Notes From Afar

More Kyoto

2010-09-28T13:43:00.009+10:00

I've been very remiss about getting the last of my photos and site seeing up, but I got back and dove straight into la vie quotidienne. So naturally, everything about my trip now feels very far away. Still, my last day in Kyoto was definitely worth reporting on.

After a very nice night at Ryokan Sakura, where I stayed in a wonderfully peaceful traditional hotel room (with a shockingly high tech toilet), my coworker Arye and I set out to rent bikes and see more of the city. We foraged for breakfast at a grocery store, since by this point in the trip neither of us wanted to face what's generally on a Japanese restaurant breakfast menu. (In case you're wondering, that's omelet with potato salad, hot dogs, or croque monsieur, all with mayo in places you'd never expect, or want, to find it.) The we rented bikes near Kyoto station and pedaled off towards southern Higashiyama, on the southeastern edge of the city, under the first drops of rain.

Despite the threatening skies, the rain held off most of the day, although I'm not sure that was a blessing, since the humidity was unbearable. It made the adventure of trying to get to any of the temples in the area rather daunting, since they were all built to take advantage of the inspiring vistas you see from the hill top. Also, I do not recommend trying to follow one of the Lonely Planet walking tours on a bicycle. Your sense of scale will be off, and you will constantly be overshooting the place where you were supposed to turn, or the temple you wanted to see, leading you, in the heat and humidity, to decide that perhaps you really didn't want to see that temple so much after all. Also, there will be very few places to park your bike. I'm just saying.

We started at Kiyomizu-dera, a large temple complex located up a steep street called Teapot Lane. Many of the buildings at Kiyomizu were covered in scaffolding and brown tarps, but the ones not under construction were brightly painted and looked almost Tibetan. I was impressed with the grandeur of the main temple building, with the large tour group of elderly (Taiwanese?) tourists that settled in on the veranda and began chanting.

I was also amazed at the variety of options you had for praying / wishing / ridding yourself of bad luck. You could buy a charm. You could buy a wood slip, write on it and hang it on a shrine. You could write your bad luck on a piece of special paper and drop it in a fountain to dissolve. You could pray. (The routine seemed to be: approach, toss money into the box, bow, clap, clap, bow & pray, ring the bell. But I might be slightly off there.) You could also, we discovered, wait in a very long line to wash your hands and drink the water that pours in three thin streams off the mountainside. I'm sure the waters have great powers to cure and restore, but I skipped it, as the presence of that many people renders it all very, well, crowded!

After Kiyomizu, we made our way (with several false turns, as discussed above) up Ninen-zaka, a beautiful street lined with old buildings. Then we pedaled further north along the edge of the hills, overshooting the famous Chion-in temple and landing finally at Shoren-in. I'm not sure what I missed, but I really liked Shoren-in. The temple had several buildings - some newer, some more secluded and older feeling. The gardens were very peaceful, which perhaps is what I needed by that point, as I discovered when sorting my photos later that I'd photographed the same bridge and koi fish 5 times over without realizing it.

Leaving Shoren-in, Arye and I started meandering through Gion, the old geisha district. Eventually, we found a cute little canal, which we were following back towards the river when I hit the brakes and declared we were stopping for lunch right now. We had stumbled on Pooh's Cafe, an adorable little light and airy cafe with a view of the canal. I would love to know who started this business, since it seemed to me a spot that would belong equally in San Francisco, Paris, or Kyoto. I had an amazing yuzu and lemon soda (not too sweet), and a yummy egg salad sandwich (oh that baguette!) with an honest to goodness salad on the side. I have no idea how to tell you to find it if you ever go to Kyoto, other than to find the canal that winds through Gion and head east. But I definitely recommend you try! [I'm not the only one: scroll down to Feb 12 here for better pictures of the cafe, and the soda.]

Suitably refreshed, Arye and I rode back to Kyoto Station to return our bikes, and catch a commuter rail two stops south to Fushimi-Inari Taisha. By this point Arye and I were both ready to trade the mysteries of Buddhism for a bit of Shinto, and I'd been much impressed with this spot when I saw it in Memoirs of a Geisha. We arrived right at sundown, and had the chance to wander up the hill filled with thousands of bright orange torii gates, past many sculptures of the mischievous foxes that guard the granary, and through the cemeteries, where the graves are piled high with miniature torii. Of all the spots I saw on my trip, this one most closely matched what I'd hoped to find in Japan - tons of history, aesthetically beautiful, and profoundly foreign.

That night, I was exhausted. But it was our last night in Kyoto, so after dragging Arye to a gyoza restaurant I'd read about, which was much further away than we'd thought, now that we'd returned to pedestrian speed, I followed him to a fun little bar he'd discovered previously. Buried in the back of a building off Pontocho (an alley of restuarants and bars near the river), you'd expect to find an accounting office of some sort, but instead someone has stuccoed over the inside of the room and added a lot of carpets, creating an oddly appealing little cave. The place was empty, seeing as how it was a Monday, but we still managed to have way too many drinks with the Nepali bartender.

Which made it all the more wonderful when I jolted awake suddenly after passing out on my first flight from Osaka to Tokyo the next morning. I glanced out the window and spotted Mount Fuji jutting above the clouds directly off the wing of the airplane. I took it as a reminder that this is a country with so much more for me to come back and discover. Definitely an auspicious end to a wonderful trip.

Finally, Kyoto

2010-09-14T16:56:00.010+10:00

The first five days of my trip here were all pretty completely taken up with work. I was able to squeeze in some wandering here and there, and a dinner at a pretty spot looking over the river, but I never managed to shake free in time to see the major sights. But all that changed on Saturday evening, when the conference wrapped up, and I became a full time tourist. Which is perhaps why, two days later, I have a horrible case of museum feet and I feel like I've seen more than enough temples to last me a good long while. Here's what I saw:

Saturday, September 11.
After breaking down the trade show booth and schlepping our materials back to the hotel, we went to the area near Kyoto Station in search of dinner. We, meaning my coworkers David, Arye, and I wound up having Ramen at the food court on the 10th floor of the Isetan department store. The ramen was indifferent, but the Grand Staircase we climbed to get there was pretty cool, as was the view, and the fish cake with the restaurant's logo in it that was floating in my ramen.

Later, the boys wanted to celebrate the end of a successful show, so we wandered around for a bit looking for a bar. We wound up drinking in a restaurant that serve my favorite, okonomiyake. (Le sigh.)

Sunday, September 12.
After a quick breakfast with our CEO to debrief about the show, we checked out of our rooms at the Hotel Monterey Kyoto (a very nice, Western-style hotel, along the lines of a Kimpton property, except all the rooms smelled of cigarettes.) Then we set out to see the sights for real.

1) First up was Kinkaku-ji, with it's iconic Golden Pavillion, which is on the cover of pretty much every brochure about Kyoto. Although sometimes it may look like this or this, it more frequently looks like this (covered in tourists). It was beautiful, and I'm glad I had the chance to wander around the gardens, but I also found myself wishing it weren't quite so hellishly hot! As I mentioned previously, the weather had turned disgusting - 99 degrees and 98% humidity.

2) We walked over from Kinkaku-ji to Ryoan-ji Temple, a sprawling complex with a famous raked rock garden. Again, it was all very beautiful, but since I don't understand the important history these temples represent, nor the Buddhist symbolism (call me silly, but there's no way those rocks look like a tiger and her baby crossing a stream, as advertised), I felt very removed from it all.

3) We took a cab over to an area called Arashiyama, which is famed for it's bamboo groves. It was a cool place to visit, a little ways outside Kyoto proper, and a spot it seems like a lot of Japanese tourists visit. I enjoyed watching the young couples and families, dressed in traditional dress (a couple steps down from full kimono, I think they were in their Sunday yukatas, but still impressive considering the heat.) Also impressive were the very fit dudes wearing black loin cloths who were offering to pull these families in large-wheeled buggies. Definitely an interesting way to see the countryside.

We wandered through the bamboo forest (on our own two feet) and saw a shrine with lots of forms of prayers - papers tied on rope fences, calligraphed wooden slips of various shapes and sizes, strings and strings of tiny paper cranes... It made me wish I knew more about what I was seeing, and all the nuances of this place.

Coming out of the bamboo forest, I stopped for a soft serve ice cream cone. Unfortunately, I wasn't wise enough to spot the black sesame honey, which I only learned about after the fact, but the plain vanilla was a wonderful nostalgic trip back to summers by Lac Bromont in rural Quebec.

Before heading back to the city we walked through the gardens at Tenryu-ji,
which were very quiet and restful. Again, I'm sure the nuance of the place were lost on me, but I very much enjoyed sitting for a moment and watching the sun, now low in the sky, peak out from under the moody clouds and turn everything golden. (This contemplation made me a wonderfully easy target for the mosquitoes, but I didn't learn that until later.)

Upon returning to Kyoto proper, my coworker David split off to to catch the bullet train to Tokyo, leaving Arye and I to check into our new hotel. In an effort to experience a bit of the more traditional side of Japanese hospitality we had booked ourselves into Ryokan Sakura. Although that particular Ryokan didn't offer the most traditional set up - no dinner in the room, no curfew - I did get to stay in a beautiful room with tatami mats, on a futon that I set up every night. It was a great experience, and a beautiful room, and I'd highly recommend that spot to anyone. More about this later...

The good, the bad, and the strange

2010-09-12T09:54:00.007+10:00

Good:
- Everyone is so friendly and unbelievably helpful here. The cliches about Japanese hospitality and service are well deserved. For example, signs here say "please refrain from continuing past this point" rather than "do not enter."
- Little details of refinement, like the fact that they put paving stones under the water of certain rivers and streams, so that the water dances and sparkles just so as it flows over them.
- Graveyards. I know, weird subject. But in my wanderings, I stumbled across a couple of them, and they're extremely beautiful and special. Made up of stone markers, perhaps to house ashes, they have thin wooden boards with writing propped against them, and holders for incense.
When the breeze moves through the space, the boards rattle gently, and leftover incense wafts by, and I can really believe that the departed ones are still somehow with us.

- Ramen. Mmmm, ramen. I want it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Bad:
- Humidity. After two days of simply being hot and rather humid, the weather has turned to complete steam bath. Seriously. Picture the last time you were in the steam room at a spa. Now imagine me wandering around in there, towing my luggage.
- Mosquitoes. My coworker Arye and I were wandering and stumbled across a beautiful temple.

We looked at one another and both said "and this is a temple that's not on the map! Unfortunately, the prolific use of water that results in the gorgeous moss covering the grounds also breeds mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds.

Arye didn't get a single bite, but I'm covered in welts that still itch three days later! (I'd rather think it was the hummingbirds, I mean mosquitoes, than the possibility that I've picked up bedbugs. Our hotel for this first part of the stay is extremely clean and nice, but I live in fear...)

Weird:
- Cat cafe. You can sit and have a waffle while also getting some feline therapy. Picture a room full of (young) people, not just girls, eating, smoking, drinking, and petting the cats that the restaurant supplies. Maybe there's a lot of apartments that are too small for even a cat? Maybe everyone just works too much to have a full time pet?
- Okonomiyaki. We went out for dinner the other night, and wandered into a place because it was filled with locals. Turns out this is a specialty of Osaka. Basically a pancake made of shredded cabbage, with a very gently warmed egg in the center, it is then buried under a sauce of thickened Worcestershire and mayonnaise. A lot of other folks liked it, but I thought it was one of the most disgusting things I've ever eater. Of course, since then, finding food has become more of a challenge because it turns out Okonomiyaki is one of the main treats people come to Kyoto to enjoy!

Logistical Difficulties

2010-09-09T17:02:00.003+10:00

The reason I came to Japan this week (as opposed to at a later, hopefully more well-funded time in my life) is because my company is exhibiting at a trade show. Which is pretty cool, since as far as convention towns go, Kyoto is definitely one of the more interesting and exotic.

However, I have now discovered exactly how much of a pain in the ass it is to try and pull off a tradeshow exhibit 1/3 of the way around the world. Almost every single thing that could have gone wrong, did. I did make my flight. However a significant portion of our exhibition materials did not. So I spent my first 24 hours here running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to find a workable substitute.

Turns out, despite the fact that every single restaurant, and nearly every business here has a sign out front propped up on an easel, I couldn't find a single person who knows where to print a sign or buy an easel. I did get to wander around for several hours in the rain with my coworker though, looking for obscure objects like a 3-prong to 2-prong plug converter, or a large glass bowl.

And during that process, I actually had a wonderful time! There was the moment when we wandered into a Starbucks in desperation, needing something to ward off the caffeine headache, and then wandered out the other side the atrium of the swanky modern mall into a large temple compound, utterly serene, where water comes pouring out of the base of the building.

There was the "citron" shaved ice I grabbed in the food market, because I was completely parched, and that was the only one I could make myself understood well enough to order. It was a wonderfully flavorful combination of lemon juice and lemon rind. Exactly what I always hope lemonade is going to be, and never is.

There was the bowl of ramen I ordered by pointing to a picture on a menu when I was so jetlagged I couldn't remember my own name. So rich and restorative, and the team working in the restaurant was unbelievably cheerful, which made me smile too. (Of course, they might have been shouting insults at one another and all the customers, but I choose to believe they weren't.)

And last night, there was the restaurant we wandered into when we finally gave up on finding the restaurant we'd read about in my Lonely Planet guide. A tiny restaurant, with posters of Bob Marley playing soccer, and Sean Conery as Bond on the wall, where we smiled at the waiter/bartender/chef a lot and he smiled back a lot and we all nodded our heads a lot, and somehow that combination resulted in us getting served food. Quite yummy food at that!

Japan had somehow never been particularly high on my list of places to visit. Outcompeted by Chile, Iceland, and Bora Bora, even by the Gobi desert, I had placed it firmly in the "for some day" category. But my experience so far is rapidly changing that. This is one of the few places I've ever traveled where it's both totally foreign, and yet so comfortable I feel brave enough to chuck the guidebook and just see where my nose takes me. It's invariably going to be someplace interesting.

Now, can someone please explain the adorable little racoon statues I see at the entrance to people's yards? They're cute, but why do they have both breasts and large testicles?

Long pauses

2010-08-18T07:31:00.002+10:00

More than anything, this blog was started as a travel diary. A way of keeping family and friends updated when I was living far away, and we were all too cheap or lazy to go buy phone cards. Plus, I could add pictures!

But what should I do when I'm not far away? When I'm right here, not going anywhere, for long periods at a time? When I'm stuck in the routine of work, dreaming of more travel adventures, but unable to convert them to reality?

Go silent for a year and a half, that's what!

However, I've got a big trip planned. After all this time, it's only just that I'm going because of work. So stay tuned. Kyoto here I come!

And if you have any recommendations... please enlighten me.

More photos of Vietnam

2009-04-10T11:35:00.008+10:00

I'm stealing photos from my friend Kyle, since I thought they were so awesome.

My sister Naomi collects hats from throughout the world. The more outrageous the better, but it has to be something the people actually wear. I was tempted to bring her back a motorcycle helmet, but I resisted. Instead, I spotted the wonderfully embroidered head scarves that the women of the Black Thai ethnic minorities wear. I tried to ask one lady where I might buy one, and this is what happened:

These women are fabulously colorful in their costumes.

Inspired by their splendor, I took the opportunity, since I was in a place with a) cheap tailoring and b) fabulous silks to order an ao dai, although nothing so fabulous as this. Again, the language proved a barrier, but this time I didn't wind up with anything extra. I suck at bargaining. Still, it fits really nicely, and now I'm trying to figure out an occasion to wear it.

Maybe when I graduate, which is all too soon.

Report from Vietnam

2009-03-31T23:56:00.015+11:00

Since coming to Vietnam, I've mostly been posting little snapshots. That's not really accurate, since I forgot the cable that connects my camera to my computer, and haven't been able to upload any photos. But I haven't felt like the trip was worth my usual exhaustive blow-by-blow. And also, until now I've been struggling a bit. This is definitely the most ambitious travel experience I've tackled to date. Still, here's a quick update on the trip so far... [Photos are now up!]

On Thursday morning my colleague Matt Craig and I showed up in Hanoi. We checked in to our hotel in the old quarter, Sunshine 3, and then wandered out to find a bite to eat and arrange our trip to Ha Long Bay. Through Handspan, we booked 2 days and 1 night on the Lagoon Explorer junk boat. Then we tried our first bowl of Pho, and staggered back to the hotel for a nap. I did manage to drag myself out of bed later, despite the jet lag, and took a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake. We sat in a cafe for a bit, having a wonderfully delirious conversation about life, love and the pursuit of happiness, fueled by my first brush with the ridiculously strong Vietnamese coffee, which is "cut" with sweetened condensed milk. Later that night we headed to the one Indian restaurant in the old quarter, which we had been commended to by the professor at UCLA from whom I hope to take Intro to Classic Indian Dance this quarter. She had been told there is a mural of her at that restaurant, and wanted photographic proof. The masala dosa was actually really good, which perhaps explains why the place was filled with Indian tourists.

The next day we woke early and boarded the bus to Ha Long. On the bus we met Jean Luc and Fiona, a French-Scottish couple in their late sixties who very much impressed me with their travel stories. They take upwards of four big trips a year, and have been to some amazing corners of the world. The more remote the better it seems. They've been hiking in northern Pakistan 5 or 6 times, without a guide, and were raving about southern Yemen. (Never mind the civil war.) Someday I'd like to grow up and be like them.

