Where in the World is Nina?—Recap: May 2020

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Oh hey, welcome to my recap series. You guys asked for it—so here are my monthly musing, life updates, and other personal tidbits that would be annoying to put in my usual blog posts where you’re just trying to get some simple info! Just to note, I’ll be doing these monthly (I mean, I’m going to try to) and in efforts to keep these candid (and like, not mega time consuming like all my other posts) I won’t be editing them TOO much like I usually do (read: 20 times over the course of two months. yes, really) so sorry for any mistakes. I hope you enjoy these little recaps of my month!

WOW, OK 2020… I guess we’re just going to annihilate anything that was normal for us and continue the shit show, huh? I mean, what ELSE can 2020 throw at us? A pandemic, murder hornets, Tiger King, Australia bush fires, extreme racial injustice (finally) coming to light… I mean aliens visiting wouldn’t even phase us right now, right? Here’s what happened to me in May…

Where in the World is Nina?

Bend, Oregon

Places I Went in May:

Just a few places around Oregon since places are finally opening!

Musings and Highlights This Month

Silver Lining

Still looking for the silver lining in all this madness our world is going through. Here are a few of them for me…

• I’ve been going live for three weeks in a row now and I’m trying to make more videos a thing over here plus it’s a bit easier to do when I’m forced to be in one place. Of course, the time right now isn’t right for me to continue doing this on social but I hope to bring it back when the timing is better.
  I am liking the videos but unfortunately, Instagram and Facebook don’t show enough of you guys the video which is a bit annoying. Turn on notification for my IG or FB so you get notified when I’m live if you’d like! I’m always talking about something travel or work abroad/remote related!
• Oregon is opening up. We are able to go to a few nearby parks, lakes, and other fun areas! We are hiking here and there and trying to spend more time outside. Yay! I went to some cool caves this month too. Mega grateful I’m in Bend, there’s a lot of fun stuff here that’s outside and *hopefully* away from COVID.
• Garrett and I have been pretty good with working out, I lost a couple of pounds. Woo!

#BLM

I’m putting this under ‘highlights’ on purpose because it’s a good thing this is getting attention. What happened to George Floyd is disgusting. What happens to our fellow black friends and family is unacceptable and it’s time that our racist systems come to light.

I am white AF but I’ll do whatever I can to support human lives of any race. I’ll be watching more and more documentaries and I’ll be protesting again if Bend, Oregon has another one come up.

I think we can ALL agree that pretty much everyone in life can have a difference of opinion. We can be friends even if we don’t see eye to eye. However, when we’re talking about racism, uh, no. If you don’t care about all humans, sorry we can’t be friends. I really urge people to do some more research and read and watch more about the topic.

BTW, if you’re still for #AllLivesMatter YOU.DON’T.GET.IT.

This cartoon by Chainsaw will best help you understand, if you still don’t, I honestly don’t know what to tell you.

I am FAR from perfect or 100% knowledgable on the topic. I have a LONG road ahead of me to learn more. But I’m here. Fuck the system and racism, I’m here to help, learn, listen, and CHANGE THIS SHIT.

Here are some documentaries or shows I have found to be very helpful to explain some of what has been going on all these years with the racism in our country.

• 13th
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Police
• The Hate U Give
• When They See Us
• All recent videos from Trever Noah, definitely this one.
• Explained: Racial Wealth Gap

This is what I’ve been watching, I have some more lined up!

Don’t know what to say?

This post by Onikia Raymond has some organizations that could use your dollars to help the cause. I’ve made donations to some of these organizations and will be keeping my eye for more reliable places to donate to help the cause.

If you can’t donate, this YouTube is a good video to watch because if you let the ads play, the money it generates helps support the cause.

