This
was perhaps my longest writing hiatus since moving here to Australia (because,
admittedly, I wrote my What’s Next post
full weeks before I uploaded it here). I keep asking myself why, when I have
all the time in the world to think and then put those thoughts into words. I
have just gotten so used to my solidarity, and I think that has been
communicated through my social media networks (I have only instagramed 6 times
in the 6 weeks I’ve been here!). I have become more comfortable than I have
ever been in my life with keeping my thoughts to myself, letting them simply
marinate in my mind and swim around my soul without feeling that instinctual
urge to share or record. I think it’s healthy. I think most people who know me would agree with that, lol. Of course I’ve also convinced
myself that living virtually alone in this deserted (albeit beautiful) little
slice of WA has left me with nothing interesting at all to even say. I have
started and stopped nearly half a dozen entries before I decided they were much
too uninspired to even post. But I suppose I’ll string some of them together here (for
no particular reason and with no clever correlation)…
~~
(February
6th)
Western
Australia…
… where
you work up a sweat just putting your running shoes on.
… where
you spend your whole jog scanning the ground so as not to accidentally step on
a snake (since a King Brown was discovered on your morning garbage run…), and
sure enough you do encounter another
snake on your trail, and some how bravely complete your three laps past it
anyhow.
… where
you are so busy staring at the ground during that jog that you literally almost
have a head-on collision with a wallaby, both equally startled and spooked at
this unexpected encounter, lol.
… where
your worst enemies are flying crickets and warm showers (both, sick).
… where
you have every inch of your tent memorized for preexisting marks and scuffs, so
that when a new shape or shadow appears you know in an instant it is an insect
intruder.
… where
you conquer all fears of killing spiders, because what choice do you have
besides letting it sleep on that pillow there next to you. …
… where
your biggest lifeline after 6:30pm is your torch (flashlight).
… where
ice packs and ear plugs quickly become your best friends and trusty companions.
… where
it’s almost too hot for tummy pillows
(gasp!).
… where
that rustling and crunching of the leaves outside your tent is definitely not
your neighbor, but the friendly (I hope) resort kimono dragon that lives
somewhere in the bush! (He is so massive that you will always here him coming
before you see him.)
~~
(February
17th)
Average
workday:
25% swatting flies (literally a quarter of my day is spent flailing my
hands wildly about my face and ears and head, trying with absolutely all of my
strength to not quit right there on
the spot after whole consecutive minutes of not being able to do anything or
breathe properly because there are so many flies, or even just one or two
relentless ones, completely debilitating all efforts and patience. I swear and
swat and scream at flies for at least a full hour combined each day).
20% hiding in the yoga studio (mostly safe from the flies, though
mosquitos love breeding in there), reading.
5% hand stand practice. Because I am working alllllll alone alllllll
day long and I get bored and antsy and restless. Sometimes a really good song
comes on that simply urges an inversion!
10% driving around in aimless loops throughout the resort, airing out
my sweaty limbs, singing at the top of my lungs (this is likely the only time
during the day my vocal chords are even ever put into use!)
30% weeding (sitting, squatting, bending, hovering, crab crawling from
one patch of weeds to the next, the ultimate goal to get as little dirt and
sand on my slick sweaty sticky limbs as possible, not the pleasant exfoliate
you might expect.)
10% snacks & water breaks in the (FINALLY) air-conditioned staff room.
Haha, really
doesn’t sound too strenuous does it? I guess I should factor in somewhere how
slow we pace these activities, the heat brings us all down to about half speed
(I could get picky and add ‘wiping dripping sweat our of my eyes’ as at least a
5% in there somewhere). This has only been my daily pie graph for this past
week as we are in the midst of a bit of maintenance change-over and I was
essentially told to just busy myself for a few days before any major projects
got off underway next week. I listened to a lot of good music and finished half
of my third novel here so far (slowly working my way through the leftovers
found around the villas after guests check out, which makes up our EcoBeach
staff room library!)…
[I do still get actual work done! Check these before & afters...)
~~
(February 22)
Two
days ago I was informed that my beautiful, secluded, private, relaxing,
naked-friendly living accommodation was about to be severely compromised. I
wasn’t so much informed as I was robbed of my king sized bed and left with two
singles. We finally found another wwoofer! I just didn’t expect to be adopting
a roommate, just as I was getting so settled and so fixed in my happy little
daily routine (much of which does actually include laying around topless in any
attempt to beat the humidity and dampness).
