Work as Usual

So I can't report that the last two days has been that terribly exciting, but.. I will brighten this blog entry with some photos that I took today of the UQ campus, I'll be sure to add more later since I haven't done much reporting on what my place or the place that I work looks like... But here are some teases of the University of Queensland - St. Lucia campus (it sounds like it would be pretty right?), Well it is. It's pretty much situated right on the river, but it also has quite a few lakes immersed within the campus. I work in the engineering building in a small blocked-view office which probably typifies the lifestyle of a grad student. I should also mention that the office itself is down a long dark corridor that has a faint smell of coffee, and at the terminus of the hallway is the ever popular copy room. So yesterday and today were fairly similar in nature, more meetings, different people. I did have the chance to meet up with an old friend from my hostel days, a bloat (australian for dude), who is a programmer from the UK who is actually running his own computer game company while traveling, pretty sweet huh? So his job/making money scheme is pretty much going to the local library, and coding for a few hours a day. Doesn't seem like a bad lifestyle since he is pretty much on vacation.

So what else happened yesterday, I usually go to the gym after my day to release some extra energy (vs. being in Berkeley, where I am going to release excess stress), but this is my first experience at a private gym (versus a university rec facility), but I always thought that Australia was the anti-gym type of society, but for whatever reason, that memo did not make it to the Indooroopilly corner of the Brisbane world, my gym is packed full of people at all times, and the type of people that you may expect at an inner-city business suburb, late-20s early thirtysomes. Some men who are lifting to show their physical dominance over inferior gym-goers, and some women who are dressed as if they are shopping for a spouse.

So moving onto today, Thursday. I had my first high-level meeting downtown. But I wanted to head down to my office at UQ first. My office mate probably thinks I'm the biggest slacker ever since I show up for about 2 hours a day, then leave. I'm not saying that I put in my 8 hours a day... because I definitely don't. But I think my 2-3 hours in the city and interview local officials is plenty more productive than sitting in that office and reading about my research. So my meeting downtown was at high noon, and it would be a showdown between property/real-estate experts, and the Brisbane City Council Planning Department. In a nutshell, it was the planning department that was looking for real-estate/developer feedback on their plans for certain parts of the city. Very insightful and good info. After the 1.5 hour meeting, they asked me if they could have a copy of the report when I was done.... so the pressure is starting to build! I'm pretty confident that I can produce something decent, but in 6 more weeks... hmm, i'll give it a go. I had about a 2 hour break before my next meeting, so I ran a few errands downtown, but eventually made it back to 200 Mary Street for another group meeting at 3:30, have of the attendees didn't show, so it made it a rather quick and easy meeting, finishing up at 4:15.

So wooohoo, workday finished by 4:30pm, I can't complain about that, I jumped on the train and grabbed my free "Mx" newspaper and opened the first page to learn that apparently Paris Hilton's release is the most exciting thing going on here as well... So after quickly skipping over the first page, I went onto other news. I arrived back at my place around 5pm, and went for a quick cardio workout, and then hustled back to the ole Lodge to make it in time for dinner. I guess there is definately an upside to having meals served, except that I think I've been here long enough where the meals are now rotating through their typical schedule. It's not too bad though, I am a definate eater of habit, so it doesn't bother me too much.

So it's thursday night, and I'm beginning to plan for the weekend. I'm not sure what the boys have in mind for Friday, but I am definately thinking about heading to the coast again Saturday and Sunday, the weather is supposed to be great, so may as well give the surfing another go, and maybe even give a try at some kite surfing.

Rain!

So it's been raining all of yesterday and today... I know this for a couple of reasons besides the obvious, 1) the little cups that I have beside my bed keep chiming at night as they fill with water from the leak over my bed, 2) Every newspaper and tv news station reports that this rain that they're recieving will only provide them an extra day's water next year when doomsday arrives (e.g. they're expecting to run out of water in SouthEast Queensland by mid-2008... no, i'm serious, and 3) My office mate continually swears about the rainy weather they're having here.

So I'm not going to talk in much detail about today other than the fact that I am one step closer to booking an awesome 3-part tour to occur sometime during my stay here in Australia, more details to come shortly. In other news, I obtained a Brisbane City Library card today, which allows me to check out Ministry of Sound CDs and other good artists for free, in addition to countless DVDs, man, when did all of these libraries get cool. As for good news, the rain is supposed to end tomorrow, which is fantastic. I think I'm going to try to go for a run outside while the weather is nice and also try to setup another weekend down at the gold coast for some surfing!

So that's it for now, if you're reading this (if there is anyone reading this), hope you enjoy!

Friday - Sunday .... Sorry for the Delay

So I admit, I got a bit lazy over the weekend and failed to update my blog, and the world of my whereabouts (my parents would not be happy to not know where I've been). But I promise, as my previous timeline stated, I did not manage to get arrested on Sunday, and I had a very good and law-abiding weekend. So I'll break this post up into its four respective parts starting from Friday and leading into today.

