Merry Christmas from Down Under!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here is a picture of Christmas day for me in Oz. It doesn't quite have the same feel as a white christmas back from, but putting on sunscreen to enjoy perfect weather certainly doesn't put a damper on things! Everything is going really well and I am loving all the new scenery and trying to learn my way around a new place. Shifting with your left hand while sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the left hand side of the road is pretty novel as well. I find everything to be pretty simple until you need to rely on a habit instead of a thought. The windshield wipers and blinkers are on the opposite sides of the steering column so there have been quite a few turns where I signaled using the wipers.

I have met a lot of really fun people so far and the amount of hospitality has been borderline overwhelming. I went in for a half day of work on the 23rd to begin my job at the winery. I'm definately excited to start learning the process, and of course making some mulah. I get a stipend for steel-toed boots so we cruised down to the Bloke Shop and picked some up. The store was literally called the Bloke Shop...translation: Man Store. It was awesome. I am debating about whether or not to get a bicycle, or maybe just put the money towards some plane tickets to go somewhere once I am finished with work? Too many options especially when I am so much closer to Southeast Asia, and heaps of places in Australia that seem like they would be awesome to see. I guess I will wait and see how long it takes for the novelty of running on the beach, and on top of the cliffs overlooking the water to wear off.

Merry Christmas, everyone is dearly missed for the holidays!

Pumped Beyond Comprehension

I am finally in my first goal destination (for at least a while)! After a nice relaxing drive departing from the East side of Melbourne at 8 AM, we arrived in the Adelaide hills, and finally Port Willunga (just a short drive from downtown Adelaide) around 6 PM. I will be spending the upcoming weeks here with my great friends Toff and Cara West. I was so pumped to finally be here and it seemed very surreal at first, especially because the last time I saw them was in Charlottesville Virginia! They have an amazing house in a gorgeous neighborhood and I can't wait to get to know the area more. Here is the address if anyone would like to write:

Kevin Sherman

40 Caffrey Cresent

Port Willunga SA, 5173

Australia

Last night after arriving we had a proper BBQ, which is the Aussie term for grilling out. It is similar only there are some different dishes and things like that. I forget the complex name of the sausages we had, but they were phenomenal. We also walked down to the beach which is just a few minutes walk from the house. Here is a picture from my life that I took on Dec. 21st. (more to come, so don't worry)

Melbourne was a really fun city to spend time in, but this is much more my style now. Special thanks to Gayle and her family who took me in after I was able to randomly find Gayle in a market in Melbourne after a three minute search. Keep in mind I had never met Gayle, nor did I know what she looked like other than a brief description via email. I have been sufficiently overwhelmed by generosity and hospitality. The weather for December in Aus has been weird by all accounts so far. Gayle and I took a drive into some of the mountains where you can ski in the winter to encounter rain, dense fog, and 6 degree Celcius temperatures.

Due to my poor editing skills I just deleted most of the text, and cannot sort the pictures out in a proper fashion. I will re-write the text, the pictures are as follows: driving through rainy forest somewhere North of Melbourne. There were huge fires a few years ago that account for all the new growth. Interestingly some Australian seeds cannot sprout until opened by extremely hot temperatures from fires, quite a cool adaptation. Second is on a short hike in the cold summer weather! Third is just a picture of Melbourne a few blocks from where I was staying. Sorry for the confusion of the post, I will write more later as it is time for a walk on the beach!

Barbara Streisand

I am in McDonalds of all places because they offer free internet, something that I have not found much of lately. Speaking of fast food too I should like to note that Burger King is called Trader Jack's in Australia. Someone already had the name, so it is essentially an American Burger King that says Trader Jacks instead.

The cricket test match between England and Australia has dominated the television since I arrived and rightly so since it is one of the biggest matches of the year, sort of like the super bowl of cricket. Test Matches take 5 days, and each day two innings are played. Do not be fooled though it is very hard to end an inning in cricket so it pretty much takes all day. I spent a great deal of time talking with an English guy at the hostel trying to dial in the concept of cricket to an understandable level. This was accomplished, however my fluency of the rules and your time cannot allow me to share how it all works here. I will say that everyone is very excited and one of the Australian players was on the front page of the paper here quoted in HUGE letters as saying,"I FINALLY GOT MY MOJO BACK!!!" The true humor was that he is dressed like a cricket player:MOJO INDEED


I spent the day touring the city mainly on foot, and rented a bike for $2 to return. Melbourne has a great array of bicycle paths, and the shared bike program they offer is fantastic. Your are able to get bikes from heaps of locations in the city and return them to any location. Point A to B riding works really well, and if each trip you take is under 30 minutes there is no charge but the $2 for the day of use. Quite cheap considering how much a beer costs around here, and a nice quick way to see some sights and get a bit of a workout. I also did a bit of cell phone shopping to try to sort out a good means of contact.

I visited the Victoria National Gallery today and saw some fantastic artwork, some dating to 800 B.C. I saw my reflection in a mirror that was made in the 1300's and couldn't help wondering how many persons have gazed into the same mirror I was looking at throughout the course of history. There were also works on display from Rembrandt and Picasso which were cool to see in person. Tomorrow I am going try to find a girl I've never met in a random market to catch a ride to Adelaide on Tuesday, should be good!

