Ok, guys: It is really a nearly impossible task to write in here about all the things I see and hear and do and feel and think and expericence, all these jokes, all those laughters, all those awe-struck seconds of staring, all these little awkward moments, all the remarkable things that happen, all the breathing, all the loving and laughing and farting.... eeeh what?! :D
in short: I'm on that crazy roadtrip over 6000 km with those 3 rad people that I already love more than I ever thought I would.
My life seems to go nuts and I keep, keep, keep on accumulating a profound sea of happiness that appears too vast to ever dry out.
And yes, dude, I picked up some of the Colorado slang, man.
Don't ask me to open my eyes to what you call "real life",
don't ask me to join the well-trodden path of maturity and reason,
don't ask me for my outlook on the future,
don't ask me when I will come home.
I don't know and I don't want to know, and that's how it's supposed to be.
At the university of Travels you get an education that can not be found in any book and can not be taught by any teacher except yourself. And then someday you walk out with your Degrees of Life, and it makes you stronger and wiser and ready for anything that might come along!
Most of the travelling folk I meet have a life back home, something important they left behind, something they miss lots and something they will return to at some point, because it's waiting for them. There are still things to be said and done, there is a future, it's not over yet. Maybe you could say that they are not entirely disconneting, not taking their whole self with them wherever they go. Maybe you could put it this way, without any judging about what's better or worse.
I don't have something like that. I have a family and friends and a beautiful forest that I call my home, but it's not my life. My life is here just now and, above all, there is "home" and there is "home" - the place you grew up and the place where you feel at home...
We are all waiting to meet again, but we can all get along perfectly fine without each other, because they have their own lives, too.
So we are disconnected but very in touch at the same time - at this point, cheers to all these marvellous people who write me emails and do not forget me! Thank you all three times a second..
Dreimal in der Sekunde ein riesiges Danke an alle wundervollen Menschen, die mir Emails schreiben und mich nicht vergessen! Ich bin so vom Glueck gekuesst, dass ich euch kenne :3
Hiermit ein dickstes Sorry, wenn ich einfach nicht zurueck schreibe oder Wochen und Wochen dafuer brauche. Ich hoffe es kraenkt niemanden, aber die Zeit die ich habe, stecke ich in den Blog - einer fuer alle.
Hoffentlich lest ihr hier weiter mit und hoffentlich find ich auch weiterhin noch ma ab und zu eine Email ueber euch im Postfach :))
So, I am without any ties and experiencing a kind of freedom that most people never experience, it's vast and empty, stuffed with possibilities and lacking any fixed points. It can be overwhelming and scaring, and you get lost in it. But getting lost helps finding yourself, everyday I am finding a new part of myself, but I stay lost and I enjoy it very much. Hell yeah I can't tell you how much I enjoy it.
As Biffy Clyro expresses it in "Spanish Radio" with all what the vocal chords can provide:
"Hey, you can be lost at the same time as being found!"
I am very glad to announce that there are a few outstandingly wonderful news for me:
1. I got a guitarrrrrrahahahahajuuuhu!!
Something I have been desirous of for a time that felt so long.(only 4 months without?!)
Jeeeez, indeed no one can claim that I'm a good player or singer, someone might say I suck, but - eeeeeet's just so much fun, goddamnit! *swearing to enforce my words*
I'm in love. Isn't she the most beautiful sounding and looking guitar ever? :D
Miki, Belinda's ever-laughing daughter, and me invented the Nanna-song!
No worries, improvement of my skills is in progress. That's why I've got the guitar ;)
2. My knee. I didn't write about it before because I didn't want someone to have heart attacks and sleepless nights while there is no chance to help in any way - so I kept quiet. It's been filled with lots of fluid since beginning of August, I've seen docs in Sri Lanka and here, I rested it, I moved it, and after antibiotics, ultrasound, blood tests and MRI and all that fuss they finally know that it's nothing serious. The joint is completely ok, still no one can tell why the hell then there is that fluid swashing around and why it doesn't go away. There is no pain at all, it's just blocking my movements, derogating my mobility. Quite a bit annoying.
