Sydney

Well, I’m still in Sydney! I left Bianca’s on the Friday and headed to the City to meet Megan, and we went to see Arctic Monkeys.. who were amazing! The gig was a lot smaller than when I last saw them, which was really nice, and the venue was pretty cool (Enmore Theatre). On the Saturday we had a little party/bbq, the people were very lovely but maybe a bit too straight for my liking!
On Sunday Tessa & Nick picked me up to go back to their apartment (my next couch to surf), which was really lovely place about 40mins from the centre of Sydney. It’s strange when you’re couch surfing because you feel so comfortable around the people almost immediately, and I’ve always been made to feel at home straight the way. Nick took me for a ride on his motorbike which was so much fun, we went on the highway and down some country roads- it was pretty exciting! Not sure I’d dare do it on my own though.
Tessa took me into the city for a day to do all of the touristy stuff, where we went to Luna Park (which is like a fairground with all old rides), we saw the Opera House, walked across Harbour Bridge, went through the Botanical Gardens and went to the Art Gallery (which had some amazing work in it).

I left Nick & Tessa’s on the Wednesday, when I came to Marrickville to couch surf at Sonja’s house. When I got there I found out that it was actually a shared warehouse, so if I’m honest I was little wary, but when we got there it was lovely! There’s 5 English Backpackers that live in one half of the warehouse, and 5 people who live in the other half (with Sonja). Each half has it’s own living room, kitchen and bathroom, and everyone has their own bedroom. It’s actually illegal (a bit like squatting) so the rent’s real cheap, but apparently there’s lots of warehouse’s in the area that do it. Because it’s only a warehouse, they can do whatever they want to the walls and stuff, so when I first saw the living room there was lots of random objects glued on one wall such as a book/lighter/sweets, but by the end of that week we’d knocked that wall down and began more painting on the walls! Below the warehouse is a futon shop, so they have lots of beanbags and cushions etc that are all made from the foam from the futons, and they’ve put the cushions on stacked milk crates to build sofas. In the bedrooms they’ve done some pretty amazing things, like built their own beds and study’s and extended roofs etc.. they’re all really creative!
There's a huge warehouse community around here, and they all have names (Purple Garlic, Midian, The Garden, Sushini, Cosmo, The Hutch etc), and they all have parties and gigs on all of the time, and because they're illegal you can smoke inside and everyone's wearing crazy clothes etc, they're pretty fun!!
The five that I’m staying with include Sonja, Maggie, Glen, Roque and Ali.. they’re a bit like a little family. Sonja’s a fairy with dreadlocked red hair, and she never wears shoes. Maggie is bonkers, but so lovely, Glen is a burlesque star who has lived a crazy life, Roque is a typical tie-dyed clothes hippie and Ali is never around.. so my first night with them was an experience! I found out that they go dumpstering (so take food out of supermarket bins), which I was quite fascinated by.. they kept laughing because all night I was asking “so, do you get chocolate? What about tea bags? Milk?”, but I think they mostly get vegetables and fruit. Seems quite sensible really.

On the Thursday I met up with a friend Annaliese, and we went out for a few drinks in a bar in the city, with a few other friends. A few drinks turned into a lot of drinks, and I ended up crashing at hers for the night. On the Friday we chilled out during the day, shopping and whatnot, before coming back to the warehouse to get ready for the Chinese New Year Parade. We met up with another friend first, but ended up just going out and getting drunk, and sitting in Hyde park for a while.. it was a really nice night.
On the Saturday a few people were over at the warehouse so we ended up chilling out and drinking etc back here, and on the Sunday we had a big feast with people over.. yummy garlic mushrooms and lamb!
Monday morning I had my Camp America interview, which when so well (yahoo!), and for the rest of the day (and Tuesday and Wednesday) I can’t really remember what we did.. I think we were just drinking/partying/chilling/painting... I began painting my big elephant on the warehouse wall, with all Indian and colourful patterns. It’s so much fun, every time I’ve felt slightly stressed (mainly about my uni application), I picked up a paint brush instead. Best de-stressing tool ever!

