The Swimcation

     I have been receiving a lot of questions about the details of my Australia trip.  I figure I should explain them on here so everyone has the answers.  But first off, thank you to everyone who has provided such amazing support of my decision to go on this incredible adventure. Your love and support of me and this time in my life means the world to me.
    The plan is that I will be going to Australia Jan - March.  The first couple weeks I will be traveling Eastern Australia, then settling in to my apartment in Melbourne for 10 weeks to train. I will be staying as long as my visa allows, 89 days.  I will be swimming, weight lifting, continuing Pilates and also my favorite Gyrotonic work out.  I will miss U-jam and Orangetheory Fitness while I am away - but it will be a good time for me to focus on my swimming for a while.  I will be going with a training plan for the pool and have every intention to stick with it and work as hard as I can to gain as much strength and fitness in the pool as possible.
     I am also excited to have such great friends in the transplant community in Melbourne as well as spread out through Australia.  I will be visiting them all at some point or another and I am also being invited to participate in Organ Donation Awareness events.  It is going to be a great time to work on my fitness, my spirit, exploration of another country as well as deep within myself.  All while doing the stuff I love - promoting organ donation, working out, eating, and having fun!
     This idea of swimming in Australia actually came about quickly and came to fruition even quicker - call me impulsive but sometimes life places opportunities in front of you and it is your choice to choose to take advantage or look the other way. There are a million reasons why I should not go - but plenty of reasons why I should.  Instead of letting fear of the unknown and all the shoulda-coulda-wouldas I choose to jump in with both feet.
    There are a lot of magical moments in life but they don't just happen - you have to look for them, work for them and earn them. My goals of getting fitter, faster, and breaking records won't happen with me sitting on the couch.  I have to go out and work for it.  The final result may be magical but it is going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears - but I am ready.  I am motivated and I can't wait to get to Australia for this amazing Swimcation adventure!

Big Things are Coming

I spoke of being almost 6 years post transplant and in those 6 years I have done a lot of traveling.  It could be debatable that I have done more traveling in the past 6 years than my entire life before my transplant.  Always having CF I never felt that good to travel.  I would do some trips, often close by and when I did travel internationally it was usually to club med or to a tropical island. I never could go and travel abroad and live in another country because my health was never stable enough.  Since my last post on this blog  before I started writing again it was my FIRST of THREE trips to South Africa.  I just got back from my 3rd trip at the end of September from visiting my friends Alice and Chris in South Africa.  I think it is safe to say I have caught the travel bug.  Well in my planning of training for the 2017 Games I came upon a very interesting idea.  I had planned a trip to Australia already - my first international trip all by myself.  And I thought of this crazy idea to stick around and stay for 3 months to train for the games. I will borrow their summer and their 50 meter pools.  I am taking a leave from work, and my life here in California.  I am renting an apartment and doing it up like an Aussie for the first part of 2017.  I realized I will be in another country for the inauguration of our next president.  How bizarre - after this heated election.  Depending on how that goes, maybe i won't come back home! HA!  But I am doing it - I have never left the bay area for more than 3.5 weeks - let alone live in another country for an extended period of time.  I am so excited at this opportunity.  I am re-starting this blog to chronicle my experiences.  What is it like to plan for a trip like with with CF, Diabetes, Double lung transplant?  I want to share my preparations, my thoughts, my training plans,  my fears, my excitement.  This is an amazing and new experience for me.  I hope you enjoy the ride as I share my perspective of being a short term Expat in Oz