I can’t believe I’ve spent 20 weeks in Australia?!  It feels like I’ve been here for so long, but also not long at all… I’ve had many moments where I’ve wondered what I’d be doing if I were still in Canada, and while I can imagine things I’d like to be doing, I don’t actually picture myself there or find myself longing to be back – it just reaffirms to me that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be right now, which is a really nice feeling considering how chaotic my emotions have been the past two weeks.

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Monday was a ROLLERCOASTER of emotions day… expanding a bit more on feelings from last week – without going into too much detail – the crew and I had spent the day with a different trainer (Karen) who took us out on a West Macs tour, where we each took turns giving commentary for a section, and driving for a section. It was a suuuuper long day and ended up bringing to light and reaffirming some feelings about the company and how things are being organized.  It’s reminded me a lot of how things were at my old job back home (iykyk), which brought up a lot of old (and very strong) emotions.  There’s a lot of strong and conflicting feelings surrounding it all, so after the shift, the group and I spent a lot of time talking more about it all (poor Pablo got the most of it after we got back to the hostel LOL). On the plus side though, the West Macs is a BEAUTIFUL tour, so it was really nice getting out and exploring the area again – going on the tours gets me so excited about getting back on the road again, and I’m just counting down the days at this point, until my visa work is done.

To help deal with a lot of the emotions and help me sleep, I used one of the Headspace meditation podcasts (click here for a 30-day free access pass), which if you haven’t checked out their stuff before, I highly recommend it.  I used to use them all the time last year, and have finally been getting back into it more this past month.  Offers a really great platform and guidance for grounding and managing your thoughts/feelings, and various other life topics.

I also spent some time getting inspired while watching Max & Occy’s latest updates.  Max is this really incredible, and wholesome Australian who’s been sharing his van life experiences (with his dog Occy) for the past 5+ years, and has recently transitioned to the homeownership life.  This man is basically living my future dream of owning a piece of property in the middle of a forest, and building it out to be fully self-sufficient.

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Tuesday, Takk and I got sent out on a West Macs tour with Emma, which I think was really needed.  Getting to see how different people run the tours, and learning more information on the places reminds me why I wanted a job in guiding in the first place.  Emma is also an absolute wealth of knowledge on the local flora here, which is probably one of the things I’m most excited to learn more about.  The West Macs are also an absolute STUNNING place to explore, so realizing that my job is literally just driving people from beautiful spot to beautiful spot, and giving a bit of information in between, is pretty cool.  Still have some strong emotions I’m sitting with, which I think is probably stemming from a lot of old, unresolved emotions, so I’m trying to take a step back from them before acting on anything.

I spent the evening hanging out with Pablo for a bit, and watched some more Youtube videos.

Today was also the first time I refilled the diesel in my car since moving to Alice Springs! Roughly 7 weeks? That tells you just how small this town is, because I use my car everyday…

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Wednesday was a busy day.  First thing we had to meet up with Karen again to go over some stuff; then I had a meeting with the organizer for the Sea Shepherd Campaign I applied to last week – which I think went really well!  I won’t find out for a little while if I got a spot or not since he has a lot of people to interview, but I feel pretty good about it.  Then we had a quick zoom meeting with our boss to check in on how things had been going and where everyone was at with certifications, etc.

It’s been absolute MISERABLE weather the past week – just so, so cold and rainy – so the afternoon was spent trying to stay warm while I worked on last week’s two blogs (check out Healing through words: Journaling if you haven’t already).  Pablo and I then watched this Norwegian film “The Worst Person in the World” with a couple other people staying at the hostel, and it was actually really good.  It’s a beautiful, and very relatable film (the title is not at all what you think the movie would be about lol) that covers the complications within different types of relationships.

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Thursday I spent the day on another West Mac’s tour with Miguel, which ended up being such a great day.  We had a really lovely group (two of the guys from the hostel last night were actually on the tour too), and it was so nice getting to spend the day in some really beautiful spots.  I made a point to go on all the walks today and really take in all the beautiful landscapes, and try to be more attentive to the various plants I’ve been learning about. 

Right after work I went straight to Takk and Jono’s for our last night as the OG 5; Pablo is sadly getting relocated to Yulara for the rest of his Visa.  It was such a lovely night getting to just hang out altogether.  We’ve all gotten so close this past 1.5 months and have gotten along so well; it feels strange knowing that the time for a lot of us to start parting ways really isn’t too far down the road now...

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Friday was a bit of a write off for me – I honestly don’t really remember too much of the day (forgot to take notes on it).  I had a really good counselling session in the morning again, but ended up spending the rest of the day mostly just on my phone in the van doing a whole lot of nothing.  Was feeling pretty socially drained from the week, I think, and just needed some time on my own.

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Saturday was a bit better – I was supposed to start off with having a conversation for someone’s podcast, but they needed to reschedule last minute.  Ended up having a nice catch-up call with my sister, Islay, and worked on some studying for my Uluru oral exam happening next Thursday.  The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping + cooking, lots of reading, and time on my phone.  It was also Territory Day (coincidentally the same date as Canada Day), so I ended up last minute going to some fireworks in the evening with Gian!

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Sunday was another cold, wet, n rainy day with no desire to socialize with anyone.  I ended up spending most of the day hiding out in the hostel living room, studying for my h-endorsement and Uluru test I’ll be taking this week.  Got in a longer, and very much needed, gym sesh and then got my breakfast + lunch sorted for work tomorrow – got an 11.5-hour day starting at 5am, so I did my best to get to bed a bit earlier.

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With all the emotional chaos, and many tests/meetings, my brain has felt like it’s been on overdrive the past two weeks, which has made spending time on writing really difficult.  I’ve had some good conversations for the beginning of this week, and think starting next week, things will be much more settled (assuming I pass my tests lol – spoiler alert, H-endorsement is finally checked off)!

Hoping to back to my regular and consistent posting schedule again, but will continue to keep you all updated as things progress!

Stay passionate and curious,
Hunter💛