Life in Sydney for The OnyxTraveler

Since I am so behind on posts, I thought I would take the time to do one big “Why I Love Sydney” post so that I can get up to speed with real-time posts. This one is going to be a bit long. I arrived in Sydney on March 19th, 2009, not really knowing what to expect.  I knew I would really like it here since I had read soooooooo many incredibly positive things about the city as I did my research.  I have to admit that when I was in the Gold Coast, the night before I was set to fly here, I went thru a bit of a quasi-breakdown.  I was up till about 4am filled with anxiety and I was incredibly emotional.  I felt like I was on the verge of a crying meltdown.  I think I went thru that because I suspected that once I got to Sydney, my life was going to change exponentially and my  psyche was adjusting.  Sounds a bit “airy-fairy” I know but it makes sense to me.  When I did arrive on my flight from The Gold Coast, I was still out of  kilter emotionally.  In my visions, I would have been the happiest I had ever been in my life, but on this day, it was not the case.

The Sydney Airport: they have one of the worst airports I have been to.  The signage is poor & there is no one to help you if you need directions or have questions. The airport customer service staff is all volunteer so if there are no volunteers that day, then there is no one to help you. The signs directing you to where to catch shuttles, taxis, etc…are basically nonexistent, so here I am with my huge, heavy ass bag (which I had to pay $75 extra to check since it was over the weight limit), I’m tired as hell since I didn’t sleep the night before & I’m hungry as hell as it is now Noon and I cannot figure out where to catch my damn shuttle. After wandering around and asking 6 people – getting 6 different answers, I make it to an area that I think is right. I have 10 different Asian shuttle drivers approach me trying to hustle me to take me into the city (fortunately I had read about their tactics in my guide book) and I’m about to cuss all of them out because I knew they were not my specific shuttle. After what seemed like hours, my dude did show – in an unmarked bus by the way. I’m now off to my hostel, The Wakeup.  Update: there was a biker (bikie out here) gang war at the airport a week after I arrived and one biker dude was killed.  They were fighting right in the terminal and one dude was killed.  Imagine how pissed I would have been walking into that mess!!

Hostel Life: As you all may or may not know, this trip for me is supposed to be “backpacker style” – one bag (a super huge and heavy one) with my necessities, staying in hostels at times, couchsurfing (I’ll explain what that is in later posts) and relying on the kindness of friend referrals to allow me to stay for free at their homes.  Basically, I have to spend as little money as possible on the necessities of life.  Those of you that know me know that this is COMPLETELY the opposite of how I usually travel and I’m sure you think I have gone off the deep end.  I was formerly, notice I said formerly, a 4-5 star type of traveler. I call it “Grown Girl Travel”. I usually stay at really nice luxury hotels (especially when my “sponsers” were paying, hehehehe), when I go for extended trips, as I did for the summer of 06 to Europe for 90 days. I rent super nice luxury apartments in upscale apartments so that I can “live like a local”. Not a poor local, a wealthy one, lol.  Thankfully, that is who I formerly was.  In the process of coming here, I was instructed by The Universe to sell all of my things.  The process of purging & seeing my beautiful possessions go made me realize that they are just “things” that used to define me but no longer.  I could now care less about shopping, luxury this and that and all the false trappings of “success”.  It’s all an illusion and bullshit for me personally & I am grateful to be released from the shackles of being defined by outward perceptions.  Anyway, as I was saying, I have to SERIOUSLY economize now so I decided to stay in a hostel.  This was not my first hostel experience. I stayed in one in July 06 while at the Montreaux Jazz fest in Switzerland. It was tight – right on Lake Geneva, super clean and beautiful – definitely not the dirty hostel, backpacker horror experience you read about.  I had done a ton of research to find just the right hostel and I did.  I chose The Wake-up hostel  www.thewakeup.com .  It was voted the “Best Large Hostel in the World” by several groups that rate such things.  It is known for its cleanliness, party atmosphere, design and overall great time. I was just happy that it was $27.00/nt US. I booked a week there as I didn’t know if I would like it. As I mentioned earlier, I was not doing really well emotionally at this point (I had actually gotten a bit depressed by this time) so I was not my usually uber-happy, mega spiritual kum-by-ya self when I arrived. I was fine but not “truly Sheila”. I had booked a female share 4 which meant that there would be 4 girls in the room.  I got checked in okay, headed to the 6th floor and got to room 608 (which would become my home for 2.5 weeks). I was incredibly underwhelmed when I opened the door. It was brightly painted and clean, but there were 2 bunkbeds and it was sparce. Definitely NOT the Four Seasons . My immediate thought was “Oh Lord, I don’t think I can do this,”. I decided to make the best of it- as if I had a choice – get unpacked and go explore in the city.  One of the awesome things about The Wakeup is that it is uber central to EVERYTHING!! It’s right across from the train station, near all the cool neighborhoods and a short distance from the Opera House. To make a long story short, I ended up LOVING the Wakeup. I became friends with all the staff, I truly enjoyed meeting the parade of backpacker girls from all over the world that would come and go – it was not the norm for someone to stay as long as I did. Everyday I was meeting someone from England, Switzerland, Italy, Chile, Holland, Ireland, Canada, the USA, Germany, etc… All from 18 – 45.  It was 2 1/2 weeks of dorm-like living just like in college.  Thankfully I look like I am in my 20’s (Black Don’t Crack Baby!) so I was able to fit right in. When I did eventually leave, I missed it and actually went back 2 weekends ago to stay because I missed the energy of The Wakeup. My #1 goal in staying at a hostel was to meet tons of people and make new friends – albeit transient ones while I was in Sydney.  I accomplished this and more and I highly recommend hostel living at least once in your life.

