"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains"
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Post-Queensland (part 2 of 2)
Post-Queensland (part 1 of 2)
Written on Wednesday, the 3rd of December, 2008.
Since last Saturday I’ve been on the road w/ a rough itinerary and an open mind down to do whatever, wherever, whenever. The Friday before I left reminded me of the scene from the movie “Club Dread” where everybody was going crazy/ hysteric because they all knew they were ‘gonna die.’ Everybody was done with finals and people got pissed drunk… Roddy’s band played at the Uni club, an appropriate farewell event if you ask me.
I left for the airport that night/morning around 4:15 and arrived in
Once I landed in
The next day we both flew to
Friday, November 28, 2008
weird mood
It was nice to have a 'base' here in Townsville to where I could develop great friendships and use this 'base' to travel to and from other parts of Australia. Its extremely sad to leave that situation, but I'm curious and eager to move on of course. Brooke left the day before yesterday, Rachael and Drew today.. me tonight (this morning at 4:15). So, tomorrow it's Melbourne, tueday it's Sydney, and Friday New Zealand. If anybody's gonna be round those place hit me up on facebook or 0406558487.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Swat-Vac
Just when you think your trip couldn't get more interesting, it does!
Day 1:
After eating heaps of Mackers (McDonald's) and waiting in the Townsville airport to depart to Brisbane, we were finally told that our pilots had ran into an episode of food poisoning, and that we wouldn't fly that night. SHITTTT! our plans our RUINED!! ...so we thought, but not exactly... we decided to rape the airline of all its amenities and got a free hotel that night in Townsville, met some middle aged miners who were on their week off, took a taxi downtown, drank heaps of Guinness, came back to the hotel around hmm 3:30, bought two McChickens... went to bed to wake up only 3 hrs later.... great start to our trippp, other than the canceled flight of course (but we got a free flight voucher which I'm using to fly from Melbourne to Sydney wooo!!)...
Day 2:
Waking up super early to catch the next flight to Bris, we arrive at the airport at 7:30... flight was supposed to be at 9... ended up wating 3 hrs for an engineer to fly up FROM Bris and inspect the plane so WTF!! .. delayed flight yet againnnnnnn.. so finally, we get to Bris, and after hours upon hours of train/transportaion rides, we arrive in Noosa, at my friend Evan's cousin's House... IT WAS SICKKK!! Cool aussie girl, chill hippie dude, drug dealer, and a Korean that doesn't speak English. I met up with my friend Carmen from Switzerland that night (she's a real cutie) at an Irish pub while the others got smashed elsewhere.
Day 3: Swam in ocean... boarded a greyhound headed for Hervey Bay (base of Fraser Island). arrived late to our smelly nasty hostel room.. ate some subway which took forever to get ahhh...
Day 4: Woke up super early and met everyone on our Fraser trip. Later, we boarded the ferry w/ everyone and our 4x4 and met some cool ass people including two american doctors who live in Byron Bay..who eventually gave me a ride back to the airport a week later. On Fraser (the world's largest sand island), we saw a cool ship wreck, and set up camp/cooked dinner, played cricket/rugby which the british take EXTREMELY seriously.... slept on ground. ahh.
Day 5: Next day we headed to a sweet lookout, our group consisted of 4 americans (us), 4 british, 1 scottish and 1 Norwegian named The Hoff. The brits were cool and the Hoff was funny as shit. I love scandanavians. The other cars didn't like our driving and started spreading roomers about us.. but there were sweet people there like a bunch of cute sweedish girls/more brits, but amazinly, no other americans, australians, or germans. I absolutely loveee scandanavian accents... they are soooo coool...After, we went to some other cool part of the island where we had lunch and took it all in ahhhh. That night was a mess.. bottomless spag w/ tons of food and whiskey everywhere... Dingos also came into our camp lookin for food... but I guess they can get aggressive sometimes and eat little children.. hmm. not good
Day 6: Last day on Fraser.. went to Lake McKenzie on Fraser which had the clearest, more pure freshwater everrrrr. not to leave out the finest grains of sand... Quite the place to chill. Once we got back to the mainland, we weren't able to catch a bus back to Noosa that day so we got a free hostel stay. The night ended up pretty good, partyin w/ everyone one last time, w/ the sweedish girls, brits, and the Hoff. Great time.....
