Thunder From Down Under

Paris

2008-08-11T16:54:00.000-04:00

Paris. What more can be said about the place? I’ve been only once, ten years prior, with my family instead of my girlfriend. At 13 years old, that would have been odd to have a girl with me back then. Because both Sarah and I had previously visited here, we could pick and choose what to see. There were the obvious tourist spots to hit: Louvre, La tour Eiffel, Champs Elysees, Sacre Couer, etc. Sarah wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower the most, and I was more than happy to oblige.

First, we had to find our hostel. I bought two tourist passes, giving us two days of unlimited travel on Paris transportation. And I ordered them en francais – the lady even understood me. I find that I learned a great deal studying the language from the age of 12 to 20. Over the next two days, I used it more than I probably ever will again. After getting to the metro stop we were instructed to go in order to find our hostel, we were a bit lost. A nice Frenchman stopped us on the street and tried to help us, even going to ask a few other people where the road was that we needed to find. It wasn’t that hard after we had our directions, and we dropped our stuff and headed towards the metro.

It was going to be lunch (dejeuner) and then Notre Dame. We ate at a restaurant by the side of the road – ordering in French again. Notre Dame was crowded, swelling with tourists. I sometimes forget that thousands of other people are in the same city as myself, looking to go to the same places. It didn’t take too long to get in, and we took a quick lap, stopping to admire the pristine stain glass windows adorning the walls of the cathedral. It was quite the view to take in. No sign of the hunchback, the story that probably made this place more famous than it should be. Not to take away from the luster of it at all.

With the weather seeming quite decent, our next stop was the tour Eiffel. This was after going to the Louvre and realizing that we could go for free after 6 PM on Friday night. Unfortunately, we left and saw that it was raining. We killed time, rode the metro to l’Arc de Triomphe, stopped for a bite to eat at a café, and then when the weather cleared, moseyed over to the Eiffel Tower. To nobody’s surprise, it was quite crowded, and the wait to get up to the top was a miserable experience. It started to rain, and the rain mixing with high winds you get a few hundred feet in the air made it quite cold. Not helping me was the fact I had left any kind of cold weather clothing I had with my luggage. Fortunately, by the time things cleared up, we were at the top, able to see all of Paris. Definitely a worthwhile wait.

The rest of our first day was dinner, then both crashing back at the hostel, ready for another day of Paris.

Day two was going to start at Versailles. The massive palace built by Louis XIV (I think), it was the one thing I really wanted to see. And it was worth it. After going to Hampton Court a few days before, Sarah and I decided that going into the palace wasn’t all that worth it. It was going to be nothing more than Hampton Court times 10. More of the same ridiculousness of that time period. But a walk around the Versailles Gardens, along with being free, was much more relaxing. No lines to wait in, no people to walk through, and no hassles. Once we were satisfied with a couple of hours spent there, it was time for Sacre Couer.

I wasn’t sure if I had been there before (turns out I had), but it was another mob scene. People were everywhere, snapping pictures and watching the street performers. The view from the top made the hassle worthwhile, and after just 20 minutes there, moved along to the Louvre.

This was another spot the two of us had seen already. So it wasn’t going to be a long stroll. Plus, I don’t really like art all that much. You see something like the Mona Lisa, and it just screams overrated. The painting is great and all, but I prefer the large paintings done by the French, such as Lady Liberty leading the People or the painting of the Wedding at Cana. Stuff like that is much more inspiring, as you wonder how someone can paint something that big. We walked around for about an hour total, trying to hit the big displays: the Code of Hammurabi, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and a few other works of art. It was definitely time well spent, and as a bonus, free of charge.

That was the essence of our whirlwind trip of Paris. Tomorrow morning was a train ride to Interlaken, where we would get a day and a half of the Swiss Alps.

London - Part Two

2008-08-07T16:54:00.001-04:00

Thanks to a variety of reasons – lack of extra time, battery power, or anything else – I have given up in my quest to bring a daily update to my blog. And that’s ok, considering our journey is almost over. So I’m using this last post to update where we are. Right now, we’re on a train from Bern to Geneva, where tomorrow we’ll be flying out to Dublin, where our last two days of Europe will be spent.

Our last two days in London were some of our best. We went to Hyde Park, saw bits of Westminster Abbey, and went to see the Lion King on the West End. All three were quite brilliant. The weather finally turned nice, giving us a chance to sit under the sun, and not have to run for cover from the rains. The show on Wednesday night was a brilliant way to end what had been a successful first trip (for me at least) to one of the world’s most famous cities.

Thursday was an early morning, as our Eurostar train was leaving London at 6:30 AM. Our tickets were purchased, and I thought we would simply buy, get on the train, and be off. That was no the case. We go to St. Pancras station with 20 minutes to spare, got our tickets, a snack, and went through security. Unfortunately, the French guy manning the X-ray machine decided it would be fun to take all my electronics out of my bag and scan it for explosives. I was a bit panicked, and the guy wasn’t the nicest about my urgency. The scan seemed to take forever, and when it was done I jammed everything in my bag and headed towards Passport control. We were through that quickly, and had to have a train official hold our train for us – but we made it with probably seconds to spare.

The journey was quiet and the two of us slept practically the whole time. Up next: Paris.

London - Part One

2008-08-05T17:28:00.005-04:00

Well, we've been in London the past few days. I've given up on trying to keep a daily recounting of the trip, so I'll highlight a few things from the past few days. On Thursday we got up in Dubai super early to catch our 7:30 flight to London. Things went smoothly, and we met Sarah's parents at the Pimlico Underground station. It was a happy reunion, and we dropped off our belongings at the flat they are renting for the week we were staying in London.

My first impression of London was that it is super crowded, especially compared to Sydney. The Underground doesn't have air conditioning either. Which really sucks, because it'll end up being much hotter on the train than outside. Bummer.

The Binghams have already been here, so it was hard to determine what sights we would go see. On Thursday we ate lunch at a pub, hung out at our flat, and then went to meet Jess' flatmates for dinner. I was quite knackered, having woken up at around 1 AM London time. It was a pleasant sleep that night.

Friday we took a train to Greenwich Village, home of Greenwich Mean Time. The area surrounding the Royal Observatory provided a lovely view of the Thames and the city proper. It was a nice day trip, considering I felt overwhelmed by the crowds. A highlight of the day was taking a boat from Greenwich to Westminster, then taking the tube back to our flat.

Saturday I got the chance to head to Emirates Stadium for Day One of the Emirates Cup, which featured Arsenal playing Juventus and Real Madrid against Hamburg SV. The experience wasn't the same as it would have been seeing a regular season EPL match, but it was awesome nonetheless.

On Sunday we went to All Souls, Jess's church and took in the morning service. After we visited the Royal Museum, home of the Rosetta Stone, and meandered around the city. It has been a fairly touristy experience, but worthwhile seeing as though we are tourists. Only one more day left tomorrow, then off to Paris.

It's Hot in Dubai

2008-07-30T03:58:00.003-04:00

Today was our extended layover in Dubai. And let me say, that it was hot. Now, in SE Asia, it was very warm. Humidity was through the roof there, making it gross and sweaty wherever you went. In Dubai, it was instant misery once you left air conditioning. And with my motivation to see a lot waning once that happened, I wasn't sure what we were going to do with today.

We walked outside and took a cab to Emirates Mall. There, we saw Ski Dubai and decided against actually skiing. We had Cinnabon for breakfast (yum and gross at the same time) and then meandered around in the air conditioning for six hours. Those hours included going to see Wall E, the new Pixar movie, and by the time it was all said and done it was now 4:30 PM. We caught a cab to Jemeirah beach, hoping to see the Burj Al Arab along the coast. However, today there was a haze hanging over the city, possibly from the sand blown into the atmosphere. We managed to stay outside for an hour or so, before getting another cab to Dubai Creek Park. We walked and walked and walked some more, all the way back to our hostel after stopping a couple times for food and water. It was so stinking hot out, I cannot emphasize that enough. Misery. We managed to also see the Burj Dubai, the tall tall building that is gigantic. It is a monstrosity.

We were done with Dubai and ready to go, so at around 10 PM we collapsed and slept, with an early wake up for our flight to London.

Bangkok, Thailand - Day Three & Dubai, UAE

2008-07-29T03:34:00.000-04:00

With today being the last day in Thailand, and with the need to leave by 4 PM for the airport, it was time to get moving early. With us that doesn't always go over so well, but we were up and ready to go by around 10. The Grand Palace and Wat Pho were the top two destinations of today, as they were both astounding views from the street. This required a walk to the Sky Train, a boat ride up to where we had been before, and we were there. Wat Pho was first, seeing as it was closer to the river.

This temple was really neat. The Buddha inside of it was gigantic, and lying down. I was amazed at the audacity of a belief to build gold statues as big as they possibly could. It was really a sight to behold. Along with a giant Buddha, it had a lot of structures that fit the region we were in. We didn't spend way too long at Wat Pho, but it was definitely worth the visit.

Up next was the Grand Palace, which required a bit of walking to make our way around the miles of wall that surrounded it. I was required to wear pants, so I had to rent clothing in order to see it. The Grand Palace was built in the 1700's when Thailand was known as Siam, and it features a mansion and a large temple, including the supposedly famous Jade Buddha. Not sure why it's famous, but it is. Understanding Buddhism would have helped a bit on this trip. But it's not like it mattered all that much. Despite the length of the wall surrounding the whole palace, it only took us around an hour and a half to see the whole thing.

After the Palace, we stopped for some food from a street vendor that would come back to haunt me, hopped on a boat taxi back down the river, and with a couple more hours to kill checked out two of Bangkok's shopping centers, Siam Paragon and MBK. Both were crowded, gawdy, and pretty much like all Western malls. So it was nothing new to see, really.

With that done, we returned to the hostel and got a taxi to the airport for our flight to Dubai. The flight itself wasn't bad, but upon arrival we discovered just how hot it is in the desert in July. NEVER GO. Along with that, we had to take a bus to the terminal (took forever) and then waited an hour for our luggage, then another 45 minutes for a cab. And it was so hot that I was a sweaty mess all the time. So gross.

Bangkok, Thailand - Day Two

2008-07-28T18:30:00.006-04:00

The previous night featured a great sleep, as our new hostel - named Lub d Bangkok, whatever that means - was comfortable, clean, and quiet, all elements that brought a great deal of rest. It was now going to be our fourth different city in South East Asia, and by this time we were used to the little nuances to look out for. Our experiences on the MRT gave us clues about the right places to go and how to best get there. However, today was going to be a bit different, as we were going to get in as many touristy things as possible.

Leaving our hostel, a taxi driver approached us, offering 20 baht to drive us to a bunch of places. Knowing that also would require stopping at various markets or shops to get petrol passes, we negotiated a ride towards the Dusit Zoo, as it was a good 3 or 4 miles from our hostel and a decent starting point to walk down towards other sites. Finally reaching our destination took a bit of haggling, as I opened the door and was ready to get out, but the driver relented after first claiming the zoo was too far. We actually went into the zoo, which was dirty and unimpressive, although did get pictures with elephants. Which I guess is an accomplishment.

Our next stop was Wat Benchamabophit, or the marble temple. There was going to be a lot of temples these next few days. In case anyone was wondering, "wat" is the Thai word for temple. It was the first of many, but this one was very ornate and over-the-top, as most Buddhist temples appeared. Leaving towards the next destination, the Golden Mount, we were somehow talked into getting a tuk tuk for the day for 20 baht. He took us to various temples, each with a different Buddha mood.

One of the best parts of it, was that one of the temples was open only a couple times a year. We even ran into this Thai man who suggested buying sapphires or rubies and selling them for a profit overseas. Strewn within our temples, were two trips to Thai export jewelry stores and a tailor. I bought a suit (why not?) and Sarah a sterling silver ring - much cheaper than my purchase.

After all that it was now late in the afternoon and I was tired of the dirt and soot of the tuk tuk. The driver dropped us off at the Golden Mount and left us to go on his way. It was definitely worth the time experiencing the economic shake up of the tuk tuk driver. Not a good job to say the least. It was a quick walk up the Golden Mount, and also a nice view of the whole city. We climbed down and made our way towards the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, unsure if they were going to be open or not. Along the way, we passed another big temple and a Giant Swing. These Thais are crazy.

Unfortunately, both our destinations of interest were closed. We found a small restaurant on the docks of the Chao Phraya River at Tha Tien. Tomorrow we would take the boat taxi up the river and explore Wat Pho and the Grand Palace. Tonight, we ate delicious Pad Thai and took a picture of Wat Arunratchawaaram. We had to take a cab to Hua Lamphong to get the MRT back to our hostel. We were both tired from so much exploring. Tomorrow is our last day in Bangkok. This trip is moving by crazy fast.

Bangkok, Thailand - Day One

2008-07-27T03:06:00.005-04:00

I woke up on the train feeling refreshed - it had been the best night of sleep, despite a continually rocking felt though out most of the night, plus the light being left on in the car. We got up and just hung out, watching various parts of Thailand go by. Of course, there was no way to know where we exactly were.

The morning passed by slowly, and as time went by, the countryside that had been dotted with foliage began to reveal buildings. The train employees would give us different information as to how much of the trip was left. But it seemed to drag on and on, until finally arriving at Hua Lamphong station at around 3:30 PM, making the trip over 24 hours. Not surprising, however.

Sarah and I grabbed our belongings and headed out towards the station. It was hot, smelly, and the heat from the trains made it much worse. The station itself was one large room, packed to the teeth with Thai people. We were approached by an information lady, and figured out how to get the appropriate money, map, and transport to our hostel. After getting out 3,000 Baht, I went to buy a map of Bangkok for 50. Handing a 1,000 Baht bill to the lady, she gave me a look of surprise and dropped the money. It was too big, but she still took my money and found the change.

We left the station and were approached by one of the many drivers waiting outside who wanted to know where we were going. I told him the address and he seemed to understand. What I didn't know was that he was a tuk tuk driver, which is basically a scooter with room for passengers. It was an interesting drive, but we made it in one piece, dropped our stuff off, and walked towards the MRT/Sky train, with a few things planned.

My friend Gale had drawn up an itinerary for my three days there. Our first destination was the weekend market at Chatuchak. It was an enormous place, complete with anything and everything you might need. There was clothes, pets, food, shoes, and even fake plastic fruit. Sarah and I browsed for hours, overwhelmed by the number of people and the number of shops. We even got lost trying to leave and make it back to the park near that MRT.

Once we were back in a semi-familiar place we made our way to Sukumvhit Rd, a hotspot for shopping. However, there wasn't all that much going on, and it made for a quick stop. We made it back to our hostel pretty early to look up places to go the next two days we had.

My first impression of Thailand was all over the place. It was a dirty and smelly place, as indicated from the tuk tuk ride, and the next few days would only reinforce this opinion. There is a quaint feeling to it, as it is a combination of a unique past with a struggle for modernization. The next two days were going to be interesting, that's for sure.

Penang, Malaysia & train to Thailand

2008-07-26T04:01:00.006-04:00

Night two on the train was a bit better in the sense I slept a little more. That night's sleeper car featured no bathroom within it, which gave us more room for luggage. They also played a bootleg of the Incredible Hulk, which I found amusing.

Our stop that day was Butterworth, a station in the northwest of Malaysia. Once our luggage was dropped off, a nearby ferry took us across the water to the island of Penang, specifically to the city of Georgetown. This was the location I knew least about, and our day was mostly spent just walking around the island. It wasn't that big, there really wasn't too much to see - very underwhelming and very hot. The water was also quite dirty, especially near that beach-like areas. Keep in mind there were no beaches, just a bit of sand next to the water.

Our train was scheduled to leave at around 2:45 PM, and would take close to 24 hours to reach our next destination of Bangkok. Upon first arrival, it was just two cars, the engine, and some other random car. Four cars to take us all the way to Bangkok? That couldn't be right. The rest of our day was spent trying to get luggage sorted within our seats, and be ready to sleep for the night. The train wasn't all that bad - there was a good bit of room, a large window to watch the countryside go by, and only a moderate amount of dirt littering the floor. Funny that a long train ride only cost around $40 US a person. I think. It wasn't expensive. The debate that Sarah and I had was over the food. Were they going to add a food car once we got to Thailand? By the time we got to the border we were quite tired and hungry, so it was going to be a necessity.

We were lucky after leaving Malaysia and going through Thailand passport control, making it our third country in four days to be greeted by a waiter taking orders. Food at last! On top of that, there had been some Malaysians selling food outside the passport area. So we ordered food, which turned out to be quite good for something you get on a ghetto train. We spent the night talking to two Americans who we met from the West Coast who were sitting next to us, before calling it a night around 10 PM. Our last night on a train!

Kuala Lampur, Malaysia

2008-07-25T03:51:00.003-04:00

The previous night marked our first train-sleeping experience. And while our room was pretty comfortable, that didn't mean I got much sleep. Thanks to the shoddy nature of the tracks/train, the ride overnight was incredibly bumpy. I probably managed around four or five hours of sleep (if that).

Needless to say, we had a full day in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. And considering that it was 6 AM, nothing was open, giving us nowhere to leave our luggage for the 14 hours or so we had to spend here. We decided to get a hostel for the day, and considering it was only around $6 US, it seemed like the best way to spend our day worry-free.

It took awhile to make it to the hostel - the directions they gave were right, but the street names were incorrect. After lugging my luggage up three flights of stairs - an exercise that was miserable, considering my bag weighs around 50 lbs - we were took a quick nap and were off for the day. The first stop was the Kuala Lumpur tower, and we took a quick ride to the top. That and the Petronus Towers were the top two stops on our list. Other than that, KL was just another place to explore. It was a relatively clean city, although much dirtier than Singapore. Then again, so are most places in the world.

We made it to the Petronus Towers after a quick walk. It sits on top of a large commercial centre, which felt good to sit in thanks to the air conditioned nature of it. After a few pictures at the Towers, we kept on moving. I had read about a bird park in Kuala Lumpur that was supposed to be interesting. So we got off the sky train and made our way through a long and windy road to our destination. I'll admit that it was a pretty cool place - although perhaps not as interesting as I first thought. We were both pretty exhausted, so we walked back to the sky train, back to the hostel, and back to Sentral KL station for our next overnight ride.

Singapore

2008-07-24T22:10:00.002-04:00

So it was a wonderful reunion last night at the airport. I picked Sarah up, we hopped in a cab and returned to the hostel that I had scouted out earlier. Not the most upscale place by any means, but it did the job. We would only be there that night. The next day was our only day in Singapore, so we tried to make the most of what little time we had. First on the list was picking up the train tickets from the train station, a short walk from the MRT stop. The clerk at the hostel had recommended getting a cab, but I thought that was nonsense. After a thirty-minute walk, the ticket had been purchased at an old style train station. It was run by KLM, the Malaysian train company. It featured old, grungy-looking food vendors, and made you pay for the bathroom. The important thing now was our first mission for the day had been accomplished.

We didn’t have much of a plan for the remainder of the day in Sinagpore. After all, what is the country known for? It seemed like an Asian mixing pot, with people of all different lineages walking around. I had an Eyewitness Travel guide that gave a few tips. There were a couple of neat looking temples that we were keen on going to. But the Harbourfront was closer so we made our way there first. There, the next option was to choose between Sentosa, an island just south of Singapore, or Mount Ferrar, which was more like a hill by the time we got up there. It offered a decent view of the city, which was a cluster of skyscrapers off towards the northeast. However, it wasn’t much more than that, and we didn’t last very long at the top.

Once we had descended the mountain on the cable car, it was time for Chinatown. Visiting Chinatown in any place can become a repetitive experience, or it can provide a new glimpse at Chinese culture in some random part of the world. In this case, it was simply reminiscent of most other Chinatowns that I’ve seen (predominantly Sydney’s). We quickly stopped at a temple, whose name escapes me, plus a large shopping complex that had Asian-centric stores. Nothing too special. It was bloody hot outside as well.