Sydney the City: I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, I LOVE SYDNEY, oh and did I mention, I LOVE SYDNEY!!!!!!!!!!  I do not know how I’m going to convey to ya’ll how/why I love this city so much. Is it possible to have a love affair with a city and feel emotionally connected to it? Not sure, but that is what I am experiencing. I guess the best way to describe how I’m feeling is to simply say that “I’m Home!!”. After many,many, many years of traveling, searching for an elusive “something” and not really realizing that I was searching and not knowing what I was searching for, always being restless, living with the constant feeling of having a hole in my soul that I could not fill, yearning for peace but always being in a state of unrest, feeling lost, feeling like I never belonged where I was, constantly changing with the wind because I could never be settled and all the while driving my friends and family crazy – I am truly grateful to say those experiences for me have ended.  Within a week of being here I knew that I was Home. This is where I am supposed to be. For the first time in my life, my Soul is peaceful and rested, my Spirit is on High, my mind is at ease, I don’t yearn for that elusive “something” and I am settled.  Words cannot describe finally living life while being truly “at peace”. It’s incredible!!  I still don’t know why God wanted me to be here or what he wants me to do, but I am able to be patient, build my life here and be ready. It’s so awesome!!

So, what is so great about Sydney: I can only answer that from my perspective, but I will start with the energy here. For me, it’s a creative, loving, positive, forward thinking, fully charged city.  It’s very clean and open and well planned out.  It is a city that actually has a center and the city fans out from it’s center.  This is really important because a city that has a true center has a cohesiveness to it that draws & holds people together.  It’s very unlike LA or NY where there is no center whatsoever. LA is simply a series of seperate mini-cities that are all stuck together with no continuity or connectedness.  That is why it is so easy to feel lost in a city like LA because there is no sense of community throughout the city due to the fact that there is not a central focal point for people to be drawn to or reference.  This won’t make sense until you go to a city that has a true center -Paris is good example of this.  The grid of the city has a true center and the arrondisments (neighborhoods) fan out from it.  While the neighborhoods are all
different, there is still a sense of a unified, connected Paris. I need to be in cities that have a center.

