Bondi Beach

You know what's even better than shoveling snow and knocking icicles from the roof? Going to the beach. I knew one of the first things I'd be doing here was going to involve a trip to Bondi Beach (though there are other beaches close by I hear are just as good or even better...I'll let you know). It was eighty something degrees out and we had nothing going on. Easy decision. 

Something I found out about myself on this trip is that I've been putting sun block on incorrectly my entire life. I kind of got harassed for it by some "friends". Apparently you're not supposed to completely drench yourself in it to the point where it's non-rub-inable. I'm going to have to blame my sunscreen overuse on the lingering paranoia i had after only recently getting over the extreme burning and peeling that resulted from my trip to the great barrier reef. I'm not willing to take any chances anymore. Sticks and stones people. 

This beach-going experience was pretttttty great. It wasn't like Hampton Beach for those of you from back home. There weren't a bunch of wangsters walking around with their pants halfway down. There were no dirty, smelly people asking for cigarettes. Basically the beach at home will never seem quite as good now that I've gone in Australia (Cape beaches are a possible exception). I personally really liked the atmosphere at Bondi. Some people said it was a bit too crowded for their taste, but I'm pretty much used to that. It was hot the day we went. No doubt about that. We warmed up a little further by playing some frisbee. But soon enough we were in the water (which was not very warm but easy to get used to). 

The waves. Just huge. Waves like I've never experienced in my life. It's no wonder there are so many surfers at this place. It's a great feeling to see a wave twice your height coming at you and knowing that soon you'll be thrown around the ocean like a rag doll with no control over any part of your body other than your panicking brain. The ocean water invaded my nose and mouth on quite a few occasions. It was awesome. I was literally washed up to shore by these massive waves. No control over where I was going. So much more fun than the water anywhere I've ever been.

Me baby. Me.

Some of us do stupid things like go into the water with our bus passes in our pockets. I'm not a finger pointer. Luckily today wasn't my day to be stupid (except for the sun block). My bus pass was safe and sound up by my towel. I left the water and headed up there knowing that I needed to eat some delicious Australian beach cuisine some time soon. After roaming along the roadside cafes and restaurants for awhile, me and Luke ended up at this cute little food joint called McDonald's. I think I've seen them in the states but I'm not sure. Visions of the Hampton beach McDonald's now flood my head. BUT this one was better. I mean, the meal itself wasn't, but the 30 cent soft serve ice cream served me well. Delicious. 

We walked the beach some more and came across a little skate park. I was thinking about reliving my 8th grade skate fad and hopping in the bowl to show off my skills. I think I can still get the rotation on a kick flip. That would have sent the crowd that had gathered into a complete frenzy so I left the skating to the amateurs that day. There were some decent skaters. This is a great spot to skate too. I had to get some pictures of the skating with the beach in the background. It took me about 76 tries but I did end up with a few photos that are good enough to not get laughed at. 

More lounging on the beach occurred shortly after this. I'm proud to say that even though hours were spent in the blistering heat, I was not touched with even a spot that resembled a sun burn. I didn't get a spot that resembled a tan either though. Again, I did lather it on pretty heavy that day. But we could only stay there so long. We decided to take a walk to the cliffs that we saw off in the distance. There ended being a nice little path that we could walk along that provided us with photo-op after photo-op. 

We weren't allowed to do this.  Though I don't know who would take the time to do the YMCA dance and point their feet towards each other in such an emergency situation. 

It's usually these kinds of beautiful places where you can find some of the best homes in the world. This was partially true here. But these homes weren't like the ones you see on Cribs. Here, we saw a couple of excellent homeless residences that had million dollar views. Props to these homeless people for somehow convincing the city that it was okay for them to live on a cliff near a touristy area. I can't seem to load these photos right now. Just know it's the tightest homeless crib I've seen in some time.

