Why Australia

There are many reasons to list off, but only one has convinced me to go: I am not ready to go back to the states yet. That, and the timing works beautifully! So I lied, I'm not moving to Australia in November. I'm going in late October. It will be getting on the chilly side in London at that time and Oz will be starting to warm up. Three summers in a row sounds good to me. 35ºC days while its -35ºC in Minneapolis also sounds attractive. On top of that, Oz is a completely new place for me to explore. It is a huge country (and my knowledge of it has been greatly expanded as my sole account at work is a travel group in Melbourne) with its own diverse culture and different social groups. It may well take me weeks or months to see everything I might want to. By coincidence, Rhitik is planning to move there about the same time as I am! I have found most Aussies to be quite laid back, friendly and relaxed and after a year of crazy London living and extended travels, that lifestyle may prove to be a welcome opportunity.

It's a new continent! I've never been below the equator! I've never been so close to Asia! As to the location into which I will plop myself, I have no idea. I generally tend to hear something new and/or different from every person to whom I speak when I ask them about Oz (Kerri, thoughts?). Sydney is basically London (but with actual British people), the weather in Melbourne is rubbish, Brisbane-Cairns-the Gold Coast is too touristy, there is nothing special about Perth, Adelaide or Canberra and Darwin is just sort of out there. Who has even heard of Ayers Rock or Alice Springs? Should I just go live with the Aboriginees for a while? What do I want to do for 4 months of working? Fortunately I have several months to figure all of this out. I would like to find a city with decent weather, good public transport, beaches, culture nightlife, close to international transport and has a nice standard of living, yet not expensive like LA or London or Oslo.

When I am done working I will be able to convert my visa and stick around in the country for a while longer and travel around. Australia also serves as a great launch pad for a southern Asia tour, so I expect I can go to Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and the South Pacific, or further up to China, Taiwan and Japan even.

Besides, the over arching reason still exists that made me come to London. "Do it now while you can." And also while cheap flight is still available! So there you have it. As long as I have the financial resources to support myself and allow me to travel (because if I couldn't travel I would just come back to the US) I will keep going for the time being.

ETA to the US now looks to be somewhere around May 2007.

The Last Couple of Weeks, Lakes District NP and Moving

I think I have been slacking a bit on the ol' bliggity blog. Posts about Arsenal's loser-ness and not justifying in any way my decision to go to Australia don't quite cut it. I've been busy over the last couple weeks and my travel blitz started last Friday, the 26th and goes to sometime in July. My travel should have started sometime in the middle of last week with my flight back to Minneapolis, but I didn't care to go on that trip.

The last couple weeks in May have had some nice holidays. This weekend was a long weekend for the Bank Holiday and a while back was Steak Day. On May 17th, the Queen buys everyone in England a Steak and just about the whole of the country enjoys a nice dinner.

I did finally find a place to live! It took long enough but I now live in a flatshare/roomshare in Marylebone (say: Mar-la-bone) with a new group of people that all seem quite nice. Short term lets go really fast here so I jumped at this one when I had the chance, even though it is a bit compact - six people in two rooms. I am quite disheartened by the fact that our house has split and that I no longer live on Cedar Rd. I stumbled into an amazing group/location when I first arrived in London and found myself not wanting to leave that life one bit. I packed up all my stuff last week at my old flat in Cricklewood (snig snif) and let it sit all weekend while I went to the Lakes District National Park in Cumbria, England. Friday I took the last couple hours off from work and set off for a 6 hour minibus ride up north. Of the 12 BUNACers that went, there were two guys: myself and Christian who works at BUNAC. Estrogen overload! We had two excellent tour guides who were quite knowledgeable on all things British. We arrived Friday night and settled in to our rooms. Christian and I shared with one of the hostel employees - Conrad from South Africa. I turned out the light and about 5 minutes later Conrad states "I find it quite odd that police in London aren't allowed to carry guns." A 45 minute conversation ensued in the pitch black about South Africa in which there were numerous attempts to end it. But no, Saffis just love to talk and talk about their country; as if I don't get enough of it at work! Conrad is certainly the oddest Saffas I've met: he lies around and reads PC magazines in the dark or sits on the computer all day. I suppose he occasionally makes a bed or takes out the rubbish, but that's about it!

