Day 20 : Confused

       Discovery is an odd thing; throughout history some of mankind’s biggest and most influential discoveries have come from stumbling on them while trying to create or discover something entirely different. In my case tonight I think I have finally come to the point in my life where I don’t centre my life around going out and partying on the weekends. Yet this discovery came in the very place you go to have a great time, not have any commitments, and in general party! I ‘m not sure if I have come to this conclusion just because I have been going out more often since I got here or if it took the solitude and change of scenery for me to realize that after 24 years I should maybe start to think about settling down and taking a breather from the roller coaster of a life I have been living over the last few years. For the first time since I have been over here I feel lost and confused, which is odd because those feelings should have been very prominent when you are travelling to a country you have never been to before. Tonight’s post may be small and may not be in the general theme of the rest of the blog but I feel this is my true outlet of expression stress when I am lack my wonderful group of friends to put my problems on. If you have any suggestions or would just like to comment on an own life experience feel free to comment on the blog or drop me an email tvaronson@gmail.com. For now I leave you with a picture of my view from where I wrote and posted this entry.

   

                                                                                                Over and out, Tanner Aronson

Day 18: Professor Tanner

                When I first applied for this job many months ago it was during a time where I was still actively going to school and was working in the field I had studied for.  After not getting the job at first I moved to another job up north in Kitimat. Now working in Kitimat is a much different animal than working in the environmental field, but even more different is teaching students. Just the other day I had my first lab tutorial where I was the instructor. Being an instructor isn’t something that is entirely foreign to me I had as a teen been a taekwondo student instructor but where my students then were just tiny little people I know have full grown adults and young adults that are paying money for me to properly instruct them on how to use lab equipment and preform proper experiments. So from all this I can hope you get just a little bit of how nervous I was, even if my class is only ten students. I don’t think in my life I have ever came in to a job feeling so underqualified; the whole beginning of the class all that was going through my head was, “Why in the world is an institution that is rooted entirely in educated thought paying me some kid from Canada to teach their future generation.” After knocking ten years of my life with all my nervous stress it dawned on me how many times I had done what I needed to teach and I may worrying for nothing. So I introduced myself as Mr. Aronson said a little about myself and asked the students to introduce themselves and bang just like that I had become an instructor at a well-respected university. Crazier things have happened right???

                Besides my slow transformation into Indiana Jones I have finally gotten around to visiting some of Sydney’s beautiful beaches. On Saturday Brian and I decided it was beautiful outside and that we should grab a ferry and sail on over to Manly beach. Not expecting much from the ferry ride I was in for a real surprise both in beauty and also in sheer magnitude of how big Sydney and the harbour actually was. Manly is a stunning beautiful place with a really cool little surfer town attached to it and beautiful people walking all around. I think I found the true motivation for me to get back into the gym, everyone here is good looking and my wonderful charm is only going to get me so far, I know my ego has grown a little. After a search worthy of a stoner comedy Brian finally found the one and only Pho restaurant in manly we decided that we should actually spend some time the beach so applied the lotion and took a little tanning time on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, as a bonus I think I only blinded s a few of the locals with my pasty whiteness. Yesterday I got to visit another beach, Bondi, with my hostel as part of free tour thingy to meet people and such. Too much displeasure Sydney had been acting awfully Vancouverish lately so we were greeted to some overcast skies and gentle ocean breeze that was not so gentle. The tour was to take on this ocean side walk so that we could really get our tourist on and see all that Bondi had to offer. Luckily even though the skies were still reluctant to open themselves up the scenery was still beautiful and our party coordinators were making excellent tour guides and keeping the group moral on high by giving away hats and free drinks at the hostel bar for showing enthusiasm and general interest in the walk. By the time we finally made it the actual Bondi beach the sun had decided to grace us with its shine so a few people I had met in my room and I hit the bar and enjoyed what was meant to bit a few gin tonics but turned out to gin and soda water due to some poor bartending and stocking options on the bars behalf. Nevertheless when the sun is shining and you are another of the world’s lovely beaches it is hard to complain about the little things like a mixed up drink. I feel like that’s one of the lessons that this trip has taught me so far in its short duration, no matter what happens things could be worse and things will get better, the little things like losing your phone and ten dollar drinks getting screwed up are so insignificant there is no point letting them get at you. For now I am going to head down and pick up so fresh veggies from the market down the street and cook up a little meal maybe meet some people and enjoy everything this city has to offer. 