We kept walking and got even more good views and even more good pics to accompany them. From up there, we could scope out the surf action pretty easily. A few days after we'd gone to the beach, we turned on the news to find out a Bondi surfer had been attacked by a great white shark. I'd show you some surf pics but again, I'm not able to load them right now. Internet issues continue to haunt me. 

Anyways, THATS what I need to accomplish next. Not getting eaten by a shark, but surfing. Learning to surf is one of my major goals and I'll have you know that I'm getting on it and will hopefully be able to share that experience with ya'll here. From the sunny city (not a real nickname for Sydney, I made that up),

Luke

The mountains are blue when you can see them.

Our little group decided to make the 2 hour train ride North for a one night stay in a hostile in Katoomba, New South Whales. This is the main place to go if you want to experience the Blue Mountains I guess. Originally, we were all on the same page and ready to go. A huge group of us. Then somebody made the mistake of looking up the weather forecast. Leave it to those 'planners' to try and spoil a good idea with logical thinking. So somebody hopped on the extremely slow internet and brought up the bad news: Cloudy - Rainy - 14 degrees (Celsius mind you).

And with that the plague hit our group. "I don't know if I wanna go." "Eww it's gonna be raining?" "Well then I'm not going either."

Who would want to go view the mountains in the cold, cloudy rain? I guess that sort of makes sense. But I'm a pretty big fan of the outdoors and rain never hurt anyone (I realize that in no way is the second part of that statement true.) Anyways, I was completely willing to rough it and take a chance. So were 7 others so we had a decent group still and decided to go.

This trip would prove to be yet another packing disaster for me. Did you know that at backpacker hostiles they provide you with clean sheets and a pillow? The 7 others seemed to know that. Unfortunately that knowledge wasn't shared with a certain me. There I was on the morning of our trip, walking down the crowded sidewalks of Sydney with a pillow and my brand new blanket I'd purchased from Kmart (yes THE Kmart). I pretty much gave off a slumber party vibe.

In my other hand I proudly carried a 4,000lb. bag of beer. This, I thought, was brilliant. My thoughts to myself were something along these lines: "Why am I the only one who thought to bring beer? These people are idiots. I can't wait to say no when they beg me for a beer later." I was happy with the decision. Shockingly though, I wasn't praised for this clever idea. Instead, every time my bottles clanked together on the walk to the train station, I was deemed an alcoholic. And, of course, in the end it turned out bringing beer wasn't a good idea. There was a "Liquor Land" pretty much right next to the hostile which could have saved my arms a serious Worlds Strongest Man type workout.

The conditions when we got to the mountains: fog like I've never seen. We couldn't see six feet in front of us, never mind trying to see the spectacular mountain views that were looming well past any hope of site. And of course the weathermen were correct in their prediction of rain. I swear to you, this story takes a turn for the better in a bit. But we're not there yet, and all the negativity will make the upturn truly rewarding. Maybe.

Quick picture along our walk

An Aussie woman (i still don't know if calling her a Sheila is appropriate or if I'm cool enough yet) at the Katoomba train station was nice enough to give us this optimistic insight: "You guys picked the worst time to come here". Damn. Just like that she walked away, not even telling us where she got her chicken wrap which looked delicious.

We tried to think positively, but there was a 0% chance of seeing one mountain or staying dry. The weather was that bad. Luckily, I was smart in one aspect of my packing. I'd remembered to bring a poncho. And after we'd settled in at our hostile and walked for a few solid kilometers towards the town's tourist centre, I realized I left the poncho back in the room. I must have been too excited/dumb. It was too late. I had to live with my stupidity. I was already wet anyways so who cares? Nobody, so I'll move on.

