Dawning of a New Age

For about a dozen years, I have looked at life through a particular metaphor. I've never been much of a surfer but I know how powerful and impressive waves can be. The way I have seen it is that you have a surf board and every obstacle in life is a wave. Either stand up and take a glorious ride or bob up and down watching all the excitement of life pass by. Of course in deciding to ride a wave, there is a serious inherent danger of falling off and being churned around and eaten up alive completely at the mercy of the raging waves.

I've been silent about many serious apprehensions about moving to St Maarten. My biggest worries have been seeded in lack of communication, not knowing where to stay, not knowing who to talk to upon arrival, and not knowing where to look for work. Unlike my preparations in moving to the Philippines and Indonesia that involved sending out about 50 emails each, I have only contacted one person in St Maarten, and he is currently on holiday in France. When I tried to phone the crew housing (budget housing geared toward any crew members working on the island) before leaving Sydney, none of the three numbers resulted in an answer. Going to Gili Trawangan, I was not worried about finding a place to live: the island is set up for backpackers and I found a place my first day for $100/month. From what I've heard about St Maarten and the other Caribbean islands, cheap hotels can go for $200/night. Needless to say, the lack of certainty was terribly daunting as I packed and geared up for my marathon flight.

Upon arrival to Hawaii, I stuck to my plan of immediately finding a phone to call St Maarten. After a 30 minute quest to find a phone, I was able to convince the crew at American Airlines to let me use their private staff room to make the calls. As if it was written, it wasn't until the third call (remember I was given only 3 numbers) that I got an answer, but boy what an answer it was. The woman on the other end of the phone informed me that her crew house was full but upon asking if there was another place I could stay, she offered to personally find me a place to stay and set me up with an address to give customs upon entry into the country when filling out the arrival paperwork. The plan was to call her upon arrival in St Maarten and find out where to go. I promptly got in touch with my cousin Meg (thanks again to the generosity of my new American Airlines friends) and organized to meet for lunch. Meg is the cousin I lived with for two months in Hawaii while her husband Conor was in Afghanistan. Thankfully, the three of us we were able to meet up for about 45 minutes for sushi near the airport.

I was so happy that I was practically dancing through the airport. Every detail is falling right into place. Boy did I ever catch that wave. I am riding one of the biggest meanest curling waves of my life with joy and excitement pumping through my veins as I stand on my board like a professional accepting all risk and embracing every bit of the exhilarating ride.

Thunder Down Under

As with my last update, I feel as if I have to cut things a bit short. The good thing is that I'm sitting on a plane right now with nowhere to go. I'm a captive writer. Here's a run down of the notable things that happened while in the land of the most dangerous spiders, snakes, jellyfish, and sharks.

One of my first excursions around the city was to the Sydney Wildlife World. Here over 130 species of native Australian insects, spiders, mammals, and reptiles call home. Most notable are the world's deadliest snake and spider, a massive crocodile, koalas, and kangaroos. Petting and getting a picture with the absolutely adorable koalas required dropping 20 dollars which I was not keen to do, especially when the guide said admitted that they don't like people touching them. However I must have looked particularly special when I went to see the kangaroos because after waiting about ten minutes for the guide's talk and listening to the whole thing, he told me that I alone could come in and pet the one that had come over for food. It was not only the first time I ever remember seeing a kangaroo but certainly the first time I've ever touched one. Coming away from 3 hours of seeing native Australian creatures left me feeling that it was time and money well spent.

My housing was quite peculiar during my stay in Sydney. For the first 3 nights, I was happily in a cheap backpacker's not far from the city. The intention was to spend that time finding another equally or less expensive place but I ended up just deciding it was too much hassle. When I went to book a room for the rest of my stay, it turned out that between the AC/DC concert, Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Ultimate Fighting Championships, and the Chinese new year, they were full for Saturday. It didn't take too long to figure out that literally every single backpacker's within a 40 mile radius was completely full for Saturday and Saturday alone. Considering my options, it turned out the best I could do was about $100/night. It was then (Thursday night) that I started frantically sending out emails to everyone I knew asking for a place to stay. I was honestly prepared to sleep on a park bench. The following morning I got an email from Shavely (sha-VEL-ee), a Denison student studying abroad here, that I could stay at their place on a couch and I immediately took her up on the offer.

Later that night, I was hanging out with the study abroad group in their apartment. I didn't think anything of it when the doorbell rang and 3 people came in. One of the three was a curly-haired guy who introduced himself as John. It was odd because I thought he looked incredibly like a John that I knew from Denison but certainly couldn't be the same one since this was in Sydney. Upon asking where he was from, he answered Pennsylvania. I had forgotten where the John I was thinking of was from, but I went out on a limb, looked at him, and just said, “Auerbach? John Auerbach?” He looked at me in bewilderment and I knew at that moment that it was he. The rest of the night I spent in shock that a guy who went on pre-orientation with me to Washington DC and spent two years at a tiny school in the middle of Ohio could end up in the same place on the other side of the world. We reminisced for a while about different people we both knew and it was amazing. Unfortunately I, of all people, didn't get a picture. Rats.

The famous Sydney Opera House

Another activity high on my priority list was to see a concert in the Sydney Opera House. I had seen the structure from the outside but decided it would be more memorable to actually go to a show and see it from the inside. Unfortunately I missed my opportunity to see a proper symphony in the concert hall but managed to snag a ticket for Lady Carol, an Irish ukulele player/singer. It took me an hour to get there by bus (instead of 20 min) thanks to the New Year celebration thus I was about 5 minutes late. It was a great show and I loved that I was able to go inside the Opera House. Definitely worth it.

The one and only AC/DC in concert.  Yes, I was close!

A far more memorable concert was the sold out AC/DC concert at the Olympic Stadium with 70,000 spectators. I went to the Australian equivalent of Craig's List and found a ticket selling for less than the original cost and jumped on it. The day of the concert I spent about 4 hours navigating my way around southern Sydney trying to track down the guy's house but obviously made it there. The tickets were Stadium A, meaning house left, touching the stage. In other words, this is the section where mosh pits tend to happen. Because the guy I bought the ticket said it's not really out of control (he had too many tickets and went a couple nights before), my camera came along; I would have kicked myself throughout the entire concert if I didn't have it. I must say that AC/DC is not my favorite band, but let me just say they are AWESOME in concert especially considering their age – they got going around 1971. I have a ton of photos and videos but I won't post them all. Of all the things I did in Sydney, the concert was possibly the most memorable.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out during my time there! Kate, Shavely, Steve, Chad (thanks for reading, man), Mike(s), Shauna, Steph, Chris, Sandy, and everyone I met at the backpackers. Peace!