We had a pleasant trip on Ha Long Bay. We lucked out and had nice weather, and although it was extremely touristy, our boat sailed further east than most and so we weren't completely in the thick of the traffic. The food we ate was very good, and the sculptures the chef decorated the plates with were a marvel of engineering. I can't wait to get my photos up. We stopped and visited a limestone cave on one of the islands, and had a quick kayak. We also toured a floating village, by which I mean I sat there and let a woman about half my size paddle me past all the houses while I stared in and the inhabitants stared back. I was most impressed by the little floating dog houses.

Upon our return to Hanoi, we met up with Nathalie, the American woman who started the organization that is our client, Chi Em. Nathalie is wrapping up her time in Vietnam, so the organization is now being run by the extremely capable Thanh. Nathalie is heading back to Berkeley, so I had to ask her if she knew Abby Falik, and her work with Global Citizen Year. Berkeley is a very small world, as is the world of international NGO folk.

[A note on pronunciation - I am discovering that any word that ends in "nh" actually indicates an "ng" sound. So Thanh is said "Tang", and our translators Linh and Minh are really "Ling and Ming". Which suggests that my entire life I have been massacring the pronunciation of the name of the father of this nation. Also, "d" is often "z". So the traditional costume that I ordered at the tailor would never have been achieved if Nathalie hadn't told me that an Ao Dai is really an "ow zai". We have also been introduced to the very useful expression of "oi, gioi oi!" (There are a bunch of accents missing there that this blog program does not seem able to handle.) Roughly translated as "oh god", it sounds like "oy zoy oy", and has the same intonation and expressiveness as a really satisfying "oy vey!"]

Dinner with Nathalie (at Highway 4) marked the start of the work portion of the trip, as we began to get exposed to all the details of Chi Em's work that we hadn't yet understood. I'll keep it short and say simply that Vietnam is very interested in foreign direct investment, and in having international NGOs be active here. In theory. In reality, any work is constrained by a very rigid and hierarchical bureaucracy in the best situations, and extreme corruption in the worst. It makes trying to create and implement programs here extremely difficult.

Especially if you are a bunch of naive and inexperienced business school students. On the one hand, it's been amazing how much we've learned, and I'm excited about the possibilities for us to make a difference. On the other hand, I'm having to fight the urge to throw my hands up in defeat and run back to the classroom where at least the case discussions are confined to a 15-page packet plus exhibits.

Since Monday we've been working in Dien Bien, the province where Chi Em is active. We're staying in a guest house in Dien Bien Phu, the capital city. Both the guest house and the city are a bit bleak. I've never been in a place less set up for tourism. There are literally no restaurants that have menus, and very few hotels. Still, the rice paddies are very beautiful, as are the hills around the city, when the moisture in the air clears enough to afford us a view. This is a very misty place.

Actually, this is a very wet place. The fields of rice are shockingly green, and this is the dry season! And last night, just as I was falling asleep, a storm rolled in. The rain was so heavy and so loud it sounded like a freight train was passing through. It even drowned out the thunderclaps. Very impressive.

Transportation

2009-03-31T21:26:00.004+11:00

Things I have seen on the backs of bicycles and motos on this extended adventure...

On a bicycle:
1) A rocking chair
2) A dining room table
3) A 30 lb. sack of cement. This wasn't actually on the back of the bicycle, but rather on the back of the gentleman riding it. Not tied on or secured in any way, it was simply draped on his back and over one shoulder. He had this look of intense concentration on his face, and I couldn't tell if it was due to the weight or his prayers that the damn thing wouldn't slide off.

On a scooter:
4) A family of 4
5) A huge pile of baskets, a tall stack of eggs, or a large cage full of chickens
6) A cat. Actually, the cat wasn't riding the scooter, but since most folks park their scooters in their living rooms (all the buildings have built-in scooter ramps over part of their front steps), I have seen several family pets staring out at the street from their perch on the seat of the scooter.
7) A flat screen TV. No kidding. I was dying laughing, watching a full grown man with his legs dangling off the back of his friends moto, clutching a 52" flatscreen between himself and the driver, as the driver wobbled across four lanes of screeching traffic, all of which was honking and gunning for the juicy new target in their path.

My sister Naomi collects traditional hats and headgear from all over the world. I'm tempted to bring her a helmet, since that's by far the most ubiquitous.

P.S. Thanks to Kevin Armstrong for supplying the following link to some spectacular examples of bicycle transport.

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/03/extraordinary-loads-on-ordinary-bikes.php

jet lag

2009-03-31T00:11:00.003+11:00

This is by far the largest time change I've ever put myself through. And I have to say the worst part of the jet lag is how insidious it is. 5 days into my trip, I still don't feel close to normal. I haven't had any sleepless nights yet, but I hear that's what I can look forward to upon my return. Can't wait.

Right this very moment, my teammate Kyle, who only arrived yesterday, is sprawled out on two very uncomfortable chairs in the Chi Em program office, completely delirious. It's been pretty funny watching her valiantly struggle through it though. Yesterday we dragged her to Hoa Lo prison (aka the Hanoi Hilton). She got separated from the group for a few minutes, and then wandered back in declaring pathetically "I was just lost and alone in a Vietnamese Prison." I think everyone has fears of getting tossed into some crazy third world prison, but in her delirium yesterday, Kyle sort of achieved it.

First impressions

2009-03-30T23:54:00.004+11:00

The first thing I noticed as the plane was on final approach was the rice paddies. Extremely green, almost fluorescently so, they come right up to the edge of the runway. Hanoi is relatively spread out. And interspersed between the neighborhoods are the rice paddies. I like to imagine they're communal, and that the city can feed itself off its green spaces.

SB2K9 - Nicaragua

2009-03-26T23:26:00.007+11:00

I’m in transit now, sitting in the airport in Taipei, waiting for our flight to Hanoi, and scrambling to record the highlights of my week in Nicaragua before it all fades. In the last fifteen hours I just survived the longest single plane flight of my life. At least, that I recall. When I was five, my family traveled from Montreal to Israel, but at that point I was young enough to be a) able to stretch out on the floor in front of my parents’ seats and sleep and b) very impressed by the desserts served on Swiss Air. The chocolate mousse came in a cup made of chocolate! But I digress…

I left LA at half-past midnight on March 16. We landed first in Houston, where I ignored the many options for spending money in favor of catching an extra hour of sleep on the airport floor. Then we had another three hour flight to Managua, followed by a little hop on a puddle jumper (which was neither pressurized nor air conditioned, much to my dismay), through Bluefields to Corn Island. Needless to say, I was very travel weary when we arrived. But Elvis picked us up in his big pickup truck, and I was somewhat revived by the sight of my friends clambering into the back of the truck to sit on the sides, and get into the true spirit of island life right away. The first night we stayed at La Princesa de la Isla, a pretty little hotel run by an Italian couple, located out on a point, accessible only after a walk or a drive down the beach (hence Elvis, and his four-wheel drive). The spot is extremely picturesque, and the ocean breezes keep the heat and the bugs down. We dropped off our stuff, and then headed into town, looking for the first of many Toña beers we were to consume. We walked around the tiny little “downtown” of Corn Island as the sun set and then made our way back to a fabulous (but expensive, we later discovered) meal at our hotel. We ended the night about as you’d expect, sitting in hammock chairs on the beach, drinking beers, and Flor de Caña rum straight from the bottle. But don’t worry; we didn’t finish the whole bottle (at least not the first night).

The next day, we got a ride from Elvis back down the beach, through town, which consists of the typical tropical third world tin-roofed concrete structures, painted in bright colors, with ruthlessly clean front porches, a hammock, and some sort of dog sprawled out resting in the shade. We got to the Nautilus Dive shop and met the proprietor, Roland, and the dive master Julien, who would be taking us down. We also met Baldur, a German dude who was coming along on our dive, and who we would later discover had an amazing talent to bump into absolutely everyone while under water.

Our first day of diving was nice. We did a dive at a site called Black Coral, and I think I spotted the thing for which it’s named. I saw some fish, some of them colorful, including a very large grouper that was shepherding a school of smaller fish, perhaps for safety, perhaps as a later meal. After a surface interval back on shore, we headed out to La Chimita, where I saw a strange and wonderful looking beast called a trumpet fish, and a nurse shark. Mostly, though I just enjoyed being back under water, and the feeling of weightlessness as the mild current washed us along.

None of us were blown away by that day’s diving though, so we were wondering if perhaps we’d made a mistake not making the trip over to Little Corn Island, where the reef is supposed to be in better shape. We certainly couldn’t understand why National Geographic had rated the place 9 out of 10 for diving. Our dive master heard us discussing what to do, and told us, emphatically, that if we wanted world class diving what we really needed to arrange was a trip out to Blowing Rock. So when we headed back to shore, that’s what we did. Then we dragged our waterlogged and famished selves down the road to the Fisher Cave for some lunch. That’s where we discovered that nothing related to food happens quickly on Corn Island (or in Nicaragua in general). Still, we had fun sitting out on the patio by the municipal docks, drinking beers or in my case grape Fanta. Eventually, our food came, with wonderfully yummy papas and for me a whole fish smothered in garlic. Mmm… It was worth the glares we got from the Italian woman at the hotel where we’d left our stuff all day when we finally wandered back in around 4pm. La Princessa was supposedly full that night, so we moved on to Carrie Morgan’s guest house, on the other side of town.

The most interesting thing about Morgan’s Hotel was that they’ve chosen to lease out the waterfront across the road from them to some sort of church, which holds open-air services every night. So every night, at around 5:30, they start testing the PA system, and blasting some pretty interesting country versions of Amazing Grace and other traditional spirituals. And then around 7 they settle in for a 2 hour service that is held partly in English, partly in Spanish, and partly in some local Caribbean patois that has a lovely flow to it. This made it all the more interesting, as we sat on the grass outside our hotel drinking the next bottle of rum, when we realized that the sermon was about T-Pain. “Now T-Pain was a fallen mon, hear? But Jesus, he loves him too.”

The next day, we were a little late for our dive appointment due to the very friendly breakfast served to us by Ike. Ike runs a hotel a little down the road from Morgan’s, and is one of those wonderful, gregarious characters that is truly able to make you feel like you belong. He’s a serial entrepreneur, and over our breakfast of gallo pinto and scrambled eggs, we learned a bit about the many businesses he runs on the island, while also working for a solar power storage company. I guess in a place as sunny as Corn the problem isn’t generating the power, it’s storing in long enough and stably enough to convince people to come off the grid. We eventually tore ourselves away, and wandered on to our date with Blowing Rock.

As best as I could tell, Blowing Rock is a mini volcano that rises from the sea floor about nine km off the coast of Big Corn. It stretches from the ocean floor to the surface about 100 feet up, and attracts all sorts of marine life, large and small. The surface is fairly choppy, so we had to do a “negative entry”. This basically involves making sure there’s no air in your BCD (Boyancy Control Device – the vest you wear that everything is strapped to), and throwing yourself backwards off the boat in a nice little cannon ball, hanging on to your mask and regulator so they don’t come dislodged with the violence of your entry. And then letting yourself sink as the bubbles clear and the boat pulls away, and rendezvousing with your group a couple meters below the surface. I would have been terrified, except that as soon as the bubbles cleared I realized the water was so clear the visibility was well over 100 feet. And all the surface chop faded to a very gentle washing back and forth, just enough to rock you, but nowhere near the drag-me-off-the-rock-into-the-very-large-very-empty-ocean sort of current I has anticipated. It was like getting dropped into the world’s biggest, cleanest, best stocked aquarium, and was one of the best dives I’ve ever done. The first dive we saw a nurse shark and two gray reef sharks, as well as all sorts of fish including many barracuda. We also saw a bunch of very large, very colorful lobster for which that coast in famous. It’s the off-season for lobstering right now, so they were feeling pretty safe and hanging out right in the open. Right at the end, we also saw two massive spotted eagle rays, very majestically fanning along in perfect unison, trailing their long tails. It was unbelievable. After a surface interval during which I got very seasick, between the chop and the smell of the boat’s diesel fuel, we dropped in again for a second look.

The highlight of that dive, besides more successfully avoiding the German’s tendency towards collision, was seeing a school (flock?) of 7 or 8 large rays off in the distance. They were too far away to see their colors, but just the graceful way they moved together, as massive darker blue shadows in the midst of the clear blue sea was something I’ll never forget. And then Dan scared one of them, and it darted off so fast my eyes almost couldn’t track it, and that’s when I realized this is one animal that is very well designed for the environment in which it lives. Goldie seemed to be as impressed as I was, or maybe she was just taking revenge on Dan for scaring the ray, but she spent the evening considering a tattoo of a ray on her leg.

After those amazing dives we were pretty amped, but also basking in what we’d seen. So we weren’t moving too quickly as we wandered down the road towards a place, maybe a house, where some named Marie, or was it Maria sometimes cooks food for folks. It gave us a chance to walk further along the road that rings the island, admiring the fact that the road was surfaced with pavers, each placed individually. It makes it easier to deal with the potholes, but is somewhat unfathomable given how long it must take to create in the first place. Eventually, we made it to Maris’s house, where we feasted on shrimp, lobster and king fish, plus rice and salad, and of course beer, for a whopping 7 dollars each. This was the first of two meals that day, however, which reminded me we weren’t in a place where food is always plentiful. The six of us ate Maris out of everything she had, and as we wandered back up the road, she was taking down her welcome sign. And later that night, we managed to eat the pizza shop out of pizza AND chicken curry. I know that some of the people I was traveling with have big appetites, but I think it’s mostly that there really isn’t that much that isn’t rice and beans. And we were forking up all of it. Which made it a bit embarrassing when Julien, the dive master, and Chavo, the local kid who was assisting him on the boat, showed up to join us for dinner only to discover that the restaurant was out of food!

The other interesting part of that meal was when Chavo, pressed to describe what he wanted to be when he grows up, told me that he just hopes he finds some of the packets of cocaine that sometimes wash up on the beach, so that he can sell it and buy a slick car. It’s an interesting aspect of the economy there, which stems from the island’s location near some of the major smuggling routes out of Colombia.

The next day we woke up early, and were on track to catch our plane until we realized it left an hour earlier than we thought. Still, after a bit of a scramble, we made it and were on our way back to Managua. In Managua, my dad’s friend Rita Arauz had arranged for a van to pick us up and take us to San Juan del Sur, 2.5 hours to the south. As with many such plans, not everything flowed smoothly, and there was a great deal more sitting around waiting that we had anticipated. Still, it gave us the chance to a) try the really yummy tacitos at the Managua airport, b) learn more about the foundation Rita runs, Nimehautzin, and c) get a free ride. Once we were on our way, we passed out of the Managua traffic into the countryside which was fairly dry this time of year, and dotted with extremely impressive volcanoes. Eventually, we arrived at Finca las Nubes, and the absolutely gorgeous house that Devin had found for us to stay in. By the time we got there, the others had already made themselves at home, and were sitting on the bar stools that are kindly located IN the pool.

That was the start of the surf part of the trip. I won’t give you the blow-by-blow, since that consisted entirely of waking up, eating, surfing all day, eating some more, and then sleeping. Lather, rinse, repeat. But it was both a joy and a challenge hanging out with a group of 13 (eventually 14 when Trent arrived having celebrated his successful match at UCLA for dermatology) for 4 days. The fun parts were throwing all the surfboards on top of our two cars, pilling everyone in (including, always, a bunch of guys riding the rails of the pickup – what is it with guys and trucks?) and heading out to some amazingly remote beach where we had the break to ourselves. Also fun was getting to learn to surf, although I don’t think I’ll ever get remotely good at it. And it was fantastic to have a big group of fun people all together, in the stereotypical spring break that MTV has popularized but that I never really experienced. SB2K9, baby! The challenging part was trying to make decisions with that many people, and negotiate where we were all going to sleep. And completely not fun were the nasty sunburns we all got from spending literally all day in the sun, even though we diligently reapplied our sunscreen.

I have to state the obvious, which is that surfing is pretty painful. Forget the tiny jelly fish stings we all got. Or getting completely washed out by a big wave and spending what feels like eternity in the white water to surface with a gallon of sea water in your sinuses that will spend the next hour and fifteen minutes slowly draining out your nose at unexpected intervals. Or getting conked on the head with your board by that very same wave. (My friends knew what they were doing when they talked me into a “soft”-topped foam board.) Or the muscles you never knew you had until you spend all day trying to direct a large floating oblong to obey your commands, not the ocean’s. It’s the very fine scratches and scrapes that you get on your knees and elbows from the sand that’s mixed in with the wax on your board, which then sting like fire as they’re bathed, with every wave, in a combination of salt water and sunscreen. My main impression of surfing is that it’s a slow death by rug burn. Is it any wonder I don’t think I’ll ever get good at it?

Actually, I liked it a lot. And I loved Nicaragua. Both the uber-mellow Caribbean vibe in Corn Island and the more touristy San Juan del Sur, which is not entirely successful in its resistance to Costa Ricanization, but is still pretty real. Neither place had any signs of the crushing poverty I had thought we might see, both places were wonderfully welcoming, and I loved the chance to pretend I spoke Spanish, eat good food, hang with friends, and relax. So I was sad to leave early, but proud of myself for successfully navigating the two buses it took me to make it from San Juan del Sur to the Managua airport. And although I found myself thinking as I compared the urban sprawl that is Houston to the scenes I had just seen in Nicaragua, that there’s much I prefer about the latter, I was still extremely relieved that I had the good sense to give myself a whole day to leave LAX, come home, do laundry, sleep in my own bed, and take a yoga class (with one of the Olsen twins, I have no idea which) before heading on to the next adventure.

