Guatemala

After only being back in the US for a couple of weeks, it was time for another vacation. This time I headed to Guatemala with family. My brother and I arrived at 11am in Guatelmala city after leaving the states at 6 am. After only a few hours in the city it became very apparent that no one really spoke English. I would have to rely on the teachings of Mrs. Bond to get me through this trip.

The first night we went out on the town. We went to a really expensive club and were literally the only people there. I guess most people don´t have the money to spend at expensive clubs. After an hour, we went to a ¨poor people¨ club as Celeste called it. It was really fun. I got some stares for being the only gringro (white person), but the drinks were cheap and the music was good.

The next day was basically spent just getting to Celeste´s house. We managed to get to the Oaklawn mall in Guatemala city which was one of the nicest malls I have been to. I purchased a watch there for 800 q or $100. The currency exchange rate is fantastic for the US.

There were a couple days of beautiful sight seeing. We saw Semuc Campey which was a river with beautiful waterfalls and lagoons.

We also did a 1 k walk up a mountain to get a better view.

A kilometer doesn´t sound like a lot but when you are traveling straight up it can really wear you down. The coolest part was that we were walking on the road that Mayans paved long ago to get up the mountain. It was quite rocky and a difficult trek especially since we were wearing flip flops.

The family we are staying with has been extremely nice and generous to us. It is difficult to communicate sometimes because they only speak Spanish but they have cooked us many delicious meals and driven us to the best places in Guatemala. Yesterday, they took us north where we were able to do zip lining through the trees and then tubing through caves. Zip lining was extremely fun. Very cheap but probably not as safe as most zip lines. My harness got turned around somehow during one of the lines and burned my arm on the rope. I was able to use my gloves and press off the wire to twist myself around forward. The lines went over some beautiful rivers and waterfalls. 

Later that day, we drove three hours north in the back of the truck to see the Candelaria Caves. When we got there it was around 4 pm and it gets dark around 6 pm so they were not going to let us do the tubing. It took some convincing from Celeste´s family to get the tour people to let us go. Thankfully they did cause the caves were amazing. The water was cold and all we had were crappy made in China flashlights but it was quite the adventure. The cave was so long that it was pitch black inside. If you moved your light around you could see bats above. The water was completely still so we had to paddle to get through. The inside of the cave was really amazing though and the places were light peeked through looked really cool. I felt like I was in the movie The Descent.

Pictures

I forgot to set a lot of my pictures to be public on the web. That is all fixed now and if you click the link on the right you can see more pictures than you could ever want of my time abroad.

New Zealand

This post is probably long overdue. It will also be the last one I post until my new trip which is going to be Guatemala.
I had a bit of difficultly leaving the country but it was nothing that I couldn't handle. I did make an extra trip back to Sydney because of it though. Sydney was favorite Australia city but I liked it less after paying for an expensive hostel and having it rain on me everyday. I did manage to see more of the downtown area and even went out to a pub with one of the Australia's living in my hostel room.
Security on my international flight to Auckland was surprising lenient. There were no gigantic machines that scanned your underwear and I didn't have to take my shoes off. I did have a restriction on the amount of liquids on my carry on which normally doesn't happen. When I arrived in Auckland they had adorable beagles that searched your luggage for any illegal substances. I felt the strong urge to pet the dog but figured that I would get in trouble for it.
I got to my hostel no problems. I didn't really do much that night or really any night I was in Auckland. I talked to a British guy who told me to get to Queenstown as soon as possible because it was so much better. I booked a flight that night and left the next morning around 11am. He also told me to try mountain biking because it was the best thing that he did there. I will get back to that.
I first arrived with just a backpack full of clothes. It was nice not having much to carry. In Sydney, I wondered the streets for an hour and a half looking for a hostel while carrying two heaving bags and a rolling suitcase. In Queenstown, I walked the heart of the city in 20 minutes. I found a nice hostel right next to the lake. It was far enough away from the pubs that I figured I would be able to get some sleep.
The first day I basically just had a walk around the area. The population of Queenstown is only about 10 thousand but there are gardens and trails around the lake to walk around.

