So very sad to be leaving soon.
Started packing last night after the AFL game (Fremantle Dockers vs. Hawthorn at the Subiaco Oval - too bad the Freo players were all a bunch of butterfingers and didn't win it - though they put in a good effort in the third quarter!)
Too busy finishing up work and having fun to write about much (e.g. the trip to Bunbury, Busselton, & Margaret River last weekend with my US pal and some Perth friends, and my last trip to Rotto - and finding the best snorkel spot, and the Footy game).
More later, I promise. That is after I get done working, moping about leaving UWA, Perth, and my friends, and packing (bleh).
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
The party culture
Ok, so after being in Perth for a bit, I have to get something off of my chest. Australia has a pretty serious alcohol/party culture. It's not everyone, but I certainly think that for the most part young people generally a completely unhealthy relationship with alcohol. The government views this as a significant problem and has established a strategy for addressing alcohol abuse - the National Alcohol Strategy. There are televisions commercials addressing teenage binge drinking and drink driving. There are not "open container laws" here like there are in the US. The drinking age is 18, and according to this, minors (under 18) are allowed to drink and possess alcohol as long as it is in a private location. Ok, perhaps I am not as hip and cool as I used to be, but do you think going to a restaurant, bar, or nightclub after 10 pm where there are out of control teenage binge-drinkers, irritated bouncers, and people fighting openly in the streets is a good time?
Anyway, I'm off the soap box. But... I do think people in general drink too much here. I am glad the drinking age is 21 in the US. Maybe people in the US drink just as much, but it certainly appears to be accepted and more out in the open with the Australian public. I went to a college with fraternities and sororities, I know all about binge drinking in young people in the US. But, the difference is that, for the most part, by the time college is over, most people I've known get over abusing alcohol.
Anyway, I'm off the soap box. But... I do think people in general drink too much here. I am glad the drinking age is 21 in the US. Maybe people in the US drink just as much, but it certainly appears to be accepted and more out in the open with the Australian public. I went to a college with fraternities and sororities, I know all about binge drinking in young people in the US. But, the difference is that, for the most part, by the time college is over, most people I've known get over abusing alcohol.
It's almost a wrap
Well my friends, it is nearly time for me to leave Australia. And as the time approaches, I find I am a bit melancholy about it. I've grown to love it here. I like the challenge and diversity of the research and industry projects I've been working on. I like my colleagues and friends. I've even found a few kindred spirits, who brighten my down days.
But then I think of my family and friends back home, and I can't wait to see them, share a good meal with them, and talk about everything and nothing and stuff in between. I've recently accepted a faculty position and am so excited (and nervous!) to start that, to move my life to a new apartment in a new small city and ask some furry creatures to be my pets.
But, I'll definitely be returning to Perth for many years to come. How can I not?
But then I think of my family and friends back home, and I can't wait to see them, share a good meal with them, and talk about everything and nothing and stuff in between. I've recently accepted a faculty position and am so excited (and nervous!) to start that, to move my life to a new apartment in a new small city and ask some furry creatures to be my pets.
But, I'll definitely be returning to Perth for many years to come. How can I not?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Research, you will be the death of me.
Oh Internets, have you ever collected a ton of data that is really complicated to analyze where you've had to work out various geometries for behavior and use myriads of "if" statements in Excel? Have you ever discovered AFTER checking and rechecking your master reduction spreadsheet and proceeding to analyze ALL of your test data that there is an error that you have to go correct in all trillion of your reduced spreadsheets? And you can't go back and correct the master alone then re-reduce because you didn't have the initial foresight to automate everything, so that would take just an tad longer?
Rage? Do you need some? I seem to have plenty extra right now. It's times like these I wish I was a master programmer who could whip up a program to reduce the data, thereby changing only lines of code instead of spending countless hours (all wasted) re-reducing this freakin' data!
Argh! You have GOT to be kidding me!
