Update!

Whew, now that I have some time to think I can give you some updates on what is happening here.
Penny has accepted a 4 month job teaching in Macau. She'll be leaving in February sometime. She has a friend who is living here who will be taking over her house. Fortunately I'll still be able to live here.

I'm planning on leaving on my tour in February, and then a liveaboard dive boat for a couple days in the great barrier reef. After that, I'm not sure. I'm planning to travel until my money runs out and then come home, so it may be March or April when I return.

New Years Eve is a big party in Sydney and my mate has a flat in Kirribilli that I'm going to party at. Kirribilli is on the North side of the harbour just east of the birdge, so it will be a great place to watch the 12 minutes of fireworks.

I'm working on uploading a bunch of pictures so keep an eye out in the next week or two.

Thats all for now!

More Oz Facts

• On an Australian shopping cart, all wheels swivel 360 degrees, unlike only the front two in Canada. This makes it incredibly easy to maneuver in the store, but ridiculously difficult to unload if you've parked your car on even the gentlest of slopes. Also, not one of them has a broken wheel - unlike Canada where at least one broken wheel is mandatory.
  
• Aussies drive on the left, not the right. The gearshift however, has the same shift pattern as a Canadian car. This explains why I stalled the work van 13 times in a row without realizing I was in fifth gear and not first.
• Public transit sucks. If you think transit sucks in your city, live in Sydney for a week and you will realize just how lucky you really are. The last trains are at 11:30pm, and after that there is 1 bus per hour, which is so crowded a sardine has more space to move than you do.
• It's not Sprite, it's Lemonade
• According to Australia law, if the bartender gets someone drunk and he gets into a car accident it is partly the barman's fault. If something major happens (ie. Manslaughter etc.) the barman can actually go to jail for a percentage that the drunk is sentenced to, because it is partially his fault.
  
• Aussies are addicted to news. Between 5 and 8 you can watch nothing but news on 5 different channels. If three hours of news wasn't enough for you, every other commercial break has a news update. While writing this I've heard 2 updates and it's only been about 15 minutes.
• Tape is always, always called sticky tape. I haven't figured out what I would get if I just asked for tape because nobody seems to know what it is.
• If you ask for cream in your coffee you will get some of the weirdest looks from cafe workers. Nobody knows what it is or why it goes into coffee. There are, however, 9 different kinds of milk to choose from.

That's all for now, I'll try to keep thinking up some more.

The Ozzie-Canuck dictionary

Culture shock aside, you'd expect things to be different when you're on the other side of the planet. Here is a list of words that are used here, and their translations to Canadian. Took me a while to figure them out, and here's all I've learned so far.

Slab - Two-Four (beer)

Pram - Stroller

Grog - Alcohol

Goon Bag - Wine in a Box

Arvo - Afternoon

Cracker - Usually in sports, a good hit or a good goal

Pelican - Idiot

That's all I can think up at the moment. I'll try and figure out more and edit the post later.

Acclimatization

Whew, sorry about the long time between posts. I've been quite busy working.....and sleeping. Being the big season for funtions, we're usually booked without about 4-5 different functions per day. Which means at the end of the night, we have to clean everything and reset the room for whatever is happening in the morning. I've been getting home at around 2am, and then going back in for 12 the next day.

It's busy, but I like the work and with the world economy in the hole, I think I'd better take what I can when I can.

Anyway, the point of this post, as the title suggests, is the climate! Walking home at night is obviously cooler than during the heat of the day, and I'm actually feeling cold. It's 16 degrees out at night, and I'm shivering. Last night I put on the ridiculously heavy sweater I bought for winter back home, and was comfortable.

I'm absolutely screwed when I get back home and winter comes. I think I'll have to spend my leftover money on a few layers of warm clothes.

P.S. Got my first paycheque, woohooo! I'm officially a worker!

Have a go at this...

Whew, been trying to write this post for a few days now, just busy busy busy.

So, I had the day off on Sunday and thought to myself, what better to do than go scuba diving. And off I went. Now, the diving itself was nothing utterly fantastic, visibility was crap so there wasn't a whole lot to see. It was still fun though.

What made the day VERY interesting was that the beach we were diving at, Shelly Beach in Manly, had an event happening on it. I was completely oblivious to what was happening and I'll explain why later. Anyhow, they were filming, get this, The Amazing Race on the beach. It looked like they were either doing a Detour or a Roadblock. Teams had to paddle a Surf Rescue board into the ocean and around a buoy.

While we were there, like I said, I had no idea. I though they were filming some local TV show for the Surf Rescue boys. Surf Rescue flags are also red and gold, which match the Amazing Race flags, so like I said, I was oblivious until someone actually told me that is what they were filming.

