Goodbye Australia, Aloha Hawaii

So I made it safe and sound into Honolulu on Wednesday morning and it's been a great 5 days in Hawaii. I'm at the airport right now waiting to board my plane so I thought I would update everyone on what took place these last 5 days.

Day 1 - Wednesday: Arrived into Honolulu around 8:30am and made it through customs alright. I was disappointed that I didn't get a lei when I got off the plane. I took the shuttle to my hotel and just spent the afternoon on the beach. I know, life's rough, huh. pictures

Day 2 - Thursday: I spent the day with the Bike Hawaii company on their bike, hike, snorkel & sail tour package. We did a 2.5 mile hike through the rain forest and then went to the top of one of the mountains and biked it down. After lunch, we went snorkeling out in the bay and took the catamaran back to shore. pictures

Day 3 - Friday: I slept in on Friday morning and I walked to Diamondhead National Park during the morning. It was about a 2 mile walk to the park and then another hour+ walk to the peak and back down. Diamondhead is an old volcanic crater that was left after a volcano erupted thousands and thousands of years ago. After the walk back from Diamondhead, I spent the afternoon on the beach. I caught the sunset from the beach and it was absolutely beautiful. pictures

Day 4 - Saturday: I woke up before dawn to get ready for another day trip that I took. This time the tour included Pearl Harbor, Dole Pineapple Plantation, and the Polynesian Cultural Center, along with some minor stops along the way (the pipeline @ north shore, the _____ lookout point, Dog Chapman's Bail Bonds and a couple of other misc. points). pictures

Day 5 - Sunday: Went to Senor Frogs to watch the Bears game. I met a couple of other people at the bar from the Chicagoland area who are currently living in Honolulu. It was nice to watch a live American sporting event for the first time since early July - even though the Bears played a crappy game.

Day 6 - Monday: This is my last day on the island. :-( The weather was overcast a rainy this morning, so after I checked out I just walked around for a while and ended up at the local mall. I just took it easy today and ended up at the airport around 4pm for my 9 o'clock flight. It's now 7:45pm and I'm just waiting to board the plane.

I fly from Honolulu to Dallas/Fort Worth and then from Dallas/Fort Worth to St. Louis. I should arrive in St. Louis around 11:30am and then about 3 hours later I should be at my parents' house for the week. I'm driving back to Chicago on Saturday and then going to the Bears game on Sunday. Hopefully it won't be too cold this week as I don't have any winter clothes with me. Oh well, I guess that's the burden I have to bear for spending 4+ months in Australia & Hawaii!!

NOTE: not all of the pictures have been uploaded - just Day 1 and part of Day 2. I will try to update the remainder of the pictures on Tuesday when I get back to my parents' place

Fraser Island Recap

Even though the weather wasn't cooperative at all, my three-day experience on Fraser Island was spectacular!! The largest sand island in the world turned out to be breathtaking, with three thousand year old plants & trees, sandblows that look like ocean waves and the peacefulness of being in nature.

There was only seven of us on the tour - myself, a Hungarian couple, and a family from Russia via Singapore - so we were able to travel Fraser Island in a Toyota Forerunner instead of a large bus and I was able to ride shotgun the entire time.

Day 1: We didn't arrive at Rainbow Beach until 1pm, so we had lunch and then afterwards we headed over to Fraser. We drove along 75 mile beach first and then went and checked into our "resort." We left Eurong about 3pm and headed to Wabby Lake. Wabby use to be a river until
the sands of the Hammersone Sandblow cut it off and turned it into a lake. It's estimated that the lake will be filled in with sand in another 50years. The Tuesday night dinner was Mexican food, which actually turned out to be decent. After dinner I spent the remainder of the night at the resort bar making friends with other travellers. Day 1 pictures. Here's a video of us heading to the ferry.

Day 2: The weather on Day 2 started out very nicely so it was decided to head to Lake Birrabeen to take advantage of the weather. On the way to the lake, we spent a couple of hours at the rainforest. We had lunch at Lake Birrabeen and then spent the remainder of the afternoon at the lake (until it started raining on us again). That night I met a couple of Canadian girls from Vancouver - Heather & Jen - who were really nice. So I spent the remainder of the night hanging out with them and making it to the semi-finals of the pool tournament. Day 2 pictures.

Day 3: I woke up on Thursday morning to rain and it didn't stop all day. Since the weather was crap, we were limited on what we were able to do. We went and saw the SS Maheno, an old luxury liner that shipwrecked on Fraser Island back in the 1930s; the Pinnacle Rocks, which are a multi-colored rock formation; and Ely Creek. Day 3 pictures. We headed back to Rainbow Beach for lunch around 1pm, which is when I found out that my tour up to Town 1770 & the Barrier Reef had been cancelled. I was/am completely disappointed, but I had my money refunded to me and the tour company put me up in Rainbow Island for another night. So along with spending Thursday night at Dingo's Backpackers, I also spent Friday night.

As much as I wanted to go to 1770, I had a good time on Friday - with surfing in the morning and kayaking in the afternoon and then heading to the Carlo Sandblow in the early evening. I met some really cool people at Dingo's on Friday night so it wasn't completely a lost situation.