Friday
To be quite honest, I don't think Friday was all that exciting. So non-exciting, that I have to go back to my planner to remember what I did....Ah yes. So my morning was pretty much the same story as the rest of the week. My morning hours was spent by commuting into the city and then going for my 1-hour or so meeting with some local government official. However, since it was a nice day, and I wanted to have some side enjoyment of Brisbane, I decided to take the CityCat Ferry to campus. Since Brisbane is the "River City" it's only fair that they have an elaborate ferry system, which they do. But it was a beautiful day outside, which made the ferry ride really enjoyable. I met a young guy who was from the US who happened to be spending his last few days at UQ before heading back to Virigina. Nice guy, but not the most conversational, maybe he was ready go go back to the US. My afternoon at work was relatively short, about 2 hours, before heading back to Indooroopilly (which I've come to find out means some kind of leech in native terms??) Back to indooroopilly for a quick trip to the gym and some bike maintenence.

Saturday...work and play
So since much of this trip, I basically have no advisor watching over my work (since he ironically is in Berkeley, CA) so my hours and workdays are basically set by myself. Saturday was for the most part, a rainy boring day. So I spent the morning in the office trying to get things taken care of here and there, the afternoon cleared a bit, so I decided to take an adventure into the city to see some of the parts which were still a little foreign to me. After taking the bus into downtown, I spent pretty much the next 7 hours walking from one point to another. I trekked through Fortitude Valley (the nightclub district), and also to Chinatown. How thrilled was I to go to Chinatown and go shopping? ... THRILLED. because... I was able to find a cheap heater to warm my 50 degree room at night. When your away from home... it's really the little things that make your day. So after that hike, the journey continued to the Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm (it's a art venue that was an old powerhouse along the river), really nice and fancy place after you take into account the 2 hours of walking it took me to get there, for that kind of work, it shouldn't have the blessing to even have the name Brisbane in front of it. But once I arrived, the exhibit was really worth it (World Photo Tour 07), which is a collection of the top photographs taken my press photographers over the past year. So around 5pm or so, it began to get dark, so I decided to try to make my way back. Luckily for me, the City Cat Ferry runs near the powerhouse, so I caught that... only in the wrong direction, oops. But it wasnt' so bad, I figured this way I could get my tranist passes' moneys worth. So I stood at the front of the Ferry as we cruised along away from my final destination, we saw the mouth of the river where it pretty much empties out into the ocean, and some other nice things along the way. But to make a long story end, I arrived at home about an hour and a half later. That night, a friend and I decided to check out the more cultural side of Brisbane by attending the Queensland Symphony Orchestra who was playing Carmina Burana (you would know it if you heard it), the performance was great, they played some Wagner and other modern pieces beforehand, and I am really into that stuff, so it was worthwhile.

Sunday: Sun and Surfing

So I decided it would be a good idea to bring my wetsuit from home on this 8000 mile journey. Sunday, that decision finally became worthwhile as we went down to Surfers Paradise (yes, that's actually the name) for the afternoon. My friend Ying joined me as we took the 2 hour transit journey to travel the 70km down to the Gold Coast. Imagine Miami Beach, only cleaner, safer, and with an Aussie accent. Surfers is quite the tourist trap, but it's a pretty one at that, and has plenty of places to rent surf boards. After taking a walk along the coast and checking out the water, I started talking to a kitesurfer (I've been dying to learn to kitesurf since last year), and asked about local lessons and if any were offered. And the guy, went on to give me an hour lesson about kitesurfing, talk about awesome. I took down his contact info because he may lend me a trainer kite to practice with if I come down again. But after that, I rented a board for about two hours. I realized why I hadn't seen many other surfers in the water... because the current was moving about 2 miles an hour from south to north. So what does that mean? I surf about 5-7 runs, then have to get out and walk 100 yards along the beach back to the point where i set in. A little annoying, but not too bad. The surf was pretty good though, pretty much one great break after another. I definately want to try to get back on another weekend.

Monday. Back to Work
So today was a fairly normal day, I woke up around 720am and headed down to breakfast. The weather has been kinda crappy since it's raining outside, and will be again tommorrow. But continued on my normal routine going downtown and then back to campus. Another good meeting this morning learning about the history of Brisbane Transport. But I want to focus this post on my long interaction with my office mate... who loves to talk. but is also the most risk-averse person I think I've ever met in my life! I should preface, he is a great guy and has been super nice and helpful. But I almost was laughing at some of his stories of avoiding things like... swimming in shallow waters because they contain fish which could lure sharks... Ok, so that is semi plausible, but then to go on to explain how he has tried certain sports, and then moved on because they are too dangerous. Soccer was the first, (too dangerous, contact), they he moved onto cycling (also too dangerous), then badminton (too dangerous, your partner could hit you), but he is safely settled on softball, which on my danger hierarchy lies somewhere above cycleing and badmintion.... but different folks different strokes.