Rage? Do you need some? I seem to have plenty extra right now. It's times like these I wish I was a master programmer who could whip up a program to reduce the data, thereby changing only lines of code instead of spending countless hours (all wasted) re-reducing this freakin' data!
Argh! You have GOT to be kidding me!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Visiting Hong Kong
On my recent trip home from the US, I had a 9 hour layover in Hong Kong, so I decided to explore the city a bit. I arrived at 6 am and waited a few hours before heading to the city, for fear of nothing being open at such an awful hour. After passing through customs and storing my backpack, I got on the high speed train (100 HK dollars) to the city. It’s too bad it was an incredibly foggy day, or I would have climbed "The Peak" to overlook the city. I, however, opted to spend my time walking around. Here are my observations.
I had no idea what to expect, but I knew it was a big city, the NYC of China, if you will. The first thing that awed me was that it is a beautifully mountainous region by the sea with lush green flora. On these small mountains there manufactured stairways and drainage areas, but that didn’t seem to detract from their naturalness. Juxtaposed with the beautiful natural environment were these enormously tall and narrow skyscraper housing complexes mixed with smaller and highly crowded housing buildings. These places reminded me of Co-op City in NYC, only much, much, much closer together. What was the most eye-catching about these buildings (besides their size) was that the residents had devised elaborate systems of hanging the wash out, including flag-pole type apparatuses (or is it apparati?).
When I arrived at the Hong Kong station, I was dumped out in the downtown in a maze of elevated pedestrian walkways with "street signs" one had to follow. For pedestrians to travel at street level in this area appears quite dangerous due to the presence of taxis, electric trams, buses, and other congested vehicle traffic. In fact, many of the sidewalk areas at street level in this immediate area were fenced off to prevent pedestrians from taking "short cuts". Moving on, this elevated walkway system led me directly into the ritzy shopping area, where I passed the likes of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Calvin Klein, and a myriad of other designer label stores. Many of these places had finely-dressed security guards on watch. Word is that Hong Kong has some amazing shopping, but I wouldn’t know. I don’t know how much it is to shop in those stores regularly, so I can't vouch for the so called "deals", especially with the Hong Kong to US dollar conversion being about 7:1. I was too jet-lagged to be doing any kind of rudimentary math in my head.
After a bit of time navigating through the classy malls and elevated walkways, I ventured to street level and out of the main shopping center. The streets were alive with pedestrians, security guards outside of some more upscale shops, vehicles belching soot and exhaust, people with wheeled carts, vendors and small stalls on the smaller streets, and on and on. It was all very busy with people speedily moving to and fro. Even the elevators at the train station and airport move much faster! I had no idea whether to walk on the left of the right (if the elevators are any indication, it’s the left), and I was definitely not moving fast enough to keep pace with everyone. One of the most eye-catching things during my exploring was the bamboo scaffolding. That would NEVER fly in the US, but there were whole sides of buildings scaffolded with bamboo with twine connections. In addition, construction rubbish was being loaded into baskets and hauled away by old men.
After being in the city for a few hours, all I could think of was two words. Air Quality. The air quality was horrible. My eyes had started to sting, as well as my nose, and it was noticeably affecting my lungs. I am a bit sensitive to smells, I admit, but this was different. Besides it being obviously foggy, I wonder how much of that was due to the poor air quality from vehicular exhaust. I am not kidding. And the large construction machines involved in the harbor reclamation project appeared to have no exhaust system at all. I had all I could do to not duck into every store when a large truck was stuck idling in traffic on a narrow side street, due to the accumulation of its sooty, stinky, airborne effluent. Every surface in the city was covered with a thick layer of unidentifiable dust. I must say though, the city was generally clean aside from that. Though, it's always a bad sigh when you see some of the older residents walking around with surgeon's masks on. My friend Xu says he likes being here in Australia because he never gets sick – turns out the poor air quality inspires respiratory infections galore.