Spring Break

2009-03-14T16:32:00.004+11:00

Well, I'm almost done with finals, finally. This quarter went by terribly quickly. I'm definitely not ready to be only one quarter away from graduating. But I never like the stress of finals, so I'm pleased to have that largely behind me. Especially since I don't have to confront the fact that I'm returning to the real world until after some more exciting travel.

First, I'm going to Nicaragua with some friends. 6 of us are headed to Corn Island, on the Caribbean coast, to dive for a few days. And then we head west, to meet up with a larger group where we've rented a house in San Juan del Sur. Most people are going to surf. I plan to do absolutely nothing. Although who knows, I might see if I have any better luck than my last attempt at learning to surf. (Which was wonderfully fun, but left me with the worst sinus infection of my life.)

Here's a map of the trip to Nica:

View Larger Map

Then I head back to LA for exactly 29 hours. After which I head west, to Vietnam. That trip is kindly funded by the US Department of Education and my school, since I'm going with my team from school to do research for our consulting project. Our client is Chi Em, and we'll be hanging out in Hanoi and Dien Bien. I'm going a couple days early, though, so that I have the chance to see Ha Long Bay:

View Larger Map

I'm not sure what kind of internet access I'll have except when I'm in Hanoi, but keep checking. If I can put photos up, I will!

Clickwheel Roulette

2009-02-19T06:03:00.003+11:00

I have written one non-school thing in the last month, and that's the liner notes for my mix this term. I thought I'd share it here, since it gives me the excuse to post another photo from the Kings of Leon concert.
Clickwheel Roulette
I’ve been seriously lacking in inspiration for this mix. It’s partly that I’m in the coolest MTC group ever, (although the name was supposed to be Prostitute Turtle) and I’m having performance anxiety. And then I’m going later in the quarter than I ever have, and a certain Rafferty, and a certain Villegas stole my two best songs. When you find yourself threatening your friend with homicide over a song, you know you’re in trouble. It’s also that I’ve been spending my commutes listening to everyone else’s killer mix, and as a result I haven’t spent nearly enough time mining the KCRW archives. So I decided to keep it simple. I put the clickwheel in the middle of the alphabet and pressed play. Then I tried to see where my musical free-associations would take me. If nothing else, it solved the problem of how to order the songs.

1) The Longest Road (Morgan Page Radio Edit) – Morgan Page
I was originally going to open with Walking on a Dream, which Kyle introduced you to last week, and that song makes me think of this one. I like this kind of techno. I first heard it on the radio when I got back to SF after my study abroad experience. The lyric about pastel trailer parks stuck with me enough that I managed to fish the song out of Google. I love the internets.

2) William's Blood – Grace Jones
Thinking of songs I first heard on the radio, thank you KCRW.

3) I Idolize You – Lizz Wright
Grace Jones’ deep and sexy voice then made me think of Lizz Wright. This is a cover of a song that Ike wrote for Tina.

4) Feelin’ Love – Paula Cole
Now thoroughly in sexy blues territory, I remembered this song from the era in college when I still bought CDs. This version is better because it doesn’t skip at minute 2:38.

5) What You Want – The Roots
This song has an awesome, raunchy saxophone and base line. Turn it up. No really.

6) Me Estas Tentado – Wisin & Yandel
Here’s another song I first heard on the radio, just last week. It comes here because I needed to back up the baseline of the last song with another song that makes me dance around my room.

7) Lullaby of Clubland – Everything But The Girl
The cheesy, wall-of-synth ending of the previous song made me think of one of my favorite electropop songs from college. Best known for their song Missing, these guys actually put out two really good albums: Walking Wounded and Temperamental.

8) Again & Again – Umbrellas
I’ve got to follow electropop with synthpop. I have no idea what the story with this song is, but I heard it on Pandora, and I liked it.

9) Won’t You Come Again – Susie Suh
On the same day that I first heard the last song, Pandora introduced me to this track by Susie Suh. I love her low key vocals, and her deep voice fits with the ladies from the beginning of the mix. “I’m missing you. Or maybe I’m just missing who I was when I was with you.” That’s honesty.

10) Go (Go Your Way) – The Kin
Pandora was on a streak the day I heard all these songs. Although, I have to admit I liked this song a lot more until, on the 11th listening or so, I realized they weren’t saying “give me back my incense.” Too bad - I thought that was hilarious exactly because it made no sense.

11) Fans – Kings of Leon
You didn’t think you were going to escape the joy that is KOL, did you? I just saw these guys at Madison Square Garden, and while I might have wished for more jamming, they ROCKED.

12) Out of Our Hands – Gemma Hayes
I like this woman’s voice a lot.

13) 7 Stones – Lindsay Mac
Coming back for another round of soulful female singer-songwriters, I had to include a plug for my friend Lindsay and her cello. I just saw her in concert at Hotel Cafe, and she was awesome.

14) Smells Like Teen Spirit – Tori Amos
Even if some of you may want to disown me for saying I like this better than the original, I had to acknowledge my continued love affair with covers. This is to prove that you can make any song sound like a folk song. And if you’re Tori Amos, you can kick ass while doing it.

15) Diario de Viaje – Federico Aubele
From fabulous piano to fabulous guitar. Very much in the tradition of Thievery Corporation, who produce him, this guy’s stuff is even more interesting than theirs. I wonder if they’re jealous?

16) Goodnite – Melody Gardot
I actually thought of her wonderful, bluesy Worrisome Heart earlier, when I was playing blues, but this song makes an even better ending. Still, you should check out the other song.

17) Gorecki (Global Communications Mix) – Lamb
Bonus track. This was the first Lamb song I ever heard, and by far the best use of a trip hop beat I’ve come across. They need to be handled with caution, but clearly, Lamb is up to the challenge.

Hello stranger!

2009-02-19T04:58:00.007+11:00

Hi!

Last time I posted, I said I'd be writing regularly. But that was over a month ago. Oops. In the meantime, here's what I've been up to:1) School. That's a photo of life at Anderson. In January. Bet you want to move to LA now too, don't you?

2) Skiing. I had a weekend with friends up at Mammoth, which was awesome. Snow was pouring out of the sky, which made it hard to see, but much fun to ski. Or in my case, snowboard a few turns, fall, get stuck, dig the end of my board out of the massive drift I had impaled myself on, get up, brush myself off, snowboard a few turns, fall...

3) Family. I went to visit my sister and her family in NYC. I was really there to recruit, but I didn't manage to make any of the meetings I'd set up stick, so instead I hung out with the Adelson-Bhallas, went to a Kings of Leon concert (my first at Madison Square Garden), and caught up with old friends.
Did I mention how cute my niece and nephew are?

4) More school. In which we dress up and act like fools, much of the time. And also do work. Which is why I'm going to sign off now. I promise to be better this time. Especially since I've got two trips in the works - 1 to Nicaragua and 1 to Vietnam. Back to back. We'll see if I ever want to get on an airplane again.

Home again

2009-01-15T09:12:00.005+11:00

(view from my new place)

As most of you have figured out, I'm back. In fact, I'm so far back that I've already been completely consumed by life back at school. It's amazing how everything is the same. I'm having a harder time than I expected readjusting. Maybe it's the lack of free time - among other things, I miss having this outlet! For the moment, I'm hoping I'll get to keep updating. We'll see how well that goes...

In the meantime, I've got new digs. I'll be living in Venice, and while my apartment isn't huge, it's not tiny either, so please come visit.

The apartment finding process was an adventure. I met a lot of crazies. There was the woman who over-decorated everything and particularly favored leopard print, whose dog pissed on my shoes. There was the guy who was "cool if I lived there", but he couldn't stand hair (said, staring at my ponytail which has gotten quite long since I wasn't game to brave an Australian haircut). There was the woman who was 7 months pregnant. I find in awkward asking a woman if she's expecting, especially if she's already a little round around the middle. But the fact that we would be adding a third roommate, one who doesn't sleep through the night, is kind of relevant. I was pretty discouraged. But I found a place, and if you ignore the fact that I'm only half unpacked, its good.

(my empty storage crate)

So this quarter is gearing up to be crazy busy, but I'm excited about my classes. I'm taking Business and Economies in Emerging Markets, Non-market strategy, International business strategy, and Negotiations. Plus my 6-month consulting project / masters thesis, for which it looks like we'll be developing a crop insurance product for a microfinance organization in western Vietnam. I might even get to go to Vietnam! Hopefully the adventures are just starting. Stay tuned...

New Zealand Part 4, North Island

2008-12-28T18:02:00.010+11:00

Day 11 - Christchurch to Rotorua
We arrived in the North Island on Christmas Eve, and were greeted by rain and crowds. Although after 10 days in the extremely sparsely populated south, more than 5 people in one place starts to feel like a crowd. We picked up the rental car, did some grocery shopping, and headed south east, to Rotorua.

The drive there was nothing special except that it's surprising how well New Zealand's road system works. The major roads are all two lane highways, and you'd imagine constantly getting stuck behind a really smelly truck. Or a beat up old tractor. And sure enough, you encounter some of both on the road, but right when you're about to get impatient, you also encounter a passing lane. Even with all the people on the road on Christmas Eve, we never got stuck in a jam. Let me remind you that I live in LA. Vive la difference!

At Rotorua, we checked into the Hideaway Motel, in Ngongotaha. Just off the main road, it was a very mellow little place that had a kitchen, which would let us hole up and not worry about everything closing down for Christmas. It turns out it also had very nice grounds, complete with two alpacas (the brown one was named Cinnamon), a cow named Scrumptious, a pig named Delicious, three sheep, a lamb, a grumpy ram all alone in his paddock, a miniature horse named Mist and her baby named Summer, and two Dalmatians, Tessa and Chloe. Quite the menagerie. And for those who think miniature horses are cute, let me just say that baby ones are painfully so. Summer either ran around the yard frolicking, or lay down completely sacked out, next to the dalmatians who liked to soak up the sun. So cute.

We cooked ourselves a nice Christmas Eve dinner, which sadly did not include shrimp. They leave the heads and limbs on the shrimp here, and that's just too much reality for me. But it did include the bottle of bubbly we had bought at Cloudy Bay, the Pelorus nonvintage. Yumm. Then we headed into town and took advantage of Rotorua's location in a geothermal hotspot by soaking in some hot pools overlooking the lake. It was late enough that the pools weren't crowded, and it was wonderfully relaxing. The only problem was the sulfur content was quite high, and when we got home, we smelled pretty terrible of rotten eggs.

Day 12 - Rotorua
By this point in the trip we were grateful for the excuse to stay 2 nights in the same place. We did well at unpacking and repacking the car every day, but still, the routine gets wearing. So we took in easy Christmas morning. We did go for a drive, thinking we might check out an area that has more "geothermal features", plus some interesting Maori cultural displays. But we were dissuaded by the steep admission fee, and the fact that the craft demonstrations were, not surprisingly, closed. So we drove out to Blue Lake and sat for a while admiring the scenery, before heading back and having a late lunch. Followed by a nap. Followed by a very late dinner, as it was the first time either of us had roasted lamb, and the oven was running way cooler than the temperature settings indicated. It was a very relaxing day, but it didn't really feel like Christmas at all. Just too sunny, and too far from home.

Day 13 - Rotorua to Turangi, via Napier
Even though we didn't get on the road until mid morning, it didn't take long at all to reach the shores of Lake Taupo, the big lake in the center of the island on whose shores we were going to stay that night. So after visiting a waterfall,

we headed east, driving through the beautiful Esk valley to reach Napier on the coast at Hawke's Bay. I was excited to see vines again (for those who are counting, this is NZ wine region #3!) and wanted to taste some wine, but all the vineyards were closed for boxing day.
So we wandered around Napier for a bit, admiring the art deco architecture (the town was flattened by an earthquake in 1931, and subsequently rebuilt). Then we headed back west, and south along Lake Taupo to Turangi, one of the trout fishing capitals of the world. It was a long way to drive, to wander along a beach. But we were well entertained by This American Life podcasts, and besides we were saving our energy for the next day.

Day 14 - Turangi to Tongariro Crossing

The main reason, at least in my head, for leaving the south island to head north, was to see volcanoes. And one of the nicest day hikes in all New Zealand, apparently, is the Tongariro Crossing, on which you see lots of them. So we deliberately planned this part of the trip to make sure we could fit in a hike. Little did we know, as with the rest of New Zealand, to really benefit, you need to allow a lot more time. They have a great system of huts in that national park, and the crossing can actually become a several day look. Oh well. We started at Mangatepopo, and hiked in along a long, gorgeous valley, slowly climbing with the active volcano, Mt Ngauruhoe shrouded in mist on our right. Once we read Soda Springs, the steep part started, but the trail is the most beautifully maintained work of art, I had to take photos. Rather than scrambling across the lava flows we were crossing, we were strolling up custom-built staircases, covered in gravel that had clearly been schlepped in. This country takes trail maintenance seriously.

My mom's knees are in bad shape, but she's tough, so she made it most of the way up to the south crater before stopping. I hiked on a little further, just enough to see that the south crater wasn't going to give us dramatic new vistas before turning around. We had lunch on the side of the volcano, who was feeling generous enough to let the mist lift and show her cone. Then we hiked back down, through the changing light, along a beautiful stream. It was a gorgeous hike, even if we didn't make it to the parts that show up on postcards.

We stayed the night at the Discovery Lodge, near Whakapapa Village. It was very cozy, and I can't say enough nice things about the owner Callum, who was working his butt off to make everyone comfortable. And since this is high season, everyone is a lot of people!

Day 15 - Tongariro Crossing to Auckland
We started the day with another hike, this one a loop out to Taranaki Falls. Also very beautiful, I'm running out of adjectives, so I'll save most of this for the photos. It was very sunny and clear, so we had a perfect view of the steam and smoke that Mt. Ngauruhoe (the volcano we spent yesterday hiking on) was putting out. Then we had a pleasant drive north to Auckland, through lots of farm land, eventually winding up at our bed and breakfast - the Nautical Nook.

New Zealand Part 3, the rest of the South Island

2008-12-25T15:00:00.014+11:00

The impact of this post will be largely lost, since I don't think my descriptive abilities are able to do justice to the things we've seen. But in the interest of staying up-to-date, and posting before I forget all the little details, here goes.

1) Nelson - Franz Josef
We left Nelson under cloudy skies, and headed south, past the neat little town of Murchison, and west through the Buller gorge. The river that forms the gorge is beautiful, and the steep sides are covered in gorgeous forest, only some of it planted. (They practice aggressive tree cultivation here, and it's very weird to see a whole hillside of mature pines, marching along in perfect rows.) Eventually, we hit the rain, and knew we had arrived on the west coast. They were forecasting 5 inches that day, and I'm pretty sure we saw in all fall through the windshield of the car.

Nevertheless, the coast there is very wild and beautiful. We passed lots of large braided rivers, and a very few small towns. We stopped for lunch in Hokitika, which is known for its jade and jade carvers. My mom bought a gorgeous pendant, and we saw lots of beautiful carvings. But you know me, I was most pleased about the yummy deli and cheese shop we stopped in for lunch, which seemed to be run by someone who truly appreciates food. They had a very pretty not-so-little refrigerated cheese room, and I got to spend a pleasant half-hour tasting and talking about New Zealand cheeses.

Eventually, we made it to the town of Franz Josef, which is positioned as it is because of the glacier of the same name. By the time we got there though, we were tired and wet, and so we holed up in our little room at Glow Worm Cottages, enjoying the free soup, and listening to it continue to pour outside.

2) Franz Josef - Queenstown
We braved the rain long enough to see the glacier in the distance. The downpour had actually tapered off to mere rain, and so we would see the ice flow spilling out of the valley mouth. Very cool. Then we soldiered on, turning off the coast at Haast, and heading east, past the northern edge of Lake Wanaka. That was when the countryside opened out, into vast vistas of steep hillsides and large glaciated lakes, and I fell in love. My mom loves the forests, but I likes me a VIEW! And what a view it was. I had a very hard time keeping my eyes on the road, and not staring around us constantly. The rain changed to a light drizzle interspersed with moody clouds, and the whole scene was very atmospheric.

Since we weren't certain yet if we were going to tackle the drive to Milford Sound the following day, we passed Wanaka by and pushed on to Queenstown. In the process, we passed through another wine growing region. This one is at the 45th parallel! We didn't stop, but I imagine their location makes for some very interesting wines. It's also very picturesque, with every row of vines capped off by a beautiful bush covered in dark red roses.

We stayed the night at the Queenstown YHA, which is huge, but wonderful. The big kitchen is very well set-up, and has a nice view of the lake. And people of all ages, sizes and colors all make themselves very comfortable. I loved the feeling there. My mom and I passed up the chance to make ourselves dinner in favor of a very yummy Thai place, and then wandered around the town a bit. The sky stayed light until well after ten, but it was quite cold. Nevertheless, I loved the lakefront, which has been very nicely landscaped, and the town, which is much more Scandinavian in aesthetic than your typical American ski town. (Queenstown is definitely a ski town.) There were also some very nice buildings that mixed old stonework with new construction, and I had a great time peering in the windows of the candle-lit restaurants, fantisizing about what I would do if I ran the place.