I leave for Hawaii on Wednesday afternoon and arrive in Honolulu on Wednesday afternoon. I'll post something when I arrive to let everyone know that I made it to Hawaii alright.

Rainbow Beach - update 2

I'm back in Brisbane after spending the last several days at Fraser Island/Rainbow Beach. I went kayaking with the dolphins yesterday afternoon, but didn't see any dolphins. It was still a very relaxing and peaceful experience ... sitting in a kayak in the Pacific Ocean just riding the waves of the ocean. After heading back to the hostel, I met a couple of my new bunch mates - Petra & Sana - from Sweden. I chatted with them for a while before I headed out to the Carlo Sandblow. For the first time since I left Brisbane, I actually had an early night. My bus left Rainbow at 7:40 and about 5hrs later I was back in Brizzy.

I've got a couple of days off in Brisbane before I leave for Hawaii. I'll keep you updated if I do anything interesting.

Rainbow beach - update 1

Just finished my surf lessons on Rainbow Beach. The weather actually cleared up and it was a perfect morning to surf. The waves were the right size to relearn how to surf and as the morning went along, the waves got bigger & bigger. This time around I actually was able to catch my own waves!! By the time I get done surfing in Hawaii I'll be a pro at it! Gonna be kayaking with dolphins in about 30minutes ... will let you know how that goes.

Staying at the hostel is an absolute blast. Granted, I'm several years older than most of the kids here. It's amazing the amount of people you meet from other countries of the world ... Sweden, England, Canada, Ireland, France, Iran, etc. I've actually befriended a couple of girls from Canada that I met on Fraser a couple of nights ago and we met up again last night. They're staying at the hostel right next to mine.

Fraser Island - quick update

Just finished up my 3day/2night Fraser Island adventure. Other than the fact that it rained some part of all three days, it was a great time. I'm at the hostel right now for the night and will possibly be here for a second night on Friday. Here's the reason. I was suppose to go from Fraser to the Barrier Reef on Friday, but a large group of people cancelled at the last moment, leaving the overall group number to 1 - me. Since the travel company can't do an adventure of one, they had to cancel my trip to the Barrier Reef. :-( So they're putting me up for another night here in Rainbow Beach and I catch the bus back to Brisbane on Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll be able to kayak with some dolphins tomorrow and do some more surfing. I'll update my blog more once I get back to Brisbane with details of the trip and all the pictures I took.

US Guys

Here is a picture of us from the States who have worked on the project (Oranit is not in the picture, but has been replaced by Brett).
(L-R): Brian (Austin), Me, Lorenzo (Chicago), Joe (Chicago),
Aaron (Seattle), Brett (New Zealand), Jeff (Boston)

Cowabunga Dude

I went down to the Gold Coast over the weekend with Jeff, Joe & Bianca to learn how to surf on Saturday. I couldn't have asked for better weather as it hovered around 30 all weekend! We left after work on Friday night and headed to Surfers Paradise to the apartment we rented for the weekend. Jeff and I stayed out 'till past 4am on Friday and woke up about 3 hours later to head to our surfing lessons. We were paying the price for it the entire car ride down to Coolangatta - even though it was only a 30 minute commute, it felt much longer.

We had some land based instructions (proper feet position, how to balance yourself, how to jump on the board, etc) for about a half hour before we headed to the ocean to catch some waves. Joe & Jeff stood up on their third try, but it took me a couple extra waves to finally stand up. Once I did though, I had no problems after that. To start out, our instructor pushed us onto the waves so we could learn how to properly stand up. After that, we tried to catch our own waves, which proved to be difficult. Overall, it was an absolute blast learning to surf. We spent the remainder of the Saturday day at the beach catching some rays. We were all pretty exhausted after we got back to our rooms, so Saturday night was pretty uneventful.

On Sunday we headed back to the beach for a couple of hours. The three of us guys made the mistake of not applying any sunscreen and now we're all pretty red. I actually have proof that we stood up via pictures & videos.

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This is my last week of work before I head out for two weeks of holiday before heading back to Illinois, so my post will probably be pretty erratic (not that they're consistent now) from here on out. My itinerary is to spend 6 days at Fraser Island and the southern tip of the Barrier Reef (at Lady Musgrave Island) and then back to Brisbane for two days before I head to Hawaii for five days. I should be able to post some pictures once I get back from the reef.

One Down ...

Sorry about the lack of posts this last week or so - I've been lazy. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

Two Saturdays ago we headed out to South Bank for Oktoberfest. It was a long day of German beer and German food, but thankfully the weather was nice and the music was loud. Another American has joined our group - Gene. He's from Dallas, Texas and will be here for a year. We've also picked up a POM (Englishman) too. He wasn't quite able to keep up with us on Saturday as he passed out on the table and had to be escorted out!

This past Friday was Oranit's (OP) last day of work. We can a day-long bbq for her on Saturday where we all ate, drank, and played hacky-sack all day/night long. OP flew out on Sunday morning and is finally back home with her dog (& husband) after three months away.

