Less than two weeks ago, I was more than 10,000 miles, and basking in the summer sun. Today I walked one mile each way to a family Christmas party. I walked because I didn’t want to risk the driving, you see, we had 15 inches of snow come down today. To be honest, as much as I like the warmth, and as much as I love the beach, it is weather like this that I really love.
It’s been a peaceful Saturday with not too much going on, which is a good thing since most traveling has had to be cancelled due to the extreme weather. With nothing more stressful than deciding between hot chocolate and spiked egg nog plaguing me, this has been a glorious day.
I love the deep, quiet snow especially as I trudge through it as it lays on the golf course with the shades-of-brown scenery of bare trees and lightly falling snow at 10 at night. I love how sore my bake and legs will be tomorrow morning due to the hours of shoveling I did today. I love the constant snuffling I’ve developed… I actually do: it signifies how active I have been able to be over the past week working outside.
Life since I’ve been back has been excellent. I have been surrounded by my family, including several adorable nieces and nephews. And friends galore! It is just such a good feeling to be visiting my old haunts and see old friends. It must be the whole idea of a big fish in a small pond: it is really easy to enjoy myself when I feel this confident with myself and am in a place where I know a large percentage of the population.
Well, the spiked egg nog has kicked in and I’m feeling too mellow to continue typing… time to go socialize. I hope the approach of Christmas is finding you all well, and thank you for continuing reading as long as you have.
Peace!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
1:3:17
According to my itinerary, it took me the 27 hours and 17 minutes from when my first flight took off, and my last flight landed to travel back into Philly. That is the equivalent of one day, 3 hours, and 17 minutes of traveling. And during that time, there was only a short period of dark due to traveling against time, if you will.
My 39.5+ hour Friday (Dec. 11th) started at 4:15am Adelaide time (12:45pm of the 10th Philly time). After only 3 hours of sleep – it took longer to fall asleep than I had hoped, perhaps due to excitement, or caffeine, who knows what – I woke up, showered, ate, and finished packing in time to be picked up at 5:30am by the taxi that I had arranged. Two hours later, my flight was bumping down the runway. The first leg of the trip was to fly from Adelaide to Melbourne; a short flight of 1 hour and 15 minutes. After a rough landing, I quickly and easily made my way through customs and to the gate with 1.5 hours to spare for my second flight.
After going through security a second time, my second flight, from Melbourne to LA, left at noon Melbourne time (8pm of the 10th Philly time). Once again, I boarded a hulking Boeing 747-400 that is less an aeronautical machine as a magical whale – only larger. Miraculously it is able to take flight with it’s 400 plus passengers aboard. The flight was pretty good, with two or three spells of rather powerful turbulence that I kind of enjoyed. Partly by choice, partly due to the undeniable nature of human beings, I challenged myself to use the lavatory during one of these, and found it rather entertaining.
My seat was 71D, which is only two rows closer to the front than my trip in the opposite direction, and 4 rows from the back (75 rows). Seat D was the seat on the right side of the left aisle. At that point in the aircraft there are 10 seats abreast (A-K, I don’t really know how that works though); three, aisle, four, aisle, three. For my particular row (71) we were fortunate enough to have seats E and F empty, which means that I had an aisle on my left, and two empty seats on my right, one of which I filled with my stuff giving me more room to spread out and get comfy.
14 and a half hours later – after four movies (Funny People, (500) Days of Summer, District 9, and The Brothers Bloom) and some TV for a total of over 9.5 hours of cross-eyed enjoyment – the monstrous beast irrationally plowing through the sky extended its steel legs and more rationally rolled along the ground.
Going through Customs took about as long as I expected, but was much simpler than I expected. If you recall, going through the Fiji quarantine for Spring Break was very rustic: on my form I claimed I had food, had been in contact with animals and fresh water, and had a weapon with me… the Fiji quarantine looked at my form and waved me through without hesitation. My reentry into the States was only a little more formal as far as the quarantine is concerned. I was asked what food I brought (I had claimed food) and I answered “Cookies. Packaged Cookies.” He routinely welcomed me into the States and waved me through. For the amount of boarder protection I have thought the States to have, this was quite a shock that he didn’t want to see any of the other things I claimed: some of my souvenirs have raw wood or animal products… he didn’t even acknowledge it.
I make the long walk over to the appropriate terminal where I ate my first piece of food since I arrived back in the States: a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle. Then I proceeded to wait at the gate for another hour and a half before boarding my final flight of the trip.
This last leg, LAX to PHL, left about 45 minutes late because the plane we were in arrived late. Apparently the wind was blowing really strongly from East to West across America because the plane was late coming in due to a strong head wind, and the same problem benefited us on the flight to PHL with a strong tail wind. Because of that we actually landed on time after circling the airport a while.
The flight felt unnecessarily long for only 4.5 hours in the air, but I landed safely and after an unnecessarily long wait for my luggage, quickly and smoothly was picked up by Jori and Tykah for the ride to the Keals. By 9pm I was settling in and seeing the family.