I have spent many of my weeks here exploring different neighborhoods. Sydney is definitely a walking & public transportation town. I usually wake up around 7am, put on my workout gear and hit the streets.  I’ll pick an area on the map and walk to it. I walk the streets exploring early in the morning while the shops are closed so that I can map out where I want to visit when I return. I’ll find a cafe to have my cappuccino & breakfast (breakie here) and talk to local people. I’ve discovered the Circular Quay (pronounced “key”)- where the Opera House is, The Rocks – next to the circular Quay-this is where the convicts settled, Chinatown, the CBD (central business disctict), Surrey Hills (my favorite area – full of cafes, bars, restaurants, gays), Darlinghurst (next to Surrey Hills – also cool), Kings Cross (the red light/entertainment district), Elizabeth Bay (waterfront quiet enclave next to Kings Cross), Potts Point (next to Elizabeth Bay – older upscale – where I want to live), Paddington (near Surrey Hills – gentrified area – now very upscale and cosmopolitan. Tons of Australian designers have shops here), Woolomoloo (waterfront area – Russel Crowe has a home here), Darling Harbor (waterfront touristy area), Manley beach – cool beach community, Bondi Beach (well known beach community _ I don’t like the energy there), Parramatta (the western suburbs – they call it Sydney’s 2nd business district – very suburban – way the hell away from the city -it’s where I’m staying now) and finally The Northern Suburbs (all waterfront, north of the city, very upscale and family oriented, uber wealthy in most parts – it’s where I would settle if I didn’t want to live in the city). In all the areas I have explored and now know so well, I have only encountered the nicest, most genuine people. People smile here, their energy is positive, they help you if you have questions or look lost, they are open, they are accepting and just overall cool.  As a Black Woman traveling here, this is the first place I have ever been to in my entire life where I’m not defined first by my color. I’ve always hated it when people say, “I don’t see color,”. I’ve always thought that was TOTAL BULLSHIT, but I have to say that while being here, I have experienced that as being true time and time again. Obviously they see that I am Black as I couldn’t hide this chocolateness if I wanted to. The difference is IT DOESN’T MATTER that I am brown.  In the USA and almost everywhere else I have been to, the process is: 1. see a brown/black person 2. make a judgement – usually a negative one 3. interact with the brown/black person based on those judgements/filters.  Here, step 2. is removed (in my experience and in many other brown/black people I have talked to).  Sydney is as close to being a colorblind city (as it pertains to black people) as I could ever wish for.  You all have to visit!!  It is amazing here!!

I’m going to end this post and start with new ones now as I am experiencing life now.  I’ll write about meeting people and dating here in sydney, making money, travel, trying not to be homeless, what my next steps are, etc… in future posts. I’ll now work to do 1-2 posts a week.  Stay tuned…

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Dayum, it’s been 5 days already!!!

March 15th – I cannot believe it is the final day of WIS.  I spent 3 month preparing to be here, had the most amazing time, all of my goals have been exceeded and then some and it is the last day???  wtf???  One more day of the amazing content and networking and connecting with people!!  For those of you that might have an interest in internet marketing, WIS is the premier event to attend.  They have conferences throughout the world during the year so check it out and get your ass to one.  One thing I forgot to mention about WIS is that each event, the do what’s called the World Internet Challenge where on the first day of conference, Friday the 12th of March, 2 internet businesses are created from scratch.  Profits earned from those 2 businesses are then given to 2 very lucky audience members drawn randomly.  Ya’ll know I was trying my damndest to manifest that cash!!!  Anyway, in  a bit under 72 hours, $35,000 was earned.  One participant got a check for $29k and some change and the other one got $5k and some change.  For those of you out there that say, “you can’t make any money on that internet thingy,” to you I say get a life and enjoy being poor!!

People, seriously, there is major cash to be made in MANY DIFFERENT ways right now.  True wealth is created in down times like the one we are in.  Don’t be like sheep and continue to watch the news and listen to all the bullshit, stop listening to your friends lamenting.  Turn off the fucking TV and start looking for ways to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing.  There are a million ways to make a million dollars.  Find yours!!!  It just takes one!!!  Invest in your education and more important, take massive fucking action to take control of your life and create your own destiny.  If you need to change locations to get away from “dream stealers” then do it!!!  Start by reading blogs that are out there about how to create wealth, how to work from home, how to do any fucking thing!!  There is so much free information out there that will literally tell you step-by-step how to make money right now it is completely ridicuolus!!!!!  Again, turn off the fucking TV and figure it out!!  Okay, my rant is over.