So, next season, when the teams travel to Sydney and head for Shelly Beach in Manly odds are that one of the scuba divers in the water will be me!

Is Anyone There

Haven't heard anything from back home lately, everyone IS sill alive right?

Not really much to report on here, just lots of work which is good. This week I have 3 shifts in the function centre, and another 2 in the park cafes.

Oh, and just in case you really don't believe that I actually work at the zoo, behold thy proof!

I have a confession

I LOVE my job.

But, before we get to that, it should be noted that I have picked up a second job because Nosh just doesn't seem to be offering up much. It's been a month and they have just given me 1 shift, they lost some of my paperwork, and still haven't "officially" inducted me yet.

So, a job-hunting I went, and get this: I now work for Taronga Zoo.

Before you get too carried away, I'm working in the function centre doing banquets and weddings etc. as well as in the zoo grounds in the food/drink cafes. The best news is I've already worked 2 shifts, 7 hours each, a corporate dinner and a wedding, and it was a blast!

They pay the same as Nosh, and between the two of them, I should be able to get enough hours to pay bills, save for trips, and do a few scuba dives around Sydney.

I'm guaranteed to work at least this Friday, and should have a couple shifts inside the park for the rest of the week, which ought to make for a good first paycheque.

Oh - and perks - free entry to the zoo, we get to eat the leftover meals/desserts for dinner, possible discounts at shops in the grounds, and there are whisperings of a behind the scenes tour!

I can't wait to go back!

Was it a good time?

I would say that it was.

P.S - new photos!

Going Golden

For those that don't know (which is probably very few of you by now), I'm one lucky SOB.

I was on National Australian radio and just so happened to win myself a contest. I won a game that got me into a draw for a grand prize last Friday. It was a 1 in 5 chance of winning, and they pulled my name out of the hat.

So, now I get round trip flights, accommodation, taxi transfers, and gold grandstand passes to the Nikon Indy 300. The venue is the lovely Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane.

I'm leaving this evening and hooking up with even more of the McSevney family (they're everywhere!).

Certified

I've spent the last 3 days strapped into 50 pounds of scuba gear, diving in the ocean, and am now a certified open water diver.

We did 4 dives in Manly, diving to about 10 metres (33 feet) under the surface. It is, by far, one of the most amazing things that I have ever done. So much better than paragliding in the Swiss Alps or partying on a bus through Europe. We got to see Spotted Wobbegong sharks, Port Jackson sharks, Eastern Blue Gropers, Weedy Seadragons, Numbrays, Octopi, and much much more. We even swam through a massive school of fish.

We saw a crashed motorcycle on our first dive, and just as we began to swim away I looked to my right a saw a port jackson that was at least 6 ft. long no more than a foot away from me. It was amazing!

I'm already itching to go out again and am looking to get my advanced open water rating before leaving on my Contiki to Cairns.

Who's got a job?

This guy's got a job!

Yep, IEP referred me over to NOSH which is a hospitality recruitment place. Even they say they are head hunters, they are more like staff suppliers, because I work directly for them, they don't find me another place to work. They do mostly corporate functions, sporting banquets, weddings, etc. I'll be one of their waiters.

It seems like a great job because it is flexible work, if I want to travel for 3 weeks my job will be waiting for me when I return. I get to work all over Sydney in a bunch of different venues like the Olympic Park, ANZ Stadium, Sydney Cricket Ground and the Opera House. And the pay isn't too bad either, $20/hr. weekdays, $24/hr Saturdays and $30/hr Sundays.

I only have one possible issue. How many banquets/weddings/parties have you been to that occur on weekdays? The lady that interviewed me tells me I can get 30-40 hours a week no problem, especially with Christmas coming up. I'm just not sure if I believe her at this point.

I'll give it a few weeks and see if the hours are good, if not, I'll find a day job to help with the funds coming in.

Behold! The common Australian house spider

(click to make bigger)

That fine creature is called a Huntsman spider. It is fairly common in Australia, and much like most spiders back home likes to go indoors when the weather sucks. Those legs are longer than my fingers, and the body is probably about a third the size of the palm of my hand.

Which begs the question, how do you get rid of it? You can't crush it because, well, it'll ruin your wall. And you can't really shoo it outside, because it'll probably just eat your hand. So they tend to become pets until the decide to leave.

Apparently they're completely harmless, but I wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as one of those. (This one was on the ceiling of Penny's room)

65

Right, so that 65th wedding anniversary was not what I was expecting. We did nothing but bake when I landed until the weekend, and then 52 people showed up to celebrate. I spent 3 hours doing dishes :P Good times though, seems like it was a rousing success.

