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Monday, June 28, 2010

Its been a while and not to much has happened

Well I haven't blogged in a while but I just thought I would give yall a little update and write a few things just to let you know I am still alive haha. It just seems like yesterday I was writing that I had my 7 month anniversary here and now I am coming up on 8 months here! I seriously can't believe how quickly time flies! It may not seem to go that fast for yall back home but for me this whole experience is just flying by for sure. People ask me if I am home sick and sure I miss my friends and family and the little things from home but I am not overcome with homesickness yet which I guess is a good thing.

I can tell you this though, whenever I do get back home it will be an adjustment for me. Australia is not HUGELY different from America but, there is some major differences in vocabulary and some of the foods are different here, not to mention they drive on the left side of the road so I have totally gotten used to that now and going back home and trying to drive my car again on the right side of the road will take a little bit of getting used too! But, I think the biggest major difference will be getting my body used to the time change when I do get back home because right now I am about 15 hours ahead of Texas. I am future man ;)

Here in Australia we do get American television shows and movies just usually with a big delay so movies most of you have already seen I am just now watching. Last night we saw "Grown Ups" with Adam Sandler and company. At first I thought it might not be so good because there was so many "funny people" in one movie but actually it was quite good! I got a good laugh out of it.  We also saw "Get him to the Greek" recently which was a semi sequel to the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (both of those movies are good) and Get Him to the Greek was actually pretty funny as well! We have found a former IMAX theatre here in Brisbane where we can get tickets for $6.50 and $5.50 on cheap tues so its a good deal to get out of the house and do something without spending too much money.

Speaking of House, Ben and I are big fans of the show House. I am sure most of you have heard of it. I bet alot of you watch it too but, if you haven't heard of it, its a medical drama show that centers around a doctor and his team and they have to fight to cure various people of various illnesses each episode. It is really a great show and Dr House (actually played by Hugh Laurie) is British in real life but he puts on the most amazing American accent I have ever heard! For the longest time I had no idea Hugh Laurie was even British!

In addition to House we have added to our TV schedule The Mentalist which is a really good crime drama and a purely Australian show I doubt yall get back home called Underbelly. It is a crime show that is all about the real life police corruption in NSW (New South Wales aka where Sydney is) in the late 80's to the mid 90's. That show just had its season finale but its a great show! They set up something called The Royal Commission to root out police corruption and something like 19 officers ended up killing themselves and like 30 "retired" a few even went to prison. Back then they were totally in the bad guy's pockets! With just a few honest cops around who ended up bringing down the whole system!

I wanted to tell you one other thing about Aussie TV besides getting shows and movies late the only other thing I hate about Aussie TV is the commercials. You might say, well everyone hates commercials! But this is worse!  You see they have NO variety on their commercials here! They show the same ones over and over and over! It has gotten to the point now where Ben and I can literally talk through the whole commercial word for word before it has barely begun.  There is an insurance commercial where a lady says something about a rate quote and then they have a (real rugby star) in the commercial he says "$506.95" Ben and I always say it before he does lol its kinda sad how well we know all these freaking commercials but they just need new ones! It is annoying to watch them over and over but our "guess the commercial" game is fun to play. Thank God its not a drinking game haha.

Since we have been here Ben and I have been saving money by cooking for ourselves. We always seem to end up with a big grocery bill and a lot of groceries to carry though! Even so it does save us money. Usually Ben does the cooking and I do the dishes but, I have been cooking some and I am definitely better at cooking then before I got here! I recently got some recipes from my dear mother that I am gonna try out soon and see how it works out :) Ok, I think I have gone on for long enough now lol.

Yall take care,Tyler

Monday, June 21, 2010

I survived my first day!

Well today was my first day at work. I took a taxi to work this morning and got there in plenty of time but it cost me almost 14 dollars (Australian) 1 way. So I have decided I am just gonna wake up early and walk there from now on. Once I got there I had my safety induction and got shown around the warehouse. Everyone seems really nice there and in the whole company there is only 9 people (me included).

