Cleaning the entire boat... keeping everybody happy.  All this while still having a smile on my face and being "nice" to the passengers... they say working on a plane would be hard!!!  I have great people to work with for the most part.  I work Monday-Friday, get paid enough to eat, live and still take some home.  Apparently getting a job like this is hard and everybody wants it.  True... lucky for me I was on the right boat at the right time meeting the right people.  Job literally landed in my lap!

Hmm, not sure what else to say about this.... not too much is happening other than the above.  The town I am living in is one street.  It's pretty much like Wilkie... prettier.  Not saying anything about Wilkie... I love that place.  The weather is better here.. sometimes.  On that note... yes Airlie Beach is one street.  It's got about 5 bars/clubs, a few nice restaurants (cheap too!)  So many people walking around... definitely a tourist trap!  Making friends here has been easy because I work on the boat.  Pretty much all the staff are friends so I just wiggled my way into that group. 

All in all, life is good.  I try to find time to miss you guys in between loving life and working my butt off!  Just kidding, always thinking about ya'll and about how you'd all love it here!  Hope all is well!

Take care!

Cheers, Mates!

Yay!! Our orchid is finally blooming! I think it has been 2 years in the waiting. Can you see the little face in there??

Well here's my update! (Since Karin did one!)

I am currently on my second week of covering the senior math/chem position at McLurg. Mrs. Zoller is gone indefinitely because of the accident so I am doing my best to fill in and teach until the school and division office figures out what they want to do!

I am most definitely working with a steep learning curve! But so far I've been able to stay ahead of the kids and I just make sure that I learn everything before they do it so that I will be able to help them. I worked all day Sunday on stoichiometry - I thought I was going insane since I was always off by 0.01! Then I had the teacher tell me that being off that much is okay...that I may have rounded differently and my answer is still correct. Yay!

Good moment today - just as I was helping a student with a math problem and explaining it all to him the principal walked in. Golden :)

Sarah

Update!

I have been told by a certain someone (Sarah) that I am required to put up an update on where I am!  I think I can do that!

I spent 5 weeks in Noosa and I realized that it was time to move one.  I went into a travel agent and said "I've got 3 weeks to see as much I as can.... GO!"  Here is what she came up with!

Feb 20th I flew to WhitSundays Proserpine.. then bussed to Airlie Beach.
Feb 22nd I went on a boat called Anaconda III until Friday
Feb 26th I overnight bussed to Cairns.  Got there at 6 am Sunday morning
Feb 27th I went to Cape Tribulation (One hour after arriving on the night bus... SO TIRED!)
Feb 28th Back from Cape Trib to Cairns (Got talked into signing in for a pool competition... winner got a free bungy jump... loser had to jump in the pool fully clothed... I didn't win... luckily I was not the first one out though!

That brings us to now!

March 1 I am in Cairns...
March 2nd I am going Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef!! 4th Scuba Dive ever!!  Addictive..
March 3rd I fly to Perth
March 4th I go on a tour all the way up the West Coast to Monkey Mia Island (??)  Not sure if it's an Island or not... but there are TONS of dolphins apparently so I'm very excited.. tons of pictures hopefully!
Back to Perth on March 7th..
March 8th I fly to Alice Springs
March 9-11 I do "The Rock Tour"
March 12th I fly to Melbourne....

After this point I have no idea..not sure how long I'll be in Mel before heading back to Sydney to get a job or maybe get a job in Mel for awhile.. it's all up in the air!

That's about all I have time for a the moment.
Just so everybody knows I'm doing great and having the time of my life!!!  I miss you all tons but I know we'll have a GREAT reunion when I get back!

Love,
Kaz

Hey Karin, it's time for an update! I saw on facebook you were getting on a boat? Hopefully no where near New Zealand!!! Take care, love and hugs, Aunty Dorrie

Dinner Theatre Here We Come!

Last night's review of Death by Chocolate were out of this world! Some improv apparently made everything a little exciting for some cast members! Really, really excited for this!

Update time!

Hmmm, what to say!

Well I am still in Noosa.  I am falling in love with it more and more every day!  I am no longer stayin at the hostel as I found a friend that said I could stay there.  I have gone to Fraser Island twice now.  If I could suggest anything for anybody to do if ever coming to Australia it's to go to Fraser Island.  It's gorgeous.  There are rain forests, deserts and beaches, sharks, march flies (horse flies) and dingoes.  You can spend one day on Fraser Island and have pictures that look like you were in 3 different Countries.  I do have pictures of it....  if I can get this computer to load them I will share!  Goal for tomorrow...