3) Queenstown - Wanaka
By this point, we were more than ready to have some time out of the car, so we scrapped plans to spend 12 hours driving to Milford Sound and back (which would also have necessitated two more 8-hour driving days afterward to get back to Christchurch in time). Instead, we decided to treat ourselves to a flightseeing trip to Milford, and we heard the best one left from Wanaka. Besides, our guidebook described Wanaka as "almost unfeasibly pleasant", which sounded just fine to me.

The weather had cleared as well, so we were treated to more of the wonderful, golden, syrupy sunshine. We got to Wanaka mid-morning and had a nice wander about the crafts fair that was on on the village green. Then we ate our sandwiches which watching the paragliders take off behind a boat, and circle in to land. They seemed to be fairly expert at it, certainly enough to avoid the cricketers, thereby ensuring peace was maintained.

Eventually, we decided to go for a walk, and so we headed west along the lake, to a sheep station that lets you tramp across their fields. We were headed for a secluded beach, but once on the trail we decided we weren't quite ambitious enough to hike all the way there, so we spent some time on a gorgeous hilltop, staring over the lake and marveling.

By the time we got back to the car, it was already six pm, and we realized how misleading the sunshine can be. It was the solstice, and the sun didn't set that night until 9:50. So we missed the office hours at the hostel, but still were given a warm welcome at Wanaka Backpaka. The kitchen was quite busy, filled with a mixture of young Germans, French, and Israelis, preparing for the first night of Chanukah. So we chilled out, and eventually made ourselves a nice meal which we ate, again overlooking the gorgeous lake.

4) Wanaka - Lake Tekapo (with a stop in Milford Sound)
I can't express the wonder and the luck. The west coast of the south island gets an absurd amount of rain. On average, 15 feet a year. So you can imagine, sunny days aren't so common. But somehow, we got one of them. And we profited!

We took a flight with Aspiring Air, which flies the 8-seat Britain-Norman Islander. Our pilot Kyle took us out along the western edge of Lake Wanaka, over the trail we'd hiked the day before, past Mount Aspiring,

where we caught sight of two hardy ice climbers, over newly snow-dusted mountains (all that rain, when it's cold, turns to snow), over glaciers,

and out along the coast before turning and flying straight up Milford Sound. Wow. I can't begin to explain the wonder...

We landed in Milford, and walked over to the ferry terminal, where we hopped on the Sovereign, for a cruise along the sound.

When we finally returned to Wanaka, by a more direct, but equally fantastic-when-viewed-from-the-air route, our minds were so blown we didn't want to move. So we headed back to Wanaka and sat by the lake to absorb more of the gorgeous sunshine. Eventually though, we had to press on, which nearly broke both our hearts. Wanaka is definitely a place to come back to.

We headed north along route 8, through more gorgeous countryside which slowly changed from the steep hills and sweeping panoramas we'd been in to something flatter, browner and more tussocky. We were now in the Mackenzie. After a short detour through the town of Twizel, thinking we'd see a lake or a mountain, or something, only to be disappointed, we pressed on. (In Twizel, there really is no there, there, and the streets all run in a circle, meaning that there's not even a corner for the locals 'hoodlums' to loiter on!) Then all of a sudden, there's Lake Pukaki, which is the exact color you'd get if you somehow filled a well-chlorinated swimming pool with corn starch. Bright, turquoise blue milk. It's wild.

Shortly after, we made it to Lake Tekapo, which is similarly colorful, and set into lovely hills. We stayed the night at the very cozy Lake Tekapo YHA, making it our third night eating dinner overlooking a gorgeous lake. I enjoyed watching a Dutch-Israeli couple light Chanukah candles as the sun set. Clearly a new couple, they nevertheless knew not only the same prayers but also the same songs, which I guess is kind of the point of organized religion. All I know is that they had whittled down three utility candles (the kind you keep for when the power goes out), found a nice flat river stone to use as a menorah, and were forever going to be hard-pressed to match the picturesqueness of their first Chanukah together.

5) Lake Tekapo - Christchurch
We really weren't in any hurry to leave. In fact, even as I write this, I'm fighting the urge to head straight back. We wandered around the town of Tekapo (not much more to it than Twizel, but much more charming) and then drove out along the lake. The "beach pixie" was feeling generous, and gave us a gorgeous little rocky beach to chillax on for a few hours. My scientist mom and I have been enjoying taking turns reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything aloud to one another, and that afternoon we got through his very entertaining section on plate tectonics. (Ok, that may not sound fun to you, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.) Then, with much reluctance and dragging of feet we headed north and east, back to Christchurch. As we did, we passed a lot of traffic headed south, as the wave of holiday-makers from Auckland finally made it that far south, towing trailers and boats and all manner of fun accoutrements, as if to rub it in that we were going the wrong way. But our bags were packed, we were ready to go, and we were leaving on a jetplane. It was time to discover the north island!

Dolphins!

2008-12-20T20:38:00.004+11:00

f On the morning of the 17th, we went for a swim in Marlborough Sounds. With a pod of wild bottlenose dolphins. We had booked with Dolphin Watch Ecotours, thinking that the water in Picton would be clearer than elsewhere. Since we drove through Kaikoura in gale-force winds, I think we might have been right. I can't recommend their operation enough. Really low-key, not putting us through the tourist mill, they respect the fact that these are wild animals and it's our privilege to visit with them. They even offset their carbon output through a local landowner - they pointed out the acreage that's tree'd over for them as we cruised by, looking for dolphins. Turns out the dolphins were a bit elusive that day, so we got a very nice cruise of the Malborough Sounds while we looked. We saw a small colony of Australasia Gannets, and some gorgeous coastline before another tour operator gave a courtesy call that the dolphins had been spotted. Once we caught up with the pod (they were moving fast!), we watched them for a while, seeing them play in the bow wave and wake of the boat, and making sure there were no calves, or other reasons we couldn't attempt a swim.

Next thing I know, they've scooted us, dressed in wet suits, fins, snorkles and masks, into the water and told us to swim, sing, twirl, and do whatever to make a spectacle of ourselves so that the dolphins will come investigate and interact. The first time around I just saw a couple of vague shapes passing below me far too fast, and then we were called back to the boat as the pod had left us in the dust. The boat picked us up, caught up to the pod, cruised with them a bit, and dropped us off again. We tried twice more, with better success. The second time, a dolphin poo'd right in my face - three times! The third time, one of them let us swim after him a it before he got bored and scooted off.

It was an amazing experience. When we got back to Picton, we stopped for lunch on the water front, and sampled the area's green-shelled mussels, which were very yummy.

Then we headed west, through the orchards and past Nelson, towards Golden Bay. The sun came our ast we headed "over the hill" to the town of Takaka, which is a very nice bohemian / artist's colony that reminded me of Inverness, near Point Reyes. We stayed at the very comfortable Annie's Nirvana Backpackers, under the care of Miyuki and Alan. The next day we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and stay in the area. We headed to the springs at PuPu, which despite the name have the clearest water in the world!Then we continued north along the point of land known as Farewell Spit, to a gorgeous beach at Wharariki. The sand was some of the softest I've ever felt, and I very much enjoyed it. Until we started looking for a spot out of the wind to have lunch, and discovered that a bunch of very lazy sea lions had taken all of the sheltered sunny spots. At which point the sand became a very unwelcome addition to my crackers and cheese.

Eventually, we had to hit the road again, and headed for the unremarkable Honeysuckle House in Nelson. We were really sad to leave the area though. The quality of the sunlight was amazing. Since there's no ozone layer, it's really far south, and it's almost the summer solstice, the sun feels like honey, and doesn't set until 9:30 at night!

New Zealand Part 1, or how I made it to my 4th wine region in 3 months

2008-12-16T19:01:00.005+11:00

Arrived in Auckland late afternoon on Sunday. Had to schlep through immigration, clear customs, and then haul ass over to the domestic terminal, but eventually I made it, and met up with my mom. We then headed to Christchurch.

We stayed the first night at a very nice B&B in an old converted brewery, which sadly didn't smell at all like beer. The next morning we ran errands and then drove north along the east coast, past Kaikora to Blenheim. In Blenheim we holed up at the very comfortable Honi B backpackers. It was raining, and the town basically seemed to wash away. We wound up eating at McDonalds, as that was the only thing open!

The next morning, we got moving fairly early, and drove out of town into the wine region of Marlborough. We tasted first at Cloudy Bay, which has a beautiful tasting room (not surprising, given they're owned by LVMH), and a very yummy sparkling, and Pinot Noir. Then we went down the road, past some gorgeous cherry orchards, to Huia. There we had a very nice tasting with a woman who it turns out is from just south of Montreal. It's a very small world.

Around noon we headed north to Picton, where we found a spot to stay at Bayview Backpackers, which is very cozy and comfortable. We spent the afternoon driving a loop along the Malborough Sounds from Picton north and then east to Ratangi. We passed 1 car in the 2 hours we were on the road. But every few minutes we'd turn a corner and discovered yet another gorgeous little bay, with the most fantastically turquoise water, and a view down the coast that takes your breath away. And yet no one lives there, except sheep. No wonder New Zealand lamb tastes so good. If happy cows come from California, then happy lamb is from NZ.

Gone, baby gone

2008-12-16T18:46:00.009+11:00

Australia is no more. I'm a hell of a lot more sad about that than I expected. I've been trying not to take it out on my mom that she's not all the awesome people and fun I had in my three months there rolled into one human. Because she really is awesome. But I really am sad.

Anyway, things got hectic at the end, so I have a lot to catch up on. Sadly, most of the photo uploading will have to wait until I'm not on an internet connection that charges by the megabyte.

1) Blue Mountains
Way before I left, yes a whole two weeks ago, Benedetta, Anne, Liam and I rented a car and headed to the Blue Mountains for the day. We saw the famous Three Sisters, had lunch in Katoomba, and then drove way too long to get to the caves at Jenolan. The caves were really very cool though, so I was pleased, although that was right when my camera died. I also finally got the chance to drive on the left! Then we headed back to Sydney, where I kept getting lost trying to get home. It turns out the hardest part of driving on the left is not staying on the road. It's trying not to take the reversal too far, so that instead of reaching for the windshield wipers when you want the turn signal, now you reach for the turn signal looking for the windshield wipers. Or instead of making a right turn, you head left.

2) Beer Pong #1
Ian Lilley introduced the Aussies to beirut. (Not sure if that's supposed to be capitalized or not, but I'm going with not, to distinguish it from the city in Lebanon.) The first time he tried was during the middle of finals, and not enough people showed up, leaving him with way too much beer. Which is perhaps how he wound up like this:

Casey tried to help him out, which is how he wound up like this:

And I stayed sober, but joined them for my second attempt at Mexican in Sydney, which is how I wound up like this:

3) Finals
They're done now. Enough said.

4) Beer pong #2
The second attempt at bringing beirut to the AGSM was scheduled for after most finals, and went much better. An enormous amount of beer was drunk, and even I played. I actually carried my weight too! Although I think my team named itself the politically/historically incorrect "Chinese Water Torture" because it took us so long to win a game.

5) End of session party
Kerri organized a fabulous party, and gave us the excuse to dress up. It must have had a good effect, because at last count I saw Eric hugging every single person at the party, with Gabriel following behind giving every guy a kiss. The reactions to that last were pretty funny - turns out some guys aren't so chill about getting random kisses. Or maybe they were just worried we were a little too close to Oxford Street? We did head over there after the bar we were at closed, but we weren't gay enough to get into the place that had good music. So we wandered up and down, realizing that the group was too big / too straight / too drunk to get in anywhere, and gradually losing momentum. Oh well. My only regret is there are a bunch of awesome people I didn't get to say a proper goodbye to.

6) Final night out in Kings Cross
I had only been out once in the famously seedy Kings Cross, so I was game. Especially since I was promised one of the hippest clubs in Sydney, with good music. We never quite made it there, but Kerri and I had fun drinking really good margaritas at a taco shop, and we did try to dance to the weird trance that was playing upstairs at Bourbon. Eventually though, the bizarre fake blood-spattered teddy bears the club promoters had wired to the walls started creeping me out, and the stupidly high heels started hurting my feet, so I called it a night and went home to pack. Or tried. This is where I complain about how completely idiotic Sydney taxis are. They drive around empty, acting too cool to take a fare, while scantily-clad clubbers risk life and limb walking out into traffic trying to slow them down enough to jump in. It's beyond strange, and endlessly frustrating.

So that gets us up to date on the end of my time in Sydney. I'm probably spending too much time being snarky to accurately convey how awesome I found it. Not that the snark isn't warranted. But I also had a blast.

Bias of Bowls

2008-12-10T16:14:00.005+11:00

I don't like having to study for finals. Having to focus is the hardest part. And I don't like endings.

Yesterday we had a barbecue at the Clovelly Bowling Club, which is right on the edge of the ocean, between Coogee and Bondi. I'd spotted in back in September, when we did the walk from our hood up to Bondi. At the time, we thought how nice it would be to organize a barbecue and bowl there. All of a sudden, a few weeks ago I realized we'd run out of time! So it wound up being in honor of Benedetta's departure, since she headed back immediately after her last final, to make her graduation from Bocconi.

It was a magical afternoon. The sun was strong, the company was good, and I actually sort of got the hang of this lawn bowling thing. Or at least enough to stop my balls from winding up in our neighbors' lane. The balls are flattened on two sides, weighted on one, and have a very interesting curving trajectory (the bias). For a very thorough discussion of the sport, check out Wikipedia. However, I'd guess that very few bowling clubs had the view we had. I'd share photos, but my camera has decided to die.

"Lens failure, restart camera" is not a promising sign, particularly not just before a trip to New Zealand. So finding a camera repair has been added to my list of things to do before leaving. Meanwhile, the weather has turned lousy, I have a take home final to finish, Casey and Carolina have also taken off, and I am distinctly glum.

Which probably explains why I am particularly susceptible to music right now. I've been addicted to the new album by Kings of Leon for a while. But today, all I want to hear, on repeat is this:

More than that, I want to be the weird curly haired guy, and stand somewhere poetic, moreosely waving a red flag. He makes it look like fun. But then anything would, compared to finals.

Finals

2008-12-08T16:31:00.005+11:00

One class done, two to go. I am tired of school, and wishing for vacation. In the meantime, coffee, as interpreted by the yummy place near my house:

And the winners are...

2008-12-06T19:57:00.009+11:00

We had our last wine night on Thursday, featuring the winner from each week. Up to now, we'd been tasting one varietal per week, so it was a nice change to try a range of different wines. We also got ambitious, and paired almost every wine with some food. It was a lot of fun to cook with Kerri and Courtney. And it was even more fun to sit around with everyone and eat, drink and be merry. I'm going to miss our crew here when I leave.

We started with champagne:
Yarra Burn Sparkling Pinot Noir / Chardonnay, paired with fruit and cheese

Next we had Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Riesling, paired with my friend Malina's white bean dip and home made pita chips. As always, it was a hit, so big shout out to Malina.

Then came the West Cape Howe Sauvignon Blanc for which Courtney made yummy asparagus, prosciutto and smoked gouda rolls. This was when we learned two things: 1) Australia sells neither Pillsbury cresent rolls nor phyllo dough. 2) don't leave the oven on broil by accident.

Wirra Wirra "Scrubby Rise" Chardonnay got paired with what would normally have been phyllo dough pizettas with tomato, havarti and olives. We used puff pastry as the dough instead, which made things interesting.

Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir was so damn good, I have to retract my statement that I don't like pinot. Maybe it was the food, maybe it was the wine that had preceeded it, but mostly, I think that's just a damn good wine. That one got put with Courtney's spicy chicken and jalepeno dip.

The Cover Drive Cabernet Sauvignon went with spicy meatballs. We put Benedetta in charge of making the sauce, but it was a hard sell convincing an Italian to ruin a perfectly good tomato sauce with cumin and tabasco. In the end, though, we'd convinced her it was worth it, and the meatballs turned out well.

Elderton Shiraz went with water. At this point we all needed a little break.

d'Arry's Original Shiraz Grenache. At Casey's suggestion we served this with dark chocolate. Yumm.

I threw in a bottle of sparkling desert with to cap off the evening. I had bought the Peterson House Sparkling Botrytus Semillon when we were up it Hunter Valley. Definitely part of Australia's fascination with making all sorts of strange sparkling wines. But it was sweet and yummy, and went really nicely with the bruscetta with blue cheese and honey that Kerri made.
So that was our all-stars evening. Definitely a good note to end on. I hope that someday I had the chance to do something like our wine club again.

Lessons learned

2008-12-05T16:43:00.003+11:00

Christmas in the southern hemisphere just doesn't mean the same thing...

As my time in Sydney comes to an end, I want to share a few of the things I've been thinking about.

1) The U.S. plays a massively disproportionate role in global affairs.
I went out to dinner the night that the election results were announced, and people were stopping me to offer congratulations. This is only one of the many, many small and not-so-small things that have emphasized how very much attention everyone is paying to the U.S. It's a bit shocking to experience. It's also flattering as hell. I have to admit, this is one of the times in my life when I've felt most patriotic. Particularly following the biotech conference I attended in Melbourne. Let's just say that Australia has a lot to learn about the biotech industry. And they can learn it from US. I'm starting to understand in a way I never had before, just how much we have to offer in terms of innovation, drive, dynamism, and the success that can result from them.