Day 7: Bus back to Noosa..Hung out with Carmen (Swiss Carmen), took a hike with her to a Noosa view point... then we all ate dinner and met up at the Irish pub... later met up w/ those american doctors....got pulled over by a cop and had to take a breathalizer test which I thankfully passed after havin 1 glass of wine. sheeeit. the legal limit here is .05... so that freaked us out a lil bit.. but all is well... said bye to carmen, went home n crashed.
Day 8: got up, cooked brecky, went surfing, got a ride from the doctors to brisbane... shopped a little, boarded my flight.. flew back to townsville, Nowwwwwwww one day later.. I'm here procrastinating my studying hmmm.
Anyways, the trip was a blast and wish, again, that all my homies from the mainland could be here with me. Some day we will all be and travel together.. But for now, I'm off to the books and studyin so I can get done w/ my final and say hello to Melbourne, Sydney, and finally NZ!!! wooo!! peaceeeeee..
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Born-again American
Today I woke up at 7:55 am (2:00 west coast time) to watch election day on Australian television. I skipped part of my materials class to run to the uni-bar and watch the election happen on the big screen. As I walk in, about 15 Aussies were sitting down with a huge dry-erase board tracking the latest voter turnouts. I thought that was cool for them to even give a shit about the US election. But I was soon told that "when the US sneezes, OZ gets a cold." (think about it) I bought a scooner of extra dry (aussie beer) and sat down at a table with a print out of the times the polls close for each state. At that time obama already had about 204 electoral votes to McCain's 146. More American students trickeled into the bar and sat down with me. We bought more pitchers and within an hour of nervous excitement, Obama-284 popped up on the screen with a statement "Barack Obama President Elect of the United States." We, and the rest of the crowed 'freaked'. Shedding many tears, hugs, hollers, and fuck yahs, we celebrated the newfound victory of our 44th President Barack Obama. After watching McCain's consession speech, Obama finaly aproached his stage in Chicago facing hundreds of thousands of his people. [Really quickly: I want to point out that McCain is a good man, however the fact that he chose to hold his election night party at a spa, with special invited donor guests only, compared to Barack's open-to-the-public "woodstock" style election night party just shows how different the two parties are; and shows how Barack Obama is willing to reach out to people.] After giving one of the most important and inspirational speech of his career yet, Barack waved good night and we cheered more.
Since Barack's victory, I've never felt soo frekin happy about being an American outside of the country. I hope that the world will look at Americans in a new light, worlds relations will grow stronger, impressions of Americans will grow better, and that of course, our country will take this opportunity to work hard and do only good; all for the advancement of world peace, cleanliness, and harmony. If you oppose Barack Obama, that's okay I guess. But be mature and open-minded about the issue.
Anyways, tomorrow I leave for Brisbane to spend a week on the beaches of Noosa, Australia before finals start. I'm grateful to be doing what I love (traveling), and wish all of my friends back at home were with me to celebrate Barack Obama and my wonderful journey through Oz. For all the friends I've met here in Australia, I love you all, and because the time we have with eachother is shrinking, lets rage the last one or two months we have together. Also, let us meet up multiple times in the future until we grow old and die. That goes for everyone. As for now, I hope my Noosa trip brings much spontaneous excitment and craziness as the previous treks have....... Thanks for reading this far if you have... and I'll leave you with a little joke ha....
Q: What does sex, a sheep, and a mother alll have in common?
A: OHHH! BAHHHHH.. MAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hmm What's Been on my Mind?
The past two weekends, and possibly the next two, I haven't really 'done' much. Ever since my Brissy trip I've just been chillin' here, bored a lot of the time, tryin' to finish assignments and prepare myself for finals...Maybe I said this before, but I can't wait to get outa TSV and explore more areas of this continent. It's drivin me crazy. The heats driving me crazy. The humidity, the lack of money to venture out (the necessity to save for upcoming trips), the stress from school, the nothing much to do anymore besides the ush. Its all drivin me nuts. However, its nice being away with really, no pressure to do or be anything that I'm not. People here rock. Speaking of rock, I've downloaded heaps of new music, so, if you're interested, I'd love to "share the wealth" of the spritualy delighting and good feeling music with anyone and everyone (whenever you may run into me). I've also played the old guit a lot w/ my friend Steph and her gf Jackie.. singin' random songs to make a good time out of passing time. Another thing that keeps me up is 'the knowing/realization' of what I'm bout to do in the near future..things like surfing the net for the best places to skydive in NZ..the NZ/AUS exchange rate is amazing by the way. We bascially get 33% off EVERYTHING in OZ and 40% off everything in NZ! I'm down with that.