What did we need to do in order to stay positive? Well, we certainly didn't need a reminder of how bad the weather was for this trip, but of course, we got one. An Asian couple (in ponchos of course) who were virtually sprinting in the opposite direction we were headed asked mid-stride if we were headed for the blue mountains. "Yeah" we said, hoping not to get laughed at. Then we got laughed at. They gave us what was clearly an empty "good luck" to accompany their chuckle and were on their way to shelter. At this point, we realized the inevitability of being showered by "I told you so" from those who remained in Sydney. We officially had the Blue Mountain blues. Check out the killer view we had when we finally got to the lookout. This spot is where you would normally see the famous Three Sisters rock formation. Enjoy the temporary glaucoma.

Here's a picture of Liz with the three sisters in the background. I don't really think that's true but who's going to know the difference?

It had actually stopped raining. That was a bit of good news. But still, the decision was to go to the info centre and find out what we could do the next day , weather permitting. Inside this nearly vacant tourist hideaway, it seemed people were more interested in shelter than information. Apparently there had been days where the mountains were visible and the people at the tourist centre were nice enough to print those out on little cards and offer them to us for a fee. It was an odd thing to me, but the three people that were in there were hunched around the postcard rack snapping away at them with their own cameras. I almost offered to throw down the $1.10 simply to avoid this embarrassing moment for humankind. But no, people need to have these memories on their own memory cards for proof that they truly were there.

Time for the miracle.
After about a half hour of looking at thimbles, shot glasses, t-shirts, and koozies, we left the shop. Someone yelled something like "I can see!" (no, they hadn't been cured of blindness) and pointed off towards the mountains. Holy God, there they were. It all makes sense. God had just been messing with us. At that moment, all seven of us began a sprint towards the lookout where we finally had a view. Moments like this are always funny to me because people immediately reach to the cameras rather than take it in with their own eyes. Which reminds me, here you go:

This last pic shows the real Three Sisters

Now we were in business. We completely changed the plan (which was to go back to the hostile and enjoy the benefits of my beer lugging labor). With the weather in our favor, we had to take advantage of it. We walked a three hour trail through the very mountains you're looking at in those photos. Part of this walk was a climb straight down the side of a cliff where the stairs were not exactly built at a friendly angle. I couldn't believe how awesome everything was now that I could see it. We decided that the mountains literally went on for days and actually did have to take moments to just stop and absorb everything and look out into the vast expanse. I swear those moments had nothing to do with our completely urgent need to catch our breath. But, the fact is that we were just about unable to breathe at times. Now I was feeling grateful for the semi cold temperature. Heat wouldn't have helped in the comfort department.

The trail was supposed to lead us to a waterfall. It was one of those things where we could hear the water falling very long before we ever saw it. We would walk walk walk walk and still nothing other than the soothing sound of the falling water in the distance. Or was that Chuck having a pee just off the trail? Either way, we knew there was a flowing liquid somewhere and we all hoped that meant the waterfall was coming. It was a constant tease in our ears until finally we did come up on it. The walk ended up being worth it because this really was a great looking fall. Once again I drained another couple of AA batteries as I formed a one man paparazzi on this thing. I later went through my photos and was stunned that anybody could take so many pictures of the same thing. There are only so many different angles to shoot from. I'll just show a few of them that I liked.

That waterfall reminded me of the word awesome. We were all still pretty tired. Not necessarily sore yet but many of us knew the soreness would follow. And even though I'm not in the states anymore, it does get dark as the evening approaches. This was important information to know as we considered how much longer the hike might take. Getting stuck out there in the dark wouldn't be a good end to the day, even with all the little flashlights that are attached to everyone's vodafone mobiles. So, we knew we had to keep plugging away at the steps. Its hard to complain about all the walking when you're in the Blue Mountains. There's always something to look at and I barely noticed I was doing anything physical now that the stairs were behind us. It didn't take a genius to figure out that we were going to have to climb up some stairs on the side of a cliff to get back up though. The way down was difficult because balancing was a task, the way up was difficult because our legs were starting to feel the effects of three hours of walking.

