Home Bound; For Now

11 months ago, I boarded a one way flight to Sydney, Australia on a 462 working holiday visa with no plans mapped out, not knowing a single soul, going into a country where I only know of Sydney Opera House and nothing else, only carrying a 20kg backpack with me. Tired of my old job and not knowing what career path I wanted to head toward, I decided to travel all over Australia to my heart's desire to do some soul searching. Not only has this journey been inspiring and extreme, but I've also grew and developed as a person. The things I've done, the mess I've made, the troubles I've encountered, the challenges I've faced, the food I've tasted, the coffee I've drank, the metric system I've learned, the Pokémon I've caught, the tears and laughters I've shared, the people I've met, the friends I've befriended, the Jesus I've devoted to, the one I've fell in love with, the home I've second'd, nothing short of what was needed for myself. I'm coming home not only bringing my six packs... of Tim Tams, but I'm bringing home a better person, a better son, a better friend, a better potential employee (hire me pls), a better me. Farewell, Australia; for now. I'll be back very soon and when I come back, I'll take you on like a storm! Peace, latah!

New Zealand: The Week that felt like Months!

Boy what a week it has been...! Marco, Satie, and I are finally back to Melbourne after a week long in New Zealand that felt like we were there for months...!

As a slacker that I am, I waited until very late to book everything for the trip and making stupid mistakes. We were going to book a Britz campervan which was supposedly one of the best campervan companies in New Zealand. I was checking on Wednesday morning and there were still 4 people campervans. I went out for something and when I came back, it was all booked out! I rushed around the internet searching for alternatives and eventually booked a campervan with a company named JUCY. They have average reviews, but it's better than nothing because we wanted to experience living in a campervan. As for the flight tickets, we were going to book from Sunday to Sunday, but I didn't want Satie to come home on Sunday morning tired and still have to go to school, so I decided to book Saturday to Saturday. Later that day, Marco asked which days have I booked the flight tickets and I said Saturday to Saturday. That was when I immediately remember that Satie is taking her EILTS on Saturday.... Oh geez. I was so scared that I would be a disappointment again so I hurried and try to change my booking for Sunday to Saturday. Turns out that I booked the most basic ticket which is not flexible for changing flights, so I had to pay extra to fly on Sunday and extra for flight changing fees. So the flight tickets for all three of us turned out to be AU$1800 instead of AU$1500 and the campervan turned out AU$900 instead of AU$800. The flight ticket was okay because my previous booking was cheap enough to make up the difference since flying out Sunday was supposedly more expensive to begin with, The campervan is a $100 extra, but I convinced myself that there's no use blaming myself.

So everything is booked and we're ready to go! Everyone was excited for the trip because Marco needed some time to walk away from Australia. Satie haven't really had a legit vacation since she came to Australia. I... Well, I wanted to do a bit more travelling before I head back home. The day finally came, Satie finished her IELTS with average confidence in passing, and we were all packed and ready to go. Our flight was 12:05AM Sunday, so we took an Uber to the airport at 9:30PM Saturday so we don't bother Adrian. My first time using Uber, there were no UberBlack around so we ended up taking an UberX which was luxurious riding... We were like, wow! It's a Mercedes Benz! The bill? Came up to be $100...... Luckily, it was my first time using the app, so we got $20 off. We got to the airport and Hungry Jacks before we boarded the plane.

5:50AM Sunday 26, June:
We arrived Christchurch Airport safely and early. JUCY does not open until 8AM, so we chose a corner in the airport to rest up before we head out, but we got kicked around by securities at the airport because we're not supposed to be sleeping around haha... We ended up moping around until 10AM before we finally got to the rental company to pick up the car. We were excited to pick up the campervan until I did all my paper work and went out to review the vehicle. That's when everyone's face dropped. It was a big green van. Satie described it as the Scooby Doo van. Inside was not as luxurious as the YouTube video we saw for the Britz campervan. I can see Satie and Marco's faces the whole time thinking "Are you serious?" I tried to fake my smile and laughter so the poor guy going over how to use the campervan won't feel bad. I keep saying, "Sweet! Cool! Yeah, it's nice! Yeah yeah...!" Lol... It was not good and I felt horrible, but the campervan was actually not that bad once we settled down with it. We drove out of the parking at 10:30AM and finally started our trip. We headed straight for Christchurch CBD so we can stock up on food, eat lunch, and head out. Things can't get any worse. It was a cloudy rainy day; a sad mood where we just want to stay in and relax. Once we got to Christchurch, our face dropped again. Apparently, Christchurch had an Earthquake a few years back. Everywhere in the city, there were a lot of construction and broken down buildings everywhere. There were graffiti tags everywhere, void spaces of buildings being rebuilt, rarely do we see anyone walking around the city, and the weather completed the mood of Depression. The city looked so depressing! The whole time we were there, we were feeling like, "Okay! We've had enough of New Zealand! Lets go home because