There is also a disc golf course right next to the gardens. It has to be one of the best places to play. I really wished I had a Frisbee. Later that night, everyone in the hostel was LOTR: The Return of the King. I thought it was very fitting considering we were staying so close to where it was filmed.
My second day was all about adventure and fitting in as much as possible. I did a jet boat at skippers canyon and mountain biking in the afternoon. The jet boat was pretty crazy. They took us through a scenic drive through the country with many stops to talk pictures. The guy really barrels through the canyon on that boat. He goes through some pretty tight spots. You have to duck when going under a couple rocks. Every time he stopped he did a 360 cookie thing and we all had to hold on cause there were no seats belts. He said that the boat could travel in 4 inches of water and its max speed is over 80 kph. 

The jet boat you felt pretty safe cause the guy had training but mountain biking was so scary. Not sure why I thought it would be so easy giving that I hadn't ridden a bike in about a year. I was bricking it the whole way down. There is no guard rail or anything to stop you from falling down the mountain. The people I rented the bike from said that beginners could do it but I didn't see anyone else that looked like a beginner up there. The second time I went down it was much better and by the third time I was doing the jumps and obstacles they had set up. After that I still had some time will the bike so I rode it around town (driving on the left side!) and then rode 20 k around the lake. It was really beautiful. Like every place I have visited New Zealand was also expensive. I was $70 for the bike and $90 for the jet boat. At least the US dollar is higher than the kiwi dollar.

It was funny to ride back on a plane to America with mainly foreign people. They all snickered when the flight attendant said that it is US policiy to make sure that guest to not congregate around the toilets or exits. The flight itself wasn't even that bad. It was around 13 hours from NZ to LAX. I got probably 4 hours of sleep though and there were plenty of movies and TV shows to watch while we flew.

So overall, it was an amazing experience that I won't forget anytime soon and probably one of the best decisions of my college career. At least I have this blog if I do happen to forget any details. 

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

Been a while since I posted here. Trying to think if anything major happened between these two trips. I went camping at rainbow beach and at night we saw tiny organisms that glow because of your body heat. I guess they were mating and only do that once every five years or so. Also, we went to Brisbane a couple of times. I saw the museum of modern art. They had some cool stuff. The most memorable was the room filled with just balloons. It was supposed to be considered art and we weren't suppose to jump up and down and throw balloons in the air or have fun... but how can you control yourself like that in a room filled with balloons.

Anyway, last weekend we went to Melbourne. It is the "European-like" city in Australia. It has less people than Sydney, but it is also much more spread out so it is harder to get around. Also, it was cold and rainy like a European city. I didn't bring a very heavy coat cause I assumed the weather would be nice everywhere in Australia.
My first experience with the weather was when I went to an AFL game at MCG (melbourne cricket ground). I was the only one wearing a t-shirt. Most of them also had the scarf of the team that they supported. A couple Australians told me to get a jumper at the store they have in the stadium. They were over $100 so I decided to tough it out.
AFL is not as similar to rugby as I thought. You pass the ball forward by kicking it and you score by punting the ball through the uprights. Also, the field is circular instead of rectangular. All I know for sure is that the Brisbane Lions won the match and that is who we were rooting for.
After the game we headed down to Chapel street to get some food. We ended up eating at a place similar to Johnny Rockets in the states. They shipped in A&W root beer and it was delicious.
The next day was the great ocean road. It is similar to the Pacific Hwy in California I guess. That is what this snooty American couple was saying at least. I thought it was really beautiful. It is just rock formation but they took so long to form and have survived for so long that you got to give them respect. The most famous spot was the 12 apostles. They used to have some weird name like "a pig and the piglets" but they changed it to 12 apostles. There are not even twelve of them there are 8 and they are these gigantic rocks that are in the ocean maybe 150 yards away from the other cliffs. Our tour guide was saying that they may not be around much longer cause a couple of the 12 apostles have already fallen down. We also got to see wild Koalas and feed some tropical birds.

There were so many cows by the great ocean road as well. The scenery not by the ocean basically looked like Nebraska. I guess cattle is a big industry in southern Australia. They were cows a quarter of a mile away from one of the best surfing beaches in the world. I guess they have the Ripcurl Pro there and it is the second largest surfing competition next to one in Hawaii

That night we went to Eureka tower. It is the highest tower in the southern hemisphere. The view was pretty amazing. It may have been better in the day light though. Some of up also did the edge package. The edge is a glass cube that they put you in and then put three meters out of building. It is really freaking looking straight down through the glass. I got similar feelings to the ones I had when skydiving. They people also played all these scraping sounds and cracking nosies so it felt like the thing could collapse at any second. The British guy with us were cracking jokes too. One of them started stomping on the floor and said, "made in Taiwan this". All in all it was good. I made sure to get lots of pictures of me by the Eureka sign.

