WOOHOO!!! The count down has begun. 3 days from now I leave and am back in the USA on August 29th at 8:08pm in Minneapolis. Whew...time is short.
For the last week I've spent time with friends and volunteered some more. I worked with a bunch of "older" ladies the other day. It was an absolute gossip fest. After that I went on a tour of Sydney and fixed one of the ladies computers. For this I received a pair of silken, Australian flag, boxer shorts. I'm not really sure how to feel about this. I think I like it.
Yesterday I called 68 people as part of a follow up process for a forum happening in Canberra. It was awesome...I pretty much rocked hard.
I'm about to go on a souvenir shopping tour...should be a trip.
Wish me luck as I go to barter with the merchants of Sydney!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
So I've realized that the lamest posts are the ones that start of by apologizing for not posting. Thus I am not apologizing for not posting for two weeks. I am regretting the decision to wait this long as I now have to try to remember what I did during that time...and not have it take up a ridiculous amount of reading time...oh the trials of my life.
I bought a plane ticket for Sydney from Cairns the day before it was leaving for $260, the bus ticket would have cost $455, recieved a book about working dog stories from Vicki, Frank, and Kathy(again, beautiful people), got to Sydney at 10pm, took a train to Lindfield and made myself at home. This was last Tuesday. Since then I have done almost nothing save for going to the Blue Mountains and seeing the Three Sisters which was pretty cool. I also went to the Jenolan Caves, which were awesome, and saw 'Public Enemies' on the equivalent of an IMAX theater screen that they call the 'Edge' here. The expected reaction to seeing this mega-cool movie on a ginormous screen was pure elation. My spirits were dampened, however, when the movie began to play and was only normal size, leaving many unused portions of aforementioned monstrosity. I persevered and sat through the spectacle pleasantly surprised that they really showed what a bad person John Dillinger was. He was crazy...
I am currently at Rising Generations finishing up my first day of volunteer work with them. I folded, stuffed, labeled, stamped, and sealed over three hundred envelopes today, along with doing some cutting and organizing. For lunch we went to Joe's Kebabs, a Lebanese establishment, and spent the hour or so sweating the chilli off of my toung. Being raised on potatoes where the most spice we had was salt and pepper doesn't help when trying to down some of the most pungent peppers this world has to offer. I do believe that I spent more time waiting for my taste buds to reawaken than I did consuming what they told me was edible...I have yet to verify this contestable fact.
In less than two weeks time I will be back stateside and will look forward to seeing you all again. Don't let it be so long before I hear from you or I start to wonder if you're ok all the way on the other side of the ocean...seriously! :-)
I bought a plane ticket for Sydney from Cairns the day before it was leaving for $260, the bus ticket would have cost $455, recieved a book about working dog stories from Vicki, Frank, and Kathy(again, beautiful people), got to Sydney at 10pm, took a train to Lindfield and made myself at home. This was last Tuesday. Since then I have done almost nothing save for going to the Blue Mountains and seeing the Three Sisters which was pretty cool. I also went to the Jenolan Caves, which were awesome, and saw 'Public Enemies' on the equivalent of an IMAX theater screen that they call the 'Edge' here. The expected reaction to seeing this mega-cool movie on a ginormous screen was pure elation. My spirits were dampened, however, when the movie began to play and was only normal size, leaving many unused portions of aforementioned monstrosity. I persevered and sat through the spectacle pleasantly surprised that they really showed what a bad person John Dillinger was. He was crazy...
I am currently at Rising Generations finishing up my first day of volunteer work with them. I folded, stuffed, labeled, stamped, and sealed over three hundred envelopes today, along with doing some cutting and organizing. For lunch we went to Joe's Kebabs, a Lebanese establishment, and spent the hour or so sweating the chilli off of my toung. Being raised on potatoes where the most spice we had was salt and pepper doesn't help when trying to down some of the most pungent peppers this world has to offer. I do believe that I spent more time waiting for my taste buds to reawaken than I did consuming what they told me was edible...I have yet to verify this contestable fact.
In less than two weeks time I will be back stateside and will look forward to seeing you all again. Don't let it be so long before I hear from you or I start to wonder if you're ok all the way on the other side of the ocean...seriously! :-)
Monday, August 3, 2009
Last time I posted I commented on my feeling light headed and dizzy. I would like to announce that this feeling has fled like money from my bank account while I've been in Cairns although in the interim I thought I might have Swine Flu, thanks mom, and when I had ruled that out, that I might have some type of expanded lung disease or the bends. Fortunately for me, my joints, and my lungs I do not have any of those things. I was tired and dehydrated, as originally thought, and am now feeling %100! Ok, maybe not %100, but at least %83.