Green money and correct driving rules took only moments to become familiar with again. Like my first experience in Australia, the first few turns made in the car on the way back were a little frightening due to feeling like we were turning into oncoming traffic.
I didn’t go to bed until 12:30am after visiting with family, but I didn’t feel extraordinarily sleepy despite having had only about 5 hours of sleep in the past 44 (including the 3 hours I had on the night of the 10th before my flight). However, I have no memory of being awake after closing my eyes. It was a good night.
Peace!
My 39.5+ hour Friday (Dec. 11th) started at 4:15am Adelaide time (12:45pm of the 10th Philly time). After only 3 hours of sleep – it took longer to fall asleep than I had hoped, perhaps due to excitement, or caffeine, who knows what – I woke up, showered, ate, and finished packing in time to be picked up at 5:30am by the taxi that I had arranged. Two hours later, my flight was bumping down the runway. The first leg of the trip was to fly from Adelaide to Melbourne; a short flight of 1 hour and 15 minutes. After a rough landing, I quickly and easily made my way through customs and to the gate with 1.5 hours to spare for my second flight.
After going through security a second time, my second flight, from Melbourne to LA, left at noon Melbourne time (8pm of the 10th Philly time). Once again, I boarded a hulking Boeing 747-400 that is less an aeronautical machine as a magical whale – only larger. Miraculously it is able to take flight with it’s 400 plus passengers aboard. The flight was pretty good, with two or three spells of rather powerful turbulence that I kind of enjoyed. Partly by choice, partly due to the undeniable nature of human beings, I challenged myself to use the lavatory during one of these, and found it rather entertaining.
My seat was 71D, which is only two rows closer to the front than my trip in the opposite direction, and 4 rows from the back (75 rows). Seat D was the seat on the right side of the left aisle. At that point in the aircraft there are 10 seats abreast (A-K, I don’t really know how that works though); three, aisle, four, aisle, three. For my particular row (71) we were fortunate enough to have seats E and F empty, which means that I had an aisle on my left, and two empty seats on my right, one of which I filled with my stuff giving me more room to spread out and get comfy.
14 and a half hours later – after four movies (Funny People, (500) Days of Summer, District 9, and The Brothers Bloom) and some TV for a total of over 9.5 hours of cross-eyed enjoyment – the monstrous beast irrationally plowing through the sky extended its steel legs and more rationally rolled along the ground.
Going through Customs took about as long as I expected, but was much simpler than I expected. If you recall, going through the Fiji quarantine for Spring Break was very rustic: on my form I claimed I had food, had been in contact with animals and fresh water, and had a weapon with me… the Fiji quarantine looked at my form and waved me through without hesitation. My reentry into the States was only a little more formal as far as the quarantine is concerned. I was asked what food I brought (I had claimed food) and I answered “Cookies. Packaged Cookies.” He routinely welcomed me into the States and waved me through. For the amount of boarder protection I have thought the States to have, this was quite a shock that he didn’t want to see any of the other things I claimed: some of my souvenirs have raw wood or animal products… he didn’t even acknowledge it.
I make the long walk over to the appropriate terminal where I ate my first piece of food since I arrived back in the States: a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McGriddle. Then I proceeded to wait at the gate for another hour and a half before boarding my final flight of the trip.
This last leg, LAX to PHL, left about 45 minutes late because the plane we were in arrived late. Apparently the wind was blowing really strongly from East to West across America because the plane was late coming in due to a strong head wind, and the same problem benefited us on the flight to PHL with a strong tail wind. Because of that we actually landed on time after circling the airport a while.
The flight felt unnecessarily long for only 4.5 hours in the air, but I landed safely and after an unnecessarily long wait for my luggage, quickly and smoothly was picked up by Jori and Tykah for the ride to the Keals. By 9pm I was settling in and seeing the family.
Green money and correct driving rules took only moments to become familiar with again. Like my first experience in Australia, the first few turns made in the car on the way back were a little frightening due to feeling like we were turning into oncoming traffic.
I didn’t go to bed until 12:30am after visiting with family, but I didn’t feel extraordinarily sleepy despite having had only about 5 hours of sleep in the past 44 (including the 3 hours I had on the night of the 10th before my flight). However, I have no memory of being awake after closing my eyes. It was a good night.
Peace!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Last Day
Today is my last whole day in Adelaide. Very fittingly, it has been raining on and off for the whole day. Between downpours I’ve managed to do the few errands related to closing up shop here. I originally had hoped to also go to the beach one last time, but the rain prevented that. I did take the time at one point to walk along the Torrens River for one last time.
Leaving something that I have grown familiar with (in this case not necessarily something I have loved, but become accustomed to) is usually an odd sort of feeling. Now more than ever, I am emotionally torn. More than once I had to take a break from packing when the feeling sunk in a little. It is very odd because I am both excited to go home and see my friends and family, but at the same time there is a reluctance to leave. It’s like I feel that I haven’t completed what I came to accomplish. I had hoped to travel more while here, but I think it’s more like I had expected to feel differently by the time my visit was over.
