Will Travel For Rugby

Wasted Opportunities (or How I learned to stop raging and be patient)

2012-02-07T03:01:00.002-06:00

I suppose one of the things I find most annoying about my personality is that I'm too quickly jaded and cynical. Its certainly not something I'm proud of, although I sometimes feel superior to others when I'm not surprised by the absolute poverty and destitution I sometimes work in. Its not that I'm numb or immune to it, but perhaps I expected to see the worst, whereas others didn't? A recent example is when my partner Elisabeth and I accompanied some International Honors Program (IHP) students to a relocation site for the evicted peoples of the Sabermati River Project.

The camp itself is a travesty. Entire families have been given simple plots of land that is most likely smaller than the room that you're sitting in. 10 by 12 feet. No building materials were given, so most people have scavenged bamboo and tarp to create roofs that stand about 4 or 5 feet off the dirt floors. The sanitation systems in the camp are misnomers. Hardly a working toilet and a handful of taps spewing dirty water for the thousands in the camp.

There is a “school” in the camp that has been set up by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the government body responsible for the Sabermati project. This is less a school than a thinly disguised farce. It consists of three teepee structures in a clearing with 3 undertrained teachers teaching upwards of 30 students per tent. It is understaffed, underfunded, undereverythinged.

The IHP kids are mostly sophomores and juniors in college, and were rightly outraged by what they saw. Elisabeth and I, having been subjected to the disappointments and frustrations of development before, took it in silence. We moved past the outright indignation and were analyzing what the next step was, while these kids (its hard to call them anything else) were railing against the injustice, questioning the teachers why there weren't supplies, better facilities, etc.

About this time, two shiny new vehicles rolled up. Out stepped a number of journalists and photographers from the Ahmedabad Mirror. They were there to distribute kites to the school children, as Uttrayan, the major kite festival, was later that weekend. The school children - having been evicted from their homes, forced to live in shanties, forced into a mockery of a school - these kites represented normalcy. These kites were a reminder that life wasn't one shitkicking after another. That maybe, despite everything that had gone wrong in the past year, there is still hope and joy in the world.

All of that sailed well over the IHP kid's heads. Immediately upon seeing the kites, having only learned about the school supply shortage minutes earlier, they set upon the Ahmedabad Mirror people with fervent indignation. Their first question to the Mirror surprised me with its brashness: “How can you give these kids kites when they don't have pens and pencils for school?” Gut-punch for the Mirror folks. The Mirror folks were happy to distribute the kites (and take some pictures), knowing the immense cultural implications of kites on Uttrayan. Now they were rudely subjected to the American Inquisition, courtesy of three suburbanite White American 20 year olds.

I could only shake my head. The IHP kids had a point that the school children had a dire need for supplies, but holy hell did the IHP kids go about advocating for them in the wrong manner, and to the wrong people. The supplies for the school, as well as the eventual homes for the families, are supposed to come from the AMC, not the Ahmedabad Mirror. Surely, had they thanked the Mirror for supplying the kites and made a polite request to them to maybe supply the kids with pencils and paper. They could have easily made the connection between educating the kids to read and the Mirror's basic economic neccessity: readers. What a pitch! It would be hard for the Mirror to pass on that logic. Instead, the Mirror folks left visibly dejected, having their good deed tarnished by arrogant tourists.

Perhaps its because they're young, naïve, and idealistic. Perhaps its because they haven't been jaded by experience. Perhaps its a lot of things. I was probably the same way when I was 20. I've seen a lot in the four years since, and I've learned quite a few lessons. One of the most important lessons I've learned is that the ability to use tact, diplomacy, and cultural awareness is paramount in getting things done. For me, that translates into digesting the offense, suppressing the outrage, and understanding all of the angles. The IHP kids, in their haste and fury, failed to capitalize on an opportunity to get the school children their supplies.

I suppose that was the saddest part of the day for me.

Holy Sh... I'm in India

2012-02-05T23:36:00.000-06:00

I was just chatting with a friend back home about everything and nothing at the same time, when he asks: “So how is it living in India?” A routine and usually inane question, and my instant response was equally mundane. “Its good, settling in, things are normal.” A second later, the ridiculousness of my statement stopped me in my tracks. I had forgotten the uniqueness of my situation – I'm in India.

I'm a midwest white boy in India. I spent my first 22 years rarely leaving the midwest, with only the occasional vacation to break things up. I'm in India – the home of my favorite foods, of saris, of Siddhartha, of the Taj Mahal (WHICH I'VE SEEN!), and of Gandhi (WHICH I'VE SEEN HIS OLD ROOM!)... Its easy to get lost in the routine, even if you don't have a 9-5 job. I'm in India.

One of the things I'm usually most proud of myself is my ability adapt to new situations. The novelty usually wears off pretty quickly and I'm able to focus on what I'm there for. Here in India, its my heritage map deliverable. I've been cruising through my time here, and I need to catch myself from time to time and really understand the opportunities that surround me. How many people live their whole lives wanting to go to India? To New Zealand? To Australia, South Africa, Eastern Africa? To the olde country of England? I've been to all of these places, and in each one, I've shrugged off the uniqueness of my situation. Perhaps my ability to adapt should be tempered with a true appreciation for how lucky I am. Being cynical or too easily adaptable isn't anything to be proud of.

I'm listening to KiD CuDi on the balcony of my apartment, surrounded by the sounds of India as I write this. The blaring horns of cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws. The chattering of Gujarati, Hindi, with random English words thrown in. The lowing of the cattle in the streets, the barking of the dogs, and the chirping of the birds.
How could I forget where I am?

I'm in India.
How cool is that?

Resurrection and Wakeup Call

2012-01-15T13:46:00.001-06:00

Its been almost a year since I last posted. Too much has occurred in that year, so I'll just use this to host my new adventures. I'll start with my most recent experience in India.

I've written before of my uplifting experience in Uganda: playing with the children in the slums and on the rugby field as we've practiced; working with small entrepreneurs; and farming and tilling on our sustainable farm. I've written about my experience in the slums of South Africa, how ingenuity and a vibrant informal economy allow people to exist in a relative comfort. I've written about my time in the poor neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic, how a sense of community can overcome most anything. Its now time to write about my time in India.

The past few days we have been spoiled by my advisor. He has taken us to his beautiful home (which qualifies as a full-scale mansion), taken us up to the terrace of his restored haveli in old-city Ahmedabad, flown kites, and drank chai. Today, we did more of the same, and then we (the four of us and Preeti) cooked a meal at our place, had him over and had a wonderful time. A friend of his, who professionally climbs mountains, joined us, and we had fascinating conversations about adventure, the human spirit, and development.

After dinner, my advisor, who is a renowned philanthropist, asked us to join him on a trip. In Ahmedabad, there are hundreds (probably thousands) of people who sleep on the sidewalks every night. Unlike DC, there is nearly one every 10 meters. Our trip was to hand out blankets to these people, as they often sleep with only burlap, and it has been an unusually cold winter. My advisor has done this before, albeit at 2AM when everyone is asleep. Tonight we did this at 11:30, so most of the people we would hand these out to were still awake.

This was our mistake.

At our first stop, as soon as the car had come to a stop, there were swarms of people outside of the car. We cracked the window to be able to hand out the blankets, and instantly there were two dozen hands clamoring for something, anything. We started handing out blankets as fast as we could, but we had caused a frenzy. There was pushing, pulling, wrestling, and all manner of struggle over the subjectively precious commodities that we were parcelling out. To us, these blankets cost 20 rupees, roughly 40 cents. To them, it meant a better chance at survival, either through warmth or selling.

I saw the human condition at its worst. I saw mothers clubbing children to get their blankets. I saw infants set on the side of the road, abandoned by their caretakers in favor of a better chance at a blanket or two. I saw the stronger women and men hoarding up to five blankets, having taken them from smaller and weaker people. I saw children bawling, women shrieking, and men pushing and shoving. What I saw, was pure desperation.

I saw the most base human instinct, survival, in all its grotesque power. Its most base and naked form, pitting those with the very least, against those with impossibly less. Those who exist with nothing but a dirty set of clothes, a burlap sack, and if they're lucky, a ragged pair of shoes. I saw pain, fear, anxiety, greed, and desperation. Tonight I witnessed what is on the other side of need. Well beyond want and further past need is Desperation.

Desperation is ugly, it is scary, it is incomprehensible.

It is why I'm here.

Cambridge is old.

2011-01-24T05:04:00.005-06:00

Due to my not feeling particularly verbose and the fact that I now have access to quality, cheap internet, I have decided to post a photo essay instead of stories.

Cambridge is fun.

So last Tuesday I headed to Cambridge to meet up with my friend Danae from Creighton. She's currently on a two year scholarship studying a combination of Political Thought and Journalism.

The bridge of sighs, St. John's College.

Arch, St. John's College.

Courtyard, Trinity College.

New Court, St. John's College.

St. John's Chapel

Old Door, Trinity College.

King's College Chapel.

The view from the top of St. John's Chapel.

On top of Cambridge. St John's Chapel.

Oh, this thing...

2011-01-17T08:09:00.002-06:00

Well, its has been ages since I last logged on. A tremendous amount has happened although I've lacked even the smallest inclination to update this blog. Maybe I have commitment issues, or maybe I just never really had the motivation to update. Part of the problem, especially with the latter half of my Uganda trip, is that I could never figure out how to put my experiences into words. Quite a bit has happened in the last month and a half: I'm no longer in Uganda, I was home for about three week, and now I'm in Rugby, England (Yes, there is a Rugby England).

Uganda:

- Set up the foundation for two savings circles.

- Played in a 15s game and 10s tournament (the only white player in 250)

- Participated in a rural MP campaign for my friend Julius Nkwasibwe.

- Attended a Ugandan wedding which had to cost more than my wedding will.

Home:

- Parents flew me home as a Christmas present.

- Surprised my friends in various ways.

- New Years was a successful repeat of the Mannix Family Kegger of years past.

- Dentist appointment.

Rugby:

My first day in England was less than awesome. Those of you who are familiar with my misadventures will appreciate this:

Landed at Heathrow and was hassled at customs. Apparently you need printed proof that you're leaving the country, or else they think you're trying to immigrate. Like anyone would choose England over AMERICA!! (emphasis added). So after 15 minutes of trying to validate my oneworld ticket with the very cute customs official, she smiles and says, I have to get my supervisor. True panic sets in: there is a show in Australia called Borders and they show people getting rejected entry through customs all the time, though its usually for trying to bring drugs or actually immigrate. The supervisor listened to the cute customs agent explain my situation, took one look at me, and waived me through. Crisis #1 averted.

I tried to call the number of the contact that I was given.

I soon realize that the number is illegitimate, as in, I was contactless.

I manage to use my terrestrial navigation skills (map-reading and direction asking) to find my way to the tube station,

take that to the Euston station,

wander around for 20 minutes trying to find the right train to take me to Rugby,

find an automated ticket machine,

pay 17 pounds,

realize that I bought a ticket from another train company,

panic,

try the ticket at the right company's stall,

it worked,

relief (Crisis #2 averted),

missed the train,

wait 30 minutes,

board next train,

check with conductor to ensure that this is the correct train,

find that this is an express train,

my ticket is for off-peak travel not express travel,

conductor informs me the price difference between the tickets is something like 30 pounds,

panic,

conductor pity's the poor American (Crisis #3 averted),

ride train,

fellow passengers give evil eye for my large bags which take up 3 seats,

too tired to care,

depart train,

try calling contact again,

fail,

ponder options,

remember OLs are practicing,

hail cab,

tell driver to go to Old Laurentians clubhouse,

driver starts driving,

10 minutes later realizes he doesnt know where he is going,

calls friend,

driver went to wrong side of town,

arrive at OLs clubhouse,

the fare reads 18 pounds,

driver says a fiver will cover it (Crisis #4 managed?),

kit up and practice with the OLs.

This was my Thursday, on Saturday, I was kitting up with the Thirds on our away game. We played Kenilworth, which is about a 20 minute drive, which I'm told is an average length for an away game. Naturally I'm upset, as an average away game means at least 5 hours one way playing with Metropolis. When we arrive at Kenilworth, I notice that the average age on the opposing team is 40+. That said, we do have a few older guys on our team in the Thirds, including Sharpie who is 57. Seeing as I just arrived in country, I as on the bench, and got in the second half at outside center. Played pretty well, although the field was soggy and sloppy, which translated into a slow and sloppy game. The lack of fitness for about 95% of the participants added to the molasses slow gameplay. We ended up winning comfortably 32-15.

The next game was another away, this time one of the furthest drives in the Thirds league schedule, 40 minutes! This time we traveled to play the Spartans which have their pitch right next to the Belfry golf course, which is supposedly a big deal for golf enthusiasts. The ground we played on was half as dry as the week before, leading to more than a little trouble with staying upright or reaching anything higher than second gear. This game was even slower and sloppier than the previous week. This week however I started and played the full 80 at openside flanker. In a game as sloppy as this one was, expecting clean attacking ball as a back would be futile, so I stayed in close to the rucks and had a hand in just about everything. I came within inches of scoring my first try but was held up. Set up another two tries, and had a blast at flanker. We won again, this time 26-7.

Heading to Cambridge later this week to see my friend Danae.

What I Miss:

2010-12-06T12:31:00.003-06:00

Saturday marked 9 months away. Thats a full human gestation period. Its weird to think that I've been gone for so long.

A hodgepodge list of things that I miss:

- Chipotle (far and away the top of the list)

- Sesame Chicken (Great Wall and Rice Bowl)

- Five Guys burgers

- Buffalo Wings/anything buffalo

- Good beer (Ugandan beer is average, and most Australian beers were buckets of yuck)

----- Fat Tire, Sam Adams, Blue Moon, etc.

- Mexican food. Enchiladas, spanish rice, refried beans.

- Chips and Salsa.

- A nice steak.

----- A1 and Montreal Steak Seasoning.

- Gatorade

- Video games

----- Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3, and anxious to play Black Ops and Reach

- Driving on the RIGHT side of the road.

- Fast internet (YOUTUBE! How I've missed thee)

- House, Office, Community, Glee, Daily Show, Colbert Report, etc

- Friends

- Family

- Legends Bar & Grill

- The Tavern on France

- Pepperjax

- The Crescent Moon

- THE SNOW!

- Hot showers (we don't have hot water in Uganda, which is fine 75% of the time)

- Snowboarding

- My blackberry.

Impis 10s slideshow

2010-11-23T11:22:00.002-06:00

9 months in and we're getting fancy.

The semis and waxing poetic

2010-11-22T12:12:00.000-06:00

So we didn't quite do as well as we'd have hoped. We ended up making it to the semi's, although we were summarily dismissed by our opponents. Our quarterfinal match was against another fairly rag-tag group who posed little to no threat to our defense at all. Upon recollection, I don't believe they were ever in our half for more than 15 seconds, and never passed into our 22. The score was a lot (forty something) to a little, another blowout for the Makerere Impis! But the joke was on us in the end. Having played 3 powderpuff teams in our run up to the Semi's, we were woefully unprepared to play against an actual team, which is what we ran into. As I mentioned in the previous post, we were probably the 4^th or 5^th best team there, and the gap between ourselves and the top 3 was made frustratingly obvious.

Our semi final match was against the UTL Kobs (Boks spelled backwards, aha!) and they were the 3^rd best team in the tournament. I was playing scrumhalf again. We were amply mentally ready for the game, and started off well: scoring the first try a little over a minute into the match. A solid tackle by our prop allowed me to poach the ball, offload to our flyhalf and send the ball to the wing, a quick phase later Romano, our big lock, was able to brush off a tackle and break away for a 40m score under the posts. Spirits were high and we were ready to keep the pressure on. Unfortunately on the ensuing kickoff, we lost the ball at the breakdown and they spun the ball to their wing who beat two defenders to score. Conversion missed, but we were a bit deflated. Never-the-less, the game was young, and we were still ahead on the scoreboard. That is, until they took two phases off the restart to get the ball to the wing again who simply rounded our defense to score again. Two tries down in a matter of seconds.

This is where our lack of testing in the previous matches came to hurt us. We hadn't been tested or tried in any form by the previous teams. We weren't prepared mentally to come back from such a blow. We tried to regather, huddling and reaffirming ourselves to getting serious, but the Kobs kept piling on the pressure. We were able to stop their forwards, but they were all to happy to spin the ball out to their danger-man winger, to whom we had no answer. I'm pretty sure he scored 4 tries in the match, and set up another. Our schedule guaranteed us the 1 million shillings afforded to those who made the semifinals, but it also ensured that we didn't go further.

All that aside, I've been extremely blessed to have found Impis. In addition to having been able to keep playing rugby throughout my travels and notching another continent on my rugby belt, I've had the privilege to play alongside and befriend a good number of people. As with America and Australia, all rugby players are essentially similar. They are fast mates and its a hard bond to separate. I don't know exactly what creates that inseparable and near universal attraction amongst rugby players.

Maybe its the affinity for putting oneself on the line for another; the penchant for good humor and strong backbones; chasing the sublime satisfaction of victory through mutual exhaustion; the respect earned by both friend and foe; the reconciling of on-field disagreements over a shared round of beer; or maybe its the accumulation of the intangible aspects of all of these. There is truth on the rugby pitch. Imposters and selfish players strike discord with this truth. There is an unspoken virtue to playing rugby. Valor, honor, courage, sacrifice, all words associated with warfare and combat, are found in lesser functions on the rugby pitch. They are less severe than in war, but no less noble. It is the respect earned through picking yourself off the ground, when your muscles scream of fatigue. It is the camaraderie of throwing your arm over a teammate as you walk off the pitch, regardless of result. Its the mutual attraction to the thrill, the risk, the danger inherent in each tackle, ruck, scrum, and maul. Its the shiver of nerves when the whistle blows, the moment pre-game shifts to the real thing. Its the rush of dotting down a try, the torment of conceding one, the innate pleasure of executing a set play, the pain of a crunching tackle, the ecstasy of a hard fought victory, and the agony of any defeat. Its all of these things and the sum of their combination.

Makerere Impis 10s

2010-11-20T12:40:00.000-06:00

Today was the first round of the Makerere Impis 10s tournament. Impis is the team that I play on, so we we're hosting the tournament. Its mainly a Ugandan tourny, although there are 3 teams from Kenya (more on that later). We've been practicing for this tournament for the better part of 5 weeks and since we're the hosts, we have been working hard to keep from being embarrassed at home. Luckily the draw was very kind to us and we cruised through the first day.

