Watson and Crick and World War Too!

You may be thinking to yourselves, "Now, what do Watson and Crick have to do with World War II?" But as wise as you all are, I know that you've come up with the answer by now. Yup, you guessed it, King's Park. Looking down at the map on the post below, you will notice that King's Park is right above "Me" (I know it looks a lot like "He", but it's really "Me"). It is on the opposite side of the street that runs behind my residence.One day, whilst Breana and I sat around contemplating what to do next, I decided that we should take a walk in my 400.6 hectare (a hectare is a rich man's acre... worth 2.47 acres a pop) back yard. It was a most beautiful day full of promise and adventure. King's Park is a wonderful place for walking, running, biking, and just admiring the scenery.

After about 30 minutes of walking, we came to what is called the DNA Tower. It is so named because it is in the shape of a double helix, similar to that of deoxyribonucleic acid. From what I gather, it was built to resemble some staircase in a European church some time ago. However, given its eerily similar structure to that of DNA-discovered of course by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in 1953-it then became known as the DNA Tower. So, we climbed the tower, took in the view, took a few pictures, and moved on to see what else King's Park had to offer us.

I guess you should know that as we got to the DNA Tower, it began to rain on and off. Sometimes very lightly, and other times very hard. That seems to be the theme of weather here... annoying and wet, as you may be able to tell from the photos.

At the upper end of King's Park there are botanic gardens that would be very nice if it were not in the middle of winter. However, there were still some nice greens to admire and a spectacular view of the city. It is from here that my picture of the city was taken. At this point in our journey we got trapped in the park under a canopy of sorts for a good chunk of time due to an unrelenting rain that wanted to make sure we did not enjoy ourselves... but we still did anyway.

Also up here was a nice war memorial to Australian troops that lost their lives in all wars, not just WWII as the title may have led you to believe. One Australian put it like this, Australia has actually been in every war that the US has been in since WWI, the only difference between the US and Australia is that the Australians never start wars... and they send less troops.

Wandering back home now lost in the park, we stumbled across a little park called Synergy Parkland and resembled something from Jurassic Park. I should let you know that we were only lost because I thought I knew where I was and decided to go right at a fork in the road when Breana speculated that we should go left... needless to say, she was right. Here, near the end of our walk, over four hours after we first set out, the rain began to stop and a beautiful double rainbow appeared in the sky.

That's a little more on my surroundings here in Perth. I'm sure the park is a lot cooler on a nice sunny day, but at least the rain here keeps you guessing.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

I don't know where Carmen is hangin' out these days, but this is where I am.

Happy Birthday Nathaniel!!!

The Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea

While I may not be a sailor going out to sea, I did manage to see what I could see, see, see... Now that I’ve been here a week, I’ve been able to get around some and see the sights. Those sights being Fremantle, Cottesloe Beach, and the city of Perth itself of course.

Fremantle is the port city to Perth about a twenty minute bus ride south. It's a quaint little city full of little cafes and the Freo Markets. It's pretty good looking (to be read as "eets preety goood loookeeng" like Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite)...

Moving up a bit north now, Breana and I made our way to the beautiful Cottesloe Beach and Indian Ocean for the first time. Be sure to take note of the excitement on Breana's face so that you too might become a little happier inside even though you may not currently be at the beach... or one so beautiful as this. Also, the water was just gorgeous.

Finallly returning to the city, we had our first meal of fish and chips. It was marvelous. Perth is experiencing a gigantic boom at the moment due to a growth in the mining industry a little bit north of the city, so there is a lot of construction going on at the moment. I could count as many as eight cranes in the city skyline while looking at it from across the bay. How many can you spot in this picture? I got four. I'll get a better picture of the city on a sunnier day for you sometime... I pinky promise.

And that's that. I hope that you all have noticed that there is a joke of the day that I added to the blog. I will try to keep the good ones coming, but please excuse me if they resemble "Dad" jokes too much... I've actually acquired a new appreciation for those kinds of jokes over the past few years.

