Back to the life I wanted

Well as you can probably tell I am back to Canada now. My last week in Australia was fun though, and I will forever cherish it. I met my cousin Sam and his wife & kids, and he let me stay in his apartment for a few days. But unlike the visit at Dave's place, I actually went out. In fact, I rented a car, and drove on the wrong side of the road! It was a pretty freaky experience, and I rented a GPS unit as well, which ended up being a real blessing.

I met a nice lady on the plane to Sunshine Coast airport, and she shared some of her life with me and I did mine. Usually people sitting next to me don't talk to me, but this was one of those odd times when it did happen. The 1-and-a-bit hour flight seemed much shorter. She seemed to know everything that was happening, from the wings to the undercarriage and the wheels. Of course she ordered a lot of drinks as well, and got really happy towards the end. She gave me one of her friends' phone numbers, which I never ended up calling. Oh well. I guess I'm not that adventurous.

I immediately recognized my cousin, although he didn't me. He said he thought I was a bit taller! So it was sort of funny. The car rental was a nice Toyota sedan, but I can't remember the make anymore. I tried to follow him in the dark but I was still getting used to driving on the left side. Good thing for the GPS! We had programmed his house in before I left, so it was all good. He passed me on the highway and I knew all was well. Driving in the passenger seat was so odd to me, I will probably never get over it. I met his wife and she was lovely. I think I even got some leftover dinner, some nice spaghetti and meatballs. And so I slept on the extended sofa. It was sort of humid out and I couldn't really fall asleep. In the middle of the night his young daughter walked out of her room and said hi to me, although I pretended to be sleeping.

The next day I went to Rainbow Beach. I had booked a Fraser Island tour for that day, and left 3 hours in advance to make sure I got there in time. The roads were so well paved it was a dream to drive on them. Even the expressways here only go up to 2 lanes, because 3 aren't necessary. Guess the population isn't that big yet to warrant that. I got to the place about 1 hour early, but I was still happy I left early. I parked my car and waited for the tourbus, and it came at exactly 7:40am. It turns out there were only 10 guests that day in a 40-seater bus, so we sat up front. I didn't really talk to anyone there, but it was a nice mix of people. Australians, 1 Danish guy, 2 Irish people, and 1 from New Zealand. Good times! The tour guide was a nice chap named Mark, and the company was Fraser Island Explorer Tours. It was great fun and it would take too long to talk about all of it here, but it was just awesome and I recommend it to everyone. The day was cloudy and overcast and it was still great. The island itself is a national park and it's protected, so no actual roads are on it. Instead, you can only drive there on 4WD buses/trucks. Our tourbus was awesome though, we passed all the amateur drivers doing self tours easily. The highlights were a walk through a small rainforest, sand dunes, freshwater streams, Lake MacKenzie, a shipwreck, and a blowfish washed up on shore, believe it or not. We also saw some wild dingoes!

That evening I got back and actually got to meet my cousin's kids. Typical kids, playing and having fun. He actually made a new house though and next time I come visit I'll probably go there. The next day I went to Australia Zoo, and that was cool. Steve Irwin's presence is still strong there. Lots of memorials set up for him. Almost made me choke up. The park is really heavy on the crocodiles, which take up a large portion of it. But they are expanding to more things now, they even had a tiger which you could see up close and some elephants that I got to feed.

The last day there, I just drove around randomly. I went to a small aquarium, but it was nothing special really. I also went to a cool lookout point on something called 'wild horse mountain' or similar. Very neat-o. I also had some Mackers with my cousin and we said our goodbyes after he showed me around his work place. He is a surveyor and a civil engineer, works on bridges a lot.

So then I flew back to Sydney, and the next day I finally went up the tower there. It's not as high as CN Tower, of course, but it's not too bad. Nice 360° views. I was feeling sad because I had to leave this warm weather behind. I knew that coming up next would be some snow and cold times!

On Saturday, February 7th, I left back to Canada. This was a mostly uneventful trip. The 15-hour flight to San Francisco was much shorter because I had my PSP, DS, and some movies to watch. I sadly only caught a small glimps of the Golden Gate Bridge because the airport is a fair distance from that portion of the city. The US Customs guy gave me a bit of a hassle, because these days you have to do an electronic registration over the internet if you want to travel through the states! Lame as! So he said this was still a grace period, and to tell my friends to sign up if they intend to travel through the U.S. Cool. My next two flights, from San Fran to Washington, and from Washington to Buffalo, didn't really matter as much. I was back in North America! The coolest part was landing in Buffalo, and my former roommates were all waiting for me, with a picture of Little Joramee. Very cute. So we caught up with each other, had some Wendy's (which they don't have in Aussie), and stopped at the duty free. No border problems either, good thing I had recieved my travel papers at the Canadian Embassy in Sydney! We got home at around 3AM, I even drove the last bit myself cause all my friends were way too tired.

So it's been a month now, and I'm reflecting on things. I have been half-heartedly applying for jobs here and there, but so far no real interest. Got a lot of rejections, but mostly there's just no reply. No interviews. But I am enjoying downloading non-stop again, and playing all the games I missed out on. It makes the time go by very quickly. I like watching Lost again and Battlestar Galactica, both of which are excellent shows and I recommend to everyone (not just sci-fi geeks like me).

So is this the life I wanted? Living with my parents for free while freeloading off them while I pretend to look for work? I don't know how long it can last, to be honest. I may have to find a job in retail or something else that isn't related to engineering. Who knows. One more month maybe is all I can take of this, then I will have to get desperate.

Anyway, thanks again to those people that read this thing. I know I tend to ramble on a lot and don't show a lot of photos. But I did on Facebook, so look there if you want to see some. It's not and evil place, as a lot of you think it is. Through facebook I have reconnected to so many people I thought I had lost forever. And I used it to communicate with my cousins as well. So I can't hate on it. Give it a try!

Later!!

_Joramee