Basically my job consists of moving aluminum rods out of prepackaged boxes, there is 30 in a box. So I just get the order sheet and put them in the new box based on what the customer wants in their order. Along with that I do basic cleaning and just helping out around the shop. I really want my forklift ticket but as of yet I don't have it. It would help out for sure but it is quite expensive! So I am just happy to have a good job with good people on a good wage for now :)

This job is really dirty though! All day I am surrounded by metal dust and shavings and saws going off all the time. That aluminum is pretty freaking sharp too! I managed to cut myself on and off through out the day but nothing major. I still have all my digits :) Tomorrow I will be wearing gloves for sure. Well I guess that's it for now. I will be back at it tomorrow.

Talk to yall later,Ty

Sunday, June 20, 2010

I start tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the first day at my new job! I start at 7:30am until 4pm. I will have to take a taxi to get there for the time being as there is no public transport near my job but hopefully until I get a bike I can work out a deal with the driver to take me everyday and give me a discount. I will have to get out my boots and hi res clothes for work tomorrow but other than that I am ready to go! Gonna have to do laundry soon though..... Well it is a beautiful day today even though its winter here I wish summer would hurry up and come back! Talk to yall later,Ty

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

So guess what?

This is gonna be short but guess what?! I GOT A JOB!  I start Monday and I will be working at an Aluminum factory 10 min drive from where I live! The only slight problem is that it isn't close to any public transport so I will have to walk or get a bike or take a taxi to get there but if that is my only problem then I am happy and  I am just really excited to be working again and making money so I can save for my ongoing travels! Yay me :) That is all. :) -Tyler

Oh, I should add that Ben is now working a restaurant job too so life is good for both of us!

Late Edit: Ben and I saw that new movie (well new to Australia) "Get him to the Greek" it was pretty funny and it follows the story of Adolphus Snow the rocker guy from the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" so do give both those movies a go, they are funny!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Well now that I am over 50% done...

So, now that I am over half way done with my time here in Oz I figured I would write a little bit about all the friends I have made here. I really do miss my best friends and family from home for sure but, I have made some great friends here too! In the 7 months I have been here I have literally met hundreds of people and met even more people in Asia and New Zealand. So needless to say my friend base has grown considerably. All over the world there is good people if you just have your eyes open.

Of course not all of those people I have kept in touch with and not all of them I would even consider good friends but, everyone I have met so far even if just for that brief amount of time has been a good friend to me. Out of all the people I have met I would say I have met roughly 10 people here that I will consider life long friends (Yep I am talking about you Wolf Pack ). On top of those 10 people there is about 20 or 30 more that are really good friends who I still do keep in touch with. All the rest were friends for a while but now gone. Even when people just pass through your life its good to have them there for the time being.

I have the ability and/or gift to meet people really easily anywhere. I am a talkative guy and I love to travel and meet other travelers. When your traveling most people who are travelers as well are in a "traveler mindset". It is different than being at home. You are way more open to talking to strangers and spontaneously doing things. I love doing this! I have met multiple people at bus stops,train stops etc (including Ben).

I guess I should give you a little background on Ben and I. I actually met him on the bus in Sydney way back in Nov. I saw him looking lost at a map on the bus so I decided to be nice and help him out and chat him up. So, our friendship started there and now all these months later here we are traveling Oz together. He is a pretty cool guy and we get along well. Not only did I meet Ben but, I also met a former house mate of his who happened to be American so we had a lot in common and Josiah and I get along well. Both of those guys I would consider life long friends.

My mate that we are staying with , Bernie he is a really good guy. He has taken us in and let us stay at his house which is really helpful while we are trying to get on our feet here in Brisbane. So, I really couldn't ask for much more. Every now and again the 3 of us have little disagreements just like a marriage haha but so far nothing major so there is no "divorce" looming in the future Thank God!

I know this blog might have seemed a little random but I just thought I would mention all my friends and just let yall know everything is pretty A OK now :).

Friday, June 11, 2010

I got an interview!

Well Hi there! I know it has been a while since I have blogged but really not much is going on that I haven't already told you about lol. So this will be a quick update but I just wanted to let yall know that I got a call from a lady who said she liked my CV (Resume) and she was forwarding it on to the hiring manager at this warehouse job about 10 minutes from where I am staying! So soon I am gonna go in for an interview and hopefully finally get a job! :) happy dance!

Other than that, I am going into the city with my mate and we are gonna just hang out there. Haven't done that in a while actually. We just saw the A-Team movie and it was pretty good. It wasn't great but we got cheap tickets so it was ok. That movie ( I think its already out in the States) "Get him to the Greek" comes out here on the 17th. I am pretty excited about seeing that actually it looks pretty good, Russell Brand is pretty funny!