Well that's about it for today, have a great day!

More Police Activity

So at the rate that I'm going, I'm going to thrown into Australian Jail by Sunday... So before getting to the good part of the story, I'll talk about yesterday and today (btw, that's not me in the photo, i just pulled it off of google). So yesterday and today, the days were fairly similar, and getting rather repetitive. I moved into my new location at the Indooroopilly Lodge (try spelling that on forms over and over again).. but no worries, the move went fine, then I headed over to campus around 3pm and just got a short day of work in, not really work, I don't have anything-access, so I really just collected my notes, went to the post-office, and called it a day. I did have an interview during the morning, and that went well, so at least I hit my quota of earning my keep for the day.

Today was rather similar, I should first note my room here at the lodge has no heat or a/c, which isn't so bad, except that queensland is having record-breaking cold temperatures (in the 50s at night, which isn't that bad)... but for whatever reason, my room feels like its at least 40, so I have my linens, but also my 20degree sleeping bag, which resided over my whole body last night. Had that "its too cold to get outta bed" symptom this morning, but finally made it out. Breakfast was quite simple, but plentiful. I could have as many corn flakes and pre-buttered pieces of toast that i wanted! I shouldnt' complain though, that's probably what I would eat anyway. After that, I had to run some errands at the local mall (which is about 35 m from where I live), and I did walk, for those who were about to call me out. Finally got my hair cut (this is the longest its been since... probably 3rd grade, seriously, went to the Kmart and bought a decent shirt to wear my interview tomorrow, and checked out the travel agent for some future travels.

So I took the bus downtown and did a nice walk around the riverfront and the Botanical gardens before my 12:00pm interview. Interview went well and lasted about 40mins, got some good information from the guy that was talking about 100 words a minute... (40,000 words thrown at me... maybe it stressed me out), which caused me to cross the street regardless if the little blinking pedistrian man was blinking or not.. (did you know that the ped. signs here are green and red? why are they "white" and red in the US?? I'll leave that discussion point open..) At any rate, I was crossing the street, thinking about those 40,000 words, when my attention was caught by a man in uniform wearing a badge, yes, i managed to have my second run-in with the law in three days. And this time, I got a ticket. $30 for disobeying a crossing signal.... great. At least he was nice about it. I didn't have a good excuse besides attempting to tell him what it's like to live in Berkeley, CA where pedistrians rule and if you even start your car, you have environmentalists trying to slash your tires... oh well, i didn't have time to fit that story in, or the one about i'm just a ignorant american, please don't give me a ticket... But I suppose there is more than one way to contribute to the Australian economy besides buying postcards (which I also did today). After that, the day was fairly boring and lawful. I went back to the UQ campus, and did some work before retiring and heading back to the lodge for some nice dinner. Then to the gym to let out some post-schoolday stress. Did you Know? Most shops, actually nearly 99% of stores close here at 5pm, EXCEPT! on Thursday, which for some reason is the holiday of non-work, because all of the stores stay open until 9pm on this night. No idea.
It's probably the same reason why aussies sell this map: http://www.mapsworldwide.com/itm_img/1865001104.jpg
in stores across the country (because it puts them on top)... good point to bring up though, why can't south be on top? We've socially-constructed this globe thing to always have North America and Europe sitting on top of the rest of the world (South America, Africa, SE Asia, Middle East)? Maybe if we just started producing South-side up maps, the global economic and social problems will equalize.... hmm, maybe just wishful thinking :-),

Goodnight

June 19th - Earning My NSF Funds...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Metric_system.png

I just had to post that link as it shows my frustration in being in Australia and trying to determine my cm. shoe size, how many liters of petro I need, and how many mL of juice I want... oh wait, it's because we're (Americans) are one of those red spots on the map showing what countries are not using the metric system..... rrrr. Anyway, today was pretty standard day, woke up around 815am and had my breakfast as usual, got online and talked to catherine, and then made my downtown for one of my two interviews/conversations today. My first gent was a long haird Ph.D in Botany, who is now apparently very interested in conservation and its relation to transportation. I spoke with him for about an hour, pretty interesting, but also pretty short on time. After that short stint, I hopped on a bus for the leafy suburb of Nathan, Qld (that stands for Queensland), where I met yet another Ph.D, who was very interesting, and had plenty to say about transportation and land use, and he also referred to the head of the DCRP Dept at Berkeley as "Uncle Bob", hilarious... But I spoke with him for about 2 hours on the history of the busway, and just about australia in general, great conversation and now I have a pile of leads a foot high... which will probably take me the rest of the summer to sort out. At any rate, I then made my way back downtown and then onto Indooroopilly for a quick gym workout, a trip to the supermarket, and then back home to make dinner and type my notes for the day. Tomorrow, I'll be moving out of my home here at Brisbane City Backpackers, I'm a bit sad... it's a fun place and there are alot of people coming in and out of here, I've managed to meet some interesting folks, but onward to cheaper and more personal places.