Jeff, Joe & I are heading down to the Gold Coast this weekend to learn how to surf. Should be interesting. Will write about it next week to let you know if I was actually able to ride some waves.

Be very very quiet, I'm hunting wabbits

Here are some pictures from yesterday:


My birthday card


My t-shirt


My stubby holder



From earlier this morning:
I believe a picture says a thousand words

I Look Like a Monkey and I Smell Like One Too!

Update:
The guys at work got me a birthday cake and a couple of presents for my birthday today - a stubby holder (beer coozy) in the shape of a bikini-clad Aussie girl and a t-shirt with + beer = on the front of it.

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So today is my Australian birthday and tomorrow is my American birthday ... one of the benefits of being overseas is that I can celebrate on two different days.

I've told some, but not others and some have found out through others and not me, so I'm telling everyone now. I will be back in Illinois on Tuesday November 20 and will be back in Chicago on Saturday November 24. My last day of work is November 2 and I will be travelling around Australia and the South Pacific for a while after work.

A Wet and Wild Weekend

**Update: I've updated the photos from the Australia Zoo & Oranit's trip to Cairns**
Some of our group went to the Australia Zoo on Saturday. This is the zoo that used to be ran by Steve Irwin & is still under control by his family. I decided to pass on the zoo, but I am posting a bunch of photos that Craig, Jeff & Lino took during the day.

On Sunday the same group (with me included this time) went down to the Wet n' Wild water park. It was a perfect day for it - sunny but not too hot & humid. We were there until it closed at 5pm, so I was able to ride the better & 'scarrier' slides multiple times.

Also, Oranit & her husband Robert just got back from Cairns (upper Queensland) and I've posted some of her photos that they took while snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.

There's Always Next Year

So my theory that the Cubs would go far in the playoffs because I'm here in Australia fell apart this weekend after the Cubbies got swept by Arizona. So my new theory is that the reason the Illini are playing well is because I'm here in Australia. Hopefully the football team's end result will be better than the Cubbies.

Thank God for MLB.TV

In about a half hour, I am going to watch the Cubs vs. D'back's Game 2 of the NLDS on a delay becuase a couple of us forked over $25 to watch postseason baseball. This will be the first time in over three months that I will have seen a baseball game. I can't wait! Go Cubs!

'Gay Bomb' for Enemy Soldiers

Taken from the Courier Mail:
The "peace award" presented by the science humour magazine, Annals of Improbable Research, went to an inventor who created a bomb that makes soldiers fall in love with each other.

"Peace Prize" - The Air Force Wright Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon, the so-called "gay bomb," that "will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other". (article)

I'm Still Not As Old As Jess

In case you didn't know (and shame on you if you don't), my birthday is coming up soon - October 11 to be exact. So there's still time to buy me a birthday card and mail it to me. My address here in Brisbane is to the right. If you're too cheap to do that, you can always send me an electronic greeting card or even a simple "Happy Birthday" email.

Frank & Wendy's Weekend Out

This past weekend Jeff, Brett, Donna, Rossyta, Erika & myself went down to Byron Bay - it's about 2 hours south of Brisbane. We left Saturday morning and stopped off at the Gold Coast at a fellow co-worker's home (it's actually her in-laws). This is definitely the largest & most expensive house I have ever been in. It's located on a canal in the Gold Coast - with a jet-ski dock & swimming pool out back - a home theater room with a massive screen, a walk-in fridge, and to top it off ... a yellow Aston Martin convertible. It's an absolutely awesome house.

After stopping off at Olga's, we headed down to Byron Bay. We didn't get into Byron until 4ish, so we only had an hour to spend at the beach on Saturday. After a little swim in the ocean, we showered and had some surf n' turf for dinner and then headed out for drinks. After breakfast on Sunday, we hiked up to the Byron Bay Lighthouse where we ended up at Australia's most Easterly point. This time of year is when humpback whales migrate north, so we were lucky enough to sight a couple of whale's. The remainder of the day was spent at the beach swimming in the ocean and playing around on the beach. Here are the pictures from the weekend.

And the winner is ...

Today at work was theme day ... the group of people you work with as a team were suppose to dress up together. There were some good groups, there were some bad ones ... I'll let you decide. (pictures)

News From Australia

Various articles (funny & sad) from the local paper - Courier News - of local and national news.

A PREGNANT woman suffered a miscarriage in a toilet after she was ignored by medical staff at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital, it has been claimed. (article)

A CROATIAN motorbike rider was knocked unconscious when lightning struck his penis after he stopped by the roadside for a toilet break. (article)

MORE than a thousand bikini-clad women have descended on Bondi Breach to help set a world record for the biggest swimsuit shoot in history. (article)

Happy Birthday Bresticles!

Friday was Brett's birthday, so we threw him a surprise party at the office. Brett's from New Zealand, thus he's a Kiwi, and Kiwis get made fun of for fornicating with sheep (they don't really, but it's like making fun of Canadians - it's just a natural thing to do) - which is why the gifts we gave Brett were all sheep related.

