One Last Hurrah

For a final sightseeing adventure while I'm on the Australian continent, I went into the red centre and visited Uluru two weeks ago. Pretty awesome sights - though despite the warnings I was not prepared for the flies crawling into every orifice of my body. If you go there, buy the fly net for your face. I would have paid a hundred dollars there at the end they were so bloody maddening. The tropical strength fly and mosquito repellent did nothing, not even a little, to keep them away.

Anyway - I did not climb Uluru - it is very discouraged these days. Apparently there are 12 people on the board, and 11 have voted to shut it down. The twelfth is the Minister of Tourism for Central Australia, who fears people will stop coming if they ban it.

My tour was run by The Rock Tour, and they ran a tight ship, keeping us on time. Camping under the stars in a swag was fantastic, slept like a baby.

P.S. The real reason for this post is that I've been building out a few map features on this blog's desktop view, and I need a second post tagged with a location and sporting a thumbnail.

The Sun Sets On Melbourne

After 2 years 9 months, my time in Melbourne is drawing to a close. At a transition point in my life personally and professionally, I opted to make a move back to the US to start a new chapter anchored nearer to family. It is no doubt a bittersweet decision, as I'm leaving behind a good community, good friends, a good culture, and a good job. But what can I say, homesickness for family trumps. The future is uncertain: will I get homesick for Australia in the future? Will I have success rebuilding community in the US? Will I find a new job? Will I survive a road trip? How long will it take to rekindle friendships? If nothing else, setting off on a new chapter, a new adventure, is invigorating and exciting.

About the blog title

"How you travelling?" is Aussie slang heard around the office that means, "How are you progressing with your tasks?" Of course, me being three-days-off-the-boat didn't know that when my new customer lead asked me how I was travelling. "I took the train in today," I beamed with pride, having just figured out the public transit overnight, "it was so much faster than the tram I had been taking." A few confused sentences later, I adopted what would become my mantra to while adjusting to the culture shock: Everything is different.