Then we went to Little India. I wanted to have some Indian food, but we decided to look for the Sultan Mosque, an interesting looking mosque that was perhaps a 1.5 kilometer walk from the Little India MRT station. We arrived and saw that it was closed, after briefly getting turned around, unable to find the right street to go on. Once we made it, we decided that we were tired and went to the train station for our trip to Malaysia. The MRT took us to our hostel, where we had left our luggage, grabbed our belongings, hopped back onto the MRT and found a cab driver to take us down. We were an hour early, and had some chicken curry at the run down food court, which looked more like a bunch of street vendors. The station was out of place in the modern city like Singapore. We hung out and chatted up with two Canadians who had spent a good deal of time in Kuala Lumpur – the city where we would wake up. They passed along some useful traveller tips, like what to see or do in just a day, seeing as though we were only passing through.

After a decent wait in the non-air conditioned station, people started to line up in preparation for boarding. It was an interesting array of people getting ready to board the train. A few white people here and there, but the vast majority were of a darker complexion – most Malaysians are like that, I would learn. We passed through the border security with no problems and took a long walk to the end of the platform to find out train. I had decided to book first class, wanting to risk nothing in terms of how shoddy the Malaysian train system was. Turns out it wasn’t that bad, and we bordered our sleeper car despite orders not to. After a five minute spell of unpacking and getting sorted in our tiny bunk-bed room (complete with bathroom) and relaxed. Unfortunately, this was about the time when the lights went off, along with the air conditioning. Thinking rather quickly and unsure of what to do, we jumped off the train, leaving all our stuff minus passports and valuables. Not sure what was going on, we sat on the platform as a Malaysian train official spoke into a walkie-talkie, obviously trying to get something sorted out. Sarah and I speculated as to what could be going on, but were shocked when he jumped on the train and it took off, taking our stuff with it. Panic set over me a bit. While half the train was still there, why did the first eight cars leave?

This issue didn’t last too long, as ten minutes later, the train came back. I think they were trying to add an extra car for the seats. Whatever. We were back on and took off for Kuala Lumpur that night.

Melbourne-Singapore

2008-07-23T07:01:00.002-04:00

There's not much to say about today. Was up by 7, hit the tram back into the city, decided to "walk" to Southern Cross Station from a random tram stop. Big mistake. I had to drag my luggage across four or five blocks, before locating the bus back to the airport. The ride was uneventful, but despite being two hours early for the flight, the line was massive. I struck up a conversation with an English bloke who had quite an interesting story. Turns out he is a mining engineer on holiday, after having worked the last year in China and Tasmania. His next job? Burkina Faso. I thought that was sweet.

After a few delays, I got on the plane, and we took off for our seven hour flight. It wasn't bad, and they had us in the 'Pore by 5. I sit now waiting for Sarah with little idea of what to think of this country. I saw a lot of flags, some adverts for some kind of patriotic holiday, and that's it. Kind of reminds me of Taiwan so far. But all I've seen is my hostel, the MRT, and well, the airport. More tomorrow, although I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update, considering I don't have an adapter for my laptop. Although getting to see Sarah in t-minus 4 hours is amazing.

Day Three in Melbourne

2008-07-22T03:42:00.006-04:00

Man, it's cold here. Have I whinged enough about that yet? Because it sucks to try and see a city when the drizzle is coating your Australia beanie, making the rest of you feel cold and wet. I toughed it out though, setting out for another day - my last full day in Australia.

I had trouble sleeping, but made it out of bed and onto a tram at around 10 AM. Again, there was nothing planned for today, something that has proved to be alright by me. My first move was towards the Queen Victoria Market, a large open air area near the outskirts of the CBD. It was underwhelming at best, essentially Melbourne's version of Paddy's Market. Not a big deal, and I passed through. I stopped at a random cafe, read the paper, had a coffee, and didn't even think where to go. I wandered down Elizabeth St, but had the urge to see another part of the town, so I walked up a different street. I was lacking in ideas - but I also had my camera. So I headed towards the MCG (exaggerated towards) and snapped a distant photo that you see up there. Federation Square caught my eye, so I made my way to the Information place to grab any kind of inspiration. There was a part of me that wanted to check out the Great Ocean Road, but the combination of the weather and the outside chance of catching my friend Katja, I wanted to stick around. Plus, who doesn't love a good rain?

After stopping at information, I headed across the Yarra, snapped a few photos, and surprise, surprise, made my way towards the Casino. At this point, I was cold, the rain was picking up (from a mist to a light drizzle), and I needed warmth. I also made the decision to actually go inside the Casino. I managed to track down a cloak room, dropped off my backpack, and wandered around the huge place. It was ridiculous - so many card tables, slot machines, and other rif raff that I find unnecessary. And pointless. A good way to waste some money, in my opinion. I've never gambled at a casino, but poker at Joe's has been enough to ward me off for awhile.

Once I was fed up with the Casino, I made my way up towards Flinders St. I stumbled upon the Melbourne 360 building. Seeing as that I always tend to go up tall buildings (Auckland, Sydney, Taiwan), I decided to make it a trend, and took in a quick view of the city from high up. An example below:

Where to next? At some point I decided that I wanted to catch the free tram that took you around city circle. Found that after a short search, and cruised the city for about 20 minutes, listening to the bits bits of history a taped voice brought over the tram's airwaves. Finding myself hungry, I jumped off for a quick bit, which was a gross chicken burger. Managing to resist the desire to have another coffee, I walked down some other random road, caught another tram out towards a place called Royal Park. The sun was finally out, giving a bit of warmth to the day, but still gross. There was nothing but a set of public toilets and a tennis court in this park. I was close to my hostel and toyed with the idea of turning in early, but I resisted and carried on, hopping on another tram towards the city. I jumped off, walked around for a bit longer, but then the rain started again, I realized that I was quite sick of Melbourne, and I then found the tram that took me to my hostel where I now sit. I had the goal of trying to get things squared away for the trip, which I have managed to do. From here, not sure how often I can post. Will try to lots. Hope everyone is doing well, where ever they are and whatever they are doing.

Day Two in Melbourne

2008-07-21T07:48:00.004-04:00

Today was my first full day in a city that must be what Seattle is like. Cold, wet, and rainy, especially during the winter season. I woke up this morning in my small room that reminded my of a fancy prison cell. That's what most hostels tend to be like: cold, uninviting design that is a simple step up from the grungy underbelly of a gaol (Australian spelling for jail - weird, I know). After my flight here and hauling around a suitcase weighing in at 26.6 kg, I knew that I would have to rearrange what I was taking along. This meant finding a post office, a simple task as it was perhaps a five minute walk to the nearest location. I bought a box with tape, threw my clothes in, and decided to make the return, drop off the package, and to take the next tram into the city.

Having spent very little time actually planning what I was going to do, I headed in with little idea of what was on. I first decided to head towards St Kilda, a suburb known for its beach. I went there and was instantly freezing, as the wind was billowing in from the sea, making for a chilly walk onto the pier. I only made it halfway, stopped in a overhang, made a couple of phone calls, and decided to head back to the main drag. Wasn't all that much to do in St Kilda, after all. I picked up a Boost juice before jumping on the next tram, with my next destination Crown Casino, which I've heard is a big deal.

I hopped off the tram right in front of the casino, and wasn't let in. I had to check my bag, and ended up getting lost in the maze of advertisements and lights, with a mall and food court tossed in there as well. With little desire to actually head into the casino, as I see gambling as a giant waste of money, I headed out to cross the Yarra River, and ended up using the Sandridge Bridge (reminding me of Sandbridge). It was a bridge built in honor of the Aboriginals and other people who live in Australia, as there glass panes listing what country people are from, how many are there, and what languages they spoke. An interesting experience. With no destination, I decided to take advantage of my daily pass and just jumped on a random tram which was heading towards Malvern. 'Sweet', I thought to myself, 'a town named after a suburb back home', which I know isn't true. I was on the tram for awhile, then decided to just jump off and head back towards town. I got back off near the Domain, which is like every other domain I've been to in the southern hemisphere: a big park. Across the Yarra, I could see Rod Laver Arena, along with the MCG, two iconic images of this city. In 1956 Melbourne had hosted the Olympics, hence the name of this area being Olympic Park. I had read about an Australian sport museum, and being slightly interested in athletic events, made the decision to try and head there when I could.

First stop was Rod Laver Arena, home to the Australian Open. It was dead quiet there, although a door was open, allowing me to walk around in a circle. Since it is the offseason, there is a monster truck rally going on, not tennis. I declined the idea to book a guided tour, and instead walked around the rest of the tennis centre. Before that, I bought a ticket to the Melbourne-St George NRL match, which was going to take place just a few hours later. There wasn't much to see around the tennis centre, so I walked towards the MCG. I found the sport museum pretty easily, and took about an hour looking at the history of sport in Australia, although it was very Victoria-centric, focusing mostly on Cricket and AFL, the two big sports in these parts. After that, I was hungry, and headed to a decent pub for some fish and chips. I killed time there, having a coffee and trying to warm up.

By the time I had finished my coffee, the weather had gotten worse. With lack of a better phrase, it was freakin' cold out. I bought a stupid beanie with the Australian flag on it, which ended up being a good call. I then found myself back on the tram, ready for some rugby league.

The game was underwhelming. I'm not a huge fan of the sport, but had decided that it would be worth checking out. And for $12, it wasn't terrible. Until it started raining. That was not good, although the hat paid dividends, keeping me warmer than I would have been. I left early, as even a mid match fight didn't hold my interest too much. The Storm dominated as well, providing even less entertainment. It took me about 30 minutes to make it back to my hostel, where I sit typing this latest entry. Only 5 flight to go til I am back in the US. Hot dog.

Bye bye Sydney

2008-07-20T06:28:00.002-04:00

In the craziness of what has been the last few weeks, between preparing for leaving, applying for jobs, saying goodbyes (the list goes on), I've been unable to live up to my one post a day goal. So now, I'll hope to keep a close account of the trip Sarah and I are about to embark on. For those keeping track, I'll be visiting 10 separate countries in the next 25 days:

Australia
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand
United Arab Emirates
England
France
Switzerland
Ireland
USA

It's going to be a whirlwind tour, and one that I will enjoy.

That being said, saying goodbye to my friends in Sydney was quite hard. It's been a great year - and a difficult one at that, but it was just an incredible experience. I was blessed with the chance to meet people from all over the world, get to know people who weren't like me at all, and to enjoy spending time with them. I hope to see at least some of them much sooner than I think I will. They are all such great people and have made my Sydney experience so much better. I keep thinking about the great relationships that I had from JMU, and now this? I am lucky indeed.

As of now, I'm in a hostel in Melbourne where I will be staying until Wednesday morning when I fly to Singapore. So it'll only be two full days, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to pass the time. The Broadway Musical Wicked is being shown here, and I thought about checking it out, but there isn't a show until Wednesday. I might take in a Rugby League match tomorrow. Definitely things to do here. But I kind of wish I had just made it a longer time in Sydney.

I got into Melbourne today at around 3. The airport is a good distance away from the city, but I managed to easily find the bus into town. I hadn't really thought about getting directions to my hostel, so I just jumped on a train up towards North Melbourne station. I got off there and realized that I had no idea where I was. And that isn't a good feeling. I found a map that listed very few street signs and just started walking. Before I started to panic, a cabbie spotted me, a clueless tourist with a huge bag (26 kgs) and stopped for me. I instructed him of my destination, which he had to look up on a map, and we were off. We reached the hostel in about five minutes, and I realized I would have never made it. I checked in, dropped my stuff in a tiny two person shared room (the beds are probably a foot and a half apart), and grabbed the tram into the city.

The next couple of hours I strolled around centre city. There's a lot of shopping down here. I toyed with the idea of going to see a movie, but Mamma Mia by myself? I don't think so. I just walked through the shops and crowds of people, felt cold, and decided to come back to my hostel for conduct some more research while paying for overpriced Internet. I did buy travel insurance as well. Which is a good thing, apparently. Tomorrow will bring a new day and more of a new city. The first of many.

A Quick Update

2008-07-20T05:52:00.003-04:00

University

2008-07-13T06:39:00.003-04:00

I've totally dropped the ball. This I know. So much for a daily update on my thoughts of Australia. I'll do what I can for the next ten days, perhaps beyond. I've been saying goodbye to friends every now and again which had proved to be an emotionally draining exercise. It's different now than leaving JMU because I knew that I would see those friends again. Or at least the ones I wanted to. These friends I hope to see again, but don't know when or where that'll be. Talk has emerged of a reunion in some country at a uncertain time, but we'll have to see what goes down.

Today I'll be looking at the experience I've had with University in Australia. After completing a four year degree at JMU, I wasn't really sure what to expect from a Graduate level course. I knew straight away that it would be a bit easier simply because the subjects I was set to study fell into what I was interested in - namely books and sport.

The outlook of Uni here is quite different. First of all, there are far fewer Universities throughout all of Australia. Which makes sense, considering the population boasts a bit more than 20 million people. So the need for more Universities isn't close to the same as it is in the US. The whole college experience is quite different, with many students commuting to a campus in or around the Sydney area, and far less people coming from afar.

The year I took classes I learned how frustrating and slow the whole processes can be here. Lecturers have some of the "no worries" attitude that you see in the rest of the country. They'll turn in grades and hand back assignments whenever they feel like it, leaving you with little time to know what your academic standing is. The hours I spent in class each week was also much shorter, with just two hours of work per week per class. That meant a grand total of eight hours a week for four classes, a full course load for just 14 weeks. Not too shabby. I spent perhaps twenty hours a week between doing my readings and time in class all together. This, on top of working twenty hours a week made me pretty busy.

There were definite shortcomings in the experience I had. One of the biggest issues was the lack of fluent English speakers. This affected me during the first semester more than the second - and while it isn't necessarily a negative, it brings down the quality of education when not everyone can contribute on the same fashion. At the same time, it was impressive to have so many Chinese students in class who could more than hold their own with a second language. As I have said before, I wish I could do that.

On the whole, the experience was worth it - but mostly because of the extra things I did on the side, the friends I made, and the country I lived in. The education alone wouldn't have cut it, but because of the extracurriculars that I've picked up along the way, it's been an enlightening time.

What's a Hotel?

2008-07-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

That is a good question my friends. In the US, you say hotel, and that is what it always is. Accommodation. A place to stay for one night, perhaps two, maybe more. In Australia, they have those. But it is means bar.

Take the Marlborough (pictured). It's a bar nearby, and there isn't even a hint of rooms. But nearly everywhere you go you'll see (insert random name) Hotel. And it means bar. They serve lots of beer, have sport on TV, and that is that. It's been an interesting part of my time, because no one will ever really refer to a place like that as the such and such hotel, but rather, just its first name. For example, the Marlborough is affectionately called the 'Marly' by those who frequent it. I have spent many hours in there, usually in the morning watching a sporting event that is on live from the US where is is the night before. Then of course, nights out at various hotels, where my friends would get kind of drunk. There is also the Landsdowne, home of the famous $10 meal that Dave and I would always get - Chips, Chicken Schnitzel, and Mushroom sauce served with a ice cold Coca-Cola. I will miss those the most. Delicious food with good people.

I haven't been able to come across why a lot of these establishments are called hotels. I heard somewhere that it used to be a law in Sydney that places that served alcohol also had to provide accommodation. Not sure if that is valid, but it could be. Bottom line is, they are plentiful in the harbour town, and you definitely can't stay there overnight.

Language

2008-07-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

I've already dropped the ball on my grand plan to post once a day about Australia and its funny little customs. I got a little bit lazy. I'm sorry.

One of the fears of going to live in a foreign country is the language barrier. Not knowing the language of the place you are going to spend a year or more of your life can be challenging.

Fortunately for me, that was not the case. But there has been a lot of lessons about what Aussie's say. They use 'the Queen's English' as one of my co-workers put it. Certain phrases that I've picked up, such as 'no worries', 'no dramas', using hey or eh as an interjection, and much more. It's been an interesting view of their culture - both listening to the words they say and what different things mean. The bathroom is the 'toilet', 'washroom', 'loo'; all very British-esque. I am aware that isn't a word.

Becoming aware of my accent was another interesting aspect of language. Because we (Americans) are usually used to hearing the same twang, it doesn't really hit us that we have an accent. I like to joke and say that I don't have one - well I really don't. A taxi driver from Kuristan told me that I have a 'beautiful' accent one time. I was flattered, but still didn't give him an extra tip.

I'm not particularly sick of the Australian accent. I wouldn't say that I can emulate it very well either - although it would be fun to come back to the US and pretend that's how I speak. It would be funny.

The flip side to the language experience has been the number of people who are fluent in two languages (or more). I am jealous. I have friends who speak, aside from English, Russian, Spanish, German, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Hindi, and many more. No, it's not just one person, but different people who speak these languages aside from their native tongue. It fuels my desire to live overseas in a foreign country, speaking a language I don't know. It's going to be hard, but I will do it. Hopefully.

Happy Birthday, USA. Here's to you

2008-07-04T04:25:00.004-04:00

It's that time of year again. The Fourth of July. Or as I like to call it, Freedom day. Because that's why America was started right? A bunch of old gits wanted their freedom. Also known as the rich men that didn't want to pay taxes. So they riled everyone up, got them to hate the British Crown, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I will reluctantly concede that there is much more to it than that. Alright, perhaps a lot more. But a recent (being this year) realiz(s)ation of mine is that the United States of America as we see it today is quite different than the one that our forefathers (the old gits) set up way back when.

Political rant aside, now I can make it to the point of my post. I don't think of July 4th as much of a holiday; usually I hang out with some friends, enjoy fireworks, and then call it a day. Simple stuff really, and I see no need to make a huge fuss over the events that transpire. However, seeing as though I'm abroad, in a country that clearly wouldn't be celebrating it, I decided to go out and celebrate it American style: you guessed it, I went to McDonald's.

Where did the inspiration come from? Let's just say everyday this week I've been asked "what are you doing to celebrate the Fourth?", a question raised by my predominately Australian co-workers. A simple shrug was all I had. One of them was trying to come up with ideas for a Fourth of July themed birthday for one of his friends (all Australian) and I was of no help. All I could think about was grilling burgers and shooting off fireworks. Today's inspiration led me to the golden arches, where I sat and pondered the greatness of our country, and how we leave our mark across the globe through either a fast food restaurant or the bombs we deposit (drop) on some unfortunate country that has wronged us. The chicken sandwich (burger) that I ate reminded me of the obesity and laziness that many people in our country embrace, and as I tried to choke down my french fries, I realized that I was nauseated by what I was trying to eat. So I tossed it in the garbage - pretty much bringing things full circle, by doing what all great Americans do: create lots of rubbish (garbage). And now I sit before my computer, depositing these thoughts in a small corner of the webosphere (my new name for the Internet) wondering what the 5 people who read this actually think of the Fourth of July and my nonsensical ramblings.

My time in Australia is drawing nearer and nearer to a close - which is shocking. Time has passed by faster than I can remember. So many great things have happened in the past year, many of them marked with the great people I have met here. As I wonder what tomorrow (or two months from now) may bring, I've decided to try and think of one thing to write about per day that is unique to Australia and try and spit out 500 or so words. Stay tuned for that. It'll be, as we Americans like to say, awesome.

Master of the House

2008-06-28T01:03:00.003-04:00

So I'm done my degree. Turned in my final assignment this week. Kind of a weird feeling if you ask me. I will be amazed when I have a Masters Degree - it was never anything I expected. And to get it while living abroad for a year is a phenomenal time. I have had so many great experiences here - both in furthering my career, and with great people, learning about the world, and traveling to so many cool places. To put the icing on the cake, my travel plans with Sarah are beginning to finalize. They are as follows: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the UAE, England, France, Switzerland (perhaps Italy), Ireland, then finally home in the USA August 14. I can't believe that my time here is almost up. It will have been a year since I arrived on July 15. Five days later I'm traveling to Melbourne to see that part of Australia. I fly straight there to Singapore. But I'll outline those plans later.