2) The U.S. is frighteningly unaware for how quickly the rest of the world is catching up.
I've read The World Is Flat (most of it). I read the New York Times (sometimes). I've been hearing rumblings for years about how we are overly complacent, how Japanese thirdgraders can outperform our college graduates on everything including the memorization of high value three letter words for Scrabble and the ability to avoid credit card debt. And yet my time here, at this particular moment in history, has brought this home, all too vividly, and all too urgently. There are a lot of frighteningly smart people in school here, from all over the world. And they aren't looking for jobs in the States. Not even the Americans.

3) I am not 19.
That's how old I was when I lived in Paris. I guess I thought the experience here would be a lot more similar. Never mind that it's sunny here, and there's less dog poo on the sidewalk, and people speak English (sort of). My time in Sydney has provided a glimpse into how much the way I experience the world now is different from before.

When I was 5 or so, someone taught me about the idea of your Champagne Birthday. Most of you call them your Golden Birthday. It's the year you turn the age of the day of the month you were born on. So from that time on, I was looking forward to my 19th birthday. And then it came. And went. Life was good, but for years part of me has wondered if that was it. I hadn't found new milestones to look towards. Had I peaked at 19? Somehow, having this experience that brought back some of the images of being 19 so vividly, and then gave me something to compare those to, has been immensely satisfying. It's allowed me to realize how much I like where I am now.

I think I'm mellowing with age.

Endings

2008-11-30T20:54:00.002+11:00

My roommates seem to have successfully rented out my room already. I guess I really am leaving soon, and now, I guess I have to go! Departure for New Zealand in 14 days!

Thanksgiving with the Expats

2008-11-30T20:42:00.004+11:00

In an effort to celebrate Thanksgiving at the right time, we waited until Friday, when we could sit down at the table at the same time, in absolute time (whatever that is), as our loved ones back home. Actually, no one here had Thursday off.

Tyler, a full-timer at AGSM and his girl Melody helped to plan. Here is an excerpt of the invitation:

Dear Friends of America,

Every year, millions of our countrymen give thanks for the day the baby Moses descended from heaven and presented Abraham Lincoln, leader of the Pilgrims, with a magnificent tryptophan laden bird, the Turkey, so that he might tranquilize the Indians and their leader, the she-devil Pocahontas, and capture Plymouth Rock. Once again, the time has come to celebrate and remember the cranberry sauce spilled by our forefathers at the first thanksgiving…

Where:

Elise and Antonio’s house. Narrabeen- 195 Ocean Street. It’s on the beach, so bring your floaties.

We dutifully packed our swimmers, rented a car, and headed up to Narrabeen.

View Larger Map

Elise and Antonio were wonderful hosts, despite having suffered earlier drama involving a broken oven. On the one hand, Australian oven repairers don't quite understand the drama of having a broken oven on Thanksgiving. ("Thankswhat?") On the other hand, you can actually reach an oven repairman on Thanksgiving, and have a prayer of having a new one delivered.

Anyway, the turkey came out fine, everyone brought yummy food, and LOTS of wine, and all was very merry. I brought asparagus, because it's plentiful here this spring, and my mom's spinach and artichoke heart casserole, which I finally realized is really fancied-up creamed spinach. I especially liked having the chance to take a walk on the beach, with Harvey, Tyler and Melody's black lab puppy (full grown, but still a puppy). I saw Orion upside down, and the coastline stretching towards Sydney, and I marveled at how here it was, Thanksgiving, and I wasn't freezing.

Big travel oops

2008-11-26T20:25:00.002+11:00

It turns out the super early morning flight from Cairns to Sydney originates in Japan. Which means that it passes through the international terminal. Which means that at six AM, when it's already over 90 and so humid that your cardboard boarding pass would go limp, if you had one, but you don't, because you showed up at the domestic terminal, you have to run the half mile between terminals, with your luggage, hoping you run fast enough they don't close the flight before you get there. It also means that for the first time since you arrived in Australia, someone asks to see ID before you board the flight. It further means upon reaching Sydney you will clear customs with all the Japanese tourists, and therefore you need real ID, like a passport. Which you left in Sydney, thinking you were so smart not to risk having your passport stolen while staying at a sketchy hostel, or having your passport drown when you are forced to abandon ship on the reef due to a grease fire set by an over enthusiastic apprentice cook. Or some idiot who feels the need to burn incense in their tiny shoebox of a bunk. Or any number of other immensely logical reasons you came up with to leave your passport at home.

What it really means is that there was no reason to get up at the crack of dawn. No reason to skip the last dive of the trip, the one where you finally made it to the best dive site. Which you did because you were concerned the nitrogen you'd built up in your tissues over the last days wouldn't have time to escape before your uber early flight, and then you'd ascend to 30,000 feet and either inflate like a balloon, or worse explode.

Mostly, what it means is that the group meetings that you had promised to attend, the ones you had structured your trip around, are going to have to do without you. While you sit, for seven hours, in the domestic terminal waiting for the next flight to Sydney.

Found: Nemo

2008-11-26T12:40:00.007+11:00

Let me start by saying that I like diving. A lot. Once I got over the shear panic induced by the thought of swimming under 60 feet of water with a perfect stranger and no clue of where I was going or how to avoid getting lost, then running out of air and drowning, I even realized I like diving without an instructor! It's so peaceful and easy. Unless you're fairly shallow and don't have enough weight, in which case you get sucked up to the surface and can't get back down no matter how hard you swim. So you have to float there like an idiot and watch your buddy seeing all sorts of cool things from up close while you barely catch a glimpse, until finally he clues in that you're missing and comes up to tow you back down. Then it's a pain.

The rest of the time, the feeling of weightlessness is wonderful. So wonderful that on my last dive I spent an extra five minutes hanging out at the decompression stage, turning somersaults and photographing the surface. This was only a problem because my buddy, at that point the newly fully-certified Benedetta, had motioned that she was ready to go up, and then surfaced. She thought I had agreed to be right behind her, and I thought I had agreed she should go up, and I would hang out. Suffice it to say she had started to grow concerned. Communication is definitely harder under water.

Let me back up: Last Tuesday, Benedetta, Sara and I flew to Cairns, in Queensland. We hung out at the hostel and crashed early. It was too damn hot and humid to do anything else. The next morning, armed with B's Italian Lonely Planet we found an amazing breakfast spot. Very good eggs, salads and juices, and an even better vibe. If you're even in Cairns, I highly recommend a visit. Not that there's so much else to do there. The best thing about our day in Cairns was getting to hang out with Dan and Goldie, who were passing through on their way to Port Douglas. Cairns has taken an innovative approach to a central plaza. Appropriately for a city that's got an average annual temperature of 90, with 62% humidity, they've built a wonderful pool right on the ocean. Called the lagoon, it's irregularly shaped, shallow, and the perfect place to sit in the shade and talk. I was very impressed and the civic planning that went into it.

The next day, Sara, Benedetta and I woke up early and got a ride to the harbor, where we met up with the rest of the group that had signed up for this dive trip through Pro Dive. All told, there were about 30 of us, plus 6 crew: Ben (skipper), Arek (Divemaster), Lucy (awesome cook), Aaron (taught the English speaking dive course), Chris (taught the advanced dive course), and Sue (taught the German speaking dive course). We were quite the mixed group - a bunch of Germans, a nearly-equal number of Danes, a couple from Poland, a Frenchman, an Austrian, a couple Canadians... The interesting thing was that it helped to uncover how many unexpected languages people speak.

After a fairly smooth three hour boat ride to the Outer Great Barrier Reef, we anchored on Milln Reef. And quickly started diving! The first day we did four dives on two parts of that reef, one at night! Chris borrowed our rented underwater camera to get a great shot of a little shrimpy thing - you can see its antennas pointing down at the right edge of the photo.

The following day we did another four dives on two more dive spots, although I skipped the last one, since my ears were hurting following some exaggerated descents while I was having trouble with my buoyancy control. By that point we had moved over to another reef nearby, and the diving just kept getting better! Definitely, a once in a lifetime experience.

Turtle eating jellyfish:

Hunter Valley

2008-11-17T22:14:00.017+11:00

This weekend, a group of us (much, but not all of the wine club) made it to Hunter Valley, which is the wine growing region near Sydney. We drove up Saturday morning and came back mid-day on Sunday, which provided a brief break from the city during which I tried not to obsess about how much I have to do. It's getting to crunch time as the term ends, and I am not so happy to be reminded, emphatically, that I am actually here to study.

On Saturday we stopped at the following wineries:
1) Ernest Hill - this was the first place I tried a wine made from a hybrid grape called Chambourcin that's very popular here.
2) Peacock Hill Vineryard
3) Calais Estate - we had a nice, but very slow lunch at their Veranda restaurant, and I had fun taking photos of their gorgeous purple tree,
their skyscapes,

and my friends.
4) I forget. A very nice lady served us, but I really forget. Oops. On the way there, we saw an amazing storm blow in over the vines.
5) Oakvale Wines

After the wineries closed, we headed to the town of Abermain, where we had found a reasonably priced hotel. The Abermain Hotel was quite a trip. The whole place seemed like it had been frozen in time since 1947, except for the people hanging out in the pub that took up most of the ground floor. They had made it to 1993 before time stopped. And/or they were just characters.

After much group indecision and confusion, including a brilliant moment of cross cultural aggravation when Anne was denied entrance to an 18+ venue for not carrying an official ID, for the second time this week, we made it to the town of Cessnock, where we had a fairly good, but VERY slow thai dinner.

Upon our return to the Abermain Hotel we hung out in the bar and listened to the Brazillian Brothers band play classics from the 80s and early 90s, and watching the scene. I was very excited by the fact that it seemed the locals had designated spots at the bar. José made a number of conquests, but sadly, was too choosy to decide between the guy in the half shirt and the woman who was so drunk she couldn't speak but kept trying.

The next morning, after a very yummy breakfast cooked by our hostess at the hotel, we headed out to find a chocolate tasting. Or a cheese tasting. Instead we found a number of very touristy shops, and some pretty good sparkling. Although I have to admit, I find the idea of sparkling red wine very strange, and I really can't get excited about trying to taste the difference between sparkling merlot, and sparkling cabernet sauvingnon. Perhaps I have become, after all this wine exposure, a snob? The strangest, but perhaps best, espcially if you've got a sweet tooth like mine, was the sparkling botrytis semillion. At that point it's really not wine, but rather sparkling alcoholic sugar water. Yum.

So that was my adventure in Hunter Valley. I'm exhausted and incredibly behind on work, but it was definitely worth it. If only to have the occasion to take this shot:

And here's the recap of all the photos, for those of you who are gluttons for punishment.

Wine Night 6 - Sparkling

2008-11-14T17:02:00.003+11:00

Yumm...

Kerri hosted us last night in her awesome apartment. We (I) got a little greedy with the champagnes, so we had 6 bottles to taste. Which would have been fine if the full complement of 12 had been able to make it. Unfortunately, a few people had to drop out, so we all had a lot of champagne. But it's sooo good! Anyway, it was lots of fun to taste a bunch of Australian sparkling wines, including, of all things, a sparkling shiraz. My favorite was the Yarra Burn 2006, followed closely by the Yarrabank 2001.

Afterwards, we went to the Royal for a drink, where we ran into some folks from AGSM. Turns out that a team from the class had won the Peter Farrell Cup that night, which is the business plan competition they have here. Many congrats to the wicked smaht braniacs behind FML Recruitment!

Koalas, cuddling of

2008-11-14T16:20:00.005+11:00

Benedetta, José and I went to the Koala Sanctuary in Pennant Hills on Wednesday. The sanctuary has a bunch of animals that are unique to this continent, including wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, and echidnas, but we really were interested in the koalas. And they sure are cute. Sadly, I didn't actually get to cuddle one, since apparently that stresses them out too much. I did get to pet one, while it was distracted by a nice juicy bunch of eucalyptus leaves.

I learned:
1) Koalas are not bears at all, so don't you dare call them that.
2) Koalas do not drink water under ordinary circumstances. They get all the moisture they need from the eucalyptus leaves they eat.
3) Contrary to popular belief, the eucalyptus leaves do not intoxicate the koalas. They just look stoned. But seriously, I have a hard time believing they aren't on something. They're so sleepy they fall asleep in the midst of reaching from one branch to the next.

This bird says, in an Australian accent, "hello dahling, wanna cracka?"

Weekend in Sydney (the next-to-next-to-last)

2008-11-10T12:39:00.007+11:00

No, I'm not headed out quite yet, but I am going to be doing some more traveling in the coming weeks. So I thought I'd make this weekend count. At the same time, I'm tired! I definitely needed some time to veg, and try to fight off the cold I can feel coming on.

These first photos are of the sunset at Coogee beach on Thursday night, when we had our combined barbecue and wine night.

On Friday I was a good girl and did some work, as well as numerous loads of laundry. Late night I made it out to the Abercrombie Hotel for Purple Sneakers. Interesting aspect of life in Sydney - almost none of the places called XYZ Hotel are actually hotels. Apparently, it's cheaper to get a liquor license if you are a hotel, presumably so that your drunken patrons have a place to pass out if necessary. However, you make more money if you use all your space to pack in people who are drinking, not sleeping. So in actuality Hotel = Bar. I've been told, however, that in order to maintain the status of hotel, they have to maintain at least one room that you could, theoretically, rent. My mission is clear: find these rooms. They have to be totally weird, and probably highly sketchy. Just my style. Anyway, it was fun checking out a new spot, and cool to be at a place that was playing music other than Justin Timberlake. Even if the vast majority of the crowd seemed to have been born in 1990.

On Saturday, Benedetta and I took the ferry over to Balmain, one of the suburbs in the Inner West. Again, interesting aspect of life in Sydney - there are places that it's much more convenient to get to by ferry. And also, they call their neighborhoods suburbs. I guess they're sort of like burroughs in NYC, as they have their own town councils, but they're generally a lot smaller. Anyway, Balmain used to be a center of ship building activity, and has a lot of cool old buildings. We wandered around the Saturday market there, and then had a coffee. Very nice.

On Sunday, I had brunch with the ladies who study abroad (Anne, Benedetta and Courtney). We went to Bills, which came highly recommended. But my experience was less than stellar, leading me once again to realize that when it comes to food, I'm just too damn American to adapt. Sunday night, a group of us went to Hugo's Lounge, which was my first trip to Kings Cross. It doesn't matter where you're from, you've gotta love $5 pizza and drinks. I liked the decor a lot, but the people watching was fantastic! Definitely a bunch of peacocks gathered to strut their stuff. Nicola and I danced for a bit, and then I went home and stayed up too late finishing the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. Nothing like a trashy teenage vampire love story to round out the weekend.

Liner Notes

2008-11-10T12:25:00.004+11:00

I made a mix for the MTC (Mix Tape Club) at Anderson. Kristin Ashcraft gets a huge shout out for being willing to burn and distribute the mix to the club. It's rather silly to try participating from this far away, but the MTC is one of the best parts about being at Anderson, and all the mixes that will be awaiting me are one of the things I'm most looking forward to about going back. Anyway, here's a copy of the liner notes, just in case you wanted to hear the soundtrack I've been listening to.

Evolution of an endless summer
This year was the first time in seven years I didn’t spend the summer in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, when I actually got to see the sun, this summer was also the time when I finally realized how much there is to like about LA. And just as I was starting to feel the end of summer approaching, I fled to Sydney, where instead of watching the leaves fall I’ve been sneezing all over myself as the jacaranda trees come into bloom. I had planned on making a mix of all the crazy Aussie music I’ve heard. But it turns out they listen to the exact same cheezypop we hear stateside. So instead I’m submitting a selection of the songs I’ve listened to during the sunniest six months of my life.

Ready or Not – Fugees
I was sitting in a bar in Melbourne two weekends ago and I thought I heard this song. It turns out wasn’t the same song at all, but something about the base note of that one made me think about the intro to this one, and I’ve had it on repeat ever since.

Girl and the Sea – The Presets
I had originally planned on putting this band’s other song, This Boys in Love on my mix, since that song is getting a ton of airplay here right now. But even though I like that song I’ve started to find it wearing. And since I’m hoping you’ll listen to this mix over and over, I had to switch it out. Besides, I find the imagery in this song a bit tragic, and as you’ll see, there’s definitely a melancholic theme running through this mix.

Mondo Bongo – Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
This guy sounds so much like Bob Dylan to me. If Bob Dylan decided not to sing quite so deep in his throat and actually enunciated. I was going to include some genuine Dylan [Lonesome Day Blues off Love and Theft has one of the world’s best indictments: “he’s not a gentleman at all, he’s rotten to the core, he’s a coward and he steals”] but then I caught a portion of Mr. & Mrs. Smith at a friend’s house the other day and decided to use this song instead. Besides, it plays behind a really sexy love scene, and who can’t use more of those in their life?

Manhattan – Kings of Leon
I had heard of the band, but hadn’t heard their music until I got here. I’ve literally been addicted to their album Only by the Night ever since. I wake up and the first thing I do is put it on, and all day it’s on my headphones. So I highly recommend checking it out. This is the first of the several songs on this mix which feature a whiny guy. But these are the kinds of tuneful, sexy, brooding whiners that you wouldn’t kick out of bed even if they did have terrible morning breath.

Electric Feel – MGMT
This song is on the radio all the time here. And since Kristin but one of their songs on her mix, I decided I could too. Check out the music video on YouTube. Pretty trippy.