Sydney Trip

It seems I am getting to the point in the semester where I have paper after paper due which means I will probably be writing less and less on the blog.
I two weekends ago I went to Byron Bay which is about a hour south of the gold coast. It was a small hippy town. Most of the stores sold hemp clothing. We stayed at the arts factory which is a little hostel just outside of town. They had gigantic tepees that you could stay in instead of rooms. We got to surf and enjoy some of the night life the city has to offer.
Last weekend, I went down to Sydney for Mardi Gras. Sydney is really a cool city. It makes me wish that I had studied there instead of here. It was surprisingly cheaper down there than it is on the gold coast. Taxis were much cheaper anyway. The city was big but not too big like New York City.
We tried to go on a city tour the first day but missed the group so we decided to go explore ourselves. We walked around the botanical gardens and saw the opera house. The Sydney harbor bridge is right next to the opera house so we caught a peek at that too. They had street performers in that area so we watched a contortionist fit inside a box and some Japanese jump rope. The jump roping was insane. Those were the best dance moves I have seen since ABDC. We got to Oxford street early to see the parade.
I didn't realize this but Mardi Gras here is the largest gay celebration on the planet. I have never been to a gay pride parade so it was quite a new experience. Everyone was just so happy about everything and really friendly. There were lots of drag queens and lots of people dressed up. The straight people really got into dressing up as well. The parade lasted 3 hours but we only stayed for 2 because it started to rain. I managed to somehow lose my wallet on the way back home that night.
The last day we went to the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife sanctuary. They were right next to each other. I was able to see sharks at the aquarium which is something I wanted to see while here. I still haven't seen a platypus or Tasmanian devil which is something I need to do before I leave. Most of the animals I saw at these places I had seen already but it was still nice to see kolas and kangaroos again. We went to the top of the Sydney tower to see the view and that was basically the last thing we did before catching a flight home. It was the best weekend I have had here so far.

Photos

I added quite a few photos and videos. They should be public now and I believe you can view them by following this link https://picasaweb.google.com/104385918922478847724

Skydiving and Surfing

I finally did it. I have wanted to sky dive for as long as I can remember and I was finally able to do so yesterday.
The bus to Bryon Bay left at 5:15 in the morning. Bryon Bay is an hour away and that is where we did both activities. When I signed up online it very simple and easy. All I had to do what pay for it really, but once I got there, they had me sign my life away and asked if I wanted insurance and these other extras. It was still barely light out when we left. I didn't get any sleep on the way there or on the way back.
Once we got there, we stood in line for literally an hour or so waiting to turn in all the paperwork we just filled out. You have to be a member of the Australian Parachute Federation to jump out of the plane so they had to wait for that to go though before you could jump. Once we finally got signed up there was more waiting and anticipation. My stomach started to get uneasy from nerves.
Before the jump we had a quick 10 min session about what was going to happen and what we should do. The guy did tell us though, if you forget any of this it doesn't really matter. It was a tandem jump so the guy I was attached to basically did all the work.
We took a small plane 14,000 feet up in the air. I was told to wear a long sleeve shirt cause we would be so high up but it wasn't really that cold. It took about 20 minutes to get up there. I was the second to last person to jump out of the plane so I had to watch as basically everyone else jumped out. When jumping out of the plane, they told us to cross our arms and hold the harness tight and to tilt our head back. I am wondering if they had us tilt our head back so that we wouldn't freak out when looking down from the plane.
My tandem partner, Gabe, pushed us out of the plane and for about 3 seconds I got the uneasy feeling you get on a roller coaster. We did a couple flips and then Gabe unleashed the trail line to stabilize us. We stopped spinning and I was flying though the air at around 160 mph looking straight down. The free fall lasted 60 seconds. I felt weightless. I tried to flap my wings like a bird, but I realized that it was hard to move my arms cause of the force of the wind. I almost hit Gabe in the face so I stopped after that. The scenery was really amazing but I basically just looked down cause I was afraid my goggles would fall off. We did some horizontal spinning which was really cool, but I have to say that I was still pretty relieved when the chute was pulled.
Once he pulled the chute I got really uncomfortable. I don't think that my harness was on right. After about 20 seconds I couldn't really feel my arms. I told Gabe this so he said "ok I got it". And he loosened the bottom straps around my legs. I dropped only a couple inches but I scared the hell out of me. He loosened some of the front straps too which made it slightly better. My arms were numb like how your feet can fall asleep, but he still let me control the parachute for a while. I pulled it all the way to the right and put us into a rapid spiral downward. This was at his request cause we were a ways behind the others that jumped before. I still felt like I was barely in the harness which was the worst part of the whole thing. The feeling that I could easily fall out if not careful. We hit the ground and I was so relieved. I couldn't get a grin off my face either.
It was an incredible experience that I don't think I will be doing again for a while. My shoulder is still sore and hurting and it is really quite expensive. Next time I do it I want to do it alone on a static line though. You don't jump from as high but I like to be attached directly to the parachute instead of worrying about being connected to a person that is connected to the parachute. Too many factors.

