As October comes to an end, we celebrate two of the best holidays back to back - Halloween and my birthday. It's been strange celebrating here in Australia. For me, October is normally filled with autumn leaves, pumpkin spice, and jack-o-lanterns, ending with a week long costume party and birthday cake. Right now in Australia, it's springtime. Instead of pumpkin picking in our sweaters and boots, we're lounging on the beach in our togs and thongs. Australians just don't seem to understand the concept of Halloween. The few pumpkins on sale in the shopping centers sold out weeks ago and trick-or-treating is almost unheard of. I've always associated the spooky holiday with my birthday, being that they are only a day apart, so when October 30th rolled around this year, I wasn't all too excited. I just didn't think it would be the same.

One of the perks of being on the other side of the world, though, is that you get two full days of birthday instead of one. My day of birth came 14 hours early this year, which means after all the festivities, I awoke the next morning and America was just catching up. Not only did I have a little extra love this year, but I also found an even more awesome way to celebrate than the typical costume party. This year, I celebrated turning 23 by jumping out of a plane… That's right, I went skydiving. I have always wanted to go skydiving, but I've always found excuses not to - whether it was the cost, finding somewhere to do it or someone to come with me, there was always something. But I think Australia has pushed me so far out of my comfort zone already that I've been making a habit out of taking risks. I've been living my life more on the edge, literally. And when my wonderful host family surprised me with a skydiving voucher as a gift, I had no reason not to go.

I can't even begin to describe the feeling. I spent the whole morning re-watching my bungy jumping video, pumping myself up and getting the adrenaline started. Kelsey and I drove up to Redcliff where we were going to Jump the Beach just north of Brisbane. After signing in, we sat in suspense for hours, waiting for the rest of our group and for a plane to take us up. We watched the skydiving promo video on repeat, and to be honest, I was way more nervous about what kind of faces I was going to make in the camera than the actual jump itself. While harnessing up, I was in a daze. All I really remember is being relieved that my skydiving instructor wasn't the guy with one leg, who claimed to have lost the other in a bad landing… Instead I was strapped to Splash, a middle-aged hippie dude who had already done 10 jumps that day. After we boarded the tiny plane, everything went so fast. Suddenly we had climbed almost 14,000 feet in the air, the door was open, and the first guy was jumping out. We barrel-rolled out of the plane one after the other, so fast that I didn't even have time to panic before I was falling. The free fall was indescribable. It was disorienting at first - all I remember is my mouth was open because I let out one hell of a scream and then it dried out and tasted like the ocean. And I remember thinking I should have worn pants, because free falling for 30 seconds, 14,000 feet above the water was way colder than I was prepared for. Then the parachute opened and we jerked back up before settling, finally being able to take in the beach view, gliding through the air under the sun, and a few minutes later, landing on the beach. Before we hit the ground, I already wanted to do it again.*

So it turned out to be a great birthday after all. And I'm also proud to say that after the birthday festivities, I ended up bringing a little bit of Halloween to Australia. I managed to find one pumpkin left at the supermarket to carve with the kids, even if it was a little disformed. I made spooky Halloween cookies for a surprise after-school snack. And I somehow managed to find one neighborhood about a 30 minutes drive away that was hosting trick-or-treating, so we threw together some last minute costumes and headed over for some Halloween fun. Most of the houses were out of candy by the time we got there, but on the car ride home, Christian and Tea told me it was the best Halloween they had ever had, and I couldn't help but grin.

Happy Halloween!

*I am still waiting patiently for the skydiving video… it will be posted as soon as I get it!

Tamborine Mountain has been on my to-do list since I got to Australia. It's a rainforest located in the Gold Coast Hinterland where you can go for a bush walk, see the Glow Worms Cave, or visit the quirky village. Kelsey and I set off to do a little hiking this weekend, but what we found was another one of Mount Tamborine's hidden treasures: Cedar Creek Falls.

About a kilometer up the trail, there are heaps of waterfalls cascading into swimming holes where you can lay out and sun bake on the rocks or cliff jump into the rock pools. It was almost as fun as our Uncle Brian's tour in Cairns (the only thing that could have made it better, of course, would have been Cousin Brad). We played around with my new GoPro camera and took some videos of us sliding down the natural rock slide, scrambling up the side of the waterfall, and cliff jumping several meters into the rock pools. Unfortunately, those are too embarrassing to share at the moment, but I promise to make some awesome action-packed videos of my upcoming adventures to post soon. That afternoon, we sat and had a picnic lunch at the top of the waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful, and I will definitely be back there this summer. Who knew we would find our own mini adventure spot right in our own backyard?

Cedar Creek Falls

What are you going to do today?

Don’t get me wrong, the past few months have been some of the most wonderful months of my life and I wouldn’t trade them for anything, but there’s a lot more that happens behind the scenes of this blog. I try to show you the excitement and the new experiences. I rarely, if at all, show you the hard times. There’s homesickness and heartache, loneliness and frustration. Part of me has felt somewhat defeated recently. There are still so many things that I want to get out of my experience here, but at times like these, I start to lose motivation.

