she made it to australia!
Hello!
Welcome to my first-ever digital journal entry, where I will attempt to update my family and friends on my latest adventures in life. I’ve been thinking about how I want to document this adventure for a while now, and I’m really excited to have this website as a creative outlet. Though it's easy to feel as though nothing is ever truly finished, I’ve been using my spare time to design this space, choose what things I’ll be sharing, and just. start. writing. In a world that has quickly normalized self-promotion and meaningless metrics of social engagement, I simply hope to share my experiences, connect with my loved ones, and have some fun while doing it.
Now onto the good stuff!
If you’re reading this then you probably know that at the ripe age of 30, I decided to dump my corporate career "dreams" (or maybe they dumped me?) and make a short-term move to Australia to pursue my actual dreams of working with horses halfway across the world. Important to note, that the latter part of that dream developed a lot more recently than the horsegirl dream did.
So, I’ve made it 🤩 I arrived in Australia on the last weekend of March and spent the first week exploring the city of Sydney.
After a tear-filled airport goodbye with my parents, and an overweight checked bag, I boarded a plane for a relatively quick 3-hour flight to Vancouver, Canada before the 15-hour flight to Sydney. Luckily, I landed a seat at the window with an open middle seat and a sweet Canadian woman named Kathy by the aisle for the 15-hour trek down under. Though I was a little anxious about the flight, it really wasn’t all that bad. We took off around 11ish PM Friday night and landed in Sydney at around 8 AM Sunday morning. Wild to think you lose an entire day flying that far west, but it makes for minimal jetlag! Thanks to some CBD/Melatonin gummies, I slept for about 7 hours on the flight, ate 3 meals, and spent the rest of the time playing solitaire, doing word searches (lol), catching up on The Crown, and reading.
Sunday morning, after spending about 40 minutes in Customs so they could rid my farm boots of any disease-carrying US soil, I caught a van to my first-ever hostel stay at WakeUp Sydney. Though I had heard of some spooky hostel horror stories, I was pleasantly surprised to find clean beds, bathrooms, kitchens, and friendly roommates. Monday consisted of a walking tour through the city where we visited Hyde Park, Darling Harbour, The Botanical Gardens, and ended at the famous Sydney Opera House. It is truly a stunning structure to witness up close, self-cleaning tiles and all. On Tuesday, the group had a day on a catamaran around the harbour, where we had the chance to swim in a little alcove just across the way from the Sydney skyline. The water was warm and the beach was so clean 🏝 From Wednesday to Friday, I traveled up to Port Stephens, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Sydney, where we sandboaded at the Worimi Sand Dunes, watched the sunrise on One Mile Beach, hiked Tomaree lookout, and caught some dolphins swimming in Nelson Bay. Saturday back in Sydney brought some fun nightlife and fireworks in Darling Harbour, though I gotta admit, the bar’s music selection really made me miss my Denver music scene and homies 🎧
Of the people I met the first week in Sydney, a majority hailed from the UK, but I also met people from Germany, The Netherlands, and France. Funnily enough, I didn’t meet many native Aussies, but I guess you can’t be too surprised when checking off all the tourist spots. It is so refreshing to meet people from different parts of the world, but it’s also emotionally tiring yanno?
The next leg of the trip began on Monday, the 1st of April when I boarded a train about an hour outside of Sydney to arrive in the town of Wilberforce to start work at Hannover Lodge, my new home until July. Seeing as I’m posting this at the beginning of May, I’ve been working for a little over a month and have already learned tons about the breed and the sport of Thoroughbred racing, while also experiencing numerous “whatthefuckdididecidetodo” moments (more to come on that).
There’s so much to share about this experience, but at least we’re a bit more up to speed now. After rewriting, rewording, and tweaking this post and the website for the last few weeks or so, I’m happy to have it out there and share it with my people!
xoxo, alli
p.s. I do not hope for these posts to act as a mere time log of my adventures, but more so a reflection of what I’m experiencing and learning, so stay tuned for what’s to come ✨