I spent
about 20 minutes reeling at the notion that just because I’m a wwoofer I
consistently get bottom of the barrel treatment. I am the only one on staff
forced to share my one-person tent with another person (but I’m also the only one on staff that works 6 solid hours a day [if
you ignore my pie graph, and by the way that ‘actually working’ percentage has
definitely been bumped up to like 70 this week!] and deserves the privacy of
Naked With Fans time in my tent! I am also the only one on staff that is
seriously and obviously altering the actual aesthetics of this resort, and I am
doing it for no pay at all! I am definitely the only one on staff that also
doubles their tent as a gym and a yoga studio and an appropriate place to be
alone and read 50 Shades Of Grey, if you know what I mean!!...). Twenty
minutes, not a second more.
In this
respect, I was actually so proud of my self. Twenty minutes is a fair time to
let oneself adjust to such a major change about to take place, and even that
many minutes of being bitter and negative really took it out of me, so much so
that I quickly snapped out of it and realized: it’s not the end of the world. No,
it may not be ideal, and yes, your nice spacious private tent was literally the
single enjoyable aspect of the actual living situation here, but so what?
Really, it’s not a big deal. And I decided then and there to welcome my new
roommate, a brand new arrival to such a diverse and remote little world we have
here, into my humble abode with a genuine, generous smile. If anything, her
adjustments will be much more significant compared to mine, and if I were in
her situation (which I almost was not too long ago), I could only hope that I
would be greeted and welcomed warmly.
As the
universe would have it, Becky is here from Taiwan not doing her wwoofing for a 2nd year Visa, but simply
chose to move all the way out here to work for free just to be surrounded by English speaking people… She literally
moved here for no other reason than to learn English. And what are the odds
she’d be bunking with an English teacher? An ESL teacher! I absolutely adored
my full time tutoring with Mr. Cho in Wollongong, and I have found much joy in
my daily discussions and small lessons with Luca here around the staff room. It
has reminded me so much of my teaching experience in Italy, and it has gotten
me even more excited to be teaching English as a second language in Thailand in
just a few months! Really, the universe couldn’t have put together more suiting
roommates (so aren’t I glad I didn’t make a big stink about it after all!).
Becky
is so great; she’s keen and curious and kind. She is a hard worker and a great
companion through the day. She speaks the perfect amount of English: enough to
stumble through conversations, not enough to chat inscesintly about other
people on staff or let negativity pour out at every opportunity or winge or
moan or gossip or complain the way basically everyone else on staff seems to
do. I like having her around! We are learning lots about each other’s cultures
and worlds and personalities.
She is
currently trying to juice bananas, and I can’t stop chuckling (with her not at her!!). J
~~
I am
half way through my time here at Eco Beach. Part of me feels relief that it is
half over, and hopefully the hardest or most uncomfortable weeks are behind me,
but the other part of me feels like I have been here foreeeeverrrr already,
haha. The days tumble by, one after the other, over and over and there is
nothing we can do to speed them up or slow them down, but we are finding ways
to make them as enjoyable as possible. We had a new arrival in maintenance a
few weeks ago now and he’s become a good bud for finding adventure and building
lists of fun To-Dos before I depart our little life here. We kayak and stand up
paddle board, we hike and run and bake cookies and short bread and watch movies
and episodes and practice inversions and mess about with our GoPros and take
turns personal-training each other on the back porch of our tents. We go for
early sunrise jogs and evening sunset swims, when the sky reflects off of our
infinity pool and we’re making waves in purples and pinks.
For as
much as I feel I have nothing satisfying to say these days, I can assure you
this is truly one of the most beautiful worlds I have ever lived in, and I could still spend most days finding inspiration in the clouds and the different hues
of these changing skies. If I had the patience and creativity I would string
together new paragraphs every day about each new setting scene. Pictures do not
to it justice, and words hardly help. Just trust me! I am still happy, I
am still surviving this experience, I am still smiling each and every day. I’m
very lucky for that, and I choose to focus on those things instead of all of
the things and people that I am missing very much so over here. It has really
settled over me just how long I have been away from home for, and I miss my
friends and family with an ache so deep I have to catch my breath sometimes.
But they are at my fingertips and across my computer screens still every few
days, and that is more than enough, for now.
In 42
days I will be up, up & away once again. This keeps me absolutely bubbling
with excitement and anticipation for what lays ahead of me. 42 days is not so
many days, and I will continue to center myself here and keep myself present in
this gorgeous little slice of the world.