The Dark Knight

Totally Awesome.

Where Winter is Football Weather

My passport has finally been stamped and I’m in Australia, for realsies this time. There was no bomb on the plane and they told me that it was the safest plane I have ever been, or will ever be, on again... They inspected it three times and nothing was found. The flight itself was actually pretty good as I was able to sleep pretty well and watch movies the rest of the time for 14 hours. So far I have only been through two days of riveting orientation at UWA and it seems like it’ll be a good time.

I’ll have more to follow sometime. This was just to let you know that I made it here in one piece.

A Note on the Title

I thought very long and hard for about 5 minutes for a clever and witty title before failing miserably. So, I turned to Australian national anthem and essentially used the only line that would make sense as a title. Here it is in its entirety:

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea:
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair,
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross,
We'll toil with hearts and hands,
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands,
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia fair.

The Flights That Never Were

Before you begin, these posts were all written in real time, but I didn’t have internet access until now to post them.

Greetings from down under!!!

Just kidding… Right now I am actually still in Los Angeles. If you are wondering why it is that I’m still in LA, here’s the story. If you do not care at all whatsoever, skip to paragraph 10.

I began my journey in a flight out of Rochester, through O’Hare, and on to LA. I arrived in LA at 2:00 pm local time only to be told that my flight to Sydney had been cancelled due to a Qantas strike…and so began the ill-fated QF12 of July 17, 2008. But do not worry! I met a number of other Notre Dame kids caught in the same conundrum. They put us up in the Hilton LAX for the night with dinner and breakfast for the now 10:00 am flight.

After dinner, we had a lot of time to kill so we took a shuttle down to Manhattan Beach to walk around. The home of beach volleyball is kind of like heaven. Standing on the pier, I could look both ways down the beach and see volleyball courts as far as I could see three courts wide. The ocean was really nice, but unfortunately I did not pack a swimsuit and towel into my carry-on bag. The water and weather were beautiful, so we waded in a little bit. I was hoping to run into Justin, but maybe he’s not living there anymore. If only I had a cell phone…

Getting back at the hotel, we went to sleep immediately and woke up early to get to the airport. Now I’m sitting here just waiting to board the plane with Breana—hooray!— this time!

Now I know that you are thinking to yourselves, “But Sean, you said the flights that never were! Not the flight that never was. You’re a big fat liar.” Read on, young soldiers, read on.

Well, we boarded the plane… and sat… for a long time… only to be shuttled off the plane and run through security again while every bag on the plane was searched again. I kind of felt like a VIP as we were taken off the plane because we walked though a human tunnel of security people while the rest of the terminal was stopped entirely for us.

Now back at the gate, we waited to board again at the gate only to learn that the security breach had escalated to the point where the FBI was now getting involved. Qantas was told by TSA that this plane would not be allowed to take off. Now the next flight is at 10:00 pm.

And again Qantas treated us like kings by giving us food vouchers for the terminal and yet one more hotel room to stay at in the meantime. It was about 2:00 pm at this point if you were wondering. We ate at the Chili’s in the airport and then left for the hotel.

This just in (I’m actually in this second hotel now watching the news currently.) Apparently there was a bomb threat phoned in just before we were going to take off. So I’m just glad to be safe and sound. (This story followed one about a streaker on an American Airlines flight into LAX that tried to open one of the doors in the middle of the air.)

When we arrived at this hotel—Emabassy Suites—we were greeted by a Qantas rep that assured us we would get a hefty voucher from Qantas. WOO HOO! Hopefully that means free airfare for my spring break to awesome… or a return trip to Australia sometime. Also, I time to celebrate July 18. "What's so great about that?" you might ask. It's my 19 yr and 10 mo birthday, of course! I was worried I was going to miss it…

Anyway, welcome to my blog. Hopefully it will be filled with good news and more exciting adventures… or just filled at all. Now I’m off to my next free meal and back to the airport for the flight that will be.

Off to see the Pope!