It was an early morning, as we had to assemble at 7:00AM and it takes me roughly an hour to get to the field from Nansana. That meant a 5:30AM wakeup call. Sibulungi (Luganda for bad). We were the first match of the day at 8:30, so we started warming up around 7:45. Then something occurred that I've never experienced at a rugby tournament: bomb-sniffer dogs came and swept the field. In addition to the dogs, all 200+ people in the complex were evacuated and forced to re-enter single file past the dogs, being wanded, and frisked. All of this is due to the Al-Shabab terrorists who set off two bombs during the soccer World Cup final at the other rugby complex across the city. This meant that there was a contingent of roughly 40 armed guards stationed around all day. I was reminded that I actually made it more likely that they would attack, because if there is one thing that Al Shabab hates more than Ugandans, its Americans. Luckily, today was free from terrorism. Here's to hoping tomorrow goes safely as well.

Our first game (8:30) was the epitome of intimidation: the other team didn't even show up. A forfeit win. Not the best way to start the day, but it counted as a tick in the Win column. At most tournaments I've been to, that would be all that there was to say about this game, but as you can imagine from the auspicious start, this tournament was filled with a ton of surprises and twists. Instead of the referee calling the game, and giving us the win, we actually had to play the game. That is, we kicked off, recovered, scored, and kicked the conversion... all sans opponent. I asked the referee “what happens if we knock it on, with it being their put in?” He simply shrugged and suggested that we not. Still curious as to what would have happened... maybe the ref puts the ball in an unopposed scrum? This opened a whole new world of hypothetical rugby (quite literally).

Our second game (11:30) was, to my relief, an actual match against actual opponents. We were eager to prove ourselves in front of our fans. The team we were playing wasn't a professional looking outfit as none of them were wearing the same color shirt, let alone jerseys. Their playing style matched their kit, and we were able to dominate the set pieces which set our backs free to run around. I was playing scrumhalf, and the domination of our scrum and line-out allowed me all the time in the world to deliver clean ball. Katso, Tamale, and Davis (flyhalf, center, fullback respectively) were able to dutifully get the ball out wide to Bronco, our lightning fast wing who packs a potent shoulder charge as well. Using Bronco to gain no less than 30 meters every time, we were able to implement our expansive gameplan and rack up quite a few tries. In the second half, we had an attacking scrum about 35 meters from the line with a large blindside. A quick wink to Katso let him know to exploit this as soon as I fed the scrum. The ball went in, I went to the back of the scrum, picked it up, saw the opposing flyhalf scrambling around the scrum, threw the most effective dummy I think I've ever seen, the opposing flyhalf jumped, stumbled, and fell down, I headed towards the posts, stepped inside both the center and fullback, with 5 meters to go, felt myself being tackled, tucked the ball, and with the generous assistance of our center, was pushed over the line for a try. Glorious day. Unfortunately, the new boots that I bought the day before had created quarter sized blisters on both heels, and coupled with the rolled ankle I sustained on my awe-inspiring try, I subsequently substituted myself.

Our third game wasn't until 4:30, and having finished our second at noon, we had plenty of time to relax and take in the rugby games. There are some pretty amazing teams here, and the level of play is generally pretty high. In terms of rankings based on history, our team – Impis – would rank about the 4-5 strongest team, although we're looking to change that on Sunday. One of the most exciting teams is one of the Kenyan teams: Mwambe. They have Collins Injera, Humprey Kayanga, and about 3 other guys from the Kenyan National 7's side which is top 6 worldwide. To say these guys are are fun to watch is like saying that the Celtics playing in your YMCA league is “just ok.” Having made the semi-finals on Sunday means that we might end up facing them, which will be “interesting.” Another interesting thing about the tournament is that there was a DJ playing music all day. I can't recall another tournament that I've been to where there was Tupac and/or Rhianna playing at all hours of the day. Because our basecamp was next to the music and the music was more than audible, it made a great atmosphere. Add to this a huge crowd by mid-day, and the air was electric. I'd wager there were almost 800 people by the late afternoon for the final matches.

Our third game was against a different Kenyan team. Due to all of the bench players starting, I found myself sitting on the bench, which is the worst place on a rugby field. I was slightly disappointed, but I wasn't the only starter who was sat, so I swallowed my pride and sat on the white plastic chair of frustration. This team was better organized than our second game opponents as they had jerseys (and infinitely more organized than our first game's), although that didn't help their defense. Our team strolled through for 4 tries in the first 4 minutes and never seemed threatened on defense at all. At half-time, we were sitting pretty with a 6 try lead, so the coach rolled in the subs, and I found myself at flyhalf. Unfortunately, nothing special happened to me, only made a couple tackles, didn't score, but was a good distributing pivot and our backs ran in another 4 tries in the second half.

Quarterfinals tomorrow, if we advance to the semi's we guarantee ourselves a 1,000,000 shilling prize. But we're hoping to win the whole thing and pocket the 4mil prize.

Trips around Uganda, floating down the Nile.

2010-11-17T13:46:00.000-06:00

We've taken a couple trips outside of Kampala, which are for the most part checking out how other NGOs work. I've also traveled (most recently) to Kaliro to visit Pastor Ben's village (Pastor Ben is our Ugandan CEO) and Jjinjja on the Nile. There was also a sneaky little day trip to Entebbe for a rugby game thrown in as well. The trip to New Hope, which is a great place, started much as CLD was, but with 20 years experience to learn from. We saw what CLD could become with time, dedication, and a bit of luck. The trip was mostly to see how a large scale NGO works, although we were lucky enough to speak with a number of senior staff and learn about their history. Hopefully we will be able to learn from their mistakes and triumphs, to salve the growing pains of CLD.

Another trip we took was to Gayaza, in which we met with an established savings circle. This has been the major aspiration of my time here, to enact some sort of micro-finance system to allow people to better their lives. The savings circle, which I detailed in previous posts, was an amazing opportunity to learn about a true success story. These women have been together for over 5 years, have a tremendous amount of working capital, and through tweaks to the models I've studied, have built in both an accountability and insurance structure. Truly an eye-opening experience, and it gave us the ability to bring women from Katonga to witness this structure, so now we will hopefully be able to start circles in Katonga and the TOL sewing shop.

Most recently, we took a short 36 hour trip to Jinja, which is a resort town on the Nile. This was an unnecessary but welcome little vacation. Jinja is the land of mzungus. With the exception of the staff, 90% of the people I saw there were white. It was definitely a bit weird to be surrounded by so many white people. Many of them were English and South Africans, which made the evening entertainment better. There was a trio of rugby games (NZ v England, Wales v Aus, and SA v Ireland) along with a couple alcoholic drinks, a great evening, great weather, and great dessert: banana wrapped in a nutella covered chapati. Heaven. During the day, we went swimming in the Nile, certainly something I never though I'd find myself doing. Another thing I never imagined myself doing was going down class 3 rapids with nothing but my swimsuit and an empty jerry can. The only thing that tempered my feeling of bad-ass-ery was the fact that there were 10 year old African kids doing it without flotation devices. Quite the experience, and I'm looking forward to it again.

Intro to Africa: 1 month in.

2010-11-11T12:38:00.000-06:00

Africa is so different from anything I've ever known. I have no idea where to start describing it. Basically, its a pseudo-controlled anarchy. I think this is best exemplified by the driving. If you are a timid driver, or a bad driver (sometimes the two are congruent) then you're S.O.L on the roads in Kampala. Imagine all of the taxis in New York being converted into 14 passenger vans. Now imagine nearly every other vehicle on the road is a motorcycle taxi, a boda-boda. (Now, when you picture this motorcycle taxi, do not imagine a sweet sidecar. Just a regular motorcycle that up to three people squeeze on. Sometimes its three guys all very tightly packed on this motorcycle. As it was described to me, “Its not gay, its just Africa.”) So now you have an idea of the players in this scene, now imagine the setting: half-paved roads, clay roads that erode with rain (did I mention its the rainy season?), and pot-holes in every road, sometimes so impassible traffic is cut down to “one-lane.” Why did I quote “one-lane?”- because there is no such thing in Uganda. The taxis (big vans) drive pretty much wherever they can to get past whatever obstacle is in front of them (other taxis, trucks, pot-holes, cattle... yes, cattle). Add to all of this, bodas, often with a passenger or two, weaving in between taxis, trucks, cattle, etc. To call this organized chaos is to imply that there is some sort of method behind the often impassible traffic jams, and while that may actually be true, I stubbornly refuse to believe it.

The house is quite nice. Nicer than I was expecting, although to be fair, for some reason I was expecting palm roofs and less electricity/internet. The house(s) are situated inside of a walled compound in Nansana. The walls have either barbed wire, sharp points, or broken glass cemented to the top. It was an interesting feeling when I first examined it: at first it was discomforting to see broken glass utilized as a security measure, and I've never been housed inside barbed wire; however, the security afforded by these measures is paradoxically comforting. I share a room with two guys, the single girl has her own room, and the married couple their own as well. We employ a staff of about 8 Ugandans who do everything from gardening to cooking to guarding, although truth be told, they are less employees as they are family. There was some debate on whether we should be self-reliant or have people do work for us, the eventual decision was that it is better to employ 8 people than to feel good about doing out own laundry. I'm extremely thankful for this decision, as I otherwise wouldn't have met Mama Resti, Aunties Sarah,Deborah, and Christine, Sula, Moses, Bosco, and Emron, who are all absolutely amazing people and have enriched my experience immeasurably.

As for the other Mzungus here, there are three other guys, and two girls. My roommates (as previously mentioned) are Ian and Morgan. Ian is a recent San Diego State graduate who is postponing a career selling medical implements to volunteer here in Uganda for a third time. His main efforts are at the farm, where he is able to put his 6'3” frame into good use. He is also a fellow rugby player, and we are playing for the Makerere team (more on that later). Morgan is a recent Colorado State grad who is currently on his fourth trip to Uganda. He is by far the most fluent in Luganda, which has been extremely helpful in that he and I spend a lot of time conversing with Ugandans. He is the head of the Womens Empowerment team, which is the microfinance arm of the CLD mission. He and I have been working towards implementing savings circles (more on that later as well) in our sewing shop, the slums of Katonga, and now we're hopeful to start one in the village of Kaliro. We're still very much in the infancy of our grand plans, but Morgan brings a wealth of local and theoretical knowledge, as well as the ability to communicate that gives me a lot of hope. Tiffany R. is the single girl, who is also another multiple trip volunteer. Her current trip started in May, and she is working tirelessly to open up a medical outreach clinic in Wakiso. She is a certified EMT, and spends a lot of time volunteering at the Wakiso hospital as well. The final two are a married couple, Josh and Tiffany Brink. Josh is the leader of our group, and a fellow facial hair aficionado. It would be a disservice to him if I even attempted to articulate all that he does. Needless to say that he makes sure everything gets done, in a timely manner, and quite often with a smile on his face. Tiff and Josh are currently in the middle of the process to adopt Jonathan (Jonah) Elijah Mukiso (Brink), the precocious little two year old often found running around and/or crying in our compound. They've encountered many roadblocks and many delays, but are more eager than ever to bring Jonah home. They're hoping to bring him home in time for Christmas, and although that looks less and less likely, I've got my fingers crossed.

There is so much more, that will come in time (how much, I do not know). I haven't even touched upon the trips (Luweero, Entebbe, Jjinjja, Kaliro), the rugby, the projects I'm working on, or gotten introspective and sappy... I'm falling behind.

Guest Post Monday: Morgan Johnson

2010-11-01T07:40:00.001-05:00

Seeing as this is the basic premise for my coming here, I was extremely excited to start these savings circles. Recently I had the extreme privilege to go to a village north of Kampala and see one of these groups. This particular group has been together for over 5 years and is operating on a very large scale (relatively). Since I'm terrible at updating now, I'm utilizing Morgan's recap, because he has written an extremely thorough recap, saving me the trouble!

Primer:
TOL = Thread of Life sew shop, run by Come Lets Dance, our NGO.
2,000 Shillings appx= 1 US Dollar.
Katonga is the slum where we do a lot of work, and where the TOL ladies come from.

Hey Guys,
Last Thursday Julius took a group of us to go see one of the model groups for the type of savings circles that he's been advocating. Julius gave his pitch to the women at the sew shop the week before, and had discussed the idea with several people in Katanga as well, so we took a representative from each group to see what the circles would actually look like. So it was me, Conor, Julius, Florence, Angel, Henry, Jjajja from Katanga, and Mama Sheana from TOL.
The group that we met with was pretty incredible. The structure was really clear and the group has some great ideas. I just wanted to keep you guys updated and let you know what exactly we're trying to move forward on for the slum program and the things that are still being worked out.

So basically, each savings group has a maximum of 15 women as members. These women meet once a week and they each bring money to the group so they can save collectively. They told us that when this first group was started by another woman from the area who facilitates these types of savings groups, none of the women actually had any money to save. So the facilitator told the women to go home, sell some simple fruits and vegetables that they were growing at their houses, and bring the money back to save. From their, the group has grown a lot. They now have a savings total of 730,000 shillings. 95,000 of that is held in hand by the treasurer while the rest is currently loaned out for business purposes.
So their are several different positions that each circle will have. The first is the moderator. The moderator is the one in charge of the meeting for the week, and she's in charge of assisting the other women in voting for positions for the next weeks meeting. The group also has two secretaries. The first secretary is in charge of taking down the minutes of the meeting while the second is in charge of signing each member's individual pass book, basically signing out that they've brought some money for saving or money for a loan they might be working on paying back. Then there's the treasurer. The treasurer's sole responsibility is to take the money that is brought that week, plus the principle amount that has been saved up from previous meetings, and bring it all back the next week. So the treasurer for the group we visited has 95,000 right now but will also be in charge of keeping the money that was brought at that meeting. Each of these positions is changes from week to week, so the moderator is in charge of helping the women choose a new person for each position for the next week.
The women also have three different savings accounts. The first is the business money. That's the money that the women bring each week to the meeting. That money is loaned out for business purposes only. In other words, it is specifically set aside for making more money. Loans from these amounts are not approved unless the member that wants the money already has the starting capital for the business that she wants to start. So if she wants to take out the money, then she has to first save on her own in order to be approved for the loan. All of those loans, no matter the amount have a three month payback period and an interest rate of 10% that is to be paid up front. The second account they have is a securities account. This is an actual bank account that the women all put money into and they each bring at least 1,000 a month for that account. There are three signers on the bank account and all three signers have to be there in order for any money to be withdrawn. This money is used for personal things like medical issues, school fees, things like that. It also increases the accountability of the group and the group loyalty because, as long as an individual has money in the group bank account she will be much less likely to do something that would cause her to be kicked out of the group. The last account that the group has is an emergency account. One of the things that the group does is charge fines. Fines when a charged when a person arrives late for a meeting, or when a person defaults on a loan. Fines are also charged to outsiders when they decide they want to interrupt the group's normal meeting time to talk to them, or for making an appointment and arriving late, or for meeting them on a day that the group doesn't usually meet. For example, if a politician wants to talk to the group about his ideas, since the group has more sway in the community than an individual would, and he does any of those things, then he would have to pay a fine. These fines go into a separate fund for deaths in the family. This only includes the nuclear family (mother, father, and children), but it helps pay for things like funeral expenses or other needs. These second two funds (the Securities fund and the Emergency fund) have their own separate treasurers that keep track of the finances for those accounts. Those treasurers do not rotate, but are permanent.

So that's basically what a savings group would look like. So it would be very easy to do something like that for TOL since the women are already working together and it makes frequent meetings really easy and convenient. And the structure for the TOL women could probably look almost exactly the same as the village group that we visited. But the slum groups are probably going to look a little bit different. One thing that we're talking about a lot right now is the issue of needing to have capital to start something before the group will give you a loan. In the village, when the women didn't have any money to start saving, they were able to sell some of their crops in order to get some small money. But in Katanga, they don't have those resources. For example, I have a friend in Katanga named Lydia. She's in her early twenties, has two kids, no job, and is living off of other people's generosity in giving her food and a place to stay. People like Lydia are the ones that need the most help. But if we keep that rule of no loans without initial capital, then she's already been left out of the picture. So we're trying to come up with some ideas for how we might be able to give people like Lydia a foot up, put them into a savings circle then they can be moving up from there.
We've also been working a lot on the chicken business and figuring out budget stuff with that. So we're working on ideas for how exactly the money for the business is going to pour back into the slum program. We've discussed ideas of things like giving some small loans to the group as a whole, then the group would be responsible to making the loans to individuals and the group as a whole would be responsible for paying back the loan to the slum program. But those are just ideas we're working on and we haven't fully discussed it with the women's empowerment board yet.

So that's the basic idea that we're working on for the savings groups. The groups will provide a structure, not only for savings, but for learning as well. It provides a structure for business ideas to be spread around, for english lessons for the group, for bookkeeping lessons, and so much more. Plus, just because of the structure that the groups have, in teaches leadership skills as well as accountability and integrity.

I'm really excited to move forward on this. Now that our friends Jjajja and Mama Sheana have seen what the group actually looks like and have heard how everything really works, we are ready to start moving forward on starting those groups. We all know that there are going to be changes that need to be made, but it makes sense to have the women start meeting and saving regularly in the meantime and we can be working on those smaller issues as we move forward and as they continue to come up.

Much love to all,
Morgan

Run Mannix, Run

2010-10-21T07:41:00.001-05:00

I know, I'm so terribly behind in updating, and I promise to fix it. Sometime. So much has happened (bribed a cop, water purifier gift, bailed someone out of jail, and the extraordinary activities I get to do every day) and so many people (I won't even try to start on that one). But I'll piecemeal my updates slowly but surely.

Yesterday I went for a run around 5:00pm. It had rained earlier in the day, coupled with the bulldozer trying to fix the roads (in the rainy season? dumb), the secondary road was absolutely swamped. Never-the-less, I was determined to get a run in, so I found myself jogging my way through the swampy mess. My run was anything but ordinary and not just due to the muddy minefield threatening to recolor my white(ish) shoes at every step. My run was made special thanks to the kids who decided to race me and run with me. As I would run past, kids would start screaming "MZUNGU! MZUNGU!" which is Swahili/Luganda that roughly translates to "White person." Then they would run alongside me for as long as they could keep up. Some of the more enterprising kids would try to outrun me, so I would have to sprint for 20 meters or so until they gave up. And I'll admit that one 15 year old beat me, but its because I had to run around a huge puddle that he happily raced through. Fair play, kid, you win. At one point I turned to see 15 kids running with me and it reminded me of the scene from Forrest Gump when he just starts running and people just follow him. It was an amazing experience and one kid stuck with me the full 2 miles, keeping me honest with my pace and not letting me slow down.

Its the little things that are the hardest to explain, but also the things that make this place so special.

Emma, Shakira's son, being a boss.
I absolutely LOVE this picture.

