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Published: February 5th 2007
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Sydney
JFK -> Hong Kong = 16:10 hours
Hong Kong Layover = 3:20 hours
Hong Kong -> Sydney= 9:00 hours
Got window seats both times though, that was pretty nice. Sat next to two women, both very sociable right at the beginning to set a nice tone so that I could get out guilt free for stretching sessions, bathroom trips and borrowing pens for entry forms. Watched The Guardian, The Departed and Scoop amongst others and didn’t sleep very much, but the sleep I did get was thanks to ear plugs and my handy eye mask. The same there goes for sleeping in the YHA Sydney Central Hostel. First two nights were in a 4 person room with 1 Canadian and 2 Danes who talked allll the time. The trick is to get into a room where no one knows each other. Then there’s not as much talking after the small talk, “what did you do today?” and “where are you from?”
The sockets are like America’s but slanted toward eachother, the elevator doors don’t have a close the doors button, the sun light is brighter and whiter, they drive on the left side of the road and have
“Look Left” and “Look Right” on the ground at each intersection like they do in England. They play all American Music everywhere. There are palm trees, huge white birds with black legs and feet and black foot long curved-down beaks and 2 foot-tall crows that make sounds like meowing cats in the parks. The Sydney Opera house is actually off-white and all square tiles.
This hostel is great. It has TV lounges, a big room for whatever on the 9th floor, a pool, pool tables, a restaurant and pretty nice showers. When I say pretty nice, I mean you still wear shower shoes, but they aren’t growing things, ha. It’s the most expensive hostel in Sydney, apparently, but two nights were on BUNAC, my visa company, so no worries.
Speaking of no worries, I’ve pretty much got the accent down. The o sound in “no” or “so” is tricky, but it’s coming along. I don’t know if I want to have an Australian accent though, cuz the American one makes me stand out. I don’t even think of American as an accent. It sounds so plain to me.
So far, since I’ve been hear, I’ve met up with Christina to
go to the IEP office for orientation, taken a ferry ride around the harbor and back to Circular Quay, been on the subways, walked through Hyde Park, The Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Walked around the Sydney Opera house, gotten a hair cut (pretty short), seen the people doing the bridge walk, gone to the Sydney Aquarium, which was eerie. I know I’m going to go to the Great Barrier Reef and go diving, so it was strange to see things through glass like that with Japanese tourists posing for pictures in front of information signs with big-high-pitched giggling smiles. The one thing I did get out of it was seeing the under side of a 6 foot ray laying on the glass tunnel over-head. That was pretty sweet. I felt so removed, forced and fake when I was there. It was the strangest feeling. It’s the same with tour groups. I was touching coral that was uprooted and put in a little plastic bowl with a little pump creating a tiny current. I saw an alligator in a 10 foot tank of water with a plastic beach get fed a dead rabbit from behind a wooden board by
a scrawny little person in a clean uniform. The alligator took the dead rabbit and brought it underwater and just held it. To get it nice and tender, yes, but my gosh. Nothing in captivity can even fake the fact that they don’t hunt, travel, mate, or anything on their own. It’s really forced to see. It was so removed. I wasn’t even there, I was constantly trying to pretend the experience was more real. I guess that’s what I get for turning in a voucher for a free trip to captivity land in the middle of a huge city. When I was in there, I was in captivity.
Today I have to get my 60 pound roller suit case, 20 pound laptop bag, 20 pound backpack, King size pillow and shoulder bag from the hostel to the trainstation onto a train off the train to a ferry into a taxi into an office into a taxi into a building and then I won’t have to move it all for another 10 weeks! By then I hope I get in touch with David Speck and I can leave my stuff at his place for the two weeks that I
Birds
This is what they have wondering around their parks have off. Getting it back to the IEP office would not be too enjoyable.
In those two weeks, I figure I’ll go down to Melbourne for 4 days, then find a way to see the ocean road to Adelaide, get into the outback and then get back to Sydney all within 2 weeks. Maybe there’s a trip I could do or someone who’d want to do it with me, which would be ideal. It really all depends on what the trips that are offered through the course I’m taking entail. Right now, I’d love to get diving certified so that I can go up to the Great Barrier reef and dive without worrying that I don’t know what I’m doing. That way I can do something longer and more extensive in the outback. Fruit picking for 2 weeks looks like the plan right now. 2 weeks for Melbourne, Ocean Road, Adelaide, Uluru, Brisbane and back to Sydney. Actually that all might work better if I do it in reverse. Brisbane, Uluru, Adelaide, Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Sydney. I’ll have to look into that.
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