And the Police Get Involved...

Well before I get to the title of the story, I'll go ahead and fill you in on what's happened since my last entry. Well its my third day in Brisbane, and I still think it's a pretty fantastic place. I took some of these pictures on my walk back from the bus stop. I've managed to get some of the basic things taken care. As I mentioned before, I have joined the rest of Australian society and have gotten a cell phone, with a genuine Aussie phone number. Yesterday, I spent most of the day exploring after I wrote my blog. I walked from my hostel over to the campus where I'll be spending a good deal of time this summer doing my research... well I never actually made it to the campus, but I made it close! In the last few km. to the hostel, it got hilly, I got discouraged... you know. At that point, I had been walking for nearly 1.5 hours, and I had to be somewhere, so I decided to walk eastwards more towards my direction. But a very quaint neighborhood and area. (I am talking about the University of Queensland at St. Lucia), I'll take a picture of the sign for those of you know about my college sign interest... I also got a gym membership yesterday, so all of the fish and chipperys in this country don't make me pack on too many pounds. Last night was fairly quiet, I came back to my hostel and cooked dinner, and spent about 2 hours chatting with a relatively interesting french guy who spent the last 2 months working at a winery near Adelaide and a Hong Kong girl who can't seem to find a job here in Brisbane.
Oh yeah, I forgot that I put those pictures there, I took those before all of the above happened just for a chronological reference.

So as for today, another fairly productive day. Woke up this morning, and spent a bit of time online trying to get things sorted out for my contacts. I met my first contact for the summer at 11am this morning, and had a great meeting. He was the architect who designed all of the busway stations and terminals for the southeastern busway ( this was super interesting to me.. but i will leave out the boring public transit-related details ), This afternoon, I ran into a problem with my housing... so before, I was worried because I couldn't find a place., now I have TWO... well almost. I was trying to cancel my first place, but then he pulled the "i'm going to charge your card $792.00 if you don't stay" card on me... so I didn't want to get too fiesty. But I am going to see if I can stay there for a short time , before moving onto another place that I found for much cheaper. This afternoon, I took the bus back to the UQ campus to get situated to the campus and to my academic building. Beautiful campus, and relaxed atmosphere, they're currently not in session right now, so maybe that's why it was so quiet. But I checked out of my office, and my office-mate is a Singaporean named Brendan, Super nice guy, he showed me around the campus a bit and let me know where the "tea-room" was. After that, I went back for another round at the gym, and then finally meeting up with a girl who was going to give me her bike (she was moving, and I replied to her ad online), the bike was free, so I had no complaints.

I saw it, and was excited that it actually fit me and wasn't a power wheel. Unfortunately, I didn't get any free advice on that Australians MUST wear a helmet, so when I was giving my new bike a test ride along the road, a nice police patroller came along side and yelled "are you gonna walk that or do you want a ticket"... (this was much more dramatic since it was at night, and he shined his spotlight on me)so of course since I had no idea what I was doing wrong at that point, I just played ignorant american, and told them that I had just bought the bike, Luckily, they're very laidback here in Brisbane, and he politely told me that I needed to purchase a helmet., so there went my bike ride for the night, So that story probably could have been told much better, but I'm getting tired, and my back hurts because I lifted weights today after being basically stagnant for the past week. There's my reason. Enjoy! and goodnight.

Brisbane... Day One and Two

Welcome to Brisbane, Queensland... the capital of the Sunshine State of Australia. So this is the part of the trip that I've been waiting for. Brisbane is where I'll be spending the majority of my next two months researching for the University of Queensland. It is also the only place in Australia that i've been so far where it's actually been warm AND sunny. Right now, it's a beautiful sunny 74 degrees. To give you the quick update, I arrived yesterday from Canberra and got in around 12:30pm. From the airport, I was joined by my friend Ying who will also be staying in Brisbane for the summer. Being a student of transportation, I'm naturally attracted and curious about public transportation and things of the sort. We arrived at the Roma Street Station downtown, and I was super impressed by how high-quality and well integrated the transportation infrastructure is here in the city. I arrived at my hostel, where I'll be spending the next three days around 2pm. I briefly threw my stuff down and went to go explore the city.


