Departure

As I am getting ready to depart this wonderful city, I realize that I mix emotion and opinion about a whole glob of things. For sure I did not do everything there is to do here. I can imagine to fully get to know the country would require 3 weeks. But during my brief stay I've encounter many interesting people namely from different parts of Australia, Vietnam, New Yorke, China to name a few. That is the beauty of traveling, you get a cliff note of experience from other people and also get a chance to recharge yourself. You realize that there are some many wonderful differences and yet also human in general all are made of up the basics. So to be human were are all given the same, but the reset is up to you and a little fortune. So with that I keep it simply by saying with what was given to me, I am too a very lucky person.

Aussie Note

I had a very complete and full packed day. Tired physically and mentally soaked in a lot, so in a way my brain is full for the day. I saw many wonderful things again today which I can probably write a lot about. But today was different because in this wonderful place I actually had the chance to hear local people's stories. Bottom line even in an amazing places, there are struggles that makes each of us so similar regardless where we are from, what religion, what race, or what creed. I can devote this blog entry as a recall of the sad stories. But I think I will only say that take life as it is given to you, find time to smile everyday, and the next day is always a different day.

Down under still

Short post given I want to utilize my morning as soon as I can. I have a full day ahead. From my last blog......

Did I say I like Sydney a lot? I was told that people from Sydney says they are lucky. They say that because what place in the world would you get constant good weather, good people, all social welfare taken care off, and economy that continue to grow. Obvious you still have people that will complain just for the sake of complaining. Overall from someone looking in and also from talking with a local, they consider themselves very fortunate and more so I get the sense that many also feel very altruistic about things in general. Because when things are good it is hard to imagine that why it can not for everyone else.

My lunch time kinda exemplify Sydney I think. I followed a crowd of people getting out of a Chinese restaurant. I figure I haven't eaten since it is 2:30 already and for some reason I completely forgot I was hungry because I was just awwed by my surroundings. But the waitress sat me down between to parties. Right in the middle, by myself. I felt uncomfortable of course. Then the two ladies on my left tried to start talking to me and asked where I was from. We struck a conversation and then the next thing you know the couple on the right of me also joined in. The during the middle of the meal another guy eating by himself sat right across from me. A local. He start talking. But the end of it I could not finish eating because every just starting to converse and getting to know each other. Now how often to you see that happened? Long story short....I think this place has positive vibe and therefore I believe that when people are positive, even just have a smile to someone, then good things happen. It pays forward in dividend.

Okay...stop for now....need to start the day........

Touch Down

I arrive in Sydney in the early morning of 6AM. So far I've yet to check in my hostel, but I did have the chance to explore some parts of the city. So far it has been terrific. It is a bit difficult to describe Sydney especially it seems like it has a little bit of everything. I was not sure why I always wanted to come here and visit, but I realize as soon as I got on the train. I am living the dream that I had when I was a wannabe surfer/skateboarder in San Fernando Valley, CA. Back then all you hear about was the great pipeline of Australia. The amazing people, the surf, the weather, and of course the fresh vibe of the place. From my brief exploration of the place so far, it lived up to my expectation. To start as to why I like the place, for one thing it is by the ocean and the weather been extremely amazing. For someone who loves the water and sports this is the place to be. Another interesting thing about this place is that it has almost a little bit of every country that I've so far visited. I kid you not, it is if somehow Asian, Europe, s. America, and united states got blended together and some how the country manage to make it work. So as I explore the city I see the influence that each culture plays off one another. The last time I've seen something like this was in Turkey, but that was a blend of European culture and religion. I am happy to see this blend because I often wonder whether the idea of melting pot, with some social conscious and people with the sound belief that just respect one another really can happen. I think this place comes close. So far my exploration is just early in the morning, the next is to see how I feel once the city comes to life and people start coming out. There is a lot for me to say and it has only been 4 hours. I think it is better and easier in bullet points:

• cost of living - everything here requires you to pay and a dollar does not get you far. I imagine this being a great place to live, it can counted for the high prices. An average lease for an apartment is about $430 per week, which equals to $1700 per month.
• weather - amazing. It gets cool and warm all within a span of 2 hours.
• people - mind your own business. People are generally friendly. I notice a lot of the shopkeepers are Asian. But then maybe the dam Chinese are so overachievers that they cannibalized themselves to working in coffee shops and bus drivers.
• food - I have not had any yet. But Asian food is big here. You get a lot of Vietnamese and Chinese food here. But I think Asian in general are a bit population. From what I've seen, food here looks very good regardless what ethnicity. I've yet to try the beef pie, but I will.
• talent - This is to my friends that I will tell later that the talent here is pretty good. It is a place you can meet people very easily. To my women hungry friends, you guys should visit. To my man eating friends, make sure you cut your nails. :-)

Report......To be continued.

Down Under

So I started with a blog entry I don't plan on completing until I get back. I am curious to see how I am emotionally as the days go by this long weekend. This is the first time I am traveling alone since Malaysia. Of course this time I travel with complete different reasons. It is still interesting to just analyze my thoughts when it is all over, review its changes and its sometime rational and irrational flow of unconsciousness.