But now, after sitting calmly on my itchy itchy traveller's bum for 5 weeks, I can finally make plans for the future again (not saying that they will work out, I mean, they're plans). And I can go running again, and do any kind of hard work without having any life-long knee problems to fear.
Gulping gargoyles, THANK YOU!
By the way, Belinda's place is the perfect place to let cheerful weeks fly past, waiting for doctor's results. Lucky, impatient me.
...
Well you see especially that thing with my knee and also another stupid thing called money killed my wild dreams a bit - or let's say they froze them, wild dreams don't get killed so easy and everything happens for a reason... :
3. The Woodford Folk Festival takes place near Brisbane on the east coast between Christmas an New Years Eve with 13000 vistitors and about 2000 performers. And I will be that girl with the welcoming smile on the entrance of Woodford Folk Festival 2013 who ties the festival bracelets to the arms of the newly arriving folk music fans :))
That means I will be on that one-month-roadtrip across the continent in a couple of weeks, featuring the Hippiebrothers MattAustin, Anna Blume and Strombaer, the campervan.
Bye bye boring tedious uncertainity, hey anticipation and future prospects!
That's what I call good news.
The only bad news seems to be that I still don't have a picture of Belinda! :( :)
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As it is settled now that I will spend at least the rest of awesome 2013 with these people, I feel like I should dedicate some more lines to each one of them. Besides, it will be interesting for us to read it when our paths part!
You remember that in my previous blogpost I mentioned a German girl who is also workawaying here. I got to know her on my very first day in Oz, when she was walking in with Belinda and Mikyla. Having been at Belinda's place since beginning of September, she is so much part of the family, assiduous and always working, always the first one up in the morning, humble and Miki's best best friend, damn patient, and damn funny.
As I wrote above, that vast freedom can be overwhelming, and it happened to me when I came to Australia, a place as vast as my freedom. Paralyzed by possibilities. A future that can hold everything and nothing.
But even before I was really aware of what was going on with me, someone came along and picked me out of that state of hovering in the air.
We had known each other for a couple of hours, discovered at once a connection knotted by our musical likings and our dreams and mindsets, and boom just like that he invited me to join him and his friend on their roadtrip to Brisbane, or to be exact to the Woodford Folk Festival near Brisbane. (It was his, let's don't play it down, brilliant idea of volunteering at Woodford Festival what gives us the opportunity to experience something we usually couldn't afford.)
That daring and open-hearted guy is Matt.
I call him daring and open-hearted because on a roadtrip over thousands of kilometres, lasting for weeks, sandwiched in an old campervan, you can get into serious fights with your bestbestbest friends. And I am not always as nice and social as I thought, or as others may think. And we didn't even know each other for more than a few hours.
So you can imagine I was impressed, astonished and very very happy about that invitation. And although I was careful enough to keep my feet on the ground and tell myself to wait and see how things go, I guess some part of me made the decision to jump on that adventure during the very first wink.
Although or because he was just being himself, getting to know Matt was a strrraaaange thing at first because I've never met someone who's so similar to me and I didn't really know what to think of it. Weeks went by, so much happened, things took shape and I shook that paralysis off me, and I think I can say... that there are also huuuuuge differences between Matt and me. But I just hope that he won't kick me out of his van somewhere in the Outback.
Isn't it a bit like with my little Haennah-Flicka at home? ;)
"Wir sind uns ja SOOO aehnlich, und SOOOOO verschieden!"
(We are SOOO similar, but SOOOOO different!)
I really like that picture because it captures our relationship perfectly.
I really like the whole thing now because it was a nice unexpected lesson for me!
You can be better than that!
Don't let it get the better of you
What could be better than now?
Life's not about what's better than -
All you want is what you can't have and if you
just look around man, you see you can magic so just
sit back, relax, enjoy it while you still have it
Don't look back on life and see only tragic
All the time while you're looking away
there are things you can do
there's things you can say
to the ones you're with, with whom you're spending today
Get your gaze off tomorrow and let come what may
You could be better than that!