Hmmm...what else... I've learned many German words thanks to my German roomie Jan (pronounced Yawn). He's really cool....I've also figured out that no matter how much I sometimes miss Oregon, its trees, air, water, friends, snow, sea, music,,,,,,I want and I am going to travel for as long as possible. It would be amazing if any OG friends would come. I refuse, after graduating, to settle down and work in one place 5 days a week, unless that place is someplace new, and what I do interests me. However, as of now I have no clue what interests me most so sheeeit!. Anyways, we'll see what comes my way. And, if you see me ever conforming to a corporate slowdown of settling down, at least while I'm in my 20's, PLEASE slap me and remind me of what I said before.
Hmmmmmm. People are cool. It's always awesome to meet good people. I LOVE good people. They make my day. I also love interesting and open-minded people, and real people...I'll be honest..kinda scared to go back to USD in the spring... I'll miss the good people I've met here too much. You know who's a really good person? Let me tell yah.. Barack Obama.
Yep, lets talk politics now.. a lil. The presidential race has constantly been on my mind. Earlier today I read an artical about one of Obama's campaing rallys. It explained how there was an ocean of people waiting for our candidate to speak. There was people playing music. There were hands waving back and fourth. There were people on eachother's shoulders so they could get a glimpse of him. They weren't heckeling. They were smiling. Hopeful and excited. About 100,000 people all coming together, it explained, black, brown, and white, together, with the vision of hope that reaches beyond onself. I really almost shed a tear when reading this.. anyways, heres a youtube link you should check out. It's hilarious...http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=N6ya39slPgs...
anyways... if you've made it this far, thanks for readin'. Hopefully my next blog will be more exciting... goin back to Noosa soon and I CAN'T WAIT!!!! and hopefully good stories will come out of that. For the mean time, keep on keepin on, take care, and promote awesomeness!
Friday, October 10, 2008
no title/little political rambling
Just finished watching Donnie Darko... Great movie. I thought I was crazy...sheeit. Perhaps its a film that reflects cause and effect? God's path? Time travel? Regardless, it was an interesting watch and would recommend it to most people.
anyways, if anybody's been watching the election coverage back in the homeland, I'm sure its freakin intense. I've been browsin' the main headlines, youtubes, cnn, and nbc websites and it sounds like Obama's doin great. I just can't get over the fact of how desperate the McCain campaign is getting however. Earlier I felt a little sorry for the guy because he just isn't running the campaign which he wants. Infact, his campaign has taken so many screwed up twists that he's been resorting to harsh, degrading, and unbelievable campaign tactics lately. Now, I feel no sorrow for the old man for he is launching crude and threatening tacktics towards my man Obama. I'm scared that, for when Obama does get elected, many angry and racist right wing conservatives wouldn't hesitate to retaliate against their loss and try and take out their opponent who only want's to make America more truthful and fair for everyone. Obama is not a socialist. He is not a fucking terrorist or muslim either. Also, who gives a f*** if he was associated with a Weather Underground member from over 30 years ago, who now is a well respected professor that contains more knowlege in his baby toe than McCain's running mate for vice president. The bottom line is... look at the differences of character, truth, and common-sense between the two campaigns.. Listen to what they are talking about and what they are saying. You will find Obama much more centered about preaching his world view/defending himself and McCain centered on rippin his opponent appart. It's sad and pathetic.
Anyways..Mom just called, saw my puppy on skype. ha. told me how shitty the economy is.. how everybody's loosing money. Gotta say thanks to President Bush and every other greedy bastard out there. Sorry if this writing is a bit angry and strong but that's just how I'm feelin right about now. All this politics/economy shit is distracting me from concentrating on school. However its also interesting..Sheeit.
What else.. went for a hike yesterday n took some sweet pics. hmmmm. but that's about it. might go back down to the sunshine/gold coast in november. .. saw abunch of europe pics on facebook. n friends, to those of you who are there, I'm happy for yah it looks sick..The closest thing I got to Oktoberfest is a freakin beer pong tournie next to our dining hall. ha. Anyways, lookin forward to lectures ending, and then my new zealand trip, and then to more contingent trips of lifeeeee. peace
Saturday, October 4, 2008
. O n T h e R o a d .
