Live, Love, Feel, Grow

Amazing how time flies. As I look at my last entry, it has already been 5 months since I’ve been in Australia!

Quick catch up of the things I’ve done and places I have been since then…

1. Tasmania – went there on the ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ overnight cruise with friends/co-workers. Tasmanian devils, koala bears, kangaroos, and way too many drinks’n bus rides…great time!
2. Australian Open in Melbourne – Wandered around and saw Amelie Mauresmo and other great players and games. In the end Federer beat Gonzalez, and Williams beat Sharapova.
3. Formula One – 2 words…LOUD! AWESOME!
4. New Zealand – Flew to South Island (Christchurch) and then drove to Lake Tekapo (stayed a night on the gorgeous Lake), then drove to Queenstown and went through Milford Sound. This place is truly awe inspiring and after being there, I can see why Lord of the Rings picked this place for filming. Very surreal and beautiful. Oh yeah…and definitely sheep country!
5. Lake Eildon, Victoria (138km NE of Melbourne) – Spent a weekend here on the lake on a house boat with friends. What better way to spend a weekend then being on a moving house surrounded by scenery, friends, and fun?
6. Footie Game! Collingwood Magpies defeated Carlton Blues – fun game and very easy to understand
6. Metung, Gippsland, Victoria (314km E of Melbourne)- charming village on the Gippsland lakes.

For the last 5 months, it’s been a mix of work and play. Checking out the Melbourne surrounds, taking advantage of the great events that happen in Melbourne; sports, festivals (comedy fests, exploring the different precincts of Melbourne, discovering the little alleys/streets filled with cool shops/restaurants/bars, as well as have my friends visit (Mindy/Linda! =) ) and making friends down here has all kept me sane and enjoying this wonderful part of the world. Definitely miss my family and friends, and can’t wait to fly to see them or have them come visit me.

Well, I’ve been here in Melbourne for just about exactly a month…Its amazing how quickly time flies at times, and yet other times, each second ticks by and the light at the end of the tunnel seems so far away.

So, what have I done in the last 4 weeks? …as I look back, truly quite a bit…

Jan 13 – My first weekend after a work week, I checked out the Docklands area while peeps were playing american flag football.

Jan 19th/21st – Went and checked out the Australian Open…saw Amelee Morrismo play in doubles, watched a few games, chilled with friends

Jan 25th – We got Friday off due to Australia day so took the long weekend and went to Tasmania. We took the ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ cruise ship there and then Virgin Atlantic coming back

Feb 4 – Went surfing about 1.5 hours west of Melbourne. Took lessons and attempted to stand on the board…hehe…3 seconds counts right?

Feb 11 – First weekend of no events planned. It was nice to just be in town, chill. I moved into my apartment finally…its small but its located in a great location. Corner of Little Burke and Elizabeth, pretty much the heart of the city.

So now that I’ve jotted my last few weeks of my life in a few paragraphs…some thoughts?…

I guess of all my assignments, this one has been the easiest to get acclimated. I’m here in a country that is not truly unlike the US…in fact Melbourne reminds me of san francisco with all its trams/metro/etc. The docklands remind me of south beach, looking out to the bay. And right now my apartment looks out to Flanders Station which reminds me of the Ferry building in SF. With all these correlations of similiarities, it still gets me now and then that I’m not in my own country. The G’day mate, cheers, people picking up my accent and my choice of words as American…the list goes on. As I was giving money to my taxi driver and said ‘Have a good one’…he said, “Ahh…i know where you’re from now. Wasn’t sure until you said that.” Apparently ‘have a good one’ is VERY American.  Part of the easy transition has also been just the amount of people I know here from previous projects. People whom I’ve worked in Slovakia, Europe, China, around the US, seem to have all converged here for this project. The world truly is small!

Well, its sunday night around 11pm…time to try to get some sleep and prepare for another grueling week. As always, i’m already looking forward to Friday…ready for that friday afternoon pint!

cheers!

So my travels continue…

On Jan. 5th I arrived in Melbourne after a long flight from LAX to Sidney to Melbourne. As I descended and looked out the window, I reminded myself what a lucky girl I am…able to see so many things and travel to so many places.

Initial Impressions of Melbourne…
It is VERY diverse. I was quite taken aback by how diverse the place is and the extent of asian influences on Melbourne. They have exclectic foods and many cultures. The place is also very reminiscent of San Francisco with its trolleys/trams.

Jan 5 – First night at Melbourne, we went to a Vietnamese/thai restaurant: Melbourne Vietnamese Noodle House on Little Burke Street. Great Pho…and since I was sick, it was great to just get a wonderful hot bowl of rice noodle soup. Yum!

Jan 14 – There was a huge American football game and BBQ held my a co-worker.

Jan 18 – Today is my bday…and yeah, its a Thursday so I had to work. However, afterwards I headed to the Docklands to an amazing Indian restaurant called Bhoj. The roti, chicken vindaloo, scallop vindaloo were awesome. Walking around the Docklands was also fun…with all the sailboats parked around, made me think of home and friends.

Jan 19 – After a day of hard work, we headed over to ‘Duke of Kent’ on La Trobe street. As apparently is their tradition, a lot of co-workers were there. You know its gonna be a long night when we start off with a few shots of car bombs. Afterward over drinking and getting the munchines, we headed out to eat in chinatown. Afterwards we headed to ‘ Kitten club’ where they had a live band upstairs. Of course, in line with drunken bar hopping, we then finished the night off at ‘The Long Room’.