Don't let it get the better of you
What could be better than now?
Life's not about what's better!
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For me, this song says
Annie! Finally stop comparing yourself to others! You meet a guy who seems to have stolen all your big dreams and ideas and plans? Who did and will do the things you want to do, has the same taste of music and even the same funny bandana-wearing habit as you?
Fine, but that doesn't mean that he "stole your identity" and should leave you wondering who you really are and if you are really as unique as you always thought! You are so much more than bandana-style, music and campervan-dreams. Don't diminish yourself, you can be better than that, life's not about what's better than...
Oder, wie es meine kleine Haennah mir mit ihrer Abschiedskarte gesagt hat:
"Wer seinem eigenen Weg folgt, kann von niemandem ueberholt werden."
Und wenn jemand einen aehnlichen Weg geht - ist das doch eigentlich sau toll?
Like my friend Hannah said: " Someone who follows his own path cannot be overtaken"
And if there's someone following a path similar to yours, isn't that something great?
Also the song sings "challenge yourself" to me - an useful self-ass-kick for someone who was idling away a fun-only holiday of 3 months in a welcoming cheap country under palm trees.
Last but not least I was introduced to Austin, zeh mosht bjutiful man! Wee tscherman shpeakers call him " de Oschtn"!
With flowers in his hair, always wearing that smile and those Jesus-shoes, he is a true Colorado Hippie boy and as similar to Matt as if they were brothers. In a way, they are brothers, and thinking of my lessons in the Paramita Mediation Centre I am convinced that they have known each other for a very long time, that they were already friends in former lives.
Because in this life, they have been friends for a few months only, a time that I really really can't call long - the more impressive is the connection they share.
Annieway, I'm a big fan of it! Soulmates who just click on first encounter exist, here's the proof.
When we are working, we don't take many pictures, because we are working.
I'm stunned by this most simple thought of brilliant logic right now.
However, we mow the lawns and pick up the children from school, amongst other work.
Jiiiihaa, I always wanted to learn how to use a chainsaw and a whip-snipper, and I always wanted to cruise around endlessly cool on a sit-down mower.... covered all over with grass, a green grass monster, with little pieces of grass everywhere... oh did I mention my hayfever?
I don't care, I love it, and so on, how boring would a spring be without all the sniffing and sneezing.
A big event was the Engagement Party of Alex and Rochelle, Belinda's daughter. Busy busy days of preparations, (baking a shitload of bus cheese crackers *_*)
decorations, planning, cooking, going to Perth and find something dressy to wear...
on the big day, we all took out our cameras to take pictures of everyone looking so lovely
... so there was one night we went out to try some Belgian Beer in Perth with Elien, the Belgian part of the helpercommunity of Chidlow, who left to Victoria for a horsemanship apprenticeship... wow, all the luck to the curlhead cowgirl!
The belgian desserts are also not to be scoffed at.
...and on a hot Tuesday, we all headed out in that 29-year-old campervan of the brothers MattAustin
On the long ride east we were introduced to the dry and scorching heat of the Australian summer. I don't know how to describe it - I guess if you're not used to it - and we all aren't used to it - it just knocks you out. You feel like dehydrating while drinking, drinking hot water that is not refreshing at all. The only relief brings the head wind, Austin's music, and the fact that you're just lounging on the backseat of an old campervan with a bunch of marvellous people driving on a empty road that goes through sunburned flat countryside straight to the horizon.
So just hang your feet out of the window and sing along to Creedence Clearwater Revival...
Our destination was Wave Rock, a stone formation that looks like, well, a wave. It was carved out of the stone by wind an weather during centuries, and is now an impressive sight for tourists and travellers and after all, a great background for amounts of priceless pictures...
Both Austin and Sarina own really professional DSLRs, which make taking pictures from fun to crazy lots of fun.
My personal favourite.
So much easier to surf on a stone wave than on a real one..