Since finishing school, I've just been full-on working at Thomson. I will also start applying for jobs back in the USA, possibly at ThomsonReuters as well. I'm torn about what I want to do next. Where will I be? What will I do? Will I be able to get a job? So many questions, for so soon. I'm not going to stress about it too much. But if you're reading this and want to give me a job, it would be appreciated.

PS - I would like to be referred to as "Master Clark" from now on. I've earned it.

Watching Euro 2008 in Australia is difficult

2008-06-12T06:21:00.003-04:00

The first week of class-free living is nearly completed. Unfortunately, that doesn't include assignment free. I've been finishing up my magazine projects, a couple papers here and there. But the end is in sight. Tomorrow I'll be going up to FourFourTwo for my second to last day of my internship. That's been good, but hard. Not the work, just going in somewhere so infrequently. A lot gets done when I'm not there. However, I've gotten experience at a magazine, and a global media corporation at that. Not to mention that it's a soccer magazine, a sport I happen to be partial to. There isn't a whole lot to say. Yesterday marked my 11 month anniversary with Sarah (so awesome). I'm in the process of planning our trip home via a bunch of different countries (also awesome). Along with that, blogging over at Arsenal, MLS, and KC Wizards Offside websites. Go check it out if you can.

Oh, and not to mention the last thing I've been up to. Watching Euro 2008 at 2 AM and 4:45 AM when I can. Have managed to watch the France-Romania snoozer, the opening match between Czech Republic and the Swiss, and Spain's 4-1 triumph over the Russians. The time difference has made it a difficult and brutal experience, but worth it nonetheless.

Done

2008-06-05T19:01:00.002-04:00

And that's the end of that. I have now successfully attended all of my classes for the second semester of graduate school. What a crazy thought. It literally seems like I arrived in Australia only a few months ago - when in reality it has been nearly 11 months.

Life is winding down here. I'm skipping a day at 442 to try and get a full head of steam into my work, and possibly skipping dinner at a colleague's house because of finishing assignments. I really need to buckle down, so this is no time for procrastination.

Sports in Australia

2008-06-01T00:29:00.006-04:00

Hello all. I haven't been on for awhile. For this I apologize. This week marks the last week of coursework during my time at Sydney University. I have just four assignments left, and then I'll wrap everything up on June 13th. After that, a month and change of working before heading home via eight or nine separate countries. Aside from keeping up with Uni and working, I've been enveloped by the hysteria of Australian sport.

As many of you know, I like sports. Simple enough right? The past weekend (not the current one), I went to two sporting events in two nights. First up was the Australian football team taking on Ghana in an international friendly. This game was a bit dull, as the tactics employed by Pim Verbeek were hardly aimed for entertainment. But the result was there, so that was key. The embarrassing moment for Australia happened before the match when the officials in charge failed to procure the anthem of Ghana. That's poor form. Then the game itself happened. It wasn't all that exciting, although there were one or two moments, near the end of the game where Aussie keeper Mark Schwarzer was called up to maintain his clean sheet. The Socceroos (as they are dubbed) won by a meager 1-0 scoreline.

The next match was a Super 14 semifinal. The NSW Waratahs were taking on the Sharks, a provincial team from South Africa. Winner would face the Crusaders (a team from New Zealand) the following weekend for the title.

Upon sitting down at my seat, which was second row from the field, the size of the players immediately struck you. These guys were massive. We're talking the size of an NFL lineman in height, but way less body fat. And that was just the pack. The backs for the Sharks were all at least 6 feet tall and built like small trees. There isn't a sane person in the world who would want to tackle them. That was just the Sharks. The Waratahs had some formidable sized players, Lote Tuquiri, Rocky Elsom, and Phil Waugh (who is built like a trash compacter).

These impressions all sank in before the game began. And when it did, the speed and agility of the players for their size was remarkable. If you know anything about rugby union, the ball is always live unless a penalty, infringement is whistled, or the ball is knocked out of play. The kind of collisions I heard was unlike anything I had ever seen at a sporting event before. It was perplexing to think people enjoyed playing a sport like this; especially since I had gone to a few practices myself.

The actual game was a lot of fun; the stadium was full and the crowd was into the match, making for lots of noise and excitement. Add to that the four tries the Waratahs scored, and the night was full of joy, as NSW won. A good game of rugby is definitely something worth taking in live.

We Will Rock You

2008-05-17T09:36:00.011-04:00

One of the iconic natural landmarks of Australia is Uluru. Also known as Ayers Rock, the puzzling monolith is a massive figure in the desert landscape of the Northern Territory. And as I've mentioned before, I made it out there this past weekend. In March, Dave and I had decided to give it a shot and threw together what we hoped would be a cheap trip by using Tiger Airways.

This meant we'd have to fly from Sydney-Melbourne before boarding the Tiger flight to Alice Springs, then drive roughly 430 kms southwest to get to Uluru, a national park of Australia and a World Heritage Site. Last Thursday, we got an early start, leaving SUV at around 6:45 AM. Ilya came with us, and we were meeting another friend Devin in Melbourne for the flight up. It was going to be a long day, but I had prepared myself mentally (or at least tried to) for the 9 hours of travel. Compounding things was the fact I felt a bit sick the day before, having a sore throat and runny nose. Congestion makes flying much worse for those never unlucky enough to experience such misery.

Despite the illness, the flights went relatively smoothly. As we descended upon Alice Springs, I was once again reminded of the desolation of Australia. Red soil greeted us upon landing on the single-strip airport that actually lay 10 km of the town centre. We had rented a car from Budget in order to complete the overland part of the journey, and soon after disembarking we had the rental. It was a manual, and considering I was the only one familiar with driving stick, I soon realized I might be doing the majority of the driving - although I love driving stick.

Before heading straight to the rock, we popped up to Alice Springs, grabbed some supplies at Woolworth's, ate lunch at Pizza Hut, and started the drive. The four hours passed pretty quickly, although night driving through the Outback isn't my favorite thing. Plus, Kangaroos were everywhere alongside the road, so I laid on my horn to scare them away. We made it to Yulara, the resort 20 km away from the actual rock. I was pretty tired at that point, felt like crap, and passed out in our swindle of a room. It was quite chilly at that point as well. I managed some sleep, although we were getting up at 5:45 AM the next morning for the sunrise at Uluru.

The morning came fast. The four of us were ready in short time and made the short drive to the rock. The park entrance fee was $25 per person (sucks) but the large, dark monolith that soon greeted us was surreal. I have never in my life seen anything so big, so imposing, and so real. It was like something out of a movie. The pictures I'm posting don't come close to doing the size of the rock justice.

It was quite cool in the morning, and I felt pretty terrible, so I stayed in the car as the sun crept over the horizon, slowly coloring the rock. It was impressive, despite the fact we were joined by about a hundred other tourists. But what would you expect from a place that gets over 400,000 visits a year?

After the sunrise, we headed back to our accommodation and I passed out for a few more hours. We decided to rest up before returning for the six mile walk around the circumference of the rock. Not feeling good while walking around in the hot desert isn't the best feeling in the world, but I sucked it up, knowing the chances of returning here are slim.

Once we had eaten lunch, we drove back over to the rock. Stopping at the cultural centre, we took time to learn a little but about Uluru and what it means to the Arnangu people, the Aboriginal people who along with the Pitjantjatjara and the Yankunytjatjara find the place holy. It baffles me a bit at the thought of putting a sacred meaning in a rock, but it was interesting nonetheless. They asked you not to climb the rock, and I had no intention of doing so, considering over 35 people have died trying to do it.

The walk began after driving a bit closer, and instead of trying to describe the grandeur of it, here are a few pictures to look at:

I managed to feel alright through the duration of the hike, but by the end I was pretty spent. We had around an hour and a half before sunset, so we drove to the spot the park has set up and parked, waiting for the sun to set upon the rock. What greeted us was an interesting sequence of events, namely a changing coloration as the sun went down. Dave took a number of pictures and made them into a time lapsed movie:

The whole day now over, I once again felt pretty terrible, although excited and in awe of the enormous natural structure that I had encountered. Question upon question piled into my head over the significance of the rock in relation to the world, the traditions the Aboriginals believed, and how that all fit into my own faith. As you might tell, it made my head spin, trying to figure that out. I came to no conclusion, although glad that I've been able to see something like that and to think about it. The existence of the rock makes me hard to share the beliefs of those who think the earth is 6,000 years old.

Theological discussions aside, the next day we woke up for the return trip to Sydney via Alice Springs and Melbourne. It had been a crazy journey, but one that made me appreciate a different culture, expose me to a number of Aboriginal people (there were loads walking the streets of Alice Springs), and getting to see one of the world's greatest natural wonders. It was a quick, get-in, get-out trip, something I recommend to everyone.

Liquid

2008-05-13T09:12:00.002-04:00

Rugby League is boring. I've come to this conclusion after attending a 28-12 match between Australia and New Zealand last Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. With a crowd of over 34,000 that seemed to near capacity, I had high expectations of a match that probably wouldn't be close. And right after the Kiwis finished their haka, it was all Australia. They jumped to a 22-0 lead after the first half, and didn't look back. Even though New Zealand outscored the Kangaroos (nickname of the Rugby League team) in the second half, but the game itself wasn't all that exciting. I don't really find excitement in guys picking up the ball, running into a tackle, and hoping to score. Not that fun.

Hello, Goodbye

2008-05-08T05:27:00.004-04:00

I'm done nine weeks of my second semester of graduate school. Soon I will have a Masters Degree. I don't know what to think about that. Seems like I just got here. That I moved to a continent over 10,000 miles away from the people and places that I was familiar wit-

Stop it. I'm not going to drip nostalgic words into (or onto?) these pages yet. Still time to do something and to see what I would like. Well, not so much as see, but to experience. To experience the rich Australian history of Sydney. Unfortunately, I don't have the budget or the time - something that happens when you are in the midst of planning a trip that nearly encompasses the entire globe. So I'm not sure what I'll get to see of this great southern land, even though I've technically seen the whole thing.

What I am certain of is my latest triumph in the publishing world. With the latest issue of FourFourTwo hitting shelves yesterday, I have entered the magazine arm of the publishing industry. And when I say entered, I mean that I've been published in a magazine. Something I wrote is in a magazine. For those keeping score at home, I've now been published in every form of media: newspaper, book, internet (not this blog, those don't count), and magazine. Pretty sweet for a 23-year old who is uncertain about what to do with the days given to him. I'd like to think that I have accomplished a lot, and yet I know how much I've squandered and wasted time. It's an encouraging and discouraging at the same time. Knowing I'm capable of much more with having done so much is an interesting conundrum.

Anyways, I think every single one of the lectures that I attended this week were quite poor. On Tuesday, our Magazine class featured a portion on InDesign, a program that comes quite natural to me. It's similar to Pagemaker, the program I used back when I was Sports Editor of the spoke. Digital Publishing continues to make me question the existence of such a class, and last night's lecture for Editing was on footnotes. How does someone give a two hour lecture on footnotes? I don't know. But it happened. I was there to witness it. I'm glad to have this experience at Haymarket - it's been quite cool, and has totally redeemed the semester.

Also, the weather has gotten cool. Bummer. And for those who I haven't informed, I'm hitting the shores of the U.S. (for good) August 14th. Before then? Plans are to visit Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Dubai, England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Dublin. I can't wait. And I'm going with Sarah. Amazing.

It's Been Awhile

2008-05-05T07:48:00.003-04:00

Time is starting to fly, and I'm real busy with assignments to keep the blog up to date regularly. I'll try and post pictures and funny stories when I have more time to be creative. It's getting cold here and I'm going to Uluru next week, for a quick three day trip. Should be fun. If you'd like to hear me, email me or call me. Please.

Two Up - Australia's way of commemorating their veterans

2008-04-25T19:44:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was ANZAC day. This being a holiday similar to Memorial Day, commemorating the first military action taking by Australian and New Zealand troops in Gallipoli. Every year, to celebrate this momentous event, Australians across the land and gather in pubs to play the game of Two-up. The basic gist of this game is flipping two coins in a circle and betting with random people in a pub. It's quite an interesting idea, that to celebrate those who have bought and died for their country they get drunk and bet on a coin toss. But no judgment here.

I ended up spending around 7 hours in a pub yesterday. Egads. I'm off.

Hanging in there

2008-04-23T20:44:00.002-04:00

Week seven of classes have come and gone now. Life is still pretty much the same... Working at Thomson and FourFourTwo, writing another biography on Alex Rodriguez. I'm not permitting myself to have much of a social life until the semester is over. Being concerned over more than just my work. And since I don't want to spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, I'm going to go.

Now I am old

2008-04-13T03:18:00.002-04:00

I turned 23 on Friday, and for the first time, had a barbeque on the beach in celebration. It was a nice break after a busy week that was a preview for the next two months of my life: Thomson, FourFourTwo, classes, and Uni work. I need to work hard and squeeze writing my latest book in there, as the deadline for it is now less than a month away. I've really got nothing to say at the moment, as I'm waiting to get pictures that I can upload from Dave.

Of note this week, Thomson becomes ThomsonReuters. It won't affect me much now aside from changing my email address. However, I'm hoping that it pays off in the future and I can snag a job editing stuff at Reuters.

Jumping off of Ramps into Sydney Harbour is the thing to do

2008-04-06T10:15:00.003-04:00

The past week has been pretty crazy so no posts. I've been busy with Uni work and Thomson. Making up 40 hours of work was tougher than I thought, but I managed to get it done. I went to FourFourTwo and have the internship up and running, and from here on out Thursday and Fridays will feature me heading up to North Sydney to work for Haymarket Media. It's pretty much my current dream at the moment so it's quite stunning to actually happen.

Over this past weekend I headed to the 1st Red Bull flugtag in Australia. For those unaware of what the Flugtag is (German for "flight day"), it is basically a competition where people build a contraption that is supposed to fly but can't be powered by machine and jump off of a ramp. They are scored by design, flight length, and a few other standards. Pretty weird? Yes. Awesome? Most definitely. I got there with Dave and a few others to watch the spectacle. That is probably the best way to describe it, as nothing can make this event logical. Part of the mystique of it, I guess.

Other than that, life is life. Questions, challenges, and all sorts of things make each and every day interesting. It will be nice to head back to America soon (four months or so), but not too soon.

Day Six: 2,021 km later, back in Perth

2008-03-28T21:50:00.007-04:00

The next day we awoke in Monkey Mia at 7:30 AM sharp to check out the dolphins. The justification for the entire resort is the fact that every morning, wild dolphins swim in from the shore and hang out. The people at the resort feed them, but as you can tell from the photos, they do come quite close. The only downside is that there isn't much else going on in the morning, so you have large crowds lining the beachfront. It didn't bother me too much, and it was a fantastic experience watching dolphins swim two feet from where you are standing.

The dolphins even seemed to know who the biologists were, as they would swim up to the two women who were explaining different aspects of the dolphins and what their habits were. The dolphins acted like dogs, almost groveling for food at the feet of the biologists. At first, there were only two or three, but by the time the resort employees got around to feeding them, the number of dolphins had grown to seven or eight. Some of the dolphins chowed down on the fish they were given, others declined the offer of food. As soon as the feed was done, we hopped into the car, with a long drive ahead of us. Not before seeing this gigantic pelican.

The drive went by quickly. Well, the first leg did at least. Dave drove and probably averaged close to 160 km/h, as there was hardly any traffic or anything to be seen. We had thought about trying to stop somewhere along the way for lunch, and then another location to break the trip up. If Hutt River wasn't 30 km off the main road, Dave and I were totally down to go again, this time to visit the prince (he had been at the dentist last time). We didn't agree on anything up until Geraldton, when Becca's suggestion of going to see the Pinnacles was wholeheartedly accepted. The drive was long, so I'm going to mostly use pictures to describe what went on.

This was our stop at the Pinnacles. They make no sense, as it is essentially a bunch of rocks in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a desert that reminds you of cornmeal. It was a really cool place, and totally unexpected.

After the Pinnacles, we stopped at Kangaroo Point, a beach about 10 km from the Pinnacles. There, we spotted and chased around a group of what we thought were Kangaroos, although they may have been Wallabies. Not sure.

After that, our long drive continued, and we spotted one of the most brilliant, vibrant, sunsets that I have ever seen. Pictures weren't enough to describe it, so Dave took a video seen above. Remarkable. I can't put into words how gorgeous it was, and to make it look even cooler, there were wind turbines in the foreground.

The sun now set, the drive became quite hairy. Dave took a picture of me lying in the road, and I resumed driving duties all the way to Perth. The night through the outback was some of the most stressful driving I have endured. You don't know what is lying in the bushes, and one mistake will mean trouble. Help is far, far away, as towns were sparse through this drive. We made it to Perth, found our hostel, ate at Fast Eddy's, a late night diner, and I made a few phone calls and checked email. The drive was now complete, much to my relief.

Day Five of the trip: No more trains, plenty more of nothing

2008-03-28T21:39:00.004-04:00

Our long driving journey continues. The destination du jour is Monkey Mia, a dolphin resort in Shark Bay, some 800 kms from Perth. No small task, but I’m so used to travelling long distances that it didn’t seem to even bother me. However, today’s highlight was also visiting the Principality of Hutt River. This is a real country in the middle of nowhere in WA. A man by the name of Leonord seceded from Australia in 1970. He had a farm that covered roughly 20 square kilometers It was a 30 km drive off of the main road, half of which wasn’t on a sealed road. Dave navigated us there shortly before 11, and Princess Shirley (who is in her 70s or 80s) showed us around for about 10 minutes. The Province itself was no more than vast, red, dry farmland that seemed to span for eternity. The buildings that made up the ‘capital’ of Nain consisted of the Government Office, a Chapel, a welcome center, and a souvenir shop. I tried as hard as I could not to laugh the entire time. There is even a wood bust of Prince Leonord as you drive in or out of the main city. High comedy roams here, but the people of Hutt River take it very seriously.

I took over the wheel after Hutt. And it was pretty difficult. Mile after mile of the same desert. It is remarkable that people inhabit even the small towns that we came across during our road trip. We stopped in Billabong that consisted of a gas station and a café. The drive continued, and we made it up to Shell Beach, the next destination. This is one of two beaches in the world that is entirely made up of seashells. The water was incredibly warm, unlike anything I have experienced in a long time. Dave walked out a hundred meters or so and it was the exact same depth the entire way out. On top of that, the three of us were the only people on the beach. Unbelievable really.

Post Shell Beach meant that we were almost at Monkey Mia. Nearing Denham, I noticed that the gas light was on. I panicked a little bit, realizing that if we were to run out of gas things were not going to turn out well. Fortunately, I worried for no reason as we made it to Denham with plenty of gas left (I guess). After a nice $60 fill up, the short drive to Monkey Mia took around 15 minutes, where I am sitting writing this with no cell phone, no Internet, and no worries. Except for the thousands of flies that constantly seem to bother me. I am a fly magnet. Not kidding. Tomorrow we’re driving 800 kms or so back to Perth. Should be a lovely time.

Day Four of the train ride: First by train, now by car

2008-03-28T21:33:00.003-04:00

Day Four
Hour Sixty-Six: Two hours left on the train. I’m at a loss for words really, in disbelief that I’ve almost completed a train journey over the entire continent of Australia. I knew it wouldn’t be that bad, but it has definitely been no walk in the park. I’ve worn the same clothes almost the entire time (as I predicted) and have yet to take a shower. All wonderful facts for those travelling with me.

I slept fairly well last night—say about six hours—and am ready for this new day. Ready to be off a train and to drive far in a car. Because we’re heading up to Geraldton, maybe 450 km north of Perth. I think I may write once more summing up the trip.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008, 7:09 AM

Hour Sixty-Eight: Perth! At last we have pulled into the station, ending our long and arduous journey across the great state of Australia. I’ve arrived in one piece, surprisingly with all my limbs and sanity together. The trip was definitely worthwhile, as I’ve seen more of one country than I think I ever have before. This ends the running diary of my train experience; however, I feel it worthwhile to keep tabs on the rest of my exhaustive journey through Western Australia.

