Perthection

And now, settlement. I am in Perth, at last catching up with my thoughts of the last 10 months.

The transition to the Western Australian lifestyle was a bit more volatile than arrival in Sydney. This is perhaps due to the mindset of arrival in my new home away from home whereas Sydney was almost a vacation, a quick stop with no real future. I was a bit uneasy in moving in and associate this both with the aforementioned feeling of actually being here and the fact that as college life goes, I am not used to this. I have only studied in Boston, with easy access anywhere at any time and a serious sense of hustle and bustle. Murdoch is about twenty minutes outside of Perth city (I have not yet seen it) and ten from the harbor city of Fremantle (henceforth Freo). It is a very different lifestyle than I am used to as a student; in many ways, in fact, it is actually quite similar to Cape Cod I dare say. Probably a little bit more lively.

But it is a slow lifestyle, really laid back, quiet, and relaxed, and I've warmed to it quickly. The first night here, my IFSA friends, who are all terrific by the way and as a continuation to my most recent entry, and I took the bus into Freo and enjoyed a Saturday night in what is considered the "heart of Western Australia." It is indeed a neat little city with a lively pub and restaurant scene, nice beaches, and a wide open green park. It is also home to Perth's hippy population, which has made for some interesting people-watching and, hopefully soon, some interesting people-meeting.

The best thing to happen thus far in Perth was to befriend an Australian, a roommate of my friend Josh. She is a very entertaining first year student and has ridden me of fears of not getting to know many Aussies. I should get plenty of opportunity to get to know some of Murdoch's domestic students, which is terrific. In fact, I'm heading out shortly to spend some time with a few. I certainly don't mean to make Sonia sound like a tool by which I can access a new world - she is great and I am happy to have made her aquaintance genuinely, as a human being before an Australian.

Yesterday was spent grocery shopping in the early going before experiencing Cottesloe Beach. In terms of pure scenery, I don't think I've seen quite an excellent beach. Vast, bright white sand sits at the foot of the Indian Ocean. Calm and fairly waveless compared to my Sydney experience, the beach's water is nonetheless fantastic and makes for great floating and swimming water. Meanwhile, the beach, while extremely crowded, is very relaxing; I laid for quite some time just enjoying the sun and Perth's atmosphere (though perhaps not literally; ozone holes are unfortunate). Just past the beach across the street is a busy and exciting restaurant and pub scene that we chose not to experience just yet but will certainly enjoy in the coming months.

credit for image to perthwatours.com, as I forgot to bring my camera.

As a brief aside, the Perth public transportation system, aside from its early shutdown, is fantastic and has a thing or two it could teach the rest of the world, particularly with regards to cleanliness and keeping its riders informed about the chosen mode of transportation's whereabouts.

I have a massive financial decision ahead of me already, and think I will be making it to the affirmative, resulting in my spending ten days enjoying Australia's northwest, where I will have the opportunity to camp out under the stars in the outback and to swim with dolphins. It just seems extremely worth it and I will forever regret not taking advantage of such an opportunity if I don't. If it costs me a beer a day then so be it; experience is the priority.

I think that's about all for today. Oh, I danced traditionally with an Aboriginal group on the last night in Sydney, that was neat. I was a kangaroo evading the vicious dingo and eating while I could. Good times.

Arrival

There are several reasons I will not declare immediate, unconditional love for the country & continent of Australia. For one, I've not yet been here 48 hours, so who knows what could happen. Also, I haven't been to Perth, where I'll be spending my semester, yet; I've only seen Sydney. They are, I am told, night and day. I think the equation would work out something like this: Sydney/Perth = (New York - 100 points of uptightness)/(San Diego - 100 points of uptightness). Third, I haven't started classes yet. Finally, I have spent the majority of my time surrounded by a large group of Americans (most of whom are terrific, don't get me wrong), so I haven't had much indulgence in the culture.

Having said that.

This place rules. Thoroughly.