Surfing! My goal was to learn to surf and I think I accomplished that. It really is not that bad. They didn't teach us any amazing secrets or anything. I was able to get up on the board a couple of times so that was good. I did well in the beginning but the longer we surfed the harder it got. We were all pretty tired from waking up so early. Add to that the waves hitting you and the sun beating down on you. It was actually a really nice day if I stop and think about it. The water temperature was perfect and there was a little breeze to keep you cool.
The reason it is so tiring is that you catch a wave and ride it to shore and then you have to grab your board and haul it all the way back to sea to catch another one. Also there was so many people in our group that you had to bail out if you were going to hit someone and it would kill the perfect wave sometimes. Overall though I really enjoyed it. I wish I lived near the ocean cause I could see myself trying to get into surfing. I hope to go surf a couple more times before I leave here cause Australia has the best waves for surfing.

Currumbin Rock Pools and Cliff Diving

Been a while since my last post. I haven't done anything post worthy since then I suppose. I do feel that this is post worthy even though it may scare my parents to death.

Today we went to the Currumbin Rock Pools. To me, it was a mix of the forested areas with trees and rivers that you would seen in New Hampshire and some tropical trees and weather (it rained on us for a bit). It only took us about 25 minutes to drive out to this place. They said it is one of Queensland's Nation Parks. It was basically on the side of a mountain so the river was super cold and the rocks were really slippery. I ended up getting a leach on me that we had to burn off with a lighter. There were a lot of waterfalls and cliffs to dive off of. I didn't realize this until we already did it but people are not allowed to swim or cliff dive in these areas. Australians are just crazy and don't care I guess. It was a "do at your own risk kind of thing". 

It was kind of a back woodsy way that you had to climb up to get to the cliff. There is no set trail for anything so I got a bit of rock climbing in as well today. I am really glad that I wasn't a girl about it by waiting up there and thinking too much about it. They just counted down and I went. All the girls waited for forever to do it until everyone was complaining at them for making them wait. The cliffs were like 10 meters or so. Not sure what that is in American but it looked high up to me. I ended up jumping off the first cliff twice and another cliff once. I didn't cover my nose the first time so water shot up there and into my mouth. I was coughing quite a bit. The water was extremely deep though and I never touched the bottom when jumping.

They haven't posted any pictures of me jumping yet but this giver you a good idea of how high up the cliffs are.

I feel like if I can jump off a cliff I can do skydiving now. It is tomorrow! I have to be ready by 5:15 am which is going to suck though. Not sure how I am going to stay awake. Adrenalin I guess. Here is a video one of the Aussies took jumping off the cliff. Hopefully you can view it.http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150107976787529