After grabbing the rental car—this look longer than expected because Budget didn’t want to let Dave take a car so far—we hopped in and drove to Geraldton, our first destination. It took a solid five hours, with a random stop in Catay, a town that was literally just a gas station. I ordered a hamburger that turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

The drive was similar to the train ride—passing nothing for a seemingly infinite amount of time. Once we made it to Geraldton, we checked in, went down to the beach, and jumped in the Indian Ocean. The water was quite warm, although the flies just plain awful. Our accommodation was aptly named “Foreshore Backpackers”, and it was certainly a low-budget accommodation. Sort of like a poor man’s YHA. We ate dinner at the Freemason’s Hotel. Dave ordered steak that was served on a heated stone—he cooked it himself! I had a delicious pizza and Becca ate Kangaroo for the first time. Dave’s steak was one of the best I’ve ever had. The night ended when I passed out at 10:30, exhausted beyond belief and asleep with both the door open and the lights on.

Day Three of the train ride: Smashing my head against the window is fun

2008-03-28T09:31:00.004-04:00

Day Three
Hour Forty-One: The second night is complete. I got about five hours of sleep and it was pretty straight through the night as well. I grabbed my stuff and headed into the lounge and watched the country go by. The train went through Barton, a small town that consisted only of a small shack in the middle of nowhere. An Aboriginal man named Ziggy lives in the shack with no electricity or running water. He has helped to maintain the track, with engineers chucking cans of Milo at him. We’re approaching the 423 km stretch of straight track that is the longest in the world. Today will be another Scrabble-filled time.
Monday, March 24, 2008, 8:36 AM

Hour Forty-Four: I just finished one of the most astounding experiences of my life. We had a stopover in Cook, South Australia. When you hear the phrase “ghost town,” it brings to mind a desolate, un-inhabited place with a few abandoned buildings. Well, as we pulled into the station at Cook, it was announced that the town had a population of 5. It had at one point stationed the Royal Flying Doctor Service, but presently is only used to service the Railroad.

So now you can only imagine what sight greeted me when I stepped off. The whole town was in view. No one had lived there for a few years, so a number of buildings were nothing more than empty skeletons. I walked to the edge of town, being sure to look down with every step I took. Wearing flip flops had not been the best idea, as any snake that felt like chomping down on my foot would have an easy time with it.

Anyways, there was nothing for miles and miles surrounding the town. Just dry, Australian landscape with the barren foliage and red soil as far as the eye could see. Quite remarkable to think just how big this entire country/continent is and how little consists of so much.

We marched around Cook for about 20 minutes, completely blown away by the surroundings and the nothing that surrounded the horizon. Vacant. Everything. It was mesmerizing. As the alarm sounded, we got back on the train, and pulled away from Cook. I don’t know if I’ll ever be in a place like this again. To be surrounded by nothing in the middle of nowhere? That’s quite an ambiguous statement to make, but I don’t know of a better way to describe it. Check out the picture below to give you an idea of what it was like:
Monday, March 24, 2008, 10:14 AM

Hour Forty-Seven: I’m not even sure what hour it is at this point. We just changed time zones as we went from South Australia into Western Australia. The signpost commemorating it was a big rock along with a sign. The expansive landscape continues to be rocks, small, dry bushes, and red soil, mixed in with nothing. Not a living, breathing thing for miles. The train is rattling along at a steady pace, and I’m sitting here writing and watching 30 Rock. Trying to work on my Israel trip piece too. It’s gotten to 21,000 words, with five or six days left to describe.

An announcement on the train said that we had travelled more than 2,300 km while still 1,300 km from Perth. Amazing to think that in the time that has elapsed, a plane could have flown me from Perth to Sydney and back like four or five times at least. I will now forever be thankful for planes and the speed at which they take us in modern day travel.
Monday, March 24, 2008, 11:22 AM (switched to Australia Pacific Time)

Hour Fifty: Less than twenty four hours until we arrive at our destination. The travel is starting to get to me as I feel like I am constantly staring at the same scenery over and over again. The train passed through the town of Forrest; by town I mean a landing strip operated by two people. You read that correctly. Two people live in the town of Forrest. I don’t even know if that’s possible to call it a town.

Things are getting so difficult that we arrived in a town named Rawlinna and I marvelled at the fact there was something else to look at. Other than staring at the barren wasteland, I lost another game of Scrabble and have almost watched every episode of 30 Rock. The Israel writing is chugging along as well. I’m not struggling to keep my sanity, but it is definitely being eroded away, bit by bit.
Monday, March 24, 2008, 2:58 PM

Hour Fifty-Three: We are passing through Boulder a town near Kalgoorlie. Apparently, Kalgoorlie isn’t just some smack in the middle of nowhere ghost town. But it’s a town smack in the middle of nowhere with a population 30,000 people. That’s quite a surprise. The last few hours have been just miles and miles of endless desert. We went through the 478 km of straight train track that seemed to go on forever. My mental state is still decent. My stomach hurts from the microwave burger that I ate combined with gross snacks. Ew. I’m hoping to see some roos tonight.
Monday, March 24, 2008, 6:36 PM

Hour Fifty-Eight: The train is now pulling away from Kalgoorlie, WA (streets pictured above). What an underwhelming town in the middle of now where. We basically marched around the block twice, and saw nearly all that the center had to offer. It was similar to Broken Hill, in the sense that the majority of it consisted of strip malls with different shops and pubs. They even made you chuck any fruit or other foods that wouldn’t meet quarantine. State to state quarantine is ridiculous. It’s all the same country.

With so little to do, we managed to find a place to eat. Dave, Becca, and I ended up at the Exchange Hotel, at the “Wild West Saloon” which basically meant that the bartenders were wearing nothing but underwear. And they were all women. It was such a bizarre experience, as I had never before seen anything like that. It made me cringe to look at the reality of what life is in such a broken, far off part of the world. Those poor girls thought that wearing nothing but lingerie to pour drinks is something that is okay. And it is far from it, in my opinion. We still ate there anyway and the food happened to be quite good. While Becca and I ordered, Dave took a picture of us at the bar. The girl taking the order flipped out, as apparently you aren’t allowed to take pictures of the girls as that objectifies them. Faulty logic anyone? You can’t really claim to be objectified when you are already walking around with no clothes on. Such a puzzling fact of life.

I’m feeling good about the trip. It’s on the final leg, the last night of trying to sleep in a seat. I’ve gotten to see such a huge part of the country, and while it has been difficult more than it has been easy, the payoff is incredible. It gives me a sense of what life was like 100 years ago or so, when the only way to reach Perth was, well, you couldn’t. Amazing to think that the technology and developments of the last century have opened up a massive world. And this is only train travel here. Planes can take us pretty much anywhere in the world. Despite this technology, there is such an ugly side to life itself, and one ponders the origins of that, without accounting into it any measure of sin or God in the picture. Just something to think about: shouldn’t the advancement and “evolution” of the human race be marked by new levels of peace and harmony? How come as we get to a high level of technology, should our social patterns be reflected in the same manner? I could go on and on about this, but I’m about to play Dave in Scrabble. I really hope that I beat him, and that I get to talk to Sarah tonight. I only had service for the first time in 19 hours in Kalgoorlie and don’t know how long it will last here. The best part? This statue of a guy who was a water fountain:
Monday, March 24, 2008, 10:57 PM

Day Two of the train ride: Hanging On

2008-03-28T09:25:00.005-04:00

Day Two
Hour Fourteen: First sleep of the trip. It went alright. Sporadic is the best adjective to use to describe exactly how it went. One or two hour rounds of sleep was all I could muster. It’s still dark out even though it’s nearly seven. We should arrive in Broken Hill at 7:30 AM, or so they say. The sun is now trying to muster the courage up and rise already.
Sunday, March 23 2008, 6:54 AM

Hour Sixteen: Just spent a lovely hour at the delightful township of Broken Hill. Let me tell you, there is jack squat here. A few buildings here and there, maybe some houses. We walked around for a few minutes, I convinced Becca and Dave to have beers at around 7 AM. Good times were had all around, minus the fact that Broken Hill has nothing. Bill Bryson got off the train here too; he apparently rode in the sleeper cars. He’s got nothing on me.
Sunday, March 23, 2008, 8:09 AM

Hour Twenty: The scenery has really opened up. Australia is flat. I don’t think words can aptly describe how barren it is here. Just miles and miles of nothingness. The fun part about this morning has been the “spot the animal” game where we looked around to see if we could spot any kangaroos or emus. We had a few sightings here and there, as it was a bit late in the day by the time we were on the train again. Tomorrow morning should prove to be full of roos and emus. The long travels continue and I still feel pretty strong. The task is difficult, but we’re nearing the halfway point. Well, in fourteen hours or so. We’re about four hours away from Adelaide.
Sunday, March 23, 2008, 11:13 AM

Hour Twenty-Seven: Our time in Adelaide has just wrapped up. We had around three hours to get off the train and explore the small city, managing to have a nice Easter dinner at an Italian place. Dave being of Italian descent, it’s a family tradition of his to eat Italian food on Easter Sunday. He enjoyed himself, although I’m sure not as much as he would have back home on Long Island.

The train journey is set to resume shortly. Two nights and one full day are all that stand between Western Australia and us. I would rate the trip fun so far, with lots of interesting people and even some families. It’s kind of a mystery to me why anyone would bring their entire family on a train ride as long as this one. Even the Adelaide-Perth leg is a not too shabby 40-some hours. The nicest thing is not being on the Internet; I’m learning how much time of each day I waste looking up unimportant information and that I could be doing better things with myself. Let’s see what lessons I can take from this trip other than that.
Sunday, March 23, 2008, 6:20 PM

Hour Thirty-Two: Well, with five hours passed, not much has changed. We just stopped in Port Augusta around ten minutes ago and people actually got off the train. Kind of a shocker is you ask me to see people get off the train at this hour. I just got beat by Dave at Scrabble (again). There wasn’t much to look at in terms of scenery for the last few hours as the sun set at around 7. No Kangaroos or Emus at dusk, although we were in town. I watched a few episodes of 30 Rock and don’t really feel like going to bed right now, seeing as though I’ll probably not sleep a whole lot. I could always just wait til tomorrow during the day, when I have nothing to do and sleep then. I think I’m going to grab my book and come out here too read. Most of these entries are just as boring as the experience is. Nighttime isn’t the most spectacular hour on board the Indian Pacific. Next stop is tomorrow morning in Cook at around 9 in the morning. I hope to not be up for that at all.
Sunday, March 23, 2008, 11:12 PM

Home Again/Day One

2008-03-28T09:14:00.005-04:00

I did it! Somehow I completed a trip by train, car, and plane. But before jumping into what's going on in the here and now, the next series of posts will outline the journey. I recorded the journey, from the train ride up until landing back in Sydney. One of the most incredible journeys and one of the best weeks I've ever had. Here is the tale as it unfolds (unedited):

Day One
Hour Zero: We’re on the train in Central Station, waiting to begin the trip. I’m not sure what to expect. The entire trip is scheduled to take 68 hours, culminating with an arrival in Perth Tuesday morning at 9:30 AM. It’s going to be a long journey. There’s a group of American girls who are studying abroad at UNSW who are sharing the same car as Becca, Dave, and myself.

The layout of the train is neat. There are two cars with about 40 or 50 seats each. Behind that is the lounge car, which is a outfitted with couches and tables that will hopefully be a relief from the chairs we sit in all day and night. Next after that is the diner car. The design of it reminds me of a diner from the 50’s or 60’s that you see in the movies. It’s awesome.
Saturday, March 22 2008, 2:55 PM

Hour Three: On the train, already in the middle of a hilly country. Not a soul in sight, and the only indicated of humanity are a few barbed wire fences and sets of powerlines running parallel to the track. My head slightly hurts, and I’m hoping that won’t interfere with sleeping.

The weather outside is poor. Rainy and a bit foggy out. When we passed through the Blue Mountains, visibility was all for naught.
Saturday, March 22 2008, 6:36 PM

Hour Six: On the train. Still. Ate a train-created dinner—not too bad—and played another game of scrabble. Can’t see anything anymore, although the scenery from a couple of hours ago was brilliant. Feeling confident about the trip, although a bit of a headache. Shrek 3 is playing on the video entertainment that is provided. The big test is coming up shortly as I prepare to sleep in these seats. T-minus 20 minutes to sleeping pills, so I doubt that I’ll have anything to say until tomorrow morning, when I wake up to look at Kangaroos and Emus frolicking outside the car. Or at least that’s what they say might happen.
Saturday, March 22 2008, 9:11 PM

Epic Trans-Australian Journey

2008-03-21T21:53:00.004-04:00

This is it ladies and gentlemen. In a little over two hours I will depart Central Station in Sydney and go on what should be a once in a life time journey across the great country of Australia.

The trip will cover 4,352 km, taking approximately 68 hours. We stop in Broken Hill, an old mining town in New South Wales, Adelaide on Easter Sunday, Port Augusta, Kalgoorlie, and last but not least, Perth. Stayed tuned for updates once the trip is completed. I'm planning on doing a blow by blow account of the journey, including the part where I snap, go crazy, and pull out all my hair.

I am the man who loves you

2008-03-19T09:02:00.005-04:00

It's still warm here. Fall is officially here despite the fact that it's March. It must be weird living in the Southern Hemisphere. Everything is upside down. Imagine growing up and going to school, learning that winter lasts from June-August, Spring is September-November, and summer is something like December to March. I can't begin to wrap my head around that.

Lately I've been preparing for the deluge of work that I'll be facing head on after Perth. I'm planning on going with lots of work to the other side of the country to ease the pain. But enough whining.

The past weekend I went to the Game 5 of the NBL grand final. Don't know how much I mentioned last post, but over 10,000 people headed out to catch it at the entertainment centre in Darling Harbour. It was a good time, although a crap game that Melbourne won 85-73. Australian fans don't know how to really cheer for basketball. Funny enough.

Other than that I've been going to class and going to work. Except last night. Wilco came to town and played a delightful show at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown. It was a 10 minute walk to watch 2 hours of delightful music. Good times.

Last but not least, I watched The Simpsons episode Bart vs. Australia again and again. It's at least 1,000 times funnier after living here. Go watch it somehow. Right now.

T-minus three days til the epic overland journey begins.

Classy

2008-03-16T01:59:00.003-04:00

The first two weeks of Uni are complete. And after this week, I get a week off thanks to Easter break. Thanks Australia, you really know how to challenge your students academically.

As I've revealed on this site previously, I've planned on a trip to Perth and other parts of WA. What those other parts will be have yet to be determined. I think we're going to push all the way to Shark Bay, which would unfortunately call for driving 1600 km round trip. That would be a bit under 1,000 miles in the span of roughly three days. Not sure if I'm up for that after cranking out a journey across the heart of the country. Decisions, decisions.

The first two weeks of class have been interesting. I'll be editing manuscripts, making magazines, learning about digital publishing, and most likely intern at this magazine. On top of that working on another book for OTTN plus my job as an editor at Thomson. Crikey. Pretty much after the next two weeks my free time will equal nothing. More to come this week, before a blow by blow account of my trip.

Awesome

2008-03-09T08:31:00.003-04:00

To provide a recap of our New Zealand trip, here is a movie my excellent girlfriend put together from our little vacation. It's spectacular!

Train ride in t-minus thirteen days. Yao's almost finished. Class work yet to build up. Real sunny and hot here.

Don't Stop Believing

2008-03-07T08:15:00.002-05:00

Ah the first week of class is over. So nice. I may have mentioned that during my last post. I failed to mention that on Sunday I went to a Cricket match with a friend from work. It was India vs Australia in the final of some tri-series tournament. As my addiction to sport continues to be nourished here, I enjoyed myself immensely. The entire match lasted about 8 hours or so; I was only there from around 5-10:30 PM. Indians do love their cricket, and won comprehensively. I got to see the Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar, nab his first ton in a one day in Australia. Pretty cool. Also had sweet seats in the member's pavilion, real close to the players.

Classes were great this week. I'm excited for what I'll be doing and learning this semester, as well as what I get to put on my resume. I need to stop making that my sole focus of what I do in the present and enjoy each day where I am. I don't think enough people take solace in the fact that they are living, breathing, walking, talking human beings. That is a perspective that I try and take each and every day.

This week I also bought tickets for my train ride across Australia. Dave, Becca, and I are taking the Indian-Pacific across the country to Perth during our week off. We depart Sydney on March 22, get to Perth on the following Tuesday, and then drive somewhere along the coast. It's going to be awesome, despite traveling on a train cross the country. This is my litmus test to see if my Europe-Asia overland project can be a reality.

Dave and I are also working on organizing a trip to Uluru. We've found cheap airfare and are plotting three days for the trip. Again, totally awesome. Things here are going well. Work is great, classes are fun, my girlfriend is the best, and I should hear about my internship next week. Oh, and Yao Ming is almost done.

Back to School?

2008-03-04T08:22:00.004-05:00

Well I've managed to do it. Four months of summer vacation was rough, but someone has got to go through the agony and stress of a trip to the U.S., New Year's Eve in Sydney Harbour, and a delightful trip to New Zealand with the best girl ever. It's a shame to have to endure all of that, I know. Really, I wish that I had just mustered up the courage and jumped headfirst into the dredges of the working world. But hey, I did work a lot. Seriusly though, four months off was awesome. And today, it came a stirring conclusion, when I had two courses. And how good were they!

Honestly, the jury is still out. Posts will detail classes further. Big trip coming up: train ride to Perth. It'll be epic.

The Name of the Game

2008-02-27T03:22:00.003-05:00

School starts on Tuesday. I will have class Tuesdays at 3 PM and 7 PM, each for two hours, then one class on Wednesday night at 5 PM. A good balance if you ask me.

An interesting phenomenon going on at the Village right now: the study abroad kids are arriving. I'm now getting a taste of what it must be like at a school that tends to attract Americans studying abroad. It is pretty comical. I've started playing a "are you American?" game with myself. Simply by looks, not by accent. It'd be too easy if I heard them talk. By this point I'm almost able to determine where someone is from by their English accent. The differences are quite significant after listening to them for awhile.

But enough about me. I'm still plodding my way through Yao Ming and thinking about life. For example, where do I go from here? It's quite the conundrum. And I don't have to have answers now, it's just at the back of my mind. Everyday it's there, lurking like that monster waiting in your closet. It won't pounce for another six months but it's there.

Anyways, if anyone wants to tell me what to do with myself, feel free to leave a comment.

Lost in Translation

2008-02-23T07:33:00.003-05:00

The last week and a half I've immersed myself in Yao Ming. I'm putting together a short biography for OTTN Publishing and it's been quite the doozy. Yao has to be one of the most interesting human beings to study, regardless of the fact that he stands at around 7 feet 6 inches tall. He's led quite the life thus far. Be sure to pick up a copy of my book. It'll be epic.

The funniest thing about the experience has been the research. I've picked up a couple of books, one is the Yao Ming autobiography, the other a translated piece on Yao from China. And both are chock full of translated hilarity. Check out this piece from Yao Ming: The Road to the NBA:

"The Bayi Rockets were middle-aged knights-errant who had experienced countless vicious battles; they had ashen faces and curly beards and were covered with scars, yet they were still steadfast and ruthless in battle. The Shanghai Sharks were young swordsmen who had finally attained great results through years of arduous training; they were brightly garbed raging stallions, eyes blazing like torches, thirsting to attain domination through decisive battle."

The wording of this passage makes the two teams seem like two empires battling it out on the fields of Ningbo, as opposed to a gym in Shanghai. Brilliant stuff.

Life has been quiet. Class starts in just over a week. Still no word on the internship among other things. I'm slightly agitated by the mess of organization Sydney University seems to have, but at the same time trying to learn patience from it. Off to watch the Arsenal (hopefully).