Okay, so what about Euro??  Are we going out again? Are we in love?  Is he a good kisser??  Had a great time on our “date” last night. We actually spent a ton of time talking about business.  That is why I like him so much because we talk for hours about internet marketing.  Neither of gets to talk at an advanced level with anyone in our circle because we are the only ones in each of our respective circles that does this stuff.  He was really impressed with alot of the ideas I was able to give him for getting his business to the next level and I learned a ton about launching my own product, which is the direction I have decided to take my business model in as I am completely stepping away from affiliate marketing as I was doing before and making this a real, scalable, leveragable business model in which I am creating my own info products and keeping 100% of the profits vs. marketing others products and getting a percentage. Think of it with this analogy:  Who would you rather be, Michael Jordan (fill in any athletes name) who is cashing checks that someone is writing to him or would you rather be  Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Bulls that is signing the checks.  I choose the Owner.  I’m supposed to go with David after the conference and stay with he and his family, however, Euro is staying over another night and we can’t seem to find a reason to want to part hehehehe.

Conference over – all my goals accomplished – walked away with a very clear business strategy – made the proper connections – did not buy any expensive courses – found a JV (joint venture) partner -met a hot boy – kissed a hot boy – all in all, I’d say mission accomplished!!  I’m in Australia baby!!!!

Next chapter…

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I Kissed a boy!!

Sat March 14th – The conference was great.  Met tons of people, made lots of connections, learned lots of stuff…yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to talk about Euro.

So, I wake up all giggly and smiley just like a damn girl.  I met a boy, I met a boy and I’m going to get him to ask me out today!  I get sort of cute – keep in mind that my effing curling iron burned up day one. It is now day 3 and the hair is not looking good.  I have to rock my green hat for the rest of the damn event.  That kills several of the majorly cute outfits I would like to wear.  How can I be sexy, alluring & professional without looking like I am trying to be?  Oh yeah, tight jeans, cute sandals and a tight, yet tastful, boobie revealing top.  Niiiiiiiice!!  I head downstairs with my mission very clear…find Euro and make him mine!!  I get down early to get my up front seat and I am cooly and casually scanning the crowd. He’s tall (6′3″ – I likeeeee) and his look is distinctive so he will be easy to spot.  Damn, I don’t see him anywhere!  I sit with my friends David and others and listen to all the great content. Lunch break – gotta find him.  He is still now where to be seen.  After lunch, I spot him!  I make a cool, calculated, sexy beeline over to him and say “hi” all while thanking God that I had time after lunch to go to the room and completely spruce – fresh breath, deodorant reapplied, make-up tightened up, big chocolate boobies pulled up & pushed in nice and high in the push up bra.  Oh yeah, I’m armed and ready!! I saunter over to Euro and ask where he’s been all day. He tells me that he had work to do (me likeee that answer. Gotta make that paper!!).  We chat for a bit before I had to go to my seat.  He asks me if I would like to meet in the bar after the conference for some wine.  BINGO!!!  I told ya’ll ladies, this shit works!!!!  I smile my big chester cheetah smile and I say, “of course”. I’ll meet you at 8:00pm.  Needless to say, I didn’t hear a word that was said at WIS the rest of the conference.  We broke for the evening at 7:00.  I had one hour to get get super sexy, again, without looking like I’m trying.  I shower and put on the same jeans with another cute top.  Redo the makeup and hair and out the door I go to meet Euro. Real-deal Holyfield details are reserved for my V.I.P. group of grown girls, so I’ll keep this brief.  We met for drinks and really connected.  After 2 bottles of wine, we decided to go to dinner.  Had a great dinner – lots more drinks and convo. and it was back to the hotel to rest up for the long day ahead of us the next morning.   Okay, okay, there was some major kissing involved. but as I said, only my “grown girls” and ya’ll know who you are will get the REAL SCOOP and it’s good!!!  hehehehehehe

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