I Feel It All – Feist
This song also has a very cool music video. I started listening to Feist at the beginning of the summer, and her album The Reminder is one I will always associate with summer ’08. Particularly because I saw her in concert at the Hollywood Bowl. That concert was not a highlight of the summer, but my trips to the Bowl were, as were the drives up to Malibu blasting this song.

The Worst Things Beautiful – Ours
Here’s another sexy whiner. One that sounds oddly like Bono. Ok, so this song is derivative, and the first time you hear it you may spend the entire song wondering which bands it sounds like most. But I turned on the radio to try and stay awake on my drive home from Anderson at 3 AM the night before my group’s business plan was due last spring, and it was the perfect song at the perfect time. I’ve listened to it many times since, since it too is great for the drive up the PCH.

Ça Plane Pour Moi – Plastic Bertrand
Yes, this song was used in a trailer for Gossip Girl. But it’s zany and weird and makes no sense even if you do understand French. Besides, it woke you up, didn’t it?

I Love to Move in Here – Moby
This is a good driving song. Since I usually listen to music mostly when I’m in the car, I have to include at least one.

Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley
I first heard this song, of all places, in the movie Shrek. It’s gorgeous, and sad, and that breath he takes at the beginning of the song is oddly effective. Buckley gets the award for king of the melancholic artsy-types on this album, since he may or may not have committed suicide, but definitely drowned in the Mississippi.

Fall at Your Feet (Acoustic) – James Blunt
Hopefully you’ll forgive me for including one of his songs since I didn’t use one that’s been played to death on the radio. But even if you don’t I’ll live. Happily ever after. With James Blunt. As long as he sings to me every day.

I Want You – Kings of Leon
I told you I was addicted to this album. Don’t think I didn’t think of just burning copies of their album for you as my “mix”. You can’t imagine how long it took me to weed it down to two songs. I particularly like the baseline of this one.

Hotel Song – Regina Spektor
Thank you Pandora. The first song of hers that I heard was in a mix I had seeded with Cat Power. I’m disappointed, but not surprised, that Kacy Qua scooped me with her, because she is really, really good. And her album Begin to Hope makes her sound like she’s your best friend, and standing in your living room in an old t-shirt and socks, singing and messing around on the piano as she waits for you to finish making her pancakes. She likes the ones that look like Mickey Mouse.

Bario Alto – Thievery Corporation
I had several Thievery Albums mixed in with my music, but I didn’t listen to them much. Until I decided they were a good excuse to go to the Hollywood Bowl at the beginning of the summer. I wound up with fantastic seats, even better weather, and my mind was officially blown. One advantage of living in LA, I discovered, is that the artists who are featured on an album also live there. And often they feel like dropping in and singing for the concert too.

Sweetest Girl – Wyclef Jean featuring Akon, Lil Wayne and Niia
I bought this album at the end of the school year last year, and this song in particular has gotten more than its share of plays ever since. Dollar, dollar bill, ya’ll!

Carry Me Away – Chris Lake featuring Emma Hewitt
I’m a terrible procrastinator. I can easily sit in front of my computer and get nothing done for hours at a time. So during finals when that became a particularly big problem, I would put this song on repeat and start cranking. It worked, and I still love the song. So I hope you’ll forgive the techno, because if this mix is the soundtrack to my summer, then this song goes on the cover.

Rosie’s Lullaby – Norah Jones
I thought I’d include one sexy melancholic female, just to round things out. This is my favorite song off Norah Jones’ latest album. I don’t like the album as much as her previous ones, but I still think if I ever find a magic lamp one of my wishes will be to sound like Norah Jones when I sing.

Too damn busy

2008-11-07T18:36:00.003+11:00

I had intended to post a nice long synopsis of my trip to Melbourne, but life has gotten hectic, and I realized that I owe you not only a travel update, but also an account of three wine nights and my scuba course. So:

1) Wine night, week 3 - Pinot Noir
I showed up late because I was caught in a group meeting. It turns out I actually do attend school here, although you probably had forgotten. Anyway, I didn't really like any of the wines, and REALLY didn't like the winner. I will post the winner soon, however, for the sake of the two of you who might actually care. The important part is mostly that I've figured out I don't like pinot. It tastes like stems to me.

2) Melbourne part I - Saturday 10/25 and Sunday 10/26
I had a fantastic weekend visiting Joyce, Dan and Rick who are all studying at Melbourne Business School. They picked me up from the airport and we drove out to Yarra Valley to go wine tasting. The first place we stopped was Punt Road, which had a beautiful view and very nice staff who let us sit outside and enjoy it while we tasted. I bought a bottle of the Chardonnay and one of the Botrytis Semillion desert wine, both of which are already gone. Yumm.

We also stopped at two more vineyards, where we met the very grumpy Bidelia, and played petanque. Finally, we stopped and had pizza at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander. That place is big and filled with awesome food, and I'm so sad that I was too full to try their cute little lemon tarts.

The next day, we got a slow start which included a disastrous attempt at breakfast. If you go to Melbourne, do not eat at University Cafe. It's the only time any of us had ever canceled an order and left before eating. But it was still fun, because I was surrounded my people like Joyce, who declared with her usual effervescence "sorry I'm so cranky", and then laughed. We've decided that Joyce's brand promise is classy, bubbly and smart, in other words "champagne with a brain". Anyway, we would have been better served if we hadn't eaten anyway, as we headed to St. Kilda for a barbeque with some of the MBS exchange students. Toni and Flavio hosted, and fed us an amazing assortment of yumminess. We all kinda failed in our job though, as none of us could eat more than 1.5 of the three deserts.

3) Melbourne part 2 - AusBiotech
The two days after that I spent in the Melbourne Convention Center, at AusBiotech. It was a Biotech conference. Nuff said. Except, perhaps, that the Australian biotechnology industry is still developing.

4) Wine night, week 4 - Riesling / Halloween
We celebrated Halloween with a special Friday edition of wine night. It was yummy. Notice my descriptions of the wine are getting shorter. I promise I will update with the winners as soon as Casey (the keeper of the master spreadsheet) gets back from his trip to the Melbourne Cup. Sara, Nicola and I went out to Argyle after (kidnapping Ian on the way) and danced our butts off. The most entertaining part of the night was watching Nicola getting hit on by a band of merry men. I'm impressed anyone was able to convince that many guys to wear green tights. But maybe there's safety in numbers. I REALLY have to get Sara's photos of that.

5) Scuba
I got certified. It was fun, and interesting, and far less scary than I imagined. But the certification process was kinda boring, and even though we did 4 dives, I didn't see anything that interesting under water. Partly because by the time it got to be Sunday morning and we were on our third day of scuba school I was so exhausted that I forgot to put in my contact lenses before heading to the dive site. So I was diving without being able to see much. Add to that the low visibility (5m), and I feel pretty confident I'm not going to surprise myself and freak out.

6) Wine night 5 - Cabernet
We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and had a bbq at Coogee Beach. José cooked some fabulous lamb on the 'barbie', and much fun was had until we figured out that the barbecues are on a timer and shut off at eight prompt. Which meant we wound up with a big plate of half-cooked sausages. But the wine we tasted was yummy across the board, so that was good. Now I know I like Cabernet better than Pinot Noir. See, I am learning something in Australia!

Gorgeousness

2008-10-29T14:43:00.005+11:00

I just got back from a weekend in Melbourne, kindly sponsored by AGSM. It turns out the PHarma and Biotech club (PHaB) is one of the most active here, and they needed a second representative to attend the AusBiotech conference for them.

More on my trip later. First, I've decided have to share something I've been thinking a lot about over the last few months. It will come as no surprise to most of you that I like nice things, and yummy food, and fun places to hang out. I mean I REALLY like them. I'm always thinking about them, talking about them, collecting information on them. Through all my many moves in the last five years I haven't been able to make myself throw out the massive box of magazine clippings and restaurant business cards I've been collecting. In fact, one of the best things about traveling for me is getting to see unusual things, eat different food, and discover new fun places to hang out.

I honestly get a rush when I go to a restaurant or bar or store that creates a cool atmosphere. My friend Elizabeth Merrit had her engagement party at The Park, in New York City several years ago, and I still remember how excited I got when I realized that the Japanese lanterns had been faux aged to look like they were wind-tattered. This weekend, my friends in Melbourne took us to a bar called Cookie, where there was no reason for me to get as jazzed as I did. But it was a bit dark, a bit crowded, a bit hip, and as I sat there over my glass of red wine (only one, lest you think it was all the alcohol), I was actually breathless. Which perhaps explains why I felt the need to blurt out to my friend Dan that, while I am interested in biotech, that's really not where my passion lies, dammit! Poor Dan.

All this is appropos of two things. First, I'm am at a crossroads in life (like always), and wondering how the hell to pull all the disparate pieces of myself together. Constructively. Second, my friend Karima has opened an online shop for Castle In The Air. Which rocks, and gives me the very same butterflies in my stomach. So I thought I would give her a shout out, and hope that some of you will browse the new store, and finally understand why I keep running back there even after all these years. And so that maybe you can share a tiny piece of the magic that keeps me going.

Arc en ciel

2008-10-23T14:55:00.004+11:00

The weather here has been crappy the last couple of days. After a beautiful weekend, we've had several rainy, cold days. Kind of typical November weather, for the northern hemisphere that is.

I've actually found it very disconcerting to live down under in this regard. Halloween is approaching - my body knows it should be fall. I constantly think I smell that typical fall smell of decomposing leaves and woodsmoke. It even feels like the days are getting shorter. And yet it's exactly the opposite. We just jumped forward an hour in the spring daylight savings change. So I really have no excuse for feeling as gloomy and sleepy (two sure signs that its fall) as I do.

Especially when I'm walking to school this morning and am greeted with this:
My camera wasn't quite up to it, but you can see a bit of the gorgeous full rainbow that greeted me as I walked to school in the rain, and finally looked up from my (wet) feet.

Weekend update

2008-10-21T14:51:00.004+11:00

This weekend, I did the following things:
1) Dove
2) Sat on the beach at Manly
3) Went to my first ever live basketball game, where we saw the Sydney Spirit play the South Dragons. Nicola's boyfriend plays for the Spirit, so we were rooting for the home team.
4) Explored a time corner of Chinatown. Casey and I were hungry after the game, so we went looking for dumplings. We didn't find dumplings, but we did stumble across a cool night market. Definitely need to go back.
5) Went back to Cargo. Danced, and had a great time.
6) Sat on the beach at Coogee
7) Had sushi at Sushi Suma with Anne
8) Wandered around Crown Street in Surry Hills which is absolutely adorable. I need to go back. First I need to win the lottery, so I can afford to eat at some of the yummy places I saw, which include a cafe called Coffee, Tea or Me.
9) Stopped in for a glass of wine at Mille Vini, which has one of the nicest atmospheres of any restaurant I've seen. And a really good tempranillo.
10) Sat on the beach at Bondi with Benedetta.

Over all, a very nice weekend, even if I didn't manage any of the "see Syndey" type things that are on my list. It was exactly the sort of time I wanted to have when I came here though. Time that lets me believe, for a short while, I really live in Sydney!

Diving

2008-10-21T14:17:00.005+11:00

Last Friday, I dragged Antonio up to Manly to do an introductory dive with me. (You should have heard the fuss he made about having to get up at 7am. Wimp.) It may surprise many of you who know what a big baby I am about things like the ocean, and drowning, and crossing bridges over the ocean during an earthquake and therefore drowning in my car... but I've been wanting to learn to dive for quite a while. Partly on the theory that if I could breathe and see underwater, I wouldn't feel quite as freaked out. I wanted to sign up for a PADI certification course straight away, but given that the likelihood that I would panic and hyperventilate upon entering the water was significantly more than zero, I decided perhaps an introductory dive might be prudent first.

Antonio and I took the ferry over to Manly beach, and then were picked up by Pro Dive. We sat through a brief intro and instruction session with Mike, our dive guru extraordinaire. We then crawled into many layers of neoprene [I pointedly did NOT break out the camera], and headed over to Shelley beach, where there's an aquatic reserve. After proving to Mike that we could a) kneel on the bottom b) take our regulators out of our mouths, drop them, get them back and clear them, we set off swimming.

I found it very hard to control my buoyancy. At one point I started floating higher and higher, and Mike had to tow me back down. And at another I wound up stuck on the bottom, with my tank on the ocean floor, and no way to turn around and no way to get up. Mike and Antonio just floated there laughing at me. Eventually, I realized that I could float higher by taking a deeper breath, and sink by breathing out extra. Which perhaps explains why I went through so damn much air in our forty minute dive. Very tricky...

Anyway, we saw a very friendly blue grouper, a shy cuttlefish, an octopus, numerous fish, and two sharks. I haven't been able to figure out what type they were, but they were long, narrow, sand camouflaged and lay very still on the bottom. Very cool!

So that was my introduction to diving. Other than nearly freezing my fingers off, it was fantastic. So I'm going to sign up for a class as soon as I get back from Melbourne this weekend. And hopefully plan a trip to the reef soon. I've heard it's cool.

Wine 2 - Chardonnay

2008-10-16T15:33:00.007+11:00

This week we tasted chardonnay. We were a little ambitious, and tasted 6 different wines. I woke up with quite the headache. Here is the selection:
1) Wirra Wirra Scrubby Rise McLaren Vale 2007 unwooded
2) Innocent Bystander 2007 (this wins the award for best label)
3) Clonale by Kooyong Mornington Peninsula 2007
4) Wither Hills Marlborough, New Zealand 2006
5) Fifth Leg Western Australia 2007
6) Frogmore Creek Tasmania 2006

Frogmore Creek is actually right next door to Meadowbank, which we visited in Tasmania. They apparently are the winemakers for a lot the vineyards in the area, but they also bottle their own wine. I don't know how much I like their wines though, since it was the sixth bottle we tasted, and by then my tastebuds were distinctly numb.

The winner was the Wirra Wirra. I don't think any of us like oaky chardonnays, which is interesting. There are an increasing number of unwooded ones coming on the market though, which is exciting to me.

Weekend in Sydney

2008-10-16T13:06:00.000+11:00

This weekend was nice, and mellow. I was fighting a cold, so after a big night on Friday, I took it easy. Friday I finally made it to Darling Harbour, and then on to The Rocks. We started with a drink at Cargo, which was a little too chichi, so we had dinner at Chinta Ria, and then drinks at Cruise Bar. I finally made it to The Argyle, which is a club in an old warehouse (much more historic and cool than the word warehouse usually conjures in the US). We ended the night with food at Pancakes on the Rocks, where the potato wedges were pretty disappointing.

I don't know why, but for once I wasn't tired at 10pm. It happens so rarely, I took full advantage. Of course then I pretty much spent the rest of the weekend sleeping.

I did find a very cute cafe on Sunday though, where I sat in the garden before heading to Bondi Beach.

Wine

2008-10-13T18:04:00.004+11:00

Order! Order! I would like to officially convene the first meeting of the first chapter of Sydney Wine Aficionados Living Life On Weekends (don't ask, Casey did the naming, and yes, it spells SWALLOW). Our charter is as follows:

Meet weekly
Drink of the wines of Australia and New Zealand
Enjoy
Learn something

Last Thursday was our first meeting. Ordinarily we will meet on Wednesday, but we had to wait for Anne to get back from Tasmania. We've decided to taste 1 varietal per week, in the hopes that I can finally begin to understand what a pinot noir tastes like versus, say, a shiraz. We're restricting ourselves to Australian and New Zealand wines because we're here. And Australia makes a hell of a lot of wine, so why not drink some of it?

The first meeting did not begin encouragingly. In class that day we learned that the average wine drinker can't tell the difference between white and red wine when blindfolded. And then the organizers (that includes me) showed up half an hour late.

But by the end of the night, after consuming the four bottles we had intended to taste, plus the extra I had brought for insurance, we were all very merry. Some of us too merry - it seems Antonio and Jose had their first brush with Australia's Reponsible Service of Alcohol legislation and got chucked out of a bar later that night. I just woke up with a headache, and really purple teeth.

Anyway, last week's we tasted Shiraz. We had:
Kirrihill Shiraz Clare Valley 2004
Ebenezer Shiraz Barossa Valley 2003
Elderton Shiraz Barossa Valley 2005
D'Arenberg "the Footbolt" Shiraz McLaren Vale 2005 (this wine was named after a horse, and smelled like feet)
The Elderton won. And it sure was yummy.

This week - Chardonnay! Any suggestions?

Tas Mania!!

2008-10-09T15:53:00.024+11:00

I had an amazing trip. Saw gorgeous countryside. Ate good food. Took too many photos. Didn't freeze too badly. Like I said - amazing.

First, the cast of characters:
Casey, Matt, Courtney and I from UCLA
Anne from Copenhagen
Antonio from Madrid
Benedetta from Milan
Jake from Dartmouth
John from Perth (and now at AGSM)
A big group, but a good one!

Day 1: Thursday We flew into Launceston on Thursday evening. Courtney, Matt and Anne went immediately on to Cradle Mountain, but the rest of us stayed and had a good meal in a pub called Three Steps on George. We started our journey through Tasmania's wines with a nice un-oaked chardonnay from Ninth Island. Then we crashed at Launceston Backpackers, which was really nice, except for John's snoring. And Antonio's annoying phone receiving text messages all night. I finally threw the phone at his head around 4am, telling him "deal with this". He did, by hitting reply, so for the next half hour we were treated to a flurry of beeps as his drunken friends replied.

