Chapter 5 "touchdown LA"

Hey guys, just thought we'd let you all know that we arrived in LA. The exact same day and time we left, the time difference from Australia to USA meant that we didn't loose a moment travelling. The flight wasn't too bad we had heaps of in flight entertainment (thanks to the colouring in book Chookie bought us), the food was pretty good and our seats were at the very back meaning we had no little kid kicking the back of our seat or no stinky person sitting beside us. WIN!

The Flight

When we arrived in LA and grab our luggage and headed straight for a share bus to go to our hostel. Travelling along the highways we were like dogs with our heads out the window; every sign amazed us, every building was "wowed" at and when we finally seen that "HOLLYWOOD" sign butterflies filled our stomachs.

Our Accommodation

 20 minutes in the shuttle bus and we arrive at our hostel we checked in and were directed to our room. More like a jail cell with a comfy bed to some *insert unimpressed face here*

 Walking along Hollywood Blvd was an eye opener! People were walking past us and I couldn't help but to turn my head and sometimes stop and stare. A homeless guy was picking up rubbish on the side of the road and right beside him "Barbie" walked straight past with her dog in her hand. Kylie & I felt very plain which kinda made us stand out even more. We had a look at a few shops and walked around for about half an hour. 

Lunch on Hollywood Blvd at The Pig 'n' Whistle

We found The Pig 'n' Whistle and decided to grab a bite to eat out the front so we could sit down with our sunnies on an watch all the bazaar people walk by. After lunch we headed straight back to the hostel to try to meet up with Sam & Ben (two guys we met through The Working Holiday Club) it was great seeing familiar faces. Sam had tickets to see Armin Van Buuren and Kylie & I were both really keen to go but jet lag had set in. 

We fell asleep for a few hours and I just woke up to the ruckus of the other people in the hostel. I am anxious to go see whats happening around the place and Kylie has just woken up herself. So I'll finish this post to go explore our hostel with Kylie, book in our Disney Land shuttle bus and maybe grab a bite to eat from the vending machine outside our room.

Mid Night Snack? Vending Machine outside our room.

NICE TO FINALLY MEET YOU LA!!!

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Chapter 4 "Farewell"

This will be our last blog before we embark on our great adventure. We have said a few good byes and things are getting very exciting, yet REAL! Kylie & I are so very proud of how far we have come and even prouder of how far we will be going... Some people tell us "we're lucky" but it isn't luck! We've worked hard to pay off our debt & save, we've had the courage to do as we desire and the strength to persist. However we do have a few "thanks" to say to those that helped along the way....

To the SOROHAN'S- THANK YOU SO MUCH for the love and support & FREE BOARD!!! Kylie & Myself could not have paid off our debt & saved this fast without your help. You have all been so positive about this next chapter in our lives and make this journey so much easier by doing so. We will miss you all so much and Christmas will be hard without you all. Your an amazing Family to be apart of we're both such lucky girls. Chookie/Josh, Nat/Dan & Matt/Sophia one word....Coachella??? Come on we didn't do good vibes this year? 

*Insert tears here* This is the part where I start to cry thinking about saying goodbye to all he great people in our lives... Yes I am "That Girl" that cries at every heartfelt story and sad movie... Maybe it'd be best for Kylie to write this, but as usually she is fast asleep as we have to get up at 6am tomorrow morning to be at Brisbane Airport by 8am... I am just far to excited to sleep!!!

To Mumma Bear, Nana, Ron, Big Sis & Lil Brother, I don't know where I would be in this crazy world without your stability & friendships. I can't continue to write much more because the tears are overwhelming. You know we love you dearly and it's going to suck not coming home to cookies every Sunday afternoon Nana, or unconditional hugs from you Mumma Bear... Lil brother ( who isn't quite so little any more 200cm tall and counting) I hope you find direction in life- Maybe Canada? hit "The Working Holiday Club" Page Out & have a look, the links below!!! Big Sis, please don't have our niece or nephew while we're gone; everyone is in good hand with you around...

Grandma and & Grandad, Thanks for shouting us our first beverage. Sunday night dinners are without a doubt going to be missed the most. See you soon & don't forget to leave us one of the rooms free in your new home for when we return :)

Marg & Kev, thank you for all the hard work on sewing together our flannelette sleeping bag insert. We'll think of you both every time we curl up inside our cosy sleeping bags xoxoxo

Anjelika Smith (aka Smelly) YOUR THE BEST! thank you for taking over the responsibility of selling my car. Your my best friend forever; but most importantly your like family. I don't know what I do without you when the tough jobs need doing... Meet you in Europe if we get the chance xoxoxo

Mary Graham (aka sissy)- You did an absolute amazing job of our photography for our blog, Facebook, twitter & YouTube page. THANK YOU! Your such a great friend to have and will always be my little sister that I never had. Though sometimes my little brother does challenge that! 