To get away from it all, I headed to the harbor to see if I could get a better view of the city or the surrounding area. I could see the city fairly well, but not the areas beyond the sea. I was very curious about the harbor reclamation project. They appeared to be dredging some areas and filling in others with clean fill. It was a big operation with several barges and dredging machines. Being a civil engineer, I watched for probably longer than I should have. The cityscape was great, but unfortunately, someone didn’t have the good sense to charge their camera battery before hand, and therefore I have no more pictures. Pretty awesome, I know.
Overall, I only spent a few hours in a very small part of the city. I wish I had planned better about where to go – parks, mountain peaks, the art museum, some temples, and other touristy things. I also could have taken an organized tour of the city and its sights for a few hours and $200 HK, but I didn’t. Though, I don’t feel too bad. As soon as I got out of the train station I vowed to go back to Hong Kong and China to explore. It really is an amazingly complex feat at human civilization. Well, except for the Chinese fascination with shiny, patent-leather type, plastic fashion accessories such as shoes and hand bags. I can do without that…. Forever.
You can check out some of my photos here.
I had no idea what to expect, but I knew it was a big city, the NYC of China, if you will. The first thing that awed me was that it is a beautifully mountainous region by the sea with lush green flora. On these small mountains there manufactured stairways and drainage areas, but that didn’t seem to detract from their naturalness. Juxtaposed with the beautiful natural environment were these enormously tall and narrow skyscraper housing complexes mixed with smaller and highly crowded housing buildings. These places reminded me of Co-op City in NYC, only much, much, much closer together. What was the most eye-catching about these buildings (besides their size) was that the residents had devised elaborate systems of hanging the wash out, including flag-pole type apparatuses (or is it apparati?).
When I arrived at the Hong Kong station, I was dumped out in the downtown in a maze of elevated pedestrian walkways with "street signs" one had to follow. For pedestrians to travel at street level in this area appears quite dangerous due to the presence of taxis, electric trams, buses, and other congested vehicle traffic. In fact, many of the sidewalk areas at street level in this immediate area were fenced off to prevent pedestrians from taking "short cuts". Moving on, this elevated walkway system led me directly into the ritzy shopping area, where I passed the likes of Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Calvin Klein, and a myriad of other designer label stores. Many of these places had finely-dressed security guards on watch. Word is that Hong Kong has some amazing shopping, but I wouldn’t know. I don’t know how much it is to shop in those stores regularly, so I can't vouch for the so called "deals", especially with the Hong Kong to US dollar conversion being about 7:1. I was too jet-lagged to be doing any kind of rudimentary math in my head.
After a bit of time navigating through the classy malls and elevated walkways, I ventured to street level and out of the main shopping center. The streets were alive with pedestrians, security guards outside of some more upscale shops, vehicles belching soot and exhaust, people with wheeled carts, vendors and small stalls on the smaller streets, and on and on. It was all very busy with people speedily moving to and fro. Even the elevators at the train station and airport move much faster! I had no idea whether to walk on the left of the right (if the elevators are any indication, it’s the left), and I was definitely not moving fast enough to keep pace with everyone. One of the most eye-catching things during my exploring was the bamboo scaffolding. That would NEVER fly in the US, but there were whole sides of buildings scaffolded with bamboo with twine connections. In addition, construction rubbish was being loaded into baskets and hauled away by old men.
After being in the city for a few hours, all I could think of was two words. Air Quality. The air quality was horrible. My eyes had started to sting, as well as my nose, and it was noticeably affecting my lungs. I am a bit sensitive to smells, I admit, but this was different. Besides it being obviously foggy, I wonder how much of that was due to the poor air quality from vehicular exhaust. I am not kidding. And the large construction machines involved in the harbor reclamation project appeared to have no exhaust system at all. I had all I could do to not duck into every store when a large truck was stuck idling in traffic on a narrow side street, due to the accumulation of its sooty, stinky, airborne effluent. Every surface in the city was covered with a thick layer of unidentifiable dust. I must say though, the city was generally clean aside from that. Though, it's always a bad sigh when you see some of the older residents walking around with surgeon's masks on. My friend Xu says he likes being here in Australia because he never gets sick – turns out the poor air quality inspires respiratory infections galore.