It’s hard to explain, and I don’t know if I actually know what I’m trying to explain. I’ve had fun, and I’ve seen a lot, but I guess I expected to have done more of both. I feel like I’ve missed out on a few things; nothing specific, just something.
I forgot to mention in my last post that I went to the Museum here. On Tuesday, it was too rainy to try going to the beach, so I had the museum as a back up plan. The 2 hours I spent there were pretty good. After about an hour of reading and walking through one floor of aboriginal history and artifacts, I got a bit board and only skimmed the second floor of the aboriginal gallery. They also had a large gallery of Pacific Islands (mostly Papa New Guinea, Solomon, and Fiji islands), a large gallery on minerals (telling the history and science behind the formation of minerals including fossils, ancient inland seas, the formation of crude oil), a small gallery on ancient Egypt. A gallery of the world’s mammals, and a whole floor closed for construction completed the larger-than-it-looks-from-the-outside museum. Pretty fun. It’s been too long since I spent some time looking at those glow in the dark rocks.
Well, I’m off for my last Cooper’s Ale before leaving Oz for good. I wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning, so I won’t be out too late. See you all soon!
Cheers!
Leaving something that I have grown familiar with (in this case not necessarily something I have loved, but become accustomed to) is usually an odd sort of feeling. Now more than ever, I am emotionally torn. More than once I had to take a break from packing when the feeling sunk in a little. It is very odd because I am both excited to go home and see my friends and family, but at the same time there is a reluctance to leave. It’s like I feel that I haven’t completed what I came to accomplish. I had hoped to travel more while here, but I think it’s more like I had expected to feel differently by the time my visit was over.
It’s hard to explain, and I don’t know if I actually know what I’m trying to explain. I’ve had fun, and I’ve seen a lot, but I guess I expected to have done more of both. I feel like I’ve missed out on a few things; nothing specific, just something.
I forgot to mention in my last post that I went to the Museum here. On Tuesday, it was too rainy to try going to the beach, so I had the museum as a back up plan. The 2 hours I spent there were pretty good. After about an hour of reading and walking through one floor of aboriginal history and artifacts, I got a bit board and only skimmed the second floor of the aboriginal gallery. They also had a large gallery of Pacific Islands (mostly Papa New Guinea, Solomon, and Fiji islands), a large gallery on minerals (telling the history and science behind the formation of minerals including fossils, ancient inland seas, the formation of crude oil), a small gallery on ancient Egypt. A gallery of the world’s mammals, and a whole floor closed for construction completed the larger-than-it-looks-from-the-outside museum. Pretty fun. It’s been too long since I spent some time looking at those glow in the dark rocks.
Well, I’m off for my last Cooper’s Ale before leaving Oz for good. I wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning, so I won’t be out too late. See you all soon!
Cheers!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Month 5
Today marks the completion of my 5th month in Australia. So how, you might ask, did I choose to celebrate it? Well, I didn’t really. It wasn’t so much of a celebration as recognition. Without realizing it had been 5 months, I had planned to go back to Mt. Lofty for my second time, but those plans fell through when I realized I would have to spend 3 hours there due to the bus schedule. So I instead went to Glenelg. That didn’t turn out too well because today, as the past few days, was cloudy and cold, so I walked down the coast for a few kilometers to pass the time before returning to the city.
Not only was today the completion of 5 months in Australia, but today was the second to last whole day I have left in Australia. In approximately 34 hours from now, I’ll be in the air on my first leg of my trip home. If my flight goes the way my itinerary says it will, I will by landing in Philly in 61 hours from now.
I hope the time remaining passes quickly.
Cheers!
Not only was today the completion of 5 months in Australia, but today was the second to last whole day I have left in Australia. In approximately 34 hours from now, I’ll be in the air on my first leg of my trip home. If my flight goes the way my itinerary says it will, I will by landing in Philly in 61 hours from now.
I hope the time remaining passes quickly.
Cheers!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Hahndorf
Since my last post, the weather has improved, and it turned out that that bike ride was just the first of several days spent in the sun. In the last 5 days I have gone to the beach for three, and went to Hahndorf for the last.
Each time I went to the beach, I stayed to only tan a bit. On the day I didn’t get some sun, I had some other business to attend to. Ernest left for Malaysia (his home) on Friday morning, so Thursday we went to the movies (got to see Where The Wild Things Are… A good movie, but definitely not a kids movie: too violent, and the characters have emotional issues that may be a bit hard to deal with.) then after dinner went out for one final drink together at the Strathmore.
Then on Saturday, I went to Hahndorf. Hahndorf is a little village about a 40 minute bus ride from the city. When we first got here, we read about it, and I was under impression that it was a settlement of people of German descent and the village was built in a German style as well. That isn’t the full truth. If I am not mistaken, the descent is correct, but the style of the architecture isn’t very German as I had assumed it to be. It was still a nice way to spend a few hours.