Been mildly job hunting, although not really as I was waiting for my Aussie mobile to come in. At least now I have contact info that isn't Penny's house. For anyone who wants to know, my number is on Facebook. I don't want to post it here, god knows what freaks lurk in these pages.

Other than that, not much to report. Oh...I do have a cold, thanks Dad!

Are we back? We're BACK!

Yep, landed safe and sound, and am back in Australia.

It was also the first time I was white knuckled on a plane in a long time. About an hour after takeoff from Vancouver we hit some of the roughest turbulence I've ever been in. I was the row behind one of the partitions in the plane, which wasn't connected to the ceiling, so I could see how much sway there was with every bump of turbulence. There had to be about a 3 inch swing in each direction while we were getting thrown around. Worst part was it lasted for at least 45 minutes, fairly constantly.

By anyhow, it's time to go do something before the body realizes what time it should be and that I should be in bed in a few hours.

Good News Everyone!

No, it's not a package delivery. (Bonus points if you got the reference there)

I'm all healed, for the most part anyway, the doctor has cleared me AND the insurance company has ponied up the cash. My return flight is set for September 29th, which will land me in Sydney on Octocer 1st.

I'm counting down the days once more.

And here's what my wrist looks like now:

I Went to Australia and all I got was this stupid cast

So you've noticed no posts in a while huh? Well I didn't have any quality internet while on Contiki, so no posts. I tried once but it didn't work.

Now then, some of you know I'm back in Canada. For those that don't know the story, here goes nothing:

You'll remember that one of my first optionals was ATVing in the Outback, which I did because I love driving ATVs, and what better way to see the Outback up close. So while driving through this track, I misjudged a rather sharp turn, and through an unfortunate series of events, ended up crashing into a tree. 3 days later, I find I have a broken wrist which requires surgery to repair.

So, I've been evacuated from Australia under my insurance company's medical emergency clause to undergo treatment back home.

The good news is that they are also going to pay for the flight back to Aus after I'm deemed healed by whatever doctor fixes me.

All in all, I can't be upset because this is really just an intermission in my trip. In roughly 2 months time I'll be back at it, so check back then...

The Continental Capital

So Canberra was nice. It's not much of a city to be honest, no big buildings like in Sydney and only about 330,000 people.

The city itself was designed and planned long before a shovel ever broke ground, so the city itself is fairly easy to get around in. The nicest part was that most of the things to see and do were completely free. Parliament House, the Mint, Australian Museum, the Canberra Exhibit, and the National Gallery were all free.

Leaving today in a few hours to get myself to Darwin. I have to find a Laundromat in Sydney because my clothes aren't dry from doing laundry yesterday, Penny doesn't have a dryer.

Pictures of Canberra are up.

Things to make you jealous

I got all my documentation for the Contiki tour today, and with it came information on the optional excursions they offer. Now, to make everyone back home even more jealous of me, here's what I plan on doing:

• 4-wheel ATV trek through the outback desert
• Aboriginal "Bushtucker" tour - meet the Aborigines and eat Outback food (kangaroo, crocodile, emu, etc.)
• Outer Barrier Reef cruise with a Scuba dive (yes Scuba, not Snorkel) in the Barrier Reef
• Horseback tour of Aussie bush, rainforest and coastline
• 4-wheel ATV tour of Fraser Island
• Dolphin Cruise to see and swim with dolphins
• Plus a couple of group dinners and mybe a group photo

Now I know what you're thinking....I tried Scuba diving in the Dominican Republic and didn't enjoy it because the air tank dried out my mouth beyond belief. Well...its the GREAT BARRIER REEF....if you were given the option to swim underwater there would you pass it up because of some discomfort? I thought not.

More photos are up of Wildlife World and the Sydney Aquarium.

Tomorrow until Sunday night I'll be in the continental capital of Canberra, then back just in time to do laundry and take off to start the Contiki.

Bushwalking

So, the Manly Scenic Walk was very nice. The Manly suburb is definately where all the rich people live, and it was no place for a foreign slob such as myself.

But it pales in comparison to the Blue Mountains bushwalk yesterday.

I had a day trip tothe mountains area yesterday that left at 8am (ugh) and got back around 7:30 that night. We checked out the views, then did a 3.5 hour, 5km bushwalk. And when I say 5km, that's 1km down, 3 km across, then 1km back up. (You'll understand when you see the pictures).