Thursday was AUSTRALIA DAY! It’s a pretty big day here- shops shut, nobody goes work, lots of fireworks etc. Me and Sonja spent the day drinking and eating steak (true Aussie style) before heading to Enmore Park to the markets and music. We saw the Crooked Fiddle band, and a Columbian band, it was pretty jazzy. We stood at the front dancing like loons with a few other people and lots of kids, before watching the fireworks.
On the Friday me and Sonja both had a few errands to run in the city, so we spent the day doing that. She found out she is eligible for citizenship, which is mega exciting news, and I was walking along genuinely thinking that could be me one day! I really love Sydney, and think I could live here in the future. The atmosphere is so chilled out and friendly, and there’s always things going on.
In the evening we went to Pirate Jenny’s Stripclub- one of the funniest nights out I’ve ever had- Sonja ended up getting on stage and stripping, as a volunteer!

We went to Victoria Park on Saturday morning for a Med Mob. Lots of people met in the park and we all meditated for an hour in silence, before sitting in a circle and chanting. For a few hours after I was in such a dazed state because it was so relaxing.
In the evening me and Sonja headed over to Rita Vontane’s and Cherry Lush’s apartment.. two of Sonja’s friends who are burlesque dancers. That meant they knew how to do my hair and makeup amazingly well! We all headed to the Annandale to watch some bands, particularly the Crooked Fiddle Band again. Maggie and her friends were also there, and I ended up poy-ing in the garden with them for a little while (Maggie uses fire poys!). The bands were crazy and the atmosphere was amazing, Maggie ended up taking her top off and crowd surfing at one point!
Sunday evening I met up with Annaliese for a few hours before meeting another friend in the city, to watch the Chinese New Year finale parade. It was huge! Lots of floats and giant dragons and sparkling fire things.
I got home around 11pm, and Glen ended up telling me his (pretty amazing) life story for 2 hours. He’s worked with Cher and Madonna, travelled all of the worked, competed (and won) auditions against Patrick Swayze, been in Jackie Chan movies, dealt drugs, dealt with the mafia, spent time half paralysed... it’s crazy! Then at 1am Sonja’s burst through the door declaring she was taking me to party at another warehouse (which is open pretty much all the time for parties). We sat with a few Boylesque guys, and they were explaining to me what the industry was all about, and all the underground Voguing etc that goes on.. I was fascinated! I realised that if you’ve got a closed mind and aren’t open to all this crazy stuff, your life must be pretty mundane!
One thing I’m really enjoying about travelling is the people I’m meeting- everyone seems to be so open and free spirited, and so un-judging. I feel like I’ve known half of them all of my life, when really it has been a week or two, or maybe even a day. I feel like my whole outlook is changing on life- I’m walking around in Hawaiian style sarongs and no shoes and painting crazy elephants and singing and dancing down streets, and just not giving a crap what anyone else thinks.. it’s an amazing feeling.
I feel as though I am in no rush to decide what to do with my future, because every new day is my future, and at the moment I’m waking up every new day saying wow I’m so happy, life is so f*cking good. I feel so me and so alive! I guess the hard part will be keeping that feeling when I’m back in England, although my whole head space is changing so I’m going to give it a go!
I’m still applying for Uni, but whether I’ll go this year is a different story. Maybe I’ll complete my art foundation and get a massage qualification and work, or maybe I’ll travel more, or maybe I’ll do a degree in global studies. I don’t know, but I definitely am not stressing about it!
I don’t know when I’ll be moving on- I’m pretty darn happy in Sydney right now! I stayed at a different warehouse for a few days, and now I'm renting a room in a house with three guys- it's pretty lush! The room's huge and I've got a balcony that everyone chills out on. I think I've got an interview for a fundraising job next week too- it's amazing that I've just been having fun at this warehouse and being happy and suddenly the perfect house and a job fall into my lap without me even looking for them!

I went dumpstering for the first time the other night too! I felt a bit crazy standing next to a dumpster acting really shifty whilst Sonja was throwing onions at me, and it was weird walking home with loads of shopping bags as though we'd just been to Tesco's.

Also I’ve decided to change my name to India. I’ll be doing it officially when I get back in England, so if you could try and call my India that would lovely thank you (everyone here is calling me India and every time someone say's it i'm like OOOH THAT'S MY NAME!!)

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I spent ages typing that essay, so will add some pictures asap,

LOVE YOU ALL XXXXXXXX
(and thanks for the blog comments, it always makes me smile when I read them)