For those of you in the Philly area, Hahndorf was a mixture of New Hope and Peddler’s Village. It’s geography was more similar to New Hope: Hahndorf the attraction is almost exclusively made of little shops along one stretch of the main street. However, the style of the village was more like Peddler’s Village: most of the shops (souvenir oriented) was folksy like Peddler’s Village, but it did have a little New Age feel like New Hope to some of it. But in my… patriotic?...opinion, Hahndorf wasn’t as pretty as either.
This was my last weekend in Australia. I’ve already explained how I’ve celebrated it. It’s been good to keep active, but not too much is going on here. If this is the bachelor life, living on my own is not for me. I can see how some guys might like the idea of living this independently, in an apartment on his own, in a party town. But that’s exactly it: the only social life I could have if I lived here on my own would be with friends from work/school, and likely involve pubbing or clubbing each time we got together. I don’t like pubbing (and even less clubbing) like that, and I’m not outgoing enough to really make many other friends. Nope, the bachelor life is not for me.
By the way, I have decided that I’ll likely update this blog a few more times even after I arrive back in the States. For my own future benefit if I choose to read what I have kept here, I would like to have some conclusion. So, my current plan is to keep the blog updated until I am into the class routine back at Clemson. I tell you this, so that any of you who might actually be interested, you now know that I may not be finished even once I get back home.
Cheers!
Each time I went to the beach, I stayed to only tan a bit. On the day I didn’t get some sun, I had some other business to attend to. Ernest left for Malaysia (his home) on Friday morning, so Thursday we went to the movies (got to see Where The Wild Things Are… A good movie, but definitely not a kids movie: too violent, and the characters have emotional issues that may be a bit hard to deal with.) then after dinner went out for one final drink together at the Strathmore.
Then on Saturday, I went to Hahndorf. Hahndorf is a little village about a 40 minute bus ride from the city. When we first got here, we read about it, and I was under impression that it was a settlement of people of German descent and the village was built in a German style as well. That isn’t the full truth. If I am not mistaken, the descent is correct, but the style of the architecture isn’t very German as I had assumed it to be. It was still a nice way to spend a few hours.
For those of you in the Philly area, Hahndorf was a mixture of New Hope and Peddler’s Village. It’s geography was more similar to New Hope: Hahndorf the attraction is almost exclusively made of little shops along one stretch of the main street. However, the style of the village was more like Peddler’s Village: most of the shops (souvenir oriented) was folksy like Peddler’s Village, but it did have a little New Age feel like New Hope to some of it. But in my… patriotic?...opinion, Hahndorf wasn’t as pretty as either.
This was my last weekend in Australia. I’ve already explained how I’ve celebrated it. It’s been good to keep active, but not too much is going on here. If this is the bachelor life, living on my own is not for me. I can see how some guys might like the idea of living this independently, in an apartment on his own, in a party town. But that’s exactly it: the only social life I could have if I lived here on my own would be with friends from work/school, and likely involve pubbing or clubbing each time we got together. I don’t like pubbing (and even less clubbing) like that, and I’m not outgoing enough to really make many other friends. Nope, the bachelor life is not for me.
By the way, I have decided that I’ll likely update this blog a few more times even after I arrive back in the States. For my own future benefit if I choose to read what I have kept here, I would like to have some conclusion. So, my current plan is to keep the blog updated until I am into the class routine back at Clemson. I tell you this, so that any of you who might actually be interested, you now know that I may not be finished even once I get back home.
Cheers!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Depression: n. A state that’s not so fun.
I guess I should first be perfectly clear about one thing: I get depressed, but I have never been, and never plan on being suicidal. There is no need to be concerned about my physical health for these last 11 days I have in Australia, despite the poor mental health I’m about to describe.
I think I can truly and accurately attribute a significant portion of my depression on the weather we’ve been having recently. As I mentioned in my last blog, the past 10 days have had very poor weather. It isn’t that it’s always been raining, because it hasn’t, and it’s not because it has always been cold, but because the combination of heat and clouds has made me decided it was not worth attempting an outdoor activity (like tanning). However, I do recognize that I would still have been depressed even if each day was sunny and cloudless.
These past month or two, and in particular these past two weeks, have not been good for me. Granted there is a few bright moments of the past two weeks that have been appreciated and enjoyable, but for the most part I’ve been struggling with an internal string of thoughts that always gets me down. I have too much time to think, and too many things that I get caught into thinking over that lead me down a path of self-criticism that is not healthy.
If, as is common, I get caught in this thought process just before bed, I loose sleep over it, but if it strikes during the day, it just reinforces my absolute lack of motivation to do anything! I now make an effort to use the free internet (which I’m using now) at the library purely so that I have a reason to get out of the apartment that is stronger than my desire to stay in bed or in front of the tv.
I’ve been through worse depression in the past, but never a depression as immobilizing. I know that this is because I really have no one to talk to in person (even skype isn’t very good) about anything! Laura, as I mentioned before, left 11 days ago, followed by Alex about a week later, and Ryan just left 3 days ago. Freshman year at Bryn Athyn College, I beat the blues by going to Garrett’s room. I spent countless hours either just listening to his music while he was doing homework, or he and I would sing along with his music, or just chatting with him about my most recent woe. Here, I’ve been forced into writing friends pointless Facebook messages, which I hate doing, just so that I am occupied, and in the hopes that I may receive a response.