Today I traveled to the Daintree Rainforest on a day trip. This was led by Vlad, our rather disgusting tour guide. I met two more Americans on the trip. I'm beginning to understand the rest of the world's dislike for us. I have not met an American on this trip who was, what I like to think of as, normal. They have all been rude, tasteless, and impatient. For a country that thrives on welcoming foreigners to our shores, we do not put on a very good face when visiting their countries. This is not to say that all of the other people I have met have been accommodating and friendly. The English, in particular, have been pretty on par with Americans. The other European countries are all pretty on par with each other and Australians have been representative of what I believe America to actually be like. They are a little more trusting and friendly once you get to know them but have a similar superficial attitude towards people. Anyway, I digress. The rainforest was brilliant. There were more shades of green than I knew existed and the intimidating plant matter met all of my expectations. We did not see any waterfalls which was dissapointing but the rapids we visited were nice. The mountain stream was dutifully clear and the mangroves we walked through had many interesting ways of living in water...as you would expect. My favorite was the "snorkel" root system.
When I returned to my hostel I continued my battle to convince them that they have shorted me on a night of accommodation. You see, when I went on the dive trip, I reserved a night for when I got back. The very kind lady, who remembers my name when I go in to the office, said something to the effect of, "Would you like to pay us now so that we have your metaphorical important parts in a vice?" and I of course responded, "I would love to give you my credit card information so that I can not possibly back out of this deal even if I wanted to." or something like that. I don't remember the exact wording so you'll have to forgive me. That was however the gist of it. When I returned I discovered, to my consternation, that I had not "paid" for a night and that I owed them money. I had to pay as I needed a place to sleep and also somewhere to hold my belongings so that I could listen to slightly innapropriate jokes from Vlad. How else was I going to be slightly offended? Tonight the desk provided me with a list of all of the things I have paid for in the last week, of which the night in question was not one. Now let me assure you that this has all been done with a surface politeness that you expect to see in a good midwestern town in true Minnesota nice fashion. We have never gotten tense and have always "assumed" that we are the party in error. This could not be further from the truth. I quite distinctly remember the conversation wherein the kind lady with a knack for names procured my unconditional commitment to stay for another night with them upon my return. She quite distinctly does not. Since I obviously don't hang on to payment slips and have no way to track my payments online, due to a delay of an alarming amount of days and a currency exchange, I have no evidence and seem to be caught between a rock and a hard, poky, spiny, dark, and wet place. Really it's the equivalent of a rock and a cave floor at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They do, after all, already have my money. The agreement was unconditional. I hereby admit defeat.
In a happier vein, I am leaving Cairns tomorrow to go to Atherton where Vicky, daughter of Frank and Kathy, is going to generously provide me with a place to stay for a little while. She even offered her house as a residence for me while she vacations at the end of this week. That is entirely too much trust for me and I am taken aback at her willingness to entrust all of her worldly belongings to a complete stranger but alas, this is the charm of the Australian people.
I have decided that Cairns is a boring resort town that has nothing to really offer itself unless your main pastime is to not remember your past times. This would be followed by a day of rest, not on the beach due to crocodiles, and then repeated. Thankfully my mother filled all of our vacations with too many things for me to be happy merely relaxing in paradise. I need horrible airplane museums and decrepit old women to walk me through planetariums in order to be truly happy. I want to visit the zoo everywhere I go despite the fact that they all have the same four animals, a penguin with no real ice, an elephant that is retired from Barnum and Bailey's, a tired looking monkey, and a tiger that paces back and forth just waiting for his chance to rain punishment on any human foolish enough to go in there unprotected. It is these things that I want and that Cairns can not provide. I will thus head south after my stint in Atherton and hopefully spend the rest of my time with those people I met when I first got here and who greeted me and gently inducted me in to the Australian way of life. Now I just have to let them know that...
Today I traveled to the Daintree Rainforest on a day trip. This was led by Vlad, our rather disgusting tour guide. I met two more Americans on the trip. I'm beginning to understand the rest of the world's dislike for us. I have not met an American on this trip who was, what I like to think of as, normal. They have all been rude, tasteless, and impatient. For a country that thrives on welcoming foreigners to our shores, we do not put on a very good face when visiting their countries. This is not to say that all of the other people I have met have been accommodating and friendly. The English, in particular, have been pretty on par with Americans. The other European countries are all pretty on par with each other and Australians have been representative of what I believe America to actually be like. They are a little more trusting and friendly once you get to know them but have a similar superficial attitude towards people. Anyway, I digress. The rainforest was brilliant. There were more shades of green than I knew existed and the intimidating plant matter met all of my expectations. We did not see any waterfalls which was dissapointing but the rapids we visited were nice. The mountain stream was dutifully clear and the mangroves we walked through had many interesting ways of living in water...as you would expect. My favorite was the "snorkel" root system.
