Travel

Wow, just wow

Wow, just wow

When I was a young kid, even as a teenager planning out my life, I never imagined I would be living the life I currently have now. Every dream I had as a child, God has surpassed in ways I never thought possible - hence, why I always live by the mantra ‘Dream Big’. All the dreams I had for my life were so small (not in a bad way) compared to how God has carved out my life. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of hard work, sweat, tears, sacrifice, blood, more tears and frustration were a part of the journey. However, I am so fortunate and thankful that I, at this moment and time in my life, have a job (if you can even call it that) that I absolutely love!  Some key reflections…

Adelaide Himeji Garden & Watching the Sun Set

At first, it seemed like the sun had no intentions of setting. It descended the night sky quite slowly. However, once it hit the sea line, it seemed as if the sun was in a hurry to disappear. It was so cool to watch the sun, this bright white light in the sky, gradually change to yellow and then a bright orange while it was ducking beneath the sea line for the night. I think my favorite part might have been how the sky changed after the sun had vanished. It was like God had taken His water color paint set out and was using the sky as His canvas. It was beautiful! He’s painted how many hundreds of millions of sunsets? Yet they always seem to capture our eye, and never look the same!

Off Day Vibes Part 2, Clare Valley

First stop was the Spring Gully Lookout. Less than a 10 minute drive away, I was able to get a pretty nice view of some of the surrounding land and wineries in the area. I do appreciate the variation in the land, vegetation and views that Australia has to offer. Being on this hill by myself was so serene, I felt like I had all this land to myself.

Off Day Vibes Part 1, Bumbunga Lake

The second thing I noticed was the texture of the ground as I walked closer to the lake. It didn’t feel like sand, and the hard crunch under my feet reminded me of winters spent trekking through hardened, packed snow.  Except, it obviously wasn’t snow – it was salt. In some of the photos I took you can see a faint pink color but…

Botanic Gardens of South Australia

Botanic Gardens of South Australia

We were also exposed to the Corpse flower, yes, you read that correctly, the Corpse flower. It doesn’t look like a flower in my opinion, more like a giant fruit. It may not be the most vibrant or prettiest flower around (in its current state pictured above) but it certainly gets your attention. Not only is it a fairly large flower, but it has a terrible stench. I wonder if maybe that is where it gets its name?

Adelaide, Australia: I saw Kangaroos!

Adelaide, Australia: I saw Kangaroos!

Driving around lost allowed us to see beautiful mountain views of the ocean, take some fun pictures and we even encountered a blue-tongued lizard! When we finally reached our destination, thanks to a friendly older Australian couple, I was blown away. First, there were so many kangaroos! Male, female, joeys, just hopping around freely in their environment, it was so cool to see!

South Korea

South Korea

While there I had to make a lot of adjustments. The time change was definitely the hardest, 14 hour difference! It took my body 2 weeks to properly adjust to the time change, way longer than I expected! Language barriers are nothing new to me, as I had plenty of experience with this in Russia, however, in Russia the letters were similar to the English alphabet. In Korea, its completely different, it was symbols, and complicated symbols at that! My apartment also didn't have…