Also on Friday it was wear you're favorite Hawaiian or brightest shirt day at the office. There was some pretty loud shirts, but nothing quite as unique as David Lennox's outfit (see picture - check out the lime green shoes). Dave's an architect, which makes perfect sense on why he's wearing that outfit. The thing is, this outfit is pretty much standard for Dave.

There really wasn't anything exciting going on this weekend. We watched movies all day on Saturday and rugby on Sunday. The weather was crap, but it's suppose to be gorgeous here starting on Wednesday - low to mid 30's, with the weekend being 34-35 degrees.

Night Photos

Jeff & Craig went out last week and took a bunch of photos of Brisbane at nighttime. Here are a couple of the better ones they took.

Return of the Pink Panther

The weather was wonderful this weekend and I took full advantage of it. On Saturday I laid out next to the pool and did some swimming for a couple of hours and then just walked around the Queen Street mall. There was a big run/walk event on Sunday morning, so we stayed in and ordered pizzas and watched some movies. On Sunday after the race, we went to New Farm park and had a bbq/picnic and tossed the various forms of footballs (American & Australian) around, played a little cricket and some soccer. I think the weather yesterday was even better than Saturday - perfect to have a picnic. So I definitely got plenty of sun over the weekend and my skin hasn't quite tanned yet, so it is a little pink right now. How's the weather back home??

Surfer's Paradise

*** Just uploaded more pictures from the weekend *** - Tuesday 11/09

On Saturday we went back down to Surfer’s Paradise to do some more jet skiing. Craig’s wife Sherri was up from Melbourne to visit for the weekend and to see the troublemakers that Craig hangs out with. We stopped off at Yatala again for some meat pies for breakfast and the first thing we did in Surfer’s Paradise was to head to the lookout floor of the Q1 Building. The Q1 is the world’s tallest residential tower and the 20th tallest building in the world (and the tallest in Australia). Being 300+ m up in the air provided some amazing views of the coast line and the surrounding mountains.
After the Q1, we became beach bums for a couple of hours - laying around, hitting the volleyball around and playing some cricket. Our appointment for jet skiing was at 2:30, but we showed up about 20 minutes late and didn't get on the skis until 3:30. We were suppose to only be out for 2 hours, but since we were repeat customers, the guides kept us out for 2.5 hours. It was a lot funner this time since most of us were experienced handling these beast of machines. I wiped out once, Joe & Kirstyn wiped out twice, and Craig & Sherri wiped out three times - one time when they weren't even moving! Last time we mainly went in a straight line; this time however we were fish tailing, doing 180's and pretty much acting like idiots - which is why we got tossed off so many times.
On the way home we stopped off at a seafood market to get some fresh prawns, oysters and octopus. We saved the seafood for Sunday night, as we had a Mexican cookout after we got back on Saturday night.
The only downfall from all the goofing around on the SeaDoos is that everyone was supersoar afterwards and everyone is walking funny today. Here are the pictures from the day.

Congrats Dad!

Taken from the WFIW website:
Wednesday's blood drive at the Community of Christ Church in Fairfield netted 76 pints of blood for the American Red Cross. Joe Holman was presented a pin for donating 12 gallons of blood over the years.

Bah-Humbug

Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day off while I was slaving away at work.

Highway to the Danger Zone

Sorry about the lack of posts recently ... we really haven't had a grand adventure to talk about. The last two weekends we've stayed around Brisbane and tried to take it easy. The Saturday before last (25/08) we had a BBQ at Jeff's flat and here's the pictures from that day. It was a relaxing day of swimming, bbq'ing, games and more bbq'ing.

The true reason of the post is because we went to Riverfire on Saturday night. Riverfire supposedly kicks off the start of the spring season so there's fireworks and a F-111 dump and burn. It's probably the most spectacular display of fireworks I have ever seen. Fireworks are shot off from a half dozen barges in the river, from the bridges and from the top of several downtown buildings - with all of the fireworks being synchronized to music. The best part of the evening tho' is the F-111 dump & burn - two F-111 fighter jets start & end the fireworks show by flying down the river and dumping their fuel, which then lights on fire - Jeff has a great video of this. We watched the fireworks from "The Island", which is a huge party boat that was docked about 50m from one of the barges, so Jeff's pictures turned out quite well. One of the cooler portions of the night was when fireworks went off in a waterfall effect from the adjacent bridge ... the pictures of this are tough to tell, but the video is pretty cool.

A Week in Review

From the previous Thursday to this past Saturday, it was non-stop action for me. You would have thought I was still in college with all the stuff that was jammed packed into 10 days ...
drinks after work (Th), the Ekka (Fr), Brekky Creek (Sa), Sunshine Coast (Su), Gold Coast (We), Brisbane Lights Tour (Th), gambling (Fr) and finally clubbing on Saturday night. The only nights off were Monday & Tuesday. Hopefully with the weather be crappy this week, it'll be a nice and relaxing week at home.

Casino Royale

Joe, Trish & I head to the local casino on Friday night after drinks at work for a little gambling and some dancing at the crappy dance floor in the casino. Not sure how it happened, but I left the blackjack table $90 richer than when I sat down. I'm no Cooper, but I thought I didn't do too bad for my second time playing blackjack at a casino.

