10. I am not as prepared for world travel as I thought I was. Go to Bali? India? Brazil? Of course I can. After all, I now have a passport! I would love to! However, after this first international trip, I have learned that perhaps it is not as easy as I thought to seamlessly slip into another culture. I mean, I was in an English-speaking country for crying out loud! I still had issues figuring out which coin was which. What was the woman with the accent was saying? Which direction is north? Driving on the right hand side? Terrifying! Finding food I recognized? Help! Grams? Litres? If all of this was a shock to me in Australia, what on earth would I do in a significantly different foreign country? Australia is a great place for me to practice being out of my comfort zone. I realized I need to get out more!
9. Skip looks on a 24 hour travel mission. Go for comfort! From my house to my destination we were traveling for 24 hours. One flight alone was 14 hours long. Now, I don't want to go into a lot of detail about this, but let's just say my yoga pants were fine during the long travel. What I was wearing underneath the yoga pants was not fine. And a bra? Oh heck no! A supportive tank top or sports bra is the way to go. From now on it is comfort over cute when traveling.
8. Study up! A "napkin" means something completely different in Australia than it does in the US. A "fanny pack" is apparently not a little purse-like pouch one wears around their waist. I could have spared myself some embarrassing moments if I had studied up on my Aussie lingo a bit more prior to my trip.
7. I am not a pleasant person on a 6 hour drive in a cramped car. I don't like waking up from naps or riding in a car for long periods of time. On this trip I had to do both simultaneously. I later had to apologize to my hosts for any foul language I may have spouted out and for calling my brother-in-law a jerk. Thank goodness we're all family.
6. What? I have an accent? "I'll have the raspberry muffin please." Apparently my accent was difficult for the baker to understand. "Oh you mean rosburry?" "Ummmm yeah. ROSBURRY."
5. I am not actually afraid of flying. In a previous blog post I wrote about my fear of flying. I discovered though that while I don't particularly care for take-off or landing, what really makes me nervous is the navigating of the airport. The process of getting through security, customs, passports, boarding passes, baggage, lines, strange airports. All of the chaos of getting from here to there is the real issue. I don't like turbulence or the loud noise of the plane. But I am not particularly afraid of being up in the air once I am there. Once I am up, it is actually a sense of relief!
4. I don't need any stinking makeup! I for the first time since I was probably 14 years old I went completely makeup free for two weeks. Granted I don't normally wear a lot of makeup but consciously not bringing any with me was slightly nerve wrecking! I have to say, I spent much less time in the mirror while on this trip. My hair got combed at best. There was just too much to do to worry about how I looked. I noticed I was much less self-conscious. It was all sand, sun and adventure. I really didn't care what I looked like. What a relief!
3. The world is really big! Since I have never been anywhere besides the US, I finally got to see another piece of the world. I mean, I knew the Pacific Ocean was big but when one is flying over it for hours and hours...and hours it is monstrous! I felt so small and insignificant while flying in that huge, yet small and insignificant jet. It has never taken me more than 7 hours to get anywhere. This journey around the planet was eye-opening and awe-inspiring.
2. The world is so small. On the other side of the world there were so many differences: Styles, accents, geography. Yet, there were a great many similarities as well. I would notice all the things I recognized from home: kindness in people, some of the same songs on the radio. A sign for Coca-Cola or a Subway sandwich shop. It reminded me of our unity and humanity. We are so far apart from each other, but so much the same.
1. Don't touch it! It will probably kill you! From poisonous toads to extreme electrical outlets, this place was deadly! All the things I was comfortable with at home went out the window in Australia. See that spider? DON'T TOUCH IT! That kangaroo there? IT COULD KICK YOU! My sister actually had to tell me to back off from the 5 ft (1.524 m) wild carpet python. Cars have the right of way over pedestrians so even crossing the street has to be thought about more carefully! Apparently I feel safe at home and all common sense was lost. It really is a miracle I survived.
So there it is. Just a little of what I learned. These are strange things that I did not take into consideration before. Now I know some helpful tips that will make my next adventure go so much more smoothly. Oh, and I had better start brushing up on my metric conversions before returning to Australia.
Live on,
-Kristy
