Back to Brisbane

Well, it's nice to be back in Sunny Queensland, Australia. Matt met me a the aeropuerto as soon as I cleared customs at the international arrivals area. It was great to see him, and feel like this big adventure is officially begun. Well, it will really begin when we head out for Hong Kong on Wednesday.
So I took off from LA on Wednesday night and arrived here in Brisbane, with a quick stop in Auckland New Zealand, at 8am on Friday morning. Not sure where Thursday was, but I was somewhere over the dark pacific chatting up the British nurse sitting next to me. Both flights were pretty nice, good food and service on Air New Zealand. Got settled into Matt's brothers place in the suburb of Brisbane, Oxley, showered up and took a nice nap. Woke up from the nap having absolutely no idea where I was, a feeling I'm happily getting used to. Hopped a train into downtown Brisbane and met up with Matt and some of his mates from work at a pub. We had a late night, but a great time catching up with a bunch of folks I went to school with down here. Saturday morning we got up bright and early for a day of hiking.
Matt had assembled an international crew to climb Mt. Beerwah, on the Sunshine coast just an hour drive north of Brisbane. We had 3 aussies, a Dutchman, and two German girls. And of course me the American. It was a super windy day, and the climb did have some tough rock scrambles to be made, but no technical climbing. We packed a huge lunch and headed off. Enjoy some pics:

Matt and I

The crew walking by the caves at the bottom of the cliff.

Summit! I was pretty windy up here, but a truly beautiful day.

I was trying to climb inside the caves, the rock was really flaky, not all that great for climbing.

After the hike was cruised back into Brisbane, and went shopping for some food for the evenings party. Matt had a bunch of friends over for a little jam session, it was lots of fun. They had the barbie going and made tons of food. It was a great first day and a half in Australia, I was completely exhausted from the hike, jetlag, and a couple of beers.

Today, I'm meeting up with my good friend Emily and some of her roommates for a night out, it's guaranteed to be a great time. Hope all's well back home.

Welcome to the land down un...

Well, almost. I'm in sunny but cool California. Taking off for Australia via New Zealand tonight at 9:30... So I got in last night, flew on JetBlue into Long Beach.

Nice flight, about 5 hours, but with DirecTV in my seat it went by super fast. We took a sort of round about route: Brent picked me up at the airport, and we went back to his and Mandy's place in 'the valley.' Met up with Jason and walked to some bars on Ventura blvd. It was really great to see them and we a good time catching up over a couple pitchers. We're heading out today (Brent, Mandy, and I) to check out hollywood and malibu. Jason had to work.

This past weekend I spent most of the time hanging out with friends, we went out to brewers on Friday night, sushi on Saturday with Dave, Justin, and Dave's dad, plus my folks. Tried to pack up my stuff:

I went into DC on Monday to pick up a Visa at the Indian embassy, it was an adventure in itself. Monday night I went to LaPaz and hung out with Tim, Megan and Erin. Said some goodbyes, and got to packing. Erin and Megan, two of the coolest people on earth, and stunningly beautiful I might add, will be missed for sure. They were giving me a hard time about not being mentioned in here :).

So Tuesday, day of departure, was a little hectic, but turned out just fine. Said goodbye to my folks, who have been great and super supportive, I couldn't have done it without them. I think I brought everything I wanted to bring, so that's that. I'm on my way, and it feels great.