Thursday Night Lights

On Thursday night fifteen of us from work went on the Brisbane Lights Tour around Brisbane. The major attraction of the night was the trip to the top of Mt. Coot-tha for dinner. After the dinner we were shuttled around to different spots around Brisbane to enjoy the night-time views. My pictures didn't turn out that well, but others did, especially the couple of pictures taken by CK.

A Day at the Coast of Gold

Yesterday our group went down to the Gold Coast – which is about 40+ minutes south of Brisbane. Along the way we stopped off for breakfast in Yalata to have some meat pies. It might sound disgusting, but they were very tasty. For the first couple of hours at Surfer's Paradise we just hung out on the beach, tossed around the football, and just enjoyed the day off. Oh yeah, we had Wednesday off for a Brisbane public holiday!! Don't be too jealous because I don't get Labor Day off in a couple of weeks. After lunch we headed down to Miami Beach and then just drove around town. Later in the afternoon we went jet skiing in the local bay and it was an absolute blast. I've been before, but never on anything as manly as these Sea-Doos - 1500cc engine, 130 horsepower. Our guides estimated we were probably going 65-70 kph (about 40mph). Other than making the turns, I kept the jet ski at full throttle ... it was an absolute rush. Since Surfer's Paradise is a pretty cheesy, albeit fun place, we decided to do a cheesy dinner and eat at Hooter's. We were able to convince our waitress that it was Apple the cow's birthday, so the waitresses sung Happy Birthday to her. It was a fun day and a great way to finish off these last several days of fun. Now I just can't wait to catch up on some sleep ... enjoy the photos.

License to Drive

I drove a car today! Without any accidents and problems. Even though I almost ran a red light within the first 30 seconds and about went the wrong way at a round-a-bout, I thought I did pretty well today. I mean, I came back with as many passengers as I left with and that's a good day in my book. After a while in the car the driving started to become almost second nature to me. The best part of the trip was that as we pulled into the apartment complex, a police car pulled up behind us. I guess it's shady for four guys in baseball caps to be riding in a car together. After interogating me on whether I had been drinking (I hadn't) and whether we had weed in the car, they let us go. The reason I was driving is because Jeff, Joe, Craig, Donna & I took Donna's car up to the Sunshine Coast to check out the beaches. The weather didn't fully cooperate with us laying out on the beach, but we were able to visit a couple of beaches and take some good photos.

Up the Creek Without a Paddle

On Saturday several of us from work went to the Breakfast Creek Hotel for the "best" steaks in Brisbane and some of us showed up in better shape than others. Once we finally got around to eating the steaks, I ended up disappointed. Granted, the steak was good (I had an eye fillet) but it wasn't great. In fact, I had an eye fillet on Thursday night after work at a pub which was better than the one I had on Saturday. Another special thing that the Brekky Creek does is serve XXXX beer out of a wooden barrel - the XXXX Brewery only produces 27 wooden barrels a day and the Brekky Creek is the only pub around who serves the beer out of wooden kegs. Here are the pictures from the day

A Night at the Ekka

On Friday night a group of us from work went to the Ekka. The easiest way to describe the Ekka is a county fair on steroids. The night was definitely a good time. Within the first minute of stepping foot inside, we decided to play a carnival game and against all odds, Jeff won a stuffed cow in a game of darts. We named the cow Apple (see the picture) and have decided to take her wherever we go and take pictures of her with us.

A couple of things I learned while at the Ekka:

1. Bumber cars are called Dodge 'em cars
2. Corn dogs are called Dagwood dogs
3. Cotton candy is called fairy floss
   
   
   

Big Trouble in Little China

Last night Maunsell (my company) took those of us working on the project who are employed by them out to a seafood/Chinese dinner in Chinatown - there was about 35 of us, which represents about a 1/3 of the project staff. I was a little leery at first about having seafood at a Chinese restaurant, but it turned out to be a good dinner. Being that this was an authentic Chinese restaurant, the only utensils provided were chop sticks and being someone who’s never used chop sticks before, it was an eventful experience. But by the end of the night, I sort of got the handle of it and was actually using the chop sticks to eat rice. So it only took me travelling 9000+ miles to learn how to use chop sticks.

Kangaroo - The Other White Meat

The five of us Americans headed down the path to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today. We were suppose to take the ferry down the river to the Sanctuary, but a little misread on my part this morning meant we took the bus instead of the ferry. The Koala Reserve is the world's first & largest koala sanctuary - there's currently over 130 koalas in the park at this time.

I was able to hold a koala and feed kangaroos today ... it was a pretty cool experience. I took a ton of pictures and a couple of videos, so check them out. A couple of videos and a lot of the pictures are of us feeding the kangaroos. The koalas and the kangaroos weren't very active, but we were still able to interact with the kangaroos while we were feeding them. I didn't see any dingos eating any babies tho'.

It's a little perverse, but we had kangaroo for dinner tonight (and it's actually red meat, not white). I have to say it was quite tasty. Hopefully we didn't eat this poor guy's cousin.