Oh.. the cyclone.. that's something.  The Cyclone Yesi hit when I was on Fraser and we thought maybe it would cause huge swells preventing us from driving on the beach (which is a huge part of Fraser... 4 x 4'ing on the beach... where I actually almost rolled the truck.. oops, then almost got bit by a brown snake.. oops).  Anyway, I don't know the facts for sure because I keep hearing different things but I believe it was not as bad as we thought it was going to be and we were not effected at all.  Those of you have have been watching the News might even know more than I do seeing as I just go from what I hear.  I was supposed to have flown into Airlie Beach which was right where it was supposed to hit on the day that it hit.  My flight was cancelled; however, and therefore my other flight from Cairns (where I was going to see the Great Barrier Reef) was also refunded for me; which is why I am still in Noosa (not a hard place to be stranded).  My friend took off for Brisbane today and is heading to New Zealand tomorrow... so I might be heading over there as well - why not?

I might be staying here and getting a job, I might he heading to New Zealand or I might be heading to Sydney or Melbourne to reunite with my friends.  The options are all there and it hit me today that I can do absolutely anything I want so I need to figure out what it is I should do.  For now, I'm going to sit tight and really think about the most logical bit. 

Sorry I don't have more exciting news everyone...  it's been quite and nice for the last while because of the storm.  I am working on learning the guitar (I know, I'm surprised too) and just lovin' life.

Miss you all!  Love you!

Kaza

What happens when the iPad is left unattended....

Amazing.

Who knew ...

That we could go from -45ish with the windchill to +5 in a span of two days. Crazy Sasky weather.

I thought you all would enjoy this as much as I would.


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Karin Surfs??

The answer to that question... no.  Well not yet anyway. 

Hmm, what have I been up to??

It's been VERY hot here (Better Aunty?) I really don't know what the temp is exactly but I have been putting +30 SPF on every day twice a day and my face and my legs are still burnt.  Hot enough?  I love it. 
Ok surfing...  I tried about 3 weeks ago in Sydney at a beach called Deewhy.  I didn't do very well because apparently I was trying on a board that people who have been surfing for YEARS use, so needless to say I didn't get up.  I ended up with a HUGE bruise on my leg which I do have a picture of although I don't know if I can put up pictures using this computer.. Anyway, and my last attempt with that board left me rolling under water (drinking half the ocean) and getting in the the head, hard, with my own board.  I decided to let the board rest and try again another time, once my head stopped pounding!  My last attempt though... amazing.  I was using a beginner board.. bright pink and foam and so easy to stand on even when you are not even moving.. more like a platform than a board really.  I've gone out twice with some new friends that work at the hostel I am living at atm and they are really encouraging.  They tell me that I am doing really well for only being out twice.. that my paddling looks natural and easy and I keep telling myself that even though I am falling all the time I have to be at least sort of standing on the board to fall off.. right?  Makes sense to me! 

Speaking of the people at the Hostel I am staying at.. they are all so friendly and nice and awesome.  I went for a run the other day and when I got back there was a guy that was asking me how it was and while I was on the run I had another guy who was driving the free shuttle bus from the hostel here wave at me and then I was laying at the beach yesterday with a girl from Swedan that I met (Emma is her name).  It's like a little family.  We were only going to stay for a week here but we are now staying a few extra days so that Chandra can have her birthday here with all our new friends!

For the last 5 days or so I have been getting up rather early, reading outside in the warmth of the sun, having breakfast, going for a surf, coming back to have lunch (free board rentals for 4 hours!!!) and then back to the beach to tan and then home to eat.  Tough life, huh?

Today I am going on a Nature Hike with a few people from the Hostel.  It's supposed to be about 3 hours.  Word on the trail is that I will maybe get to see Koala's (Not in a zoo!), Goanna's and most importantly... DOLPHINS!  Apparently there is a certain point (Dolphin point I think it's called.. ironically enough) where if you look out you can see Dolphins just doin' their thing!  My fingers are crossed because that would be amazing.

Well I am sorry there is not much more I can say.  As you can see my life has been pretty... not boring.... easy perhaps is the one I am looking for.  I eat, I nap, I surf, I eat, I watch a movie and go to bed.. something like that.  Today a hike. 

I miss you all and I think about you everyday!  Love to hear what you're all up to as well so keep 'em coming!

Love all,
Karin, Kaz, Dabbitsisisisis

Freezing!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! That is all.


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I have found the Shepherd's!

It has taken me some time to get on the computer and get on this blogger thinger. Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you Karin!!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Tired of Winter

I do think we have had enough snow for a while!!!!!

The New Table

My Australia life...

Hey everybody!  Just a warning: Pack a lunch, take a nap - and then proceed to reading because you're in for the long haul.

