Sniffle... Bleh.

(quick note: I uploaded some photos to go along with my previous posts, so check those out!)

Ugh... The Sick Fairy decided to pay me a visit right before I left. I made a valient effort to ward it off during the first day or so of my trip, but unfortunately, I am losing the battle. I've been trying to sleep a lot and get some rest... So I haven't gotten to really go out and enjoy Sydney nightlife yet. But I will soon!

Anyhow, things are going well here in general. On Sunday, we took a walk around the area, just to check out some of the local sights. Here are Jackie and Eryn posing by the steps, near Circular Quay (pronounced "key"):


And this is me, checking out the coolest water fountain I've ever seen:

We also went down to the Bondi Beach area to meet up with Eryn's friend Dave. We met up at a local restaurant/pub for some V.B. beer and schnitzel (which is basically chicken parm... deep fried goodness). We also walked along the beach a bit and took a few photos overlooking the water. We'll be sure to go back there soon to do a much longer beach walk down the coast, which should take a few hours.

Let's see... what else... Ah yes, classes started yesterday. Our international business law class is turning out to be somewhat of a pain. We're not exactly sure why we decided to take the class, but Eryn insists that we'll be smarter once we finish it. We'll see about that. We did get to see part of a murder trial today at the NSW (State) Supreme Court here in Sydney. It was kind of boring, as they were just discussing the validity of the evidence, but we got to read a summary of the facts of the case which were kind of gruesome. But at least it made the trip slightly more interesting :p

The entertainment/music business class, however, promises to be very interesting. Our first trip is going to be to the APRA offices (the performing rights organization here in Australia) to meet with a bunch of people from APRA and their mechanical rights organization as well (I forget the acronym for them).

Anyhow, I should get to some of the work I've been meaning to do... I've been sitting in the local library on Jackie's iBook for about an hour now, uploading pictures and checking e-mail, instead of working on my presentation for class tomorrow and writing up my law class journal. So I'm going to get to work... but we'll be going to check out the local music scene later this week, and taking a trip to the Blue Mountains on Saturday (hopefully I'll be feeling better by then). So I'll have lots to blog about soon!

Signing off for now,

-e

A Few Numbers:

For those of you who are following along and are wondering just how difficult it was for Eryn and I to get to Sydney, here are the numbers of:

- Estimated hours from JFK to Sydney: 20
- Actual hours from JFK to Sydney: 54
- Airports departed from/arrived at: 5
- Unexpected fueling stops: 2
- Meals eaten on plane: 4
- Screaming babies on plane: 2
- Days of travel: 4
- Number of time we changed clothes: 0
- Hours slept between JFK and Sydney: maybe 12
- Number of crazy people encountered: 4-5
- Number of fortunate things that occured: 2

So here's the whole story. Eryn and I arrived at JFK about 3 hours early for our flight. There was no line at the check-in counter or at security, so we had a lot of time on our hands at the gate. We should've realized our good luck could only get worse.

After boarding the plane, we find out that there is a problem with air traffic control and our plane is #34 in line to take off. Sweet. An hour later, we finally take off. Now, at this point, Eryn and I feel kind of stupid because we scheduled our connecting flight a mere hour after we were supposed to land in SF... Then we got angry at our STA Travel agent for booking the flight in the first place. Anyhow, we figured so long as nothing else went wrong, we might actually make the connection...

HA. Silly us.

About 5 hours into our 6 hour flight to San Francisco, the captain comes over the loudspeaker to inform us that we had met up with more headwind than expected, therefore burning a lot more fuel, and therefore we no longer had enough fuel to make it to SF, and THEREfore had to stop off in Salt Late City to refuel. Eryn and I looked at each other with the same expression on our faces: "awesome." It was at this point that we realized there was a very very good chance that we would not make our connecting flight to Sydney.