Me and Luke were the only ones who walked all the way back to the hostile after the hike. Everyone else hitchhiked and packed into some car that in no way was meant to have five people stuffed inside of it. The driver who picked them up beeped at me and Luke as he drove by and Chuck gave us a one fingered salute. Sweet. Even walking in the town of Katoomba isn't all that bad though. I find this to be a good time to post this picture of some random intersection there.

After a good night's sleep (drinking) at the hostile, we woke up, had Belgian waffles, and caught the train back. The trip was completely worth it.

It seemed like there were heaps of things to do at the Blue Mountains. There was this gondola ride and some crazy train that goes through the forest. I saw some ads for horseback riding that looked like a splendid time. Basically what I'm saying is I would definitely consider heading back there at some point during my stay. It was very easy/inexpensive to get/stay there. It took an act of God but when we got back to Sydney we were able to tell everybody else about the great time (and sore legs) that they missed. Go me!

Sydney

I've been living in Sydney for about two weeks now. Unfortunately, the beautiful weather that'd been advertised hasn't entirely shown up. The first few days were great but for the past week, rain every day. It's not completely bad obviously. It's like being on a great vacation and not having a clear sky. Just today, our small group all got our boarding shorts and swim suits on, lathered up in what I would previously have thought to be an unnecessary amount of sun block, and prepared to depart for one of the amazing beaches in the area. Once we'd accomplished all of this, the pouring rain started again. So instead, I'm up on the Gumal dormitory roof typing up this post.  

You all want to see pictures of the Sydney Opera House by this point I'd imagine. Luckily I did have a chance to stroll on down there the other day. We had this brilliant plan of walking down to the opera house and getting ice cream. I scream, you scream, etc. It was hot out that day so everything was pretty much perfect (we ended up eating our ice cream in the rain but, yeah, it was a great day). Pretty long walk I have to say. I'm starting to regret bringing the most pathetic pair of sneakers the world has ever known. These things are bad. I seriously wouldn't even donate them and put an already underprivileged person through this type of pain. The insole isn't there anymore and walking for miles has given me the most sore back of my entire life. I'm not joking, right now I'm in excruciating pain (luckily the hot tub downstairs is working just fine). Today I'm going to go spend 100 Aussie bucks on a new pair of kicks. 

Oh yeah so the opera house was sweet. We went in and purchased tickets to a show on March 2nd. A Midsummer Night's Dream. It'll be awesome no doubt. The strange thing is that people go to the famous opera house and come back saying that the best part about it was the toilets. They had some funky sinks and everything but I can't overlook that architecture. 

 To other parts of the city I've taken bus, taxi, and train. The taxi rides come with a gourmet meal, a flat screen television, and a back massage. Or they charge you like it anyways. It would make it a little better if the cab drivers even knew where they were going. Sometimes I'd rather have Stevie Wonder drive me around the city. I tell the driver where we're headed and he looks at me like I'm the stupid one. We had to tell one of them to just follow the taxi in front of us that our friends had just piled into. 

You know how sometimes you'll be walking along a city street and pass by a foul smelling human? I've experienced that a few times in Boston and it's never good. Take the number of body odored people there and multiply it by five and you have Sydney. I'm not trying to say anything, but I did notice the deodorant shelf at the store was pretty full. In a way it's a good thing though, because in some cultures, there is much less importance placed on the way people smell. The fact that so many people reek here tells me that I'm in the most culturally diverse environment I've ever been in. 

The other good thing is that there's an amazing view from pretty much everywhere. It's definitely one of the best looking cities I've ever been to. Downtown is a short walk away and the entire skyline can be seen from my apartment building's roof. There's also a great view from nearby Victoria Park where the birds are beautiful, but sound like they're all gagging on razor blades. Here are some shots from my roof:

There is no such thing as a casual "thankyou" here. Instead, you'll hear "cheers". You'll never hear a casual "you're welcome" either. They, instead, have embedded the phrase "no worries" into their collective vocabulary. Fair enough. At least they're polite. 

