Brisbane, 2/8/2013

Arrived in Brisbane last night.  Flight from HI was pretty uneventful. Although I didnt know that airlines could not serve water on international flights.  Jetstar, cheap as shit airlines, charges $3.50 for water on the flight and with not being able to bring drinks through security, you are pretty much at their mercy.  Its getting to the point that you have to plan to bring an empty bottle through security to fill it before getting on the flight.  Now I know I am a cheap-ass, not wanting to buy water at the airport, but seriously Im broke or almost, I need to save money.  And the airline should be giving out a cup of water on the flight.

But enough bitching about that.  The weather here is nice although I can feel that I am battling a slight cold coming on.  I really want to be running to get ready for the race on the 18th when I get back and to be in shape to have a chance to compete in March, but dont want to run myself down in the process.  What to do?

Also its nice seeing all my stuff that has been waiting for me since I moved from China. It was kind of like Christmas to see everything that I had forgotten about.  I am still trying to track a few things down. It will be really nice to have the projector up and running in my new room in HI, very fortuitous to have a projector screen already mounted in the bedroom.  The only thing left now is to find the 2T hard drive  that has all my movies on it.

I already went for a run today and still feel pretty good, so I am hoping this cold feeling is more the result of travel and dehydration than anything else.  Just have to keep it easy, which i am not the best at till it passes.

Happy Birthday Jayci, 2/3/2013

A couple of things have happened over the last week to keep me busy and get things rolling here.  First, I found out that I was denied the job at UH, mainly because I did not have experience in handling the visa process for students coming into the US education system, which was supposed to be a main component of the job.  So that kinda sucked, but it gives me the option to study full-time this semester, I think I am going to take 3 classes and grab a part-time job for now.  I had interviewed with a couple of private ESL schools and was offered a job by one called IEE, forget what the letters stand for at the moment.  Anyway they seem to have an easy enough schedule (Tuesday to Friday, 8:50-1:00).  And they keep the hours nice and limited to avoid having to pay health insurance.  I am going to sign some contract things with them next week and then be able to start the week after I get back from AU, so that also worked out nicely.  The only downside is that they are really looking for someone who is going to stay with them through the summer and most likely I am going to try and get back to China to teach the summer camp in Zhengzhou or try to go to a language program in CA, either way, not be working the summer here.  So at the end of the 90 day probation period I am probably going to give notice that they should find someone new.  But I need a job now so oh well.

Next, I found a place to live.  Its a normal, for the most part, housing situation which I was beginning to doubt existed here.  But it turns out they have fairly normal apartments and houses, I guess the people living in them dont turnover that fast and already know people here so they are not on craigslist that often.  But I moved in with 2, I think soon to become 3 roommates.  One is out of town at the moment. Its nice 3 bedroom apartment that seemed to fit me in some unexpected ways.  For one, there is a projector screen on the wall in the bedroom and I own a projector.  Also there is a kind of balcony, veranda out my door with an overhead beam to hang a hammock, and I own a hammock.  Has parking and I have a car, so thats nice.  Its only 2 or 3 blocks to the grocery store, and close to the highway.  I went for a really nice run yesterday, but need to find some trails because I dont like running on asphalt the whole time, doing hours on that makes my legs sore.  Trails are much more pleasant.  Having very little stuff the move in process was very easy and fast, need to pick up a few more things but waiting till I get back from AU to see what all I have there before getting anything new.