My trip to California for 6 days was great, I hiked, biked, relaxed, watched plenty of movies, didn't get much sleep and loved every moment of it.  My flight from Sac to San Fran was cancelled due to weather so I was bused instead and the missed my plane by about 2 minutes because I helped a confused little old lady get her boarding pass to New Mexico.  My first thought "Oh no...", my second thought "I'm stuck in San Fran... awesome!".  I got a hotel room and got the best night sleep I had in such a long time and then Joel came up the next morning to show me around.  Spending the whole day in San Fran, seeing the Bridge, beaches, etc. 

I got to Australia one day late but really no time lost.  I showed up in Sydney on Wednesday at about 8 in the morning.  My friend was supposed to meet me the day prior and I didn't know if she knew I was late or not.  I had tried to get ahold of her via e-mail but I was not sure if she had checked it or not!  I had a name of a train station that I was supposed to get to but I didn't know where the trains were, how to get a ticket, how much it would cost or which train to get on.  I kept my head up and figured "one day I will look back at this and laugh".  Today is that day my friends...  thinking back on it now I realized how lost I really felt but I was not about to let that bother me.  I had my HUGE backpack and my roll duffle bag and off I went on my trek to find the trains.  I talked to a guy who worked there and he made it sound SO easy, turns out I did get on the wrong train!  No big deal though, right?  I then proceeded to NOT ask anyone and figure it out all by myself.  My friends e-mail said "I'll be standing at  the top of the stairs at the Turramurra station", sounds simple right?  Maybe if I knew what the station looked like or even knew how to get there.  After what seemed like forvere on the train and studying the map like it was a final exam I got to Turramurra station and found the stairs.  I heeved and haud my way up the stairs to find there was an elevator staring me in the face when I got there.  Taking the exercise as a gift, I looked around to see my friend was not there.  Having no phone, no idea what was happening, I chuckled to myself knowing that everything would work out just fine.  I found a payphone and dialed "1-800-COLLECT" home!  "Mom, I made it!"  I then, after reassuring her everything was fine, proceeded to hunt down my friends number and try to get ahold of her.  FYI, the numbers here are crazy.  Once I had the number I didn't even know how to dial it.  Do I put the "0" first??  Do I just start with the "4"...???  So naturally I stopped the first person I saw and asked her.  She gave me a look that clearly stated, "Are you retarded?" and then told me to start with the "0".  I got ahold of my friend and she told me she would not be there for about 2 1/2 hours so I parked myself and my things on the nearest park bench and pulled out my book.  With a sigh of relief I thought to myself, "This is the beginning of the most independent and exciting time of my life."

Well folks, that was the beginning of my trip.  The next parts I will jump through rather quickly in hopes NOT to bore you if I have not already. 

The first few nights I stayed with my friends sister Jude and her husband Simon and their 3 children; Bethany, Helena and Benjamin.  Can I say adorable?  Little Brittish accents and just the cutest of cute.  I spent Wednesday just chilling out at their place (not having jetleg at all because I slept about 12 out of ther 14 1/2 hours on the plane).  Thursday I went shopping and then went to the Opera House!!  I saw Vladimir Somethingerother, crazy last name I can't remember.. started with an "A" perhaps.  Anyway, it was amazing and best of all it was free.99.  I went with 6 other people that soon became my Australian family. 

Friday morning I got up and contemplated flying to Adelaide with my new friends to visit some other people in the church.  To help with my contemplating, I went shopping with Jude to find her a nice dress for her black tie dinner with her husbands company.  We got home at about 3 and I decided I would go.  I booked my flight on the spot and had to pack in a hurry to head off to Adelaide by 5, talk about last minute decisions.  Adelaide was great, it's known for it's churches.  Which means to me, really old buildings made out of brick with statues all around it.  It was.  We went to a couple Wineries on Sunday and then toured around.. I have pictures.. you'll see them someday..  I then stayed in Adelaide until Monday when I flew to Melbourne to meet up with my friend Chandra from home (to those of you who don't know Chandra, she is my best lake friend since I was about 9).  I was in Melbourne checking out St. Killda, Brighton Beach, and shopped a bit.  I went to the night market on Wednesday which was super cool.  It was outside and there were so many little shops I didn't know where to look.  So many cool looking shops with clothes that looked like the ones I forced my mom to throw out about 4 years ago.  (Sorry, Mom)  Clothes that were floral print and bright colored, pants that are up to and suffocating your bellybutton.  I'm talkin' we are bringing back the 80's my friends.  Side ponytails and bright red lipstick.  It's the wake up and go look, just where I fit in.  Be ready family, go through those dress up clothes because if I can predict, the 80's are coming to Canada.

I left Melbourne on Thursday and returned to Sydney.  That weekend I went camping with some friends up North of Sydney about 4 hours to Forster.  We bonfired on the beach and played the bongodrums until our hands were sore.  Again I have pictures that you'll see.. someday.  Then back to Sydney on Sunday to go to a BBQ in view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge at a friends place.  Amazing.  First thought, "People actually live like this?".  Turns out... yup!  It was a BBQ for a guy that actually helped me out in finding a place to stay but I had never actually met him.  His name is Peter Forster.  He grew up in OZ but got married and is now living in Hong Kong and has been for 4 years now.  He was visiting for a wedding and so what else to do but throw a BBQ for him as well! 