The bad thing is that it's apparently acceptable to dress the same way when you're going to the beach or the mall. And did I mention speedos are big here? The huge shopping centre across the street is not only a great place to buy a speedo, you can see them on display. Either people came right from the beach or they couldn't wait until they got home to try on their new tiny bathing suit. I saw someone wearing one in the mall the very first time i stepped in it. After wiping the vomit residue from my face, I realized I probably shouldn't say anything. I'll end up in my underwear in public soon enough. I severely underpacked in the clothing department (really the everything department) and you're aware of my shoe situation. I'd better get over to the speedo store. 

I haven't been to a bathroom since I've been in Australia. 

If that seems like a bold statement, it isn't. I've been to the toilet plenty of times. Bathroom = toilet here. Everyone says "I'm going to the toilet" Even the signs don't say bathroom or restroom, just straight up toilet. It makes me wonder about a few phrases we use in the states that could sound really odd here: "I'm gonna go freshen up in the toilet." or "Luke's in the toilet brushing his teeth." People even refill their nalgene bottles in the toilet.

I'm shocked by how American the music is here. the other night I was in a bar that featured a live musician. He wasn't bad except he played all the songs about twice as fast as they're intended to be played. Song after song he played American hits. What really got me the most was his selection for his last song. The grand finale of his entire (pretty decent) performance. Picture an entire bar full of tipsy Aussies singing in their best country voices: "Country roads, take me home. To the place I belong. West Virginia, mountain momma. Take me home, country roads". Great. 

Now, I had never heard this song. I had to look up the lyrics on the world wide web. Apparently it's John Denver but I knew not a single word of it. But every single Aussie in the place was belting it out as if they were cowboys and girls. These are people who would never even consider it worthwhile stepping foot in West Virginia (and I can't say I disagree), yet here they were passionately singing about it, raising their glasses, and calling it home. But it was actually a pretty cool moment. I'm glad I remember it. 

The time is going by so fast. I guess that's what happens.

WOW I'm in Sydney.

El Great Barrier Reef

One of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. And not a single photo of it.

More on that in a bit. 

The group took a 2 hour boat ride out of Cairns and arrived at one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef. We were handed a sheet with a huge list of boxes we were supposed to "tick" to see if we would meet the requirements in order to scuba dive:

• Do you suffer from anxiety? No✓
• Do you have asthma? No✓
• Have you consumed alcohol within the last 8 hours?...Yup✓

I may have had a quick gander at some of the Cairns night life the night before. 

But no worries! (a very popular phrase here) I was allowed to scuba dive, something I never saw myself doing but am thrilled now that I did. 

But, now its time for the bad news. Like many other Australearn students, I'd used my camera's entire battery life the day before at the rainforest (so you better have enjoyed those pics). Some people did have cameras though, and I'll hopefully be able to snag a few of theirs to post. My temporary solution:

I welcome you to use your imagination to combine the two pictures. If thats not good enough, you can literally superimpose the images and get your desired result. I'll leave it up to you. Oh, but remember to take my hat off. I wasn't wearing one down there. 

The reef was unreal. I swam around the set of "Finding Nemo" for a half hour. The picture above is actually not far off. The colours were ridiculous. (I'm trying to get used to Australian spelling so ignore the typos.) So many amazing fish. Coral everywhere. An underwater game of catch with a sea cucumber. This was unreal. 

The other group down there at the same time saw a sea turtle, but it was too stealthy for my eyes. But the thing was crawling with life. I saw our diving instructor give the "clown fish" hand gesture and point to an anemine (is that how you spell it?) exactly like Nemo's. Sure enough there were little clown fish roaming about within it. The thing I probably enjoyed the most was seeing the sand underneath me moving and then coming to the realization that it was a sting ray. I think we've all seen one particularly famous example of how dangerous those thing have the potential to be. They also said that very occasionally sharks will swim in that area but only friendly ones. Apparently they're the kind you can chase and give a friendly slap on the tail to. But I didn't get to see a shark and that might be for the best. 

