A week of settling in, meeting new people, gaining job experience, sunset dinners, getting my CPR certification, first yin yoga class and volunteering to feed the animals affected by the bush fires. A.K.A a week I’ll be holding near and dear to my heart.
Monday, 17 February 2020
We went to a Catholic church in the morning for a ceremony for my 2nd cousins daughter. afterward it was my first day in the office gaining insight into the accounting and finance field. I went to a Jungle gym workout session that all the local rowers go to. I usually would never set myself up to do HIIT or cardio training. This was all of it in one and super intense and fast paced. This was definitely a challenge for me and I can’t wait to do it again. I took a walk on the beach right after and I can’t even explain how good my post workout high was. at home I jumped into the swimming pool and for the rest of the night we just ate dinner and watched my favorite show Schitts Creek. I also received a drawing form Mags’s son. It was a Christmas tree with presents underneath. Anyone that knows e knows I’m crazy about Christmas and start celebrating it on the 1st of November. It was so crazy that he gave me this drawing not even knowing how I feel about Xmas.
Tuesday, 18 February 2020
Woke up at 5 am, read Atomic habits written by James Clear( a must read in my eyes), I skyped my Parents and the walked down to the beach to go watch the sunrise( I’m very intentional with this and made it a goals at the beginning of the year to watch a sunrise or sunset everyday). I went to work again and I’m so excited to learn new things. I went home a couple of hours later and took a nap. I was still struggling with Jet lag a lot this week and felt exhausted most of the time. When I woke up I got dressed and walked to the gym for a refreshing session. I took a walk back and walked to the beach of course. We had the most delicious Greek lamb for dinner and ended the night of with some Netflix( this quickly became a ritual). I fell asleep with a storm outside in my ears.
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Woke up super early because me and Mags( my 2nd Cousin) are going to Wollongong’s uni for the Xero roadshow( accounting software) . First thing: Skype my family. I watched the sunrise form the car and we were lucky to have a wonderful view. When we arrived we had breakfast and the roadshow started. The food was amazing and having more insight into the software was interesting. We drove home with a view of the ocean for a while, I don’t think I will ever get used to this. For dinner we went to the beach to end of our day with a refreshing swim and food while watching the sunset( It looked like one of those ancient paintings with vivid pink and peach colors). We watched Schitts Creek to end off an amazing day.
Thursday, 20 February 2020
Woke up and my mission for the day was to get Certified in CPR. I learned a lot of useful information, met new people and got to do the typical CPR testing on those dummies you all know. I traveled back home on a public bus alone for the first time( sounds minor to most but in South Africa that isn’t our way of getting from place to place and this was definitely the first time I could’ve experienced it). The rest of the day was relaxing and I definitely felt drained so I gave myself a break and just talked to my parents and family the rest of the day and we ended it off with our usual ritual.
Friday, 21 February
Woke up and went t a Yin Yoga class after breakfast. I’m not lying when I say that This was the most relaxing thing I’ve done in my entire life, I swear I’m going to get addicted. I went home and packed my bag because we’re going away this weekend to the Robertson area. We went on a road trip for a couple of hours and I met the close fiends of Mags we’re staying with at The Farm Beach. We sat and picnicked while the others were surfing. We went to our guest house to unpack and spent the rest of the evening with the friends. We prepared the food that we’ll be giving to the animals in a close area that was badly affected by the bush fires and still have no food and shelter. It made me so happy to know we’re contributing to something bigger than us.
Saturday, 22 February
Woke up, ate breakfast and got in the car to achieve our main goal of the day: feed the animals . We had an hours drive to where the feeding stations was. It was heartbreaking to see all the houses and nature that was destroyed. We had 9 feeding stations where we layed out the fruits and veggies, made paths with pellets for the animals and put up the watering systems for the kangaroos etc. between trees that were pitch black from the fire and not greenery except for the regrowth( which was amazing to see) This was such a liberating experience and doing something good for something other than yourself really makes you feel warm. When we finished we went to a farmers market and had lunch at Burrawang Pub. the best views for a lunch I swear. We went home got our swimsuits and jumoed right ack into the car on our way to Carrington falls to swim in the waterfall. We jumped into the freezing water without a second thought and swam and dnaced in the waterfall. Yet again such a refreshing experience. At home we all took a warm shower and sat by the fire while having dinner the rest of the night. Such a wholesome day. This is definitely a day I will be sharing with everyone for the rest of my life.
Sunday, 23 February 2020
The end of our get away weekend has come. We ate breakfast and got on the road back home. We arrived, I got dressed for gym. Before the gym we made a quick stop at the local farmers market got some fruits and veggies and went straight for a nice exercise. We had Fuh(soup) for dinner. it was my first time eating it and it is definitely something to try. The rest of the day was chill and we ended with our ritual.
This week was full of new experiences, people and events. I am learning something new everyday and excited for what’s to come.
I end up pincing myself everyday to make sure im not in a dream. Im so thankful to my parenst, mags and her family that is making this whole experience possible for me.
I dont know how i will ever be able to repay them for how much they mean to me. I love you guys so much!
Thank you so much for reading my blog, it means the world. I want to document my new experiences and love sharing them. Thanks for ypur support!
The Jessica journal 
Ahh Jess ek is so bly jy geniet elke oomblik. Mis jou xoxo
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