A Quick Take On My Update

Sorry about the lack of posts recently.

Everything is going well here in Brisbane … my apartment is nice (I ‘promise’ I’ll post some pictures of it this weekend), the people are friendly, and my co-workers are great. Having a good group of people to work with has definitely made the transition easier. The nice thing about this project is that there’s only a couple of people that I closely work with who are from Brisbane – so the majority of the people in the office are either from different cities in Australia or from a different country. So it’s easy to do something after work or on the weekends because everybody is new to the area and without significant others. The four of us (me, Oranit, Joe & Lorenzo) from the Chicago office are living in the same apartment complex and there's also a guy from Boston (Jeff) who's living there too. So there's been a lot of meal sharing and hanging out after work, which has helped curb some of the isolation feeling that is easy to experience.

A group of us is heading to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary this weekend to pet some koalas and feed some kangaroos. So you should see some pictures unless something goes terribly wrong.

Cubs Win! Cubs Win!

I take full credit for the recent success of the Cubbies. Ever since I left for Australia the Cubs have been on a roll and current sit in 1st place in the Central Division - take that Cardinal fans!!

Strange Brew

Last night a group of us from work went on a tour of the XXXX Brewery. The brewery’s been around since the 1880s and has been serving Queensland beer every since. A little factoid: the brewery’s original name was XXX (ThreeEx) because of the quality of the beer. Back in the day, monks use to mark the wooden casks with an “X” to show the quality of beer. So the original beer produced back in the 19th century had XXX quality, whereas now they produced XXXX quality beer. The picture to the right is Mr. FourEx – the brewery’s logo. Click here for some pictures of the night.

Men at Work

For those of you interested in what I'm actually working on down here, click on the link to open a pdf of a newsletter that got sent out across the US to all DMJM Harris (our sister company) offices.

DMJM Harris Newsletter

No Quirky Title for this Post

Last night the contractor that we’re teaming with up on my project hosted an International Housewarming Party on the roof of our office building. There’s so many different countries represented on this project (US, Australia, Austria, Japan, New Zealand, UK, Hong Kong and there still could be more than this) that a get-together was held with finger foods from each country to eat. The original choice for the US was hotdogs but a couple of people thought that hotdogs weren’t the easiest of finger foods, so we were represented by Buffalo wings w/blue cheese dressing and chorizos. Yes, a Spanish/Mexican dish was used to represent the US. Oh well … at least they were tasty. The entire shindig was catered and done quite nicely with the food and drinks being passed out by a wait staff.

I befriended a couple of other blokes from the office and we were one of the last ones to leave the party at 11:15ish, with a tub full of drinks still on ice. The contractor definitely didn’t skimp out on the party and it’s nice to be appreciated, even though as the head guy said, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” There might not be, but I definitely got my money’s worth of food & drinks out of them last night.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby. Right Round Like A Record, Baby

It's disappointing to report that the toilets in Australia don't flush in the opposite direction as the ones in the U.S. They actually flush straight down ... so maybe the title is a little incorrect. All toilets in Australia (at least the ones I've come across) have two buttons you push to flush it ... the smaller one will flush the toilet for the length of time that you push it down and the larger of the two will only flush the toilet once, regardless of how long you push it. I'll try to post a picture tonight to help show what I'm trying to explain.

There's No Place Like Home

I've posted my address to the right in case anybody wants it.

Good Directions and Turnip Greens

Thought I would post some odds & ends that I've experienced or noticed during my stay in Australia ...

• Within my first hour walking around downtown Sydney, an Aussie asked me for directions and I was actually able to give her correct ones.
• Australian hamburger meat tastes somewhat different than American hamburger ... guess they just grow the cattle different down here.
• There are directions painted on the crosswalk in Sydney telling you which way to look for oncoming traffic ... saved my head a couple of times.
• The cost of living is higher in Brisbane than in Chicago ... an 18-pack of soft drinks (not soda, not pop) costs about $12 ... a 24-pack of bottled water costs about $10 ... however, the produce is fresh and cheaper than Chicago - so let's see if I actually start to eat healthier here.
• A "good" Australian bitter beer tastes like Keystone Light ... I haven't found anything up to standard drinking yet, but at least it doesn't cost that much (sorry Mom).
• As of now, I have limited use of the internet at work and I have to sit out in the courtyard in order to jump onto someone else's wireless signal, so please be patient if I don't immediately respond back. You will get a quicker response if you use my work email (I changed the email link on the blog).
• The people over here are really friendly and funny ... if you ever have to chance to visit (either now while you have a free couch to sleep on) or later, you must do it. Until next time, cheers!