Rest of NZ and the start of SA

2010-10-05T03:13:00.002-05:00

We made it into Tapuo in the late afternoon. Now Taupo is known for its extraordinary adventure-ing, so Jon and I decided to go and check out the Thermal Spas just outside town. As we set out from our van, we passed a family of 6-7, and they seemed to be strangely laughing at us. Whatever, we thought, they looked German, and you can never trust Germans. So we trudged along, until we saw a small stream with steam above it... Pretty cool, and we felt the water, also really warm. Then, much to our later chagrin, we saw a sign for Huka Falls. Now, Huka falls is a beautiful spectacle, but we set out around 4:30, and figured that it would be less than an hour each way. We were spectacularly misguided in this assumption. Following the trail led us into an area recently deforested, which is to say, it looked like both a nuclear blast and the ensuing forest fire had decimated all living things along this path. Another peculiarity of this path is that it was windy and had embankments on the turns. If this sounds like a bike path, you'd be right. We somehow stumbled on the mountain bike path which is nearly 3 times longer than the walking path. This led us to get to the Falls with about 45 seconds of daylight. Then, on the way back, we got lost AGAIN, and ended up on the walking path (which we didn't know was the walking path) that took us to a separate park about a mile away from where we parked. After another short trek, we found our van, and decided to call it a night before anything else went wrong.

The next day, we stayed in Taupo, exploring the Huka Falls properly, seeing the Aratiatia rapids (which were beautiful), Craters of the Moon (the single most disappointing part of the trip to NZ) and topping it off with a pub quiz night at the local watering hole. This was an extremely popular option, although Jon and I were confident that through our university degrees and our combined knowledge of pop culture that we would be able to dominate. Now, we did respectably, I think we came in a distant second (36/50) to this group of Swedish/Norwegian/Dutch/something-like-that who got nearly every question right (46/50). Subsequently humbled, Jon and I called it a night, with a trip to Rotorua on the books, we wanted to get a good nights sleep.

In the morning, we drove to Rotorua, which was roughly an hour north. Now some of my loyal readers have had the privilege of driving through Sioux City, Iowa. When I say that driving through Rotorua is like driving with two rotten eggs shoved up your nostrils is not an overstatement in the least. The hot springs in the area let off massive amounts sulfur, hence the wanting-to-cement-block-your-nose-permanently sentiment that came over us. The town itself was really nice, and we were able to find a nice little store with jade carvings. Then we departed from Rotorua, maybe a little faster than is recommended by the speed limit.

We tthen drove up to the Coromandel Peninsula, which is a beautiful mountainous peninsula that drops down onto beautiful beaches. Unfortunately, we were also smack in the middle of the worst storm that we had seen since we arrived in NZ, so Coromandel wasn't a viable option to spend the night, so we made the executive decision to drive north of Auckland. We spent the night at Muriwai beach, which isn't too far from Kumeu, where my friend Tony is from. After another night battered by the wind, we drove up to Whangerei Heads where we decided to have a little adventure and climb one of the mountains on the point. After having lunch at Parua Bay, where we asked a few of the grizzly old veterans at the bar which mountain was the best to climb, we were advised that we were “f***ing nuts” but that if we wanted to kill ourselves that we should climb a certain mountain.

Sufficiently enthused by this prospect we actually drove out to the mountain, although it was closed due to construction/poison pellets scattered everywhere to kill possums. Now, all there was stopping us was a little orange mesh fence. After a short debate which went something like: “Should we?” “Yes.” we decided to climb it anyway. Jon was halfway over the fence when two guys appeared out of nowhere from up the path. Caught red-handed, in the act, we were screwed. Luckily, the guys were park rangers and really nice, so they recommended us to another mountain not too far away, which we duly headed to, chagrined. The path to the top was quite tame, so we decided to take the “bossy trail” which basically entailed a more difficult shortcut. We reached the top of the little mountain and on the other side was the water, so we found the next path that took us down there. The name of the beach according to the sign was “Peach Cove.”

The decision to head to this beach was the best one we had in our entire NZ trip. It was a beautiful secluded beach with driftwood and small rocks, which we subsequently utilized for Beach Baseball and Golf. We spent roughly 3 hours just hitting rocks into the ocean and playing beach golf (which is arguably the toughest sport in the world). Upon tiring of our sports, we decided to head back, up the 841 massive wooden steps that aren't uniform. Also the most exhausting thing we did in NZ. Then we drove back into town, found the local rugby club to watch the NPC game that night, but they didn't have it. After about 30 minutes talking with the old boys of the club, they directed us to the bar in the city that would be the best to watch it, aptly named “Legends.” After the game we drove back to the rugby ground and slept in their parking lot.

The next day we drove down to Kumeu again to meet up with Tony's parents on their farm. We arrived in the late afternoon, and were immediately asked to stay for “tea.” Fortunately “tea” meant multiple beers. We were then invited to stay for dinner, which Mrs Farley, being a farmer's wife, made a massive feast, with breaded bacon wrapped chicken, bacon and cucumber quiche, and golden potatoes. Easily the best meal I've had in ages. We were then invited to spend the night there and stay for breakfast, which we dutifully did.

The following morning, after a breakfast of cereal, more quiche, and coffee, Mr Farley offered to give us a guided tour of Auckland. But first he took us out to rotate the cows. I've never seen a cow up close, and they are MASSIVE animals, and these were only young cows. They were a bit timid around us, and it was kind of fun to startle one and make it goofily gallop off. After that we headed to North Point which overlooks the harbour, the city, and Mt Rangitoto, a beautiful sight. Then we headed into the city to meet up with one of Mr Farley's old rugby/farming mates who now grows avocados, after a short stay there, we headed to the Auckland Museum, walked around and got another beautiful view of the city from the other side. Then we headed back to Kumeu, where we had told ourselves that we'd just pick up the van and head out, as we were a bit pressed for time in returning the van. Of course the Farley's hospitality “forced” us to stay for a lunch of thinly sliced beef, sausage, and tomato salsa sandwiches. Finally being able to pull ourselves away from the Farleys, we headed into Auckland to quickly stop by the Canterbury of NZ outlet shop before dropping the van off. Then we took a taxi to the airport as Jon's flight was at 8:00, so we got there and I found out that because my flight wasn't until 5:00 the next morning, I couldn't check in until 3AM. After a quick goodbye to Jon, I headed upstairs to the Arrivals lounge, found a spot to crash, and slept there.

The next day, I boarded the plane from Auckland to Sydney, a nice 3 hour flight, had a 45 minute layover in Sydney before boarding the plane for my 14 hour flight to Johannesburg. This was the hardest flight I've ever taken, not just because it was 14 hours, but because it was all in the daylight. I left at 10AM, and 14 hours later, I landed at 5PM in Johannesburg. The only redeeming factor in this flight was that I flew over Antarctica, and was able to take pictures. But alas, my day was not over yet, as I had to scramble through customs, grab my bags, re-check in, go through security again, and make it to my plane with 5 minutes to go. I then flew to Durban, another hour and a half flight. Upon arriving in Durban, I realized I neglected to figure out where I'd be staying that night. So I hauled my bags over to the information desk, picked a hostel at random, took the bus into town, got to my hostel, and passed out.

New Zealand Pt 2 - I'm too verbose for my own good

2010-09-30T08:17:00.000-05:00

I drove about halfway from Hamilton to Palmerston North that night, stopping just outside of National Park, NZ (actual name of the city) after ~~getting lost numerous times~~ taking multiple detours. Nighttime driving in NZ is not recommended, although unlike Australia, there are no risks with Kangaroos jumping out in front of your car. The roads in NZ are not like normal highways. They're more like county roads that wind around mountains and through vales and gullys. This means that at times, you have to slow from 100ks to 25 to go around a hairpin turn on the side of a mountain. Its driving challenges like this that make night driving in NZ a silly idea. I pulled over after about 3 hours of nerve-wracking night driving to sleep at a rest stop at the side of the road.

The next morning I was awoken by the sound of ~~gunfire~~ furious rain beating against the van. Just another NZ morning. I finished my drive into Palmerston North and had quite a few hours to kill before the Manawatu v Auckland NPC game that night. I started off with the official NZ Rugby Museum, which was absolutely fascinating. The museum itself is tiny (contrary to what I would have expected). It is basically a one story building with about 4 average size rooms, and it is filled to the brim with rugby history. The walls are covered with old jerseys and pictures, caps and blazers, and enough stories to fill an afternoon of absolute intrigue. After gorging myself on the intimate history of rugby in NZ, I spoke to the curator, simply trying to find a nearby ATM and ended up talking at length about all facets of rugby. We talked about the history, evolution and future of rugby, the law changes, and he expressed his genuine excitement over the emergence of rugby in America. An absolutely amazing afternoon, one I will not soon forget.

The game was exciting as well, although the conditions were nothing short of terrible. Being shortsighted and naïve of the impending monsoon weather that was to strike during the game, I purchased a general admission ticket which would have placed me in the uncovered section which was under barrage by ever increasingly intense rains. Luckily, I was taken in by one of the ushers, who, being intrigued by my being an American ~~icon~~ rugby player, took pity on me and allowed me to sit in the stands. The first half was boring, and, not having a particular horse in this race, I started supporting Manawatu, although in the second half, Auckland turned on and ran away with it. After the match, I drove down to Wellington, as I was to pick Jon up from the airport the following morning, and it was a roughly 2 hour drive to Wellington.

Upon arriving in Wellington just after midnight, I set upon finding the airport, which was a bit harder than I thought, as I had to drive through the city, consulting my maps strewn about the passenger's seat while navigating the streets. After what seemed an eternity, but according to my watch was only 20 minutes, I arrived at the airport and started looking for a place to park for the night. Unfortunately, the parking at the Wellington airport is quite expensive, so I ventured into the surrounding suburbs in search of my resting place. Long story short, I became lost, driving around these suburbs until I found a promising street which seemed to lead to a park of sorts on the side of a hill. Unfortunately, this “park” was actually the service road leading to the Wellington Correctional Facility. So after an abrupt U-turn, I went back to the airport and parked along the service road between the airport and water.

Waking up to what I can only imagine to be gale-force winds rocking the van and nearly frightening myself out of the need to find a bathroom, I drove to the nearest public toilets to brush my teeth and clean myself up. Then it was back to the airport, and I picked Jon up, and after he had a good laugh at Johnny, we headed back into the city proper. Unsure of how to spend our afternoon, we started driving around, eventually ending up at the Te Papa (national NZ) museum. Being the only people in the entire museum between the ages of 15 and 30 who were there willingly, we seemed slightly out of place. The museum was interesting, and we learned a bit about earthquakes and giant squid, however; the most exhibits were geared towards elementary school kids. Upon exiting the museum, we set about finding either a kebab or pie place, as Jon was to sample the basic fares of NZ. We found a fancy kebab shop, and I was thoroughly disappointed in the overall product we received. The kebab wasn't toasted, and the meat was really peppery. It was a decent meal, but it wasn't a true kebab, mission : unaccomplished.

We spent a little more time walking around downtown Wellington, searching for a bar to spend the post-game at, including doing a little hands on research at Molly O'Sheas which included a cider and a beer while watching some rugby on the TVs. We then headed to the game and were impressed by the atmosphere of the stadium. We received Lions (the Wellington team) flags, and within 5 minutes, true to form, I broke mine, and had to run and get another. I now know why the Wellington Super 14 team is named the Hurricanes, as Westpac is an oval stadium with intensely swirling winds. This made it quite cold even while the sun was up, and downright freezing when it set. The game was really entertaining and Wellington came away with the win.

We then headed back into the city, and decided to park in an overnight parking structure than risk precious minutes finding a spot on the street. After settling in, we started our pre-game warmup of Jim Beam and Coke, catching up on just about everything and listening to music over the stereo. Now you may wonder why I added such a trivial tidbit of information like listening to music over the stereo, and you'll have your curiosity satiated, as I will tell you what happened. (Note: when a car is turned off, the battery does not replenish, as the alternator is not activated.) Well, the car wasn't on, and two hours of radio playing has a detrimental effect on the level of power in car batteries. In summation, our car died. Now, we panicked a little and were debating calling a tow-truck to help us jump-start our car, but our friend Mr. Beam convinced us that waiting til the morning, and indeed going out to the bars, was a better choice. Since we were in no condition to argue with such sound logic, that is what we did.

The next morning, we regretted our decision, being on the fourth floor of this parking garage, passing traffic was light. After a quick breakfast, we, being of (finally) sound mind, put the car in neutral and utilized a bit of elbow grease and gravity to get us down the ramps and onto the second floor where we waited for a car to pass by and help us jump the car. Eventually a gracious Samaritan aided us in our plight, most certainly not because we were also conveniently blocking the exit. After getting Johnny out of the grave, we headed north to New Plymouth.

Here in New Plymouth we found out the most frustrating part of New Zealand culture – everything closes at 5:00PM sharp. Now when I say everything, I mean everything except pubs, which is the only saving grace of New Plymouth, as we were fairly disillusioned by this lack of open amenities. Luckily we were able to grab a quick meal in the pub. Since Jon had yet to have a pie, we settled on the Pie&Pint special. While the meal was quite generous for the $15 price tag, the pie was again disappointing. This pie was fancy, placed in a bowl with sauce all over it, hardly a normal pie. Failure at every turn! After dinner, we drove out to Mt. Taranaki and camped out with the intention of scaling the mountain in the morning. Upon waking up again to hurricane-force winds and rain flying sideways, we made the intelligent decision of abandoning our mountain-scaling aspirations and decided to drive straight on to Taupo, taking the long way. A decision that was rewarded by intermittent sunshine, a NZ rarity.

New Zealand Pt 1

2010-09-28T11:27:00.002-05:00

Ok, I'm well behind, because my recap only encompasses my first 2 days in New Zealand (7 more to write about) and I haven't even touched on Durban, and I'm already in Cape Town. Maybe I'll write up a good summary on my 11 hour flight to London on Saturday, because I've already seen all the inflight movies on offer.

Here is the first part of the recap:

I feel silly writing about my amazing trip to New Zealand as I sit in a hostel in Durban, South Africa, but I haven't been able to pull myself away from my adventures long enough to sit down and recap everything. Now that the rain in Durban has cancelled my trip to uShaka Marine World... I'm left without choice.

Leaving Australia was a very difficult thing, as I've grown pretty fond of the goofy accents and sayings, but the fact that my destination was New Zealand, a place that I've wanted to visit ever since I was little, eased the transition. Flying into Auckland, I landed around 5:00pm with just enough daylight to be able to see the beautiful green landscapes (much more on this later) as I flew in. Unable to pick up the wicked van until the following day, I took a shuttle into the city, and true to form, I missed my stop. Luckily the bus driver was extremely gracious and was able to drop me off after he was done making the rounds. After I get off the bus, with my giant travel pack, duffel bag, and laundry bag (totaling roughly 80lbs) I saw that my hostel was up a hill of gigantic proportions (think San Francisco, or Mt Everest) and after ascending a city block at a 45* angle, I find out that this Auckland YHA is... the wrong Auckland YHA. I'm told that the one that I booked with is about two blocks away, and down a sheer vertical cliff (slight exaggeration). After stumbling my way down to the YHA, I check in, and head to my 8-dorm room to find the 7 Japanese people sharing with me have all of their bags on my bunk. After asking them to move their bags, I recieved 7 angry agitated stares, because this annoying arrogant American was so unreasonable in his request. I shrugged it off and went to bed.

Waking up the next day, I took the bus to Onehunga and picked up the van. Now, as awesome as Wicked Vans are, some of the designs and sayings on the side can be quite crude. Jimbo and I were lucky in Australia to be teamed up with a tame design (Holden). This time however, we were honored by having a JOHNNY BRAVO THEME! Holy buckets, I can't remember the last time I saw a Johnny Bravo cartoon, but he is still a BAMF. With quite a bit relief that we weren't paired up with a van with sexually explicit profanity (which are common in the Wicked fleet) I headed off to Hamilton.

Driving from Auckland to Hamilton is fairly easy, it was a 2 hour drive on major roads that resemble highways, which is not particularly the norm in NZ. I feel like this was a bit of a primer, for once I left the outskirts of Auckland, the countryside opened up into beautiful rolling hillside that I was to be accustomed to by the end of my trip. Pulling into Hamilton, I was surprised at how small the actual town was. With the exception of Wellington and Auckland, all "cities" in NZ are extremely small by US comparison. I mean, you do have to take into account that the population of NZ is roughly the same as the population of Minnesota. I rolled in arond 3:00 in the afternoon and the game wasn't until 7:30, so I explored a bit of Hamilton. After touring the entire town and spending about 15 minutes in the Canterbury of NZ store, it was 3:45, so I went back to the van and read until 6:00 when I went in the stadium for the curtain raiser (Waikato u16 v Counties Manukau u16 - the kids were my size and 15...) then the main game, Southland v Waikato. It was quite a treat to watch my first NZ rugby match, and it was a pretty good one. Southland is top of the table, and has James Paterson on the wing, who I played with back here in the states, and Waikato has a number of All Black players (Steven Donald, Brendan Leonard, and Aled de Malmanche) and I was able to see all of these players up close and personal. Southland won, and I was able to catch up with James for a bit after the game before I took off for Palmerston North.

Australia Recap RambleScramble

2010-09-14T06:53:00.000-05:00

I promised a recap of our Sydney adventures. For the most part they were pretty tame, nothing like climbing mountains or surfing. We were unbelievably lucky with the weather, as it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy (which it is now that Jimbo has left). We did a lot of walking, which was more than fine as Sydney is a beautiful city and we were in the nicest part of it. From our hotel it was only a 15 minute walk to the Sydney Opera House or the Harbour Bridge. Throw in Hyde Park, St. James Cathedral, the Botanical Gardens, and the Manly Ferry for good measure; Manly Beach, Bondi Beach, and Coogee beach; famous eateries and pubs (Lord Nelsons, Fortune of War, the Rugby Club, and more); and a LOT of cute girls, and Sydney is now resting near the top of my Cities-to-Live-in list.

Holy balls. 6 and a half months of my life have passed by in the blink of an eye. I can't even begin to fathom how I am going to write up a recap, so I guess I'll just start by rambling and sputtering out a stream of conscious post and cross my fingers that I am able to make it coherent.

SIX MONTHS! Honestly, I can still remember every moment from stepping off the plane, visiting the duty free shop, lugging my luggage through Customs, realizing I didn't have Theo's number, scrambling to get online at a kiosk, finding it, calling him, seeing him and Leah pull up outside of the terminal - friendly faces in a strange land, the hour-long drive to Kirra, stopping to grab McDonalds, watching the unfamiliar and exciting names on the highway signs as they flew past, pulling off the M1 and into Kirra, and collapsing in my new room on the futon. And that was just the first 3 hours in Australia.

I've lived in 3 houses, had 6 roommates, 5 jobs, too many weeks of unemployment, countless new friends, and the road-trip of a lifetime with my dad. To call these past 6 months exciting would be an understatement, and the only thing that tempers that excitement is the knowledge that I'm only half-way through my journey. I still have 10 days in NZ with Jon, 6 days in South Africa, 2.5 MONTHS in Uganda, and 7 more weeks of rugby in England, as well as a quick pit-stop in the Dominican Republic before heading home. It seems so far off, and so incomprehensible to imagine myself in all of these places.