So its hard to compare Brisbane to any city that I've previously been in... If you could imagine an Atlanta hits Boston kind of design, if that is even humanly possible. But my first item of business, was to find myself a cell phone. Which chose and purchased in the course of about 8 minutes (I'm not much of a shopper), but for any of you that know my history with cell phones, I bought the cheapest one I could find, in hopes that it will last me or that I won't lose it before August 12th, 2007. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera during my trips downtown, but downtown Brisbane has a very lively feel and was full of people. I'm curious to see more of the feel on a typical weekday. I'll have my chance tomorrow when I head to the Ministry of Transport of Queensland for some initial contacts for my research. After a long day of walking around and a short time acquiring a phone... I made it back to the hostel to meet my roomies, I've gotten to know three of them a fair bit. One guy is a computer programmer from the UK, and the others are two good friends from the UK. We had a pretty in depth conversation yesterday about global opinions of both countries, obesity, regional accents in both countries, and the origins of the words soccer and why americans drive on the right.. (which I know the answers for both now btw). So it was pretty good evening, afterwards, I took the train to the Indoorpilly station to meet up with Ying and Greg (another US student) to check out the area around campus. I had the chance to look at two places where I may be staying for the summer. And I think I've made a decision on where I'll end up.


Fast forward to this morning, I woke up around 8:30am and went on a run around the river, (South Bank), which was absolutely beautiful.
Here are some pictures along my run, with scenery shots embedded in random shots of Bus Rapid Transit... (thrilling... I know)
So this is the small beach that is located near the riverfront. When I went by the second time, I think they were playing kayak water polo here. But it really feels like a small resort along the river. Props to Brisbane for creating such a nice place.
And again, check out this hot busway! But for now, I've been taking care of odds and ends around the hostel. I need to spend a good bit of time emailing all of my contacts to setup appointments throughout the week. I'll probably spend the rest of the day going down to check out campus and to go workout somewhere. I'm also pondering how to spend my weekends and thinking about taking some road trips... We'll have to see how it goes. But for now, that's it. Hopefully you all are doing well, I am doing great so far. Until the next post, Good day.

Last Day in Canberra

So the time of orientation has quickly come to a close. Tomorrow, the 16 of us who have spent our first few days together in Canberra will be taken away to the Canberra Airport tomorrow morning. We will head to various places around this big country/continent... Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Townsville, and finally Brisbane. But it has been a fun last couple of days, we've all gotten spoiled by the fantastic hospitality of our hosts, and have had some fantastic meals and wines.

Yesterday and today were both very busy days. Yesterday we got a lecture from one of the top researchers from ANU (australian national university) who spoke for an hour about kangaroos... (it may sound boring, but it seriously was very good)... did you know, female kangaroos have the ability to produce two different types of milks to synchronously feed two of their young who are at different stages of growth? I sure didn't. In the afternoon, we went to the Australian Parliment House. We were very lucky to be able to sit in on one of the delibration sessions... which is very much like the house of commons in London.... absolutely hilarious. But no Cameras were allowed unfortunately... check this place out. The evening ended up with some dinner downtown at a Thai restaurant.

Today was relatively laidback. After a short visit with some campus faculty, we went on a trip to the Australia Botanical Gardens. Since I was fairly uninterested... I'll just skip that part and next talk about the Australian National Museum, which was very interesting and had a good mix of Aboriginal Heritage as well as modern Australian history... Unfortunately, we had such a short amount of time, I felt bad for our guide who was literally powerwalking and talking through the whole place. After that, our stellar driver Dennis took us searching for Kangaroos, which we eventually found.

The evening was quite the celebration. With everyone on the heels of heading off on their own, we of course had a great big dinner at an Indian restuarant downtown, then headed off for the nearest Irish pub for drinks and a little bit of dancing later on... If you're interested in seeing the aftermath, feel free to check my photos on Flickr.

My next entry will be from the warm flatlands of Queensland and Brisbane!

What's The Capital of Australia?

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For those of you who answered with: Sydney... that is actually incorrect. The capital of Australia is actually Canberra, a small and sleepy town between Melbourne and Sydney. The name actually comes from the aboriginal term meaning "meeting place"... how's that for some fun facts. So now I'll finish with my lesson and tell you about how the day went. I woke up this morning around 6am and quickly packed my bags (which was difficult since I was splitting a room the size of a handicapped bathroom stall with a 28 year old japanese guy. But I was able to fumble around in the dark and gather all of my things and make my way to the airport. (I checked my flight before leaving for the airport this time). Made it to the airport without much incident, got in around 7AM and got yet another exit row on my flight. Booking with travel agents definitely has its perks. So because of some delays due to fog in Canberra, My flight was delayed about an hour and half, but I got this nice shot at the airport:

But I eventually arrived in foothill town of Canberra around 10AM this morning. The first of the many students arriving from the US or from other parts of Australia. I was greeted by our two hosts Charis and Nancy, who both work for the Australian Academy of Science here in Canberra. Since I was a bit early, I had some time to play around before the others arrived. But wow... hello NSF and AAS, they really hooked us up in nice places for the next few days. I am in a fully furnished and fully loaded apartment complete with stocked frig... here is a quick peek: But I went on a quick run around the town, and it's a beautiful place, a master planned city designed by an American (student of Frank Lloyd Wright). Here are some pictures from my run.