Emma, Kara & Jhett (aka bffls) Thank you for simply being there throughout life when you were all needed the most! Thanks for the relaxing holiday before our adventure and all the moral support. WE WILL MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Please don't grow up to fast while we are gone Master Jhett. We won't waste a minute of this adventure. BIG LOVES UP TO YOU ALL xoxoxo

All the Uncles, Aunties, Cousins, Family Friends, Thank you for your encouragement and donations (which if you haven't done so all ready please feel free to do so mid travel when we're running out of $)  It's going to be tough not seeing all you for so long, so feel free to come visit... We'll be here at this link below.
http://winter.skisilverstar.com

To all those that don't feel like they haven't been mention, We're going to miss you all & thank you...

To The Working Holiday Club... Thanks for existing & making this easy! Who would of thought we'd be leaving Australia in less than a day to have a job, accommodation, visa's and clean undies... Well maybe the clean undies are our responsibility. Thanks Julia, Jake and Natalie. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST, WE WOULDN'T RECOMMEND ANYONE ELSE!!!

If anyone else wants to check out this great company head to:
http://www.the-workingholiday-club.com

You don't just have to do Canada, They do USA and UK as well...

Feel free to leave your good bye messages below on the comment section...

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WE WILL MISS YOU ALL UNDENIABLY. SEE YOU SOON, BUT NOT TOO SOON AUSTRALIA!!!

Chapter 3 "Packing"

The great debate happened a few months back when we were getting together all the bit's and pieces we needed to travel overseas... Toothbrush holders, Flight Socks, Flash Light, Travel Adapters, Sleeping Bags, New undies, the list went on and on... So with a massive list and so many pairs of undies what should we use a Suitcase or Backpack??? Both had their pro's and con's...

So the decision was Back Pack unanimously by Kylie & most of The Working Holiday Club forum members, with a few of us unhappy girls sigh-fully agreeing... The shopping around for one commenced and so did my tears when I seen how little I could fit into the backpacks. Not only could they hold very little of my massive wardrobe, but none are pink! This didn't bother Kylie and we picked a 65L backpack up for about $100 (this was on sale & a rather good buy, but UGLY)....

The UGLY non pink Back Pack

Throughout the last few months we have been putting bits and pieces into our back packs; new T shirt here, new undies there, New beanie here, new socks there, some extra undies here... It wasn't looking like such a bad decision... Until yesterday, when we finally sat down and packed for real!!! We tried folding the clothes- Fail! We tried rolling the clothes (Myth it fits more) FAIL! we considered the space saver bags? (But how would we re-seal them when back packing around?) I will still investigate this one!

My Clothing that's suppose to ft into the backpack.

So... we threw out some spare undies that we had (a sacrifice had to be made) a few T Shirts, a few jumpers, a pair of shoes... And its still packed o the brim!!! Kylie and I had ambitions of shopping overseas whilst in the USA! Ha, haha, ha ha *insert tears* not likely, we are now going to be smelly overseas back packers that won't be able to shop unless we pay for extra baggage everywhere we fly (we will accept donations for this at any time people, every bit counts)

So our backpacks are finally packed, kinda... We still have our carry on Bags which consist of- sleeping bags (in case our plane gets delayed and we need to crash for a few hours in the airport), Laptops, spare change of clothes, undies, toiletries, headphones, camera, iPad, SLR.. Oh dear, see this list is adding up also...  We have to re-think the bags we were using, as carry on can only be 9kg's/certain dimensions... 

Hopefully we can come to some sort of resolution before we fly out in 3 days time... Wish us luck... Leave some comments below or any helpful tips (don't forget to change the comment as button to anonymous if you don't have a blogger account)

Goodbye Wardrobe, Hello Ugly Backpack!!!

Chapter Two "Safe Activities"

Kylie and I are pretty accident prone, between the two of us we have had: several broken wrist's, knee surgery, broken rib's, load's of broken toe's/finger's plus a few stitches here or there and a recent incident with a hair straightener that electrocuted myself. So since enrolling ourselves in The Working Holiday Club, we made a pact to be safe about doing anything and everything that could hurt ourselves and prevent us from having a great season at Silver Star Resort. 


