The daily rambles

The blog is called rambling around the world, so I hope it'll be no great surprise to you that I will be rambling about random stuff while in different parts of the world. I don't necessarily want this to be just a travel blog its more like whatever pops into my head kinda blog. Travel will be a focus but I'm gonna keep it interesting and throw some nice delicious other topics into the mix as well. NOM NOM NOM, knowledge. To those of you who know me well enough to know how I think, this will likely get weird at some points, to those who don't get your mind out of the gutter. You’ll see eventually I just tend to ask a whole lot of weird questions and over think. Just wait till I'm sober enough to write a Mardi Gras post after the event tomorrow… 

 New Orleans Gay parade 2013. Victoria Fennell

To the post!

 

WOW I actually forgot what I was about to write. That's a bummer, damn opening distracted me… Hm. hm. hm.

Rainy Daydreaming

How long has it been since you sat in front of a window and did nothing but watch the rain. If your me, you can't even remember having done it. Maybe it was so uneventful your mind threw the memory into the trash pile with Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber stories, nothing worth taking note of. But just now while wondering what it is I has been thinking about writing my blog post on I looked out onto the river outside my hotel worthy bedroom. It was only a few seconds before all thoughts stopped, my body relaxed and I entered a few moments of spontaneous meditation. Snapped out of my momentary nothingness by the start of a vacuum I wondered why I don't take more opportunities embrace my inner nothing. To make an effort and think nothing and to let my mind take a break from the constant intake of general life. Why don't I meditate, really better yet with all the distractions of the world how can I meditate?

Never having been much into the world of meditation formerly my attempts can be mainly summed up to three experiences:

drifting off to sleep

thinking of what I would do after trying to meditate

 and

why is this taking so damn long!?

Some practiced meditators would probably say I didn't wait long enough and they're right but come one man netflix ain't gonna search itself for the next 5 hours. Its hard to be idle, especially with nothing handy to alleviate the awkwardness.  Much easier to be quiet when distractions are plentiful and right in your pocket. To be alone without one's thoughts is a hard goal to reach and almost impossible to think of ironically. Most people can't even sit comfortably in a silent room without a phone or electronic device to fondle. Its become a bad habit amongst the human species and I am gonna do everything I can to break it in myself.

I'm going to for myself create a challenge to become healthier in mind, one thing that over the years I have neglected terribly. To take real me time down to the atoms, start meditating and let my mind have room to wander across the cosmos. So spiritual man, you may say, soooo hippyyyy. Stuff it you prat, this is serious. We as whatever living things we are need to take remembrance time to realize oh yeah I'm alive, how cool. Whats this all about then? I used to be frequented by thoughts of my mortality and in random moments of self realization think of the fact that all this is happening in some way, even the most mediocre things. This carrot exists and I'm eating it, wow, what? I haven't had these thoughts as often as I'd like lately and I miss them we get too sucked into life and the stupidity. I'm going to re-learn to be okay with nothing and set aside time just to be.

This month I will start meditating everyday for at least 20 minutes. Mainly I want to see if I can improve my outlook on life and improve my mental state through self realization and well pretty allowing myself to be nothing. We take our minds for granted daily when they should be one of our most precious and protected characteristics. It doesn't matter if you lead a gluten free raw vegan diet and don't eat sugar, your health starts with your mind and we need to start protecting our minds against the parade of idiocy that runs rampant in our world.

Ill be the guinea pig but I suggest everyone think over it and try, whats the worst they'll happen?

Sapere Aude! 

Adios amigos.

Get away for a while....

Ask me 7 months ago if I had anything going for me and I would have answered you a very un-hesitant no. 23 holding down 3 jobs and still only managing to scrape by is not in my opinion a great way to go about living, but when you're in that position what choices do you really have. For the students of America to succeed in the pursuit of higher education mass financial slavery seems inevitable. With the overhanging debts of education those lucky enough to score a good enough job will be thrown into their adult lives drooling babies in suits ready to gurgle their way through the introductory day towards the rest of their lives. I ask that you stop and think for a moment, is that all there is? How about we change the pace a bit? I place in your thoughts for consideration taking a gap year from life, minimum. A break to grow in your mind and accumulate experiences, to break convention and destroy your fiercest enemy your comfort zone.