So since the run, we had a quick lunch to reacquaint ourselves with all of the participants in the program and then we took a bus tour of Canberra. A really beautiful city, which was the result of the master plan created by Burley Griffen (great name huh?) But here are some photos of the surrounding areas, the Parliment Bldg, and other things.
So here is a picture of the Parliment Bldg, the symbolism is pretty intresting with this building, Burley Griffin didn't want the building to be placed on this hill since it would mean the people would have to look up at the government, However, the design of the building was such that it was built into the hill with grassy knolls built up on 4 sides to let the public walk up and over the bldg, representing governments place to support the population.

So this evening was fairly laidback, a group of people came over to my apt. to watch the big rugby game... New South Wales vs. Queensland (I was pulling for Queensland of couse) who won handily. But that's about it for now, tomorrow we have a pretty full day in terms of activities, so I may head to bed relatively soon. So until the next entry, have a great one!

Whoops...

So today was interesting... but unfortunately nothing that is too out of the ordinary from my travel experiences... so I get up at 6:15AM to prepare for my cab to head to the airport... everything works as plans, I get to the cab at 7:15AM, and make it to the airport within ~ 35 minutes... the only problem is, when I arrive, they don't have my name on the roster for the 8:25am flight, nor was it on any flight to Canberra for that day. So what happened? I misread my flight date for the 12th, when it actually was on the 13th... oops. You would think I would be better at this by now, This is not the first time I've screwed up a flight by showing up to the airport on the wrong day... but it's been a while, that makes it a little better doesn't it? Hmm.. maybe not. But, on the good side, now I have the added benefit of being able to spend another day in Melbourne, which was my wish from my last post.

So after pondering my possible options for approximately 20 minutes sitting on the baggage claim at the airport, I decided to head back for the Melbourne CBD to give my hand at a hostel for the night so I could avoid the pricey cab ride from Mick and Lloyds. I found a very inexpensive hostel near the Flinders St. Transit Station. After that, I gathered my necessities and then headed out for my typical "I really like to walk" days... it is probably for the best that I was by myself, because I really imagine that if anyone else was with me, they'd be really annoyed by how much I like to walk and explore around a city. I'm really glad that I was able to spend the day walking around Melbourne, because it is really an amazing city... It's difficult for me to compare cities, but it feels like a nice US city (maybe Boston or Chicago) only friendlier, safer, and cleaner... It really is fantastic, and in terms of public transit it is really impressive as well. I spent most of the afternoon wandering before eventually making it back to my hostel. I wanted to go on a run so I could see some of the areas near the water and some of the larger public parks, which were also beautiful. I'll try to put up some of the pictures soon. But as for now, I'm sitting at an internet bar (interesting huh?) It's a nice lounge atmosphere with wireless internet, kinda a weird combination, but it works... much better than those internet cafe/convience stores. But I'll probably head back to the hostel before too long to call it an early night... have to be up early... again.. to try to catch my flight on the right day this time.

Photos of the Trip

Can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/supawanich

June 11th - Melbourne

So today’s entry will be relatively short since it only covers a day’s time. But currently, I am again writing from Mick and Lloyd’s apartment in the Kensington district of Melbourne, I’m across the street from the largest horse race track I’ve ever seen in my life, and the outside temperature is approximately 45 degrees. So this morning, I woke up several times, possibly due to jet lag, possibly due to the fact I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor with half a sleeping bag covering me. Regardless, we were supposed to wake up around 7am to begin our tour of Melbourne. Luckily for me, the others were still sound asleep, and didn’t wake up until around 9am. We had a quick breakfast of cereal (I felt like I was at home!) and then we were off. Today, Carla (Mick’s girlfriend) who I knew from our previous trip to Venezuela, greeted us at the apartment, and would be our ride in our tour around Melbourne. We were able to all catch up for a little while, before heading off on our trek. We began with a short driving tour of downtown, then Port Melbourne, the harbor and marina. After approximately 35 minutes of driving, we parted with Carla to continue our tour on foot. We began by heading to some of the parks near Port Melbourne, I can’t remember the exact name, but I know the Prix is held there annually. After that, we walked over to the WWI museum for a honor ceremony and to read about a little WWI History from the Aussie side. There were also some great views of the CBD from the area, so I was sure to take some good pics. Then I had my very first opportunity to ride public transit in Australia… Lloyd was sure to get some pics of me entering the tram (which I will be doing plenty of, once I reach Brisbane), but we were on the tram to head into the main CBD of Melbourne. Once there, we checked out the main downtown train station, then headed up to the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower (tallest res. Tower in the world, tallest bldg in the southern hemisphere). Once there, we gathered some breathtaking views of Melbourne. My two hosts, Mick and Lloyd of course are natives of the Melbourne area, so I got very detailed descriptions and stories about most of the buildings and areas within sight of the tower. We also were able to see the enormous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds), where we would be heading later in the day to see a “footie” match (Aussie Rules Football). After the skydeck tour, we went for a short lunch downtown before walking out to the MCG, for a true Victoria event, Aussi Rules Football. A combination between football, soccer, basketball, and some other sports… it was quite a sight. Very entertaining and requiring much athleticism of its players… I’ll have to explain in more detail later. After the match, we took a brief walking tour of the city before heading back to the apartment for some canasta and homemade chilli. All in all, based on my brief visit to Melbourne, I can see why these guys like it so much. Definitely has a very classy, almost European style feel, with the combined laidback nature of Australians. Additionally, the weather wasn’t warm, but was fairly mild considering the winter season that it currently is here in Australia. I’m not sure when, but I would very much like to come back here and spend a bit more time exploring and getting to know the city, as I’m sure it has plenty of surprises and exciting areas which I wasn’t able to see this time around. As for tomorrow, I’ll be headed back to the airport around 7:15AM to catch a 8:25am flight to Canberra , where I’ll be spending the remainder of the week for our EAPSI orientation.

