Jessie McKinnon

I've been wanting to get back into blogging and vlogging for a while now but keep having creative-blocks as to what I should talk about. So I thought that I may as well just jump in the deep end, otherwise I'd be forever putting it off and wouldn't get back into it again anyway! I want to start my new and improved blog off with a few of my favourite photos since I last posted in 2011! One of  my favourite trips in the UK was to Scotland in June 2011. This photo was taken from Stirling Castle, and remains one of my favourite photos of my travels on my gap year.   In April 2012, Tom and I went to western Indonesia for 10 days for my first 'off the beaten track' Asia experience. It was truly the best holiday of my life and I don't know when and if it will ever be beaten. Our view of the ocean from our hut in Pulau Weh Snorkelling off the coast of Pulau Weh Journalling in Ketambe, in the jungle In September 2012, I visited Engl...

I began my holidaying for the year in London. I thought it was a pretty apt place to start my travelling. So for half term (15th – 19th of Feb) I headed down four hours south and went to the capital city of England. I like the London Underground so much better than Metro, way easier to navigate and trains every two minutes – pretty swish. So expensive though, so I think I’ll stick to my Vline tickets and Metcards in the future. For my first two nights I stayed in a youth hostel across the road from St Paul’s Cathedral, and right around the corner from Millenium Bridge, the bridge that gets wrecked by Death Eaters in HP6 ;) On my first night I went out to dinner in Camden at The Lock Tavern. Defo recommend it. It was really dimly lit, had a really retro feel with communal tables and when I ordered a ‘vegie burger,’   I got two slabs of roast butternut pumpkin with a whole bunch of green stuff and ricotta. Absolutely going back. Day two I walked from St Paul...

As of this week, I've officially been away from Australia for more than a month. I reckon I've done pretty well considering that up until now, the longest I'd been away from home was a week. I had a pretty low key week - which is always lovely. The best thing I did was the Friday night boarding activity! We took thirteen of the boarders out to the movies in a place called Didsbury, and saw Tangled! We saw it in 3D, so we got some dodgy rip-off Ray Ban inspired glasses to wear in too. In about a week I'm heading to London for five days and I am SO excited! So hopefully I'll have heaps of interesting pics to put up next time :)

I've been in England for almost four weeks now, they've absolutely flown. The first week was a massive blur - the jet lag took that long to wear off - and by the time it had, I was working. I'm here with three other people my age, one girl and two boys, and we're the 'gappies' for our school. I'm working at a school about an hour south of Manchester, and it is lovely. I think the building is a couple of hundred years old. It's four storeys high and has cellars. I've jumped into work as a 'gap assistant.' I laminate heaps, do heaps of yard duty, a little bit of office work and help in a couple of classes. I help with Grade 6 French and two Design Technology (DT) classes. The facilities here are incredible, especially considering this is a prep school - which is basically a fancy name for Primary school with 3 and 4 year old Kinder, and Years 7 and 8 also. They have science labs, a music room with smaller practice/lesson rooms, a fantastic...