Just being here is, perhaps, the greatest high I've felt in eons. In fact, all feelings of anxiety, nervousness, and even borderline sadness that I felt in my last few days at home seem, at this point, entirely laughable.

Much to say. Bear with me.

Upon arrival, I was a little bit shocked by the lack of culture shock. That's some fun with words right there. I had prepared myself to be immediately homesick upon arrival, or even upon the plane taking off. In fact, I even acknowledged this to be the stuff of self-fulfilling prophecy and let it persist. But when the plane took off from LA and the captain and flight attendant were speaking in Australian accents and there were Australian magazines in front of me, all bets were off. I was pumped out of my mind. And when the captain announced there'd be a one hour delay, I fell asleep, making homesickness upon departure an impossibility. And when I woke up, still pumped.

And when we landed and went through customs and left the airport and I started to see Sydney, all awesome. Actually, the initial seeing of Sydney is part 2 of reverse culture shock. I was surprised by the amount of familiar stores around. I expected McDonald's and the gas companies, but was surprised to see Electronics Boutique, Subway, and Woolworths (AND STAY OUT OF WOOLWORTHS) (100 points to whoever names the movie. Keep in mind the exchange rate). For a little while, given this and the fact that I was surrounded almost exclusively by Americans for the first few hours here, it almost just felt like I was spending my time just going to Florida perhaps. Even the beach, beautiful and fun though it was, was not something unfamiliar to me.

The first little kick of "This is Australia" came when a little colorful (and apparently quite common) bird landed in a tree a few feet to my left.

Oh, screw that story: a tangent. Way before that bird, there was Phone Guy. Phone guy. Phone guy was terrific. Phone guy gave us phones and extracted forty dollars worth of prepaid minutes from us. But he introduced himself to us by, tangently (a tangent within a tangent mind you), letting us know that Australians love to drink in large quantities. And that he did too. Then he gave us phones. I don't know. It was funny.

Yes so bird was first hit of Australia. Many speeches the last couple days that connect the entirety of the Australian existence today to its development as a penal colony. It kind of strikes me as a movie where the antagonist can blame all his problems on daddy leaving home. The difference is that those movies are no good. This place rules. So I'll buy their story. Especially since the result, apparently, is a love for Jerry Seinfeld.

I like this place.

I've met everyone from my group that is going to Murdoch or University of Western Australia. Good people, I like them. We sort of fell into a fairly immediate rapport and nobody offends anybody too much it doesn't seem. Granted, there have been no shenanigans yet and it's early. But it seems like a good group.


Today was sweet. We had to get up early, so that wasn't great. But we went into Sydney from our camp ground (an aside: we've had an orientation with no icebreakers with which to speak. I challenge you to find any such orientation of a similar nature.) to go to a zoo and a harbor cruise. On the way into the zoo, I saw the harbor from atop a hill. I was transfixed. That was the point of reckoning. Seeing the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge and the skyline all right there over beautifully blue water was incredible. Incredible. I knew I was here then and the feeling hasn't left me yet.

The zoo provided an excellent tour of various Australian animals. I saw all the big ones. Kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, Tasmanian devils, MAYBE THE DINGO ATE YOUR BABY, wombats, emus, crocodiles, name it. Plus, it was a zoo, so I also saw gorillas and tigers and elephants and all that good stuff.

And the harbor cruise. Sweet lord. I have had maybe four or five moments in my life where I am just totally and completely content as the person I am where I am with who I'm with doing what I'm doing and would go on doing such with such as such there forever and ever amen. This cruise was one of them. Fantastic. Three hours on a boat on the harbor. Yes. I don't have words for it and I'm sure it sounds a little blaz-e (I don't know how to put an accent over it...) but it ruled. It just did.

And so I came to a little bit of an idea in my head. Yes, I like to look at this trip as me subjecting myself to the chaos. But even such a thought requires that I'm allowing a little bit of order into my domain, and I have always been a little bit goal oriented, so here's the goal. Since the day of the death of the dial-up, life has been ruled by the computer and technology. The second life becomes the first. Existence is primarily behind a screen with little interludes into the big scary world. It lacks sincerity and screams of the need for instant gratification.