But things, as God usually makes it work, are looking up. Today I was able to beat the blues by going for a 24 kilometer bike ride to Henley Beach where I spent an hour taking photos (to be uploaded later), and another hour and a half tanning (or, rather, burning). Yesterday I also was able to get into a very nice mood for a while – I prove myself to be my Sisters’s Brother: in part, the movie Pride and Prejudice (2005) is the cause of this sudden lighter mood I experienced yesterday.
Again, you have no need to be concerned for my physical health: I wouldn’t have the guts to hurt myself intentionally even if I did want to. Miss you all!
I think I can truly and accurately attribute a significant portion of my depression on the weather we’ve been having recently. As I mentioned in my last blog, the past 10 days have had very poor weather. It isn’t that it’s always been raining, because it hasn’t, and it’s not because it has always been cold, but because the combination of heat and clouds has made me decided it was not worth attempting an outdoor activity (like tanning). However, I do recognize that I would still have been depressed even if each day was sunny and cloudless.
These past month or two, and in particular these past two weeks, have not been good for me. Granted there is a few bright moments of the past two weeks that have been appreciated and enjoyable, but for the most part I’ve been struggling with an internal string of thoughts that always gets me down. I have too much time to think, and too many things that I get caught into thinking over that lead me down a path of self-criticism that is not healthy.
If, as is common, I get caught in this thought process just before bed, I loose sleep over it, but if it strikes during the day, it just reinforces my absolute lack of motivation to do anything! I now make an effort to use the free internet (which I’m using now) at the library purely so that I have a reason to get out of the apartment that is stronger than my desire to stay in bed or in front of the tv.
I’ve been through worse depression in the past, but never a depression as immobilizing. I know that this is because I really have no one to talk to in person (even skype isn’t very good) about anything! Laura, as I mentioned before, left 11 days ago, followed by Alex about a week later, and Ryan just left 3 days ago. Freshman year at Bryn Athyn College, I beat the blues by going to Garrett’s room. I spent countless hours either just listening to his music while he was doing homework, or he and I would sing along with his music, or just chatting with him about my most recent woe. Here, I’ve been forced into writing friends pointless Facebook messages, which I hate doing, just so that I am occupied, and in the hopes that I may receive a response.
But things, as God usually makes it work, are looking up. Today I was able to beat the blues by going for a 24 kilometer bike ride to Henley Beach where I spent an hour taking photos (to be uploaded later), and another hour and a half tanning (or, rather, burning). Yesterday I also was able to get into a very nice mood for a while – I prove myself to be my Sisters’s Brother: in part, the movie Pride and Prejudice (2005) is the cause of this sudden lighter mood I experienced yesterday.
Again, you have no need to be concerned for my physical health: I wouldn’t have the guts to hurt myself intentionally even if I did want to. Miss you all!
Cheers!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Fickle Spring
As long as I can remember, I haven’t been able to decide which season I liked more: Spring or Fall. Speaking purely about the nature of the season’s nature, I enjoy the cool warmth and new growth of Spring, and the warm chill and turning colors of Fall. I like that perfect temperature that is warmer than winter, but cooler than spring.
I could spend the rest of this blog telling you in what ways I think this correlates with the things that I think are me. And you likely know by now, that would be easy for me to do. But that is not what I want to speak on now. I guess I should not be surprised how different an Australian Spring is, but this lack of spring is exactly what I want to comment on. Yes, I am going to while away an hour or so talking to you about the weather.
There really is no spring here. Admittedly, this is not the typical Australian spring, but even as atypical as it is, I think it is fair to say that what the Aussie calls spring, is very different from what I do. The weather recently has been very fickle. One Monday a few weeks ago, it went from high 80s to low 60s in a matter of about 3 hours! A week or so after that, we went through a heat wave that was the worst Australia has seen that early in the season for quite a few years. For about 10 days the temperature stayed above 35 degrees C (95F), and on more than one occasion it reached over 40 degrees C (104F). At one point, I saw the temperature (not the forecast, but the actual temperature that I was walking along the street through) was 43C (109F).
This heat is a dry heat. Generally speaking, I think a dry heat more comfortable than a humid heat, but I have never experienced a dry heat like that. I was going for a short errand down Rundle Mall. I stepped into the corridor into a furnace, but stepping out onto the street was worse. It also happened to be a windy day, so when I turned the corner of the ally I stepped into a wind tunnel that must surely be similar to the experience of walking in the Sahara. The wind was so dry that I felt my skin lose all moisture within 30 seconds of stepping outside.
Moving on, the heat wave was followed by a few clear blue days in low 30s. The day Laura left then turned into yet another stage: cold and rainy. The temperature was in the mid to low 20s again and it rained on and off for the rest of the weekend. It was actually pretty good timing for bad weather, if you ask me. The first few days after my exams were over were good days to just blah-out, just laying around in the apartment watching rented DVDs.
