Last night, the Ivy store had the crazy-awesome opportunity to host The Future Sound of Yoga , which almost defies explanation, but read up on it on their website!  It’s pretty much music and yoga, and it is so incredibly unlike any other yoga experience I’ve ever had.  Especially because, due to space restrictions and a willingness to be kind of a spectacle, I did the yoga class in our store window.

This is the middle of downtown.  It’s Friday night.  There are tourists, partiers and men in suits everywhere.  I cannot count the amount of people who took pictures of me in the window or just stopped to stare or try to get my attention.  Great in terms of generating awareness for the store and Future Sounds of Yoga… Not so great in terms of relaxing!

It was an amazingly fun experience though, and I really had a great chance to laugh at myself.  Talk about an exercise in ego – do cat/cow in front of a bunch of guys in suits taking cell phone pictures of you!

A few weeks ago, I was running through the CBD in Sydney and I got a call from our Regional Community Guru, Christi.  She wanted to let me know about this amazing organization called Wake Up Sydney! and an event they were planning.  And yes, I do run with my Blackberry, and no, I’m not ashamed to admit it.

These are the beautiful cards Wake Up Sydney sends out!

Wake Up Sydney has a goal of making Sydney the kindest place on Earth.  They’ve organized “kindness cards” that they’ll send out for free to anyone who asks for them.  People who receive the cards can perform random acts of kindness and leave the card behind to keep the ripple of kindness going.  It’s like Pay It Forward!  

When I got my first cards, I used them to anonymously buy someone a Cupcake and Coffee combo at the Cupcake Bakery, which again, I promise to update you about.  Mmmmm cupcakes.  Although really, it took a bit of explaining to get them to understand what I was doing.  ”No no, I’m going to pay for TWO Cupcake and Coffee deals now, but I only want ONE. You can give the next one out to the next person for free!”  ”So you want two Cupcakes and two coffees?” “Kind of.”  And so on.

They also host events to inspire the community and support the kindness

A gorgeous program for a gorgeous event at a gorgeous venue.

 card initiative.  Last night, I had the opportunity to attend the largest of these events to date at Sydney’s Town Hall, and it was ah-may-zing!  A few people from each store in Sydney were there, and it was a gorgeous, inspiring night.  (Not including the torrential rain that seems to be omnipresent in Sydney these days!) They had speakers, and artists, and of course the man behind Wake Up Sydney, Jono, was there and spoke to us.  

I think Jono was tied with the female vocalist for my favorite part of the evening.  He’s just so present with people and with all of us, and even sitting down and speaking calmly to us, he had such stage presence.  

All in all, it was an amazing night.  And I even got to make a How I Met Your Mother reference – “this is so going on my blog!”

And guess who just registered??? Yeah that’s right.  I’ll be running with my camera, so don’t worry, it will ALL be documented!  

My goal time is under 1:40, which is really reasonable for a 14km race, while of course allowing for time to stop and take pictures.

Let me tell you, it is such a cool feeling seeing a familiar face from home show up somewhere you would never expect them to show up.  You’re at your job, in a foreign country, and then BAM! “Omg-wtf-bbq-what-are-you-doing-here?!?!?-?!?-???” Add that amount of shock and excitement to a coffee from the Cupcake Bakery (pictures and a whole dedicated post to come about the Cupcake Bakery, aka my love) and I was wired for the rest of the day.  

Pretty much what I’m getting at is that you should all come to Australia.  And surprise me at work.

Well, I mean... duh.

My dearest darlingest Momsy and Popsicle!  

Or you guys, my awesome friends.  Either or.  

I misssss youuuuuu.  And I get that you miss me too, but like, I miss you so much more than you miss me!  Because really, I’m one person.  And I’m pretty great, but you’re all amazing, and I have to miss you all at the same time!  

I miss going to yoga with more than one of you, because that’s something I’ve done with several of you, and it was always great.

I miss getting coffee with ALL of you (because if we haven’t done that, are we really even friends?  How did you even find this blog?)

I miss all of your very varied senses of humour!  Trust me when I tell you that the Optimists is very North American, and I mean that in THE best way! No one is funny like that here, except maybe this guy. And no one laughs loudly in Sydney.  Australians are decorous, for lack of a better word.  I miss volume – I am consistently the loudest person at parties!

I miss all the ways you inspire me.  I miss being calmed just by being around you, or being stunned by your integrity with your training/yoga/fitness/diet regime, and seeing your smiles!

Pretty much what I’m saying is you are amazing, and wonderful, and there really is no one else in the world like you.  And my next post will be about all the things that are incredible and out-of-this-world about being in Sydney!  I mean, it’s not like I just sit around moping all the time, you know.

So as you may have heard, I’ve changed my life plans about twenty times in the past two months, but as of right now, this is the deal: I’m not done with Australia yet.  Coming home right now isn’t what I want.  On the other hand, for those of you who heard about the going-to-school here, paying international student tuition is also not what I want.  Which can be read as going broke is not what I want. Plus, there’s that whole bit about missing every single one of you.  So here’s the new plan!

I’m still staying for a bit longer.  How much longer?  I’ll be home by Christmas!  In the meantime, I’ll get myself a working holiday visa and work as a full-time key-leader-hopeful at lululemon athletica in Sydney.  I’m also committing to skiing in New Zealand, doing a GAP tour of Bali, running a 9km race that takes me across the Harbour Bridge, visiting Melbourne and doing ALL the tourist-y things I’ve been putting off all semester.  Oh, and I PROMISE you all at least two posts per week about my exploits.  Because I have been a horrible friend with the emailing!  

To steal something from Havi Brooks, my all-time favourite blogger…

Comment Zen! (this is where I ask you to leave me nice comments.)  I’m pretty scared about having made this decision.  Or any decision at all – going home right away, staying for school, not staying for school, staying for work, how long to stay, all that good stuff.  I would love to hear words of encouragement, support and love!  I’m not quite ready for critiques of my decision or advice on what I “should” be doing.  But above all, I’d love to hear from you!