Australia Day

I had my first experience with celebrating Australia day this week. The night before Australia day there was a famous DJ that played at club vanity. DJ Havana is here name and she is the most famous female DJ in Australia and she DJ's for Brittany Spears. She was pretty good though. When it hit midnight and it was officially Australia day everyone cheered. We ended up staying there it 3:00 or so in the morning. The worst thing was my ears were ringing for the next couple of days cause the music was so loud.
On the actual Australia day, we went downtown to Broad Beach to see if we could find fireworks or a parade or something. We didn't see anything other than a bunch of drunk ozzies. Some were wearing the national flag some where passed out on the bushes or the lawn from a day of constant drinking. That is what Australia day is from what I could tell. Drink all day and have BBQ's.
It is kind of strange that they celebrate a day like this anyway. Australia day is the day that the English landed in Australia and took over the land controlled by the aboriginal people. The aboriginals I have talked to call this day "Invasion day" and refuse to celebrate it. I don't have a shirt with anything Australia on it, yet. So, I just wore my shirt with the British flag on it. No one got upset.
Although, the people of Australia as a whole are pretty nice, I have definitely run into some rude people. Mainly at restaurants. If you try to specialize the order in any sort of way they get upset. If I ask for no mushrooms for example. Trying to ask for the prices also angers employees as I learned when trying to order a value meal at McDonald's. The worst thing was at pre-Australia day bash. I won a free hat and ,granted it was free, but I left for 10 minutes to go dance a little and some Australia snatched it up. It was a women's hat so I gave it to one of my friends but when I saw the guy dancing with it I confronted him. I asked him where he got it and he said he didn't know. I told him that I am pretty sure that he stole my friend's hat. He looked dumbfounded but then his buddy came in from around the corner claiming that he had the hat all along and that he won it, ect. I just let him have it if he really wanted it that bad. I saw the guy later and he works for the BUSA administration which is supposed to help students on campus.

Pub Crawl

I decided last minute to do the campus pub crawl. They had buses leaving at 3 and 4 pm to go to the bars and drink. Most people started pre drinking at 2 pm so at noon. I didn't which made the night more expensive. Drinking is definitely a huge part of the Australian culture. 

I did the 3 pm crawl and didn't really know anyone else when the crawl started. I ended up meeting a bunch of Norwegian people right away and basically hung out with them the entire time. There was actually a good mix of people there. When we got on the bus to go to the next pub there were these Brazilian people that would bang on the roof and shout futbol (soccer) chants. Seven Nation Army was a popular one chanted. Everyone dressed up like Waldo and we had group leaders that were dressed up like wizards. The wizards also had these Australian chants that were similar to army chants that we did.

The pubs themselves were alright. A couple were dive bars and they are the first dive bars I have seen here. Most were kind of fancy. I asked the bar tender at one what the cheapest mixed drink they had was and she told me water. I ended up getting a $8.50 whiskey and coke. They had a swimsuit competition at one of the pubs and that is the 2nd time in the short time I have been here that I have seen that done at the bar. 

At the end of the night, I ran into three Australians. They told me they swam 12 hours from Brisbane to go to the pubs in Gold Coast. Brisbane is really flooded still so I don't know how they did drive though. One guy tried to swap shirts with me cause I had the waldo shirt on still. We swapped but then I realized that I couldn't get on the bus home unless I was wearing a Wally shirt. These Australians had it in their heads that Americans don't like Australians for some reason. I thought it was the other way around so I guess we were both wrong. 

Classes

The first week of classes are basically over for me. I have one this afternoon and then I am done. So far, I have noticed that the classes are basically the same as in the US. The grading scale is much different. Here a 50% is considered average instead of a 75%. There seems to be more writing than what I am used to and more power point presentations as well. The cool thing is that class is only once a week for 2 hours and then you have a 1 hour recitation.
The last class I have is Cell Biology. Hopefully it is not too hard. International Relations will be difficult cause I am one of the few Americans and he is always making fun of our foreign polices and I don't really know what he is talking about. Philosophy class seems easy but very boring. I didn't learn anything new in the two hours he lectured.
I still can't get used to everything being on the left side over here. When you are walking down the hall way traffic flows on the left side and people pass you on the right. Even walking into subway you start on the left side then move right and place your order on the far right side. England and Australia are the only countries I know of that do this. Crossing the street is different too cause you have to look left, right, and then left again.
The TV programing is pretty nice over here. I get to watch all the NFL games in real time, the Australian Open, and the Premier League. I finally figured out how cricket works after watching that for a couple hours. It is pretty similar to baseball. The coolest thing is that, even though they only get 10 channels, Australians get premium shows like Entourage, Dexter, and Extras on basic tv. They also have a couple movies on a night. I have only seen a couple of actual Australian shows though. It is mainly all American tv shows.
Working out has proven to be harder than I thought. I don't know how much I am lifting cause it is all in Kg instead of lbs. I have to go on feel. I tried to swim in the lap pool. It is Olympic sized. I got done with one lap and was dog tired. I sat in the hot tub for 15 minutes trying to catch my breath.