Anyway, the sky is blue, and although it is a bit cold to go to the beach, I expect it will warm up soon. I’m not a big fan of this spring. The temperature and weather have fluctuated too much. But I think the biggest reason for my dislike of this spring was the lack of what I consider a true winter. The winter was too warm for spring to feel THAT much different. And for whatever reason, I have not noticed the new growth as much as I usually do. But on the bright side, I only have to wait another 5 months before my next spring!
Cheers!
I could spend the rest of this blog telling you in what ways I think this correlates with the things that I think are me. And you likely know by now, that would be easy for me to do. But that is not what I want to speak on now. I guess I should not be surprised how different an Australian Spring is, but this lack of spring is exactly what I want to comment on. Yes, I am going to while away an hour or so talking to you about the weather.
There really is no spring here. Admittedly, this is not the typical Australian spring, but even as atypical as it is, I think it is fair to say that what the Aussie calls spring, is very different from what I do. The weather recently has been very fickle. One Monday a few weeks ago, it went from high 80s to low 60s in a matter of about 3 hours! A week or so after that, we went through a heat wave that was the worst Australia has seen that early in the season for quite a few years. For about 10 days the temperature stayed above 35 degrees C (95F), and on more than one occasion it reached over 40 degrees C (104F). At one point, I saw the temperature (not the forecast, but the actual temperature that I was walking along the street through) was 43C (109F).
This heat is a dry heat. Generally speaking, I think a dry heat more comfortable than a humid heat, but I have never experienced a dry heat like that. I was going for a short errand down Rundle Mall. I stepped into the corridor into a furnace, but stepping out onto the street was worse. It also happened to be a windy day, so when I turned the corner of the ally I stepped into a wind tunnel that must surely be similar to the experience of walking in the Sahara. The wind was so dry that I felt my skin lose all moisture within 30 seconds of stepping outside.
Moving on, the heat wave was followed by a few clear blue days in low 30s. The day Laura left then turned into yet another stage: cold and rainy. The temperature was in the mid to low 20s again and it rained on and off for the rest of the weekend. It was actually pretty good timing for bad weather, if you ask me. The first few days after my exams were over were good days to just blah-out, just laying around in the apartment watching rented DVDs.
Anyway, the sky is blue, and although it is a bit cold to go to the beach, I expect it will warm up soon. I’m not a big fan of this spring. The temperature and weather have fluctuated too much. But I think the biggest reason for my dislike of this spring was the lack of what I consider a true winter. The winter was too warm for spring to feel THAT much different. And for whatever reason, I have not noticed the new growth as much as I usually do. But on the bright side, I only have to wait another 5 months before my next spring!
Cheers!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Doneski
Today saw the first Qantas Casualty. The first of us fortunate four has sprouted wings and is in the air at this moment on her first leg of a three legged journey back home. Within 12 hours of starting our final exam, Laura got the heck out of Dodge.
Alex’s parents will be arriving here in a week or so and they stay around here for a little before doing some traveling before going back to the States, and Ryan leaves around the same time as Alex to enjoy Sydney for a few days before returning to the States. Ernest, Ryan and my roommate, leaves for home on Dec. 1st. Starting on December 2nd I will have all of Adelaide to myself. I look forward to it, and also wonder how I’ll distract myself enough to not notice the loneliness of the situation…
So I am officially done classes and have a large 47 day holiday to enjoy before my next class (which will be at Clemson). Yesterday the four of us had our final exam: Quantity Surveying. I wasn’t feeling too confident going into it, and I think that is a big portion of why I don’t feel that confident about how I did on the exam. I calculated beforehand that if I got a zero on the exam, I would still have a 50 in the class, and unless I’m mistaken, a 50% is a passing grade, and since only my credit transfers back to Clemson, I was guaranteed to pass the course. It was reassuring to know that I was not pressured to do well, but I’m not the kind of person to purposefully neglect my studies like I would have been if I didn’t study.
The exam itself was quite the experience! The first of our two exams was administered by our teacher in that course for the four of us exclusively (our teacher was helping us consolidate more time to see Australia/allow for a sooner flight home). However, the exam we took yesterday was administered in the usual Adelaide manner: at the Adelaide Showgrounds, and in our specific case at 6:30pm.
So first off, you had to check your bag and were not allowed to take in your cell phone. Then about 500-800 students crowded into a large room set up for the occasion. The room was broken into blocks and you sat in a certain section according to what class you were taking an exam in. I don’t know why it makes sense to do it this way, but in this manner there were probably 5-8 courses being examined at the same time, while probably 3 people per seating section patrolled the area to limit the amount of cheating possible.
Before starting this SAT-esk ordeal, we laughed out loud as the attendants of each section, in airline style, pointed out the nearest fire exit, and orders such as “please move quickly and silently to your block and take a seat” in that passive-aggressive, female voice played over the loud speakers. 2 hours of prison-like patrolled silent sitting later, we issued out of the exit and made our way to the pub. A quick drink as a double celebration (the end of exams, and the last time the four of us will be together at least until we return to Clemson for classes) finished the eventful day.