Day 2: Launceston - Cradle Valley
At around 4:30am Casey and I gave up sleeping and set out for Cradle Mountain National Park. We drove through Deloraine, and then drove around a bit wasting time until a restaurant opened up so we could feed. We chose Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm, which was highly cute, and had a nice fire.

Then we passed through Sheffield and arrived at the Cosy Cabins in Cradle Valley by 9am, where we met up with Anne, Courtney and Matt who had headed up the night before. Too bad it was pouring the whole day. So we took short walks around Cradle Mountain Lodge. Then we took advantage of the lodge's swanky spa and boiled ourselves sitting in their outdoor hot tub overlooking the river. Not a bad life.

Afterwards, Casey and I had a nice wine a cheese tasting, continuing our tour through Tasmania's wines. I particularly liked the Wellington iced riesling paired with blue cheese. A very good combo. By the time we finished, the other 5 had shown up, so we played scrabble at the lodge, then went back to the cabin to cook pasta.

Day 3: Cradle Mountain
We were hell bent on getting into the national park and taking a hike. So even though the weather was kinda crappy, we set out to do a loop up to Marion's Lookout, then down the horse trail. For the first part, the hike was fine, although it would rain periodically. But as we got higher, the wind picked up, and the rain turned to sleet and then to snow.

Most of us were in jeans and sneakers. We did have windbreakers, but Courtney didn't even have that to cut the wind! As you can see, it got pretty intense.

But at the very end, even though I couldn't feel my feet for hours after, all was redeemed - we saw an honest to goodness platypus!!!! Very cool. Then later we went to a Tasmania Devil preserve. It seems there's a terrible facial tumor disease (there's something to worry about - contagious cancer) is attacking all the devils in the wild. Not cool, but the little devils sure are.

We ended the day back at Cradle Mountain Lodge, playing pool (with weird small yellow and red balls) and kicking Aussie butt at trivia. That is we were, until they asked us who coaches the Adelaide rugby team, and where the Australian Country Music Festival is held. But we still won some wine, which we drank so fast I don't even remember the name!

Day 4: Cradle Mountain - Maydena
We set out early the next morning. Four went Strahan (confusingly pronounced Strawn) for a ferry ride, and Antonio, Anne, Benedetta, Casey and I headed south as fast as possible - we were on a mission to taste wine. We passed through some incredible remote country, and the roads were very windy. You know you're not going to make fast time when they start announcing "straight road next 1km" instead of calling out the curvy parts. We didn't succeed in finding a winery that was open, but after 5 hours on the road we stopped at a picturesque salmon and trout hatchery and had Pancakes by the Pond. Then we spent the afternoon walking in the temperate rainforest and seeing waterfalls at Mt. Field National Park.

Something about the trees or the water or our failure to find wine to taste inspired us to start a wine club for while we're here. More on that later...

We stayed that night at Giants Table and Cottages, which was absolutely adorable. We had a fantastic pasta feast, and sat by the fire playing dominoes. We did not, however, see the platypus living in the pond.

Day 5: Maydena - Hobart
On Monday, the same five of us set out again, resolved to taste wine. The area of Tasmania we were in, the Coal River Valley produces a lot of pinot noir and dry riesling. Some of the pinot, and nearly all of the chardonnay produced there gets brought to Australia to be made into sparkling wines.

We started at Stefano Lubiano. They call tasting rooms here the 'cellar door', and I immediately understood why. We literally walked up to the door to the big building where they make their wine, and had the world's most informal tasting. The woman pouring knew next to nothing about the wines, but was very kind, and in the end we bought a very nice dry riesling and a couple bottles of pinot.

Then we headed to Meadowbank, which was in the Coal River Valley proper. It was much swankier, and so although we intended to have lunch at the restaurant there, we wound up just having few small plates to share.

Next we headed to Puddleduck Winery, where we met Polly and Bazil Brown, two very friendly Corgies. Finally, we hit up Coal Valley Winery, after which point we all decided what we really needed was a nap.

Hobart was beautiful. Set on the water, where the Derwent River joins the ocean, the town has lots of gorgeous old buildings. We wandered around for a bit, and then, tired of touristing, and cold again (Hobart is closer to Antartica that I generally like to be) we settled in for a sushi feed. The next morning we woke up frighteningly early again (4 am) and headed for the airport so I could be back in Sydney in time for class! Needless to say I was pretty useless, but at least I got my attendance points in.

So that was my trip to Tasmania. I can't pinpoint why I found it so fantastic, but I do know this - I've got the travel bug. So look for more trips coming in the next few weeks!

And she's off, part deux

2008-10-02T07:32:00.002+10:00

I haven't been posting much lately. Mostly because I haven't been doing much besides going to school. And I just can't find anything particularly interesting in that. Although to give a brief update, my final schedule now looks like this:
Monday - Marketing Strategy
Tuesday - Financial Statement Analysis
Wednesday - Business Ethics for 6 weeks, then Corporate Social Responsibility for 6 weeks
Thursday - Strategies for Growth

They're all pretty good classes, except when the Ethics prof starts lecturing. That's when I go back to sleep.

I have been having fun with Google Maps, so here's a link to a map of my life in Sydney. Not surprisingly you'll see many of the highlighted locations are restaurants I want to try. Check back for reviews.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=118183036205454805883.000457ac1b773dd35529d&ll=-33.857159,151.224747&spn=0.035781,0.076904&t=h&z=14

The exciting news is I'm headed to Tasmania today (I know, way to bury the lead). I'm going with 8 others from AGSM - 7 exchange and an awesome guy from Perth, who will hopefully keep us all from running off the road as we try to drive on the wrong side. I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have, so I'll start with another map of our itinerary.

View Larger Map

And here's a link to some photos of one of the waterfalls we're hoping to see. I'm including it as inspiration.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1414075

Race Day

2008-09-28T13:52:00.004+10:00

Going to the races was fun. We got dressed up, drank a bit too much champagne, and generally enjoyed the spectacle. The ladies in particular got very dressed up, and I saw lots of fancy frocks. Women also wear little frothy, feathery things in their hair, called fascinators. These are carefully selected to match the dress, but the most frightening part is that there were women who were wearing more on their heads than they were on their bodies! (Ok, slight exaggeration, but only slight - ladies here like very short dresses.) I was hoping to find a bit of the history behind the fashion, but all I got from Wikipedia was this.

The interesting thing to me was the number of bachelorette (hen) and bachelor parties there were at the races yesterday. Perhaps the brides and grooms to be are considered particularly lucky? Regardless, the crazy tiaras and veils that the brides-to-be often are made to wear didn't stand out nearly as much as they normally do.

Probably the funniest thing was stopping by the Royal (my local pub in Randwick) later that evening, and seeing the groups that had migrated there to continue drinking after the races. By nine pm, most of the fascinators had been transfered to the guys' heads, who were drunk enough not to mind.

Anyway, the focus of the day was clearly on the human spectacle, and not so much on the horses. This disappointed several of the women I was with, who have had good success in the past betting on the prettiest horses. Instead, most of us went with the horse's name for our picks, regardless of the odds. Which is why you see such a stash of unsuccessful bid slips in that cup. Anyway, hats (or rather fascinators) off to Casey, who tackeld the challenge of trying to teach us all how to bet. He's a very brave man.

After the races, we all walked back to Randwick Junction and devoured some Thai food. Overall, a very good Saturday. It's now Sunday, as I post this, and I'm going to get my butt out of school, where I came to use the internet, and off to the beach. Hugs to you all!

26/9/08

2008-09-26T13:48:00.004+10:00

Inverting the day and month when writing dates continues to require effort. I'm just too damn American.

I've been settling into my new apartment for the last couple days. The Italians haven't moved in yet, so I'm currently sharing with an Irish couple who are moving out tomorrow. The churn of the foreigners coming through Sydney is pretty impressive. Must get exhausting for the locals.

Last night, Casey, Liam (an exchange student from SoCal, who did his MBA at HEC in France), and I met Kacy in Bondi, at the Flying Squirrel Tapas Parlour. The atmosphere was cool, but it was actually pretty tiny, and I was disappointed by the lack of flying squirrels! After one round of tapas though, we all decided there was no way we could get full at that place, so we all headed down to Bondi Beach to find something that could satisfy our overgrown American apetites. Unfortunately for our purposes, it's still sort of low season here, so everything had closed. But we finally found a place, and I had (you guessed it) some potato wedges!

I thought I'd also include a photo of the sign near my house. It turns out I live near an alien baby crossing. Good to know. I don't really have a whole lot else to report. Tomorrow a bunch of us are going to the opening day of the season at the Randwick Racecourse. Apparently they get pretty dressed up, and the women wear funny hats. Stay tuned...

Blue lights, cold wind

2008-09-24T11:04:00.004+10:00

I tried going shopping after class yesterday. Kacy Qua (from Anderson), Anne Visholm (here at AGSM from Copenhagen) and I went to Paddington. This is the neighborhood that all the guidebooks recommend for shopping, but none of us found anything to buy. This is probably a good thing, given my financial situation, but still disappointing. After which Kacy and I found a nice loungey bar and drank far too much red wine. I highly recommend the Lillydale Estate Yarra Valley Pinot Noir from 2006, if you can get your hands on a bottle.

I've been struggling with a strange sense of, well, normalcy. I've come so far from home. And part of the reason for doing so was to shake things up. See new sights, meet new people, eat new food... So here I am and the craziest thing I've eaten is the potato wedges.
Which are exactly what they sound like, only they're battered with what we think of as curly fries seasoning, and served with cream cheese and sweet chili sauce. Which may be odd, but when you come down to it, any format of fried potato is pretty much awesome, and these are no exception. Anyway, I was walking home from the bus yesterday struggling with a very odd sort of displacement. Life here is at once far too familiar and yet foreign, sort of like wearing someone else's glasses that only partly match your prescription.

The walk down the hill from the bus stop last night was quite chilly, and the air was really clear. As I approached the beach at the bottom, I noticed someone had laid out a patch of twinkly blue lights in the sand. When I got really close I realized it said "marry me" in large letters - a message aimed at someone on one of the planes passing overhead on final approach into Sydney International. So I stood there in the cold, listening to Stevie Nicks tell me "thunder only happens when it's raining", watching the twinkly blue and the waves catching the orange of the sodium street lamps, and realized...

Nothing much actually. But just for a moment, my brain shut the hell up. I love it when that happens. So I guess the trip here was worth it afterall. Now, I'm off to pick up my things and FINALLY move into my apartment!

Gros bisous to you all.

Important questions

2008-09-22T13:36:00.002+10:00

The one question I was consistently asked, prior to my departure, was whether water really swirls down the drain in the opposite direction in Australia. Imagine my frustration at still not being able to answer that question. It turns out that the toilets flush differently here. It's more of a massive water flow, with no circular rotation whatsoever. And then there's the fact that you can either have a half flush or a whole flush. I can't figure it out...

And I have yet to have access to a tub that I can fill deep enough to get an accurate water tornado going (or whatever the technical term for that is). I did manage to get the stopper stuck in the sink for a good half hour as I was trying to investigate. I wound up having to pry it open with a knife. Can you believe what I do for science? Now, can someone tell me what direction we would consider normal? It turns out that's not something I know off the top of my head.

Life is Good

2008-09-22T08:40:00.004+10:00

I finally made it to the parts of the city for which Sydney is famous. Thursday after class, Casey Winn (fellow Anderson student), Antonio Ortega (on exchange from IE in Madrid) and I went to Circular Quay in the afternoon. After an overpriced lunch at the Opera Bar, which does boast stellar cocktails and an unbelievable view of the bridge and the opera house, we wandered around one of the oldest areas of Sydney, called The Rocks.

We met up with Rick Jashnani and Joyce Thomas, two Anderson students who were visiting from Melbourne. We sat and had a beer, and I dug into the red velvet cupcake that Joyce impressively managed to find in this city that loves desserts, but has yet to embrace the cupcake. Admittedly, few cities have quite as much as LA. Then we wandered back to Opera Bar to meet students from AGSM for some socializing, followed by dinner and more drinks at Lowenbrau, which is one of the 3 or 4 pubs claiming to be the oldest pub in Sydney. In an effort to save money, we were buying bottles of wine instead of glasses, but I think I took that idea a little too literally.

I woke up Friday with feeling the effects of a bit too much red wine, but Sydney took pity on me and sent me a gorgeous day. Rick and Joyce took the bus into Coogee, and after a very yummy breakfast,

we started the walk from Coogee to Bondi. It’s about 3 miles, and winds along the coast past gorgeous houses, and smaller bays and beaches. It was a great way to spend my birthday – wandering along, shooting photos and watching the surfers and boogie boarders. Turns out the latter are a lot less choosy about their waves, and therefore a lot more interesting to watch.

Bondi beach itself is gorgeous. I can understand why it’s so famous. The break happens really far out, so if you catch the right wave you get a nice long ride are reward for your efforts. Probably a hundred yards or a bit more? I’m trying to sound like a know what I’m talking about. Mostly it’s just fun to watch the surfers wipe out.

Because we had a lazy day, we were on track for a late dinner, so I decided to take a chance and try eating at Longrain. The restaurant came highly recommended in a couple of my guidebooks, and had been on my list from before I arrived. However, they don’t take reservations to sit at their big communal table, so I was worried about bringing a big group. But by the time we arrived and had a few very yummy cocktails, it was so late that we were seated pretty quickly. And damn was it worth it! If you ever get a chance to go, be sure to order the green papaya salad, the silken tofu, and the caramelized ham hock. Food here is pretty ridiculously expensive, so I’ve been frustrated by having to spend more than I wanted on something I thought wasn’t very good. It was nice have the restaurant live up to (and surpass) expectations.

And the group who went was a lot of fun. To introduce the cast of characters: Casey Wyin is from Anderson, as is Matt Craig, who is here with his wife Courtney. Antonio is from Madrid, Jose from Chile, and Anne from Copenhagen, all on exchange here at AGSM. Rick and Joyce are Anderson students who are studying in Melbourne the quarter. And Kacy Qua is on the last leg of her epic Australian journey, and made it here in time to make sure none of us took ourselves too seriously. I believe a significant portion of the dinner conversation centered around an explanation of the term ‘tool’. As it, “he’s such a tool”, or “don’t be a tool”. Watching the faces of the non-Americans during the conversation gave me a little insight into just how ridiculous we appear to the rest of the world.

So that’s been the focus of the last couple days. It’s gorgeous here again today, so I think I’ll head to meet Kacy at Bondi beach soon, and take advantage of this window of time when the beach is nice but the weather isn’t brutally hot. Although I had a wonderful phone call from the States this morning, I’m feeling homesick, and thinking of you all a ton. So I’ll go and watch the waves and remember that the world is round, and the love I’m sending on the waves will soon wash up on your shores (assuming it doesn’t get stuck in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on the way).

First Day of School

2008-09-15T19:04:00.000+10:00

While all you slackers were still enjoying your Sunday sloth, I had my first day of class. I sat in on a Marketing Strategy class that I hadn't planned on taking, but the professor came highly recommended. And sure enough, he was great. This is only a problem because if I take the class it blows my five-day weekend class schedule to bits. Ah well.

AGSM (Australian Graduate School of Management) is interesting. There's only about 60 people in the full-time program, so it feels very small. The part-time program is about 2000 people, but that's distributed across many campuses and cohorts, so it's much more diffuse. Anyway, it's probably not only the smaller size but also the lack of crazy Americans that means most of the intense MBA ... spirit, for lack of a better word... is missing. People don't seem to be consumed by business school the way they are in the US. And the junior high social scene hasn't reached the same frenzy. What I'm trying to say is it doesn't feel like summer camp for type A over-achievers the way Anderson does.

I'm attaching a few photos I've taken of the University of New South Wales campus to give you a flavor. I've yet to capture a photo of the huge birds that wander around, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, last night I think we all were a little homesick, because we chose to eat in a Mexican restaurant in Randwick. Like in the US, people here seem to choose Mexican for birthdays with big groups, so there was a lot of passing out of sombreros and a guy in a Mariachi outfit (who actually had a great voice) singing Sinatra's "My Way" in Spanish. The food wasn't half-bad, considering how far from home the chef was.

Of course

2008-09-14T08:16:00.000+10:00

I woke up this morning and it's raining. Pouring actually. Now I have the fun of figuring out what the heck to do with myself. It's amazing how much harder it is to kill time here - I don't really have anything to waste it on. Oh yeah... the internet!

Things are looking up

2008-09-13T23:02:00.000+10:00

Please note: Fiji pictures are finally up. And I added to the Hawaii photos as well.

Sorry I went dark there for a few days. I didn't have much to report, other than continuing complaints about the difficulty of finding housing. And the sound of my whining was annoying even to me, so I decided not to pollute the interwebs with it.

But now...
1) Summer is here! I don't think it's here to stay, but today was sunny and actually hot (mid eighties)! This is in comparison to the last five days, which felt like late fall in New England. The sun is strong here though (and there's no ozone layer), so even when the air is quite chilly, I've gotten a light sunburn on my face. Anyway, it was lovely to wander around today in the warmth, and definitely improved my outlook on life.

2) I gave up on the hostel. I can only take so much from the drunken Irish and English 19-year olds. My favorite moment was waking up to a bathroom full of puke before my Financial Statement Analysis placement exam on Friday morning. I haven't seen such foulness since freshman year in college. Enough was enough, so I moved up the hill to a guest house. It's not particularly cheap, but I'm splitting the room with a friend, and I don't really know what else to do. I got to the point where I decided I really was willing to pay an extra $20 a night for the privilege of sleep. So now the quiet, and the in-room internet we paid for today has definitely improved my outlook.