On Tuesday I left for camp where I was a dorm counsellor, volleyball coordinator and early morning exercise class instructor.  Needless to say there is so much I could tell about this camp but it would take up WAY more time that I have right now so I will skip it and you can ask me about it when I get home...

I got back to Sydney on Dec 30th and spent NYE in Sydney with apparently the world famous fireworks.  There is a 9 o'clock show and a midnight show.  We watched the 9 o'clock show from my friends rooftop and we had an amazing view.  Then my friend decided she wanted to actually walk down to the Bridge for the midnight show because she had never experienced it before.  So at 11:30 we proceeded to walk down.  We stood with the rejects of the rejects and could barely see anything because we were behind train tracks and everytime a train passed which seemed to be every 3 minutes we could only see the fireworks that made it up and over the train.  Oh well.  When it was over my thought was, "It is over?", no count down, nothing.  Then my friend turned me around and planned a big one on me and through my laughter I said, "I guess it's over!"  Then we walked back to their place and that's where the night ended.

Then I met up with Chandra and we have been travelling ever since.  I flew to Byron Bay and spent about 2 weeks there.  I took off for the weekend to Surfers Paradise/ Gold Coast to see some friends that I made from camp and then returned to Byron again on Monday.  The first hostel that Chan and I stayed in could be described in one way.  We were scared to put even our dirty clothes on the ground in fear of it crawling away... it was gross.  Auntie Dorrie, I don't think you could have managed at that place!!!  Needless to say we only spent a few nights there until we could find a better place.  We found a couple rooms open at Nomads in Byron Bay and moved on over.  It was much cleaner, air conditioned and we had amazing roommates.  We had English roommates that loved to party and then when they left we had French roommates that were amazing and trying to learn English.  Therefore, I helped them with English and they helped me relearn French.  It's now a goal of mine to relearn French!  One day...

That brings me to now.  I am now in Noosa.  It's lovely.  As soon as Chan and I got here we fell in love.  It reminds us of B.C. sort of.  There are trees everywhere (like the lake) and the people are SO friendly.  The hostel we are staying at is called "Dolphins" which is fitting because of my love for dolphins.  We were going to spend one week here but we love it so much that I think we might spend 2 weeks here before flying to the WhitSundays. 

The places we are going after this are WhitSunday, Airlie Beach, Cairns (The Great Barrier Reaf!), and then I'll be heading back to Sydney and road tripping with a couple of my brothers from another mother down to Melbourne where I MIGHT get a job and stay for awhile.  Not sure though, I will keep you posted.

That's all for now!  I'm about to go for a run to town to go get some food!  Gotta keep up that girlish figure, you know?!

Thanks for reading, hope I didn't bore you with all my adventure talk!

I'll try to post more often so that it can be short and sweet!

Take care and I'll be chattin' soon!

Kaz

Hi Help

My First Blog

Made it Through the Weekend!

I had an awesome weekend coaching senior girls basketball! We lost Friday night (which was the only real bad part of the weekend) and because it was storming Saturday morning a team didn't show up and we ended up being re-pooled. That was a bit frustrating as we ended up having to wait two hours to play after the re-pool. After the first loss against Maidstone on Friday we redeemed ourselves and won against Paradise Hill and then Lashburn. Winning over Lashburn was huge for the girls as we were playing against the home team and home crowd!

I had one girl foul out in that game and a couple others were pretty close! I just kept saying to the girls,"No more than three of you can foul out or we don't have a team!"

The drive home Saturday night was very interesting...the one player's dad works for highway and transportation in Unity, so she phoned him to ask about the roads. He told us to take the double lane home instead of the 21 to Unity because they couldn't keep up with the snow drifts but the double lane had a turkey trail through the snow. It was a long 2.5 hour drive back to Wilkie with white out conditions and snow drifts to plow through. Nyhold's (sp?) Hill was insane...the poor van was just spinning trying to get traction - but we made it to the top!

Believe it or not, the worst part of the trip was from Wilkie to the farm. I was driving on the wrong side of the highway most of the time because the north side of the road was completely drifted over. My car's a tank though - it handled the snow drifts in the yard with no trouble!

I'm busy busy the next few weeks with practices and games for the basketball girls and community drama practices bumped up to twice a week since the production is February 11 and 12 already! Once March comes I won't know what to do with myself - won't have enough going on!

Wow, it is very lonely and empty on here.. where is everyone!?

Welcome to the Blog!

Hi everyone! Hope to see all of you on here and commenting and sharing soon!

Sarah