New Zealand: Day Seven

2008-02-17T06:19:00.003-05:00

This day sucked. I don't want to talk about it. Phooey.

We ate breakfast and went to a park in the morning. It rained on us. Suck. Then we caught the bus and went to the airport. Boo again.

All in all, excellent trip. I am the luckiest person. I've gotten to go to four separate countries in the last 7 month with an amazing woman. I should not complain about anything.

The last few days I've just been working, indulging my sport habit, and struggling to write a book about Yao Ming. Any suggestions can be posted as a comment. Hope everyone is well where ever you are reading this wonderful peace of literature that is my blog.

Off to Yao-land.

New Zealand: Day Six

2008-02-17T06:11:00.003-05:00

We woke up this morning dreading the fact that our trip was nearing the end. But still another day to go. Today we were flying back up to Auckland. This required dropping of the rental car that some kind soul decide to hit, costing me $250 NZ. Boo to them. Oh well. Can't do anything about it. The good people at Explore More rentals gave us a lift to the domestic terminal.

Our flight was a bit delayed. I didn't really care like some of the other people in the terminal. When you fly budget airlines, I always assume the worst, and whatever improves off of that is a bit better. When we did get on our flight, everything went smoothly and we caught the shuttle bus into Auckland.

As soon as we had dropped off our belongings, we grabbed a quick lunch. Unfortunately, the hostel wasn't ready for us, and we had to return to the hostel once we had our rooms. A bit of a hassle, but no worries. The rest of the day was spent wandering around Auckland, going through the botanic gardens, up to the wharf, and last but not least, up to the top of Sky City, a tower in the middle of centre city. Sarah and I had a seven month anniversary/ Valentine's Day celebration drink, then went back to the hostel. I was not feeling very healthy at this point of the trip. And it was the last night. Double bummer.

New Zealand: Day Five

2008-02-17T05:59:00.003-05:00

Today was a return to Christchurch through Arthur's Pass. But first, a quick jaunty up the coast to Punakaiki to look at the Pancake Rocks. I wasn't too sure what these were, but Sarah was keen for it, and that was good enough for me.

The drive wasn't too long and it was good fun. I imagined that it is similar to what the Pacific Coast must be like (maybe somewhere along the East Coast as well, but who knows). There were windy turns, long straightaways that made it seem like a roller coaster that you could control the speed of. Good fun indeed. Once at the Pancake Rocks, we took a stroll around and looked at the various shapes the oceans had carved out of these rocks. A pretty sight indeed.

The long drive back to Christchurch began after this. Midway through the country, it began to rain on and off, putting a damper on any views or stops we would have made. However, after making it out of the mountains, the rain stopped and the sun was shining again. We pulled into Christchurch and stumbled our way to the gondola. The quick ride up the side of the mountain provided a good view of the valley.

It was a nice sunny day in Christchurch and after our short gondola trip we dropped our stuff off at the hostel and had a great dinner in the Botanical Gardens. After that, it was off to sleep, with an early wake up to fly back to Auckland.

New Zealand: Day Four

2008-02-17T05:31:00.005-05:00

Phew, already half way through. And still more adventures to cover! Hope that you're still with me, and possibly reading this blog. Probably not. Anyways, Sarah and I got up at the crack of dawn and drove down first thing in the morning to Fox Glacier. We managed to catch the sunrise on the way down (pictured left). The view on the lake was gorgeous! The water was now unbelievably still, and while it was an overcast day, it was brilliant! Below is a sample of what we looked at.

After the quick hike (again), we made it to the starting point of the glacier hike. Our group gathered around our guides, and we were given socks, boots, and crampons for the journey. Then we jumped on an old school bus that was designed like the old buses they used in the 50s and 60s to get people to and from the glacier.

Now I don't feel like writing too much about it, but glaciers are really interesting objects. They are basically very slow rivers, as rivers move 100,000 times faster than a glacier. I picked up on lots of interesting facts that I now don't remember or are hard to explain. At various points as we walked up the trail towards the glacier, the guide would point and indicate that the glacier had been up to this point at some time or another.

Anyways, the hike onto the glacier took ages. It was an intense hour and a half walk up winding steps that had been put into the side of the mountain. There was even a 150 meter walk along the bluffs with nothing but a 300 foot drop onto some rocks. The valley the glacier was set in was quite the geological feat. I was impressed to say the least.

So once the hike was over, we threw on our crampons and were on the ice! It was such a bizarre thing to do; I always associate ice with slipping and falling. To walk on it and have that not happen is unusual. After about 10 minutes of walking around I got used to the crampons and how to best utilize them. So our guide took us up and around the different paths that were cut into the ice. The glacier itself is gigantic:

The whole experience was unlike anything I'd ever done before. Quite obvious though, because I've never walked on a large block of ice before. I definitely recommend it sometime, especially in New Zealand.

After we finished there we hopped in the car and drove up the coast. Our next destination: Greymouth. We took our time going up the coast, stopping a couple times to admire the beach views and to rest. Once we got to Greymouth we went to a grocery store, picked up some pasta for dinner which we cooked at the hostel. Once we were done eating, we went to the beach for the sunset which was almost all covered by the clouds. Blah. Then we called it a night.

New Zealand: Day Three

2008-02-13T02:56:00.005-05:00

The next morning we were to set out towards the glaciers. Beyond that, our plans were mostly tentative; I didn't know if we were going to try and make it out onto one of them.

The drive through the rest of Central Canterbury proved to be just as tricky as it was the day before. Winding through steep and narrow roads was both fun and exhausting. After about an hour and a half of it, the road flattened out. Then a funny thing happen. We came upon a coast to coast race, a annual event in New Zealand which is a race from the West Coast to the East Coast, a 243 km journey involving running, kayaking, and biking. The course record we found out later? 10 hours. That is pretty darn impressive if you ask me.

We wound our way down to the coast as the road turned south towards Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. The road followed an interesting path, winding in and around trees, but staying flat. However, when we neared the signs that read "Glacier Country" the roads began to wind back and forth. The ascent back up the mountains began once again.

The first glacier town, Franz Josef, didn't take long to reach. The entire town was nothing more than different companies that would take you on the glaciers via hikes, helicopters, or 4WD vehicles. Along with those offices, there were various houses, two or three restaurants, and accommodations. No traffic lights, and maybe two roads aside from the main road running through town. We decided to head down to the other glacier, located near the town of Fox Glacier. With no specific agenda aside from checking out the reflection of Mt Cook on Lake Matheson, we made a move further south.

If Franz Josef was a small blip on the map, Fox Glacier was (what's lower than a blip?) whatever that is. We stopped and tried to find Lake Matheson. It was about a 10 minute drive from the "centre" of town and required a hike around the lake. Alas, to our disappointment, due to wind factors, we couldn't see the reflection! Bust! Still a good view though:

Yeah Jmu pride! From there we decided to try our luck at a late afternoon glacier hike. This was a no go, as we were too late, but we decided to head down the next day and go for one.

Once departed from Fox Glacier, we went back to check out Franz Josef. The glacier was pretty difficult to get to, as you had to climb over dry creek beds full of rocks that weren't too stable. But we made it to the very front, as you can tell from the picture at the top of the post. After that long journey, we headed back into town and had drinks at the pub. We also decided to go down early in the morning and see if we could get a reflection, as we heard it would be visible early in the morning.

New Zealand: Day Two

2008-02-12T16:15:00.005-05:00

After spending our first day in Christchurch, it was now time to move on and explore the rest of the South Island in the limited time we had available. I had arranged for a shuttle bus to pick us up from our hostel and take us to Explore More, the rental place that I had booked a car with for the next few days.

Our rental car was this small four door Toyota that I had never seen of or heard of before. It would get the job done: that is, have four wheels and take us to wherever we wanted to go. Of course, in NZ they drive on the left, so that was an initial concern for me. I had to make sure that I was thinking long and hard about what I was doing, especially at the beginning of the driving experience.

The plan was to grab some food and then head towards our first destination: Arthur's Pass. After a quick stop at the grocery store with food that we hoped wouldn't go bad in a few days, I drove.

At the start, the drive was very flat. As soon as the car passed outside of the Christchurch city limits, the landscape was limited to trees of varying shapes and sizes. It was just about as flat as I pictured the middle of the US would be. There were a few small towns that we passed through as well. About an hour into our drive (maybe less) the views began. Along the horizon, mountains began to crop up. And not your Appalachian-type mountains that leave you thoroughly unimpressed; rather, mountains that stirred something inside you. I think this was mostly due to the fact that all I could think about was Lord of the Rings and how much I wanted this to be Middle Earth. But needless to say, it was awesome.

The drive to Arthur's Pass took around 2 to 2 and a half hours. It was pretty tricky driving, especially since I was on the opposite side of the road. Once at the village, we checked in to our hostel and headed out to find somewhere to hike. After all, the mountains called us.

We decided to start with the Devil's Punch Bowl hike. This only took about an hour round trip, and it ended up at the foot of a water fall. After spending some time there, we headed back. On the way, we noticed the sign for another trail; this one went up Mt Aicken. Having no other plans, we headed up.

This hike was much more difficult. The incline was quite steep, and there were rocks and roots hindering the ascent. I felt significantly out of shape. But we pressed on, and made it up about halfway. The view from there was breathtaking:

When we made it to about the halfway point, we lingered for a bit. Part of me wanted to try and make it up the rest of the way (I'll admit not a very big part), but reason won over desire, as we lacked proper food and water supplies. So we cruised back down the mountain and called it a day.

After resting up a bit, we attempted a picnic dinner at a few locations but were rudely interrupted by thousands of biting gnats. Or mosquitoes. Some kind of insect that bit and drew blood. Upon return to the hostel we called it an early night and went to sleep.

New Zealand: Day One

2008-02-12T06:05:00.000-05:00

Well, back from New Zealand. What an awesome time it was! It is by far the most beautiful country that I have ever seen. It's really just like Lord of the Rings (not really, but kind of).

I'm going to break down each day of the trip in separate posts as to not confuse the 4 people who actually read this blog. Here goes:

I arrived in Auckland the night of the 5th and stayed overnight at a hostel in close proximity to the airport. It was a funny experience, as a big Pacific Island drove the shuttle bus to pick me up at night, and then another large Pacific Islander dropped me off. People from that part of the world come in two sizes: large, and extra large.

The next morning I was meeting Sarah back at the International terminal. Her flight was delayed a bit, but we were reunited at around 8 in the morning. With nothing to do for the next 3 hours except wait for our flight to Christchurch. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Auckland so we meandered towards the domestic terminal and sat on the benches alongside the walkway. Sarah was relieved to escape the rainy bog of Taiwan, and I was just happy to see her.

We boarded our flight to Christchurch which was uneventful, save for the view from our seats. We had a window seat that turned into a viewfinder once the South Island came into view. The mountains were everywhere! I was beyond excited by this point. Time to pretend like I was in Lord of the Rings!

After a smooth landing in Christchurch, we jumped in a shuttle to take us to our hostel. Unfortunately, the clerk had made a mistake with our booking and didn't have a spot for me in the hostel. D'oh! He rectified the situation by providing accommodation at another hostel called Thomas's Hotel a block over. We ditched our luggage and headed out for the rest of the day.

Having arrived mid-afternoon and being a bit travel weary, Sarah and I ventured around to find a cafe or restaurant to eat at. This proved to be expensive, but heck, it's vacation! After eating a quick meal, we explored the botanic gardens for the rest of the day. Here's a sample below:

By the time the day was done, we were both quite tired (or at least I was). Sarah dragged me out after dinner and we had a nice dinner at a pub across the street from our hostel and went outside for a nice stroll. It was a near perfect start to a grand adventure.

On the Road Again

2008-02-05T00:42:00.001-05:00

I'm in the airport now, just under two hours from going to New Zealand with Sarah. Not much else to say other than that is awesome.

It's been raining a lot here which has been no fun. I got caught in the rain on my way to grabbing a bite to eat at the Landsdowne Hotel. $5 meal of Chicken Schintzel, mushroom sauce, and chips. Yum! Will try and update posts from New Zealand once or twice. Over and out.

Here Comes the Sun

2008-01-30T06:07:00.000-05:00

The sun here is hot. No question about that. I complained about that last time. It's almost unbearable at times. Thanks to our depletion of the Ozone layer, the sun here leaves you medium well, maybe even well done if you're out for long enough. Apparently this has been a cooler summer as well.

Tonight I went to shoot hoops at the court near SUV and ended up meeting this Greek named Demetrius who lived here. This experience had me wound up and feeling excited to be in Sydney. I know I've never lived in a big city, but how cool is it to go and shoot hoops and meet some random person from a European country you've never been to? Never happened in Harrisonburg, that's for sure. Although they had a big population of foreigners. It just adds to the cool factor of Sydney.

Anyways, 6 days and I'll be in New Zealand with Sarah. There will be more to come then. Maybe.

Buggin'

2008-01-28T05:07:00.000-05:00

Hello again. The picture to the left pretty much sums up what I've done since I returned from the USA. It's the logo from the outside of my office in Pyrmont. Since Jan 2, I've worked everyday save for 2 days. In fact, the other day, my boss told me not to work. You see, the position that I hold lets me come and work whenever I want for pretty much however long I can. And I'm trying to use that to my advantage and make money to afford trips around this continent, and eventually when I take several trains from Hong Kong to London. More on that story as it develops.

So yeah, as you can assume I haven't done a whole lot that would make you jealous of me. I did go to the beach yesterday. Weather was gorgeous, but the sun is vicious here. If you're out in it for too long, it cooks you. No joke. You will be well done without sunscreen.

Friday night was also the first leg of Sydney FC's finals series against Queensland. It was a drab draw. 0-0. I called the score from the beginning, although Sydney managed to bungle two great opportunities. I still think they'll get the result and extend my run of being a Sydney supporter.

This past Saturday was also Australia Day. Think Fourth of July, but for the convict country here. They had a spectacular celebration in Darling Harbour. A floating stage was constructed in the middle of Cockle Bay that boasted a big screen as well. After work, I popped over there with Ilya, Dave, and Arturo. Ashley also met me there, but thanks to the massive crowds it was hard to spot her. All in all it was quiet fine. Sydneysiders love their fireworks. If you're ever in Sydney for some sort of firework related holiday, you must go. It is essential.

Lastly, time for some complaints. The bugs here are bothersome. I've been bitten around 300 times by mosquitoes in one month, there are maggots crawling around our apartment that seem to multiply faster than we can kill them, and I won't even mention the spiders. Or the flying cockroaches. They're terrifying. Well, not really, but it's fun to pretend to be afraid. I'm hoping that we can talk the good people at SUV to bomb our apartment while we spend a few days elsewhere.

Buckets of Rain

2008-01-21T06:30:00.000-05:00

Another day, another dollar. The past Sunday I ended my streak of 13 consecutive days going into the office and working. Logging a 50 hour work week in Australia? Exactly what I want to be doing. However, there isn't a whole lot going on. And I need to make some cash, so win-win situation. Right.

So on my day off I caught up with some people from home and did laundry. Quite a big day. There was the last match of Sydney FC's regular season, so I headed over to a pub near the ground for some beers and some football (or soccer; whatever you want to call it). The game was a real cracker--Sydney almost pulled out a victory in the pouring rain. It also featured a record crowd of 33,000+. Picture in the corner. They'll host the first game of the finals this Friday which could potentially be my last game in Sydney. Here's to Sydney making it all the way to the finals. Next time I'll have something to say, promise.

Oh, and New Zealand in two weeks.

Majesty, Snowbird

2008-01-14T08:27:00.000-05:00

The last three days of Sydney can be easily described: Go to work. Watch Sufjan. Repeat.

Many people looked at me with a puzzling expression when I told them I had booked each evening that Sufjan was playing downtown. Now who's laughing? Well, no one actually. I did enjoy three great concerts put on by, in my humble opinion, one of the most talented musicians of our time. His stuff is exquisite. I felt privileged to be there every night.

If I'm dead honest, I would say that he could have changed things up a little bit. He left a lot of Michigan unplayed. And for some reason I really wanted to hear For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti. But alas, I was left unsatisfied. Along with that, where was the Man of Metropolis Steals are Hearts? Those were my only two serious complaints.

Back to non-Sufjan related things. Hang on a second. That's hardly anything at the moment. Just logging hours at Thomson, dreaming and thinking about my train ride from Beijing to London, and wondering if I can afford to travel any other places in Australia. Stay tuned for that one folks. It's going to be epic.

Last but not least, I hope everyone who reads this is enjoying the nice cold weather while I melt in the 80 degree heat of the hot Australian sun...

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

2008-01-10T05:34:00.000-05:00

Or at least just me. My job at Thomson has picked up in the last week or so, requiring me to work last Saturday and perhaps this weekend. Hasn't been the most fun, but one of the reasons I came back here.

Not a whole lot going on here. I've booked my trip to New Zealand in February. And, as I watch The Two Towers, I salivate at the notion of seeing the gorgeous Kiwi landscape in less than a month.

Lately, I've been mulling over what to do on my return trip to home. Do I go west, stopping through Dubai/London/Europe? Or a trip to Asia, maybe Brunei (if you know where that is, pat yourself on the back), Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, China, or somewhere there? Oh the problems that I face.

The rest of Dave's friends left today, so it's going to be much quieter in the coming weeks. This will give me time to actually start writing a lot more than I have (none). I was thinking about setting a goal of 300,000 words by July. Sounds reasonable right? I have three book ideas that I'll be working on, plus the Israel right up that won't finish. Or that I won't finish. Because I'm stupidly lazy. Enough self-bashing. This weekend I'm seeing Sufjan Stevens perform. An extensive blog will cover all three nights that I see. Yes. Also hope you enjoyed the picture from New Year's Eve that I put up. Cheers.

One Tree Hill

2008-01-03T03:38:00.000-05:00

Go to New Zealand. If there is one place everyone should travel to, it is there. I meant to post this a lot sooner, but I am a bit lazy.

To catch you up to date: the next day, Saturday, I woke up and wandered around. And when I say wander, I probably walked 10 miles that day. Pretty ridiculous. I read that Mt Eden was the highest point in Auckland, so I decided to walk there. Beyond that, a park that had a hill in it called One Tree Hill would be my next stop. This desire came from the fact that U2 wrote a song about this hill. Naturally, I had to see it. While all the walking was not my favorite thing in the world to do, it was worth it. Mt Eden had beautiful views of the city and the harbour despite it being a bit cloudy out.

After climbing to the top of Eden, I could see One Tree Hill. It was a good distance away, but I wanted to go. What else did I have to do? So I meandered through the suburbs of Auckland, eventually making it out there. I came across a few games of cricket. I stopped and watched them, giving myself a rest. After climbing to the top of One Tree Hill, I began my journey back into Centre City. All in all, a very tiring day, and I went to bed early again.

My sunday was pretty ho-hum. I walked around Auckland a bit more--however, as I was going to catch a bus at around 12 to go back to the airport. I checked out of my hostel and hauled my luggage up a huge hill. Big mistake. But I was in the right place and waited at the airport awhile for my flight.

The flight itself was uneventful. It was nice to have a fairly smooth flight except for the landing. But what is life without a little excitement? After arriving on Sunday, I met Dave's friends who are all in town. We went out to grab dinner and then went to bed shortly after that.

Monday was new year's eve. We made it out to a place called Milton's Point at about 2 in the afternoon. Fortunately, we were under the bridge. This would prove vital as the sun is quite harsh down under. The fireworks at 9 and midnight were the best that I'd ever seen. It was an amazing spectacle. The crowds were vicious, but seeing as though I will probably not make it back to Sydney on New Year's again, it was worth it.

The other days I've tagged along with Dave and his friends. Also moved into a new, rather dirty apartment. It's quite gross, and I'm hoping that there will be a good deal of cleaning done here soon. Along with that, today was my first day back at work. So it's back to business as usual out here in Sydney.