Again, that is countered by the fact that I'm writing this while sitting in a harbour-side cafe looking at the Sydney Opera House. There were a number of times when my dad was here, as we scaled mountains, went surfing, and drove vast stretches of foreign highway that we had to take pause and realize that we were in Australia. And that no amount of time could detract from the fact that we were participating in an amazing adventure. How many people get the chance to spend quality time with their dad's at 23? Now how many people decide to go on a roadtrip with their dads? Now how many people get to do that in a beautiful foreign country? Its these sorts of things that keep my feet on the ground but my head up high. I'm so unbelievably blessed to be doing this, and its something that I am definitely thankful for.

One of the biggest changes that I've seen in myself has been my assertiveness and confidence. I have never been timid about things around my friends, and most can attest to one (if not dozens) of instances where I have been arrogant or stubborn. But we're focusing on the positives right now... My self-confidence has grown leaps and bounds, simply for the fact that I have engineered this trip for myself, set it in motion, and am currently in the midst of it. The fact that I have created this tangible trip from an idea, an ethereal and abstract notion of travelling around the world, still floors me. Many people say they would love to travel around the world, but don't because they fear they can't make it happen.

I will admit that there were numerous times along the way that I didn't think I'd be able to pull it off. Self-doubt used to be my specialty, and it would feed into itself, but having put together this trip, I can show to myself that I can accomplish just about anything. The level of sophistication required to plan multiple flights, vans, hostels, insurance, health checks, visas, expense accounts, etc is extremely daunting, and coordinating them has been, at times, a nightmare. But to be able to pull it off gives me extreme confidence in the fact that when I put my mind to something, I can achieve it (or come damn close).

One of the major downsides to this trip has been the gutwrenching loneliness that at times hits you like a tsunami. Sometimes its as simple as something reminding you of a friend back home, a joke or a scenario. Sometimes it just hits you when you see something and want to text your friend because they'll really appreciate the humor in something, but you realize that you can't. Sometimes it just hits you when you're not doing anything, and you realize that you can't really just call up your friend and have them hop online to play video games.

Now I'm not saying that I haven't made friends here, because I count many people here as friends, but that leads me to the biggest downside of this trip. The fact that I'm leaving behind solid mates. It wasn't until over halfway through my stay that I really could say that I had good friends here. Hughey, Jono, and Tony are definitely friends that I can confide in or call up to grab a beer, but now I've moved on from the Gold Coast and seeing them again isn't guaranteed. I can say the same for the other number of good friends that I've made here, Nick B, Nick S, Tommy, Matty, Jezza, Rezo, and the Jameys. It sucks that there is no guarantee that I'll see them again, because they are the ones that you cherish. These next 3 months, with the exception of Jon's visit, will be the loneliest and most isolated of my entire life. I will never be alone, but I will be sans established friends, and that is something I learned the value of early on in this trip.

Ok, I'm rambled out. I'll probably write more on this when I'm in Cape Town. I'm off to NZ tomorrow and I need to finish packing. Gross.

Wicked Van Tour Recap

2010-09-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

So. I was able to post the pictures from the past week or so, but (as you can see from the pictures) Pops and I were always on the go, so it was hard to sit down and bang out whats been going on. Now that Pops has left (sad day) I've got a bit of free time to sit and gather my thoughts.

Day 1: Dad Arrives. Unfortunately, the timing could have been better, as his flight got in at the same time that our D3 team played the Grand Final. C'est la vie, oui? Anyways, I picked Pops up at the Gold Coast airport in the van and we headed to Coolangatta/Kirra, where I first lived. We hit up Kirra Beach and walked around, then hit up Kirra Surf and looked at getting Jimbo some boardies. Didn't find any good ones for under $80, then we went to Pac Fair and found two pairs of shorts for $40. I took Jim to Burleigh Heads for lunch and we each had a kebab and meat pie, then we went to a bottle shop and I was able to show pops just how expensive alcohol is (a six pack of Bud is $18/24 bottles of average beer is $42).
Then we met up with the rest of the boys who were celebrating the end of their season loss in the Grand Final (screw Surfers). We were about 2 hours late to the party, but quickly made up for it. Saturday night was one of those nights that you remember for years (the parts that you can remember). A fitting and amazing sendoff. The music was pumping, beer and mixed drinks were flowing, and dancing was definitely had (see previous post). In fact, enough drinks were had that instead of fixing up the van to sleep on the bunk in the back... Jim and I just crashed in the front seats.

Day 2: Waking up hungover and having slept upright in the van was... ~~a treat~~ unpleasant. Luckily the hangover wasn't one of those debilitating ones, and we sorted the van out and had breakfast at a bistro in Burleigh Heads. Then we met up with a few of the boys at the clubhouse, said our goodbyes and headed to Mount Tamborine. At the top, we visited a winery, sampled some local Queensland wines and got to go into a Glow Worm cave, which was actually pretty cool. Then we drove out to the base of Mount Warning, where we spent the night.

Day 3: Mt Warning is the highest point on the East Coast of Australia, and it was a pretty grueling trek up to the top. Luckily we got an early start and were the only one's on the trail until our return trip. The view from the top is spectacular, and we could see both the Gold Coast and our next destination, Byron Bay. We started the trek at 7AM, were at the top by 9, headed down at 930, got back to the van by 11, drove to and were on the beach at Byron Bay by 1230. To go from the tropical jungle of Mt Warning, up to the blustery cold peak and back, then to pristine beaches all within 6 hours was quite the trip. A little sight-seeing in Byron and a nice dinner was on the agenda before heading back out to the highway rest-stop to park and sleep for the night (Byron Bay hands out $250 fines for overnight parking in campers).

Day 4: One word - Surfing. James Edward Mannix, 55, of Edina Minnesota, went surfing. Full wetsuit and all. Sadly, this is the one thing we don't have pictures of, but trust me when I say that he looked like a dark blueberry. Also unfortunately is the athletic requirements of surfing, which require being spritely and nimble, two things which Jimbo has long since lost due to his ailing knees. This made the already difficult task of standing up on the board ~~impossible~~ Herculean at best. Having snowboarded quite a bit, I thought that I would be able to conquer the waves easily. FALSE. To make the snowboarding analogy work, you would have to start by getting off the chairlift and straight into an avalanche. It. Was. Tough. I was only able to catch one good wave, where I rode the wave for about 10 seconds, and only stood up proper-like 4 times. Back to Jimbo... he struggled. Surfing is a lot of work, about 80% of it is paddling to get back into position. So after the first half-hour he was pretty exhausted. He soldiered through it and was able to get up on the board for about 3 seconds, although it was about 3 seconds of controlled falling.
After surfing, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed off to the Hunter Valley, stopping overnight outside Port Macquarie.

Day 5: Another early morning, and we got to the Hunter Valley around lunch time. Today we were on Jim's time, as he is the wine aficionado/enthusiast. First up we hit a small winery center for some tastings (I had two, Jim had six), then it was off to Tyrell's. Tyrells is one of the bigger names in Australian wine, and they had an amazing tour that showed how wine was made, how a good wine is made, and everything else about wine. Our tour guide was actually funny and informative, and for the beer drinker in me, actually engaging. At the end of the tour, we were allowed to sample two $90 bottles of wine. Needless to say, I couldn't really tell the differences between any of the 4 Shiraz's that I tried that day, from the $10 to the $90, but Dad could. So thats cool, I guess.

After a bit of a struggle to find food (everything closed at 4pm?) we headed further South, skirting around Sydney and into the Blue Mountains. Parking and sleeping at a little park not far from Echo Point.

Day 6: Another chilly/early morning and we set off to traipse around the Blue Mountains. We had a real scare, because as we got to Echo Point, there were about 10 coach buses with elementary school kids pouring out of them. Luckily, the kids didn't join us on our hike. Starting at Echo Point we headed down the Giant Stairs, which are a series of 900+ stairs hewn out of the rock face of the mountain. The stairs take you down the side of the Three Sisters, which is a pretty impressive formation of three spires. Once down the stairs (which was definitely the easy part) we took the Darndanelle Pass which was a very basic path through beautiful forest.

As we got back to the giant steps, groans from both parties were quickly validated, as the ascent was every bit as difficult as you'd imagine. 906 steps (we counted, but due to our rudimentary math skills, that number is not verified) and 1271 meters (that number is official, its on a plaque) later, our lungs and legs were burning. We grabbed lunch at a great little sandwich shop, tucked away (hat tip to the lady going into the bank who noticed we looked lost and hungry). Then it was off to Sydney!
We pulled up to the Circular Quay Marriott (which is one of the nicer hotels that I've stayed at) in our grungy Wicked Van. We neglected to tidy up the van, so we were unloading the van like the Clampetts. Bags and clothes strewn about as the bellhops and concierges looked on in what can only be described as a mixture between amusement and contempt. After dropping the van off and taking the train back, the first order of business was a proper shower.

Sydney updates to follow shortly.

Oh, Hey Pops. Lets be Pikeys for a week.

2010-09-09T03:01:00.001-05:00

Pops arrives in Coolangatta.

Massive sendoff by the boys. Singing our song.

Those Manificent Men of Bond Uni Pirates!

Then we proceeded to get our boogie on.

Our Majestic Chariot.

Drove to Mt Warning. Having a bit of cereal before our 2 hour ascent.

The last 200 meters were steep and rocky.

The view from the top of Mt Warning.

Oh. Byron Bay. BEAUTIFUL.

From the top of Mt Warning to the Eastern most point of Australia in about 4 hours.

Then it was off to the Hunter Valley and wine country.

Then to the Blue Mountains in Katoomba.

Bit of a nature walk in the Blue Mountains.

Pops and I with the Three Sisters. Hot.

Pictar Update

2010-08-31T02:11:00.000-05:00

Natural Bridge

Wallabies v Springboks

Brazenly flaunting the law.

Miss Driscoll came to visit.

The boys at our End-of-Season.

Tricia's last morning, we got up for the sunrise.

Another pretty picture.

Across the World - Pitbull/B.O.B.

2010-08-25T20:57:00.001-05:00

As I near the end of my Australian stay, many exciting things are about to happen.

The rugby season has ended, and that means that my time in Australia rapidly is running out. The Firsts (my team) had an abysmal season, going an impressive 2-14. Or, as I like to think of it, 2-4 to close out the season. Its been a long season, and I'll have another update on my season recap later.

As for the rest of my trip, I've solidified all of my remaining dates for flights etc. My itinerary looks ridiculous, and partly because it is. In the 6 weeks alone, I'll be hitting 3.5 continents, 7 countries, and over 21 cities. I'll be joined in parts by my dad (Gold Coast to Sydney) and my friend Jon (All of NZ). I have 10 flights planned, with over 21,851 miles to cover.

Thats nothing when you consider that the entire rest of my trip will cover 4.5 continents, 10 countries, 25 cities, and 41,988 MILES!!!! And thats only IF I stick to plan, which could be tricky, the presence of RyanAir in Europe makes it easy and tempting to shoot off to another country or two.

Itinerary so far:

9/3 Pick up Wicked Camper Van in Brisbane

9/4 Dad arrives in Gold Coast

9/5 Drive to Byron Bay

9/6 Drive to Coffs Harbor

9/7 Drive to Hunter Valley (Wine region for Jim)

9/8 Drive to Sydney, drop off van

9/9 Explore Sydney Harbour (Opera House, Bridge)

9/10 Explore Sydney (Coogee Beach)

9/11 TRI-NATIONS MATCH: NZ ALL BLACKS VS AUS WALLABIES!!!!!!!!! BLEDISLOE CUP!

9/12 Recover in Sydney (Circular Quay)

9/13 Dad Leaves

9/14 Free day in Sydney

9/15 Fly to NZ (Wellington) Take overnight bus to Auckland

9/16 Pick up Wicked Van - Drive to Hamilton - NPC RUGBY!!! Waikato v Southland!

9/17 Drive to Palmerston North - NPC RUGBY!!! Manawatu v Auckland!

9/18 Drive to Wellington - Jon Arrives - NPC RUGBY!!! Wellington v Hawkes Bay!

9/19 Drive to Dunedin - Meet up with Elliot - NPC RUGBY!!! Otago v Northland!

9/20 Drive to Fox Glacier - Hike a little bit on an ACTUAL GLACIER

9/21 Drive back to Wellington

9/22 Drive to Taupo

9/23 Drive to Rotorua

9/24 Drive to Auckland - Drop van off - catch overnight bus to Wellington

9/25 Jon leaves for Chicago - I fly to Sydney

9/26 Fly to Durban via Johannesburg

9/27 Free Day in Durban

9/28 Fly to Cape Town

9/29 Explore Cape Town (Robben Island)

9/30 Explore Cape Town (Cape Point)

9/31 Explore Cape Town (Tabletop Mountain)

10/1 Fly to London via Johannesburg

10/2 Fly to Istanbul

10/3 Fly to Entebbe

12/15 Fly to Istanbul

12/16 Fly to London

12/20 Holidays with Family

1/3 Leave Family

2/20 Fly to Miami

2/21 Fly to Puerto Plata

2/25 Fly HOME vis Miami

Ho-ly Balls.

"Its a true pleasure, you know, to travel the globe."

Australian Election 2010!!! More inane than you think!

2010-08-23T05:14:00.001-05:00

Yes, thats inane, not insane, although the wall to wall attack ads run in the past month certainly have the ability to drive one crazy.

As a self-professed nerd, with a degree in Political Science and a favoring of the international sort, I was afforded a great opportunity to study the Australian political system up close. Quite a few interesting things have occurred while I've been here:
- One of the most popular Prime Ministers in recent history (Kevin Rudd) was deposed from the office from agents within his own party (Labor aka Aussie Democrats). Think of it as a bloodless and toothless coup, as his successor resembled more of a Chamberlain than Charlemange, appeasement over power. Basically, KRudd rode populist hopey-changey sentiment into power (a la ObamaNation 2008) and quickly became stuck in the mud due to the Coalition (Liberals aka Aussie Republicans - Confusing, no?).
- KRudds successor was actually a HUGE first for Australia, and it was the first time they had a ranga as Prime Minister... the ranga also happened to be a woman, another first. Despite her Brutus/Judas-like ascension to the top, she has done little to nothing spectacular since she's been in office except for her kowtowing to the opposition and Big Mining over the proposed mining tax (which was a fair pro-rated tax, as opposed to the minimal royalties system currently in place).
- Fun fact: Julia Gillard (ranga) is actually Welsh. I don't mean that she only has Welsh ancestry, but that she was actually BORN in Wales and emigrated Down Under when she was young. Maybe its just my ardent patriotism, but I don't like the idea of a country being run by a foreigner (a la TERROR BABIES!) Thank God we have laws against that sort of thing in this country, and despite what the ~~wacked out conspiracy theorists who can't accept evidence and reality~~ Birthers say, Obama was born in Hawaii, which, although close, is not foreign soil. Its too bad though... I feel like there are some good foreign candidates.

Now for a little delve into the mechanics of Australian politics, namely that of compulsory voting. I'd like to start out by saying that I am hugely in favor of universal suffrage, and don't necessarily agree that the voting age is 18 in the States. That said, compulsory voting is a mistake. The act of voting is a privilege, a sacred right guaranteed to the people by the sovereign constitutions of these states. To participate in a free and fair democratic election has been the cornerstone of American domestic and foreign (nation building anyone?) policy for decades. Its the very nature on what America was founded on, opposition to tyranny of the monarchy. To a large extent, that should excuse Australia from their misgivings on electoral policies, but that they are now an independent country, they can no longer be excused under the Commonwealth system. What baffles me is that the practice of compulsory voting is so very counter-intuitive to the concept of the freedoms of democracy. Suffrage is a right, but in Australia, it is a right without liberty. You cannot exercise your right to abstain from voting, well, if you did it would cost you a $110 fine.

Besides the abstract notions of liberties, freedoms, and democracies, there is a much more tangible threat to the good inherent in democracies: stupid people. Thats right, stupid people are dangerous to society, and in more ways than just flooding the world with NASCAR stickers, bad haircuts, poor language skills, and even more stupid people. Stupid people in Australia (there are slightly more than a handful) are now forced to take part in a political system which they do not understand and have no interest in participating. Now this also extends to people who are simply apathetic about politics (which to me is stupidity in-and-of-itself), but we'll lump them in because they too are forced to vote. Basically, their vote engenders instability in the political system, as instead of researching or even caring, they simply walk into the voting booth and vote for either the first candidate on the ballot or the one with the same name as someone they know
.
Having lived in Australia for the past 6 months and especially in the past month, I can attest to how few people truly care about politics in Australia. I don't think the lack of quality choices helped the matter. On one side, you have Julia Gillard, who is a nerfed down version of Hillary Clinton. Her Pros are that she can cave in to pressure on command, is the first female Prime Minister (more of a Con in Australia), and is the leader of the lame-duck majority. Her Cons include the fact that she's a ranga. The opposition, Tony Abbott, is basically an athletic Glenn Beck with radar ears. He is a rabid conservative who would likely join the Tea Party if he could, as he opposes taxes and poor people. His Pros are that he can finish an Ironman, can hear anything whispered within 200 meters, and is in touch with the average Australian (sadly). His Cons are that he is a heartless socially conservative baboon. The third parties in these elections (Parliamentary elections, as many parties as you want!) is the Independents/Green Party, which is a bunch of Al Gore/Ralph Nader/Joe Liebermann/Ross Perot wannabes trying to make eco-conscious/anti-establishment decisions.

The funny thing is: With the election results rolling in, it looks as though there will be a hung parliament (sounds like a good idea to do with Congress) which means there will be a deadlock between the two major parties. This gives the Independents and Greens the ultimate power, as their votes would be needed to form a government to pass basically any and all legislation. Reuters does a good job of explaining the confusing nature of Parliamentary elections.

/nerd-out

Rough Week/Backwards Country

2010-08-15T03:35:00.002-05:00

The girl is gone.

My dog got put to sleep.

Massive hangovers.

Lost our last game.

Rugby is over.

But I'm still in Australia.

There is always the silver lining that I'm doing what most people only dream of.

I figure since I only have 3 weeks left in Australia (holy balls!), I should reflect on my time here a bit.

Left is right and up is down.

Differences. There are a lot of them. I've kept a running list of the different things that I notice and I'll keep updating more.