As mentioned above, because of the way the work situation has worked out, I will be going to Australia for 10 days or so to see family and collect my belongings.  When I get back it will be a day before the Great Aloha Run, a 8+ mile race.  Since I did about 6-7 miles yesterday, I feel good about stepping into that.  Then in March I have heard about a Muay Thai tournament that I might try to get into.  It seems that my current gym has cut about 50% of the monthly classes that they were running.  I was already not liking it that much, but with the cut I am going to be looking for new training gyms for sure as soon as my month membership runs out and I get back from AU.  Monday or Wednesday I want to check out M-1 martial arts, supposed to be good for their Muay Thai.  And am going to try the drive back out to Powerhouse to see if the new location is better for getting their as far as traffic goes.  Overall, I am really disappointed at the UFC gym, but also not that surprised.  It looks nice, its brand new, and has everything you could want to train with.  But the regular classes are so full of people who are not that good and not really willing to work through the pain that comes with real fight training that the classes are kinda soft.  Then the small group classes and the "elite" classes cost a shit ton extra, so if you want they are there, but there is no way that I or normal people can afford them with handing over their entire paycheck.  I am going to hunt for a smaller gym, like back in CO, a nice core group, shit little gym and solid instructors.  Just have to see if the places I can find are accessible from my new place.

If the title didnt give it away, today is Jayci's birthday, so happy birthday Jayci.

I think thats about it.  Hammocks, hung, car is insured, job should be confirmed early this week, one more class to register for while waiting for my courses to be fully evaluated by OUA.  May add some extra hours depending on how my schedule fills in.  New gyms identified but need to checked out.  And some races/competitions in the works and coming up soon.  Just need to find a triathlon to tryout and see if I can get lucky working part-time as a Chinese translator for a SCUBA diving company (that would be a cool side gig) and things should start being really cool.

A few things are starting to come together, 1/26/2013

After the first couple weeks here I was started to get frustrated.  Money was going fast and there were a lot of wrong turns and dead ends.  Now some things are finally starting to come together.  I have found a place to live, I got the car, it looks like there are some job prospects that should come through.  After a week of not hearing anything from UH I am going to assume that I am not going to be offered the job.  Although at this point I think Im leaning toward a different arrangement.

Part-time work teaching ESL and doing some temporary curriculum development for a different school.  While training as much as I can at the gym and taking a full load of classes for the semester online.  I would like to work toward getting the Psych degree wrapped up as quickly as realistically possible, if that is what I want to transition to, then I want to be in a place where I can start getting some real experience in that field.

Yesterday I went by one of the self help shelters in the area to find out about volunteering with people who have mental illness.  Next week I am going to meet with the director of volunteer services for the Department of Hawaii Mental health services and see what they have available.  Between the two I should be able to find something once a week to start working with people who have mental illness.

Part-time ESL teaching, training 3-4 hours a day, and a 3/4 load of psych courses should keep me pretty busy for the next couple of months.  Then come June I have a decision to make... either attend a summer program in California six weeks of intensive Chinese classes or teach at a summer program in China (also a good way to do some intensive Chinese language study).  Then again the jobs may not be to happy to have a teacher leave while their summer programs are starting to ramp up.  And given the small community here, I am going to have to be careful not to burn bridges within the community.  Something that I have not always been the best at in the past. 

1/21/2013

I can see now why so many Americans can get complacent.  I have watched more TV in the last couple days than I think I have in the last couple of months, maybe the last year.  Its just so easy to through it on.  I have been reading very little because I have the TV there instead.  Although now that I have realized this I am trying much harder to sit down and read more.  Still it takes a real effort and if you dont notice, then it would be easy to miss it.

Today was my first lesson with my new Chinese teacher.  He seems to be really good, a little older, but something like 30+ years of teaching experience.  And his accent is very easy to understand so thats nice.  We met today for an hour and sat outside going through the first chapter of the text that I ordered but am still waiting for my copy to arrive.  I had recently been feeling a little down on my Chinese, mainly because without the same opportunities to speak I am worried that it will fade like my French. But speaking with the teacher today, I felt pretty confident.  I felt like I was taking in about 80% or more without problems and was able to understand all the concepts.  Just need to work on pronunciation, which has been an area to work on since I started speaking, not just Chinese.