3) Most importantly for my state of mind, I think I found housing. Cross your fingers for me that it doesn't fall through. I'll be sharing a two bedroom apartment in Randwick (which is up the hill from Coogee, and is the area right near school). My flatmates are an Italian couple: Sylvia and Gianluca. They seem very nice, and more than anything the apartment was the only one I've seen (and I've now seen 12) that wasn't flat out grungy.

I have to admit to some buyers remorse. First of all, I can't move in until September 25. I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself until then. I can't afford to stay at the guest house that long, and I hate the thought of going back to the hostel. But more importantly, I'm worried about living this far from the center of the city. I haven't seen Sydney at all yet, but I can already tell this area is a bit isolated. It's nice living near the beach, but what's the point of moving to Sydney if I never hang out there? I'll just have to master the bus system I guess.

I did make it to the neighborhood called Surry Hills today. It's not too far from where I've been staying, and is aformerly forgotten and run-down neighborhood that's been taken over by the younger, hipper set. It definitely had a Williamsburg meets the West Village meets Hayes Valley feel. I found a great bakery and was happy as a clam. (Question: why are clams happy?)

The goal for tomorrow (as it was for today) is to finally make it to the harbor, and most particularly the opera house. In the meantime, here are some photos of the amazing wrought iron work that's on some of the buildings around here.

I'm going to die...

2008-09-10T16:32:00.000+10:00

And not in a good way. In a painful, squashed flat and spread across the pavement by an oncoming vehicle sort of way. Do you have any idea how fundamentally, earth-shakingly WRONG it is to drive on the left? I mean the right. I mean whatever it is they do in this former British colony. It's so, so wrong.

It's not just crossing the street that's hazardous, although that's definitely the worst. It's heading towards the escalators and realizing the up is on the left, not the right, where it out to be. It's heading for a car on the driver's side when you fully intended to be a passenger. Damn it, I can't even walk past people on the sidewalk properly, as I stick to the right, trying to be out of the way and the oncoming pedestrians stare at me, the jerk who is hogging what is clearly their side of the walkway.

Anyway, it might put me out of my misery, as I've spent all day running around in the cold and all the apartments I've seen are, frankly, crap. And overpriced. You'd think I'd be over the sticker shock coming from SF and LA (and a little of NY although that was a while ago). But there's something particularly harsh about realizing that the prices quoted are per week. But that's what I can afford to pay in a month!! By which I assume I have joined the human race in its modern incarnation, and inherited its boundless frustration with real estate.

Greetings from Sydney

2008-09-09T15:30:00.000+10:00

I made it. I feel a little bit battered from the adrenaline surges of the past several days, and I'm more than ready to find an apartment to live in and stop lugging all my crap around. I knew I didn't like traveling alone, but I'd forgotten how absolutely pretrifying I find it.

That said, all is well. First things first: I've got a mobile. Incoming calls are free for me, so buy a phone card and give me a call. To reach me from the states here's what you do:
1) Dial an international line: 011
2) Dial Australia: 61
3) Dial my number: 4.14.76.03.31
In summary: 011.61.4.14.76.03.31

I'm currently parked in an internet cafe near the hostel where I'd planned on staying. Or will stay, once the damned office reopens. Turns out the staff gets a lunch and siesta break from 1-5pm. Grrr. Mostly I'm worried about the lack of a sleeping bag. It's cold here! Especially after Fiji.

But Coogee, the beach suburb I'm staying in is crawling with backpackers. So I'm off to the hostel in the hopes that I can get both a room and a clue! I miss you all and look foward to writing more soon (hopefully with my new address)!!

Fiji

2008-09-09T15:18:00.001+10:00

Fiji was awesome! However, I can't really claim the credit for that. Here's how it all went down.

My flight left out of Honolulu at 12:35am. Picture me tired and down from the leave-taking from my family, squeezed into a window seat of a very full Air Pacific flight. But I did manage to sleep, so I wasn't feeling too rough when I got to Nadi (said Nandi). My hotel was supposed to pick me up, but they weren't there when I arrived. Evenutally, I bought a phone card and called, got no answer, waited, called again, was told they were leaving right then, waited... Two hours later I gave up and took a taxi which wasn't bad at all. Stupid hotel had made it sound like they were much further from the airport than they were. Then the taxi turns down a small road to what can only be an oil refinery and I start wondering where the hell I'm staying. Each one of these moments causes a rather unpleasant surge of adrenaline. I'm not very good at this traveling thing.

Eventually, though, I'm at the resort, and even though it's absurdly early and I don't officially have a room until that night, I get led by the very friendly staff to my garden bure (read little thatched cabin that does not have a view of the ocean). It turns out their one boat is booked on a fishing trip, but if I want to go snorkeling, they'll happily drop me off at "Beeshcombah" Island for the day.

Beachcomber Island is party central. I arrived at 10:30am and already the packs of 19 year-olds were well into the redbull and vodka. I don't understand how - it was too damn hot! I must be getting old. I snorkeled for a bit, and saw some nice fish, but not many. And the coral was completely trashed. So I lay on the beach for a while, trying to find shade and feeling meditative. Not speaking to anyone for more than two hours straight does that to me.

The buffet lunch was nearly the highlight of the trip. Turns out Fiji has a lot of Indian families who came in the 1800s as laborers for the cane fields, and the cultural influence is strong. So I had yummy fish curry with roti. I went out again for another snorkel and was just getting to a larger patch of rocks where the fish were congregating when I spotted a shark staring at me. Not a huge one, just 4 feet of terror-inducing lurkingness. I would probably have dealt better had I not just been kicked out of the water twice in Hawaii because someone spotted a shark at a beach a half-mile away. Anyway, I screamed like a little girl and got out of the water as fast a possible.

By then the fishing trip had returned to pick me up. I think the guy driving the boat felt bad for dropping me off like that, so he convinced the fisherfolk to chill in the boat while we took a 20-minute snorkel in deeper water. HOLY SHIT!!! For two reasons. 1) For those of you who know me, you know I DON'T like the ocean, or deep water (that's understating the situation considerably). And there I was, nearly calmly jumping into 20 feet of big bad ocean. It helped that the water was a crystal clear 85 degrees. 2)I've never seen anything like that snorkel in my life! Parrotfish and clownfish and coral, oh my! By then I'd abandoned the idiotic waterproof camera bag that I can't seem to figure out, so I'm afraid I have no photos. Just pick up a big glossy postcard, or a copy of National Geographic - that should about do it justice.

We headed back in to the resort, and that's when my trip had a very happy accident. I was dropping off the snorkel gear I'd borrowed from the hotel, and I saw two guys playing ping pong by the pool. This in itself is not noteworthy, except they were speaking French, which meant I had to say something to them. Can't let the chance to speak French pass me by! It turns out, my resort was next door to the local marina and yacht club, which I would never have realized if these guys hadn't explained that they were staying on their boats. So I got to spend a very nice evening hanging out with Olivier, who is French but lives in New Caledonia, and Eric, who is from Quebec, but is currently in year four of his around-the-world sail. It was great to hear about their adventures in sailing, and the next day Eric took me for a sail to prove I'm not nearly as frightened of the sport as I claim. Let me just state for the record: I like sailing. In Fiji. When the wind is not strong. And the boat never heels (sp?) more than 10 degrees. And the water is a civilized temperature. Under those conditions, I definitely like sailing.

Even better, I like snorkeling. I'm pretty proud of myself. In the afternoon, we anchored at the edge of a reef that was about 1000 yards from an island. And damn me if I didn't manage to jump into what was now 50 feet of not-so-clear water, and swim across an open stretch to the reef. Without hyperventalating, which is key while snorkeling, but hard when you're fighting off a panic attack. Ah machismo - I really think what saved me was not wanting to look like a wuss. Although my cover was blown when we got back to the boat and I had to use the restroom and admit that I'd been too scared to piss. (TMI, I know, but I'm trying to find ways to explain what a big deal this is to me.) Anyway, the snorkeling was mind-blowing. Me loves the colorful fishies.

So that was my Fiji experience. It was exactly the kind of happy-accident-opens-new-directions that I've always hoped for in my travels. Even if I wasn't quite spontaneous to stay in Fiji an extra week and learn to sail for real. So here's to what will hopefully be the first of many adventures and many awesome people I run into!

Hawaii, day 3

2008-09-05T17:34:00.000+10:00

So far life in Hawaii has been pretty mellow. My first day here we poked around a bit, rented snorkel equipment, and then found a secluded lava bay to try it out in. We saw some fish, but not huge schools of them. The most memorable part of the day was the mahi mahi sandwich I had for lunch.

The next day we drove to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We took an older highway to avoid construction in Kailua Kona and saw some of the more funky, more interesting towns on this side of the island. My favorite was the big pink hotel you see in the photos, with the bathroom in a little room and the end of the walkway. That has to be the urinal with the best view in the state!

We stopped at the Punalu'u black sand beach for a picnic lunch. (Special shout out here to my sister Mireille, who is an amazingly good cook and has been keeping us all marvelously fed here.) It was crazy swimming at the beach - the ocean is quite rough, but in addition, you've got cold fresh water seeping out from the ground here, floating on top of the warmer salt ocean. It's the opposite of what you normally feel in a lake or a swimming pool and when the waves are tossing you around, it's totally disorienting.

Finally, toward mid-afternoon, we made it to the volcano. Kilauea was spewing smoke, and very impressive, although we didn't see any new lava flows. I particularly liked the Chain of Craters Road, which ends abruptly where a lava flow crossed the road 15 years ago and the park authorities decided to leave it be. I'd have photos of that for you, except my camera battery died partway through the day. Note to future self - buy a spare battery.

Today we wanted to avoid spending much time in the car after yesterday's all-day drive. We had lunch in the ranch town of Kamuela (aka Waimea), and then went to see the Waipi'o Valley. Not having a 4WD, we decided not to chance getting stuck partway down the steep grade and instead went and got coconut ice cream. We ended the day at the beach at the Mauna Kea resort. It was eerily beautiful. Beautiful because it's a postcard-perfect crescent of fine sand with blue green water. Eerie because the resort is closed, so we had the beach to ourselves! The snorkeling was amazing, and I definitely need to figure out how to use the waterproof camera bag I bought so I can prove it!

Clearly I've been enjoying Hawaii, although part of me is a little impatient, eager to get to Sydney and find a place to live / get settled. "Little hellos", as my mom like to call them, continue to pop up. For example, I haven't figured out how to rearrange my luggage so that I won't have to pay overage charges. And I just learned today that the voltage adapter I bought is only for heat-producing appliances, like my hair dryer.

So, does anyone know if the square box on the power cord for my mac acts as a voltage adapter? I'd prefer not to fry my computer.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Celia.Adelson/Underwater#

And she's off! (finally)

2008-09-03T03:26:00.000+10:00

Apologies for the delay in posting - I spent the last half week alternating between running around like crazy and sitting around having a pity party. Neither of which are particularly interesting, especially considering this is supposed to be a travel blog, and there I was, two weeks after the first post, still not traveling.

I did make it to the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young museum. I highly recommend a trip to anyone who is going to be in SF before September 28th. Yeah, it's not challenging art, but it's damn cool. I keep thinking I want to take glass blowing someday, although the thought of scorching my lungs with toxic fumes is a bit daunting.

So now I'm sitting on the Lanai at the Vista Waikaloa resort near Kona, where my mom won time in an auction, and she and two of my sisters and I have congregated for a girls week. Well, an abbreviated one - American Airlines was having some trouble being an airline yesterday. They canceled my first flight, along with numerous others, so I would up arriving at the end of the day instead of the beginning. It's amazing how much reading you can get done in eight hours of sitting in the airport. They made up for it just slightly by taking off directly over SF, which allowed me to get the following photos out the plane window:

The first two photos are of Jess Zenkstrong and the crew at Sean and Courtney's newly combined pad. Shortney are superior hosts, up to and including giving you an extra big martini glass so you can chug their yummy champagne, as Jess is so nicely demonstrating (thanks Vanna!).

I'm off to cook breakfast for the lazy bums who are better adjusted to Hawai'i time. Hopefully I'll have a chance to try out my underwater camera adapter, and will soon be able to start the colorful part of my travels. I miss you all already.

Sweet sorrow

2008-08-28T15:18:00.000+10:00

I'm in limbo right now. Chilling in SF, except I really haven't been chilling at all. I've been running around like a crazy person. Mostly I've been working at Castle In The Air
and then catching up with friends. I need to do all sorts of stuff like buy a backpack, and book a room in Fiji, but I've gotten so sad about leaving that I haven't dealt with any of it. I did manage to change my address with everyone I could possibly imagine would need my address. Unfortunately, I missed Netflix on the first go around. Those people are way too efficient. Ironic because I finally got my act together to send back the movies I've had since May 2007. (Remember, I promised this wouldn't be a blog about how much I have my life together.) I think this down time before the trip was a bad idea. It's left me with far too much time to wonder: whose idea was this anyway?

Cold Showers

2008-08-27T05:33:00.000+10:00

it seems my habit of taking extremely hot showers is making my skin itch. i know the best things in life are always bad for you. suntanning. bacon. tobacco. crack cocaine. french fries. but seriously folks - now i can't even take hot showers? this is apropos of exactly nothing, except i have a blog now, so i think i'm supposed to rant.

Moving #2

2008-08-26T02:15:00.000+10:00

Moving stings. Specifically, bashing my knuckles open on my apartment building's stucco walls while carrying heavy boxes stings. Plus cardboard box cuts (paper cut's big, evil, bully of a cousin). However, having friends like Malina, John, Kyle and Sara warms my heart. They all devoted part of their Sunday to helping lift heavy things. Kyle was mostly on the disabled list, but that didn't stop her from creating an awesome spreadsheet that tells me which lender to use for the next round of student loans. (Which also sting.)

We managed to fit everything into a single storage crate, which was a fairly spectacular feat of engineering. Except my dresser and my bike. Luckily, the dresser was a free gift from Craigslist which went back on the street to continue spreading the love, and the bike has hopefully found a home for the quarter with an entering Anderson student. Ah, community. Meanwhile, the virtuoso forklift driver is here now to pick up the crates, so we'll see if he comes knocking on the door telling me I over packed and the floor has dropped out of the unit.

I'm feeling nostalgic about leaving LA. The weather here has been gorgeous! Saturday's picnic turned out beautifully. We got to the beach a little before sunset, and enjoyed our feast as the sky turned colors. It definitely got cool quickly once the sun went down, but nowhere near the bone-chilling temperatures of San Francisco. I hate to admit it, but the weather here really is noticeably, quality-of-life-improvingly better. Oh well, time to drive to SF. Actually, first it's time to see if all my stuff fits in the little car while leaving me enough room to drive to SF.

Moving is teh suck, but I has a new camera!

2008-08-24T09:31:00.001+10:00

In an unsurprising fit of procrastination, I'm choosing to figure out how to upload photos rather than keep packing. Behold the crates my life will fit into:
I'm also procrastinating by making panzanella (bread salad was what I called it until yesterday when I went looking for a recipe) for the beach picnic Malina and John invited me to this evening. Below are the heirloom tomatoes [Celia likes gratuitous links]

that I bought at the Santa Monica farmers' market this morning. This is the first time I've been to the Saturday market. It's a lot more utilitarian, less of a scene than the Sunday version. I'd prefer it, except the bread guy gave me attitude when I wanted a baguette.

Anyway, time to go back to packing. This is what my room looks like right now:

Dispatch #1

2008-08-23T04:18:00.000+10:00

I have very mixed feelings about starting a blog. It seems like there's all sorts of etiquette to worry about, like who to link to, or what template to use. Not to mention security concerns -
will the entire internet have access to my life now? Plus, isn't posting the details of my life for everyone to see a little exhibitionist? All these concerns notwithstanding, it seems blogs are here to stay and it's time for me to accept that. And although I am in no way a sophisticated consumer of the medium, in the past several months, blogs have become an increasingly important procrastination tool for me. Thanks in part to Jeremy and Rakefet, and Tom. And also to Orangette, where I was referred by my friend Malina.

It was actually this last that sparked the idea of finally blogging myself. I am about to leave for three months in Sydney, Australia.
My family and friends (that's you, I hope) are all spread out, and I've been trying to figure out how to stay in touch. When I studied abroad in college, I used to spend hours in internet cafes, composing endless, poetic, heartfelt odes, usually with two results. Either I would send the email and then return daily, even hourly, eagerly anticipating a response, only to hear back "sounds great, I'm fine". Or the computer would freeze just before I could hit send, and then I'd wind up writing "I'm great, hope you're fine". So rather than repeat past trauma, I'm hoping to post my adventures and photos here. Check back regularly.

Hopefully, this will work as a way to stay in touch, although you are all going to join Skype as well if I have anything to say about it (I'm CeliaSF). I also plan to use this as a propaganda tool to convince you all to come visit. However, I can promise that this will not become an advertisement for how perfect and precious my life is. Because as much as I admire the food that Orangette cooks, and the beauty of her romance with her husband, reading about it this Tuesday night just made me mad. Besides, my life is just too messy.

I leave LA on Monday, August 25, 2008. I return on Sunday, January 4, 2009. All that happens in between will hopefully wind up here. Which means I need to go buy a camera. Any recommendations?