Basically, if you look at shots above the treeline, that's wher we started. We then walked far below the trees, and back up again through the Grand Canyon. Pictures are uploading as I write this, enjoy!

The Shot

Since I stepped off the plane I've been trying to get the perfect panorama shot of Sydney Harbour. I gave my camera a stern lecture yesterday about the crap it's been giving me, and it finally smartened up and gave me this:


I think I've finally gotten the picture that's worth blowing up when I get back home.

I'm off to check out Manly Beach today and probably book a day trip to the Blue Mountains on Wednesday. The weather is finally starting to get nicer around here.

Australianisms

And I'm not talking about throwing a shrimp on the barbie. Nobody says that here, it's a cliche that really shouldn't exist.

But I digress.

Some things that are considerably different here than back home that I've noticed. For instance, pennies don't exist here. All prices are rounded to the nearest five cents, and all posted prices are including taxes, so you can have your money ready when you get to the register.

Cars drive on the left, not the right.

A switch that is on is pressed down, not up like it is at home. Also, every plug (called a powerpoint btw) has a switch on it to turn power to the plug on or off.

Oh, and the famous toilet spin (the Coriolis Effect, fyi). Well...that's a little tough. I haven't yet found a toilet that spins. It's more of a....um.....waterfall. I'll have a video of that later, but the internet is being a little hairy around here and it took 2 minutes to load this page to post something.

Toilets in this country have a neat little feature that should be worldwide. It's a dry country, so they have dual flush toilets. One 3L flush for when you're draining the nights first 3 pints. And one 6L uber-powerflush for when you have too much taco bell and chilli, thus creating the inevitable situation. It's a smart idea considering in Canada we use 6L of perfectly fine drinkable water whenever we need to get rid of 500mL of urine.

Something to think about...

Soaked and cold, but at the summit

Phew, well that was awesome. It was dirzzling with a light breeze when the climb started, and by the time we were at the top the wind was so strong the rain was going sideways and felt like little bullets hitting our faces. It wasn't particularly cold, but the wetness made it feel a lot colder than it was.

All part of the experience though. If you're going to climb a 400m bridge, do you want it to be a walk in the park in the sun, or a challenge? I wouldn't have changed a thing about yesterday.

I'll post a few photos from the climb in a little while when I go back downtown and get some shots of the building.

Climbing the Coathanger

It's so nice to know that I have such great support from back home. I think what scared me the most is not having a plan, and if anyone is considering the same thing I am doing, my only piece of advice is to have a plan.

I've gotten on the Contiki tour, so in 2 weeks I'll be heading to Darwin to begin the adventure through the outback and beautiful east coast. Once I'm done with that I'll head to Brisbane and check out the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Afterwards, Ill be heading to Auckland, New Zealand since I'm here already I might as well check out that country as well.

After that, I have nothing else I wanted to see while I was here and will most likely be heading home. So look for me in the sky some time around early August.

I'll be climbing the harbour bridge today, but they don't let you take your camera so who knows how many pictures of that I will have.

Change of plans

So I've come to the realization that I don't want to live and work here, I want to see the country.

I'm cutoff from my family and friends and just trying to schedule a phone call to hear their voices is a chore. While Penny had been a friendly face, and she is a very nice person, I'm just not have the fun that I had seen myself having while I was here.

I guess I'm not really a traveller, but an explorer.

I found another Contiki Tour called the Aussie Explorer which seems like a great affordable way to see the greatest sights of the country. After that, I'll probably travel around the country and see the sights I wanted to see before I left, and then call the adventure and head home to see the people I missed since stepping on the plane back in Toronto.

I feel like I'm letting people down back home since I told everyone I'd be gone for such a long time. But things are considerably harder than I thought they would be. If this were Toronto and I was just moving out things would be alright because I would have local knowledge and supprort from friends and family. But it's not, and I'm alone.


P.S. Pictures are up. You can see everything at picasaweb.google.ca/Nebulus64 Here's a taste:

Da Burbs

So I've moved in with Penny. She has a very nice house in a suburb called Bankstown, about 30 minutes outside of Sydney.

Had a nice day at the zoo yesterday. Still trying to figure out where to upload pictures so when I've figured that out I'll post a link. Didn't get too close to kangaroos since it wasn't allowed, but one did hop right by me, which was really cool to see.

Still trying to figure out what I'm going to do. A job, a place to live, bills, groceries, food, it's all incredibly overwhelming. I feel like I've jumped out of a helicopter into the ocean with no idea how to swim whatsoever.

Going to an orientation at the IEPoffices tomorrow, hopefully that will answer some questions. I think I'm leaning towards being a sightseer rather than a worker though. Maybe Contiki will have something that looks good at a good price.