No more!

I want to have the external rule me. These developments in technology over the last ten years are terrific, without doubt. Even beneficial to mankind, I'd say. But it needs to be the second life. It can't dominate the first, and I will allow for it to do so no more. I want to do it all. I want to surf (and will tomorrow) and I want to rock climb and to kayak and to go to museums and to be moving and moving and moving and enjoying. And by the time I leave here, this will be what has happened to me. I will live a real life and it will be good. No more everything inside. I will exist in the external and take the bumps and the bruises and love it. Life behind a screen is going to be put back where it belongs.

Something strange is happening here. I've immensely enjoyed the beach the last 2 days. The beach has bored me on Cape Cod for years.

I ate a burger today with pineapple, cheese, beet, fried egg, and onions.

Mayonaise, until 2 days ago, was my greatest fear in the world. Fear. Not I didn't like it. It horrified me. Too jiggly, I thought. It tastes good. Call me a sellout. I like mayonaise.

Something very strange is happening here indeed.

Godspeed.

So Long Sandwich

You are boring but not evil. And you generally look pretty neat.

Pictures of Sandwich on Superbowl Sunday, the day before I flee the country.

Sandwich For a Few More Days

There was a little bit of a snowstorm the night before last and into yesterday morning but suddenly I can see the majority of the back lawn out the window. If all the snow is gone before I leave, I would like to think it will have been the last snow I'll see before next December at the earliest.

I don't know what it's like outside in terms of temperature etc. because, unfortunately, the fact is that I haven't been outside the house since Monday. It is now Thursday afternoon. I am not proud of this. I forget what air is like, with regards to all senses, except sight as I can tell you right now that it is clear/invisible until some funky prism science makes it look blue when you look up.

I've spent most of this break laying low, especially since the heavy majority of the worthwhile people in this town have gone back to school. And even before that, I was unusually homebody-like for most of December and January. For a while, I was worried about how this would translate for my trip. Was it indicative of a general unwillingness to socialize? Was I peopled out? I'd noticed during last semester, too, that I had felt like I'd hit my max for people known and just wanted to shut down my borders.

Thankfully, this week has reaffirmed my social nature. I am dying in here (though I suppose I would be wherever I went what with the passage of time) and can't wait to see people this weekend and, of equal importance, meet people next week. There are going to be a lot of people and I hope they're of the interesting variety. I am ready to tear down that wall.

So, on Monday, I'll leave the house probably around 3:30 AM to get to Logan, where I will board an airplane to Phoenix. I don't think I'll sleep the night before and count on the flight for sleep, which is risky, I'm aware. I am cheering for the Cardinals on Sunday because it would be sweet to be in a festive airport Monday morning. After an hour of chilling in one quadrant of the four corners, I will get on another plane to LA. I'll be in LA by noon PT. This is where it will get unfortunate. My flight to Sydney does not take place until just before midnight. I may be meeting up with a distant relative for lunch in LA, but he hasn't yet contacted me so I'm not counting on it. Instead, I'll probably have to just do 12 hours in LAX, which will be something. What was that Tom Hanks movie? The Terminal. Yeah. It won't be that bad. But it won't be good.

Anyway, around midnight I jump on another plane, which should attract stares. I've never seen anyone actually jump on a plane or in a car or what have you. Then I go to Sydney yada yada yada. A couple days in Sydney, then off to Perth. From there, I don't know what to expect, which was, of course, the point of all this. One thing I want to make sure I do is to go see the Atlantic before I leave. Hitting up the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian within a week would be a cool thing to be able to lay claim to, in my humble but sincere opinion.

So yes, check back for further updates. I'd like to think I have an adventure ahead of me. At the very least, I have 4.5 months outside of either hemisphere I currently reside in, so it should make for some stories.