When I graduated high school back in 2009 I was not excited about another 4 years of work. I hated school, everything about it from the classrooms to the structured environment to the fluorescent lighting. I had enough but with a bit of prompting reluctantly enrolled in community college for a degree in Communications. To this day I have no idea what I was working towards career wise, communicating with people? I quit going to classes 2 months in and landed myself with 5 wonderful F’s which kept me from ever wanting to enroll again. Maybe though those F’s were a good thing though, maybe not fails but fabulous, fantastic, free? I am after all sitting in a chair looking out over a river in Australia right now. My point is fuck it times 5. Where is that archeology degree gonna bring you, tell me about your financial work its about time for a nap. Don't waste your money on a piece of paper unless you have the passion and drive to do something with it. Don't jump into an education without exploration of the degree, real exploration! If you aren't giddy with the idea of being a proctologist for the rest of your life then for the love of god take a gap year and travel. What you really want could be out there in a pile just waiting for you to stumble on your face right into it. Why grow up quickly get a “real” job, get married at 21 then think later, wait what am I doing this isn't what I want. Responsibilities accumulate more quickly than they can be gotten rid of, they are pesky beasts intent of sticking around for as long as possible.

So to my point, TRAVEL. Having left the mainland USA back in September I have changed in uncountable ways. Met the most interesting, fun and insane people of my life. Found numerous new passions tasted uncountable different liquors and re-found beauty over and over again in the world even when I felt the most down. I am destroying my comfort zone and treading on the rotting bits of its corpse again and again, feasting on the spoils of the battles of the body and mind. Don't you dare think that there will be time to see the world when you're retired, lets face it  a pension is out of reach for most of us at this point and a job that will bring you around the world? Not counting on that one... Plus try getting your wrinkly old sock and sandal covered feet up a mountain, traveling is not staying in a hotel for a week. As the great politician Arnold Schwarzenegger would say,.”Do it, do it now!” You’ve got your whole life to step into the world of the 9 to 5, there is even more time to step into the minimum wage world of the 9-3 5-12.

One of the great things I love hearing are the excuses not to travel. I’ll go through 3 my favorites.

“I’ll be old when I graduate.”

Yeah ill be pushing 30 at this point if I actually decide to go but in this day in age its not uncommon to see older people in school. Funny enough you really do think differently as you age go figure our parents were right. For example I take online classes for free and I actually do them BY CHOICE. Two years ago I would have made every excuse in the book, up to and including smashing my computer to avoid such unpleasantries. Alternatively if you're concerned about missing out on the dorm and party lifestyle then I hope your parents are paying for your education, that's one expensive party. Little tip, hostels are significantly cheaper than college, in exotic places, no studying involved and parties included.

“I don't have the money to travel”

My favorite excuse!! I left with $1500 dollars I saved for exactly one month. I had a security deposit of $2000 coming to me when I got into Australia which I promptly spent on trying to live in a city. Somehow I managed for 3 months of mostly joblessness Melbourne living. Math time… that's a grand total of $3500 dollars that took me to:

New Orleans- 5 days

Hawaii- 3 months

Australia- 4 months and continuing

Think of the worst financial situation you’ve ever been in, chances are you've survived and found a way to pay your bills. I certainly did, maybe a bit late but I always found a way and that is the attitude I travel with. I'm not going to sugar coat things, its hard sometimes. Last month I was completely broke but you know what so was my flatmate and we found a way to live on the ultimate cheap, we struggled and got fed up to the point of wanting to leave this god forsaken country. However if you try hard enough things will come around and now I'm au-pairing with free accommodation, food and a modest salary in a beautiful part of the country I would have otherwise never seen. For the American traveler work visas are hard to come in by but they are not impossible, you can travel with work holiday visas in select countries and work for free accommodation and maybe even food through websites such as workaway.info. Sometimes you are able to use a volunteer visa for unpaid work in hostels or farms, that will take some budgeting but who cares you're in a different country working and living amazing experiences! There are ways to travel on the cheap you just haven't looked them up so shut up and do it.

“No one wants to come with me!!” :’(

*Bitch slap* Then go yourself! Your having a pity party on your own so clearly there are things you can do by yourself. Plenty of people travel alone and you know what, that's how you make close friends. You have to be social because otherwise your gonna be that creepy person that your so afraid of running into. Hiding behind things staring at everyone having fun, wide eyed like gollum at the ring of power (never seen one of them to date). If you left you’d be surprised how many people travel alone, and you know what my equally broke flatmate and I left our apartment and moved to a different part of the country together. We knew each other for 2 months, it was awesome. When you find someone you connect with theirs a chance for a temporary or possibly permanent travel buddy and most likely life long friend. There are people out there doing the same thing as you go find them.

I want to start a dialogue to change the process. I hate seeing so many young Europeans out and about traveling the world while us Americans stay home and do the ordinary and expected, or worse yet get trapped in our parents houses to pay off debts. I want travel to become part of our culture whether inside our own country or abroad. We are a work based society we work to live, and you know what I say? Fuck that shit. I don't work to live I wasn't born an employee I live to explore and work when I need too. I forgo the materialistic for experience and I become less and less afraid to take chances as I keep moving. In my short time traveling I have learned more about myself than all the 4 years I wasted after high school being bored, angry and depressed. Its not as hard as you think excuses are just easier. 
Fuck this shit America lets take a trip.