To get away from it all, I headed to the harbor to see if I could get a better view of the city or the surrounding area. I could see the city fairly well, but not the areas beyond the sea. I was very curious about the harbor reclamation project. They appeared to be dredging some areas and filling in others with clean fill. It was a big operation with several barges and dredging machines. Being a civil engineer, I watched for probably longer than I should have. The cityscape was great, but unfortunately, someone didn’t have the good sense to charge their camera battery before hand, and therefore I have no more pictures. Pretty awesome, I know.
Overall, I only spent a few hours in a very small part of the city. I wish I had planned better about where to go – parks, mountain peaks, the art museum, some temples, and other touristy things. I also could have taken an organized tour of the city and its sights for a few hours and $200 HK, but I didn’t. Though, I don’t feel too bad. As soon as I got out of the train station I vowed to go back to Hong Kong and China to explore. It really is an amazingly complex feat at human civilization. Well, except for the Chinese fascination with shiny, patent-leather type, plastic fashion accessories such as shoes and hand bags. I can do without that…. Forever.
You can check out some of my photos here.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
So, you are a visitor in your own country....
For the last two weeks I was travelling back in the US. It’s a bit strange being a visitor to one's own country after being away long enough to get adjusted to a different culture and ways of doing things. For instance, traveling on the right side again… sure it came back easily when I was driving, but I still found myself walking on the left… perhaps because I am a lefty. I digress. I had a fun time viewing the US in comparison to where I've been for a while.
Firstly, Americans ARE friendly, even in NYC. Everyone I came in contact with was really helpful and nice, especially at the JFK airport, which coincidentally could benefit from some better signage for those of us who don’t know our way around like we do the back of our hands. Going back was great, because I immediately felt "at home". It's as though I know how to navigate life better when I'm there. Certainly I never felt like a nomad while I was there for the two weeks, though I technically was since I never stayed in one place more than 3 nights.
So I arrived in NYC after a 7.5 hour flight from Perth to Hong Kong, followed by a 2 hour layover and ~15 hour flight from Hong Kong to JFK. My dad picked me up at the airport, which was so super. We talked about work and about planning my mother's surprise 50th birthday party and it was as though I never left. Even though I was exhausted, we went to my brother's house for lasagna dinner, which was compliments of his wife and so very yummy (!), then home for me to sleep like a log. The next two days I spent with the family in Albany celebrating my brother's graduation from the NYS police academy. I was not originally going to attend, but requests for various job interviews affording me an expenses paid trip to the US allowed me to plan my trip a bit early so I could go. My brother was totally psyched when I called to tell him! The shield and graduation ceremonies were so great, and seeing my brother in uniform was totally surreal. My little bro', all grown up now. How proud I am of him.
I then flew to Portland (from Albany via D.C – yes, there was no direct flight!). I had anticipated driving from Albany to Portland before heading further north for a what ended up being a really amazing interview for an academic position, but I was afraid of falling asleep at the wheel. Flying was so worth it. After said really productive and great interview (cross your fingers!), I drove to Portland in a snowstorm for four hours. I was so happy to get the chance to experience winter in the northeast, especially the clean, crisp, fresh air smelling, white of a snow storm. Ah, contentment. I wish there had been time to snow-shoe. There was time for an amazing meal at Walter's in downtown Portland (go – you won't regret it!), a pedicure, tea and breakfast, and – the best of all - long talks with my pal while nestled under a blanket wearing my new cashmere scarf in her really cozy apartment by the beach, populated with tea tins, myriads of books and crafts, a feather bed, and that homey warmth of winter.