June 10th - Road Trip!

June 10th 2007,

So I’ve been in Australia for approximately 48 hours. In that short time that I’ve been in this new country, the awesome experiences have been jam packed already! So to update you on what’s happened since my last entry (where I was flying from Atlanta to LA). I managed to call my sister, and I was able to meet her and her husband for a short while during my 3 hour layover in Los Angeles. It was absolutely perfect. I was able to check in for my next flight, then walk outside to be picked up. Dinner was short, but very good (at the El Segundo Whole Foods, the biggest whole foods I’d ever seen!) They also had free wi-fi, which made it possible to post my initial posts) So after that short break, it was back to the airport to complete by journey to the land down under. The flight itself went fairly smoothly, it’s amazing how quickly time goes by when you are expecting a long trip. I believe I slept for about 5-6 hours on the plane. Usually I’m really good about keeping myself busy, but for some reason on this flight, I was completely content playing chess on my little entertainment screen, and only watched one movie. The meals were about what you would expect, but luckily, I had a aisle seat with the middle seat empty (747-400 3-4-3 configuration). But right away, I found myself surrounded by a sea of Aussies and their fun accents. I watched the movie “Breach” while on the flight, entertaining, but nothing really that amusing. The one bad thing about having the aisle seat was not being able to see much of the great scenery on the way in. We arrived in Melbourne approximately at 7:30AM on Saturday morning (approximately 23 hours after I left Atlanta) Customs and such were no big hassle, and was able to get out into the terminal about an hour after my touchdown.

I met up with my buddies Lloyd and Mick (they're the other guys in the photos) after a short wait (I lived with Lloyd during my stay in I-House, and then met Mick during the three of our travels in Venezuela during December-January of 2007). From that point (9am) our challenging schedule began. We immediately started a 2 day road trip that began by heading southwest towards the Australian coastline. We traversed the Great Ocean Road for approximately 3 hours, with breathtaking coastal scenery and interesting weather. We had a mix of clouds and sun for most of the morning, and the sight of a rainbow for most of the day. I would compare the scenery somewhat to the PCH in California, but less rocky and more pastoral, but absolutely gorgeous nonetheless. We stopped in a small town called Lorne (sp?) for lunch. Lorne was a quiet beach town, like many we passed on our travel down the roadway. Had we more time, I think it would have been great to stay for a bit, even more so during the summer months when surf would be in full swing. I went to my first Australian Fish and Chippery and had the greasiest meal I’d probably had in years. Approximately 5 pounds of fried seafood, fish, and potatoes were set in front of myself and my friend Lloyd, being hungry, the amount of oil and grease did not seem to bother us. Well it didn’t bother me until about an hour later, and continued to haunt me for most of the afternoon. After our brief stop, we continued down the highway to the 12 Apostles, a group of towering rocks that jut out of the rocky coastline. Unfortunately due to erosion and weathering, only 8 of these rocks remain. After a few additional photo stops and short hikes, we headed northward towards Bellarat, Lloyd’s hometown. The time was approximately 6pm or so, and the sun had recently gone down.



Approaching Lloyd’s hometown, I got a little of the background. We were attempting to reach the town in time to make a 8pm show about Soverign Hill ( a historic place in Australia’s history and independence from Great Brittian). We had purchased some beers along the way to be consumed during our few days together. Thus by the time of the show, I imagined that I might be able to bring a beer in (imagining the show may be a relaxed atmosphere, kinda like the Stn. Mtn. Laser Show if you are familiar) Well, it was much more of a educational-yet-cheesy family atmosphere, so the beer stayed in my jacket pocket for most of the evening. After the show, we headed back to Lloyd’s mom’s place around 10pm. Their home was much of a rustic cabin versus anything else. Heated only by the fireplace, and electric appliances were at a minimum. We had dinner around 10pm, at which time there was barely anything left in me. But made it to bed around midnight.