This so far has included implementing rubber matt stoppers for the shower, avoiding slippery surfaces when shuffling, playing soccer with only a balloon (rather difficult on a windy day), purchasing safety vest's for night time activities and carrying spare undies with us everywhere. OK... so some of these may seem ridiculous to you, and the safety vest have yet to be purchased (but its a great idea and i will do that first thing tomorrow morning) but we really have gone above and beyond to keep ourselves safe...


However, Kylie and I are both really fun loving people and cant keep still under the best of circumstances. So with the spare time we have on our hands, two best friends, loads of enthusiasm and determination to still have fun things get serious...

Safety Equipment + Activity...

Under "adult super vision" and with what we can call "safety equipment" on a budget things get a little silly... but Safe...

Let us introduce Kylie The Working Holiday Safety Mascot for all things adventurous...

So the bubble wrap was implemented, now Kylie could go skateboarding without injuries... Little did we know how hard it would actually be to move; let alone have fun in 30 degree Australian heat whilst restricted to bubble wrap and a whole lot of masking tape... 

This is how it looks to have "fun" without getting injured....

So as you can see, it's rather hard to skateboard with bubble wrap cutting off your circulation. You sweat out all your bodily fluid within seconds of stepping out into the scorching sun and this creates a rather nasty rash.

From Today's adventure we have summarised a few tips...

Tip 1: Wearing bubble wrap in the heat is not advisable. At All...

Tip 2: Use the toilet prior to putting on "Safety Gear"

Tip 3: Have scissors nearby for when your hand starts to turn purple from lack of circulation.

Please leave some suggestions below on how to have fun without getting hurt, any activities will do, any form of safety will be considered... (change the "comment as" button below the post to: anonymous; this is so you don't have to create an account to leave a comment)

See you all at Silver Star, Shortly, until then keep your undies sexy...

Chapter One "The Beginning"

Starting this first blog is much like the concerning, unsure state of mind Kylie and I were in when we first decided to travel the world. (No Freaking clue what so ever!!) Well we had a basic idea. We had to save, decide on a place, look into what is required, get new undies for the adventure (seriously every one needs a new pair of jox for a new adventure) The list was really long and it wasn't just undergarments... 

If you haven't read our bio yet you should it explains a bit about us, so you should read it! If you haven't read it, you probably don't like reading so here is a photo of us instead. (Kylie is on the left and myself; Rachel, on the left also, just joking I'm the handsome one on the right.)

But I'm glad you like reading, cause you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't. Over this next chapter in our life we are going to blog about absolutely everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. For example: We are going to post videos, links on where to go; to do the same as us; or where not to, where the cheapest undies are (most useful), and loads of photos like this one...

So how did we get to this point without ripping our hair out, remaining a solid couple, not loosing all our money to a Nigerian lottery and remaining completely sane (well not going any more insane than we already are)?

We went to a few local travel agents and found out about the Travel Expo in Brisbane. Thousands of brochures, a few environmentally friendly bags and some bumper stickers later we came across a stall with a big and bright personality that equally match's Kylie's and my own. It felt like our searching was over... (she even had a shuffle off with Ky, this was rather impressive)

Her name is Julia Dahl and she works for The Working Holiday Club.
http://www.the-workingholiday-club.com

After stealing her attention for over half an hour and a few gestures and comments of the  "sister hood" or as uncle Greg would say "the cult" we knew that we wanted to pursue our travels with a company that could help us and most importantly are like us. They have helped us with absolutely everything and most importantly we already made one friend before the serious stuff had even occurred.

So... Canada was decided and we handed over the keys of responsibility to Julia (priceless). We enrolled ourselves in the Powder Pack and the rest is History. Visa sorted, Insurance Sorted, Accommodation sorted, Job acquired, new undies... still yet to be sorted... 

Yesterday was my last day of work in Australia and Kylie and I are on our way to a secure job, accommodation, and join a few new friends we have met along the way through the pre-depature parties and social networking forums with The Working Holiday Club. These past few months have flown by and I wouldn't change how we've done this for anything, well a million dollars would come in handy so please feel free to donate...

 We should arrive at Ski Silver Star Resort http://winter.skisilverstar.com  mid November. When you finished checking out that link; cause I know you guys are all excited to see where we will call home for this years 2012/2013 Snow Season. We dare you to jump onto this link http://www.the-workingholiday-club.com and see what we are so excited about, and we double dare you to meet us over there next season. In fact we triple dare you to do it without any new undies...

This is a youtube film of Silver Star Resort Opening Day 2011/2012, This season I guarantee it is going to be better (we're apart of the team) 

GOODBYE AUSTRALIA, HELLO WORLD.

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