-Cheers!
Alex’s parents will be arriving here in a week or so and they stay around here for a little before doing some traveling before going back to the States, and Ryan leaves around the same time as Alex to enjoy Sydney for a few days before returning to the States. Ernest, Ryan and my roommate, leaves for home on Dec. 1st. Starting on December 2nd I will have all of Adelaide to myself. I look forward to it, and also wonder how I’ll distract myself enough to not notice the loneliness of the situation…
So I am officially done classes and have a large 47 day holiday to enjoy before my next class (which will be at Clemson). Yesterday the four of us had our final exam: Quantity Surveying. I wasn’t feeling too confident going into it, and I think that is a big portion of why I don’t feel that confident about how I did on the exam. I calculated beforehand that if I got a zero on the exam, I would still have a 50 in the class, and unless I’m mistaken, a 50% is a passing grade, and since only my credit transfers back to Clemson, I was guaranteed to pass the course. It was reassuring to know that I was not pressured to do well, but I’m not the kind of person to purposefully neglect my studies like I would have been if I didn’t study.
The exam itself was quite the experience! The first of our two exams was administered by our teacher in that course for the four of us exclusively (our teacher was helping us consolidate more time to see Australia/allow for a sooner flight home). However, the exam we took yesterday was administered in the usual Adelaide manner: at the Adelaide Showgrounds, and in our specific case at 6:30pm.
So first off, you had to check your bag and were not allowed to take in your cell phone. Then about 500-800 students crowded into a large room set up for the occasion. The room was broken into blocks and you sat in a certain section according to what class you were taking an exam in. I don’t know why it makes sense to do it this way, but in this manner there were probably 5-8 courses being examined at the same time, while probably 3 people per seating section patrolled the area to limit the amount of cheating possible.
Before starting this SAT-esk ordeal, we laughed out loud as the attendants of each section, in airline style, pointed out the nearest fire exit, and orders such as “please move quickly and silently to your block and take a seat” in that passive-aggressive, female voice played over the loud speakers. 2 hours of prison-like patrolled silent sitting later, we issued out of the exit and made our way to the pub. A quick drink as a double celebration (the end of exams, and the last time the four of us will be together at least until we return to Clemson for classes) finished the eventful day.
-Cheers!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Christmas Pageant
So I’m sitting on the coach watching Tiger play in the Australian Masters Golf Tournament and have decided that Aussies obsess over Tiger even more than we do back in the States. I think it is because of his popularity that his presence considerably boosts the tournament turnout and brings a significant impact on the Melbourne economy. What better time to write than now.
Yesterday, the 14th of November, was the Christmas Pageant day. 250,000 people from the area came into the Adelaide CBD (“Downtown” as I would call it back in the states) and lined the 3.3 Km rout of roads taken by the 63 floats, 15 bands, 9 walking sets, 10 dance groups, 1 DJ, and 3 choirs, with over 200 clowns interspersed throughout the parade.
To help prevent heat related health issues, there was a lot of water stations and First Aid stations that provided some free water, fans, and fruit. My favorite strategy they used was this tanker truck full of water that drove the route. It passed by about 10 minutes before the parade itself.
Not so much this float, but there were some floats I felt were a little disturbing.
I am a strong believer of the Thanksgiving rule as far as Christmas is concerned (well, I must admit that when at home for Thanksgiving, it is very difficult to resist turning on some Christmas music while preparing the house and food for the Thanksgiving Dinner), and yet it was pretty fun to see this parade. It was a very new experience for me as well. I don’t remember going to a Christmas parade in person before, so that was a first. But what was more interesting to me, was the whole idea of celebrating a holiday that I have always experience during winter, in the summer.
I found it interesting that a majority of the performing bands were Scottish/Irish in style. I now wonder if there is a high concentration of immigrants from those areas here as compared to British immigrants.
I don't know if it is technically offensive for me to have taken this photo, but there was a small group of Aboriginals (or of Aboriginal decent) present.
Adelaide is just starting to come out of a heat wave that is the hottest for November that it has seen before. For over a week, the temperature has been over 34 C (93 F), and several days during this heat wave, the temperature has broken 40 C (104 F). However, despite this difference in temperature, Christmas decorations here are not that much different from what I’m used to. Fake holly branches, Christmas trees, Santa in a heavy winter suit, sleighs, and lots of wrapped presents. It is very odd experiencing these “normal” decorations and spirit of the holiday… while my calves get sun burnt as I watch the parade.
It seems Elvis was here too.
Although the snail wasn't THAT impressive to me...
I REALLY enjoyed that they included a "slime" trial behind it by spraying a little water underneath it.
Later I caught some more rays, enjoying the heat wave within walking distance of St. Vincent Gulf. Finished the day with a visit to a pub. Laura is the first of the four of us returning to the States. Our two exams are on the 17th and 19th, and Laura is flying from here on the 20th. This being her last weekend here, she was in the mood to dance, and all four of us liked the idea of going for one last pub visit together. It was a very good day.