The next morning we set out for some canoeing and kayaking on Derwent water. It was extremely windy that morning and at some points it felt as though you were paddling yourself to a standstill while going upwind. Two of the girls tipped over in a shallow part of the lake and only one came back out in a different boat, and another two girls got stuck in the reeds and decided canoeing wasn't their cup of tea.... and went into town for a cuppa tea. The rest of us muscled around to the islands and beaches of the lake. After having lunch in and exploring the town of Keswick we had a rock climbing session. I hadn't done this since holidaying in Wales a couple of years ago so it was good to get refreshed on the knots, ropes and techniques. Two hours later and my arms were shaking after having to hold myself to the wall for extended periods of time. Our guides cooked us dinner that night and everyone else brought the wine. Afterwards we hit up some pubs and chatted. A few minutes after I crawled into bed, a drunken Englishman sleeping above Christian tumbled out of his, narrowly missing the wash basin. He sat around for a minute or two and then started apologising to everyone. We saw him next morning where he thanked us for putting him back into his bed, and left us a Guinness for our trouble. Thing is, we didn't put him in his bed!

Sunday morning was mountain biking time! It was really fun but people kept turning back as we climbed higher into the "mountains." After a good three hours or so of climbs and flat plateaus we hit the down hill section. I baahhhhhd at the lambs and sheep as I flew by, down into the valley. They baaahhhhhd back. Lunch was spent in another little town on the lake and the rest of the night was free. I sat in the sun and listened to nothing and it was wonderful. Sunday morning was our 5 mile hike through small towns, farms, falls, dales, fells and becks. It was sunny the entire walk and made me not want to get in the bus for the 5 hour drive back to London, where I still had yet to move in to my new flat. In the end I was very glad I went on this trip. I met some good people (a few them were even from the US!) and got to see clean and green England, as well as get some great exercise! One of the things that fascinated me the most were the walls running throughout the area. About 300 years ago the farmers and shepherds constructed miles and miles of stone wall to enclose the pastures. The problem was that they did not have mortar or cement and thus had to construct everything using freestanding/keystone and drywall techniques. So in the Lakes District you have what seems like hundreds if not thousands of miles of extremely solid wall constructed out of uncut stones pulled out of the ground. Maybe you just have to see pictures to understand what I am talking about, but it is simply amazing and a true art form. The masons who construct and repair the walls are in such high demand that it is listed as a job that no other British person can do, thus I could go work up there making rock walls for a couple of months if my visa options fall through.

Now that I live in Central London, I was only a short walk to my flat from where we were dropped off. I came home and talked to a few flatmates for a while who are:
Florian - French guy from Bordeaux who is here for a month to practice his English
Mathias - Swedish guy
Patrick - Swedish guy
Emily and Erica - Swedish girls from Gothenberg

Yes. That is right. I live with hot Swedish girls. Who would have thought this would happen!!! Aside from that, everyone is quite young (just out of Uni) and all seem very cool. It should be a good experience for a month before I go off to... Sweden! and the rest of Scandinavia. They were quite excited I was going so I should get a lot of help on where to go what to do and how to say it - also I think most of them are moving back to Sweden when we all move out at the end of June so I could potentially have cheap accommodation! Who knows though, I've only known them for a day.

Now I have to finish unpacking! Thanks for all of your emails! I will try to get back to them soon. Madrid in 3 days!

The Big News!

I am moving to Australia in November.

Bar-ce, Bar-ce-lo-na!

Arsenal 1 - Barcelona 2

In your face gunners!

Life is good

It is almost 6, and I am still at work. Not exactly the first thing you would expect to read after seeing the above title. Thing is, I have been drinking Stella and Kronenbourg since 5, as well as consuming large quantities of pizza. Awesome. Arsenal and Barcelona play in the Champions league final tonight in Paris. I can't wait for a clash between two of the most amazing strikers in the world: Henry and Ronaldinho.

My weekend was pretty good, especially for not having a single plan. I think Bricklane has become my official London hangout. I find this quite amusing because I remember from London Business Semester a project that Rex gave us where we had to go to 3 markets and comment/analyse them a bit, Bricklane being one of them. Everyone has a mostly negative reaction to Bricklane (at least the market) and 2 or so years later, I am going there almost twice a week. Went to the usual club Friday and got home late. This gorgeous Indian chick was there whom I had met a number of weeks ago and we talked a bit which was cool. More on that later, and how I fail with women in general.

I spent saturday at the Museum of London and walking around finding all of the old Roman sites in proper London. About the only notable item that still exists is an old wall. That night we all ordered pizza, drank and then went out. Typical Saturday night activity.