Sydney Walkabout

I spent all day Thursday exploring Sydney. The city is absolutely gorgeous and I can see how it is consistently rated one of the top 5 cities to visit in the world. I just wish it wasn’t half-way around the world or I would definitely consider moving there for a short time.
The first 1½ hours I aimlessly wandered around downtown … going in and out of buildings just checking things out. My first touristy thing I did that morning was to head to the observation deck of the Sydney Tower – 250 meters above the ground. Let’s just say that being over 800 feet above the ground provides an amazing view of the city.
After looking at Sydney from a bird’s eye view, I checked out the city using my feet. I walked through Martin Place towards the Royal Botanical Gardens. The Royal Gardens are breathtakingly beautiful and provide some amazing views of the Harbour, the Opera House and the city. I know that there’s a ton of different species of trees and plants in Australia compared to what we have in the U.S., but I was surprised how cool some of the trees looked.
After the Gardens I headed over to the Opera House for a look and a lunch. I had a little time after lunch and before my bridge climb started, so I took in a street performer. Let’s just say he juggled a torch, a sword & an apple standing on a bicycle 25 feet up in the air … not to shabby. I'm going to try and post the video I took of him once I figure it out.
My appointment for the Harbour Bridge climb was at 2pm. After filling out some documents, taking a breathalyzer test and making sure the equipment worked, we headed up to the bridge to climb it. There were 12 of us on the climb plus the two climb leaders – Jeff & Olivia. From check-in to check-out the climb took 3 hours and we covered approximately 1500 steps. We started by walking up the east side of the bridge, crossed over at the summit, and walked down the west side of the bridge. When we were heading down the bridge, the sun was starting to set which cast a lovely light over the bay.
The remainder of the night was spent having a 10oz steak at a bar – surprisingly tasty – and catching the latest Harry Potter movie at the cinema (beat you too it Jess!). I thought it cost an arm & a leg to see a movie in Chicago, but in Sydney it costs an arm, two legs, a kidney and a gall bladder … A$15.5 for a single ticket. Overall it was one the best days I can remember in a long time … the cancelled flight, the 14.5 hour flight, the lost luggage … the wait was definitely worth it.
I know my words can’t do the city justice, so check out the photos I took throughout the day.

I'm Here or There (Depending On Your Point of View)

I officially arrived two afternoons ago in Brisbane safe and sound. I did a little exploring around the city yesterday- it's a very lovely city. I still like Sydney more. Speaking of Sydney ... I will add a post about my walkabout there soon enough. I don't have internet access yet at my apt and am currently at a internet cafe. Once I have the pictures I took of Sydney uploaded to Flickr, I will post the link to it.

Dear Diary ... Day 2

Day 2: Tuesday July 10
6am (PST): Awaken by hotel wake up call at 6am LA time. Ignore it and try to go back to sleep. Turns out to be a pseudo-important phone call.

9am: As I head out the door for breakfast there’s a letter from Qantas outside my door apologizing for the delayed flight. The big news is that the cancelled flight has been rescheduled for 10am LA time. As it is 9am out on the West coast, I have an hour to get things together and get to the airport.

9:20am: On the way to the airport there are several of us from the cancelled Qantas flight who received the rescheduling info via the doorstep letter. After talking we come to the conclusion that the wake up call was to alert us of the revised flight time. Too bad the call was automated and everyone ignored it.

9:30am: Arrive at the airport and have to recheck in. The one good thing about this is that I am placed in an exit row so I will have plenty of room to stretch out.

10:15am: Finally board the plan with the expected departure time being 10:30am – just 12 hours behind schedule – and the arrival in Sydney at 6pm on Wednesday.

11am: Still waiting to leave the gate and am stuck watching “Bean” on British TV. Worst. Show. Ever.
Good news is that no one is sitting in the seat behind me so I can lay the seat all the way back. It’s the simple things in life that make things tolerable.

11:45am: And I’m off … for the second time in less than a day. There are two babies in the middle rows adjacent to me. Hopefully they won’t be too fussy throughout the flight.

12:20ish pm: Braised beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, and salad. Not too shabby for an in-flight lunch.

12:30pm: The lunch was actually tasty. Kudos Qantas. Glad to see that something finally went right.

1:52pm: 6,390 miles to Sydney. 11:44 left in the flight. Half way between LA & Hawaii.

2:20pm: Babies are fussy but a little “The Office” on the television and some classic rock to listen to make it bearable. Gotta love the little screens at your seat that you can watch movies, television shows, listen to music and play games on.

5:45pm: Half-way to Sydney!! Only 3,670 miles to go. Currently watching “300” – it’s a must see if you haven’t watched it yet.

8:10pm: I am an official time traveler (and a dork) – just crossed the International Date Line. Someone smells like dirty diapers. Hopefully it’s the baby across the aisle and not the old guy sitting next to me. Tom & Shelley-thanks for suggesting I wear comfy shorts and bring running pants instead of wearing jeans. I still haven’t tried to sleep yet. Considering there’s a little over 5 hours left in the flight I probably won’t rest my eyes. Starting to ramble … need to get up and walk around. Hope my legs don’t fall off. Jess-thanks again for driving me to the airport yesterday (?) and helping with my luggage. You’re the best.

9:57pm (Sydney time): I am at my hotel room right now trying to stay awake to let you guys know that I made it safe and sound (too bad that can't be said about one of my pieces of luggage). The hotel's not too shabby and you can't beat the price being this close to the CBD. My cab driver & I actually had a conversation. I think I talked to my cabby more tonight than I have in all my 4+ years in Chicago.
I don't know why, but the Sydneyites (?) must love their Civil Engineers. I got to skip the quarantine line when the checker saw that my profession was a civil engineer. Hope the gals in Australia like the engineers as much as the quarntine guy does.