So here is what happen so far before I make my way to the plane.

Blooper - I was dropping my manager off at the airport today. He was helping me with things to do in Australia and started to check off the list as if he was a father making sure that his son was well prepared. Then he ask a final question and said....."So you got your Visa ready right?"......Then I was like oh, you mean I need a visa? Long story short I rushed to get my visa online and was approved instantaneously. Luckily Australia is just greedy and all they care about is your money. I have my visa, luckily I took him to the airport. Otherwise I wouldn't of gotten on the airplane.

Support - Everyone I talked to so far been really excited for me to go to Australia for such a short time. Got lots of suggestions. I think people are more excited than I. But as I read up more on the city, I begin to get excited because I realize it sounds like a place that I can get to like a lot. Well, I will see. If I get in a fight with a drunk Aussie, then I may hate the place. But so far it sounds like a very multi-racial, multi-cultural place with lot of good Asian food and good Italian food.

At Home - I thought I would not have anything to do this weekend and one of the reasons why I decide to go oversea. Yet a few hours before my trip, I got a few calls to go hang out tonight and this weekend. Now why don't people be for prepared and plan. Let me know sooner. I can't complain....I did not initiate. Then another twist of event, I got a text from a friend out of the blue. I known her for awhile now and somehow she decided to text me and said she wanted to date me. I am thinking she is drunk or something, but man who text people to ask that kind of question. I just got my subway sandwich and decided to watch the Lakers game. But the sad thing is that if she is serious, then I think I may loose a friend because they never stay friends with you once you say no to them.

Emotional Conscious - I have mixed feeling whether I should make my flight there. I hope that things don't go wrong or that my family and friends will be okay. I am excited to see Sydney and looking forward to reading the book I wanted to read for the longest time (Guns, Germs, and Steel). I predict I will have time of uncomfortableness (in a hostel for god sake), time of loneliness (by myself), and time of excitement. But hopefully by the end of it all I come back with a sense of balance and acceptance of the future to come. By me writing that sentence, I realize maybe I should be a fortune cookie writer. I wonder how much do they pay?

Then another thought..............

Irrational Exuberance

What is rational versus what is irrational? I think that is a matter of bias judgement and what society perceive the norm will always change. Let's face it, we all judge what we don't understand and the first instinct is to say the person is irrational. For instance, yesterday I saw a lady walking on the street in a nice outfit with high heels. While behind her trails a white truck where a guys is asking her to come back in. When I saw that I said now that is irrational. What purpose for the girl to get out of her car and just start walking. Let say the guy did leave, then what? She is going to think back and tell herself that it was a stupid move, now how am was she going to get home if the dude did leave. But yet the guy did not leave and she got back in the car and maybe in some way she make her point. But for a guy like me I think that is crazy.

Then today as I was eating I saw some very heavy set guy buying a hot dog, salad, coke, and yummy churros. So obviously the dude is trying to loose weight. So does he think that by eating the salad after he eats the hot dog, down the coke, swallow the churros, and then finish off with a salad that he will actually be healthy. He should go all in and just devourer some greasy pizza and skip the salad. At least he did it with some style.

So what does that have to do with anything. Probably not a whole lot. But I came to try and rationalize whether I should use the weekend to catch up on my personal project or just take off alone to a foreign country for the weekend. As an irrational person.....I am going to Australia for 2 to 3 days. Hopefully when I come back, I can brink back the rational person with me.

Just a thought

Contemplation.....when I get indecisiveness I wonder if it is me just thinking too much or just something else that is telling me not to be stubborn. Not to be too spiritual or anything, but I have came to realize that my life consist of a constant mixture of going after what I want with no hesitation and at other times dropping my stubbornness with faith that things will turn out the way it should. It is almost like to a point where I get so confident that I say my destiny is in the palm of my hand and then something will remind me that oh I have no control at all. I am having one of those week whether the picture is not so clear. Dam is that what women call PMS?

On a side note....I realize I should go to sleep earlier. I was once told that you should get 8 hrs of sleep to be productive. Maybe if I get that much sleep I would be more productive. But who gets that much sleep?

What to do when you have a free day?

I was just told today that this weekend is memorial day and I have a day off. Man, I completely did not know this and had no plan for this weekend. Now I am evaluating what I should do. Should I stick around the bay area so I can save some money and finish my personal projects such as studying my PMP? Should I go visit my relatives in Virginia? Should I just spend some time with my family in LA? Should I go white water rafting in Japan? Or should I head over to Australia?