When I was younger I played a game on the Internet where I used fake money to place bets on real movies. So, however a movie did in real life I got a corresponding amount of "money" in the game (if I bet correctly that the movie would do well or flop) well I just found out now they are gonna do that exact same thing for real with real money! I would be really good I think because I love movies lol. But I have no real money to bet haha. :(

The World Cup has started now and my mate Ben from Germany is going crazy over it! lol he is soccer crazy but I guess I just never really caught onto it. Its not hugely popular back home like it is in Germany. I have a feeling I will be watching a lot of it though lol. He is even getting up at 4am (our time) to watch the first game, hes a nut! haha

Well its winter here now and I don't like it! It isn't as cold as Sydney here in Brissy for sure but, at night time it can get down to 10C or below (that 40F and below) :( and I really want summer to come back so we can get warm again! Cairns stays warm all year round so I really wish I was there for the middle of winter lol. But, this cold is nothing compared to how cold New Zealand is! So I guess I am lucky :)

I just recently got a haircut finally so now at least my hair isnt so long and I can stop using so much shampoo all at once haha I am happy for that! and last night Ben cooked a new style of pasta I have never had before. Its called Noki (I think) it was ok but it was pretty doughy and the sauce we had wasn't that great but, it filled me up at least! We are like pasta addicts now lol I never used to eat this much pasta but it is cheap and filling so it helps!

Well I guess thats it for now. Signed, your hopefully soon to be employed again Traveling Texan Tyler

Saturday, June 05, 2010

I just missed it!

Well I had planned to write a whole big blog on the day of my 7 month anniversary here but I missed it by a day! It totally just slipped by me and now I have been in Oz for 7 months and 1 day. Well this is close enough. So, 7 months has totally gone by super fast for me! I feel like I have just been here a month! It may not feel like that to those of you back home but it sure does for me. I have to leave Oz 4th of Nov of this year but whether I go straight home or not is up for debate. I haven't totally decided what I want to do or where I want to go next.

Today Ben and I paid 20 bucks for a guided tour of the XXXX Brewery here in Brisbane. Four X is a fairly decent beer brewed right here locally in Brisbane and lots of Queenslander's love it. The tour itself wasn't so bad we learned alot and got to tour the factory which has been in the same spot since 1878! After the tour we got 4 free beers which was a good deal I think and we even got to taste one straight out of an old school oak barrel which was pretty cool and tasted good too :)

Later tonight we will be going into the city to meet some friends and hang out for the weekend so its been good so far. Well that is it for now. Yall take care til next time,Tyler

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Our Sailing Day

Well today Ben and I went sailing for free. Here in Brisbane at the harbour they have something called WAG's (Wednesday Afternoon Gentleman's Sailing) basically we signed up to sail with someone on their sailing boat. We got introduced to our skipper Michael and his crew. Everyone was very nice and they showed us the basics of sailing. What I didn't realise was that we were actually going to participate in a race and we got 5th out of 40 boats! It was just a friendly race nothing super serious but it was cool to get real sailing experience and for free to boot :)

After sailing we went back home and had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner really that was it. I will make this a short entry today. Talk at yall later,Ty

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

I finally got a new netbook!

Well I finally broke down and bought a new net book to replace the one that was stolen in Surfers Paradise, hopefully this one doesn't suffer the same fate! It has Windows 7 on it the newest operating system from (cough) Microsoft. I am not to happy about making the change ( I wish I knew how to use a Mac and could afford one) but, actually other than a few features missing or changed I actually like Windows 7 and it isn't too bad (lets hope it doesn't crash).
I did also buy myself a nice pair of new sandals after almost 7 months! I even got a 30% discount on them! I really have become the bargain hunter haha. Seeing as my 7 month anniversary here is coming up in 2 days I thought I would treat myself to new shoes and they look good!

We decided to forgo seeing a movie on cheap Tuesday since we are going sailing on Wednesday (today) and I also decided to wait on that haircut and let it grow a little more those hair cutting students take quite a while to cut it and they aren't going anywhere anytime soon haha. We also got a lead on a job offer! Well that is really I have to update yall on.

Your Aussie for a year,Tyler