The University

I haven't started classes yet but we have had our "O week". Orientation week basically. Just another way to meet people I just. On Monday there was a toga party at the bar on campus. Yes, there is a bar on campus. The legal drinking age is 18. Again, like every pub it is expensive. It was actually the least fun event that I went to all week. On Tuesday, a hypnotist came just like at post prom in the LC. It was pretty funny. He was much raunchier though. I guess less people sue each other over that kind of stuff here. It was strange. He would do stuff like every time a girl shook his hand they would feel pleasure and every time a guy shook his hand he would get a shock in the nuts. Things like that I guess.
Wednesday, we had trivia and comedy night. Despite my best efforts to lead the team to victory. We got last. I guess all the other teams used their iPhones or something. I don't know how that happened really. The first comedian wasn't very good. He did songs with his guitar and just seemed like he was trying way too hard. The second guy was much better. He would make fun of people in the crowd and there were lots of jokes about New Zealanders cause there is a rivalry between them and the Ozzies. Like us with Canada in a way. Thursday was again another party. This time you had to wear tight and bright clothes. Don't really remember a lot from this night. My room mate didn't show up till 7:30 in the morning.
Today, I finally got to go to the beach. It was great. The waves will mess you up though. Some of them get to be around 8 feet or higher. Also, they don't net off the beaches so jellyfish can get in sometimes. Very fun though. The city is right on the beach so it was cool to see it got from ocean straight to skyscrapers. I should have brought my camera. Everyone has been telling me that the sun is worst here and that the ozone is thinner but I still haven't got burned. I have been using SPF 70 though. Still very pale at the moment unfortunately.

First Post

At the request of a couple of Loup City residents, I decided to start a blog. We shall she if anyone reads it or not. So much has happened since I got here. I guess I will start with the plane ride over.
I got into LAX with little time to spare and in the gigantic airport. The lady at the counter didn't think I could make it though security in time but I had half hour to spare when I got there. The plane ride itself actually wasn't that bad. I slept for 8 of the 13 hours. The rest of the time I tried to make friends with the east coast kids that were sitting on each side of me. There were tons of movies to watch. All the newest releases and some Australian movies even like Animal Kingdom. I recommend watching it. When we landed they herded us through customs like cattle sending us into different chutes. From there we took a plane to Brisbane which was 2 hours and another to Carnis which was also two hours with a couple of lay overs in between. It was a long day. When I got there they tried to give us a lecture of all the important things in Australia but kids were falling asleep so they decided to wait till the next day.
The next day we saw rain forest station. I got to pet a kangaroo, hug a kola and hold a snake. Pics can be found here http://picasaweb.google.com/104385918922478847724/Australia?authkey=Gv1sRgCMW11KeM9LvEfQ#. Overall it was a good day. We also got to see the dance of the aboriginal people, watch them play the didgeridoo, and saw them throw spears at targets.
The next day we were up early again to see the coral reef. Our group took a 2 hour boat ride to the middle of the ocean. It was the worst time to find out that I can get sea sick. I snorkeled at the first spot they showed us for two hours. I threw up right before lunch and then didn't have the stomach to eat anything. They took us to another spot, the boat rocking violently the entire time. Thankfully at this spot we could swim to the beach. I saw a couple sea turtles along the way. There was just this tiny island with thousands of birds on it. There was a little section roped off for humans to sit in and I composed myself there for a couple hours. It really is a shame cause during the snorkeling I did do I saw the most beautiful ocean life I could have ever imagined. I swam with schools of fish, saw a small shark, and observed the diversity of plants on the ocean floor.
That was really all we did. I was told we were going to do a community day which would have been really cool especially to help with all the flooding going on here but it never happened. I did go to a pub crawl and ended up spending $80 that night on drinks and covers. It is the most expensive time to live in Australia apparently.