So long story short, despite a fairly quick turnaround in SLC, we still missed out connection. Gah. And we couldn't get our luggage because it was going to take too long to get it out of the nether regions of the airport baggage storage thing, so we got to spend about 3 days in the same clothes. And we met Crazy Person #2, the shuttle bus driver, who was yelling at a poor chinese woman for not being able to speak English (despite the fact that she actually was speaking English, just with a heavy accent... I translated for her eventually), then telling everyone on the bus that we weren't going to get out of SF until Friday... In hindsight, it's quite possible that she was drunk, judging by her behavior (and her terrible driving).

But, trying very hard to turn lemons into lemonade (or, more like wring the crap out of a lemon peel to try and get one single drop of lemon juice), we did our best to take advantage of the fact that we had a day to kill in SF. We walked along the Embarcadero, wandered around Fisheman's Wharf for a while (yes mom, I tried the Dungeness Crab... and I can see why you like it so much!), saw the World Famous Bushman at work, met up with Chris Kim for a quick drink, checked our e-mail at a local library (where Eryn was harrassed by a couple of old Asian men who were angry at her for cutting in line, which she didn't...), and then headed back to the airport for yet some more waiting at the gate. Oh, and Fortunate Thing #1 happened in SF... All the public transportation was free that day because of a city-wide effort to encourage people to use less gas. Anyhow, when we tried to check in at the little computer kiosk at the airport, I found out that I couldn't get my seat assignment until they called my name at the gate. Which meant, of course, more waiting.

Finally, we got on board our flight to Sydney, both convinced that we were not out of the woods yet and that something else was bound to go wrong. Well, we were right. About 13 hours into our 14 hour flight, the captain came on the loudspeaker to announce that Sydney was all fogged up/over, and we'd be diverting to Brisbane to refuel and wait out the fog (deja vu anyone?). Honestly, at this point, it wasn't even surprising anymore. Optimism simply wasn't in our emotional vocabulary. I felt like Marvin the Robot. Or Eeyore.

Long story short (again), we did finally make it to Sydney. And Fortunate Thing #2 happened: we met a nice guy on the plane who gave us really good directions on how to make it through customs quickly and how to get to our hotel quickly. I kept saying that I wasn't going to relax until we were sitting in our hotel rooms... But lo and behold, we made it!

According to the itinerary we got from the CCSA program, our group was supposed to be on a tour of the city when we arrived, but would be meeting up at the Sydney Opera House to take a tour at 11:45. So we busted our asses to shower and change our clothes (finally) and get to the Opera House on time. This is about when we met Crazy Person #3 (or 4?), our cab driver. Our cab ride went something like this:

Eugene: Sydney Opera House, please.
Cab Driver: Um... Hm... Okay...
Eryn: ...
Cab Driver: hmm... Opera House... Opera House...
Eugene: Um, is that going to be a problem?
Cab Driver: Oh, no no... It's just that I'm not from the city.
E & E: ??!?!

Yeah. So we actually pulled out our tourist map and I literally had to show him how to get to the Opera House. But we did get there... Only to find out that not only was there no trace of our CCSA group, but the people at the tour guide desk had NO idea who CCSA was or if they were going to show up anytime soon. So after waiting a few more minutes, we decided, screw it, we're here... we might as well take the damn tour ourselves!

And man, was it worth it... If you are ever in Sydney, you MUST go to the Opera House! It is one of the most architecturally stunning things I've ever seen. And it was so great to finally see it up close.

Okay, this is getting really long, so I'll wrap it up... we did eventually meet up with everyone back at the hotel (it seems they all had trouble getting into Sydney, so the itinerary had been shifted around a bit) and went out to a big buffet dinner at the rotating restuarant at the top of the Sydney Tower, overlooking the city. Now, normally, I'm a big fan of buffet dinners, and it doesn't hurt to have a great view of a great looking city. However, after all this hassle and traveling, and the fact that I was still very jetlagged and so tired I could hardly see straight, eating in a slowly rotating restaurant was not exactly my idea of a good time. I definitely felt slightly nauseous the entire time. I did get to try kangaroo meat for the first time though... Eh. It's alright. But I'd rather have a nice beef steak any day.