Australia!

So I am sitting in a coffee-shop in downtown Melbourne, quite tired, but happy just to relax after a long period of traveling. My flight left Rarotonga at 1:30 in the morning on the 16th and I arrived in Auckland sometime around 5 or 6 in the morning on the 17th. After a brief two hour layover we set off for Melbourne. I went with my usual plan which is to not have one and ended up finding a nice hostel in the midst of downtown which is great. There are so many interesting places within walking distance. The weather is beautiful I would say about 77 degrees F. The biggest weird thing other than being in the middle of a big city for the first time in quite a while is Christmas music. "It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas" was playing and I felt perplexed, some would even muse I was baffled. The only thing remotely close to snow is my flakes of skin from all of the vitamin D I have been overdosing on.

The time-lapse I experienced made it so that my sister's birthday, the 16th existed for me for only about three hours. I would like to wish a huge happy birthday to Natalie who turned 22, and also to my Grandpa Howdy who turned 91 this week. I would also like to point out that my Grandpa is keen enough to check on my blogs when I travel, something my mom has yet to figure out how to do. (Sorry mom but its true!)

The Cook Islands were incredible and I was sad to leave some really nice friends that I made there. I can finally post some pictures so I am going to pick out a few good ones, and write more another time. Thanks for reading!

South Pacific Bliss!

I apologize for a long delay in postings, and such a weak previous
post. Rarotonga has been an excellent adventure so far. It is so far
removed from everything that it is hard to imagine that there may
be snow at home, or that there may be people anywhere else at
all. That being said I have met people from all over the world here
and it has been really exciting getting to know them, sharing
stories, thoughts, opinions, and a few beers of course. I doubt the
pictures are going to work this time but I will give it a go to be
sure.

Weather-wise Rarotonga has been perfect despite me being here
in what is supposed to be the rainy season. It reminds me of
when the same thing happened to me in Panama during the rainy
season. I rather enjoy my luck but it has come at a small fare. The
solo day of rain was skipped by me as I spent the entire day
asleep in bed. The night before my body decided that it was
conducting a very thorough and violent top-side only purging. I was
rather dismayed as my body decided to do this without my
consent and it made for a rather unpleasant night. Missing the
only day of rain to sleep all day while everyone else was inside
though really wasn't so bad.

Adventure wise so far I tore a page off of the Thailand book and
rented a little 125 scooter and explored the island. What a fun way
to beat the heat and see such gorgeous scenery. The colors are
really spectacular. We've gone into town two nights to go dancing,
and when I say town I mean Avarua which is about the size of a
small to medium shopping mall. Dancing would be intimidating as
all the Rarotongan guys look a lot like short haired versions of Troy
Polamalu, however everyone is so friendly and fun-loving that it
creates a really fun atmosphere. I hope all is well with everyone, I
can't wait to put up pictures!

P.S. I now have currency with a penis on one side, and Queen Elizabeth II on the other, I bet she loved that! I also have a few coins in the shape of triangles good thing there are no vending machines here.

The Cook Islands!

I am having major issues with the blog thing, and the internet in general. Here is a pic from a website which is not nearly as good as my photos. I am staying right on the beach by those three islands in the lagoon at the bottom of the photo. I will type more when I get to somewhere with decent internet, my original plan was to write Rarotonga was a mistake! followed by gorgeous pictures. Everything is excellent, super smooth, gorgeous, friendly, and fun. I have met so many great people so far and feel very much at home on the road. Hope all is well back home, I need to go lather up the sunscreen and lounge on the beach!

in transit!

I am in L.A. at the gorgeous cess pool known as LAX. I arrived pretty refreshed after having an entire row to myself on my flight from Pittsburgh to Milwaukee, and then again en route to LA. I gathered my belongings and wondered about feeling somewhat lost for a little while and eventually decided that the domestic wing/terminal thing looked cozy enough to spend the night. It had the makings of a rousing night of watching dust bunnies battle, but turned out much better than anticipated.

I was approached by a person wanting change for a 10 so that he could get a soda. I told him I had only 5's but was also seeking to quench a thirst. I ended up spending the better part of the next 7 hours hanging out with Daniel, a 25 year old from Hungary. We ended up laughing really hard for a few hours, the fit got a jump start when Daniel showed my his old Dell laptop that had no keyboard and was held together (kind of) by white electrical tape. We ended up talking about what our lives were like and how they are different, took turns playing funny videos on youtube, and working on English words and phrases. I knew Daniel was my type of guy when he said he has no girlfriend but likes beer. Throughout one of our attempts to exchange thoughts in English that made sense but failed, he bought me tea, and a snickers bar, or rather convinced a cop to go buy them for us somehow. It was truly a fun night, and a great start to a trip especially with the LOW expectations I had for sitting alone in LAX. Now what to do for the 15+ hours until I fly out? The airport is getting busy again so sleeping on my camping mat on the floor started to be not to peaceful.