Sunday was my big grocery store trip and Ultimate down in Hyde Park. I am starting to lose my "game" as I have been slacking quite a bit the last few months and it is showing. As long as I can stay here over summer I should get back to my normal level of play. Rhitik called me and said I should come back because we were going to, guess where? Bricklane yet again. He, Mario and I met up with the others (Louie, Sophie, Meeta, do you even care about names?) at another club where this Hindi hip hop group did a gig that was a cross between spokenword, prose and songs. It was quite comical at times and I was surprisingly impressed. After that the dancing started and I was once again on my way to being pissed. I ended up dancing with hot Indian girl for a while and that was awesome, but I realised once I got home that I didn't even get a number. I find myself torn because on the one hand, I just don't really care at this point, and on the other it would have been sweet to get it and Rhitik took the mick out of me all the way home while I talked to Mike in the US.

Oh well. I potentially only have 5 weeks left in this country anyways. My goodness that went fast! Infact, I think my return flight to the US is on the 24th of May. Too bad I have 4 trips booked after that date. Hmm, seems as though I wont be coming back for a while..... more on that later, though I think most of my dear readers already know what I have planned for the next 12-15 months of my life.

The flat search is going like shit and I think my flatmates who are moving out tonight stole my Absolut (probably on accident) so I have to go get it back, but I probably won't cause I am going out to watch the Champions League final. Bugger.

I'm gonna go look for some more beer. For real this time, by the end of the week I should have "big news." Ta

Definitely Friday

In the 7 or so hours I've been at work today, I have maybe worked for about two of those hours. I've spent the remaining time doing any number of things that don't even come close to resembling work, or even trying to make it look as though I am working. The list is as follows: taking the piss out of Dirk and other people with whom I work. Look at that! Proper English! Making paper airplanes with Dirk, going to the park and lying in the sun, throwing disc in the park. Writing in my blog. Collecting posta carbonara recipes. Figuring out how to make cheap international calls from my mobile (and I did! so maybe you will get a call from me). Staring into SUN account C660 (accounts is awesome, not). Spinning around in my chair. Chatting. Eating Birthday treats. Zoning out. Taking my shoes off. Yeah, Fridays are sweet.

Not a single plan for the weekend.

Excesive Entertainment Expenses

This weekend (5th-7th May) started out with me goin East, rather than West from where I work on Friday night. I went to an area of town called Leyton with my friends from work to join them in celebrating a former coworkers birthday and to just get well pissed in general. Leyton gets a bit of a bad rap (wrap?) for being a "dodgy" area of town, but it really isn't. There are just loads of different ethnic groups, the biggest being the Saffas'. That is who I went to party with. By the time everyone was at the party -this included me, three Columbians and about 19 people from South Africa- and had been drinking for a while, Afrikaans was becoming widely spoken and I was losing interest in the conversations. What people were saying looked interesting as they drunkenly flailed their arms about explaining some story, but I just couldn't fucking understand them. It was like work! At this point I was taught how to yell at people in Afrikaans and say extemely deragotory things to them in order to get them to speak in English. I now know how to start a fight in ZA. It worked and good conversation soon followed (I remember ranting on and on to some girl about the difference between America the continent and the United States and she kept saying "No no, it's OK. I know what you mean." She obviously didn't.). Once completely inebriated, I began hitting on the hot Columbian birds. Dancing and shots of Tequila ensued and I still had no idea where I was, and the last train home had departed a good 2 and a half hours ago! The next thing I remembered (of any interest) was Heinie waking up and leaving. I decided that was a brilliant idea and did the same. Alas, the door outsmarted me and kept me inside while I listened to Michael sing in the toilet. He eventually came and let me out, explaining the whole key-on-the-string-to-let-yourself-out bit that had gone completely over my head at this stage of the game. Next thought: "Where the fuck is the tube? Thank god for my A-Z!" I finally got home about 10h00 Saturday morning and walked into the kitchen where Scott and Ang were making breakfast: "I Win" I thought and did some random things that didn't need doing, such as knocking a plastic bag that contained plastic bags off the wall and unsuccessfully trying to pick them up off the floor. I also hung my newly cleaned clothes on the line outside because I thought they would be OK there and went to bed.

I woke up at 3 that afternoon and groaned. Not because I was hungover (and I wasn't) but because of the bloody rain. I took down my clothes which were mostly dry, though still damp and thought about what to do. Food! The last things I remember eating were Braai and some sort of BBQ grilled cheese and tomato sandwich on toast that some one so kindly made for me at whatever time the previous night/morning. As to what Braai is, pretty much Saffas BBQ. Huge pieces of seasoned meat in a spirally-sausage form grilled with onions and put on bread. Quinten was adamant about there being no sauce. It was delicious nonetheless.