Cars drive on the WRONG side of the road here. Its led to me almost being run over a lot of times, because you have to check right, left, right... so all of those years of left right left have actually made it more dangerous for me to cross the street. But I'm fully used to driving on the WRONG side of the road. The tricky part is the manual cars at my work. I guess its a good thing I never learned how to drive a manual in the States, because its hard enough here.
The lightswitches are reversed. You click down to turn the power on, and up to turn them off. There are also switches above all of the power outlets, so you can leave your stuff plugged in and just hit the switch when not in use.
One of the most annoying things is that TV shows are about 6 weeks behind, so I have about 5 more weeks to get caught up with White Collar. Leah's favorite show is Oprah, which I think is still back in November of 2009... I'm not too concerned about that one. Also, instead of a Daily Show or Colbert report, there is the 7pm Project, which is a cross between the evening news and The Soup. Its usually hit or miss. Also, TV here isn't as... professional as in the States... its like a decent College community TV.
Mixed drinks in a can. I can't stress how dangerous these are.
The Internet here is SUPER SLOW and extremely expensive. There are very few places with free internet, and not many people have wireless or high-speed internet. A lot of people (myself included) use those portable USB sticks, but its $50 for 4GB. In my first week, I went through the whole 4GB in two days... needless to say, I had to learn to ration my youtube time.
The accent varies. Most of the time, its charming and pleasant to hear, but there is also a “valley girl” accent popular with girls. Essentially it makes them sound like airheads, and when they say “no” or “know” it always whiny and sounds like “Noooeeeeehhhhr.” And its like nails on a chalkboard. They also pronounce the letter H as "haych" and Z as "zed." They also mispronounce every other word. Most notably, they pronounce the T in fillet.
Burger King is Hungry Jacks, same logo, just replaced the words. And Axe is Lynx. There are a lot of seemingly knock-off stores. Australians have also figured out what is the Beyond in Bed Bath and Beyond, because there is a store Bed Bath and Table.
List of words that are officially shortened (ie they appear on signs everywhere)
- Pokies = Slots, Brekky = Breakfast, Pashing = Making out, Tomato Sauce = Ketchup, Hire = Rent, Lollies = Candy, Arvo = Afternoon, Tucker = Food, Kip = Sleep, Bickie = Cookie, Dear = Expensive, Serviette = Napkin, Esky = Cooler, Rego = Registration, Scratchy = Lottery, Sunnies = Sunglasses, Thongs = Sandals (very confusing at first), Tinny = can of beer, Jersey/Jumper = Sweater/Sweatshirt, Doona = Quilt, Chewie = Gum.

Visitors: Past, Present, and Future

2010-08-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

All is good in the hood.

I've started my 5th job in as many months. I'm working at a car rental (hire) service in Coolangatta. Basically its like a Hertz or Budget, and my official title is that of "detailer." Basically when people bring a car back, I vacuum the inside, which takes roughly 5 minutes, then wash the outside, which takes another 5 minutes. Its a pretty crusiy job, with the only rush ever coming in the mornings when there are bookings coming in and out at some frequency. Usually things slow up by the afternoon (like today).

I work on an alternating schedule of 4 days, working Saturdays and every other Sunday. Its nice because I enjoy working here, its an easy job, the people are cool, and I get to drive. The only setback is that I have to learn how to drive a manual on wrong side. The bonus is that Saturdays are time-and-a-half and Sundays are double, so I like working weekends.

I've moved into a new place, which is absolutely perfect for me. Its closer to the club, a 90 second walk to the beach (with a beautiful hill/vista/lookout right there), a supermarket across the street, and its no longer a 15 minute walk to the nearest bus stop. Rent is much cheaper, and my roommates are really relaxed, so I'm quite happy.

As for visitors, I recently hosted Aurora, am currently hosting Tricia, and found out in the past few days that I'll be hosting my dad. Aurora's stay was great. It was really good to see her after about 5 months. It was a bit awkward at first, but we were able to figure things out and had an amazing time anyway. Its always good to have someone from back home to keep me sane. Highlights included finding an amazing Indian restaurant, stealing all of her music onto my computer, catching up, and a great night out in Brisbane. It was bittersweet sending her off at the airport, but it was good closure.

Tricia is finally back in the Gold Coast after spending roughly 5 straight weeks travelling around Australia. She went from here to Sydney, met some French people in Sydney and drove up the coast to Cairns, flew back down to Sydney, and finally flew back here. There is considerably less space at my new place, but we've figured out sleeping arrangements that include a couch/bed rotation based on my work schedule. Again, its amazing having someone from back home to give you a bit of sanity, and a tether to how things used to be.

As for Jimbo, he recently surprised me with the news that he was flying down to Australia to visit me. We've worked out the details so that he'll fly into Sydney, catch a quick domestic up to the Gold Coast, hang out here, and then we'll drive down the coast back to Sydney. We'll make the usual touristy stops, but the cool thing is that we might be doing it in a Wicked Camper van (wickedcampers.com.au) which would be ... awesome. When we get back to Sydney, we'll be hitting up the All Blacks v Wallabies Bledisloe Cup match (one of the most intense rivalries between the top teams in the world).

Like I said, things are good.

P.S. Check out these songs, they've been getting alot of play time on my iPod lately:
Little Lion Man - Mumford and Sons
This Ain't a Love Song - Scouting for Girls
Riding Solo - Jason Derulo
Justice - Lemar
Sunsets (Accoustic version) - Powderfinger

Rugby

2010-07-18T06:59:00.000-05:00

In the first rugby related post in awhile... we won our first game this past Saturday. Beating the Helensvale Hogs 13-5.

The defense we've been working on for the past few weeks has really coalesced into a stout unit. I believe my game managing skills have improved at flyhalf (though there is ample room for improvement). A muddy day, playing on the reserve field (due to the Gold Coast City Council wisely watering the field 4 times in a week, including Friday night) but despite those conditions, we prevailed.

And promptly celebrated like it was the Grand Final. But after going 0-11 to start the season, I think we were allowed a little wiggle room there.

Changes (cue 2Pac song)

2010-07-15T19:58:00.003-05:00

I figured that I've been here for 4.5 months (137 days, 3288 hours, 197280 minutes, and 11,386,800 seconds, thanks Google) and it was time to look back at how I've changed, as well as what has stayed constant. Its really easy to “discover” or “lose” yourself in a new place. With only one person who knew me before I moved here, and now having moved out for a few months, there is no real anchor to the persona status quo. (Yes, I just made that up). Facebook isn't a strong enough connection to home, and I've slipped on the skype consistency with the parents, so I'm not sure there is a tether to who I was back home.

This post will be a bit of introspection as well as a bit of a rant. I've changed slightly, in some very noticeable ways, as well as in ways that took a bit of a looking for. The major problem that I have with my situation in Australia is that the Gold Coast is like Vegas, or Miami Beach, or the OC. It is a shallow place, where the emphasis is on superficial self-gratification. Imagine the most base luxuries (MMA t-shirts, pouring thousands of dollars into cars worth half as much, excessive partying, party pills, and rampant narcissism) and you have the Gold Coast. There is a lack of depth to much of this place that leads me to be happy I'm only spending 6 months here.

As with life, there are no absolutes, and luckily I have met some fantastic people who are truly exceptions to this Gold Coast rule. The guys I've met through the rugby team have been some of the best and most genuine people I've been privileged to meet. It takes a lot of character, I believe, to be 0-11 and still show up for training. Surrounding myself with these people has been crucial to keeping a level head in this place.

Well, rant:over. Time for the list.

Changes

I can drive on the ~~left~~ wrong side of the road. And am good at it.
I wear v-neck shirts. And pull it off!
I capably utilize public transportation.
I can now run over 10ks (6 miles). Continuously! Before I left, I capped out at 3 miles.
I cook for myself, and healthily.
I'm fully self-sustainable. Quite the feat.
I've learned how to play defense. And tackle.
I have started to swear a lot more as a consequence of living in the Gold Coast. (Hey, they aren't all positive).
I've started talking like an Aussie/Kiwi. I use heaps instead of a lot, cheers instead of thanks, and “Oy” as an attention-getter.
I've learned the value of money, and how to be frugal. I no longer spend my money on every want, usually just needs. The occasional frivolous spending sneaks in, but I try to keep them to a minimum.
I haven't had Taco Bell since I got here! Mainly because the only Taco Bell in Australia is in Sydney, but thats still impressive!

There are many more, but that is roughly the go for now.

Cheers.

Biking and the Wild Side

2010-07-01T08:56:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a bicycle of the KMart variety. Clocking in at a fairly economical $99, my new mode of transportation has already been put to good use. In addition to biking to and from practice (about 5 miles away), I decided that it would be a good bit of excercise to bike to the Palm Beach Rugby Academy, where I've been helping Theo coach a U-15/16 team.
First of all, I would like to make this disclaimer (read: complaint): Google Maps makes distances seem alot shorter than they really are. Its like the exact opposite of the warnings on side-view mirrors that reads: Caution! Objects in mirrors closer than they appear. Well, the Academy seemed alot closer than it was. When you travel by car or bus, the distance seems so short, and effortless!
Second of all, it is roughly 13 miles from my house to the Academy, and I'm pretty sure that it was all uphill going there (until I started on my way home, in which case it was definitely all uphill). For those of you who are uninformed, that is a half marathon there and a half marathon back. I biked a marathon, which is harder than it sounds! Fortunately, unlike the poor guy who ran the first marathon, I didn't die.
Third of all, I have a sneaking suspicion that when I (my diesel mechanic friend Hugh) put the bike together, I (my diesel mechanic friend Hugh) tightened the back brakes a bit too much, thusly creating an extra bit of difficulty. I like to think that Lance Armstrong does this from time to time... it makes me think that I'm getting an extra workout in.
Fourth of all, biking there was fine, because it was still light out. Biking back, on the other hand, was Blair Witch-like at times. Because I don't have a helmet, and some of the bike paths are on busy 3-5 lane roads, I stuck to the bike paths on the way back. Now it was about 8:30PM when I started my return journey, and the sun sets promptly at 5:45. Needles to say it was dark. Like, really really dark. Imagine shutting yourself in a dark room, blindfolded, under blankets, and with two eyepatches... got that image in your head? Well it wasn't really like that, because thats kind of really scary to imagine, but it was pretty dark. Back to the bike paths, many of them don't have lights, and so it was hard to see the path at times. One of these bike paths decided that it would be a good idea to go down under a road, with ominous trees on either side, and a pitch black tunnel as its main event. It was just as I was approaching this tunnel, and the pitch black abyss that invited me in, that my iPod decided that it would be a good time to play Take A Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed). Needless to say, I was given the false courage to blindly enter the tunnel, midway through which I hit a puddle and splashed myself. This was also within the first mile of the return trip.
I hate tunnels, and the wild side.

Realization

2010-06-24T01:47:00.000-05:00

Talking with Danae on facebook, I realized just how lucky I am. We were talking about our experiences abroad, and it dawned upon me that:

Life is so fantastic that its hard to comprehend how good it is... Its like I don't really have a constant to measure it against, but there are times where I just sit and think, "I'm living the dream that others can't imagine."

I am resolving to make this a constant for myself. I want to constantly be experiencing/seeing/learning/tasting/feeling new things all the time. One of the few things that I could point to as a life motto or creed would be that I never want to regret missing out. Unfortunately, money gets in the way sometimes, but the trip to Fingal Point this weekend proved that you can experience amazing things with great people on the cheap. Prioritizing my money, away from alcohol and fast food, leaves me more money to experience the amazing things in life. Case in point: I laid off the sauce the past two weekends, and will be spending my "alcohol" money on the ticket for the Australia v Ireland test. My first international rugby match... I'm just over a little stoked.

Fingal Point and Dreamtime Beach.

2010-06-20T05:55:00.000-05:00

Easily the most beautiful spot in Australia so far.
Drove about 30 minutes south, into NSW, to Fingal Point. The beach there is called Dreamtime Beach... which is pretty apt description. Amazing beach, massive 10 foot waves, an island, and a huge rock formation perfect for climbing. Pictures to follow.

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Living it up

2010-06-06T02:39:00.000-05:00

Again, life is good. Its hard to find stuff to keep updating with the fact that I'm always doing well, with life being pretty routine, etc.
We finished the first round of our competition 0-8. We seem to find new ways to lose every week. Its quite frustrating to lose every match to teams that we're equals to. With the exception of one team, Surfers Paradise, no team has necessarily been that much better than us, at least not to the point of how badly we've lost. We seem to make the basic mistakes that every team makes, except that we double the amount of mistakes, and can't capitalize on the ones that the other teams make. I've been "promoted" to flyhalf, which is the position that I wanted to play when I came over here. At least now I'm gaining experience at the position I'm hoping to play when I get back home, even if we do still continue to lose.
So despite losing, life is good.

Tricia lands in 6 days. I'm extremely excited.

3 Months

2010-05-31T06:44:00.000-05:00

Um... I've been in Australia for three months now, and it still feels like I just got off the plane.

Big News as of the last update:
- I'm still working the door-to-door job. I've been promoted to 2IC, which is more paperwork and the same amount of money... but I get a new shirt... its blue with a chest pocket.
- We're 0-7 in rugby. I got to play flyhalf last week. I hope I keep playing there.
- Tricia gets here in like 10 days. It'll be awesome having an American here, I'm starting to get over the Aussie accent. They mispronounce EVERYTHING! They say "haych" instead of "aych" for the letter H, and they say "zed" instead of "zee" for the letter Z, then there is the inability to pronounce almost everything else.

Really, not that much else going on in the wide world of me... I'll see if I feel deep and introspective enough to write a rambling personal post later. Til then (or something actually happens)... cheers.

Labor day - anything but labor-some.

2010-05-03T06:15:00.000-05:00

One of my good friends Hugh has been working on an old Ford Model-T that he and another guy unearthed in Northern Australia. They reckon it had been buried for over 60 years, and it was in pretty rough shape. Huey, being a diesel mechanic, decided that they should refurbish it, as a sort of pet project. He's got an old storage shed in a nearby suburb where he is working on it, and he's been working on it for about 6 months now.

Today Huey was taking the two front wheels to a specialist to get them refurbished and ready to be fixed on. The problem is that this specialist lives in Allora, which is about two hours inland from the Gold Coast. He asked if we'd like to make the trip with him, and having not seen Australia more than 15km from the shore, and not been outside of the Gold Coast/Brisbane area, I jumped at the opportunity. A mini-road trip into the Australian countryside with Huey and Aaron, sounds like a nice and easy day.

The drive out there took longer than expected due to some traffic and a wrong turn around Jimbooba (what a sweet name), but the countryside was absolutely stunning. We alternated between farmland, lush rainforest, and mountainous terrain. It reminded me of driving in rural Minnesota, on the small roads in Hawaii, and the hills and mountains in Vermont and inland New England. Along the way we passed cities with fantastic names, with consonants seriously outnumbered by vowels.

It was a nice escape from the pressures and glamor of the Gold Coast, which can be quite superficial at times. This really is a party city, Surfers Paradise especially, but I have found quite genuine people. It was great to have long, deep conversations with Huey and Aaron during the drive, as I get the feeling that the Gold Coast isn't the best setting for self-reflection and discovery. We were able to talk about sports, girls, politics, and everything else. With background like the rolling hills and mountains of inland Australia, it really felt like we escaped the Gold Coast, at least for an afternoon.

Like I said, it was a good day.

Birth of a Salesman

2010-05-03T05:58:00.000-05:00

Holy balls. I've been terrible at updating. My life is extremely busy, and every time I sit down to write something, I know that I'll be long winded, so I usually just check facebook instead. First things first: I finally have a job. Hooray, right? Wrong-ish. My new job is part of an integrated multi-faceted sales and marketing campaign for a major energy company in South East Queensland. That is the nicest way of saying that I go door-to-door and try to get people to switch energy companies.

Now lets get things straight, I'm a graduate of Creighton University, which was ranked #1 in the MidWest by US and World News Report. I'm a Political Science major, with interests in attending graduate school for International Relations and Development. I wrote a 36 page senior thesis complete with my own dataset and statistical analysis of International Intervention in African Ethnic Conflicts Post-1960. I sell an energy company door to door. I get turned down at most houses, with some people being quite rude to me. I make very little money right now. It is an absolute nightmare to try to make rugby practice. I also am loving the job.

Wait... what?

I'll be honest, I hated the idea at first. It seemed below me, it seemed hard, it seemed a lot of bad things. But I've actually discovered that I enjoy the constant interaction. While many people say “no thanks, mate, she's alright,” I've found that the people who I actually get a chance to talk to are fascinating people. I've met Canadians, Scots, Irish and English, Greeks, Philippinos, Brazilians and South Africans on my walks. Just last friday, I signed up this elderly Canadian couple who used to live in Ontario, and I spent an extra half-hour after all the paperwork was done just talking to them about my journey, their journeys, and the USA v Canada game in the Olympics. I find that I get to practice my people skills at every door. I am gaining valuable experience in how to talk to people, how to sell someone on something, whether it be an energy company or even just an idea. I'm learning how to hold a conversation with someone that I have little to nothing in common with. I'm learning about why people do the things they do, and say the things they say. I've also found out that I'm pretty good at this job.

Most new recruits are expected to make about 1 sale a day, just because its hard when you first get started, because its new and you might not know the product very well. On my first day, I spent the first two hours with my manager, watching him make the pitch and sale. Then it was my turn to make the pitch (and hopefully sale) with him there to help me if I struggled. Then I was on my own for the next 3 hours. For someone who gets stage fright quite easily (I get flustered when I have to answer a question in a class of friends) this was immensely intimidating. I would walk up to a door, rehearsing my introduction, and as soon as I knock on the door, my brain would lock up and I'd forget what I was trying to say. So not only was I an annoyance in the form of a door to door salesman, I was a stammering fool of one. Luckily, you get used to it, and your confidence grows. You learn too shrug off the rude people, forgive those who you can't help, and appreciate those who give you the time of day.

Anyway, rookies are expected to make 4-5 sales their first week, and thats working 6 hours a day, for five days. I made 2 my first day, which was a minor miracle considering my nerves. Only 1 the following day, which was a Wednesday. Thursday, I left early to make rugby practice, but I had already made 3 sales, which put me at 6, and secured a $200 bonus for my first week. The first rookie who got 10 sales gets a $100 bonus, so I needed 4 sales Friday to make that, because I wasn't working Saturday due to rugby. At the last house I visited, I got the 4th sale, a Gin and Tonic, and an invitation to join this elderly British couple golfing. The man invited me to join him golfing (clubs, greens fee, and cart provided) after he discovered that I was a world traveller, rugby player, and terrible golfer. He himself had done a world tour (in 1963), was a former rugby player, and self-proclaimed golf pro (which his wife had a good laugh at). It just goes to show what talking to people can do for you.

“Oh the places you'll go...” and the things you'll sell.

Driving like my sister... Poorly.

