dream_BIG&enjoytheride!

Today was great! Slept in and then went with Willie & John down to Falmouth where Annabella works and had lunch at the hotel. Really nice! I had for starter Minestrone soup and then for my main a roast leg of lamb. I shouldn't have stuffed down dessert but I did!! I chose Eton Mess Cheesecake with clotted cream and raspberries! Divine! I ate every bite :)

Afterwards we met Bella at the pub to watch the Chelsea vs. Man. United game. Chelsea won 1-0. Good fun.


For dinner we went and got some takeaway chinese food from a new shop that was recommended. Not bad! 30 pounds for the four of us= $45

Our weekend tradition is of course the X Factor! We've been watching it religiously every Saturday and Sunday Night. The contestants perform on Sat & elimination results are Sun. My favorite act is a young guy named Danyl. Hope he manages to win it! Tonight was a shocker as one of the top girls left and she had incredible vocals, but didn't connect with the audience. :(

Cornwall, UK
This is where I am living while John and I wait for a decision to be made on our visas to go back to Australia. As you can see it is a beautiful place to be! It's definitely an outdoorsy lifestyle & we've been on many hikes around the moors. On this particular day we went down to Kynance Cove and trekked down to the beach. Being that it is the beginning of November it was surprisingly sunny; however all Cornish days seem to start out sunny yet are subject to random rain showers throughout the day :)

I'm enjoying this stage.. the stage of transitions. I know that never again will I have such a stretch of time off as I do now, and funny enough I am enjoying it. John & I worked so hard at our restaurant back in Broome (60-80 hr work weeks) so in the beginning, when we moved here, it was hard to switch into having nothing pressing to do. The hardest part of this visa process is the waiting. I'm the kind of person who wants to know what's happening and how it will affect me. I am pretty relaxed about things but I do like to have plans secured. I guess that's another virtue I've learned while here... PATIENCE... :)

Plans are being made but for now we'll just have to wait and see what happens!

In July of 2007 my twin sister and I graduated from a community college in Florida. To celebrate this achievement (and because we were craving an adventure) we booked a 15 day Best of China tour through Chinaspree.com. Although our parents were at first wary of our rather impromptu booking we set off with our best friend to conquer the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, Xian & Hong Kong!

This was our first big trip overseas so I don't know what we expected to find when we landed in Beijing. Looking back I am incredibly glad we had booked a tour rather than attempting to navigate through the streets ourselves. The cities were extremely overcrowded, dirty and with the language barrier it would have been difficult to get around. This was the year before the Beijing Olympics and the pollution was at its worst, very foggy and grey. Our tour guide was a gem of a girl. She was friendly and witty and went out of her way to make us all feel at ease.

Highlights of this trip included riding in rickshaws, climbing the Great Wall, viewing the pits where the Terra Cotta warriors were housed, the boat ride down the Guilin river with the limestone mountains (see middle picture at top), the performances at the Beijing Opera, the tram ride up to Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, and the shopping. :)

But sorry! back to why this trip holds a special meaning for me. It is where I met John, my boyfriend of two years. He with his parents and sister had come to China to reconnect on a family holiday and spent two weeks there as a family before joining on to the tour. We immediately had a special connection & spent many conversations sitting in the lobby of whichever hotel we were staying at the time :) At the end of the 15 days we exchanged e-mails and bid goodbye.. he flying back to Australia & I flying home to the States. Not really knowing what the future held for us but knowing that we had each found something special.

Well world, I have decided it is past time to start a blog after being inspired by my mother who has started one. How backwards is this? My mum has proved herself more tech savvy than her twenty-one year old daughter! :) oh well, better late than never!

My life in the past two years has been completely unorthodox, terrifying and exhilarating and I dearly want to put my experiences during this time into words. I've lived in some pretty amazing places, met wonderful people who I will always hold close to my heart, and have been lucky enough to have the love of my life supporting me on this roller coaster ride of a journey.

Not to be too cliche but all of these experiences have been the making of me. I've stepped way out of my comfort zone and doing so has changed the way I view the world. As the title of my blog states, I am dreaming big & enjoying the ride!