Following this was a very long and tiring trip from Portland to Boulder, which consisted of flights to NYC and Chicago and an obscenely long wait thereafter for the shuttle bus from Denver to Boulder. All of the time changes and not having completely adjusted to US time anyhow made me super crabby. But, the next morning… I had a wonderful breakfast at Lucille's on 14th St. (go – you won't regret it!). After waking up at 3 am, I was starving, so by the time I made it to Lucille's at 10 am, my eyes were much larger than my stomach. It was heavenly, you might gather that from the photos. I had fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, black tea spiced with cinnamon and cloves. The beignets were recommended so I got them, never having them before. I ordered eggs over medium with grits and a buttermilk biscuit. You can see in the photo that is a lot of food (not to mention various types of hot sauce!). I have never had a beignet before, and it was almost sinful to eat such a thing for breakfast. I had no idea they would give me 4 of them. I only ate one, my egg, tea and juice, and finished half of the grits. I have to say, the rest of the beignets served as great snacks at 5 am when I needed to calm my stomach growling after being awake for a bit. Shame on me for starting my day with a powdered sugar breakfast! But, I think it was the beignets that made my academic position interviews in Boulder pretty successful, which is really exciting. It’s a big place and very different in culture and size compared to anywhere else I have interviewed, but we'll see.
There ended my whirlwind tour of the US, and I was then on my way home to Perth via L.A. and Hong Kong immediately after teaching an undergrad class as part of the interview process. Teaching the class was really fun, I kind of like standing in front of the classroom looking around and talking about stuff I like. I think I also got them to laugh a bit too. It’s a good opportunity to work on material for my stand—up comedy routine. I hope my interviewers didn’t think I was being too cheeky. After an exhausting trip back, too many movies on the various airplanes and a short trip into the city of Hong Kong during my 10 hour layover (yikes!) I am back. It’s a long trip, but after you do it a couple of time, you get used to it. Though I do have to say I went on a bit of a duty-free shopping binge in the Hong Kong airport because I was mad at having left my neoprene computer case and fancy new travel alarm clock at the hotel and losing my favorite fleece jumper. I bought myself a LeSportsac handbag and I felt MUCH better afterwards. (Though it was not a real impulse buy because I had been looking at it for a while and actually left the store three times before deciding to go back to get it. What the weirdo is wrong with me?!)
Overall, I have returned feeling refreshed. I feel great about my interviews and will just be waiting for calls (cross your fingers). I cannot tell you how excited I am to be thinking about the future, my life as a professional, getting a home that will have my own stuff in it (namely my books, plants, crafts, adequate kitchen facilities), adding a pet to my little family… It's time to move on, the possibilities are endlessly exciting.
But before I go…I can’t leave you without a little ranting. Coincidentally, I picked up the ranting again on US soil. I still maintain Australians are too nice and don’t rant nearly enough. Ok, here goes.
One - Food down under has no taste. Is it the water (horribly flavored with chlorine and fluorine and other treatment poisons)? Is it just bland? I ate so many great meals back in the States. My taste buds are currently negotiating with my inner chef, who can hopefully agree to the terms of the contract for my remaining month here and stave off a walk-out. Man alive, food here sucks. Though in some defense, I have gotten a bit lazy in the kitchen... but that's not excuse enough for everything!
Two - Have you ever wondered why one can never seem to get enough fiber from airplane food? That is, if they feed you at all – which they do on intercontinental flights. I got two square meals and plenty of snacks on each long flight from Perth to the US. Anyhow, is it too much to ask to get some vegetables with my pasta or rice (and no, potatoes do not count!)? I know why they are stingy on fiber. They don’t want you to have to use the facilities too (or would that be 'two' – I know – terribly unfunny) much. I mean, really, I don’t want to clean up after some of my fellow passengers, either. You know - the ones who whiz on the floor or don’t know what a trash can is. Raised by wolves, the whole lot of them.
