Its been another long while since I’ve updated y’all on my adventure down under. So I suppose I have a lot to share in this installment.
I’ll start with my latest working adventure. At the Winter Nationals in Willow Bank, Queensland, I worked concessions for two days. My first day was not too bad, my job to make up burgers when they were ordered, or just keep them coming when it got busy. The second day I was a cashier at an ice cream stand. I worked with only two other people. This stand was super busy. As I arrived that day before the stand opened I was greeted by Bob, an old man that was a wee bit hard of hearing. He turned to me, licked every single one of his fingers on his right hand and then proceeded to shake my hand an introduce himself to me with a sloppy kiss on the top of my hand. I stood there for a moment completely in awe of what had just happened. I wasn’t sure if he was just kidding or if this was for real. It was for real! He had no idea how disgusting what he had just done was. Let’s just say that put into perspective the rest of my day in the stand with him. Needless to say, the work wasn’t too bad. I made about $200 in two days, not bad, not bad at all!
This past week, I moved into a new home for a couple of weeks. There is a family from my church who went to Japan for three weeks and wanted me to house sit for them while they were away. That of course came with privileges to the use of one of their cars as well. Pretty sweet deal I would have to say. I have a nice big house to myself and am able to have a little down time before another big adventure, which I will get to shortly.
My first day in the house alone was quite lovely. My first night however was a nightmare to say the least. I woke up at 2:38 am with an awful tummy ache. I wasn’t sure what to do or what was wrong. I hate getting up in the middle of the night. I finally decided to get up and relieve myself...I will spare you the details (for now). Once I was finished I went back to bed still not feeling quite right. I didn’t stay in bed long, as a matter of fact I think I bolted out of bed to spew large chunks into the toilet (and here are details). I don’t remember the last time I had vomited. It was not a pleasant feeling at all. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth, so I brushed my teeth and drank a ton of water, then went back to bed, for just a couple of minutes. Jumped back up to go throw up all the water I had just drank. NOT a nice night at all. I some how managed to get to sleep for awhile, but then woke up several hours later to dry heave whatever happened to be left in my sour, little tummy. Much more sleep after this. Then I had to call one of my friends to let her know I wouldn’t be able to make it to her son’s birthday party. She asked if there was anything she could do and then decided that she would bring me some soda crackers and lemonade that afternoon. She lives half an hour away! So for her to do that sure meant a whole lot to me! I was missing my mother very much at this point, so to have someone lend a little motherly hand my direction was so comforting!
Now that I have shared entirely too much about something I am sure you really didn’t want to know about, let me share more about something you DO want to hear about. I’m going on a road trip baby!!
About a month and a half ago I met a fellow American at English Corner. (English Corner is where I volunteer once a week to help mostly young Asian adults improve their English through conversation classes. Its a pretty neat experience.) Jeff from Detroit, however didn’t even realize that I was American until about a month later. He just assumed I was from Brisbane for some reason. Then one day we actually got to talk a bit more than small talk and discovered that we were both down in Australia basically doing the same thing on a working holiday visa. He said we should probably go on a trip sometime then. So we’ve decided to go on a trip...umm a trip that will probably take about 35 days or so! He has a car and we are able to get our hands on some camping equipment to make for a bit of a cheaper trip, camping wherever we are able to instead of staying in hostels. We are heading up north to Cairns, then west and south to the center of Australia to Alice Springs, Uluru and Coober Pedy (also known as “The Outback”), continuing south to Adelaide traveling the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne and then somehow finding our way back up to Brisbane via Sydney I believe. Its roughly about 9300 kilometers! Its gonna be a blast. I am pretty stoked about it to say the least. I think I’m most excited about all the picture that I am going to be able to take! Here is a LINK to help you visualize it a bit better.
After I get back to Brisbane, I will then start to help out my friends Liz & Dave start up their coffee shop, which will help out my pocket book a little and just be a fun experience in general. This job will help fund some more travel in October and November to Tasmania and New Zealand. After that I will come back to Brisbane for awhile.
This part is not certain yet as I have to work out a few visa details and funds, but I am planning on going to Thailand, God-willing, to work at a school on the Thailand-Burma border. I don’t know a lot of the details yet, but will know more in a couple of weeks and will keep you posted!
After that I will come to Brisbane for a little debriefing and relaxing with the team I am going up to Thailand with, then home to the good ol’ U.S. of A. in February/March-ish. This is all tentative and things could very likely change in a week or a month, which is okay. Its just fun to think about and see what happens!
Many of you may have noticed that I said I will come home, but I’m sure you are wondering, “Dana, where is home for you in the Sates?” That my friends is a very good question!! Home is where ever I may rest my head. For now...the plan is Minot. I will be moving home to Minot to live with my mother, whilst attending Minot State University working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Photography and minoring in some other fun stuffs!
Yeah...so...that’s the plan, but nothing is in stone! So if you get a chance keep me in your thoughts and prayers, there’s a lot of new things on the horizon for Dana Dee. All positive and life changing, but I think that all this is why I came down to Australia, to be challenged and have some adventures and to just make some decisions in my life that I have been putting off for too long!