If any of you have experienced a day like this then you know how amazing it is. If you haven't and ever get the opportunity to do so, in no way should you pass it up. I hope to post some of the reef photos people took that day. Keep an eye out for them.

Arriving in Australia and going to the Rainforest

When I got off the plane is Brisbane, Australia after a 14 hour flight, I was feeling great. A few hours earlier I'd woken up from an uncomfortable 5 hours of in-and-out sleep in which my personal space was not exactly respected by the Aussie woman next to me. I woke up to a delicious breakfast of an unidentified egg product along with a white coloured sausage and some green stuff. Everybody on the plane (myself included) was beginning to give off a less than pleasant odor. At least when we landed we wouldn't be stepping out into 90 degree heat. Oh crap I forgot. 

These pictures do the humidity no justice.

After this, there was a painless flight to Cairns (apparently pronounced |Cans|) for our Australearn program orientation. Though me and the other 29 American students I'd met did come scary close to missing the plane. None of this mattered one bit. We were all just amazed that we'd finally made it.

The next day we had the pleasure of going to a nearby rainforest park. We basically got to see all the animals that a tourist wants to see when they come to Australia. Luckily I'm a tourist so I was really excited to see them.

This is a cane toad and its habitat. Apparently if you pick one up you are 

legally obligated to kill it. I let this one live.

Anybody out there who enjoys putting bugs in their mouth might enjoy this next bit. I saw wild ants. But about twenty or thirty times cooler than the ants I'm used to. These ants have green bums that have a citrus flavor when licked. I'm hoping this fact was discovered for survival purposes rather than boredom. Either way, people were lining up ready to have a taste of ant bum. I genuinely wanted to taste it myself, but I got caught up in taking pictures of what they were doing. I was so fascinated by this that I took a completely unnecessary number of pictures. It got to the point where I was verbally abused by people I had met within the previous 24 hours. "What's your deal with the ants?" "Woah, like ants much?" But they were pretty much body surfing. I'll let you decide if it's as cool as I thought it was.

I'm not stupid. I know what everyone wants. Boo the cane toad. Boo the stupid ants. Don't worry. You can stop your uninterrupted scroll down now and give the index finger a rest. It's time for kangaroos, crocs, and koalas. 

It may sound dumb, but I was pretty hesitant to run up to a kangaroo, give it a huge bear hug, and put my fists up pretending to box with it. If you've ever taken advantage of the tool they call "Youtube" and searched for kangaroo attacks, you would be hesitant too. If one of those things attacks you, forget about it. They can stand on their tails and thrust all four sharp, hairy limbs at you at once. Try to defend that. You can't.

Luckily, these kangaroos were pretty much the most calm animals I've ever come across. They were either heavily drugged or just way too used to human contact. I felt more comfortable with them than I do with my own fat dog, Zoe. 

Here are some Koalas. I actually had a picture taken with one of them in my arms, but I only have a printed copy of it. Let's just say I don't envy the trees that have those things clawing into them 24/7.  You'll all get to see the pic eventually. 

Crocodiles are scary. I was recently watching a show that showed these huge, vicious, crocodiles and i was praying to get a chance to see a few here. I was in luck, though I was upset when I saw the size of these ones. Not quite as big as I'd hoped for.

Then I walked a little further...

...and had to change my pants.

This guy is a BEAST. Absolutely enormous. An animal like this could absolutely maul me. I wanted to see him in action but he was sleeping. That thing just looks downright dangerous.

     I found this sign particularly helpful.

On top of all this, I was taken on a tour of the rainforest and saw a show featuring aboriginal dancing. I also learned how to throw a boomerang. Needless to say I was a natural. 

If you're wondering just how amazing this trip has been for me so far, just keep in mind that this was only my first full day.