Three- What is it about in-flight movies and TV? Is it a coincidence that they show those feel-good romantic comedies? Is there some unwritten rule about indoctrination of the airline-confined with love nearly lost, or parent-child, or other uber-sappy themes? Not gonna lie to you here, confinement lead to insanity, which is why I sat though (AND even liked at the time!) Martian Child, The Nanny Diaries, Game Plan, Serendipity, and America's Sweethearts. Long flights are evil for the mind! I must admit, though, I do love John Cusack – which even I know is odd, but you cannot argue with the movie 'Say Anything'. There will never be anything as romantic as John Cusack standing outside of your window in the rain with a boom box blasting "In Your Eyes". No, nothing ever can approach that romanticism, never ever. And there you have it.
Stay tuned for a post about my short jaunt in Hong Kong.
(Coincidentally, I also have a soft spot for other weirdo actors like Nicholas Cage, Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken, but not in romantic roles - that is just plain eww!)
Firstly, Americans ARE friendly, even in NYC. Everyone I came in contact with was really helpful and nice, especially at the JFK airport, which coincidentally could benefit from some better signage for those of us who don’t know our way around like we do the back of our hands. Going back was great, because I immediately felt "at home". It's as though I know how to navigate life better when I'm there. Certainly I never felt like a nomad while I was there for the two weeks, though I technically was since I never stayed in one place more than 3 nights.
So I arrived in NYC after a 7.5 hour flight from Perth to Hong Kong, followed by a 2 hour layover and ~15 hour flight from Hong Kong to JFK. My dad picked me up at the airport, which was so super. We talked about work and about planning my mother's surprise 50th birthday party and it was as though I never left. Even though I was exhausted, we went to my brother's house for lasagna dinner, which was compliments of his wife and so very yummy (!), then home for me to sleep like a log. The next two days I spent with the family in Albany celebrating my brother's graduation from the NYS police academy. I was not originally going to attend, but requests for various job interviews affording me an expenses paid trip to the US allowed me to plan my trip a bit early so I could go. My brother was totally psyched when I called to tell him! The shield and graduation ceremonies were so great, and seeing my brother in uniform was totally surreal. My little bro', all grown up now. How proud I am of him.
I then flew to Portland (from Albany via D.C – yes, there was no direct flight!). I had anticipated driving from Albany to Portland before heading further north for a what ended up being a really amazing interview for an academic position, but I was afraid of falling asleep at the wheel. Flying was so worth it. After said really productive and great interview (cross your fingers!), I drove to Portland in a snowstorm for four hours. I was so happy to get the chance to experience winter in the northeast, especially the clean, crisp, fresh air smelling, white of a snow storm. Ah, contentment. I wish there had been time to snow-shoe. There was time for an amazing meal at Walter's in downtown Portland (go – you won't regret it!), a pedicure, tea and breakfast, and – the best of all - long talks with my pal while nestled under a blanket wearing my new cashmere scarf in her really cozy apartment by the beach, populated with tea tins, myriads of books and crafts, a feather bed, and that homey warmth of winter.