On Wednesday, September 24th, my friend and I had bought a ticket to Brisbane after previous plans had fell through. Once again, spontaneity and lack of thinking (first started in middle school) had set the course for what was to come. We arrived in Brisbane at 11:30, downtown at around 12am. Not having booked hostel reservations, Mat and I walked the streets for about an hour only to find that every single hostel in downtown Brisbane was full. Fortunately, three girls that were on our flight had their hostel reservations screwed up, were then given an empty room to stay in; so Matt and I seized the opportunity and bunked up with our friends (in this creep ass hostel) while enjoying a 60 dollar drink card (that the girls were given, but then gave to us) in the remaining bar that was still open. I'll spare the details, but it ended up being a pretty sweet first night in Brisbane.
Day two we took the train to Surfer's Paradise (funny name for a city). Apparently people surf there. The hostel that we stayed in contained people from all over the globe, but I'd like to mention our crazy South African roomie who would never sleep and our Italian roomie Fabio who was, well, reminded me of some crazy Italian. Anywho, we ended up seeing some friends from San Diego who are studying in Sydney and chilled w/ them for the night. The second night in surfers we were conned into a pub-crawl consisting of over 400 people (including some from uni). It was a shit show. Many good looking people. And we ran into an ol buddy Grant Walker from Laguna Hills. However, by the end of the 2nd night I was ready to move on and escape from the trendy and yuppie club scene.
The next day we caught a grey hound to Byron Bay, Australia, AKA my new favorite place. What used to be an artsy, bohemian, musical town where canned heat and other great bands played at, is still the artsy, bohemian, musical town with just more people and a little more money goin around. Jack Johnson actually owns a house 5 clicks down the road. We stayed at a hostel containg two Swedish girls, two German girls, and then two french girls. What a dream yah? Nothing really happened but it was funny because while we were hanging out, everything I would do they'd say "oh that's sooo american" and make a big joke bout it. Hmm. Anyways, the second day in Byron Bay we took a tour to the little town Nimbin (aka little Amsterdam) through "Jim's Alternative Tours". Boy was that a doozy. Have you ever heard of the Merry Pranksters? Well lets just say same idea here for Nimbin. As I stepped on the bus, amazing, chill, and insightful music was blasting. After picking everybody up, we began our hour drive towards the little town while Jim narrated the drive with stories and his favorite music. He also gave us advice about how to tackle nimbin. Again, I wont go into detail, but the Nimbin experience was quite amazing and out-of-this-world and I would definitely reccomend this tour to anyone who is looking for a genuine and strange experience. So on the drive home, everybody was in sort of in a different state of mind. Jim would take us through long rolling hills and wild corners with certain songs programed to fit every bit of it (we even climbed a huge hill just to play his 5min12sec song to play while rolling down the 5min12sec drive down the hill). After an hour of driving around beautiful countryside, we stopped at this old american hippie's house. His name was Paulie and he moved to Nimbin from NY in the 70's. After offering us fruit, informing us about his way of life, chilling in his little lakeside deck, and going on a little forest trek, we hopped back on the bus and drove through a rain forest, stopping an a 128 meter waterfall, stopped to pick up some food, and finally, finalllly all 25 of us were dropped off back to our hostels. WHEWWW! what a day. We loved Byron so much, we decided to skip our Fraser Island trip and stay in Byron for a total of 3 nights, the last being spent at an alternative hostel called Arts Factory. Arts Factory reminded me of a hippie commune packed with musicians and all different races of hippies that you could wonder up. This is also the place where great bands used to perform in the 70's.
Byron Bay was amazing, but we had to keep on trekin'. We headed up north past Brisbane in our just rented "Wicked Campervan" ('88 toyota van stuffed w/ a bed n kitchen) towards the Sunshine Coast to a town called Noosa. It comparable to being the "Laguna Beach" of Australia. There were many little ritzy and yuppie restaurants with tons of teens running around with their families. Everything closed at 12 but during the daytime, surfing was the number one activity. Mat and I rented surfboards for two days and walked around to different breaks (however the condishes weren't that great).
So I've also noticed that the girls in this part of Oz are more attractive than up in TSV. Sorry tsv but its true. There are more backpackers, more city folk, more beach goers, and just more people. On our last night in Noosa, just before we were about to leave the Koala Hostel, this girl tapped my window n asked me a questions about the van. To make a long story short, she ended up being an extremely cool, funny, and very cute girl from Switzerland which is extremely awesome. We talked for a long time and wanted to talk for more, but matt and her friend wanted to leave. Hopefully, someday, I'll meet up with her again n pick up where we left off. However, unfortunately, FB just told me she has a bf. wtf. Well, whatever happens is how it happens.