Which brings us, finally, to today! Not much to report yet... I'm feeling slightly under the weather (i think from the lack of sleep and change of weather, more than anything). ...the weather, btw, is a brisk 57-ish degrees during the day, and a slightly chilly 40-ish degrees at night. Not too shabby :)

Alright... I hope every one is well. And don't worry, my other blog entries won't be this long!

-e

Finally! We're here!

Hey Folks,

I'm using a crappy internet kiosk in the hotel, but i just wanted to report that I am FINALLY IN SYDNEY!! We actually ran into one more diversion on the way from SF... Sydney was covered in fog, so they had to divert the plane to Brisbane for a little while. But, we persevered...and finally got here.

I have much more to talk about, but won't be able to post in detil until i find a decent internet cafe (which will hopefully be tomorrow). More to come!

-e

I left my plane in San Francisco...

Well folks, after about 24 hours or so, Eryn and I are STILL in the US. The quick rundown is this: after getting through check-in and security in record time, we boarded our flight to San Francisco. Little did we know what "adventure" was in store for us. After sitting on the tarmac (sp?) for about an hour, we finally took off. But, now there was a problem with our flight path, so we had to fly a different route... However, this route took us through some airspace that had a particularly strong headwind. So this meant that not only were we flying slower, but we used up more fuel. Naturally, this meant that we had to stop over in Salt Lake City to refuel. Finally, after another half hour on the ground in SLC, we took off for SF. Then, an hour and half later, we finally touched down in SF. Woohoo!

...Except all those delays meant that we missed our connecting flight to Sydney. Boooo.

The airline was nice enough to put us up in a hotel for the evening... So after unintentionally arguing with a crazy shuttle bus driver, translating for a Chinese woman (who was acutally speaking English, just with a heavy accent), and waiting another 30 minutes, we finally got to our hotel rooms and passed out. Today was spent walking around downtown SF, since there is only one flight to Sydney per day.

Ack... Alright, my time at this internet terminal is about up (we're at the public library right now) so Il'l have to cut this short. Eryn and I have had quite an interesting trip so far, and hopefully we'll be in sydney the next time i post!

-e

Hey all,

Since it seems to be the cool thing to do these days, I went ahead and made this blog for my trip to Australia. That's right... I'm going to SYDNEY for 4 and a half weeks with two of my good friends from NYU, Jackie and Eryn. We'll be going down there to take a couple of classes (Int'l Business Law and Entertainment/Media in Australia), see some sights, meet new people, and generally enjoy the hell out of our last sumer vacation ever. And yes, for you Mitch Hedberg fans, I will try to hold a koala bear. Pat it on the back of its head. And maybe feed it a leaf.



So, this Wednesday I'll board my semi-long flight to San Francisco, then about 7 hours later, I'll board a really-way-too-long flight to Sydney. Yep... 20 hours in a pressurized metal tube, flying 30k feet in the air. Can't wait. AND, I'll be missing the US World Cup match vs. Ghana. I'm going to ask the flight crew if they can get us updates during the flight...

Along with me for the flight will be my good friend Eryn... She just told me yesterday that she decided not to bring her PSP with her on the plane. This means that I will have to find other ways of amusing myself during the day-long flying experience. Front runners so far include:

- Poke Eryn as soon as she falls asleep
- Spill water on my shoulder and blame Eryn for drooling all over me
- Pretend Eryn's in-flight meal is going to eat me
- Three words: Knock knock jokes

(I'm sure at this point, Eryn is frantically calling the airline trying to get her seat assignment changed...)

In any case, I'm in the midst of preparing and packing for my jaunt down under... Which is being slightly impaired by the fact that I'm incredibly sore from moving out of Brooklyn (temporarily, mind you). Feel free to comment on the blog, or e-mail me (or call me, if you're lucky enough to have my cell phone number... free incoming calls!). Alright... I've got a lot of packing, reading for classes (ugh), and general putzing around to get done. I'll be updating this blog as often as I can... so check back!

-e