The Set Up

So I wrote a few weeks ago about an election party I attended at the University of Sydney for the US presidential election.  At that same event, I met a few people who work at the school, including a professor of Japanese studies from the US.  I got his business card and he invited me to have lunch at his house and stay over for a night.  I accepted and took his offer and went over to Glenfield (45 minutes west of Sydney).  It was a nice lunch and great to meet his wife and 2 children (4 and just under 2 years old).  The guest there was one of his students with his wife and daughter.  It was nice to have a different experience hanging out with families instead of mostly backpackers around my age.

It also turned out that the student and his family (Dallas, Helen, and daughter Isabel) were going away for most of December on vacation.  It would be easier for them if someone stayed in their house while they were gone.  They live 20 minutes west of Sydney and their house is right across the street from the train station.  So I just moved into their house yesterday and will stay there for a month.  I was very surprised that this just came together that way (seemed like I was pretty lucky).  I'll also get to drive their car, which opens up many opportunities for traveling.  It's a great set up.

Anyway, I stayed the night with the Stavros family (professor & family) and learned a little basic Japanese as well.  We also went to Royal National Park and fed some birds.  It was fun.

Life in Sydney & Glebe

So it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything.  The past few weeks have been different in that I've slowed down the traveling, settled down in one hostel on the outskirts of Sydney, and tried to find a job.  I've been staying in Glebe, which is a neighborhood outside of central Sydney.  I really like it because it's more laid back, more like a village.  At the same time, it's a half an hour walk from central Sydney.

I've been going to a few random things so I'll post some pictures to show some of what I've been up to:

Australian Soccer Game

Glebe Market

(the girl and guy in blue in the first picture below were raising awareness and money for Darfur)

As part of settling down, I'm working on learning how to prepare my own food and eat cheaply as opposed to getting takeout.  I'm also playing pool almost daily at the hostel with other backpackers.  Anyway, here are some more pictures.

Sydney (from the top of Sydney Tower)

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Aboriginal Street Performance

Darling Harbour

Sydney Bridge (from ferry ride)

2008 US Election

So I had just gotten to a new hostel yesterday in a different area of Sydney and I wanted to see the area a little bit. I headed to the University of Sydney and find out there's an event where people can watch the US election coverage. It was much bigger than I could imagine, something like 1,500 people there. To add to that, it was almost like an election party or rally for Obama. I haven't met a single person since I got to Australia who said they were for McCain by the way. That includes Australians, Europeans, etc.

Anyway, it was amazing because there was so much excitement there you'd think it was their country's election. I was absolutely shocked when Obama won. Deep inside, I knew he would win, but when it actually became official it was a crazy feeling. There something different about witnessing history. Not only that but the election party was broadcasted for a brief period on CNN is one of the international election parties. So I may have been on TV, which is crazy!

I'm still getting used to the feeling that we now have elected a black president. It's just unbelievable...I wasn't sure I would live to see this day. But I guess that goes to show you. When it comes to overcoming the odds and doing something significant...Yes We Can!

Canberra, Bondi Beach

On the way back to Sydney, I stopped by Canberra (the nation's capital) for a few days to see. There's not much happening there but it looked like a decent place to work though. They have a huge, and I mean enormous, mall and a few art galleries but besides that, I didn't find much to do there. One thing that was a pleasant surprise was the bar next to the hostel had a pretty good DJ. It was nice to hear some good music that I recognize. That same bar hosted Hermitude on another day. Hermitude, which they call an "electro hip hop band", is basically 2 DJ that performed some electro instrumental music, scratching and making innovative sounds to sort of build a song live. It was really nice to see that those types of DJs still exist, apparently not in the states though. They were pretty good so I bought their CD.

After Canberra, I headed back to Sydney, this time staying near Bondi Beach. It was decent, although I'm not as into the beach as everybody else there was. They did have a long walk with a bunch of artwork that passes a couple other beaches. That was kind of cool and some of them were interesting, particularly a can of campbell's soup with a detailed sculpture of a man's head on top. The beach had some graffitti and murals on the wall as well that were pretty nice. It was relaxing to just chill on a nice day there.

Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road

So Melbourne actually got off to a slow start. It was kind of a gloomy day, it took me the longest so far to find the hostel, and it wasn't in the center of town. Once I figured out the city though, where the center is, what the attractions are, where to hang out, etc, I liked it. Melbourne is more cultural and laid back than Sydney. I'm not sure I like it better than Sydney, but it's a nice contrast and change of pace.

One of the attractions in Melbourne was the Eureka Tower, which is the largest residential building in the southern Hemisphere. Basically they take you to the top floor and you can view the city and beyond from there. The view was amazing from up there, similar feeling as the top of a mountain, but this is the top of a city. That was definitely a great experience and well worth it. Another thing about Melbourne and Australia in general is that it seems to be big on cafes. I've never really gotten into cafes that much but I'm starting to adjust.

Anyway, I also stayed with a friend of my brother's, Rob, in Sandringham, 20 minutes outside Melbourne and got to meet and hang out with his friends. There were really cool. It was refreshing to chill with actual Australians, instead of just having quick conversations or chilling with other travelers. They showed me around town a little which was cool also.

An attraction near Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road, which is similar to what you would think (road along the ocean/sea). I did a one day tour of it and it was pretty good. The coastal view was great and it had some nice beaches along there as well. Plus, the Twelve Apostles was a pretty good attraction along that way with some nice scenery.

Next up...Canberra, and back to Sydney

Tasmania, cont'd

A little more on Tasmania...

The tour, in general, was a different experience from before because it was one group of 8 or 9 people for the full time, which made it fun. Before, I went to different places by myself, basically just doing my own exploring. This was a more organized and more family-like trip.



One of the highlights was Cradle mountain. It's apparently called that because the top is actually shaped like a cradle with a baby in it. We hiked pretty much all the way to the top, a lot of effort but well worth it. At the top, the view was spectacular, reminiscent of the Blue Mountains. We lucked out too because the weather was great. Supposedly, there's good weather once every 4 days over there.



Another highlight was Wineglass Bay (again, the bay shaped like a wine glass). This one had a really long walk (5 hours, 11 km) around and up part of the mountains there. The beach along the bay was beautiful, especially around the colored rocks. I will say, there aren't many people in Tasmania but more people should definitely visit.