Take My Breath Away

2007-12-28T12:29:00.000-05:00

So I'm on the road again. I had a great time at home seeing friends and family. Most people who read this I probably saw, so I'm doing to say again that it was good to see you.

I'm on my way back to Sydney and designed a two day layover in Auckland. The flight over the US and to NZ were a bit dodgy; it was windy in LA so our landing left a few people scared and then on takeoff we kind of bounced off the runway. But nevertheless, I arrived in one piece in what has to be the most beautiful country in the world. Our approach flight took my breath away, as the green mountains of the north island danced before me. It was quite cool.

Upon landing in Auckland, I had little to no specific plans. I simply wanted to walk around and explore the city. First impressions, at 9 AM, was that it was a ghost city. Compared to Sydney, no one was here! There were no weird people walking the streets, despite the early hour. A lot of Auckland reminded me of Sydney: it's a harbour, a large tower, and a small and simple layout. I went to the Ferry terminal thinking that it would be a good idea to see where the ferries went. I spoke with a lady that told me about the newest 600 year old volcano on Rangitoto, or the walks that one can do around Waiheke Island. I chose Waiheke, with the desire to see beaches in the back of my mind. So I jumped on the ferry and headed over.

What I saw next was sheer beauty. The islands dotting the harbour were all a lush green, and I just imagined how great it would be to explore them. I kept taking picture after picture, a theme that would be common for the day. As I drew near the island, I studied the map of Waiheke and plotted out the course I took. I studied the beautiful landscape and was excited for this little journey.

I started out and enjoyed the twisting trail that ran along the coast of the island. It was a gorgeous scene every time I glanced into the water. Couldn't have been better! The trail wasn't that hard, but the sun was vicious. I had no sun screen. Whoops. Houses were dotted along the trail. I tried to imagine myself living there. What a dream. An interesting event happened during the beginning of my walk. A seagull was flying around one spot of the trail, and as I approached it, the bird started to dive at me. It did this three or four times, as it would come in from behind. I ducked down, not sure what it would feel like to take a bird's beak to the head and had little desire to find out. I imagine that it was a mother protecting her eggs, because as I got further away, it didn't follow.

The rest of the first leg went smoothly, although I didn't have any water either. Again, whoops. So by the time I made it to Onorea Village, I was parched. I bought a water and had the best orange I've ever eaten. The juice was delicious. At this point I noticed I was already burnt. Oh well.

My second leg of the journey was to walk from Onorea back to the wharf where I had gotten on the ferry. This proved to be a difficult and arduous walk, but about two hours of struggling up and down the sides of cliffs, I made it all the way back. It got a bit scary at times, mostly because I was hungry, tired, dehydrated, and not to mention jet lagged. It was a truly remarkable experience, and one I would be glad to repeat--perhaps with a bit more food and water. Til next time.

Missing

2007-12-01T06:02:00.000-05:00

Less than six days till I go hope. I can barely contain my excitement. Can't you tell? I miss America. Never thought I'd say that.

This past week has been a little more hectic than usual. Yes--work, work, and more work. But Tuesday and Wednesday were great. Tuesday night I went to the Beckham game. Quite the spectacle. But more about that later. Wednesday I headed up to Manly and helped Mrs. Curl teach scripture at the public school in the area. It was interesting to think that in public schools in a secular country like Australia, they allow the Bible taught in school. Quite a peculiar situation. But the ramifications of that would be something to study.

The beach was fun. It was so nice. The water was turquoise blue, although a bit cold once you got in. But to be in the water in November? Totally neat.

The rest of the week was just work. I found out last week that the more money I make, the more taxes I lose. It's kind of thrown my budget for a loop, but I'll rally.

Today I went to a concert that paid tribute to John Williams. Such a quality time. The Sydney Symphony orchestra played songs from such movies as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter,Indiana Jones, and of course all six Star Wars movies. It was epic. Can't wait to get home and get a John Williams greatest hits cd.

I'm out for the rest of the weekend. Back once more before I hit the States.

The Good Life

2007-11-26T22:33:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh, the good life. That’s what I’ve been doing recently. All I do is work, read or watch TV shows, and take it easy. A number of my friends have left, which makes things a tad depressing, but my countdown til home has now reached 11 days. I’m getting real excited, and hope to see as many people as possible.

It was quite sad to be overseas for Thanksgiving. I did get to enjoy a nice dinner last night with a few friends, but nothing can replace time with family and eating turkey, gravy, stuffing, and an assortment of any delicious pies.

In sporting news, Beckhem mania has hit Sydney. The LA Galaxy are in town for a friendly with the home side Sydney FC. At the match on Sunday night, the Galaxy were introduced to the crowd. The Cove’s reaction was quite negative, espousing their usual hatred for the opposition. But the chants included mean things about Posh Spice and how Beckham was a waste of money.

Tonight is the friendly, and I’m excited for it. Getting to see Beckham for some reason really has me intrigued. I don’t know what it is, but I also think there is a hint of American pride at getting to see an MLS team match up against an A-League side. Kind of one league vs. the other. Also excited because I’m in the process of writing something up from the game for a soccer website. We’ll see how that goes.

Hope everyone is well and that I see you over break. Who ever you are.

Holiday

2007-11-21T23:50:00.000-05:00

Well, not much going on here. Holiday seems more like workaday. I've been in everyday this week. Maybe I'll take off this Friday. But who knows. I need the cash flow, I guess.

One thing that's been troubling recently is the question of what to do with my life. A lot of nagging fears dangle over my head. I've sort of put off that question while taking this year adventure, but I'm heading right back to square one. I understand that one doesn't figure out what to do with the rest of your life right after graduating college, but still. I guess I'm frustrated at not having a better idea of what to do with myself. I'd like to work with a large publishing company, but there are hesitations there. I'd like to take a crack at sportswriting; again, various hesitations there. Only time will tell, really. I like sports. Working in sports in some capacity would be pretty sweet. I don't know. Enough about that.

Today is Thanksgiving in the States. Not here. And while that is sad to think that the last 21 years of my life I sat around and ate Turkey (ok, maybe not the last 21, but the point is made), it's fun to realize that I am living in a foreign country challenging myself. Let me add a disclaimer to that: I'm not saying those who are in the country aren't challenging themselves; realizing that I'm missing the holiday because I'm on this little journey makes up for it. A little bit.

Working has been alright. The experience of being in the corporate world hasn't been all that bad, but at the same time, nothing to write home about. I go in, do some work, go home, do some reading, go to bed, repeat the next day. The nice thing about it is the weak US dollar means that I'm making more; still I'd rather see the AU dollar fall to it's level of two years ago. .50 on the dollar would be stellar.

Of note, the Australian elections are this weekend. I found out from one of my co-workers that it is compulsory to vote. Every citizen has to, otherwise they are fined around $120. Kind of makes me wonder what would happen in the States if it was mandatory to cast a vote each year. Would it be a good thing, or would it be a bad thing? And is there any way to test this theory?

Relax [Take it Easy]

2007-11-19T07:31:00.000-05:00

Haven't been back for awhile. That could be due to the fact that not much has been going on recently. I recovered from my experience with tonsillitis/strep throat and have been just going to work and hanging out around the Village. In all honesty, that's it. That's my life. But I'm not going to leave a post with just that. So I will go into some detail as to what I've been doing.

I decided that once Uni was over, I would walk home from work everyday. This happens to be close to a three mile walk, so I'm getting a good amount of exercise in. It also gives me a lot of time to think about life and what's next on the agenda. It's funny to think that I came here to delay "real life", but end up facing the same issues posed to me during senior year. People have asked me what I want to do or what my plan is, and it's kind of scary to think about the future. I know that I'd like to work in the print/new media field, spreading information around to other people. I'd enjoy bringing truth into people's lives; it's depressing to think that the media is hesitant to tell people what is actually going on. Although I am not one to be the judge of that. I jest with people and my response falls into the line "if someone will pay me to read and write, I'll be happy." And the quote has some truth to it, but I don't want life to be that simple. I see people at work day in and day out and wonder to myself, "what are they doing with themselves?" Obviously, again I am no one to categorise what people are doing and what value it has, but I want to feel like I'm accomplishing something.

It's weird to think that Christmas is right around the corner. When the high temperatures are hovering in the mid to low 70s, Thanksgiving and the Holiday season is far from my mind. I usually associate a cool fall day with Thanksgiving, and hopefully a white Christmas. Usually doesn't happen, but it is fun to hope for. Oh and I've definitely started listening to Christmas music.

Just for kicks, the countdown to being home is now at 18 days. I've never wanted to be back more than now. Not that homesick, just miss the security of it. I guess.

Rain

2007-11-08T18:09:00.000-05:00

Finally feeling better. My throat still likes to flare up now and then, but eating has now gone from tolerable to almost enjoyable again. No longer do I think a series of knives pressing themselves into the back of my mouth.

That lovely image aside, I spent the first full week of summer vacation at work. I'm still on the fence on what to do: either work my butt off and see less of Australia, or take it somewhat easy and go to the beach every weekend. My initial thoughts are to choose the latter. Heck, you only live in Australia once. I don't want to waste that working at a Legal Publishing House 50 hours a week. 40 should suffice. And I've had thoughts of trying to pick up a bar job on the side, but I don't need to work myself to death.

Home is now a little less than a month away. I'm very excited about this. Despite the fact that I'll be going from a warm, summer climate, into the freezing cold of the Eastern US, I can't wait to see friends and family. A level of uncertainty of where I'll be has me a bit worried, but I'll figure out.

One interesting event of the week: I went to an NBL game this week. The NBL is the Australian professional league; not bad, but no mind blowing skill on display. Midway through the first quarter, my friends Eamonn and Paolo noticed that the stars of the And 1 Mix tape tour were courtside. Mainly they noticed the Professor, the white dude with a mad handle. Sitting next to him was Escalade, a 375 pound, 6-10 black guy. He was huge. So we yelled to the Professor, and asked for a pic. He gave us the head nod to come down. Seemed like a nice guy. So Eamonn and Paolo got their pictures taken with the Professor. I didn't really care all that much to be honest. The game itself was exciting. Sydney won in the end, beating Brisbane, the defending champions. At the end of the game we ran into more of the And 1 guys. All in all, a cool night, although I wish I knew more about the mix tape tour.

Time to go and relax. Took the day off. It's been raining the last two weeks here. Not so much fun.

Game Over

2007-10-30T08:05:00.000-04:00

I'm done the first semester of grad school. Unfortunately, that has been accompanied by a nice sore throat. And painfully swollen tonsils. As a result, I've sat in bed the last two days, getting up to only finish the two papers I had done. But I'm done. And it's a nice feeling.

Sydney FC won a game! It was awesome. We mobbed each other after each of their three goals. And we also got on Australian TV when they scored. That's all that has been going on for the past fews days. I'm done, it's summer, and I'm ill. Awesome. Here's to cutting my own tonsils out.

Oh, and interestingly enough, they have Daylight Savings Time here. So now the US and I have a 15 hour time difference.

The Fly

2007-10-27T04:49:00.000-04:00

As summer approaches, my thus far great enjoyment of Australia is already being put to the test. First and foremost, it is not. Not like Taiwan hot (that would be murderous to live in. Oops), but a much drier hot. And while less humidity is nice, the sun is malicious here. It wants to make you feel dehydrated and sick after getting exercise. I don't understand how the cricketers across the street do it.

The second and even bigger nuisance--had to to look that word on Google, I'm shameless--are the flies. They seem to be nowhere and everywhere all at once. Today I was playing basketball, and I thought I swallowed at least three of them. They are shameless. They just think they can come and fly onto your face and hang out there. Not sure what to do, but kill them all.

In scholarly news, as I was walking back from work yesterday, it dawned on me that I'm getting a Masters Degree here. I know, it happens to be the end of my first semester and a little late for this realisation, but it's not like the work isn't hard. Just that I'm going for a higher degree and it kind of just feels like going through the motions. But it's going to be sweet to have a Masters. And to have lived in Australia. Two awesome things going on at once. Anyways, just wanted to rant about the heat and the flies. Be back soon.

Cheers.

My Interpretation

2007-10-24T03:21:00.001-04:00

So I'm in the library, trying to make headway on my last paper. I've completely finished two, need revision on one, and the last one is in the opening stages. I have eight books checked out, have been reading and studying them for an hour, and still have nothing. The end is so close though. So close.

The weekend was nice. Sydney FC dropped another game on Saturday, and I was there. Lots of fun, but I'm still waiting to watch that inspiring first win, should they ever get there.

Sunday was an epic trip up to Manly. The beach was breath-taking! And to think that I live only an hour from up to 6 different beaches is a wonderful feeling. I went to church at St. Matt's that night. It was an incredible experience. There was a pastor from Indonesia who spoke about the last few years of his life. And how difficult they were. You can read a lot about it here: http://www.opendoorsuk.org.uk/news/news_archives/000659.php. Long story short, he taught the necessity to forgive fellow human beings who have done you wrong and love one another. Now, I know that people aren't perfect, but we Christians have really left a long line of failure in our path, especially recently. I could go on a political rant here, but will refrain. But needless to say, listening to a man from Indonesia speak about some of the craziest events that happened in his life (meeting a man that was ordered to kill him, the mastermind behind the Bali bombing of 2002 among other things) has made my trip almost worth it in itself.

And this example represents one of the many reasons I wanted to come here. When in a thousand years, would I get to hear about Indonesia if I lived in America? I wish all people, especially in our country, would expand their horizons. Dare to do something different and outside the box. Because it would leave the world a better place, of that I'm convinced.

Ok, my philosophical/spiritual/political rants are over. I should just have a separate blog for it. This week I've had no class and had to work everyday thanks to XML training. It's been kind of cool. I'm almost positive that I could get a job at any of the 29 Thomson locations around the world. And that might be what I do. I'm kind of torn between trying to go after sport journalism, or just play it safe. I don't know what to do with myself. Email me some suggestions. Oh and please come visit.

In Limbo

2007-10-19T23:31:00.000-04:00

Well I'm at an awkward time right now. I have two papers done, and two left to write. Then I will have successfully completed one semester of graduate school here in Sydney. It's kind of a cool feeling. Also a bit strange, almost as strange as the sight of cricketers dressed in all white playing across the street.

This past week flew by. It was also kind of mundane. Went to work on two days, and worked on my papers for the rest of the time. I did have a meeting with the lady in charge of internships here at USYD and I'm trying to find a place to work one day a week between Jan-June. My dream is to score an internship at Four Four Two Australia. I can only imagine what doors that would open up, and to have someone pay me to write about football would be insane.

I did take some time off to go to a pub and watch the Red Sox play the Indians, to do some trivia, and explore Darling and Sydney Harbour. One of my favorite things about Uni here is the proximity to the water. I absolutely love going out at night and being able to walk alongside Cockle Bay. Tomorrow I'm off to Manly for a day of writing papers and (hopefully) swimming in the ocean.

It is a daunting thought to realize I have 4 months off from school. I finish October 31 and return to classes on March 3. A long time indeed. But I plan on over working myself and taking a number of weekend trips around Australia. If there is no limit to how much I work, I might try and clock in with 50 hours a week. If I'm paid by the hour, might as well make the most of it. Couple that with the fact I can take off days whenever I want to sets me up for a good amount of working and exploring. Trying to figure out where to go in this country is difficult. I'm tossing around the notion of flying up north and driving back down the coast to Sydney. That would be one way to explore. The only drawback is that it costs me an extra $30 a day to rent a car due to being under the age of 25. Crappy rules. Hope everyone reading this is doing well, and please feel free to email or call me.

Cheers.

My Body Is a Cage

2007-10-14T01:46:00.000-04:00

I love this place. It's quite a rush knowing that I'm currently living about 9,869 miles away from home. Love it.

Not too much from the past week to recap. On Monday, went to work, then had class. I got my first mark for the term (yep, I'm using the British/Australian lingo). It was a "D". Don't worry, that stands for distinction, which is good. Quite a relief to know that I'm pulling down grades that meet my standards. The next day, I wrote about 1,000 words for my essay that was due on Friday, went to class, and then walked all the way out to Waterloo for a Connect group that I had been set up with through Hillsong church. It was good time, we grilled out and had burgers, talked about Encounterfest, and just hung out. I found it difficult to come into a group of guys that all know each other, but I'll give it time.

Wednesday was the same as Monday: work, class, got another mark. An "HD" this time. And no, that doesn't mean High Definition, but High Distinction. So I'm on a roll now. Thursday was kind of a repeat of Tuesday. Work on the paper, class, come back and finish the paper. Not the most glamourous week, but I was done that night. Around 8 PM I went to the Rocks with Hol-lee and Eamonn. Pretty low key, as we were only out for a couple of hours.

Friday brought a new spin to the week. I walked to the Mills building to turn in my paper. I panicked a little when I couldn't find the MECO drop box, but my fears were relieved after a few minutes of searching. I managed to catch the right bus up to work and spent another day in the legal library, filing away. No fun, but it pays the bills. After a day at work I went to the Landsdowne for dinner.

That night I decided to head to the camel races. Yeah, that's right, camel races. Who goes to camel races? Well apparently, a lot of Australians do. Racing and betting are two of Australia's favourite past times, but to the break out of equine flu with horses here, the race tracks have been shut down. This means that the tracks are all losing money, so they cooked up a camel race to stir interest, and more importantly, get people out there to buy beer and food from them. And so they came. It was a good crowd, but the races were quite underwhelming. They would last just one straightaway of the track, and the camels weren't particularly fast. In fact, every race there would be one camel that wouldn't even run. This gave me a good laugh, and we would make small bets here and there to make things a bit more interesting. Post races, we went down to an area of the track dubbed as the "Neverending Poker Room" and watched Sydney FC take on Perth. A few of my friends decided to play in a $10 tournament and I would watch the game and follow what went on at the table. Upon return, I quickly went to bed with plans of going to the beach on Saturday.

Unfortunately, cold weather greeted me in the morning, and I made the call to put it off until either Sunday or perhaps next week. Dave and I ended up going to the Sydney Aquarium (most impressive) and the Australian International Motor Show. Quite an interesting experience, seeing lots of cars that most people there would never be able to afford. I felt like it was almost worth the $17 entrance fee. But coming from someone that tries not to care about cars at all, a little bit steep.

After the show, we returned to the village, where I quickly threw on a change of clothes and basketball shoes and played pick-up for about an hour and a half. At the end of the games, my end hurt and I couldn't see straight. I was dehydrated and tired. Today, I'm sore and my body kind of hates me. A bit of a bummer, as I decided to stay in that night and take it easy. All the walking and running had wiped me out.

Today I got a nice taste of home as I watched most of the Red Sox-Indians playoff game. It's funny to perceive the Australian reaction to the games (some claim it to be boring--try watching cricket though) while others try and learn how it's played. But, for the most part, I only watch it with Americans. Due to the length of the game I have managed to get no work done and didn't go to Manly. Hmmph. Life goes on, but I'm down to the home stretch, with only two weeks of class left. It has been quite a good ride this first semester. I'll try and post more thoughts and less boring stories later this week.

Heat Wave

2007-10-08T09:01:00.001-04:00

So I've been back for a week now. Lots to report, but first, final thoughts from Taiwan:

-An interesting trip. Never been in a place where I couldn't speak on read a bit of the language. The concepts of different languages and why we speak them confounds me a bit.
-Singapore Airlines is awesome. Fly them when you get the chance. Superb service, great food, watched a ton of movies, and enjoyed it.
-Airplanes amaze me. How do they get off the ground? One of the planes we took looked as though it was going to fall to pieces on take-off. Obviously it didn't.
-The food in Taiwan is overrated. I'm sure it's good, just hard to find and order.
-Can you say humid?

With those thoughts out of the way, time to share the events from the last week. After landing, I bought a Mountain Dew at the airport train station at 7 AM (yes it was awesome), hopped on the train, and came back to the good ol' Sydney University Village. Felt good to be back. The whole day I was useless, sleeping from about 1 PM-5 PM. I missed class. Oops.