Anyways, Saturday night got expensive for only having a pint of Magners compared to the 7 quid I spent getting pissed the previous night, discovering that Sol is an OK cervejas. I went out with the Aussies to a comedy club down in Soho called the Amused Moose. I don't think there are moose in London, orEngland, or even Europe. The first two acts made me chuckle but were no more than mediocre, especially for one of the comics being a fairly big celebrity. The headliner changed all that and was fantastic, giving brilliant renditions of drunken sperm and a bottle of merlot talking to a drunk person. And good impressions of drunk people too. Maybe you just had to be there? After that, we were starving and the thai place next door was closing, so he moved to China town for a mediocre and over priced dinner. This reconfirmed my wariness of Chinese cuisine in general. But more than that, the entire night cost well over £25, and I deffinitely did not have $45 worth of food or entertainment experiences from that night, which once again reconfirmed my wariness for London's West End. Live and learn.

I woke up early Sunday and went out to Oxford for a day trip to see the city. I caught my train with about negative one second to spare - I had to push the train doors back open and force myself inside- that way I didn't have to wait around for an hour. By 11 o clock I was walking around Oxford, but thought I was in Amsterdam as I wandered into the canals and boathouse section of the city. After a good 6 or so hours of wandering about I returned to London. Overall, I enjoyed Oxford, though I think Cambridge is the better of the two cities. I thought the latter was more impressive architecturally, whether it be city layout, landscape design or buildings in general. Cambridge has a better balance between narrow streets and passageways and open greenspace than does Oxford. It is nicer to wander through the "backs" of Cambridge than the Meadows of Christ College. Cambridge had a better social vibe to it, Oxford had too many cars. Besides, whenever I went to a museum or exhibit, I had to pay a fee or it was mostly closed off due to remodeling. However I think one of Oxfords bright spots is the Ashmolean museum, which is essentially the first museum in Britain and belongs to the University. It was free, had some neat displays, but again, a lot of exhibits were blocked off. Bugger. There is also the Radcliffe Camera and the Bsksjfsomething library which is just about the most important library in England. It receives the first draft of any publication ever made inside England. And the stacks are all located underground in a huge complex. Cool huh? OK, probably not. But I am a nerd and I thought so.

That night Mario made delicious Mexican food. It had been ages since last having a proper Mexican meal! Two nights later, Rhitik cooked some amazing curry. I thought about what "ethnic" foods I could cook. I decided lutefisk, lefsa and wild rice were best left back home. I suppose it is my turn to cook next weekend, so someone help me think of a good "Minnesota" dish aside from bland fish and bread.

That about does it I guess. Make sure you all call your mothers on Sunday.

It's Summer!

Well maybe not quite summer altogether, but a brilliant start to spring. I can definitely tell because I was shat on by birds (note - plural) on my run through the park last night. They came in for a carpet bombing and I was Dresden. Poop somehow wound up on my head, front of my shirt, hand, back of my right knee and shorts. I knew what happened right as it hit me even though being pooped on by birds has never happened to me before. I kept running, wiping it off as I went.

It's 26ºC and supposed to stay that way for the weekend. Blue skies, no rain (yet) trees are green, flowers blooming in the park and loads of people out enjoying the weather. Today I fell asleep in the park on my lunch hour under the mild English sun; trying to get ready for the not-so-mild Spanish sun in a month.

A house party in Leyton with a bunch of Saffas', a trip to Oxford and Sunday Ultimate are on tap for the weekend.

The Drunken Man

While Rhitik and I were walking JP and Sarah to the overland station after our flat party the other weekend, an extemely drunken Englishman crossed our path perpendicularly as he was on his way home. As he approached the the curb to cross the street he stumbled once or twice, indicating to us his exteme intoxicatedness, stepped off the curb and wound up flat on his face, not moving. This was by far no graceful fall or light tumble to the ground. It was really the opposite; he projected himself into the ground and at a pretty good clip. We hurried over to him and tried to help him up, but he was content with lying in the middle of the street. Rhitik yelled at him for not wanting to go home, and the four of us picked him up (drunken Englishman are known for being notoriously fat). He was all of 15 metres from his house, which was kitty corner from where his face left an impact crater on the ground. Rhitik got him to his door, where he proceeded to once again project himself onto the floor of his house and shut his door in the process. It was all a very loud occurence and no doubt woke up many persons in the area.