2010-05-03T05:55:00.000-05:00

I endangered countless lives last week. I got behind the wheel of a car (which took some time to find, because someone had moved it to the other side). I figured that I had been here roughly two months, and have been passenger in countless car trips around the Gold Coast. Also, I no longer panicked when we approached a roundabout and the cars came from the wrong direction. (side note: teach your children to look left-right-left when crossing the street, because you need to look both directions, and it comes in handy when Australian drivers act like they get bonus points when swerving at and scaring the bejeezus out of pedestrians) We were only going to the gas station and the liquor shop, so it'd be a nice little trip, and I was familiar with the route to both places (Mom, I don't go to that liquor shop that much, mainly because there is one closer.)
So I slid into the drivers/what-is-rightfully-the-passenger's-side and took a moment to familiarize myself with the vehicle. Surprisingly it was almost exactly the same as American cars. The gas and brake are in the same place, the blinkers and wipers are in the same place, and the steering wheel was round, just like in America. Now, the car I was about to potentially turn into an accessory to vehicular homicide is an old early-90s station wagon with the cloth on the ceiling hanging down, partially obscuring the rear-view, and making it easier for something to go wrong.
Now, I started the old beast and backed out of the driveway, nearly clipping the side-view mirror off in the process. We got rolling, and it wasn't too difficult on our suburban street, and I mainly just hugged the middle of the street to avoid the parked cars. Then I encountered the first obstacle of our journey... a roundabout. Now, we don't really have these in the states, and the only one's we have are single lane roundabouts, whereas here they regularly have two lane roundabouts and I've even encountered the traffic cluster-**** known as the three lane roundabout. Luckily, the only roundabouts that I had to contend with were one lane, and I handled them with the grace and aplomb of a veteran. This unfortunately put me in a rather cocky state of mind so that I relaxed and stopped thinking about what I was doing. This led me to almost kill an elderly man as I pulled into the gas station. I was pulling in as he was pulling out, and instinctively I cut in front of him to pull in on the right side, which was WRONG. The man, with no idea that I was a moronic American asshole, continued to drive and turn left, as was his every right, and I cut him off, nearly causing him to swerve into a large pole. Sheepishly I waved and acknowledged my mistake via the language of car-to-car hand gestures, and he readily responded with a car-to-car hand gesture of his own.
I managed to pull the car up to the gas pump without any further incident. We filled up, I calmed my nerves down, and we were off to the booze store, which was a few km away. Luckily it was on mostly straight roads and only 3-4 roundabouts. Unfortunately, I was still American, and thusly a poor driver on these roads. Aaron was in the passenger/should-be-driver's-seat, giving me tips and helping me out. Poor Aaron was terrified the entire time, as I kept drifting over to the left side of the road, as I instinctively want to be on the left side of the lane. This is great for driving on American roads with American cars, however, this is not so great when there is an extra four feet of car that you unconsciously forget about. This led to quite a few nervous moments and choice words from Aaron as I unwittingly came within centimeters of bridge railings, parked cars, and even guy on a bike. Long story short, we made it to the liquor store and back, but I have been told that it will take awhile for Aaron to build up the confidence to allow me to drive again.
I now have an idea of how you can be such a terrible driver, right Emily?

Birthday and stuff...

2010-04-13T21:37:00.000-05:00

So. This is my first birthday away from friends and family, and to be honest, I almost forgot about it. I realize that there is a huge isolation between the two worlds I built and am building for myself. My only real experience with these seperate spheres of living has been when I went away to college, and even then, I came home about every other month, and kept in touch with all my friends, and was making new ones all the time. Now I'm here, its a really surreal experience where time is seemingly subjective. There is a growing sense of independence and maturity, as I'm "on my own," yet there is also a growing sense of estrangement from the familiar.

This isn't a mopey sentiment, not yet at least. I'm approaching the situation with a bit of analytical objectivity myself, so I can realize that this is what is happening, as it is happening. I'm a third party observer of the first person self. Its quite interesting actually. Its an excercise in introspection and reflection. As I get further and further into my Australian adventure, I find myself further and further from my old "American self." I use quotations because I don't think that my old self was fully appreciative of what I can become. Even Australia, with its innumerable ties to Americana, has shaken me out of the comfort zone of "being American."

I think that it is really easy to become self-insulated in Americana, with its international importance and domincance of political, military, and economic matters. Even as a Political Science university graduate with a focus on the international relation aspect of things, I feel like I viewed the world from a looking glass. I saw the outside world, but had never ventured to step out of the security and comfort of country. Its like learning about the world through a window, understanding why the wind blows, why it rains, why the grass grows, but never being able experience a breeze, the feeling of raindrops, or the grass beneath your feet.

I think that Australia has been a nice easy stepping stone for me, allowing me to play rugby and ease into the outside world. Australia is my front porch, and I can't wait for Uganda.

New Crib

2010-04-07T00:06:00.000-05:00

Its been awhile since I've updated, but a lot has happened. I've moved into a new apartment with some boys from the team. Aaron and Jamie Wallace, Kiwi immigrants. Met them at practice, went out to the bars after a match, and moved in two weeks later. Whirlwind bro-mance. Its much closer to Gold Coast central, as Kirra, where I was living before is on the outskirts. I'm going to miss waking up and running on the beach though, the beach is a 25 minute walk, but still really accessable. Closer to the club, closer to the nightlife, and closer to jobs... hopefully.

The boys on the left and Huey.

The house itself is spectacular. Its a 5 bedroom share-house, but only the three of us live here. It has a massive living room, good sized kitchen, and a sweet shaded patio. The backyard has a pathway that leads to the canals and a dock, although you can't swim in them. They're fully infested by bull sharks. The boys put a whole chicken on a hook and hung it off the side and within a few minutes... gone.

The walkway.

We have our first game this weekend, against Surfers Paradise, which is supposedly a pretty powerhouse team. Somehow I've managed to crack into the starting XV. I'll be playing outside center and getting run over. Talking to some of the older guys, their best players are their 13 and 15, so I've got my work cut out for me. Its nice to be up in the backline, as opposed to 15. I get stuck in more, and it forces me to work on my deficient areas (defense, passing, reading the game, rucking, and rugby in general). We're a small and young team, so we're going to have our work cut out for us every game, but the best part about the club is that nobody puts themselves above the team, so it'll be easy for us to pick each other up after we get run over.

The nightlife is awesome (and still very expensive). This past weekend being Easter, we had Thursday off for practice, so Aaron, Jamie, Huey, and I went up to the Sunshine Coast (north of Brisbane) with some other boys. We rented a massive apartment for the night and wanted to hit up the town. The first fail of the day was on my part, as all the liquor shops were closed, and I had no beer. Luckily the boys had quite a few extra, crisis averted. We booze cruised it up to the Sunny Coast (which normally is a 2 hour drive, but took us 4 with the traffic, fail #2). Now, one of the redeeming qualities about Australia is that it is legal to drink in a moving vehicle, provided you aren't driving it. That took the edge off of the traffic situation (cancels out fail #2). After we got there, we polished off a few more beers, went to the beach, grabbed some dinner (McDonalds was eaten 4 times that weekend, and they don't have the dollar menu, fail #3,4). Then we headed out for the night at 11:30 (bars opened at midnight due to being closed for Good Friday). The first bar we went to, which was coincidentally called Fridays and supposed to be amazing, was closed (fail #5). The next one we went to, 421, was open.

Normally this would counterbalance Fridays being closed, but this bar sucked. All 8 of us boys were some of the first ones in there, and the whole place smelled like stale everything (fail #6). The place quickly got packed with all of the local meatheads, and they crowded the bar, making it hard to get drinks (fail #7). The dancefloor sucked, and it was apparently an ugly convention on both sides of the gender line (fail #8). Then there was this one guy who would whistle along to a song, except it was just to the beat, and it was a shrill high pitch that was like a referee whistle right next to your ear, no matter how far away he was in the club (fail #9). We all walked home earlier than close, tired and annoyed, had McDonalds again, cancelling out two weeks of hard training, and broke the fan roughhousing when we got back (fails #10,11). Instead of staying another night, we just came back and got a good sleep on Saturday night, which helped for going out on Sunday night, which was to the local watering hole, the Mermaid Tavern. Long story short, whiskey gingers, boxed wine (goon) and “slap the bag” a bit of dancing, some really good pizza equaled a good night and made up for Friday night.

The job situation is still pretty bleak, although I did receive a call from a company today that would be sweet to work for (a civil military sales company), so fingers crossed on that. So far I've applied for about 75 jobs online, and haven't gotten a single hit. My junk mail job is back down in Kirra, which is a 45 minute bus ride, so I'm off that. I'm starting to work my way down the prestige ladder and start applying for jobs at department stores and the like, and if I don't have anything by next week... McDonalds and Happy Jack (Burger King) are receiving an application from a graduate of the #1 Private University in the Midwest, according to U.S. News and World Report.
And if that doesnt work, I might take a dip in the canal.

JAWS lives here.

First Job - A day of fails

2010-03-31T23:28:00.001-05:00

My first job in Australia! I've been looking for a job pretty much since I've landed, willing to do anything from construction/landscaping (tradies jobs) to secretarial office work. I mean, I'm a college graduate, and I'm willing to get my hands dirty, it should be easy to pick up a job, right? So my first job ends up being...

Delivering junk mail.

So, I'm getting desperate and browsing the 5 different job sites and the local version of craigslist and I find a job that describes itself as "Hand out flyers, make $400 a week." Its been almost 4 weeks, and I haven't even gotten a sniff of a real job, so I threw out a quick application to it. I received a response and was told to be at the racetrack at 10AM the next day. The racetrack is about a 2 minutes bike ride away, so I was happy it wasn't too far. The next day I headed down on my bike, excited to have a job finally!

My excitement quickly dissipated when I realized that the lady's "office" was actually in an old horse stable (which still smelled like it and had 300k flies buzzing around, Fail #1). Now, when you think of flyers... you think of a single sheet of paper, at least I do. So I was also a bit put off when I saw a stack of advertising magazines like the kind Best Buy puts out - stacked as high as I am (Fail #2). The lady was a bit dismayed that I didn't have a car, and frankly, I was too at that point. I brought my little backpack with me, which was grossly inadequate to carry the papers back to the apartment (Fail #3).

I quickly biked back to the apartment and borrowed an old duffel bag from Theo, which I subsequently ripped after I put two stacks of papers in it (Fail #4). My last resort was to use my Eagle Creek travel backpack, which is sturdy as. So I grabbed it and was able to fit a few stacks in it... each stack of junk mail weighed about 25lbs, so I was packing 75lbs per trip... on a bike... with near-flat tires (Fail #5-6). Trying to steer a bike with that much weight swinging side to side on your back is extremely dangerous, especially when you are not wearing a helmet (which is illegal in Australia, I'm a badass).

After 3 trips of increasingly excruciating biking, I was able to get all the junk mail to the apartment and into my room. Now the fun part of taking the 6 different advertisements, collating them, and rubber banding them together. 5 hours later, I had 500 some pieces of junk mail to distribute. (pictures to come) There is not too much to describe here, just that I literally managed to turn my brain off and just work. It was a bit like blacking out, because it feels like there is a 2-3 hour gap of my day that is blank.

Then the fun part of hoofing it around Kirra and delivering unwanted advertisements to people. It only took me about 5 trips, due to my amazing packing skills. It was about 4:00pm when I started, so some people were just coming home from their long and hard workdays, and I was about to greet them with physical spam mail. Most of the time, I just popped one in the mailbox and kept going... until I saw another guy who was throwing different junk mail out of his car as he drove by. Then I decided to make a game out of it, Paperboy style. I think out of 200+ attempts at tossing them at mailboxes, I only managed to land 2 in the mailboxes. Its easier in the video game. I finished around 6pm, just as it got dark.

All in a day's work.

Video

2010-03-28T21:19:00.000-05:00

A tasty little clip of yours truly getting cut in half.
Our inside center, Luke, made a half break and I went in to get the offload, the ball got tipped up, I put my head and hands up to catch it. Their opposite winger, who did absolutely nothing else in the game, took this perfect opportunity to attempt to crack my ribs.
This was about 5 minutes in, and I was able to complete the game, but I felt it for quite a few days later.

The Morning After and Money Matters

2010-03-21T03:04:00.002-05:00

March 20 – The Morning After and Money Matters.
Two things: Alcohol is extremely expensive in Australia – which leads into the second thing – the nightlife on the Gold Coast is also expensive. wanted to try the mixed drinks in a can, so I got a 4 pack of Johnnie Walker & Cola (6% alcohol, 12oz can) which ran me a cool $20. Yeah, $20 for a 4pack of drinks from the supposed “discount” liquor store. I'm used to the $15 Busch Light case of 30. (Who remembers Beer 30? The $10 case of mystery beer?) Luckily for me and my sense of worth and value, the drinks were delicious. I had made plans after our scrimmage to meet up with some boys from the team. Its a bit of a logistical nightmare living down in Coolangatta, with everything happening about 20 minutes away by car, or sometimes 45 by bus. I managed to get their whereabouts and we planned to meet up in Surfers Paradise, which is the downtown club scene of the Gold Coast.
I finished my 4 pack and hopped on the bus, which was also full of kids heading up to Surfers, and when I say kids, I mean that these were kids, 16 year olds, loud and drunk. A whole slew of interesting (and loud) characters got on and off the bus, and the Johnnie&Colas were doing me just fine at that point, so I wasn't complaining. It took about 50 minutes to get to Surfers, and by that point, I still had about 20 minutes until I met up with Will and David, so I walked around and found another liquor store. I then proceeded to drop another $20 a 4 pack of Jim Beam & Cola. It was pretty much the cheapest kind there, and it was on sale, so... lucky me.
Finally met up with their group and we went into an Irish bar called Waxy's. I think the only thing that this bar could claim as its “Irishness” would be the green sign out front. It was really just a bar, but we hung out there for awhile, Will bought a round of Heineken for the three of us, which ran him something like $30. Outrageous. Then it was someone's brilliant idea to head to this club called Shooters, which, like any club named Shooters, was a place you had to be drunk to go to. This wasn't the seedy American dive bar, but rather a ridiculously expensive sketchy rave parlour. I was near the back of our group as we walked in, and I noticed our group paying cover, so I thought, “no big deal, its only another $5, 10 at the most.” Wrong. $25 cover. And there was nothing special going on inside. But because the rest of our group had already paid and gone in, I didn't have too much choice unless I wanted to be drunk and stranded in the middle of downtown Surfers (which on second thought, wouldn't be terrible). I paid Will's fee as well, so he bought me two drinks once we got inside. Two whiskey/gingers (very weak, by the way) ran him about $38 (stupid expensive). So I think I got the better of that deal?
Once inside, it was just another club, with music that's too loud to compensate for the fact that the DJ sucked (he didn't have Jump On It, September, or Call On Me), way too much strobe lighting/lasers/fog machine, and more of those damn 18-19 year old kids drunk and on speed. Apparently they don't sell too many drinks because kids will pay the (exorbitant) cover charge, and then find a guy who sells speed inside the club, and then not have to drink because they're blazed. There was one guy who was very obviously on speed, he was in the back corner, trying to do the robot... with just his legs. Then there was the club staple, one very attractive girl (with her not-so-attractive friend) who kept being “courted”(and I use that term lightly) by every guy who thought he had a chance. Which is good theater when you're taking a break from trying to dance like you're on speed.
Left the club around 3:30 in the morning (bars/clubs close at 5am), just about completely exhausted, found the bus and hopped on. Luckily it was quieter this time, with a few kids in the back who were definitely already suffering from hangovers or whatever happens after you do speed. I was afraid I'd fall asleep and miss my stop, but luckily I was able to keep awake to make it home by 4:30 or so. I had a great time, but that was absolutely ridiculously unbelievably expensive. I am better off buying a bottle of liquor and making my own drinks, which would save me heaps of money in the long run.
Expenses:
$20 – 4 pack Johnnie Walker & Cola
$20 – 4 pack Jim Beam & Cola
$50 – Cover for Will and I
$10 – Bus ride to and from Coolangatta.
Hopefully I get a job soon...

(Side note: It doesn't help that the money is colored. I think it de-legitimizes it in my head. I mean, it looks like monopoly money. How am I supposed to value something that is pink and has a picture of someone who looks like Elton John on it? $5 is purple, 10 is blue, 20 is pink/red, and 50 is yellow. Yellow? They also don't have single dollar bills, they have coins. Goldish looking coins. They have $1 and $2 coins, with the smaller one being the $2 one, because that makes perfect sense. The 5c is the size of a dime, 10c is slightly larger, 20c (not quarters, but 20 cents) is the size of a quarter, and the 50c is the size of a silver dollar. They don't have pennies, which I actually like, because I hate carrying change (which is basically unavoidable here). So, because they don't have pennies, they round everything. So if you go into a store and buy a loaf of bread, and it costs $2.64, they round it to 2.65. and they also round down too.)

First Video entry

2010-03-18T20:41:00.003-05:00

Apologies for the lack of updates, but there just hasn't been anything too exciting to write about. Had the team physio look at my knee and she said its just a bruise thats putting pressure on my LCL, and I might have frayed some strands of it (which I guess isn't as bad as it sounds). That said, I've been able to keep up my morning runs/stairs, touch rugby, and training with Bond. We've got another pre-season match against Logan RFC which is about halfway between us and Brisbane. They're another physical team that loves to finish tackles whether you've got the ball or not, so I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'll have my knee taped up as a pre-caution, but I don't expect any troubles from it.

With O for Awesome we're into the playoffs, though I think we're in the lowest bracket. Theo is out with both a neck and wrist injury, so I guess I'll have to step my game up and carry the torch... we'll see.

Breakfast and AFL

2010-03-13T01:21:00.000-06:00

March 12

A day like any other... in paradise. I'm getting used to this early morning waking up business... it helps that I'm asleep by 10:30 every night, but waking up to sunshine and the prospect of the beach makes it easy to get out of bed. Breakfast consists of whole wheat bricks (like super healthy Wheaties bricks), rolled oats, raisins, craisins, and dried bananas with skim milk. I was skeptical at first, because it wasn't the sugary goodness of Lucky Charms or Reese's Puffs or even the “healthy” brown sugary-ness of Cracklin' Oat Bran. I have, however, been won over. Its actually really tasty and good for you. I haven't stepped on a scale, but I've noticed a bit less of me around the stomach area, which is usually a good thing.
After lunch, in which Leah made BELTs, which is a BLT with an egg (extremely good), I ventured up to the local AFL (Aussie Rules) ground and watched the local Coolangatta 2nd and then 1st sides take on the other team, which had an Eagle on their shirts, so they were the Visiting Eagles. Anyway, the sport is ridiculous. Its a combination of essentially every sport I know. I'll try to explain what I just witnessed using sports references that most people know. I apologize for the gross inaccuracies that will result, I have no actual knowledge of the rules. So here it is, Aussie Rules as explained by an ignorant American spectator:
They start off and restart after scores with a tipoff (basketball), to which then evolves into Kill the Carrier and every other tackle sport (rugby, football, league, rodeo). You have to pass the ball by punching it to another player (a la racquet sports: tennis, racquetball, ping pong, badmitton) or kicking it (soccer). If you kick it to another player on your team, and they catch it in the air (baseball), then its a free kick (like a penalty in soccer). To score, you kick it through four posts, with two tall ones in the middle, and shorter ones outside of them. If you kick it between the two tall ones, thats a goal, and worth 4 points (soccer, football, rugby, league, any madeup backyard sport), and between the two outside ones is 1 point (again, madeup backyard sports have the same kind of rules). Each score is signaled by a referee in between the posts at each end (like touch judges for a penalty or conversion in rugby) who, to signal a score, twirl their hands and point (wild west shootout), one hand for 1 pointers, and two hands (Yosemite Sam style) for two points. Oh, and its played in a big oval (hockey, NASCAR) with an arc that acts as a point boost (3-point line in basketball, BASEketball). Some other things that I noticed while watching was that they all wear singlets (basketball, any girls sport, track and field(which is now a redundant example)) and that at random times during the match, they will sub off, or, even more strangely, coaches and/or trainers would come on and give players water.
Now, I apologize again, as I know I've botched up somewhere in my explanation of the rules, but I'm also pretty certain those are fairly accurate.