Following this was a very long and tiring trip from Portland to Boulder, which consisted of flights to NYC and Chicago and an obscenely long wait thereafter for the shuttle bus from Denver to Boulder. All of the time changes and not having completely adjusted to US time anyhow made me super crabby. But, the next morning… I had a wonderful breakfast at Lucille's on 14th St. (go – you won't regret it!). After waking up at 3 am, I was starving, so by the time I made it to Lucille's at 10 am, my eyes were much larger than my stomach. It was heavenly, you might gather that from the photos. I had fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, black tea spiced with cinnamon and cloves. The beignets were recommended so I got them, never having them before. I ordered eggs over medium with grits and a buttermilk biscuit. You can see in the photo that is a lot of food (not to mention various types of hot sauce!). I have never had a beignet before, and it was almost sinful to eat such a thing for breakfast. I had no idea they would give me 4 of them. I only ate one, my egg, tea and juice, and finished half of the grits. I have to say, the rest of the beignets served as great snacks at 5 am when I needed to calm my stomach growling after being awake for a bit. Shame on me for starting my day with a powdered sugar breakfast! But, I think it was the beignets that made my academic position interviews in Boulder pretty successful, which is really exciting. It’s a big place and very different in culture and size compared to anywhere else I have interviewed, but we'll see.There ended my whirlwind tour of the US, and I was then on my way home to Perth via L.A. and Hong Kong immediately after teaching an undergrad class as part of the interview process. Teaching the class was really fun, I kind of like standing in front of the classroom looking around and talking about stuff I like. I think I also got them to laugh a bit too. It’s a good opportunity to work on material for my stand—up comedy routine. I hope my interviewers didn’t think I was being too cheeky. After an exhausting trip back, too many movies on the various airplanes and a short trip into the city of Hong Kong during my 10 hour layover (yikes!) I am back. It’s a long trip, but after you do it a couple of time, you get used to it. Though I do have to say I went on a bit of a duty-free shopping binge in the Hong Kong airport because I was mad at having left my neoprene computer case and fancy new travel alarm clock at the hotel and losing my favorite fleece jumper. I bought myself a LeSportsac handbag and I felt MUCH better afterwards. (Though it was not a real impulse buy because I had been looking at it for a while and actually left the store three times before deciding to go back to get it. What the weirdo is wrong with me?!)
Overall, I have returned feeling refreshed. I feel great about my interviews and will just be waiting for calls (cross your fingers). I cannot tell you how excited I am to be thinking about the future, my life as a professional, getting a home that will have my own stuff in it (namely my books, plants, crafts, adequate kitchen facilities), adding a pet to my little family… It's time to move on, the possibilities are endlessly exciting.
But before I go…I can’t leave you without a little ranting. Coincidentally, I picked up the ranting again on US soil. I still maintain Australians are too nice and don’t rant nearly enough. Ok, here goes.
One - Food down under has no taste. Is it the water (horribly flavored with chlorine and fluorine and other treatment poisons)? Is it just bland? I ate so many great meals back in the States. My taste buds are currently negotiating with my inner chef, who can hopefully agree to the terms of the contract for my remaining month here and stave off a walk-out. Man alive, food here sucks. Though in some defense, I have gotten a bit lazy in the kitchen... but that's not excuse enough for everything!
Two - Have you ever wondered why one can never seem to get enough fiber from airplane food? That is, if they feed you at all – which they do on intercontinental flights. I got two square meals and plenty of snacks on each long flight from Perth to the US. Anyhow, is it too much to ask to get some vegetables with my pasta or rice (and no, potatoes do not count!)? I know why they are stingy on fiber. They don’t want you to have to use the facilities too (or would that be 'two' – I know – terribly unfunny) much. I mean, really, I don’t want to clean up after some of my fellow passengers, either. You know - the ones who whiz on the floor or don’t know what a trash can is. Raised by wolves, the whole lot of them.
Three- What is it about in-flight movies and TV? Is it a coincidence that they show those feel-good romantic comedies? Is there some unwritten rule about indoctrination of the airline-confined with love nearly lost, or parent-child, or other uber-sappy themes? Not gonna lie to you here, confinement lead to insanity, which is why I sat though (AND even liked at the time!) Martian Child, The Nanny Diaries, Game Plan, Serendipity, and America's Sweethearts. Long flights are evil for the mind! I must admit, though, I do love John Cusack – which even I know is odd, but you cannot argue with the movie 'Say Anything'. There will never be anything as romantic as John Cusack standing outside of your window in the rain with a boom box blasting "In Your Eyes". No, nothing ever can approach that romanticism, never ever. And there you have it.
Stay tuned for a post about my short jaunt in Hong Kong.
(Coincidentally, I also have a soft spot for other weirdo actors like Nicholas Cage, Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken, but not in romantic roles - that is just plain eww!)
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