#BlackLivesMatter Protest in Bend

I have never protested in my life, but I just went to a #BLM protest in Bend, Oregon. I felt two things…

1. Good vibes and positive people who care for humans… This is what I ultimately felt. It was really good to walk with others to support a cause that’s so important and I hopefully made my little “dent” in the matter.
2. But when I went to yell, in public, my first “Black lives matter,” in unison with the crowd, my voice cracked, I got a lump in my throat, my eyes welled up and I kinda felt stupid AF all at the same time… I was so upset about having racism still so prominent and felt dumb for having a fight against it IN 2020! I couldn’t believe that something I read in my history books as a kid, is being repeated today in 2020 because jackshit was actually done. I felt so silly for having to protest against racism… How TF is it 2020 and not the ’60s right now?! These emotions came over me and lasted for a few minutes. I loudly whispered “black lives matter” with a lump in my throat and tears coming down my cheeks but without letting myself burst. I was actually thankful for my mask hiding me for once. I eventually calmed down and resumed a regular chant with the crowd.

It was emotional to be a part of and it was a rather small protest, Bend isn’t THAT big. I couldn’t imagine the emotion or energy in a bigger city. I was a bit overwhelmed and then started to get a bit more on the angry and confident side as the day went on. We marched around the town, I shed more tears, stayed a couple of hours, and left to watch a documentary to educate myself more on the bullshit we were fed about our history.

Black friends – I’m so sorry I didn’t know more about what REALLY happened and I’m so sorry I’ve been blissfully ignorant for so long. I knew racism existed but I had no idea how deep it really ran. I’m so sorry—I’m here, I see you, I hear you. ❤️

Things That Were Meh

Honestly, guys, things could be so much worse, I don’t think I can put anything in the “meh” section this month. Obviously, my travel business could be making as much or more as it was last year, we could be going more places on our Oregon road trip as we had planned, there could not be a pandemic or racism in our country anymore, etc… but really, for me personally, I can’t complain.

It is what it is. And I guess… nothing was “meh!”

New-ish Blog Posts/Updated Posts

That New New

• 10 Benefits to be Location Independent – Commitments to a location, no longer needed!
• Travel Credit Card – My exact credit card and how I use it to get free travel.
• 17 Tips to Travel Longer – New fav post! My top tips to making sure you don’t run out of cash and potentially travel foreverrrr
• 20 Online Jobs that Require NO Experience to Start – Yes, you read correctly!
• 2-Week Colombia Itinerary – ALL my Colombia posts are up! Read this one and you’ll see the rest linked too.

Freshly Updated Blog Posts:

• Best Side Jobs – Boost your travel savings with these easy peasy side gigs.
• Cheap things to do in Melbourne – when we can go back to Aus, go to Melbourne, it’s the best!

What’s Next?

Here’s what’s next…

eBook

My Australia eBook is still for sale but I’m not really promoting it. It feels weird. It’s not the right time. I spent a year and like… quite a pretty penny getting it together. Soooo if you’re thinking about working abroad in Australia, know someone who wants to, and or love me and want to support me… you can buy the ebook 🙂 

It’s a great and easy read while you’re stuck at home! There ARE things you can do now to prep.

Essentially, this ebook is perfect for you if you want to do the Working Holiday Visa in Australia, don’t know where to start, and want to save some life-changing money.

ALSO – if you’re reading this, take $5 off the price as a thank you for being one of the first to purchase.
Use code: here1st!

Grab a copy HERE or Click here for more info

I have a secret

I don’t think I’ve ever announced it here but I finally will… I have a second website 🙂

I wanted to see if I could successfully grow a second website without any help from this website. It would skew the result if I shared here and got traffic from this website so I decided to keep it a bit of a secret. Well it’s been about a year and I got the info I wanted – I can, in fact, start a second successful website—yay!

I share this one with Garrett, and it’s all about Oregon, so if you like Oregon, want to travel Oregon, or whatever… Hope over to Oregon is for Adventure. Give us a follow on Facebook too if you’re a mega fan!

So with that said, that’s why you’ve seen me in Oregon for the last few summers (although we only started the site last summer) and it’s why you’ll see me in Oregon a lot over the next while… Well, that, and there’s still a pandemic. Womp womp.

That’s about all I have for you guys. Love you all, hope you’re well. <3 

Until next month! Unless you follow on Instagram stories, were you can find me almost every day 🙂

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