Wanted to share some websites of music I’m checking out these days…

Vienna Teng – Taiwanese American who’s voice and lyrics I just love…
http://viennateng.com/listen/

Damian Rice – introduced to me by a friend…
http://www.damienrice.com/music.php

Maldroid – yep, gotta love youtube.com. I like the video and lyrics for this song, “He Said, She Said”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHGvh3i35Uk

I was replying to a friend’s blog on my thoughts on San Francisco today, and found some quotes that mirror my sentiments…

“San Francisco is the longest lasting love affair of my life. Her beauty inspires me anew each day and I am very thankful to be able to live here on the edge of the continent in what I feel is the heart beat of the world.” ~Nicole, sfheart.com

“San Francisco is a city where people are never more abroad than when they are at home” ~Benjamin F.Taylor

“Perpetual spring, the flare of adventure in the blood, the impulse of men who packed Virgil with their bean-bags on the overland journey, conspired~ to make San Francisco a city of artists.” ~ William Henry Irwin

“I have seen few things as beautiful as a 6:30am lift-off from San Francisco International Airport in the autumn. From above, the rippled fog layer laps against the shores of the foothills like a voluminous cotton ocean.”
~Eric Cheng

To this day, with all my travels, SF is still for me, top 3 best city in the world. Its beauty, diversity, intellect, open mind, and endless possibilities makes it an amazing place to call home. As i sit here typing away in Los Angeles, I realize I really miss SF. One day I’ll be back there. Until then, its off to Chicago and then Australia for me!

The last time I entered a library was when I was in college in 2000. Since then the thought of a library has not entered my mind until late. Last year while driving around sf, I chanced by the public library and it dawned on me how long it has been since I’ve entered one. An instant craving for a library card filled my head only to be stopped by the lack of parking in sf. Today I sit in the Los Angeles library working from my Accenture laptop. With my library card once again in hand, I think back to the times when the library was my friend growing up…yep, I was and am still a book worm. These days, our libraries are amazing institutions. I got a quick intro to what is available to me and I’m amazed it’s taken me this long to step back into this world. This goes to show the wonderful advent of the internet as well, which probably is one of the main reasons why I haven’t stepped into a library until now.

Where has the time gone…

~ Month of October 2006

There are some who say to know where you are going, it is important to know where you are from. For the first time in my life, I finally had a chance to see where I was from as an adult. My grandma fell ill this month and was diagnosed with late stage cancer. In addition, she underwent surgery to remove a 12cm+ tumor. It’s in these times that we are reminded of how important family is and how frail human life can be. It was a pure chance encounter that I happen to be in Taiwan for my grandma at this time. What was supposed to be a surprise visit from me to the family turned out to be a month long stay to ensure I was there for my family during my grandma’s time of need. This is also the first time since becoming 16 that I came back to Taipei, Taiwan for more than a week. During this time, I got a chance to get to know my family again, learn more of our family history, make new friends from Taipei which helps me further secure my roots to Taiwan, and also take some much needed rest which these past years I haven’t had the chance to really have. Its amazing to me how even though we all have vacation time during Christmas, thanksgiving, holidays here and there…all those days of rest at times seem more tiring than had we not taken them? Well, this month for me has been hectic and stressful in many ways, but also for the first time since leaving college, it was a true rest for my mind and soul.

I look forward to heading out to Australia…Melbourne to be exact for the next few months (6 months to a year?), for my next project. Not only is it a country I have yet to go, but its also closer to Taiwan for me to be closer to my grandma. My only regret is how far it is from my friends/family in the US. While I love globalization and all, it also frustrates me that my friends and family are everywhere. I think back to friends I’ve made in places like Slovakia where all their friends are in one place…and that is truly something I’m envious of. I know that some of my friends say “Well, even if we are all in one place, you aren’t”…ahh, perhaps I’m just selfish then? Or perhaps IF they were all in one place, I’d settle down?  Who knows…that’s one question I’ll most likely not find out anytime soon. Other than work, I hope to start uploading pictures of my travels to my website as well as starting to put a directory of recommendations of restaurants, bars, shopping, etc of the places I’ve been.

Gonna take a breather now…looking quickly up and down this page, I’ve realized I’ve written a lot but also not said enough. Alas, thus is the result of long procrastination. Hopefully I’ll go back and update it later.

Well…what can I say? My high hopes of going to the Silk Market, checking out some new bars around Beijing (Centro at the Kerry Centre) all got squashed when I came down with food poisoning! My first food poisoning in China…ha, and I thought I had a stomach of steel after having missed the ‘food poisoned bandwagon’ which many of the expats around me have suffered through numerous times already.

A thought that came into my head as I look at this site is that I only seem to write in it when I’m sick and couped up at the apartment. This is going to have to change! I vow to at least write more things in here, like…bars and my thoughts on them, restaurants, other interesting places, etc.

K, bed calls. For those of you who have recommendations for China, Beijing, Egypt, Jordan, please let me know

PS: Yep, heading to Egypt/Jordan in a week! So excited, better kick this food poisoning fast!

AM:
 Yep, its another saturday in beijing…and here I am sick in this crazy city. The only good thing about being sick, other than resting and trying to drink water, is that I get to check out this blog and write some thoughts down….

PM: Went to the The celler at Trio tonight for dinner with a group of friends, its apparently east of chaoyang district. Cool place, great wines though expensive, but good times spent with friends. The place is downstairs made like a wine cellar. The food is good, the wine was great (the non-chinese type wine, so not hard to beat), and the service was wonderful (very attentive).