So when I said there was a lot to catch up on, I may have been exaggerating a bit. Wednesday and Thursday I was back at Thomson. This time I was put in the Law library. Sorting and filing assorted laws was not the most stimulating job, but hey, money is money right? There were a few laws that intrigued me. For example, I'm pretty sure Prostitution is legal. Breaks my heart. Most of this country does though, just seeing the brokenness and depravity. Anyways, I had no class Wednesday night because of the holiday on Monday (go figure) and Thursday my favorite Network class.

Friday was interesting. A few weeks ago, I had signed up for Encounterfest, a youth retreat put on by Hillsong Church. For those of you who don't know who that is, Hillsong is a mega church here in Sydney with over 18,000 people attending each week. It was quite the interesting time, to say the least. The church is Pentecostal and Assembly of God, so whatever that means. People are really spirit-led, which I don't have a problem with (too badly) but I am not going there. No, what really grinds my gears about Hillsong is the appearance of a business it carries. Sure, there is biblical teaching there. And the message preached by Jonah Smith was awesome. I even saw a presentation by a 15 year old named Zach Hunter, an abolitionist (yes, there are millions of slaves still in the world). I am skeptical of a church that spends $28 million on a spot of land in Sydney. That releases a CD every year. That has its own business entity. That asks you for tons of money. They take in millions a year. Is that church? I can't tell you for sure, but I don't look upon it with favor right now.

I am now fired up to make a change. To try and fight for peace, justice, and against poverty. To love people. Put their interests before my own. We live in a world that is run by selfishness. Hate, anger, and violence, dominate the headlines. And yes, good does happen. But we need to thrust it to the forefront of our society. These tests and trials are what I was looking for when I took this trip.

But I'm not here to complain about Hillsong. They have plenty of quality people there, and I will dabble there. But I prefer St. Matthew's up in Manly. Much more emphasis on Biblical teaching, and I'll take the word of God over someone telling me what the Spirit should be telling me. No thanks.

So on Saturday I decided to skip the conference and do work. Semi-successful, although not as much as I would have liked. Sydney FC was on Saturday, and we went. It was awesome! They were playing the arch-rival Melbourne Victory, and it was pandemonium before the game as police were in place to ensure there was a limit to violence. Eamonn and I only managed to catch the tail end of the squabble, although once we were in the Stadium, the Melbourne fans began to throw flares amongst the Sydney fans across the field. Unfortunately, Sydney lost 1-0 in a tight match. One of the better games I've seen them play this year, but still a loss.

After that, it was time for rugby, as the world cup reached the quarterfinals. England and Australia squared off against each other, and I watched with a mixture of Englishmen, Australians, and Americans. Quite a fun experience, although kind of a dull game. England won, 12-10, without scoring a single try. Kind of boring.

Sunday was a trip to the Curl's for cooking, laundry, and relaxing. It is quite the experience hauling my packed suitcase and two plastic bags full of cooked stir-fry and pasta. I had a good laugh, and it is so nice to have an actual house to go to and hang out. Manly is a ridiculously nice place as well.

Today was quite ho-hum. I had another day of work, finding me in the library once again. Class dragged on for a long time as I was fighting off a headache the whole time. Post class, Eamonn and I went to the Marly for steaks, after which I came back here to watch the Office and do some reading. That's the latest. Email me if you want to hear more, but that covers most of it. Hope all of you are well.

Waterfalls

2007-10-01T18:35:00.000-04:00

Well, spring break is now complete. I’m sitting in the gate for my flight from Singapore to Sydney. While sitting and doing nothing is fun, I’d figure I’d share the rest of my time in Taiwan.

One point I forgot to mention in my previous post: Taiwan has Costco. Now, I know that being in a foreign country, one should indulge in the culture and experiment with food. Personally, I feel like that is bullocks sometimes. There is no reason to not make yourself feel at home while overseas. So Sarah and I went to Costco for dinner on Tuesday night. I had a hot dog and a slice of Hawaiian pizza. Delicious. With that out of the way, it is time to continue on my adventure.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Sarah had to work. That meant I was stuck by myself for up to eight hours at a time. Instead of going out into the town of Sijhih, I stayed in for those three days, getting some Uni work done. Fine by me. If I had my way, I would have travelled around the whole island. But since I was there for a person and not the destination, I was content with planning out a few papers and essays that I need to start writing.

Friday night, I picked up Sarah from work, and we headed towards Shilin night market. We caught the bus near to place of employment, caught the MRT, and went searching around for the market. Since most of Taiwan is sweltering during the day, most markets are conducted during the night time. This makes enough sense. We cruised around, trying to find a bite to eat. We finally found a place that was making some kind of meat-doughy-dumpling type food. Not bad. I ordered myself a Pearl Milk Tea, which I had read somewhere was well known in Taiwan. Boy was I wrong. There was some weird food inside of it (the pearls I guess) that made the entire drinking experience bizarre. I neglected to drink the whole cup. Couldn’t force myself to do it. Just about the weirdest drink I’ve had.

The food aside, there was nothing spectacular about the market. Just a lot of people in one place looking to either peddle a trade or purchase clothes, foods, or other trinkets. So we caught the MRT back to her place and went to bed.

The next day Sarah was given the day off, so we decided to explore another part of the country: Wulai. A small mountain town about an hour and a half from Taipei, Wulai is most well known for having one of the largest waterfalls in all of Taiwan. Pretty neat, but consider that Taiwan isn’t all that big to begin with. So after a long ride on the MRT, plus another bus ride, we were at the small town.

It was a pretty neat scene. The whole town consisted of a one lane road running through a series of shops and vendors. A river ran parallel to the side of the town we were on, so we had to cross a bridge to continue walking through Wulai. We wanted to make our way to the waterfall, so we searched through the town. Neither of us were certain of how to get there; we were lucky to stumble upon signs in English indicating some kind of small train located above the road. We ascended the steps and walked up to investigate.

The sight that greeted us was fairly comical. The “train” was nothing more that four small cars linked together. They could hold two people per seat, so pretty much like a roller coaster. It was about a 10 minute ride to the falls, and it provided a nice, scenic view of the river.

We arrived at the makeshift station and walked towards the best view of the falls. This was directly across the river, on an overlook that was no more than 30 feet from the river and the falls. It was a nice view. After checking that outlook, we walked up the mountain, as there were different paths constructed taking you up. It was both fun and exhausting; because of the humidity we were both left soaked in sweat. Definitely worth the effort, as we got to see a pretty unique view of the whole valley and the falls. Once we were done there, we caught the next “train” back to the main part of Wulai. There we bought dumplings at a 7-eleven and drank iced coffee at a café.

After finishing off the coffees, we decided to head back. Walking to the bus station was not fun; the mosquitos were feasting on my legs and it wouldn’t stop raining. I can’t imagine living in the country; it rained so much. But I’ll touch on that later. We took the bus back to the MRT station, and went to our next stop: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

Exiting the MRT station at the memorial, we were accosted with people handing out different pamphlets written in Chinese. As I had no idea what they were saying, we walked by them without taking any. Bizarre to think they would give it to us. Couldn’t even begin to understand it. Anyways, I have no idea who Chiang Kai Shek was and why he is famous. The memorial to him is in a very nice place. It is in a large open space; quite unusual for Taipei. Facing the memorial, on your left and your right are two buildings of similar oriental design: one is a performing arts center and the other a museum. I don’t have internet right now, otherwise I would do a bit of research and not sound like a complete ignorant fool. We didn’t linger at the memorial for very long. After leaving, we headed towards Taipei Main Station, grabbed a bite to eat at an Italianish restaurant and called it a night.

Sunday was to be my last full day in Taiwan. We had decided to check out the hot springs near Beitou; again, another stop on the MRT line. We wondered around for a long time, looking for Hell Valley, a lake that was the source of the hot springs in the area. The temperature of the lake is 70 degrees Celsius. However, after a frustrating search, we ended up deciding to go to the hot springs, since were going to try and have a nice meal out on our last night. That didn’t work out either, as the hot spring closed for 45 minutes through out the day for cleaning. As a result, we walked back near the MRT station and enjoyed a meal at a Japanese fast food place. Not bad.

After lunch, it was time to finally make it to the hot spring. It was quite the experience. The water is streamed directly from the source of the lake; this creates quite a hot experience. We met a Taiwanese man who said he went to the springs 4 or 5 times a week. He was retired and looked in good health for a 74 year old. He explained each of the temperatures to us: the hot spring had four different pools on the far side of the area; these were the hot baths. As you went down a level, the temperature was cooler. The hottest pool was 42 C, the next 40 C, the next 35 C, and the last 33 C. On the other side were two “cool down” pools. They were set up to give you a time to cool down after spending a long time in the hot spring. We made sure to spend at least a minute in each pool. Even working our way up to the hottest. 42 degree water is hot! Yikes.

Once we were done at the hot spring, it was time to head back. We caught the MRT and bus back to Sarah’s apartment, changed, and went into Taipei for a last meal together. We ended up at one of the nicest restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. It was a five course meal. I ate escargot (delicious), French onion soup, Caesar salad, NY strip steak, and a delicious chocolate cake for dessert. While the restaurant was very American, the portions were much smaller than normal. It was both satisfying and delicious.

So as I write this latest entry, I’m sitting in the airport in Singapore. I’m getting tired of typing, so I’m going to try and post this and share my final thoughts on Taiwan in another day or so. We’ll see.

Rainbows All Over Your Blues

2007-09-26T07:09:00.000-04:00

Greetings. Still in Taiwan, and have had an action packed few days.

The first day here, we took things easy. I was in no urgent mood to do anything, as I was still recovering from the jet lag (I know, only two hours, but still). Sarah had to work a majority of the day, and fearing that I would get lost in my new surroundings, I didn't venture out of it, save to pick her up. That night we stayed in and watched Arsenal crush Derby County (I need help).

I've shared some of my first impressions of Taiwan, but I'll focus first on Sijhih. It's a suburb east of Taipei, and while it seems small, there is a large urban feel to it. The apartment complexes are quite large, each with at least 20 floors of apartments . The biggest change is the lack of sidewalks. In Sydney, sidewalks are everywhere. You really can't go anywhere without one. Here it is much different. Sarah holds my hand walking down the street, and remains calm and collected while I imagine getting run over, whether by bus, scooter, or car. The drivers have no intention of hurting you and I really shouldn't be scared of anything, but I am anyway. Moving on, the neat part about the country is the mountains. They seem to surround Sijhih on the side facing away from the city. Hopefully we'll get a chance to explore those. Only time will tell. I'll share more impressions as I catch up on our latest activities.

Adventure called on Sunday. We decided to head to Maokong Gondola. Or Sarah decided to take me there, as I had made no plans and trusted her with my itinerary. The gondola is 4 km long and takes you out from Taipei into the mountains. Getting there, however, takes quite an effort, seeing as though we had no means of transportation aside from train or bus. Regardless of that, we made our way to the bus station, and I had the most uncomfortable bus ride of my life. That isn't saying much, as my experiences on buses is limited. However, it was interesting. Instead of paying before riding, you paid while leaving, and with either a hi-tech card system or a low tech coin bucket (not really a bucket, but exaggerating is fun). I didn't get a seat on the bus and had to grip onto the handles hanging from the ceiling. We made it to the train station and Sarah bought me my ticket, seeing as no ATM in the whole country wants to give me any money from my Wachovia account. Doesn't help that I refuse to call them and let them know I'm in Taiwan. A bit stubborn of me, but oh well. The train system was very clean; there are fines and charges levied to those who eat or drink on the bus. The other neat thing was the single fare method. Instead of a paper ticket, you received a plastic coin with some kind of sensor that would trigger the gates. I thought it would be wasteful, but at the end of a trip you insert the coin into the gate to exit the MRT system. Pretty neat. Back to our trip. We had to switch trains to make it to Maokong, so it was a pretty long trip. It took us near to the Taipei Zoo, which is apparently well known for its Koala exhibit. Having both seen Koalas in Australia, neither of us was to keen on stopping at the zoo.

As we approached the gate to the gondola, a large crowd greeted us. And it wasn't a protest; it was a massive queue. We made our way to the end, and heard it was a two hour wait (yikes). However, nothing else seemed to be like an attractive option, so we waited it out. And it was quite worth it, even though it ended up being only an hour tops. The ride took up and over the mountains. Taipei 101 was easy to spot from our gondola. On top of that, the rain started again (no surprise), but we spotted two or three rainbows on the way up. The coolest part was we saw the spot where the rainbow began. Alas, there was no pot of gold, although we would get even closer to another rainbow later on. The ride was beautiful, and took us up to Maokong.

We disembarked at the top and got out. The line to get back down seemed to be as long as the line to get up was, as it snaked all the way around and out of the complex. There were several signs greeting us, directing us in both Mandarin and English pointing to different tea houses. We went to the left. No idea what else we would do, so we just walked along the road. It was a nice mountain town. Calm serene, with little tea houses littering the street. While walking along, we saw the bottom of not one, but TWO rainbows. It was sweet, but alas, no little Irish men with pots of gold. I looked. But more rain came and forced us into a tea house. There we were greeted with the waitress. She handed us the menus, all written in Chinese, and ask "can you understand?" We shook our heads, and she walked over to another table and tried to roust up a translator. The next five minutes we became a sideshow for another table of Chinese people, who stared at us as a guy translated the menu for us. We managed to order green tea and fried rice. The lady came by and served us our tea. We got to brew it ourselves. They gave us a tea kettle with boiling water, a small tea kettle with leaves in it, a smaller filter device to pour the tea, and then the two cups for us to drink out of. It was some of the best tea that I have ever had, and when we got our food. We had ordered beef and pork fried rice and it was delicious. I used chopsticks to eat it, and it was a treat. After our meal we paid and explored Maokong a little longer.

The town was nice. We had a splendid view of Taipei 101 lit up at night. We spent a little more time walking around and exploring the night streets. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but it was a fun experience. It felt great at night, but we were ready to head back into the city. We called it a night and had another glorious ride down the gondola, now lit up by the city lights.

Our next day, we decided to head to one of Taiwan's beaches. Our destination was Fulong. Sarah wasn't exactly sure how to get there, but we walked to the train station in Sijhih to try and find out. Unfortunately, things were a little hectic and we missed the train at 12:38 that would have taken us out there. Instead, we would have to figure something out or wait for four hours. Since waiting was out of the question, we went to the ticket window to try and figure something out. The lady there tried explaining to us in broken English to take the train to Badu and go from there. So we were handed new tickets, another lady took us upstairs to another train official, and we had to wait for the next train. This next one took us up a few stations, and then we were told by the ticket officer to get off at Cidu. We knew this was wrong, but before we could blink, we were stuck there. So we went to another official, who pointed somewhere across the way and said "Platform 2!" That was easy enough, but there was platform 2A, 2B, 2C. Which one went to Badu? We eventually made it to a three-car train, where we would then wait for the next train that would finally take us to Fulong. At least we hoped.

After a half hour wait at Badu, we were finally on the right train to Fulong. It was an uneventful ride, save for the crowded cars that made us ride on the floor for half the trip. We eventually found seats, but were thrown out because apparently some seats were reserved (couldn't read anything that told me that). After walking back along the cars even further, we found two more seats and were able to enjoy the ride from the comfort of a seat.

We finally arrived at Fulong Beach after that wonderful ride. Even then we made a wrong turn, and it took us a good 15 minutes to actually find the beach. It cost 90 NTDs each for us to go. But at last, we were at the beach! It was an interesting sight. There was a bridge that crossed a river that took you onto the actual beach, and we were there. It wasn't a particularly nice day, and the water was cold, so we just sat near a washed up log and enjoyed the surroundings. To the right of the beach was a seemingly tall mountain that had a few temples littering the sides. It was a nice sight, but unfortunately not much else was there. It was a fun time, and cool to see a beach in such a foreign place. But nothing unusual happened. After a few hours, we meandered back to the train station and hopped on the next train to Sijhih.

On Tuesday Sarah decided we were going to head into Taipei. There is heaps to do there, so we made the decision to play it by ear and figure out what to do when we got there. As we exited Sarah's apartment, it was a nice day, complete with blue sky and no sign of rain. So we decided to go to Taipei 101. For those of you who don't know, Taipei 101 happens to be the world's tallest building, complete with the world's fastest elevators. We took the bus to the train station, and were at Taipei 101 by 1:00. It is built over a mall, so we went through the food court and into the mall. We didn't care to explore the mall much (after all malls are all over America). I tried my ATM card at 5 different banks with no success once again. Bummer. Sarah bought the tickets and we hopped into the elevator which took us up 90 stories in 38 seconds. The lift reached speeds of 1010 meters per minute. Pretty fast.

The view from the top was breathtaking; there is a significant amount of pollution in Taipei so it is limited. But it was fun and interesting nonetheless. It was cool being at the top of the tallest building in the world. Afterwards, we explored Taipei some more, going to a park called the Peace Park which had a cool looking building with a fountain. A neat place. All in all, the last three days have been full of fun and new things that I would never experience in other places. I'll be back with another update soon, although not with today. All I did was sit in her apartment and read. No fun, but it's too hot and I don't want to get lost.

Travelin' Man

2007-09-21T23:28:00.000-04:00

My latest post comes from Si-Jhih City, a suburb of Taipei. I'm in Taiwan. Goodness gracious.

The last week or so has seen more of the same. I have finished nine weeks of class and am currently on spring break. As far as class goes, I haven't gotten a single grade back yet; therefore, I'm slightly worried about what my grades might end up being. But that aside, I'm getting the hang of things. It's one thing to meet new people and start over after school, but doing that in a whole new country, in my opinion, brings a whole other slew of challenges. Not only am I adjusting a to a new culture, I'm in a place where there is a lot of people, but each is up to his or her own thing. Some people are studying abroad, some full time students, others here for only a semester. I don't take that into account, however. I'm prepared to make new friends if some are leaving at the end of the semester. But it is all part of the experience. All part of growing and learning who I am, what the world is like, and how I can learn from the past and hopefully make the world a better place. At least through my own individual actions.

One interesting encounter happened this week. I was spending time with some friends, two of whom happened to be British. My American friends in the group and I were talking about Thanksgiving; what we were going to do, "have a thanksgiving in the village." Or something like that. One of the Brits piped up with "Can I ask a stupid question... what is Thanksgiving?" That answer in itself was funny enough. But the response of the other Brit was "it's when we came over and killed all the Indians. Now they celebrate it. It's rubbish." A pretty humorous exchange nonetheless.

So anyways, I'm in Taiwan for the next ten days visiting Sarah. And let me tell you, it's a trip. I haven't even been here for 24 hours and the what I'm doing isn't lost on me. First impressions aren't too positive: it's hot. The humidity swallows you up as you step outside; even if it's raining, it still is miserable outside. And this is coming from someone who has been outside only once. Window air-conditioning units are everywhere. I get stared at for being white. I fear for my life walking down the street, paranoid being hit. It reminds me, in a lot of ways, of Israel. Existing and living in a place where not many people speak English and I have almost no idea of how I'm going to get around. That's where Sarah will come in, and we'll have some stuff to do while I'm here. Funny thing, as I'm typing this I'm watching the Yankees game LIVE. That is incredible. Really funny.

Anyways, I'm doing well, learning about a new culture, and hopefully spending a lot of time with a great girl. Hope everyone is well.

Cheers.

Money

2007-09-14T01:06:00.001-04:00

Well, so much for blogging at least once a week. Shame on me, right? I guess for all 10 of you reading it you don't know what I've been up to. There is a stunning (saracastic) development in relation my new job as a "Casual Admin Verifier". Lord knows what that means. After two weeks, I still don't know exactly as to what I'll be doing. So far it has meant being an assitant to the Contracts Administrator, and little more. And by assistant I fax contracts to myself so that the company here can convert their paper records into digital format. Easy enough. I hope to be doing more post break after my boss returns from leave. Should be alright. Plus it is a source of income, as well as being something to throw on my resume.