I am contemplating going to Australia to just go. Plus while I still work in UA I can at least say I can. I would be going alone, which I have not done in awhile. Maybe it gave me the opportunity to organize my thoughts and maybe have some sort of self discovery. Or maybe I just get a chance to be a beach bum and just get lost in a foreign country. Part of the reason for this aspiration, is because I got another email about information session for USF. Then I also got news that some friends are moving over the China for work. Then after last weeks interview, I wonder why I take an opportunity and kinda throw it away. I don't regret things I do, I just want to make sure that I don't know things for the wrong reasons. I am have logical at time and half illogical, which mean I am emotional. I believe sometimes you can still accomplish something even if you are unorthodox in your approach.

With all that....this weekend I may just end up staying home and do nothing.

On an another note. I have having one of those injury days. Playing basketball I landed on my wrist, hurt my back, and wacked in the face which resulted in a bloody nose. What the heck. This is a combination of feeling like I am getting old to dam what lousy luck. Oh well at least I still played well and I am slowly getting back to my basketball shape. Dam, my birthday is coming up in about a month and a half.....oh man.

Thursday Wrap Up

It is good to be able to site down and write. I realize that these days I've been very lucky to be busy, but sometime I think things passes so fast that I never got the chance to write down my feelings or just no judgement of thoughts of what happened. Just to capture it so that I can revisit it someday. Weird thing is that it is not until I gotten older that I started to appreciate the importance of recording, the simple enjoyment of writing and taking photos to capture those moments in time. With that thought, so much has happened since my last blog and I am not sure where to start. Well I think I break it down like the Italian meals:



1st course:

I got on a plane on Sunday evening to fly over to France to meet up with D. We explore the French Riviera, had a wild train ride making 3 stops (actually her ride was rougher than mine), saw the Italian Riviera, had a great time hiking to show D one of my favorite places, had intense moments of conversation with her, and enjoyed doing nothing with someone that I did not expect to have such strong feel at this time of my life. So basically a terrifically unexpected roller coaster week. Looking back I think it is great that when I am with her, it seems like time passes so fast. Maybe because we were traveling or maybe simply when you are having a good time, there is just never ever enough time. With the time I spent with her came moment of smiles and as well as concerns. We talked about our belief in money, family, values, other people, and life's commitments. Through all the conversation I realize we have our differences and our similarities. Which if you look at it, is all a part of dating and relationship. If you really want to be with someone that does not have conflicts, then be with yourself. It is the fine line of whether those differences break the two people or make the two people stronger. Well time and how we handle the conflict determine the future result. But I am a strong believer that things are only good and terrific when there is a existence of the negative effect. Meaning how can we truly know what is good if there is no evil? Each plays its part. Embrace it. There is a lot to be said about this week, but I think one word that I took with me to France was "Auspicious". The mean is: promising success, opportune, favored by fortune. That is how I feel about the time so far I've spend with D. I hope for promising successful relationship with D. I think I was fortune to experience this regardless what the outcome may be in the future. Now is the opportune time to having such feelings because I think I need it. Therefore thus far I think I am favored by fortune that came to be beginning of 2008. Despite our differences, our likeness, and possible future hurddles, I hope we can always smile at the end of the day. Well....let's hope.



2nd course:

After coming back from Europe, I had my interview with the VP of Boiler room company. It is weird that after coming back I really had very little motivation to prepare for the interview. I know that it is always important to be prepare for a interview. But yet I guess my heart was not into it. It would be a good opportunity, yet something just prevented me to put passion into what the job is about. I did finally go to the interview while juggling my time study for work, my Wednesday class, and my other commitments. Yet I probably could of rearrange things, but i waited until the last 15 minutes before to do any review. To little surprise, I did not do I well as I usually would. I got to admit this time the office in Foster City was much nicer and had more diverse set of people. Although most still fit the same mold, but at least ethnically it was more diverse environment. Well I will see if I get a call by. I think this interview was more for me to determine if I want the job or not. By talking with the recruiter it was up to me to mess it up and I think my lack of effort showed in my interview. Oh well, lesson learned. Maybe some soul searching is due for me to explore why I do that. Obviously do I really need to have passion for my work. All it does it to bring in a paycheck. My passion should exist outside of work. Yet on the reverse side, I think majority of our life is spend at work, so shouldn't we have passion or feel a sense of fulfillment with what we do?

Desert:

I got recent request from friends asking me to go on trips. They really think I don't work and I have unlimited amount of vacation time. What the heck. Hahaha..... Although I got to admit, being in this job, and unknowing how long I will have this job, I do have a lot more time fulfilling my desire to travel and just enjoy mother earth. But the trips that were offered up were, Costa Rica, Mtn. Fuji, and Hong Kong. How am I suppose to fit these in my calendar? I still plan on meeting D in Seoul if destiny permits. Man sometime I just wish I can just say okay, I am not working anymore and just see the world and work on my memory as reap the opportunity that life has to offer. In a side note, part of this thought was that a good friends dad went to ICU, unexpectedly over the weekend. I know that it hit him by surprise because he just talked to his dad. So now with all his aspiration of going to grad school, he may halt that process until he see his dad in full recovery. I don't blame him, because I know with something that traumatic happens, a person always tries to evaluated and re prioritize. Well I hope the best for him and his family.