Something that has always helped me when I’m having trouble putting one foot in front of the other is making lists. I’m always writing down things I want to do, whether it’s small things on a day-to-day basis or big things I want to accomplish at some point in the future. But sometimes the future seems far away and these big things begin to overwhelm me, creating a sense of anxiety. At times like these, I think it’s important to remember I don’t need to check off all the items and toss them aside in a “been there, done that” sort of fashion. I want to make another kind of list. One that will inspire and remind me how full my life has been already, regardless of what the future holds. The Reverse Bucket List, I suppose you would call it, of all the things I have filled my life with so far, that have shaped me into the awesome person I am today. So read, feel inspired, and make your own. Because if you look closely, I bet you’ve created a pretty damn good life, too.

My Reverse Bucket List:

1. Saw many of America’s greatest cities: New York, Boston, Washington DC, Nashville, San Francisco
2. Graduated high school with a perfect GPA
3. Graduated with a degree from Boston College
4. Spent a summer in my own apartment
5. Stepped foot in over half of the United States
6. Drove an RV to Indiana for a football game weekend, camped in a Wallmart parking lot (and survived crashing into an Olive Garden sign)
7. Built houses in Kentucky and West Virginia
8. Volunteered at a pre-school in Mississippi
9. Gambled at a casino on the Mississippi River
10. Cliff jumped on the North Shore of Hawaii
11. Had my own photograph featured in an art school exhibit
12. Learned how to throw a bowl on the ceramics wheel
13. Took a drawing class with nude models
14. Ate tapas and churros in Madrid, Barcelona, and Sevilla
15. Climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris
16. Took an overnight Eurotrain
17. Visited Buckingham Palace in London
18. Drove on a party bus to Quebec
19. Lived, studied, and worked for 4 months in Florence, Italy
20. Had a feature article published in an Italian newspaper
21. Visited Roma’s Colosseum and Vatican City
22. Rode horses through a Tuscan winery
23. Celebrated Carnevale in Venice and Viarreggio
24. Rode a gondola on the Venetian canals
25. Hiked Cinque Terre 3 times
26. Took the classic photo with the Leaning Tower of Pisa
27. Took an illegal photo of Michelangelo’s statue of David
28. Went inside the Blue Grotto
29. Visited the fossilized city of Pompeii
30. Ate gelato from the World’s Best Gelateria
31. Became a “regular” at an Italian panini shop
32. Canyon jumped in Interlaken, Switzerland
33. Skied the Swiss Alps
34. Spent Spring Break in Cancun
35. Moved to a foreign country completely on my own
36. Lived and worked in Brisbane, Australia
37. Climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge
38. Rode elephants in Bali, Indonesia
39. Snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef
40. Hiked the oldest living rainforest on the planet
41. Bungy jumped in Cairns
42. Held a koala
43. Snuggled a kangaroo
44. Pet a rhino
45. Kissed a giraffe on the lips
46. Dated guys from all sorts of backgrounds
47. Survived heartache and loss
48. Got a tattoo
49. Learned to drive on the wrong side of the road
50. Made friends who live on every corner of the Earth

I had a really busy weekend with the kids. They had their dance concert on Saturday night and I was so excited to finally see them perform on stage. As a kid, I was in dance lessons, like most little girls I'm sure. I was kind of expecting a dance recital like the ones I'd been to and been in - a bunch of clueless kids running around, looking lost. But I could not have been more wrong. The show was filled with kids of all ages from Conroy's Dance Centre who are essentially being trained to become professional dancers, and that's exactly what they looked like. Both Christian and Tea shone on stage. Tea was in the youngest age group, and there were definitely a few kids looking lost during her performances, but she was front and center, leading the group. Every single move she made, she made with purpose and perfection, and I think every single eye was on her. Christian was so awesome, too. I had never really seen that side of him, and I was so impressed to see him singing and dancing his heart out. Despite the tears and tired tantrums at the end of the night, I was so proud of both of these kids.

On Sunday, we went to the Australia Zoo - the "Steve Irwin" zoo. We cruised down Steven Irwin Way to visit the home of the famous Crocodile Hunter, and spent the day playing with kangaroos and koalas. We went on a behind the scenes tour of the Australia Zoo hospital where they take in injured or orphaned animals and get them back on their feet. Later, we were lucky enough to go on the "rhino encounter" where we got to pet a really sweet rhino named DJ. My host family is the best for taking me on all of these awesome adventures with them!

Me and DJ

These are just too good not to share...

MOVE

EAT

LEARN

There are heaps of "free things" to do around Brisbane (like beaches and bush walks), and after an expensive trip to Cairns, that's exactly what I was looking for this long Labour Day weekend. On Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early and drove up to the Sunshine Coast to climb a mountain with Kelsey. Mount Coolum is a volcanic dome, and after a challenging hike, scrambling up rock-like stairs for 45 minutes, you are rewarded with an awesome 360 degree view - you can see the Glass House Mountains and coastal beaches. By the time we reached the top, we were out of breath, but it was totally worth this:

Panoramic view from Mount Coolum

Glass House Mountains

On the way back to Brisbane, we drove along the coast and made a couple impromptu stops. We pulled over in Mooloolaba and spent a couple hours sun baking on the beach, and later we passed a sign for Wild Horse Lookout and climbed a 700 meter hill for yet another breathtaking view. We cruised home along the coast, windows rolled down, wearing nothing but our bikinis. Since the radio speakers had been broken, we just drove in content silence, hearing nothing but the wind whistling in our ears. But as we pulled onto the highway after stopping at Wild Horse, we hit a bump that sent our car flying while simultaneously and magically fixing the radio, and this song filled the journey home.

Facts that will make you want to travel more