Knock On Knee

2010-03-11T17:23:00.001-06:00

March 11
Laid up. Walking like a gimp all day yesterday, and still again today. The knock to the knee is still pretty bad. Because I was able to get up and play a pretty intense last 8 minutes of the game without it bothering me and it didn't start to affect me until a couple hours after the match, I'm ~~thinking~~ hoping that its just a bit of a bruise that's putting pressure on the lateral cruciate ligament (LCL). Yesterday was spent icing it on and off all day, with compression the whole time. Ibuprofen and heat at night relieved a bit of the pressure, and waking up this morning I've got almost a full gait again, but there is still strong twinge as I push off with the leg. It would be pretty terrible if this turns out to be more than just a bruise, but here's to hoping/praying/willing-to-sacrifice-small-animals-to-make-sure the swelling goes down and I'm back to full strength, and the sooner the better.

Hurts so good.

2010-03-10T21:11:00.001-06:00

March 10
First Rugby game. I have a new-found appreciation for how hard Kiwis can hit. They love to line people up, burst out of the defensive line and pick you off. They also hit hard on the offensive side of the ball, hitups by the 12 and 13. We played a touring NZ side, East Coast Rugby. They're a squad full of big boys and hard hitters and I was on the receiving end of many of them.
For this game we split the sides, younger and older. The younger guys played the first two 20 minute quarters, and the older players the last 40. Having only practiced twice with the team, and being the only one who ran at Outside Center on Tuesday, I started the first 40 at 13. The warmup was short and before I knew it, I was on the field and the referee blew his whistle to start the game. My first live game in Australia. The action was full on right away, as the Kiwi side came out to put some big hits on early. My first touch of the ball was a double under, where the 12 and 13 both run unders lines and the flyhalf hits one of the two. Unfortunately, nerves got the best of me and I knocked the ball on, an inauspicious start to an otherwise pretty good performance. I got involved in a few cutout passes and even found myself in open space after one of their kicks failed to find touch. I hustled back to get onside and our fullback drew two defenders and passed it out to me around our 40m line. I then stepped outside a defender and was in the open, with just their fullback and cover defense to beat. I lined up the fullback to pass it to our winger and set him through to score, but as I glanced to my left to find him, he was a full 30m back, jogging and well out of the play. So I had to take the ball into contact, which we retained, and three phases later, knocked it on. Such is rugby.
On defense, I was caught out a few times. It was difficult to get used to front up defense again, after playing fullback all last season, and having missed the only defensive practice so far this season. After a couple times where I came up and felt myself ball-watching, I fixed myself on my opposite number and solidified my defense. There was one other situation, where after a clearing kick that didnt go into touch, so we scrambled to put defensive pressure on him. I was out in front of the defensive line, as no one else had chased very hard, and had a one on one with the fullback, who promptly squared me up and wrong-footed me. But after that, I reduced my defensive mistakes and played well.
After the first 40 were over, the first group warmed down and watched the older guys go up against the touring side's other squad. I was able to get in with about 15 minutes to go in the 2nd 40 and slotted in at Inside Center. This matched me against their best player, a solid 6'0 230lb punishing runner. I knew they were going to run at me as I was the new player on the pitch, and sure enough, the first play they ran was a two crash. Having been a bit disgusted by my defensive effort in the first half, I made sure that I took him on, and surprised even myself with the hit, which stopped him in his tracks. The rest of the game I played exceptionally. I was involved on a few promising offensive attacks and helped with a solid defensive effort that kept them out of our tryzone. Even caught myself an intercept pass, for which I was promptly punished by one of their second rowers in the form of one of the hardest hits I've ever taken. Came up a bit lame after that one, with my right knee not quite feeling 100% but soldiered through it on adrenaline. This was one of the most fun games I've played in, and it was only a pre-season match.
I felt as fit as ever during the match, despite the overwhelming humidity. I was able to chase kicks, run back to help field theirs, tackle, get up, ruck and support, all without feeling gassed at any point. I'm pretty sure they scored more points than us, but we never kept track of the score, and it would have been a close game anyway. The only trouble is that my knee got worse after the game and when we got home, and even more so today. I woke up this morning and went to put weight on it and it buckled under me. I'm a bit worried, but I'm 67% sure its just a bruise. My head feels better than it did last night, after all the monstering I received. All in all, I'd say (if my knee heals up quickly) it was a real good hitout, for myself and the team, considering the lack of practice/continuity/set plays. It feels good to get out and have a run.

Touch Rugby - insane.

2010-03-08T18:39:00.000-06:00

May 7
First impressions of Touch... fun. It is an amazingly quick game with a lot of movement- forwards, backwards, lateral and every other degree in between. Having never seen it before, I went to the Southport Dodgers practice on Sunday night, which is a pretty professional unit. They were very demanding physically and technically, but open to instruct this naive 'Merican. Touch is essentially a cross between sevens and rugby league in that you get 6 downs, and after each down, the defense has to back up five meters. When played correctly (read: quickly) the first three downs can be used to get the defense on their back foot, to which a good offense can exploit by having the dummyhalf (scrumhalf) burst through the retreating defense. Its a lightning quick game, and its good fun.
Today, I had the opportunity to play with Theo's local team, which is essentially one big family (cousins, uncles, nieces, sons, etc) and Theo. They're all good sports, and they let Theo bring in two ringers: myself (who had about 1 hour of Touch under my belt) and Corey Niwa (the professional player). Before today they hadn't won a game yet, but its a social competition, so its all in good fun. Today we played what looked to be one of the worse teams in the competition, so we had a chance. The game starts and is pretty close, I sub in about 3 minutes in with us attacking near their goal, and with my first touch of the game... turn it over. Apparently I didn't set the ball down where I got touched. Good start there. The game is all about opening holes with your running, setting other people through, which has a lot to do with rugby union, so I had a decent idea of what to do. Later in the match, Corey made a long break down the sideline, but got caught at the 5m line, I ran up, took the ball and sniped my way through the defense to dot it down in the tryzone... for a turnover. Apparently the dummyhalf can't score. Another scoring opportunity wasted by the ignorant American. Luckily I was able to make up for it by scoring and setting up two more tries, and we won comfortably, otherwise my mistakes would have seemed bigger.
All in all, I wish Touch was bigger in the States. Its a game that anyone can play. We played mixed touch, so it was 3 guys and 3 girls on the field. The smaller people who don't think they'd stand a chance in regular rugby have a chance to shine at touch. Its great fitness as its usually 5 minutes of sprinting, back and forth, like killers or suicides on a basketball court. It encourages ball handling skills as well as offensive and defensive recognition of threats and opportunities. Its essentially the ultimate training game, and I'll be able to play it twice a week. Sounds good to me.

Week One Recap

2010-03-06T21:57:00.001-06:00

May 3-6
This week has been crazy. Picked a club, chatted with a professional rugby player, ran more stairs, journeyed up to Brisbane to meet up with Kate, went to a crazy party, had great food (Leah is an amazing cook), and saw a live League game.

Man, where to start. Its been an amazing first week. The weather was rough for the first few days, but its since picked up, as of right now its sunny and 80. I'm still trying to convert the metric system, but I'm still pretty hopeless. I know meters and centimeters, and that's about it. I found out that I'm apparently over 100 kilos, which is big(ish) and should surprise very few people.

Friday morning I ran up to Tweeds Head for the surfing competition. The Quicksilver Pro Tour is here and is pretty cool. I don't know much about surfing, or how to score it, but its interesting to see the best in the world compete at anything.

It constantly amazes me at the caliber of people that Theo knows. Not only are they quality people good for a chat, but they're pretty well accomplished. On Thursday before training we met up with an old player of Theo's who is now playing professional rugby in Japan, before that he played 7's for the Wallabies for about 2 years and played NPC for Taranaki, yet meeting him, you'd never get any sort of ego from him. This is true for all of the guys that I've met so far.

After that I went to training with the Bond Pirates. I've pretty much decided to stick with this club. It has a real good feel to it. The boys are all about my age, ranging from 17-25, with most about 21. There are a few imports, including a wily old Irish prop. The club is young, but its close, there are no egos and everyone is willing to play for each other. The club is heading in the right direction and I've got a good chance to get quality playing time. So it feels like a good choice, and the other plus is that Theo is getting stuck in with them well too, so that's a big plus.

On Friday I traveled up to Brisbane to meet up with Kate at University of Queensland (absolutely amazing beautiful campus). It was nice and muggy, of course, and I'm sure I looked like a tourist on the train system with my nice green backpack, nalgene hanging from a clip, and perpetual look of utter confusion. After a good deal of asking around, map checking, trains and buses, and weeping I made it to UQ and met up with Kate. It was about dinner time so we walked to a little shopping district and I had my first Kebab. Now there is an important distinction between kebobs and kebabs. Kebobs (American) are skewers with meat and veggies over the grill, whereas Kebabs (Australian and New Zealandian) are like gyros (lamb or chicken, tomato, lettuce, onion) wrapped in a large tortilla and grilled like a panini. I think I like kebabs better, they're real good.

After dinner we had to rush to get ready for the big party that night. It was the first week of classes, so there was a party every night and this was the last one, which was a huge themed (Back to the Future) party. When I say huge, I mean there were about 2,000 people in a space the size of Gallagher and Becker. Or for the MN people, about the size of Legends and the parking lot. So we quickly got our alcohol in our system, and got dressed up. Now I brought only normal clothes, so I had to improvise. I made myself some gauntlets, a headband, a bowtie, and a cummerbund out of tinfoil and borrowed some weird 80's looking glasses, not good, but not half-bad. A lot of people went as Navi from Avatar, which was cool at first, but then it rubbed off on everything/everyone once people started dancing. Also, people decided that Back to the Future was too difficult and/or extrapolated from Back to the Future to Navi to Native Americans to Cowboys. Then a few people went in spandex full body suits.

Luckily, I survived the night, without a hangover no less! Kate and I went shopping in the morning, which was quite the trip. Malls here are ridiculous, there are always supermarkets and butcher shops in the malls, even in the nice malls. Imagine the Galleria or Village Pointe having a butcher shop in it... But the nice thing about the malls is that they have a lot of discount and bargain stores, so I was able to snag a new pair of shoes and board shorts for about $20 total. Then it was time to grab lunch---

"Its hard to have a Gaytime on your own."

I'm going to start a new paragraph because I might rant(and/or rave) a little bit. I'll just throw this out first: Australians are fat. There was a piece on the news about how ¾ of Australians are overweight. Granted: they used the BMI scale which says most athletes are fat due to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. But when I rode the train and went in the malls, everyone was overweight. The only exception is the surfers on the coasts, who are anorexic-Bill-and-Ted types. But the food here IS good. Pies, which are essentially chicken pot pies from home (with other ingredients) are unreal good, but unreal bad for you. That, and there is a Macca's (McDonalds) every 3 blocks. The only redeeming factor about the McDonalds here is that EVERY single one of them have Playplaces. I'm surprised they're not all broke too, because everything is expensive. A value meal in Australia is like $10-15, and if you wanted to add anything to the sandwich, its another $2 for cheese or bacon, or mayo, or anything. And don't even think about buying cheap alcohol. Everything is ridiculously expensive. Luckily I've forsworn any sort of heavy drinking while I'm in season, but the cheapest thing here is “Goon” (Golden Oak boxed wine), which was described to me as the bastard-red-headed-step-cousin of Franzia. I saw another thing here that I've never seen in the states, and maybe I just haven't seen it there, but they mix alchohol here in cans. Like, there were PineappleVodkas and OrangeVodkas in cans, as well as my favorite: Jim Beam and Coke. One of the redeeming things about all of this obesity business in Australia is that the commercials here are intense. They are quite graphic and unnerving by US standards, but they get the point across very well. There is a commercial with a really pale (dead) guy talking about how he had his heart attack and what he'd have done different. And there is another one with a guy texting on his phone while driving and it shows him hitting a baby carriage crossing the street. All rather intense.

--- After lunch, I checked out the Canterbury store in the mall, which was cool to see, but it was tiny and the prices were ridiculous, so I took a pass on buying stuff yet. Then it was time to head back down to the Gold Coast and practice with the Pirates again. After practice, we walked over to the Burleigh Heads Rugby League club. Clubs here are like country clubs with food and a bar, but the entry fee is real small, and they support a local sports team, so this club was for the local League club. Luckily there was a friendly pre-season match between between Burleigh and another club. It was pretty sweet to see the sport live. Hung out with the boys from the Pirates and watched the live league match, as well as the Crusaders v Blues live on TV. Quite the life. I think I could get used to going to these clubs.

My lovely hosts.

Arrival: Australia (Big Post)

2010-03-01T18:30:00.000-06:00

May 1
The plane ride was uneventful and amazing. It was easily the biggest plane I've ever seen, and watching it pull up was like watching that one scene from Airplane! where the plane crashes through the window, I kept expecting it to veer off-course. I think I was treated better by the Qantas flight attendants than I have ever been by any service industry in the States. They're kind, friendly, and give you a lot of free stuff. The meals were also really good: roasted chicken with pasta for dinner, a Spanish egg dish with sausage in the morning, and coffee and hot chocolate throughout. I also had my own on-demand TV in the headrest in front of me. I was also able to get a good 7 hours of sleep on the plane after watching 2 movies ( 9 (3/5stars) and The Informant (1.5/5stars)) and was still able to get up and watch two hours of standup comedy. It was an amazing experience, but I was glad to land.
When we landed, it was... raining. Which sucked, but at the same time, it kept the temperature down, which after living in 5*F weather, it was a nice way to get accustomed to the heat and humidity. I visited the Duty Free shop and picked up a nice bottle of Jim Beam for myself as I've heard the prices on alcohol are extremely high. I was able to get through customs just fine, which I was worried about, because of the foodstuffs I was bringing in to share with Theo and Leah, but I breezed through.
Then came the first real glitch in my day: I forgot to figure out how to contact Theo and arrange the pickup. So I was sitting at the airport for about an hour, wondering what to do. I had told him when my flight got in, and he said he'd come pick me up, but the disconnect in being able to reach him left me in a bit of a limbo state. When I got through customs, I walked the reception area, and then waited outside. Apparently Australians have about the same level of driving prowess as Omahan's, as due to the light rain, they slowed down and got in accidents, thereby delaying Theo and Leah in picking me up. What normally would have taken them just under an hour, took them a full 3 hours. But they made it to the airport, and as I loaded my bags into the car, I finally felt like I'd arrived.
When we got to Coolangatta, I was shown my room (picture) and was able to sit and relax, chatting with Theo and Leah about living in what seemed like (despite the rain) paradise. When the rain died down, we took a walk into Coolangatta (about 5 min) and walked around. I found a few banks and Westpac was recommended to me, so I walked in and got an account with them. The lady at the desk who helped me set up my account was extremely nice, and I think she pulled some strings and got me 6 months free checking (its usually $3/month maintenance fee) with unlimited ATM withdrawals, so I'm set on that.

Then we came back and Theo cooked up a bit of lunch, a bacon and egg sandwich (See Leah's description of Australian bacon here). Had a Milo a coffee, which is like a mocha made with instant coffee (See Leah's post about that here). Then it was just a struggle to stay awake. I'd been traveling for approximately 32 hours straight, with only a bit of sleep the night before I left, and a few hours on the plane. I've been coached that to avoid jet-lag, you should try to stay up and suck it up until its time to sleep on the local time. This was made easier because I had a touch rugby game to look forward to, so I lasted until about 5pm and then we found out that touch was canceled due to the rain So we took a drive around town, hitting up the grocery store, seeing the sights and looking at the different pitches. It absolutely astounds me at how close everything is. There is an AFL pitch literally 400meters away, and the rugby club's pitch is less than 2 miles. The beach? Well I can see it from the living room window. Thats about 200meters away.
When we got back, Theo and Leah cooked up steaks and coomera, which is like a giant dry potato (quite good). I was able to make it through dinner, and a bit of the local news, which consisted basically of a taste test between the 3 supermarkets and their in-house brands (Aldi won by the way, beating out Woolworths and Coles). Its nice to know that I'm now in a place where the local news doesn't contain 3 new murders a night. Its only been about 12 hours here, and I'm already hooked.
May 2
Woke up today after a good sleep last night. Its amazing how tired you get just by sitting in an airplane an in airports. The lack of things you do seems to inversely affect how tired you are. But today I woke up to it still raining, I've yet to see the sun. That brochure I read lied. It was still cool, which is nice because if it were hot, I think I'd die. This is actually a nice way to ease into the heat. Training started today: stairs. The stairs themselves are about a mile away, so we woke up at 5:30AM (1:30PM yesterday Central time) and walked along the beach the first half and jogged the second til we got to the stairs. Then we kicked it into gear, doing 10 sets of the stairs, which are about 40-50 high. Its not a daunting task, until you realize that your only rest is as you come down the stairs, and then you're right back into it.
That wasn't even the hard part (but it certainly wasn't easy), as once we were done with the stairs, we kicked it into the anaerobic exercise and ran at about 80% for a half mile. After two weeks of indulging in my favorite foods in Omaha and Minnesota, and a general lack of physical activity, I was dogging it at this point. I was able to keep up with Theo for 90% of the run, but my stomach asked me to slow down in the form of dry-heaves (always a great feeling at 6:30 in the morning). As we walked back, we decided to hop in the ocean for a bit to cool down. This was the first time I'd been in the ocean in about a year, and it was amazing. The sand and water are perfect (no seashell minefields and flotillas of seaweed like Cape Cod). Then we came back and had a “healthy” breakfast. I use the quotations because that has already become a codeword between Leah and myself for “not tasting good.” In truth it was actually quite good, but granola, whole wheat bricks, and skim milk hardly gets any healthier.
Thats my day so far, and its not even 9:00am as I write this. First club training is later today, and instead of just choosing a club, I'll be trying a few different clubs out. I'll weigh the strength of the coaching staff, the “feel” of the team, as well as potential playing time to find the best club for me. The nice thing is, there are 6 potential teams, and the farthest one is 20 minutes away tops. Thats closer than the Metropolis field.
All is well down under.

