megslogs :)

the moment you’ve all been waiting for

my latest post.

I know it’s been a minute and you’re all on the edge of your seats waiting. so here I am, giving the people what they want.

ok, so. what’s what. sorry I have no structure for these updates. you’re getting insight into my stream of consciousness. from brain to keyboard, here we go >>>

it’s been a crazy past month (? few weeks? I don’t know what time is right now). our flights were officially cancelled to jordan. we pretty much expected that would be the case, so we switched to alternative plans before things inevitably cancelled on us (and flight prices became insane). we felt too sad to consider just totally canning everything and not seeing each other… so!! we’re off to south africa!! although honestly, i don’t know what’s more unsafe, south africa or jordan. but anyway, we’re going. less missiles, more lions. maybe more carjackings too, but we won’t think about that (don’t worry, I will think about it, my anxiety will keep us all alive, it’s a blessing and a curse).

micaela can’t join us as she’s still stuck in israel 😥 she says she’s not willing to risk her life by catching a 10 hour bus to the egyptian border, potentially being caught in missile crossfire along the way, where she would then have to get another shuttle to cairo, to finally catch a plane to south africa. unbelievable. (in all seriousness, of course, horrible times and hopefully the war ends asap).

ok so the south africa plans:

fly into johannesburg (arriving 1st april)
hire a car and get outta there asap
first stop is golden gate national park for a sunset hike, stay one night
next morning we drive into lesotho (technically a different country within south africa)
- we’ll jump on some horses and go for an overnight riding hike through the mountains, looks so lovely!!
then head to royal natal national park
- hike up tugela falls (contested with venezuela for tallest waterfall in the world apparently? i’ll confrim with you all if it is the tallest or not when i get there).
~4-5 days in kruger national park for big animal time
then finally drive back to joburg where we part!
i’ll head back to paris and stay with the same family I’m with now for 4 days before heading to the south of france for my next stop.

general/lately updates:

i’m super sad to be leaving my first stay. i feel genuinely crazy lucky this was my first workaway. the family here have been so lovely. they’re happy if I keep their home as my ‘safe base’ while i’m travelling around, so I always have a space to come back to if I need to.
not sure how I will manage without the dog. he’s the love of my life.
hopefully this is my final manual driving update because i’d say that i’m officially total pro now. I can drive while simultaneously eating a croissant + blasting music. official markers of being a competent manual driver.
- annoyingly, they drive on the left in south africa. i finally feel like i’m completely used to driving on the right. which is so fine, i love challenging my brain and concentrating really hard all the time while driving :-)))
my french is… i don’t know, it definitely still feels in the early stages. it’s kind of an insane language. i’m persisting, but my head hurts most days. nobody shame me if i can’t speak french when i’m done here.
(side note: apologies for the way this may be formatted? when I type these posts, it uses the font I’ve chosen for the site theme and that doesn’t let me see if a letter is capital or not.)
overall i still have such a big soft spot for paris/france. i love it here. people who don’t like paris are objectively wrong, i’m not sorry. but !!!! i do have a bone to pick with french bakers. unfortunately, i feel like it’s easier to find a consistently good croissant in perth. it’s rough out here.
ok i think that’s enough brain vomit dot points… some photos below! and I’ll add more photos to the l’etang-la-ville section too! ❤

gorgeous spring weather. the flowers in the town are crazy:

cheffing! a few tricky requirements, but it’s been a good learning experience (veggie, limiting dairy/gluten as much as possible, no cheese, eggs are good, nothing processed, pasta/rice maaaybe occassionally, seasonal veg (so nice), nothing spicy, etc… it’s been a little challenging, but i’ve learned to make a lot of things using alternatives!):

snaps from a day in paris spent with the family 🙂

more general paris trip pics. feel super lucky that my days off are spent reading in the tuileries when the sun is out:

had to be done. pics from the belly of the beast. super nice at sunset! :

one flooded seine + I spent maybe ~4-5 hours straight visiting every single little stall along it. when I say every stall, i mean every stall. i think this day was a 30k steps day.