Anyways, today I woke up next to some beach south of Noosa, jumped in the ocean, rinsed off, drove to the Steve Erwin (God bless his soul) Zoo called the Australian Zoo, checked it out, then drove back to Brisbane, hopped on a flight back to Townsville, and just like that, my lil adventure was past.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
s t r e s s e d
You might be thinking (if you're in OZ w/ me), 'whats he got to worry about its his lecture break this weekend.' and yah thats true, except for the fact that our month of planning and excitement came to an abrupt end after one of the guys decided he won't be able to go. kinda screwed things up. . but I don't blame him at all, hes a good guy, and yah 21st birthdays are HUGE in Australia. So, after a day of freakin' out, Herrmann and I figuered shit out trying to make a trip that was affordable yet action packed, or perhaps EPIC. Soooo last night, late last night, we just randomly bought tickets for Brisbane (for tonight), luckily they weren't too expensive, and were now plannin to continue where we left off and try and hit the eipicness in a very cheap/bumlike way.
<---another stress pic
So I just got to get through one more day of 'imgonnahaveanervousbreakdown' class and then we leave for Brissie! With, what turned out to be, a bunch o' my friends bein on my filght! mile highclub??TENFOLD! I tell you that plane ride is gonna be an ORGY!!
Until more crazy shit hits the fan, im out. peace
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
It's Been A While
It has definitely been a long time since I've kicked it in the OG. Its been some time since I've chilled with Graham (wish him the best), it's been a while since I've beached it and hit up the tundra. It's been a while since the whole Riverside crew/Jared and others have all hung out together. Living away from home (the majority of the time) for over two years now has been quite the experience and many, many things are different. Yet many are still the good ol' same.
Anywhoo, finally after two years in San Diego and intense study abroad research, I finally am givin the opportunity to travel solo and explore the world limited only by time and money (but I make the best of it). With the help of my parents, motivation from my sis and friends alike, and the urge to get outa Milwaukie, Oregon, I'm now in the middle of an epic journey. . . Sold all my stocks and put all my life savings into the old checking account. And then I left. "School" is a great excuse for going, but its not the main reason.
I arrived in Guadalajara, Mexico on June 6th (D-day). I'll sum this mexico part up real quick even though it was one of the most enjoyable times of my life. I was placed to live for 6 weeks with an amazing family that didn't speek english, and my spanish was horrible. Eventually, after taking a class and being forced to speak, by the end of the trip I was able to get around easily. On the weekends we'd excursion to sick places such as Puerto Vallarta, Guanajuato, San Miguel De Allende, Lake Chapala, Barra de Navidad, Lake Santa Maria de Oro and more. I've been the best people, locals and students alike that'll always be close. Once the last night came around, we freaked, got shwasted of Azul taquia, and barely made it to the airport to catch my flight to the LA (was pretty out of it).
I was in LA for about 10 hours, stopped at my aunts house, ate heaps of Philipino food, then boarded a plane headed for Sydney, Australia, then to Cairns where I had my Australearn Orientation. It was there that I met heaps of americans from all over, and many, i'd say most are the shit (as in really really cool). Once we arrived in Townsville (if you dont know where that's at look it up on the Australian map) and settled in our 'college' called George Roberts, we were introduced into the NorthQueensland way of life. Orientaion week was sick and I had never drank so much goon (boxed wine), actually I've never really drank goon and been hazed like that ever. It was freakin hilarious. After getting comfortable, I finally figured out what there is to do in ol' hickville, I mean Townsville. With the rainforest in our backyard, and the beach in the front, well ther's actually a lot to to up here. Its been almost two months now and we've all tackeled a ton of shit. From what I can recall, O-week, Jarouma Falls camping, BBQ's, Whitsunday Sailing/scuba, Fisher Sheild, Flinders St, CVA Volunteer trip, my 21st, and many more have been high lights and all have redic stories that I can only half remember. I love it here, schools sucks, but the people (way laid back and super sarcastic) know how to have a good time. I gota be honest however, the girl scene hasn't impressed me too much, at least not as much as Grant says how hot they are in Sydney. But he's in Sydney, and I'm in the Bush, but I would never trade experiences.
Next week in lecture recess and I'm planning to drive down to Brisbane with some homies and check out Byron Bay, Fraser Island, and Nimbin (pot/hippie-capitol of Australia). Should be a doozy. Anyway, now for the conclusion. . . It's been a while since I left the US. . . and that's definitely okay with me. I do miss Oregon, its trees, air, and people. But all that's waiting for me for whenever I return. Peace
By the way, yall better be registered and voting for Barack Obama this Nov. . .