Now that the Chinese teacher is settled, I still need to find a job and place to live.  I have been seeing lots of places, but so many are just strange.  After my tantric love offer from the senior citizen I went out to see a master bedroom offer yesterday.  It felt like a group home.  It was a large house, but had something like 10 or more people living in it.  In the living/kitchen there were 4 fridges, one for each person so they didnt have to share or worry about people stealing food.  But still only one kitchen.  Maybe if the group living there was more my peer group, but a couple of Japanese senior citizens, a young family and me does not sound like the match that I am looking for.

I saw one decent place over the weekend and I would take it, but the owner is looking for a longer term tenant and I am not sure that I want to commit to 6 months until I know where I am going to be working.  If I can lock down the job at the UH campus near Manoa, then the room would be great.  But if its in Leeward then the traffic would blow.  But at this point it is looking like most of the jobs are going to be Honolulu and so housing nearby would be the way to go.... I have a few more places to see tomorrow and will keep following up with new places, but I would really hate to have then end of the month roll up and still be in this place.  It is way to expensive.  And it would also be nice to have a roommate to help with the meeting of people and getting to know to the area.

Finally on the job front, I think that the interview went really well.  But I know that the process has involved several people and there is a good chance that some of the others may have the experience in student visa processing that seems somewhat important for the job.  Tomorrow is a job fair that I am going to attend and then Wednesday I am going to start hitting the private English language schools that are in the city.  I am also going to start offering to volunteer at some of the psychological services that I have tracked down in the hopes that it might lead to something paying...  If I can get some cheaper housing it will make holding out for a job much easier. 

Waikiki, 1/10/2013

I guess I have not been writing as much as before, things are busy and not at the same time.  The last couple days as I have been getting over my culture shock the pace of things has started to pick up.  So the big updates...
I bought a car.  2001 Volkswagon Jetta GLS 5sp blah blah blah, white, seems to be in pretty good shape and drives well.  Still working through the first full tank of gas to find out what kind of mileage it will actually get with the traffic and what not, but its been fun so far.  Had to go and out get one of those ipod to radio thingys because the radio here kinda sucks, but other than that it hasnt needed anything.  Going to clean it out and go over the whole thing in detail over the next couple of days.
I have a job interview scheduled now at the Outreach College, an intensive English training program attached to the University of Hawaii, it looks like it is aimed at helping incoming UH students who do not meet the English standard and go through a 10 week course.  It was nice because yesterday I called to let them know I am here and update my phone number while getting osme info about the process.  They said that interviews start next week or two but they would not be letting people know if they were picked for the first round or not in case they did not get any hits in the first round they did not want people to know they were the second choice.  But then today I got an email for an interview next Friday, so thats nice. That job also had the first closing date of the 4 or 5 that i applied for at UH so hopefullly there will be others coming up soon as well.
Tonight I have a one on one assessment at an MMA  gym that has several amatuer and pro fighters working out there so I am looking forward to getting some real feedback on how I stack up.  the thai trainers were great, but it was hard to really take seriously what they were saying.  Some were great, but others just wanted to get a foreigner in the ring for the payday and in that short a time with the language troubles it was hard to work out who was who.
Now that I have an idea of where I want to work out and where I might be working, as well as how small this island really is, I think i will restart the housing hunt.  Need to get into something either way nicer or way  cheaper but what im paying now is just not going to work.  at least with the amount of stuff that i have, living out of the car would be pretty easy.
Oh I have also started putting up flyers to see if I can track down chinese students who would either want my help editing their papers or with their english or acting as Chinese tutor for me.  But I was thwarted by my lack of a staple gun when I hit campus bulletin boards, so I am going to arm up and prepare to return in force.  who knows what that might yeild but it would be nice to find something part time to stop the money hemoraging out at the horrific pace that America seems to require.  Spent more in a week that 3 months in Asia, guess the car kinda affects that... 