The "Yawning Hippo"
Anna Blume in the sunset.
Jumping pictures - I have so few of them.
Camping in the bush
What is this?!
You just can't look NOT funny with six dorky dreadlocks on your head.
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Ein paar Bilder von Trips nach Perth und an den Strand...
Perth ist wirklich eine wunderschoene Stadt!
Und das Meer, ich habs vermisst! Das Wasser ist hier nicht jadegruen wie in Sri Lanka und etwas kaelter, aber das strahlende Hellblau und der schoene weisse Sand... und keine brutalen Wellen, sondern eher Plantschbeckenbrandung...
Das macht vielleicht ein bisschen wett, dass ueberall Menschen sind, die komplette Kueste entlang riesige Parkplaetze fuer riesige Autos in denen sie alles anschleppen was man am Strand so brauchen koennte... Boote und alles. Keine Kokosnusspalmen an langen einsamen Straenden zum entlanglaufen bis die Beine weh tun.
Aber... seeing this... wer kann das schon nicht moegen?
Indischer Ozean, immer noch.
Bushruns um Lake Leschenaultia bei Sonnenuntergang
Ein paar kuriose Geschichten gibt es auch noch...
zum Beispiel die von Pico, dem roten Kater (und immer noch mein Liebling! So ein Knuffpluff wie der!), der sein Mittagsschlaefchen hinter der Wellblechverkleidung des Appartments gehalten hat, an dem Tag, als wir das alles schoen festgeschraubt haben...
bei einbrechender Dunkelheit hoerten wir dann ein klaeglichen Maunzen und eine rote Pfote reckte sich durch eine Spalte...
Zum Glueck kam er dann durch eine andere Spalte wieder raus, ohne das wir alles wieder abschrauben mussten. Heldenhaft hat Matt dieser letzten Spalte und somit den Katzennickerchen hinter dem Blech ein Ende gemacht.
Und dann war da noch der Abend, als wir bei einer Nachbarin zum Essen eingeladen waren und ich laufe unschuldig an Matt vorbei und entdecke eine kleine Spinne in seinem Bart. Weil ich weiss, dass er Angst vor Spinnen hat, sage ich vorsichtig in meinem schoensten Schulenglisch, auf das Mrs Moravec stolz gewesen waere: There is a spider in your beard - Da ist eine Spinne in deinem Bart.
Er glaubt mir erst nicht, wischt sich ein paar Mal ueber das Gesicht, bis sich die Spinne panisch von seinem Finger abseilt, und wir starren sie dumm an - bis der Sohn der Nachbarin vorbeirennt und wie ein Berserker bruellt I GOT IT! und die kleine Spinne killt.
Das war meine kurze Version. Der liebe Matt konnte und kann es bis heute aber nicht lassen, sich ueber meinen schrecklich starken deutschen Akzent lustig zu machen - "Zare ees a spida in your bee-uhd" hab ich angeblich gesagt. Nein stop, geschrieen. Seine Version der Geschichte ueber die Spinne in seinem maennlichen Fusselbart ist naemlich viel dramatischer und unterhaltsamer! Wer lesen will http://sojournsandsagas.wordpress.com
(Beissender Spott beiseite, er ist ein viel besserer Schreiberling als ich, Bloglesen lohnt sich - hat mich inspiriert, meinen Blog ein bissel anders zu machen (seltener Posts und dafuer ausfuehrlicher)...auch wenn ich sein Drama in der Spinnenbart-Geschichte nicht wirklich ernst nehmen kann)
Das ist Georgia. Sie ist 34 Jahre alt, aber sie sieht weder so aus noch benimmt sie sich so. Sie ist hauptsaechlich hier als Gesellschaft fuer Chester, den schicken Fuchs auf den Bildern oben, weil sie nicht mehr geritten wird.
So als lebendiger Rasenmaeher lebt es sich hier auch ganz gut, aber ich dachte, vielleicht mag sie es genau so sehr wie Pony und Lady es gemocht haben, wenn es ab und zu mal einen Zweibeiner gibt, der sich mit ihr beschaeftigt, und nur mit ihr, und nur wegen ihr.