Packed. Ready, Set, Anxious.

2010-02-26T17:05:00.000-06:00

Holy balls. I'm all packed. Everything fits, and I was able to take an extra few goodies.

I'm still waiting for it to hit me like a wall. So far its just been the little things: no huge Costco grocery shopping runs, taking my car key off my keychain, sorting through my clothes for the one's I'm taking, "last meals" at all of my favorite places, cleaning out my room, etc.
All of these things have been chipping away at the reality I've built myself these past few months, and even these past 22 years. I'd never call myself stoic (I watched Glee with my mom), but I'm trying to keep my wits about me. Its not easy, especially since I'm kind of a homebody. I AM thoroughly excited to go, I'm just also thoroughly frightened at the magnitude of the challenge/opportunity in front of me. I've never attempted anything even remotely close to this scale. Even when I was away at Creighton, I was only 6 hours away, and I never stayed more than 3 months away from home.

I'm one who takes comfort in the wisdom and words of others. There is one that I've been repeating over and over these past few weeks.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. -Steve Jobs

With 5 days left...

2010-02-22T20:46:00.001-06:00

Its crazy to think that in less than one weeks time, I'll be standing in Australia. Its still hard to believe that its happening.

But awhile back, I posted a list of things that I would miss/places I needed to eat, here is that list:

~~- Convention Grill - Burgers and malts.~~
- Great Wall - Sesame chicken, hot and sour soup.
~~- Chipotle (do they have these in Australia?)~~
- Mom's cooking - ~~chili,corned beef and cabbage, chicken and mashed potatoes, lentil soup~~, etc.
- ~~Cheap drinks and wings at Legends~~.
- ~~Ramy's - gyros and pizza~~.
- ~~Pepperjax with Bennett~~
~~- Cali Taco~~- ~~Rice Bowl with anyone~~.
~~- Bangkok Cuisine - Best pad thai ever~~.
- ~~The Crescent Moon - Boots and wing~~s.

Might grab Bangkok before I head home tomorrow. All in all a great week in Omaha. Great friends, good food, cold drinks, and great entertainment. I'll miss Omaha. And that is something I didn't see myself saying 4 years ago.

Thats the ticket.

2010-02-18T13:24:00.000-06:00

Well, technically not the ticket I thought, but it'll do.

First up, the itinerary itself (italic stops are connecting flights) : MSP - DFW - LAX - BNE - SYD - WLG - SYD - JNB - DUR - CPT - JNB - LHR - MIA - POP - MIA - MSP. In laymans terms, thats Minneapolis to Brisbane via Dallas and LA - Brisbane to Sydney - Sydney to Wellington - Wellington to Durban via Sydney and Johannesburg - Durban to Capetown - Capetown To Johannesburg - Johannesburg to London - London to Puerto Plata via Miami - Puerto Plata home to Minneapolis via Miami.

Those of you who have been following my plans for awhile will notice two large omissions from this itinerary, the most important being EBB or Entebbe. One of the biggest reasons I'm doing this around the world trip is to be able to get to Africa and learn first hand about the development projects going on. The reason for the omission is the apparent inability of the airlines to fly from Johannesburg into Entebbe (South African airways flies there 5 times a week). The only way to get to Entebbe is through London, and once I leave Africa (from Johannesburg to London) I cannot re-enter it to get to Entebbe. All is not lost, however; as I have the ability to charter a round-trip flight outside of my oneworld ticket. So I will fly out of Johannesburg to London, I just might "stay" in Joburg while I go to Uganda, then resume my oneworld trip when I return.

The other SNAFU is that they don't fly to Dublin... this one astounded me. How can an airline alliance that includes British Airways and American Airlines not fly to Dublin? Again, all is not lost, as there are numerous ways to get to Dublin from London, including train + ferry as well as the Ryanair option (super cheap flights in Europe).

I've removed Amsterdam from the itinerary as I would not have been able to get to Puerto Plata if I kept it in. The airlines allows you 16 segments, or flights, in total. And if you count the number of flights (which includes connecting flights) I'm at 15. So flying in and out of Amsterdam would have put me over the limit. I figure I'll be able to get there, if not this time (via RyanAir) then I'll certainly be back to Europe. Besides, I don't smoke pot, so its not a mecca for me anyway.

After having purchased the ticket, I popped a bottle of champagne with my parents to celebrate. It feels good to know that the last two major things on my To Do list have been checked off. Its also really nerve-wracking. I was hoping (but not expecting) to feel relieved after purchasing it, but the fact remains that I'm as anxious and nervous as ever.

But here's to the Brave New World that I'll be facing. This is a quote from one of my favorite books, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. It speaks to stepping out of the box and encountering the world as it is, and not hiding behind comfort or fear.

"Exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune, death and danger dare, even for an eggshell. Isn't there something in that?" he asked, looking up at Mustapha Mond. "Quite apart from God–though of course God would be a reason for it. Isn't there something in living dangerously?"

"There's a great deal in it," the Controller replied. "Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time."

"What?" questioned the Savage, uncomprehending.
"It's one of the conditions of perfect health. That's why we've made the V.P.S. treatments compulsory."
"V.P.S.?"
"Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenin. It's the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences."
"But I like the inconveniences."
"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said

So here is to living dangerously.
"How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in it!"
- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest"

Ticket...

2010-02-16T15:28:00.000-06:00

Bought.

An update to follow.

The nerves are growing, and so are the Credit Cards.

2010-02-14T11:58:00.002-06:00

Becoming more and more anxious by the day.

Thursday I received (sidenote: I always misspell received) my CapitalOne credit card. You can put your own image on it, so I took advantage of it and threw a rugby picture on it (actual image on the right). The card has no fee for exchanging currency, which is extremely important for my trip. Most credit cards DO charge a fee when you purchase something in another currency, so in order to save myself the 3% everytime I would have charged something on my USBank Visa. The downside is that in order to use ATMs, there is also a 3% fee using my USBank ATM card, so I'll be looking into opening a bank account in Australia when I get there.

Also am the recipient of a brand new American Express card. The card is linked to my Dad's account, and is my "Emergency Card." The fact that he was ~~foolish~~ wise enough to not set a spending limit on it ~~may come back to haunt him~~ is perfect in case there is an actual emergency and I need to pay for it. A real nice bonus to this card is that when I purchase the ticket through American Express, they have a solid Travel Insurance program. Its also extremely affordable, at almost 1/20th the nearest and cheapest travel insurer that I found, and almost 1/50 the average cost. And then there are also the other protections that AmEx is known for.

Its weird, I thought that for this trip I would be consolidating all of my monies into one account, and using only one credit card, yet here I am: with 3 credit cards, the need to create a new bank account, transfer the money, etc etc. Shoot. I thought this was going to be easy. I'm a political science major, so it goes without saying: I'm terrible with money!

Human pincushion.

2010-02-10T12:34:00.000-06:00

8 shots in 3 days. Vaccinations suck.
Nevermind my irrational, yet completely understandable, fear of needles, these were necessary shots. 5 shots on Monday (Seasonal influenza, Typhoid Fever, Meningitis, Yellow Fever, and a Tuberculosis skin test) and now 3 more this morning (H1N1, Polio, and Hepatitis A) as well as a negative result on the TB test. Plus an additional Tetanus/Diptheria shot from two weeks ago. I've been injected with so many needles, I'm starting to understand how that guy felt in Requiem for a Dream. Kind of.

So I'm all up to date on all of my vaccinations, all set with my physical, so as far as I know I'm healthy as possible (within reason, given my years of Mtn Dew, Taco Bell, and XBox). I'm still waiting on the blood and urine tests that were recommended as part of the complete physical. I believe they're checking my thyroid, HIV (wait, what?), and cholesterol (family history). But once I get those back, I'll know if I'm fit as a fiddle or destined to forgo fast food in the future to fend off finding myself fat (alliteration is fun.)

Another note about the Travel Clinic... they scare the shit out of you. I mean, rightly so, because you should take as many precautions as possible. However, I'm now in possession of what seems like a small encyclopedia of frightening diseases and parasites that I am likely to run across. To name a few: Dengue Fever, Schistosomias (worms that burrow into your skin, gross), Yellow Fever, Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Rabies, Cholera, and a host of others. Its like the real life Oregon Trail! AND I'm the only one in my party, so of course I'm going to be the one with dysentery or cholera. Too bad there's no reset button in real life. This wikipedia-of-death-on-paper also has other "safety concerns" which include snakes, spiders, sharks, jellyfish, dingoes, and koalas... ok, maybe koalas aren't on there, but I don't trust them.

After the doctor's office, I went to REI and picked up the last of my travel accessories. A silk sleeping bag liner, which is basically a sleeping bag made out of silk sheets, for the hot countries; a travel towel which is small, light, and super-absorbent/fast-drying; and a clothesline with suction cups, as I don't know how available dryers will be on the trip. I've also heard that people don't really use drying machines in Australia, they hang-dry everything. Well, if I wanted to fit in, I've got the tools now. Just need to work on the accent.

So this allows me to cross off some more stuff on my Travel checklist:

To Do List:

- ~~Bag - Thrive 90L~~

- Ticket

- Travel Insurance - Mostly settled

~~- Travel Accessories - Mostly done, still need bag locks and some other miscellaneous items.~~

- ~~Checkup~~ ~~and Yellow Fever Immunization - Checkup done, tetanus shot (which sucks), and immunization date set.~~

I've got the travel insurance plan that I'll purchase (World Nomads), I just have to wait to buy it until after I buy the ticket. And I am waiting to buy the ticket (just has to be purchased 2 weeks in advance) until I settle on which African country I will be going to. I'm hoping that things work out with Come Lets Dance in Uganda, but if they don't, I have an opportunity to teach in Ghana. Just a waiting game now.

Cheers.

Packing it all in.

2010-02-09T13:08:00.000-06:00

So I decided yesterday that I should do a trial run packing my bags. Seeing as I will be living out of three bags for the next 12 months, I wanted to make sure that I could take everything I need/want/am-bringing-anyway. I've been making lists: clothes, accessories, documents, etc. So I finally decided to set them all out and pack them in, hoping I wouldn't have to bring extra bags etc. Surprisingly, it all fit. I'm missing three items, but thats a Ruckus Apparel t-shirt, a travel towel, and a lightweight sleeping bag. Three items that shouldn't take up much space.

Accessories List: Power converter, Laptop (case, power cord), Camera (charger, case, computer cord), iPod (power cord, USB cord, case, extra headphones), watch, travel clock, bag lock, travel wallet, sharpies, flash drive, aviators (really important), Spy sunglasses, first aid kit, toiletries, nalgene, hair clippers, rugby tape, mouthguard, ankle brace, knee pad, ace bandage. cleats x2, shoes x2, sandals, a coozie, and books (Say You're One of Them, Rural Development, Reasons for Hope, The Samaritan Dilemma, The Bottom Billion).

Ok, so thats alot... but thats only half of the stuff... still have all the clothes.

Clothes: 2 jeans, khakis, 6 shorts, 10 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve, 2 polos, 4 rugby jerseys, 3 dress shirts, one tie, one sweater, one sweatshirt, and a belt. Not pictured: 8 pairs of unders, 10 socks, and rugby kit. It looks like a lot, but it packs down pretty well.

And here is the final product. Everything sans the shoes/rugby stuff which is in that black Gilbert bag:

All in all a great process, but very intimidating. Luckily, once I leave Australia and start the vagabond wandering traveler portion of my trip, I'll slim down the clothes and accessories accordingly, because the bags are heavy. They probably weigh around 65+ when you combine the 2 green bags as they're supposed to hook up (see picture on the right.) I've also found a bunch of new hidden pockets and cool features throughout these bags. Its really quite cool. I guess I feel more secure knowing that I can hide my valuables in these safe pockets, hold more things than I thought before, and have more room for the creature comforts of home while I'm away in foreign lands.

Its a huge relief to know that everything fits and works out, because, while I could take another bag, its simply easier knowing that when I get off that long flight, I have one less thing to worry about.

Cheers.

Countdown

2010-02-07T13:22:00.001-06:00

Less than 3 weeks...
10 days til Omaha.

Frightening.

Another one (checklist item) bites the dust.

2010-02-04T16:11:00.000-06:00

To Do List:

- ~~Bag - Thrive 90L~~

- Ticket

~~- Travel Accessories - Mostly done, still need bag locks and some other miscellaneous items.~~

- Travel Insurance - Mostly settled

- ~~Checkup~~ and Yellow Fever Immunization - Checkup done, tetanus shot (which sucks), and immunization date set.

Checking things off the list feels good. Makes me feel closer to leaving, and more secure in the face of this great unknown.

Metropolis practice starts today, and its a good thing. I don't know how I pass the time between rugby seasons, but I get settled once they start.

Minor update

2010-01-30T15:28:00.000-06:00

To Do List:

- ~~Bag - Thrive 90L~~

- Ticket

- Travel Accessories - Mostly done, still need bag locks and some other miscellaneous items.

- Travel Insurance - Mostly settled

- ~~Checkup~~ and Yellow Fever Immunization - Checkup done, tetanus shot (which sucks), and immunization date set.

I've been in full on savings mode. Haven't gone out to eat in weeks. Been out on the drink maybe three times in as many weeks and cut down on costs there... Basically been a homebody, doing chores around the house for some spending money, reading alot, and spending inordinate amounts of time on facebook. The bag arrived last Monday, and I've been playing with it, discovering awesome new compartments and tricks that its capable of. The daypack detaches and has some really cool hidden compartments for security. Its hard to believe that I'll be packing my entire life into this bag for a full year. I mean, its the biggest bag on the market, but I'm also the guy who packs 10 t-shirts for a long weekend. Learning to pack light will be difficult.

Settled on what should be the final itinerary:

- Brisbane, Aus - Rugby season

- Sydney, Aus - visiting Uncle Greg's family

- Queenstown, NZ - Seeing Middle-Earth

- Christchurch, NZ

- Wellington, NZ

- Durban, SA -Visiting Mikey Lawrence

- Cape Town, SA -Seeing Robben Island

- Accra, Ghana - Development experience (still an outside chance for Uganda... waiting on a few things.)

- Dublin, Ire - Seeing sister studying abroad/family

- London, Eng - Family for New Years, then up to play with the OLs

- Amsterdam, NL - Heard its beautiful...

- Puerto Plata, DR - Peacecorps with Andrew Hanson

- Dallas - Seeing Brill, Tricia, and Marnita

- Home.

I'm also getting really anxious about leaving. I'm a constant contradiction, experiencing somewhat bi-polar emotions about this. On one hand I'm supremely excited about this. The ability to go around the world is amazing, and it allows me to better myself at the two things that I'm most passionate about in life: rugby and international development. I've never been outside of North America, and the farthest I've been from America was Montreal and Juarez, which are both less than 50 miles from the border. The longest I've been away from home has been roughly 2 months... All of this adds up to a bit of anxiety mixed with excitement.

No backing out now.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Cheers.

Heavenly Protection

2010-01-25T12:39:00.000-06:00

A family friend, upon watching Invictus and learning that I was heading overseas to play rugby:

"I'm adding him to my prayer list."

Hope that doesn't jinx me.

Papa's got a brand new bag.

2010-01-18T20:47:00.000-06:00

This is my new bag. Eagle Creek Thrive 90L.

My life will be packed in this for the next year.

I also found out that I don't have to stay for 10 days at each place. This allows me to go to more places and stay at hostels. I'm thinking of making stops in Wellington, Christchurch, Cape Town, Amsterdam, and Paris now... maybe even stopping by the DR to see Andrew. My flexibility just increased tenfold!

To Do List:

- Bag

- Ticket

- Travel Accessories

- Travel Insurance

- Checkup and Yellow Fever Immunization

Things to do before I go.

2010-01-17T20:03:00.000-06:00

Since I'm a big softie, and I get homesick after 7 days, there will be a ton of things I know I'll miss the instant I step on the plane. I hope to accomplish many of these before I go and not have them for a year. They're mostly food related... go figure.

- Convention Grill - Burgers and malts.
- Great Wall - Sesame chicken, hot and sour soup.
- Chipotle (do they have these in Australia?)
- Mom's cooking - chili, chicken and mashed potatoes, lentil soup, etc.
- Cheap drinks and wings at Legends.
- Ramy's - gyros and pizza.
- Pepperjax with Bennett
- Rice Bowl with anyone.
- Bangkok Cuisine - Best pad thai ever.
- The Crescent Moon - Boots and wings.
- My dog Henry.
- Driving my own car - and on the right side of the road.
- Snow... I wont see it until I get to Dublin.
- A bunch of other stuff that I won't notice until its gone.

Brave New World

2010-01-11T02:49:00.000-06:00

Just setting this up. Already.
Still over a month to go and I'm so excited that I've already set up a blog. Weird.
Well I guess I should write something down.

To Do list:
Got my visa. Got my passport. Got my International Driving Permit. Still need my ticket. And more money always helps.
I've got an amazing itinerary, if I can pull it off.

Here's what I'm looking forward to/hoping to accomplish:
March - September
Australia - Playing for the Palm Beach Alley-gators, living in/around Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia (which I'm told has beautiful beaches and surfing), learning to surf, learning to play Aussie Rules, learning to play Cricket, maybe popping down to Sidney to see Uncle Greg's family, visiting Kate at UQueensland, visiting Bootes in North Brisbane, maybe getting down to Canberra and seeing Jezza and Castro, watching a Reds/Wallabies game live.

October
New Zealand - Visiting Christchurch and Wellington, hopefully backpacking a bit, hopefully some rugby as well (ABs?!?)

Early November
South Africa - Seeing Mikey Lawrence (hopefully he fattened up again), feasting on a braai, learning more about apartheid, and maybe some rugby.

Late November-Mid December
Kenya and Uganda - Teaching and helping build the new high school at the Jesuit mission in Uganda, volunteering at the AIDS orphanage in Nairobi, learning first-hand the troubles of Africa, getting valuable experience for my career in development, hopefully making a positive difference.

Mid December
Ireland - Visiting my sister studying abroad, seeing the "homeland," drinking FRESH Guinness, shepherds pie, Christmas with the family.

January-February
England - Hopefully visiting Sean (if he's still there), visiting Danae at Cambridge, visiting Dumbledore and Tom Davies, visit Twickenham, then pop up and hopefully play with the Old Laurentians.

End of February
Home - Getting a job to help pay for the massive debt that I will most likely accumulate, and then graduate school and beyond. And some rugby too, as I should get back just in time for the Spring season for Metro in 2011.

This is the trip of a lifetime. I'm hoping it goes off well. Wish me luck because I'm not there yet.