Yet, there was little time to rest as we were up and on the road by 7:30AM to head to the Grampians. This was a national park in southern Australia which contains some of the world’s best rock climbing. It was rock climbing which would be today’s activity. To make a long story short, we had a 6 hour climbing class which was absolutely a blast. We were climbing up 5.8 level sandstone and rappelled down at the end of the day, absolutely great. We had a quick lunch around 2pm, where I found out Paris Hilton went back to jail, and also tried a pie for the first time. However, these are not like US pies, but instead more of a pastry roll filled with warm things such as meats or potatoes. Quite good and quite filling. Probably the US equivalent to a hot pocket, only theirs is much more natural. Then we were able to make it back onto the road and reach Melbourne around 7pm. So here I am now, writing this in the comforts of Mick and Lloyd’s apartment. I have a nice mattress on the floor and am keeping warm with my sleeping bag and laptop. It sounds like tomorrow we’ll have another full day, waking at 7am to head out and enjoy the city of Melbourne. Hopefully I’ll have great things to report in my next entry.

Paul

Day 1 : ATL-LAX-MEL

June 7th, 2007

So its been about 6 months in the making, but the day has finally come for me to carry myself and my three bags to the other side of the world to research public transportation, see the sights of Australia and New Zealand, and hopefully have a pretty good time while being there.

The way this all got started was early October, when a friend of mine at Berkeley, Stella So to give credit, told me about a National Science Foundation program called EAPSI (East Asia – Pacific Summer Institute). Last summer, she had the opportunity to travel to Tapei, fully funded by the NSF. So, naturally, I was pretty excited about the thought, but considering my research background at the time (about 25 days worth at that point), I thought my chances were pretty slim. But I was still curious… so I did what most college students do, I went to google, and started looking into my options. To really simplify the story… I was able to locate a research center at the University of Queensland (in Brisbane), where I would be able to do research the affects of transportation on property values. I have been in pretty constant communication with my host in Brisbane (who coincidentally is leaving today to spend some time in Berkeley, CA. He has been really helpful in setting me up with contacts for when I arrive, so that should keep me plenty busy for my first few weeks.



Just as a primer, I’ll mention what I’ve been doing recently. For the past few weeks, I’ve been spending most of my time with my family, friends and girlfriend Cat. I had the chance to head back home (Illinois) to see some of my good friends and teachers from high school, reminisce about Gibson City, and relax. After that trip, it was to California to meet the parents for a week and some of camping and meandering around the state. Finally, back to Georgia to hang out with Cat and my parents and get ready for the long trip.

So as I am writing this, I’m approximately 3.5 hours into my journey around the world. In total, I’ll be in an airport or on a plane for 24 hours total. Everything has gone so far…pretty well Apparently my bag is oversized by about 5”, but the nice lady at the counter let it slide, I had a gentleman take my pen in security, but nothing overly tragic. Just for the plane enthusiasts in my program.. I’m happy to say that I’m on a half-full exit row on a 757, and will have my luggage checked all the way through Melbourne. So today, will voyage will consist of a 3 hour stay at LAX and then a 17 hour flight to Melbourne, where I will arrive at 7:55AM on Saturday morning (Australia is 14 hours ahead of EST)

The total of my trip will go like this:
6/9 – 6/12 Melbourne, AU with some friends that traveled with over Xmas Break
6/13 – 6/16 Canberra, AU at the orientation of my program
6/16 – 8/12 Brisbane, AU where I will research at the University of Queensland (with weekend trips hopefully…)
8/12 – 8/22 New Zealand where I will meet Catherine to travel for 10 days

There are a few things about Australia that you may be aware of, and some that you may not. They drive on the opposite side of the road and it is currently their winter. Additionally, it is apparently very difficult to get housing at this time of year, hence why I still do not have a place to stay. But, I am hoping that will be resolved (meaning I will figure something out) shortly after I arrive. I really want to thank for those of you who have given me tons of tips on places to travel and things to see, I really hope to have a chance to experiences those things first hand. Additionally, I am really hoping to pick up some new tricks over the summer. I’m planning on signing up for kitesurfing lessons as soon as I arrive. Additionally, I hope to be able to road trip up much of the eastern seaboard of the country during some portion of my stay.

Just an aside, I’m not very good about keeping a blog, or writing in general, so I’m not really sure what is boring vs. interesting. So please let me know what you may be curious about, or if I am a horrible storyteller or environment-describer. Currently, I’m sitting in exit row 27 on my Delta flight with a older asian guy next to me playing his PSP while listening to his bose noise-canceling headphones, perhaps a LA-bound computer geek professional? I can’t really tell. There is an interesting looking guy in front of me wearing a suit and reading a WSJ with a backwards trucker hat on… can’t really figure that one out either. But nothing else completely out of the ordinary. Lucky for me, they played the movie Wild Hogs for the in-flight movie… In-flight movies are great aren’t they? Just when you see the previews of something that looks halfway-bad and you think to yourself… I’ll never watch that. Well today I had my chance.