After this float, there were two short columns with small groups that allowed each religious group to be represented. It was a nice gesture, but to me it was a little annoying that each religion's culture was represented...ie they didn't have a float for each religion, just a group of 10-20 people walking behind the Nativity float.
And of course Father Christmas finished the show.
Cheers!
Yesterday, the 14th of November, was the Christmas Pageant day. 250,000 people from the area came into the Adelaide CBD (“Downtown” as I would call it back in the states) and lined the 3.3 Km rout of roads taken by the 63 floats, 15 bands, 9 walking sets, 10 dance groups, 1 DJ, and 3 choirs, with over 200 clowns interspersed throughout the parade.
To help prevent heat related health issues, there was a lot of water stations and First Aid stations that provided some free water, fans, and fruit. My favorite strategy they used was this tanker truck full of water that drove the route. It passed by about 10 minutes before the parade itself.
Not so much this float, but there were some floats I felt were a little disturbing.
I am a strong believer of the Thanksgiving rule as far as Christmas is concerned (well, I must admit that when at home for Thanksgiving, it is very difficult to resist turning on some Christmas music while preparing the house and food for the Thanksgiving Dinner), and yet it was pretty fun to see this parade. It was a very new experience for me as well. I don’t remember going to a Christmas parade in person before, so that was a first. But what was more interesting to me, was the whole idea of celebrating a holiday that I have always experience during winter, in the summer.
I found it interesting that a majority of the performing bands were Scottish/Irish in style. I now wonder if there is a high concentration of immigrants from those areas here as compared to British immigrants.
I don't know if it is technically offensive for me to have taken this photo, but there was a small group of Aboriginals (or of Aboriginal decent) present.Adelaide is just starting to come out of a heat wave that is the hottest for November that it has seen before. For over a week, the temperature has been over 34 C (93 F), and several days during this heat wave, the temperature has broken 40 C (104 F). However, despite this difference in temperature, Christmas decorations here are not that much different from what I’m used to. Fake holly branches, Christmas trees, Santa in a heavy winter suit, sleighs, and lots of wrapped presents. It is very odd experiencing these “normal” decorations and spirit of the holiday… while my calves get sun burnt as I watch the parade.
It seems Elvis was here too.
Although the snail wasn't THAT impressive to me...
I REALLY enjoyed that they included a "slime" trial behind it by spraying a little water underneath it.Later I caught some more rays, enjoying the heat wave within walking distance of St. Vincent Gulf. Finished the day with a visit to a pub. Laura is the first of the four of us returning to the States. Our two exams are on the 17th and 19th, and Laura is flying from here on the 20th. This being her last weekend here, she was in the mood to dance, and all four of us liked the idea of going for one last pub visit together. It was a very good day.
After this float, there were two short columns with small groups that allowed each religious group to be represented. It was a nice gesture, but to me it was a little annoying that each religion's culture was represented...ie they didn't have a float for each religion, just a group of 10-20 people walking behind the Nativity float.
And of course Father Christmas finished the show.Cheers!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Photos: Random + Botanical Gardens
So for those of you who like looking at photos (either for the subject of my photos or because I take the most awesomest photos ever), here are my favorite from my visit to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens earlier today.
Funny story: there is a house under all that green!
A story I haven't written about is once concerning a night time visit to the roof tops of Adelaide. During the whole hot water fiasco, I climbed the ladder to the roof one afternoon while there were some men working on the hot water. I asked the man I met up there (I was still on the ladder, looking out through the hatch entrance while he was standing on the roof) about how much longer we could expect to be without hot water. He told me it would be back on that evening, but he was wrong. It didn't come back on until two days later.
But later that evening, when we were beginning to suspect that he was wrong, I decided that I might be able to find out for myself. When I had asked the man, he showed me the exhaust of the heaters and felt for the exhaust to prove to me that they were running. They seemed to be running then, but they werent around 11pm when I checked for myself. They had left the latch unlocked, so like the responsible adolescent male I am, I climbed up and was soon followed by Ryan and Earnest. We got some fun photos, then retired back to the apartment to finish our assignment due the next day.
Funny story: there is a house under all that green!
A story I haven't written about is once concerning a night time visit to the roof tops of Adelaide. During the whole hot water fiasco, I climbed the ladder to the roof one afternoon while there were some men working on the hot water. I asked the man I met up there (I was still on the ladder, looking out through the hatch entrance while he was standing on the roof) about how much longer we could expect to be without hot water. He told me it would be back on that evening, but he was wrong. It didn't come back on until two days later.
But later that evening, when we were beginning to suspect that he was wrong, I decided that I might be able to find out for myself. When I had asked the man, he showed me the exhaust of the heaters and felt for the exhaust to prove to me that they were running. They seemed to be running then, but they werent around 11pm when I checked for myself. They had left the latch unlocked, so like the responsible adolescent male I am, I climbed up and was soon followed by Ryan and Earnest. We got some fun photos, then retired back to the apartment to finish our assignment due the next day.
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