When I returned to my hostel I continued my battle to convince them that they have shorted me on a night of accommodation. You see, when I went on the dive trip, I reserved a night for when I got back. The very kind lady, who remembers my name when I go in to the office, said something to the effect of, "Would you like to pay us now so that we have your metaphorical important parts in a vice?" and I of course responded, "I would love to give you my credit card information so that I can not possibly back out of this deal even if I wanted to." or something like that. I don't remember the exact wording so you'll have to forgive me. That was however the gist of it. When I returned I discovered, to my consternation, that I had not "paid" for a night and that I owed them money. I had to pay as I needed a place to sleep and also somewhere to hold my belongings so that I could listen to slightly innapropriate jokes from Vlad. How else was I going to be slightly offended? Tonight the desk provided me with a list of all of the things I have paid for in the last week, of which the night in question was not one. Now let me assure you that this has all been done with a surface politeness that you expect to see in a good midwestern town in true Minnesota nice fashion. We have never gotten tense and have always "assumed" that we are the party in error. This could not be further from the truth. I quite distinctly remember the conversation wherein the kind lady with a knack for names procured my unconditional commitment to stay for another night with them upon my return. She quite distinctly does not. Since I obviously don't hang on to payment slips and have no way to track my payments online, due to a delay of an alarming amount of days and a currency exchange, I have no evidence and seem to be caught between a rock and a hard, poky, spiny, dark, and wet place. Really it's the equivalent of a rock and a cave floor at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They do, after all, already have my money. The agreement was unconditional. I hereby admit defeat.
In a happier vein, I am leaving Cairns tomorrow to go to Atherton where Vicky, daughter of Frank and Kathy, is going to generously provide me with a place to stay for a little while. She even offered her house as a residence for me while she vacations at the end of this week. That is entirely too much trust for me and I am taken aback at her willingness to entrust all of her worldly belongings to a complete stranger but alas, this is the charm of the Australian people.
I have decided that Cairns is a boring resort town that has nothing to really offer itself unless your main pastime is to not remember your past times. This would be followed by a day of rest, not on the beach due to crocodiles, and then repeated. Thankfully my mother filled all of our vacations with too many things for me to be happy merely relaxing in paradise. I need horrible airplane museums and decrepit old women to walk me through planetariums in order to be truly happy. I want to visit the zoo everywhere I go despite the fact that they all have the same four animals, a penguin with no real ice, an elephant that is retired from Barnum and Bailey's, a tired looking monkey, and a tiger that paces back and forth just waiting for his chance to rain punishment on any human foolish enough to go in there unprotected. It is these things that I want and that Cairns can not provide. I will thus head south after my stint in Atherton and hopefully spend the rest of my time with those people I met when I first got here and who greeted me and gently inducted me in to the Australian way of life. Now I just have to let them know that...
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Just got back from the dive trip...saw a squid, shark, a hunting lion fish, stingray, stuck my hand in a giant clam, and pet a green turtle. I went 30 meters below the surface and saw an egg stay together after the shell was broken. I went on a night div, saw sleeping turtles, and swallowed a ridiculous amount of sea water.
After two days of our instructor working on us, I decided that I really should buy a mask and snorkel. Then after another two days of him working on us I decided that I really did need to be able to go to 30m instead of just 18m! Then after the video guy worked us over I decided that I REALLY did NEED to buy a video of the trip!!! I've been nickel and dimed the whole trip and the worst part is I knew it and let it happen anyway...I'm lame.
My skin is now falling off and I feel continually water logged. My legs are tired and my ankles have blisters on them. My balance is off now that I' back on land, I'm dehydrated from being in salt water and breathing canned air, and I feel like I should be rocking back and forth. I think I'm hooked...(pun intended)
Turns out they pronounce and spell Aluminum differently here. Aluminium(Al-you-mini-umm) is the word of choice.
I'm now sitting at McDonald's again listening to perhaps the worst street musician to cruise the auto lanes in any city in any civilized country to date. He's like a bad Bob Dylan with a sparkley hat, feather, and without...skill. Same monotone singing voice and all. He has added a rhythm section(an egg shaker) and a respectable harmonica...ok I was wrong. The harmonica player is not respectable...I spoke too soon. At least it's comical. ;)
Off to look for a job...for a week...right.
After two days of our instructor working on us, I decided that I really should buy a mask and snorkel. Then after another two days of him working on us I decided that I really did need to be able to go to 30m instead of just 18m! Then after the video guy worked us over I decided that I REALLY did NEED to buy a video of the trip!!! I've been nickel and dimed the whole trip and the worst part is I knew it and let it happen anyway...I'm lame.
My skin is now falling off and I feel continually water logged. My legs are tired and my ankles have blisters on them. My balance is off now that I' back on land, I'm dehydrated from being in salt water and breathing canned air, and I feel like I should be rocking back and forth. I think I'm hooked...(pun intended)
Turns out they pronounce and spell Aluminum differently here. Aluminium(Al-you-mini-umm) is the word of choice.
I'm now sitting at McDonald's again listening to perhaps the worst street musician to cruise the auto lanes in any city in any civilized country to date. He's like a bad Bob Dylan with a sparkley hat, feather, and without...skill. Same monotone singing voice and all. He has added a rhythm section(an egg shaker) and a respectable harmonica...ok I was wrong. The harmonica player is not respectable...I spoke too soon. At least it's comical. ;)
Off to look for a job...for a week...right.
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