Erst wollte sie sich nicht einfangen lassen (passiert nicht so oft)... aber als ich dann angefangen habe, die Karotte alleine zu essen.... ;)
Matt was reading it, and when I saw the title I had to steal it from him and read it as well, and I really liked it!
All the book about Buddhism I had in my hands so far were real educational books - and it was true student's work to force yourself to concentrate and read the dry theory in long sentences, in advanced English and in more or less fine-printed letters. After one chapter, I hadn't enough discipline to go on reading and didn't even feel like I'd understood everything I just read.
It is not like that with this book - the author is a dedicated cab driver as much as he is a humble, humorous, self-critical and exerted Buddhist. And on top of that just an interesting character.
The anecdotes from his cab driver's life, all the little things of everyday life, seen through the eyes of an open-minded and literate Buddhist, his dry sense of humour, the countless little big pieces of wisdom, explained comprehensibly, not only in theory but with the help of examples of the very normal daily grind. Educating and entertaining at the same time. I loved it. Fortunately I'll stay another while with Matt and his book.
Absolute recommendation of this book to... to everyone!
Matt hat es gelesen, und als ich den Titel gesehen hab, musste ich es ihm natuerlich klauen und auch lesen, und es hat mir sehr gut gefallen!
Alle Buecher ueber Buddhismus, die ich bis jetzt in den Fingern hatte, sind eben richtige Lehrbuecher gewesen - eine echte Studentenarbeit, sich durch kleinbedruckte Seiten von trockenen Sachbuechern zu waelzen, so mit langen Saetzen und schwerem Englisch und Theorie ohne Ende. Und nach einem Kapitel kann man sich nicht mehr konzentrieren und hat das Gefuehl, nur die Haelfte gerafft zu haben.
Bei diesem Buch ist das nicht so - der Autor ist ein Taxifahrer mit Leib und Seele, genau so, wie er ein bescheidener, humorvoller, selbstkritischer und bemuehter Buddhist ist. Und obendrein einfach ein interessanter Charakter.
Die Anekdoten aus seinem Taxifahrerleben, all die kleinen alltaeglichen Dinge, die er durch die Augen eines aufgeschlossenen und belesenen Buddhisten sieht, der trockene Humor, die vielen kleinen grossen Weisheiten, spielerisch erklaert und nicht nur in Theorie, sondern anhand von Beispielen aus dem ganz normalen Alltag. Lehrreich und unterhaltsam gleichzeitig. Ich habs geliebt. Zum Glueck bleib ich noch eine Weile bei Matt und seinem Buch.
Absolute Leseempfehlung fuer jeden, der.... ja, fuer jeden!!
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Many things I've learned and consider as very precious are - in more or less the same words - to find in the book. Other things aren't - remember what I wrote about the "Degrees of Life".
I already had become good at letting go, and I became even better.
I already knew that I should keep myself from revenge, but I learned how free myself from the mere thought of revenge (a lot easier this way...)
I knew that empathy is so good, and learned that compassion is even better.
I knew that giving up is not always bad, but I learned that you should never accept defeat before you even start trying.
I saw some examples of real life that gave me some completely new perspectives, that put a vivid new meaning into things that I thought I already knew, put colour into things I only saw in black&white before.
I am still endlessly lucky (I can lose a crochet hook in a huge sandy riding arena and then walk into in there and find it again within less than 5 minutes... literally the needle in the haystack)
I am still enthusiastic and I am still endlessly grateful for it all.
I learned that it's sometimes good for me if I don't get what I want :D
And many more things were approved for example how marvellous my friends are and how great it feels to pop bubble wrap bubbles...
And travelling together with three people in one single van for 24 hours a day, 30 days a month, not being able to just walk away from problems but being forced to handle them instead... that will also be a good lesson for the stubborn, solitary and impatient independence-addict that I can be.