Waikiki, 1/2/2013

After about 56 hours of traveling and being awake with about 6 hours of fitful sleep on planes and airport benches I finally crashed around 11:30pm last night.  I have not slept that un-interrupted in a long time. I usually feel very rested when I wake, but often wake a small noises and go quickly back to sleep.  Last night i barely registered when two people came back, I have been told around 4, from the bars.  Its an odd dreamlike memory.  Woke again around 9 from a phone call, but didnt answer and back to sleep till around 1.  13+ hours and today I feel great.  Only worried I wont be able to fall asleep until late and fall into a whacked sleep cycle.
After getting up late I made a determined effort to find a place to stay.  And succes.  A little more than I wanted, but I think my initial sites where affected by what i am sure were fake listings that had low prices to draw people in.  From hotels and what not the $60 a night that i am paying now for a glorified hotel room with a small kitchen seems pretty good.  The cheapest hostel on the island is $30 for a 6 person dorm, so $60 seems pretty good.  I will be moving tomorrow afternoon and then the job hunt will start in earnest.
I got another email from UH today so i am hoping that they are back from the holiday break and going to start things sooner than later.  Also going to start hunting for mma gyms and get training again as soon as possible, i dont want things excellent physique grown in thaland to wither away on me like it did when i moved to china 5 years ago.
Also got a very nice run in today.  Hawaii has some nice landscape and good places to  run.  soon as I can start to get a better feel for this place i look foward to hitting some trails and getting off the roads for my runs.
Thats all i got for being up for 7 hours, hopefully i will have a longer day tomorrow.

Waikiki, 1/1/2013

The last 48 hours from Phuket to Waikiki has been a surreal experience with more to come.  Starting with passing new years in the airport watching the Thai coverage was awful.  At midnight the monks started chanting and it didnt stop until I put in my headphones and drowned it out.  Boarded the 1am flight and yet wasnt able to pull more than an hour of sleep before arriving in Seoul.
It is cold in Seoul in the winter.  It had clearly just snowed and started on again off again throughout the day.  I had prepared all my cold weather gear for the trip, but the greatest problem was that I just didnt have that much.  And my weak spot was the toes.  Jacket was ok.  Beard protected the face.  But crocs and socks do not cut it in slushy conditions.  It was hovering right around freezing, just warm enough to melt snow and get my socks wet.  Between the cold, lack of sleep and it being new years day and everything closed, I did not venture far from the train station where the airport express dropped me off. I had some wok rice bowl and coffee and then headed back to the airport.  After a couple hours it was time to head off on the flight to Honolulu.
From the airport I was able to get my bicycle without a problem and headed out to get a taxi.  While I had been told that any car can be a taxi, I was picked up by a stretch limo.  Somewhat dated as there was a  vhs player still in it, but still was strange to be driven in a limo to a hostel.
And finally there was the first apartment that I went to see.  I knew it was going to be strange from the email address, cosmiclovebroker@whatever, but I wanted to start getting an idea of what there is.  I went to meet, lets call her Mary, a 50-60 year old woman in a nice building near my hostel.  Finding the place was easy enough and she met me in the hallway while chattting with two younger kids who live in the building.  Started normal enough.  Then it got strange. First the apartment was a joke. I am really hoping it is not indicative of things to come.  The room was a tiny with a single bed on the floor.  The living room a converted office with no space as two cluttered desk somehow managed to dominate the space.  Finally we came to the "master" suite which was offered and then the extra sales pitch.  She started telling me how the last roommate and her had something of friends with benefits that evolved naturally out of living together.  Then mentioned that she also does alternative massage and some kind of healing as well as real estate. Finally, she added that she is also into tantra and ...  I started tuning out and trying to keep my $6 steak and eggs down.  Before leaving she insisted that I see another unit that I could rent the one bedroom, but there was someone else living on the couch.  I humored her and then made a quick exit as soon as possible. As I write I am getting emails from her.
I really hope this is not an indicator of what Hawaii is going to be like.