I'm signing off ... have a good day today in America and I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow night if I can.

If you want to get ahold of me via phone, the phone number you can reach me at is (312)-239-8717. It's a Chicago area code, but I can access through my computer.

A Night in LaLa Land

It's 11:30 pm here in LA and I'm at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel watching a little Baseball Tonight on the television. Why am I just finishing eating room service instead of being somewhere over the Pacific, you ask? Let's just say that the airplane I was suppose to connect to got struck with a bolt of lightning sometime tonight. I was informed of this after asking an AA employee where my connecting gate is. Instead of heading to the gate, they sent me to the shuttle that took me to the hotel.
As of now, there's no assurance on when the engine will be fixed. If they fix it tonight/tomorrow then I'll fly out tomorrow. If they can't get it fixed, then there's no telling when I'll leave LA. I'll post more tomorrow when I find out.

Dear Diary ...

I’m going to try to keep a running diary through my travels from Chicago to Sydney – 21 ½ hours of screaming kids, old sweating men and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” on the movie screen – yippee! I’m not promising anything exciting or scandalous … more than likely it’ll be pretty boring.

3:55pm (all times CST): I made it through the baggage check-in and security with ease, but leave it to good ol’ Mayor Daley to try and squeeze every last penny out of you. There’s a nice little banner after you get through security stating easy access to the internet. Of course it doesn’t mention that it costs $7 just to access the internet. Nothing like shooting down ones dreams. I was hoping to do a little gate surfing, but I’m going to Jake It and not pay the money. At least not now.

4:15pm: OK, maybe I have a slight internet dependency. It took me all of 5 minutes to cave in and spend the money for internet access.

5:15pm: Just found out that that we are being delayed 40 min. New departure is 6:20pm

5:20pm: It’s nice to see that the only place that has power outlet is on the floor next to the men’s bathroom. Classy.

6:15pm: On the plane … more bad weather to come …may be sitting on the tarmac for another 45-60 min. Being told that our flight will probably arrive at LAX at 10:00 with my flight to Sydney taking off at 10:30. Nothing like cutting it close on your first international flight.

6:25pm: Getting ready for takeoff and there’s an empty seat next to me!!

6:30pm: Not to rip-off Tyler Durden, but it’s amazing how calm & serene the passengers are during the oxygen mask deployment portion of the safety video.

6:40pm: There is no freakin’ way I’m going to be able to sit in coach for 14+ hours to Sydney. I’m already antsy and I’ve only been on the plane for 30 minutes.

7:03pm: And we’re off the ground.

7:30pm: The in flight move is “Blades of Glory.”

11:02pm: The smoothest landing the flight attendant has ever experienced in L.A.

11:17pm: Just found out that my flight to Sydney has been cancelled because the connecting plane’s engine got struck by lightning. I’ll post more of this later after I have a little room service dinner.

Just kids havin' fun

I wish I had a pencil thin mustache

This past weekend was the annual Margaritaville festival/bash/drink-a-thon at Bass Lake. We had three new participants this year (see picture) joining us at the lake. Some were man enough to sleep at the lake and then there was Tom, who had to go back to his Mommy's house in Valpo to sleep in his own bed. I'm not passing judgement here Tom, but even Lynn slept at the lake. On a more eventful note, Lynn & I spent the better part of the afternoon in Bass Lake while a rescue crew was sent out. You would think two people with master's degrees would be able to figure out how to climb back onto a jet ski once they got dumped off. Luckily a nice geriatric couple was gracious enough to rescue us. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day at the lake. Scotty-I would keep an eye on Lynn as it seems like she made a new friend at the lake!! Click here for more Margaritaville pictures.


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I leave for Sydney next Monday for Sydney!! One of the things I'll be doing in Sydney during my short two-day stay is climbing Harbour Bridge. Check out link for info on it, it should be pretty cool.

Hopefully this doesn't happend to me during the climb!

The Final Countdown ...

The plane ticket is officially bought and in less than two weeks (July 9) I will be leaving for Australia. It's 14 1/2 hours from LA to Sydney and hopefully I'll be drugged up on meds the majority of the time. Once I know know about my arrangement in Brisbane, I'll post it here. So check back in a couple of weeks for my posts from Australia.



"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover." -- Men At Work

G'Day Mate

OK, I'm going to try and use this blog to keep my friends and family (or strangers who happen to come across this) updated of my going's on while I'm in Australia. Hopefully there will be some exciting things that I experience that I will be able to pass along to you.
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I got my passport over the weekend and now I'm just waiting to receive my Visa application. Hopefully I can get my Visa taken care of without any problems.

As of now, I have no details about when I'm leaving. All I know is that I'm suppose to be in Brisbane by the first of July. Which means I'll miss the beautiful Chicago summer, but the winter in Brisbane averages a low of 60 degrees, so I definitely won't be miserable. I'll keep everyone up-to-date when I get more information.

-nh