I am flying

Actually, I was flying. It was really hard to keep myself entertained on the plane ride across America as you're about to find out. Here are my thoughts:

The Superbowl is about to start and where am I? Flying directly over the city of Pittsburgh. Thousands of feet below me are anxious fans awaiting a few hours of edge-of-their-seat excitement. Meanwhile, I look forward to 5 hours of flight sitting in front of a person who probably hates me for keeping my overhead light on. This flight (out of Philly) was just delayed an hour and a half, making it an undeniable fact that I won't watch a single snap of the game. Oh well. I don't care nearly as much as this flight attendant up here who keeps reminding everyone she's from Pittsburgh. Who would want to sit on a couch, eat delicious appetizers all night, drink beer, and watch a great game anyways? That sort of behavior is below me, literally. (sorry)

The temperature in this plane is a little bit chilly for my liking. The only reason I mention this is so that I can now make note of how the only word I can't find in my current word search is "lukewarm". I shouldn't complain too much though. Both seats next to me are vacant. AND...Good news! I can buy a juice box for only $2.00! ... Nah, I'll stick with my method of eating one of the cookies Greta made me followed by a fresh stick of gum from which to suck juices.

Note to self: Farts smell just as bad 30,000 feet in the air.

Woah! The pilot has just sent half the passengers into cardiac arrest as his voice blasts from the cabin speakers. His news is good though. He tells us that he'll be giving us Superbowl updates throughout the trip. I don't have an enormous amount of faith in him though. He already jumped the gun and said it was 7-0 Pittsburgh before realizing the call was overturned. Poor flight attendant from Pittsburgh. 3-0 will have to do. 

Lukewarm - upwards and diagonal. Nailed it. Time to see if I can finally figure out Sudoku. 

A few hours later. The pilot told us we were going to be flying over Kansas City shortly and that it would be out my side of the plane. I was excited. Then I started playing asteroids on my ipod. I guess I'll have to catch Kansas City on the way back home. Serious question though: Can I hold off urination until we reach Los Angeles?

Never mind Los Angeles. We are just passing Denver now and I just ran to the bathroom. Does anybody else feel like Chris Farley in Tommyboy when they're in those things? Anyways, the Superbowl had seemed to be going Pittsburgh's way for awhile which upset me. Now though, as the Cardinals take a 23-20 lead, it's definitely worth mention. 

The pilot's descriptions are lackluster at best. He's giving no details. Who was that last touchdown pass to?

Now I'm being told Pittsburgh has the ball at the 5 with 49 seconds left. If the seatbelt light wasn't illuminated, we'd all be on the edges of our seats. And they score. Wow. I missed a great game. I wonder how that Miller High Life "one second commercial" was.

And check it out, I can now see Phoenix Arizona on the horizon out my window. Pretty fitting that I flew over both Superbowl participant cities on this night.

And not too long after I see the beautiful site of the glowing Los Angeles skyline. Only 19 hours til I reach my final destination. Thats when you'll hear from me next.

HELLO from Sydney

I'd like to thank some of you for not giving up on this blog even though I haven't posted for a few solid weeks. I'm at the UTS Tower right now getting free wireless because I still haven't been able to get any internet from my room at unilodge. I have a couple of blog posts already scribbled down in a notebook. Unfortunately, I was in such a rush to finally get some internet that I forgot it in my room. I am having an absolutely amazing time though, and I'll tell you about it in great detail tomorrow when I come back with my notebook. 

Things to look forward to:

• Luke's inner thoughts on his flight from Philly to LA.
  
• A Commentary on day 1 in Cairns at the rainforest
• and on day 2 in Cairns at the great barrier reef.
• Early thoughts about (and pics of) Sydney.

Should be some prettttty good photos to go along with it. (Except for the reef. I'll explain later) Keep checking the blog cuz the posts are gonna be coming.

Ciao