So here we go! Its gonna be a blast, what ever it may be :)
I’ll start with my latest working adventure. At the Winter Nationals in Willow Bank, Queensland, I worked concessions for two days. My first day was not too bad, my job to make up burgers when they were ordered, or just keep them coming when it got busy. The second day I was a cashier at an ice cream stand. I worked with only two other people. This stand was super busy. As I arrived that day before the stand opened I was greeted by Bob, an old man that was a wee bit hard of hearing. He turned to me, licked every single one of his fingers on his right hand and then proceeded to shake my hand an introduce himself to me with a sloppy kiss on the top of my hand. I stood there for a moment completely in awe of what had just happened. I wasn’t sure if he was just kidding or if this was for real. It was for real! He had no idea how disgusting what he had just done was. Let’s just say that put into perspective the rest of my day in the stand with him. Needless to say, the work wasn’t too bad. I made about $200 in two days, not bad, not bad at all!
This past week, I moved into a new home for a couple of weeks. There is a family from my church who went to Japan for three weeks and wanted me to house sit for them while they were away. That of course came with privileges to the use of one of their cars as well. Pretty sweet deal I would have to say. I have a nice big house to myself and am able to have a little down time before another big adventure, which I will get to shortly.
My first day in the house alone was quite lovely. My first night however was a nightmare to say the least. I woke up at 2:38 am with an awful tummy ache. I wasn’t sure what to do or what was wrong. I hate getting up in the middle of the night. I finally decided to get up and relieve myself...I will spare you the details (for now). Once I was finished I went back to bed still not feeling quite right. I didn’t stay in bed long, as a matter of fact I think I bolted out of bed to spew large chunks into the toilet (and here are details). I don’t remember the last time I had vomited. It was not a pleasant feeling at all. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth, so I brushed my teeth and drank a ton of water, then went back to bed, for just a couple of minutes. Jumped back up to go throw up all the water I had just drank. NOT a nice night at all. I some how managed to get to sleep for awhile, but then woke up several hours later to dry heave whatever happened to be left in my sour, little tummy. Much more sleep after this. Then I had to call one of my friends to let her know I wouldn’t be able to make it to her son’s birthday party. She asked if there was anything she could do and then decided that she would bring me some soda crackers and lemonade that afternoon. She lives half an hour away! So for her to do that sure meant a whole lot to me! I was missing my mother very much at this point, so to have someone lend a little motherly hand my direction was so comforting!
Now that I have shared entirely too much about something I am sure you really didn’t want to know about, let me share more about something you DO want to hear about. I’m going on a road trip baby!!
About a month and a half ago I met a fellow American at English Corner. (English Corner is where I volunteer once a week to help mostly young Asian adults improve their English through conversation classes. Its a pretty neat experience.) Jeff from Detroit, however didn’t even realize that I was American until about a month later. He just assumed I was from Brisbane for some reason. Then one day we actually got to talk a bit more than small talk and discovered that we were both down in Australia basically doing the same thing on a working holiday visa. He said we should probably go on a trip sometime then. So we’ve decided to go on a trip...umm a trip that will probably take about 35 days or so! He has a car and we are able to get our hands on some camping equipment to make for a bit of a cheaper trip, camping wherever we are able to instead of staying in hostels. We are heading up north to Cairns, then west and south to the center of Australia to Alice Springs, Uluru and Coober Pedy (also known as “The Outback”), continuing south to Adelaide traveling the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne and then somehow finding our way back up to Brisbane via Sydney I believe. Its roughly about 9300 kilometers! Its gonna be a blast. I am pretty stoked about it to say the least. I think I’m most excited about all the picture that I am going to be able to take! Here is a LINK to help you visualize it a bit better.
After I get back to Brisbane, I will then start to help out my friends Liz & Dave start up their coffee shop, which will help out my pocket book a little and just be a fun experience in general. This job will help fund some more travel in October and November to Tasmania and New Zealand. After that I will come back to Brisbane for awhile.
This part is not certain yet as I have to work out a few visa details and funds, but I am planning on going to Thailand, God-willing, to work at a school on the Thailand-Burma border. I don’t know a lot of the details yet, but will know more in a couple of weeks and will keep you posted!
After that I will come to Brisbane for a little debriefing and relaxing with the team I am going up to Thailand with, then home to the good ol’ U.S. of A. in February/March-ish. This is all tentative and things could very likely change in a week or a month, which is okay. Its just fun to think about and see what happens!
Many of you may have noticed that I said I will come home, but I’m sure you are wondering, “Dana, where is home for you in the Sates?” That my friends is a very good question!! Home is where ever I may rest my head. For now...the plan is Minot. I will be moving home to Minot to live with my mother, whilst attending Minot State University working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Photography and minoring in some other fun stuffs!
Yeah...so...that’s the plan, but nothing is in stone! So if you get a chance keep me in your thoughts and prayers, there’s a lot of new things on the horizon for Dana Dee. All positive and life changing, but I think that all this is why I came down to Australia, to be challenged and have some adventures and to just make some decisions in my life that I have been putting off for too long!
So here we go! Its gonna be a blast, what ever it may be :)
ummm ... home is in Charlotte missy. Just kidding. I'm so excited for you and can't believe it's already July and that you've been gone this long. Praying for you! Enjoy this time.
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