The terrifying and true tale of the Crack Spider

 

(Not spider of the story but a daily sight for me now)

Firstly welcome to my blog, in short im a 23 year old New Yorker traveling abroad looking for something, ill tell you what it is when I find it. Im currently in the land of deadly creatures, Australia. Its a beautiful place where you can roam freely through the grasses in constant fear of attack. Its actually not that bad all that's attacked me personally are bull ants.

A lot of weird things have happened to me or to people around me lately. I feel I should share my experiences, this is my first story.

 

The terrifying and true tale of the Crack Spider 

My story starts one night in the country side of Australia. Usually when I tell people Im in Australia the first question that pops up is about spiders. Yes they’re here, yes some of them are huge and again yes almost all are terrifying. However you don’t see them that often especially the the poisonous ones, I'd like to add the big ones to that list as well but they love to be in inconvenient places (trampoline, when i'm on it). For the most part it’s just regular old house spiders. We generally just try to keep away from spiders that's just the nature of the place, if it looks bad walk away. The crack spider of this tale was infinitely more gut wrenching than any insect I have ever encountered.


It began one Monday night when my roommate alerted me to a rather impressively sized spider high in the corner of the kitchen. We gazed at it commenting on the size and lack of distinguishing marks. It didn’t appear venomous, it wasn't particularly frightening all the way up there so high and far away. I figured spiders don’t seem too travel much so we brushed it off as okay maybe it would kill a few flies for us. Probably should have taken into account the lack of a web as to its homeless nature but I’m no Sherlock Holmes. Funny how something so far away can seem so monstrous up close. The next day we woke up to a breakfast of tea and the disgustingly addictive Vegemite on toast. Quick detour, Vegemite is really unexplainable I can only compare it to soy sauce, its extremely bitter and salty and pretty gross. However it after a few tries becomes really delicious! Not sure why....  Anyways I thought of the spider at some point in the morning and looked up to see it was gone. I didn’t think much of it the house is big and for the most part temporarily unoccupied so we went about our day drinking coke zero and spending our time on the various tasks of the unemployed.

Night fell.

The country stars were bright as we smoked what we thought would be our final cigarettes of the night. We retired to our rooms to begin our netflix binges until passing out. Prophets of science fiction Mary Shelly was my choice. I was lying down half paying attention half drifting off into random thoughts when I heard the scream. A scream of terror. My eyes raced to the screen it was too loud to have been from my tablet. I froze for one of the longest seconds of my life before jumping from my bed. Banging noises were coming from the other room. I moved towards the door as my roommate burst through pulsing with adrenaline. She was visibly shaking the spider had made it’s comeback and with a fury. She had been in bed with all the lights off save one flower set of string lights above her bed. From the crevices of the sheets the spider had been hiding, for what reason? Probably none, possibly sinister. It took a golden opportunity for whatever reason it had to rush directly for her. In a panic she had hit the mattress sending it flying into the air and back down onto the mattress to continue its charge. She rolled out of bed to the floor and promptly raced to my room. I take this moment to clarify if you can’t tell already, I am not a fan of spiders.

I walked into the room towards the bed, nothing in sight. I lifted the sheets not wanting to find the fugitive but of course it was there. It bolted back under the sheets as soon as they exposed it. I have never in my life seen an insect move so fast. My first instinct was to grab the biggest meanest shoe I could find however my roommate suggested a less messy solution of a container. Armed with my plastic and a trusty notebook I returned to the room ready for some hunting. Slowly again I pulled back the sheets it raced out from a fold I reacted bringing my tub-aware smack down over its body. It dashed side to side, up and down and upside down. This thing was the flash, it was a coked up ecstasy guzzling rager ready to sink its fangs into the tender softness of my flesh. With the slowness and precision of a surgeon and the nerves of a nude public speaking dream I slid the notebook under the prison. Caught! The lifting of the container was slow and careful I imagined it’s mysteriously lengthed fangs piercing the book and puncturing my skin. I walked the mile to the bathroom. Disposal seemed risky, I had but one chance. Left to its own devices this thing would probably attack it was mad and I was barefoot. In one swoop I knocked the creature into the porcelain grave followed my roommates administration of a hefty amount of bug spray while my hand simultaneously jumped for flush. It went down we watched and we waited, this beast was worthy of a horror movie comeback. This was no ordinary spider it was evil. Precious seconds passed, no legs from the depths. It had been defeated.

I will now here in Australia remain like a child afraid of the monster under her bed except it’s the monster in my sheets crawling closer and closer to my feet.