The Uni part of life here continues as usual. I have three assignments all due next week prior to my visit to Taiwan to see Sarah, which is where I'll be a week from today. I'm really looking forward to that trip. I am learning quite a bit about the intricacies of publishing, both in class and at my job. Unfortunately, the company I work for only publishes Legal & Regulatory information (hence the name). This doesn't bode well for my interests, but I get to see another side of publishing. And I've already had inclinations of going to law school a few years down the road.

Mostly, life here goes on as us what is now the usual for me. Classes, some assignments, time to hang out with friends, meeting even more people, it goes on. I met with a guy from Hillsong who will be leading my connect group when I make it. He works at the church and showed me around. It was good fun. Anyways, I'll make another post a little more details, but I'm heading out for now. Remember to root for Sydney FC (where I'll be tonight) in the morning (game starts at 6 AM US).

Cheers.

We laugh Indoors

2007-09-03T04:14:00.000-04:00

Time for a weekly update. I'm pretty content with myself if I post in this every week. A new goal of mine.

My life just got a whole lot busier. I went to my first day on the job today. It was a good experience; not the most interesting, but I'd never worked in an office situation before. And this place is huge! I think around 500 people are in the building. My company Thomson (www.thomson.com.au) occupies the top three floors of a red-brick, warehouse-looking building. I feel very important there, mostly because I get a photo-ID card. I'm totally sweet. Today I didn't do anything but look through files and update different sheets. Not sure if things will get better, but I think I get my own computer/desk. Sweet business.

The last week of classes was fairly low key. We received news of an assignment due within two weeks of the class. My Russian friend, Ilya, was all panicky. I on the other hand, remained my cool, collected self. As usual. But we have to Chinese students in our group, so I'll get a better sense of what working with them can be like (I'm sure a real pleasure.

Over the weekend I went to another Sydney FC game. And as usual, it was awesome. They conceded first, but then scored twice. Unfortunately, Adelaide managed to equalize right after. But the second goal was surreal. I was in the Cove (Sydney FC supporters section) and when striker Alex Brosque scored off a brilliant through ball from Juninho, I was showered with beer. I had never experienced anything like that. For a second or two, it was raining beer. My friend Eamonn, holding two schooners of his own, looked around, thought about it, and decided to hang onto his. No one else seemed keen too. As a result, my hair and arms were a sticky mess, not to mention the shirt on my back. It reminded me of the week before, when I walked home and got soaked in the pouring rain. But no worries. The match ended a 2-2 draw. But nevertheless good fun.

The next event of note occurred last night. Arsenal was playing at 10:30, and like a loyal supporter-wannabe that I am, I headed over to the Marly to catch as much of the game as I could. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into it, the bar starts to crowd with a very gothic-looking crowd. But their all girls. I look up from my table, slightly confused. My confusion changed to discomfort. Then, after the over head music was cut out, delirium ensued. This group of girls (when I say girls, I mean women in their mid-20s that aren't well... you know) has a guitar. They start singing songs. And when I say singing, I mean screaming at the top of their lungs while I try and watch Clichy set up Fabregas for a goal. Or something like that. I think Summer of '69 was my favorite cover they did. I wish I could make up stuff like that, or that anyone reading this could have been with me to laugh at the situation. Completely and utterly ridiculous. But that is what I signed up for; I never in a million years would have been in a situation like that in Harrisonburg. Being pushed and challenged by so many different kinds of people will grow me and make me a stronger person, capable of loving whomever God choses to put in my path. And that is good. Cheers.

I Feel Free

2007-08-27T05:33:00.000-04:00

Today was one of the first days where I am beginning to feel actually adjusted. Moving to a foreign country, even one that speaks your language, is no easy task. But a challenge is what I was up for; and I got what I wished for indeed.

The weekend was quite enjoyable. Friday night found me at Sydney Football Stadium, for the opening match of the A-League. It pitted Sydney FC against the Central Coast Mariners. It was good fun. A bunch of folks from SUV came along, and we stood and watched from the supporters section, watching the game and singing along to what we could pick up. It rained on and off during the whole game, and it wasn't until after the fact that I decided to make a four mile walk home... in the pouring rain. It was awesome. Right now I'm surprised to not feel that ill.

Saturday was another good day. I met up with Megan and some of her friends from Hillsong. I enjoyed a three course meal over in Randwick and then headed over to Edgecliff for delicious Thai Food & Max Brenner. We feasted on all kinds of chocolate... better than you can imagine. Trust me on that one. If you're in the Manhattan area, find the Max Brenner on Broadway. It's unreal. After Edgecliff, I made it to a pub and caught some English football. Chelsea v. Pompey in a snoozer. Lampard's strike in the first half proved winner, and I was relieved to see that the Gunners eked one out against City 1-0. It proves quite difficult to watch EPL when the first game starts at around 10:30. No worries though.

The rest of the weekend involved various elements of reading and writing. I watched some of the A-League match (Perth v. Newcastle) and made it to Hillsong for the 7 PM. That always proves an experience, a service at Hillsong. You find yourself inundated with images and colors and sounds that are supposed to help you worship. It has been hard, but last night's service was the best. Plus I know people there now. So here's to having a few more friends, and a few more laughs from these past few days. If anyone's reading this from JMU, enjoy class!

Thrills

2007-08-23T05:37:00.000-04:00

Well, week 5 of class is over. Can't believe that almost seven weeks have elapsed since I first left America. That is just crazy talk! I got a chance to catch up with some folks back at JMU. Weird thinking that classes start on Monday and I won't be there to take part. Ho hum. Life goes on, and I know that this is where I'm supposed to be.

Not too many highlights from the past week. I ventured into the unknown depths of microwave-only cooking. I made a beef teriyaki mess that was made delicious by my rice cooker (for those of you left wondering, I had rice included in my meal). Tonight I made Chicken Parm. Not the best, having microwaved chicken patties designed to heat in an oven, but I feel full.

I did a lot of reading over the past few days for classes, and tonight I'm thinking about getting a head start on a number of my assessments that are due in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, I am not scared by the prospect of writing 500 word assignments. Maybe when they approach 10,000 words (doesn't exist), then I'll fell a bit petrified.

But in all seriousness, while I never expected to make it to graduate school, it's been a great experience so far. Today in Network class we discussed the advantages and disadvantages to strong ties versus weak ties. Apparently, having a greater number of weak ties increases the diversity and differences you have in your life, therefore finding a job through contacts easier (not sure what I think about that). But aside from the academia of it, I felt like the formula applied to me. I'm afraid to make ties here because they won't be as strong as they are back in the States. According to theories behind Networks, that's not a good move. Having fear over meeting new people shouldn't hold me back. Just cut loose and enjoy life (note: not really sure what it means for me to cut loose). I'm only going to be here once after all.

PS - My second book is now listed on Amazon.com. Yes, I'm a completely vain person that searches for his name on Amazon (only to laugh at myself, I promise).

Check this out:
http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Stress-Girls-Guides-Emotions/dp/0766028577/ref=sr_1_2/104-1264231-4335115?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187849679&sr=8-2

Deep

2007-08-20T05:26:00.000-04:00

The last few days have been up and down. First, saying goodbye to Sarah at the airport was not enjoyable. But I have hope that I'll see her again. It hits harder now that I've returned from class and she wasn't there (like it had been last week).

Enough self-pity. The weekend was an enjoyable experience. Friday I played some basketball and had a few drinks down at the Well (the bar under our apartment). The next day was a trip out to Manly to watch the Curl family. Or, more specifically, Nick, Blake, and Tyler. My job was to make sure they behaved themselves and did their chores. Hardly an insurmountable task. Their house up in Manly is beautiful; a five minute walk to the beach included. I spent the last two nights there, returning here with a full stomach and a sense of excitement.

A deep thought from today: I feel handicapped by a fear of the future. I frustrate myself with a desire for an easy life; to get what I want and for things in my head to play out exactly the way I want them to. Such is not the case. Life for no one is easy. If that was the order of life, where would the fun be? Part of the reason that I went on this excursion was to delay the inevitability of working behind a desk everyday from 9-5. Unfortunately, that prospect offers comfort that I need to seek elsewhere. Because I can't rely on myself to overcome the weight of the world, now can I?

Blinded by the Light

2007-08-16T23:23:00.000-04:00

So my mom told me to update my blog. Here I go. After a particular crazy Saturday last week, (involving some of the funnier Australians I've met) my girlfriend arrived Sunday in the early AM. I picked her up at the airport at 7 AM and we came back to the Village, dropped her stuff off, and then took off for the Blue Mountains.

Having already visited the mountains during my prior visit to Australia, I was put in charge of our trip. This didn't bode well, as I had neither the patience for it or the itinerary planned. I had initially thought it was going to be just Sarah and I going, but a few other from my building (Artee, Janelle, Gail, and David) joined us because of the lack of quality provided by Colourful Trips. Dave proposed a stop off at Featherdale Wildlife Reserve to see some Australian animals up close and personal. I had no problem with this, seeing that I had little planned for our trip to the Blue Mountains. We caught a bus to Central Station, hopped on a train towards Doonside, and after an accidental detour (we didn't know we had to get off the train at Blacktown) we made it to the Wildlife reserve.

The reserve was an interesting place. They let some animals (Kangaroos and an Emu) roam around the park at certain points, and had others behind cages. They had a couple of Cassowaries (really large birds that resemble dinosaurs with fur) behind cages as well as Koalas. While the Koala is one of the most underwhelming animals I have ever seen, it was slightly different when they had a station set up to "pet the koala". After spending a solid portion of our day at the Wildlife reserve, we moved on.

The next stop was Katoomba. Unfortunately, we arrived at about 4:30. Lacking knowledge of the town, I didn't know if any bus/trams existed that would take us to Echo Point to see the Three Sisters. We ended up walking and catching the sunset. It was a beautiful sight! After watching the sunset we left and made it back to the city at around 9 PM.

The rest of the time here with Sarah was awesome. On Monday we went into the City, saw the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, and the other famous Sydney sites. Tuesday we walked from Maroubra to Bondi Beach, a gorgeous but strenuous walk along the Pacific Coast, Wednesday we went to Manly, home of our teammate Ashley Curl, and then yesterday climbed a part of the Harbour Bridge and had Pancakes on the Rocks. Last night we parted ways (for now) as she takes off for a year in Taiwan. All in all a good trip.

Outside of that not much is going on. I have some reading to take care of and stay on top of and I'm waiting and praying about a job opportunity that I am waiting to hear from. Til next time, Cheers.

Come and Go Blues

2007-08-11T01:13:00.000-04:00

Greetings. Not a lot going today so I thought I'd take the chance to catch you up on the latest rumblings from Sydney. The past 9 days or so have been interesting; I've learned lots about the people in Australia, the differences of American-Australian culture, and the surprising lack of class time for a Masters Degree.

In terms of my classes I absolutely love them. Every single one of them has my full attention. This past week we wrote a pitch for a potential magazine story; my pitch was voted "best" of my group. I know, I'm so modest. They all seemed to be interested in the 500 word report that I had quickly jotted down in 15 minutes. I have this uncanny ability to vomit words onto a page as quickly I can think of them. What needs to happen next is direction: I need to work on said skill in the proper way that will allow me some semblance of a career. But, as they say down here, no worries.

Yesterday saw me at the first job interview of my life. It's for a part time position as an Editor of Thomson Legal & Regulatory Publishers. That's right, they publish law books. If I get said job, I will not only pick up a variety of skills in regards to working with strict deadlines, but also learn XML and have a nice resume builder to pick up on.

One of the toughest parts about the near month I've spent here has been the stark contrast to JMU. Having left a place teeming with some amazing people who I knew so well, I feel like I'm in a desert. But that is to be expected. I spent the last four years with some of those people, so I come here having left them and it won't be easy to come CLOSE to the kind of relationship I want to pick up. Patience only brings rewards, however, so I'm not going to complain about it; there are some great people here, it will just take time to get to know them well. It is funny though when someone from home asks "how is Australia?" I want to sell it as the best thing in the world and totally amazing. Don't get me wrong, it is awesome; I am having a great time. But I am also learning and growing a lot. I want life to be a cakewalk that has no obstacles for me. This is not true. A lot of work and effort is required if you want things to return to normal, regardless of being in Sydney or Harrisonburg.

Roll With It

2007-08-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

So I'm almost at the three week mark. That will be on Sunday, for those of you keeping score at home. Today marks the end of my second week of class and there is a lot to report.

The first is the style of class. Having been an American student for the last 22 years of my life (ok maybe less than that) I find myself trying to figure out the education system here. Their grading is completely different. Their teaching styles are different. Heck, even the language they use is somewhat different. But I'm just going to roll with it. I've come to two conclusions about the kind of classes I'm taking: they aren't going to be excruciating to pass, but to get the highest marks will prove some effort. And that's what I'm here to do. I'm going to give this year of my life my academic all--I'm going to leave satisfied with my level of effort and the knowledge that I've gained. The second conclusion, after going off on a tangent, is that I'll learn as much as I'm willing to put into it. And that is another reason why I'm going to increase my level of work.

The second conclusion hinges on the kind of people I'm around. It's great here--a complete melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. At JMU, you wouldn't run into someone from the United Arab Emirates in your dorm. That didn't happen. I am looking forward to learning about interacting with people of different backgrounds and who have seen a much different part of the world than I am familiar with.

The third conclusion relates to the difficulty of the task at hand. I've never been in a situation like this before--meeting new people, so far from home, so little around me that I'm familiar with. But challenges are designed to be overcome, and I know that I'm going to leave Australia (one day) a changed man. And that has me excited. In fact, I know that these few weeks have already done quite a bit.

Lucky Star

2007-07-29T09:16:00.000-04:00

So week one of classes complete. As I post this week's update, let me say, first and foremost, that I'm lucky to be here. This experience was something that I had dreamed about for a long time. And now to be experiencing this is truly great.

That aside, now to an update. The first week of class was great--the classes that I'm taking are as follows:

Advanced Writing for the Media
Australian Magazine and Print Culture
Book Production and Publishing Business
Network Society

In a nutshell, these classes will teach me a great deal about publishing--and not only just book, but all three: Internet, Magazine, and Book. Each class requires a substantial amount of reading and writing. I plan on working real hard on all subjects. I'm searching for freelance work and a part time job in Sydney, but we'll see what happens. Not much more to report. I went to Manly today and had a home cooked meal at the Curl's house which was awesome. I'll be sure to post more frequently.

Walkin'

2007-07-18T00:52:00.000-04:00

Greetings. Apologies for not posting sooner. I figure a lot of people aren't reading this anyways, so it is more for my own good.

My last week here has been up to my expectations. There are times of loneliness and boredom that I try to pass in productive ways. For example, I'm now trying to formulate a spread sheet complete with a budget, but along with that, tracking every dollar I spend. Kind of intense.

One of the most interesting parts of this is the way it feels like freshmen year of college. You meet new people, are unsure what to do with yourself at times, and have a downright sense of being clueless in a big city. That is a difference from JMU. Harrisonburg does not compare in one bit to the gargantuan city that is Sydney (or from my perspective it is really big).

A few big events of the past week: Orientation for International Students, which was a comprehensive lecture covering everything you need to know about Sydney and Australia. We learned how to use the transportation system, how to protect ourselves from the sun, what to do, where to go, and generally everything you need to know. I love hearing about the box jellyfish. I can't imagine a creature that carries a sting that makes you scream even while unconscious. I met people from all over the world at the orientation: Germany, China, Ghana, Mexico, Spain, Italy. Such a cool feeling to know that so many people are going through the same thing (being in a totally new place) and that they aren't from your country too. Although most of my time I still spend with Americans, I am excited to meet and hang out with some Australians (who knows when that will happen but I'm sure it will).

I am learning a lot about myself now too. For example, the question of "going out" and hitting a bar. With such a tight budget, it is something very low on my list of priorities. I would much rather travel to Melbourne, Perth, or just about anywhere in this region than have $100 nights out. Last night I made an exception, watching All Blacks v Wallabies in the deciding match for the Tri-Nations and then Japan v Australia in the Asian Cup. I'm going to start a serious job hunt come tomorrow using the resources I have in front of me. Oh, and I read the last Harry Potter book yesterday. The whole thing.

Classes are starting tomorrow. Between searching for a job, working on another manuscript, and starting my novel writing process, I will have plenty to do. Hope everyone is well.

Sydney

2007-07-16T00:41:00.000-04:00

Holy heck, I've made it. My flight arrived safely at Kingsford Smith Airport. I got my bags soon enough, headed through customs, and found a taxi over to the University Village. There is so much to talk about and not a lot of time, thanks to the fact that the internet costs money here (stupid I know!). I'm kind of thankful for that though. It will help me remain focused on the important things, like studying.

Funny side note: in Australia it gets pretty cold. I stepped off the plane and it was around 10 degrees C. You do the math on that one. But I'll address that much later.

After my cab ride I found myself in a bit of a pickle. No one was at the reception desk! How was I supposed to get into my room then? Fortunately, I met my first friend, another American named Eamen from Boston. So we figured things out and we tracked down an RA to let us into our rooms.

Unpacking took me no more than 10 minutes. I threw my stuff in the closet. I was ready to go.

We first walked through the campus, which was beautiful. If you didn't know, USyd is Australia's first University, and the quad is full of architecture that looks either really nifty or real ugly. Not sure. Also, they have lawn tennis courts here! No one else is probably excited about that, but I sure am. We walked through campus and decided to go all the way into the city.

Moving towards the city was like living a dream. I couldn't believe that I was back! Paddy's Market, Darling Harbor, the Rocks, and the Quay were all familiar sites. It was a cool feeling to be back at a place you never thought you'd see again. After walking around all day, we headed back to the Village and took it easy. The night was no fun. Having failed to purchase sheets, and thanks to the jet lag, I was asleep until 2 AM. Then the elevator on the 5th floor kept opening and closing. All night. And it squeaked and squealed and drove me crazy. I didn't manage to fall asleep again until around 7 AM, and that was only because I met Holly, who kindly lent me her heater. But other than that little mishap, all is good! I'll post more about classes and such later. Make sure to email me at tcla5974@usyd.edu.au or gmail if you want to hear more. Later.

The Waiting

2007-07-13T23:02:00.001-04:00

So bored. I arrived here in LAX at 10:30 AM local time and have yet to do anything of substance. All I've done is complain and complain about how tired I am. And that is a result of not sleeping much in the past 36 hours.

I guess the only highlight of the experience was talking to this random guy who was on his way back from Cincinnati. He talked about everything, from the difference between East and West Coast weather, to the overcrowded situation at the UC system.

Another item of note: it has begun to sunk in what I'm actually doing. The absurdity of going 10,000 miles away from home is something I have yet to adjust to. But here's to an adventure. Only four hours til my flight takes off. Next update will come from Sydney.

Going Back to Cali

2007-07-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

Well here goes nothing. I know that blogs are lame, but I can't think of a better way to keep a large group of people updated with my life.

Right now, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I am leaving Berwyn, PA at around 3:15 AM and heading up to Newark. From there I catch a 6:15 AM flight to LA. Unfortunately, an hour lay over in Cleveland also awaits. After that a layover of around 11 hours in LA awaits me. Not sure of what I'll do; maybe I'll see the sights but most likely just cower in a corner of the airport and hope nothing happens to impede my journey.

I'm leaving America for good at 11:55 PM PST on Qantas flight 150 (for those of you following the flight at home. I hit the streets of Sydney at 7:30 AM on Sunday July 15th. Interesting that something I've been working towards and planning for so long is actually happening. I'm updating my address on facebook, and shoot me an email if you want more details. I'll leave you with some words from the inspiration for this post:

"When the lala hits ya lyrics just splits ya
Head so hard, that ya hat can't fit ya
Either I'm witcha or against ya
Format venture, back through that maze I sent ya"