Day 1

Alright, so Day 1 was technically yesterday, call this the first FULL day then.

Went wandering around Sydney after my last post yesterday. Brought back some great memories from wandering around Europe. Even found a nice kebab stand for lunch (more memories, yummy).

Sydney seems like a fusion of London, Europe and America. They drive on the wrong side of the road, at absolute breakneck speeds, and yet everything seems completely under control. The architecture looks European...mostly Victorian buildings around, and squeezed together. As I said yesterday, everything is a little dingy in the downtown area, but that's to be expected with any city I guess.

Accidentally found Circular Quay ferry terminal yesterday which is a good thing because it's where all ferry transport originates from. Oh...and here you go, snapped a few pics while I was down there:









So there you have it, the worlds most photographed building (Sydney Opera House) and the Sydney harbour bridge.

I'll have a few more pictures today, as I"m heading out to Taronga Zoo to try and get kicked by a kangaroo. Cheers!

Here at last

It's 12:06pm on May 30th, 2008, and I'm sitting on my bed at the hostel in Sydney Australia.

The drive from the airport was interesting....From what I say this place is a little dingy looking and a bunch of the places in the CBD look dodgy at best. But then again, Toronto looks mostly the same so you can't really judge a book by it's cover I guess.

My feelings are still up in the air about all this. The reality that I'm all on my own is starting to sink in. I just got here, and I feel lonely already. Hopefully when I talk with Penny and move in with her things will get better. And who knows, maybe I'll meet my roomates and we'll hit it off and I won't feel so bad anymore.

I've vowed to myself that I am going to last as long as my trip to Europe. If I don't like the way things are going here I may quit whatever work I'm doing and travel to see what I wanted to see when I planned this trip. Then call it and head home.

I don't like not knowing anyone and being completely alone in everything I do. Perhaps that's something to remember the next time I get a crazy idea like this.

What Almost Wasn't...

So here I am in lovely LA. The crew here just announed that my flight wouldn't be leaving until about 2am, PST. For those of you keeping score, that's 2 hours later than expected, huzzah!

The scary part is, this almost didn't happen. I was walking towards my gate in Toronto, and I was overcome with the want to just turn around and run back to my family. I didn't want to go through with it, I wanted to throw it all away and stay home where I knew everything would be alright.

I had actually come to a complete stop in the terminal, considering making a U-turn. I don't know what compelled me forward, but I went, and know I'm sitting on a floor in the terminal at LAX.

Everybody asked me how I felt before I left, are you excited? Nervous? Scared? Anxious? To be honest, it was getting old and frustrating to hear the same question over and over again, and honestly, I didn't know how I felt. Even with such a wave of emotion coming over me walking towards the gate, I wasn't sure how I felt about all this.

I still don't think the reality of all this will hit me until I step outside in Sydney, but I think I've made the right choice. While walking onboard the plane in Toronto - I felt excited. And happy.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but I'm getting through it. 4 more hours until my flight takes off, I think I'll go and get a bite to eat.

Welcome!

Well, here it is. My blog. To those that know me, welcome. To those that don't, what the hell are you doing here?

Anyhow, whoever you are, let me give you a bit about myself. I was born in Toronto, Canada and have lived there ever since. I enjoy it here, and don't really think I could call myself something other than a Canadian. I had your typical life growing up, school, play, sports, etc. I worked at a fish and chip restaurant through high school and college. I graduated in December of 2006 with honours in Computer Engineering. To celebrate my graduation, I decided to take a Contiki tour with a good friend of mine.

This is where my life and priorities changed a bit. I did the 39-day European Adventurer. What a blast! I had the most amazing time with 40 complete strangers on a bus through 16 countries in Europe. We drank, we got lost in cities, we went paragliding, we wandered the red light district in Amsterdam. Needless to say every single one of them is now one of my best friends and we still keep in touch. I was pretty depressed when I got back from Europe. I knew nothing could possibly top what I had just experienced in 6 weeks. And then I found SWAP.

SWAP introduced me to a phrase I had never heard before. Working Holiday. Basically, you're on vacation in another country, but you're allowed to stay for an extended period of time and work to support your travel funds. What an ingenious idea! I was hooked, and now here you are, reading about my impending adventures in the land down under.

I am leaving in two days, on Wednesday May 28th. I will arrive in Australia on Friday morning (AUS Time). I'm excited, I'm nervous, I have no idea what's going to happen, and that's the best part. So, check back often, leave a comment or two, send me an email, whatever you like! This blog is all about culture differences, and learning about a new place.