Thursday, December 17, 2009

USA! Yay?

Its been 2 weeks since I've returned home to the States. And what a couple of weeks it has been. Adjusting back to American time and culture was both really difficult and really easy at the same time. So let's discuss the pros and cons of being back in the U S of A.

Good Things:
  • Getting to see my mom at the gate.
  • Real coffee. With cream. And Splenda.
  • Pizza. Real, delicious, 16 inches for $12, NY, thin crust Pizza.
  • Bagels.
  • Discovering Edam Cheese exists here.
  • Getting to see Kiersten after her first semester in college and baking xmas cookies to celebrate. Also, realising we ate 1/4 of the dough and made the cookies twice as big as they were supposed to be.
  • Christmas decorations with snow instead of shorts.
  • Visiting Delaware and hugging about 20 people I've missed way too much.
  • Continuing to hear "i hate you, you're tan" and "did you lose weight?"
  • Rediscovering the amazingness of the people that I live with at UD.
  • Learning to play the saxophone. Again.
  • The speed of the internet. And it's relatively low cost.
  • My dog still remembers me.
  • Diners.
  • Mom made a repeat Thanksgiving dinner. With Oma's stuffing. It seriously doesn't get better than that.

Bad Things:
  • My stomach CONTINUING to get mad at me whenever I eat. or drink. anything.
  • The whole stupid, 21-year-old, alcohol thing.
  • Realising that after being completely settled in with 3 people in a house, I have to start all over. With people who have been together since Sept. Luckily, I love them already :)
  • The obnoxious snail paced American legislative system.
  • Having to read the daily synopsis of Shortland Street rather than watching it.
  • Cold weather. (and yes, I know I said snow was good)
  • Everyone has the same accent as me. And now I chuckle when I hear it. For this, I personally blame Elizabeth Zucco, Lauren Baier and Maggie Ray. Maggie also gets blamed for pointing out the speed at which I talk. I am totally conscience of it now.
  • Newburgh <>
  • No positive exchange rate. When I have a dollar, its just a dollar.
  • Speaking of money, a pocketful of coins is not worth as much as I have become accustomed to. Also, the money all being the same colour is really boring.
  • The fact that everyone I spent the last five months with is a minimum of a four hour drive away. And a maximum of a 22 hour flight.
I'll update this if more things come to my mind.

Merry Christmas,

Liam

Saturday, December 5, 2009

So long Pacific...

In 5 hours, I leave Fiji and the Pacific behind me for (most likely) a long time. Let me tell you, the feeling is bittersweet.

I would almost rather say goodbye to my Dad at the gate and get on a different plane, bound back to Wellington. But at the same time, I'm super excited to see my family when I get off the plane in New York and to see long lost friends. It's going to be a whirlwind of three weeks until I get on yet another plane to head to Ireland. But that's a story for another day.

My day today was spent lying in a hammock for about 10 hours. I can only hope the plane is just as comfortable. I highly doubt it.

Can't wait to see everyone reading this and a few that aren't. :D

- Liam

Bula!

Bula from Fiji!

With only one more day left in Fiji, I can't believe how fast this trip has gone. While the days have taken forever to end, they have somehow managed to speed up, as they always do.

Since our arrival in Fiji, we have been sweating. The weather here never gets colder than about 22 degrees celsius. And in Wellington, it never got higher than 20. So I'm certainly much hotter here.

On Friday, we took a tour down along the southern coast to Suva, the capital. From there, we boarded long canoes and were motored up the river for at least an hour, through the pouring rain to a remote mountain village. There, we were greeted with a ceremony in which we were able to sample kava, which is a local drink. It is not alcohol, but does numb your tongue as novacaine does. An interesting drink for sure. It was awesome to visit this village, try some local cuisine and meet the natives.

On Saturday we took a boat ride out to a smaller island and did absolutely nothing. A bit of sand, a bit of sun and a lot of dozing. Basically relaxing on a beach with a cold drink. An awesome day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a repeat.

Sorry for no pictures, but I can't access my laptop here.

Can't wait to talk/see you all on Sunday!

- Liam

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Family Affair

Hey everyone,

Sorry I've been totes slacking on this blog thing. The past week has flown by and there has been little time to sit down and write.

Right now I'm in a small town called Frankston South, which is about an hours drive south of Melbourne. The best part about being here has been meeting new family! My dad's cousin has lived here for the past 20-odd years and it has been fantastic meeting her and her family. Melbourne is an awesome city that suits me better than Sydney. There were many similarities to Wellington, minus the hills of course. A plethora of cafes and bars dot the city and I was lucky enough to visit a few with my new found cousins.


Since Canberra, we have driven down to Melbourne through the Great Dividing Range and along the coast of the Southern Ocean. Our first stop was Jindabyne which is a ski town. However, when its warm and sunny out it's hard to believe that snow ever falls here. But the signs for ski shops and snow chains assured us that it was indeed a ski resort town. Our main reason for stopping here was to climb Mt. Kosciusko which is the tallest mountain in Australia. At 7310 feet, its the tallest mountain that I have climbed. The hike itself was pretty easy, but started out with
a cloud surrounding us, cold weather and 30 mph winds.


Uncle Bobby and I were a little hesitant but we knew that the hike was #1 on Dad's list for the trip so we stuck through it. Luckily for us, just as we arrived at the summit, the sun broke through the clouds and we were able to see everything.


In the end, the tramp was pretty awesome and it's pretty cool to be able to say that I climbed the tallest peak in Australia. (These two pictures are of the same stream. One was taken when we were climbing up the mountain and the other on the way down. The difference is awesome).

After that it was two days of small towns and the coastline. The small towns absolutely reminded me of New Zealand. I love the small town vibe over here and it was great to be able to stop in some more, just to meet the locals, get a coffee and see what strange thing each one is proud of. The coast is also really pretty. Australia may have some of the most desolate landscape that I've seen on this trip, but they also have some of the most beautiful beaches.



And now I'm in Melbourne. The last two days have been great here and I'll be sad to leave my newly found cousins (and Australia) in the AM. But now its on to Fiji and then the USA. These past few weeks, and past few months have flown by and I have a new respect for time. It never stands still, so take full advantage of every minute.

More from the South Pacific soon,

Liam