Day 12: Even Paradise has it's Downsides

                        Even paradise has its downsides. For one when your phone slips out of your pocket while taxiing with some beautiful women to a 4 floor bar, you might not notice it in all the excitement and it takes a lot to put it out of your mind and continues to show them a good time. Then again maybe the world isn’t so bad when you get to wake up in the morning and write atop the roof staring out at blue sky and a beautiful city, a gentle breeze spreading the soft hint of the salty ocean for your smelling delights. Yep something that would leave me in a pretty rough place back home seems so small and easy to put to the side when you have so much to distract you.

                        On Thursday my good friend from childhood landed here in Sydney, shout out to #AUZINOZ, so we have been taking in more of the sights and getting our good fill of culture. Yesterday we had tickets to go see the Christopher Nolan epic, Interstellar at the world’s largest IMAX theatre in Darling Harbour. I know it’s a few clicks out of the way for most of that may be reading this but if you happen to be I this neck of the woods then this place is a must. Not only was the movie one of the top five I have seen but seeing it on the this gargantuan of screen was just such an amazing experience; I am not sure if going to the movies again will ever be the same. After this Brian and I decided that the trip Mr. Nolan had taken us on had justified a shower so we headed back to Kings Cross to clean up and figure out the rest of our night. Just a little aside on Kings Cross, my new temporary home until the university decides to figure out it’s shit. Kings Cross is kind of the east van to Sydney, full of strip clubs and greasy bars but also under a period of gentrification ( yay I learned something in school), so it has lots of little hip coffee shops and cafés. Combining this environment, the hostels seem to gather a little more eclectic crowd, which is awesome. After cleaning up and gathering my life together we decided our best move for the night would be to stay at my hostel and participate in lovely little goon pong tournament that was being held down in the common room. At this point I would like to tell you that the Canadians took first place and were loved by all, but sadly only one those statements are true thanks to messy block attempt by yours truly. We still walked away with our heads held high and moved onto the bar down the street where the winner of the tournament was given a $50 bar tab. Brian wasn’t so in to waiting in the line so we parted ways and I went on to night of a debauchery, loud music, dancing with some lovely ladies and of course ending it with a much needed Kebab (the lifeblood of my journey). As I wrap up todays post me and Brian are going to grab a couple espressos and maybe a breakfast burrito from Gustav and Geurmo, I would like to give a little advice. If everything in the world seems like it is moving against you while others move so easily forward remember to take a step aside and have a knock at the stars and see what they say back. There are so many amazing things in this world to experience and maybe forward is not the direction for you at this point in time.

Day 6 : Loving it.

Halloween here in Sydney is much different than it is back home in Canada for one thing it lasts four whole days and another is that every single costume includes fake blood. But other than it being Halloween it was also my dad’s birthday. So I decided I would spend part of my day like he would. I woke up nice and early at 630…. Immediately decided that was way too early and went back to bed. After waking up at a much more reasonable time I figured a hearty meal was in order. Now I don’t want to brag but my dad makes a pretty tasty breakfast but that was about 16000 kilometers away, so I went for the next best thing and took a walk in what I thought was the general direction of Darling Harbour. Well after a brief detour through the Asian district I found myself in the most beautiful of part of Sydney I had been to yet. I found a nice little café restaurant and ordered a smoked salmon eggs benedict and what I thought was a small coffee but turned out to be an espresso shot. It was fantastic and the scenery wasn’t too bad either. Next on my list of things my Dad likes to do was go into the harbour and look at some beautiful boats far out of any reasonable persons price range. Looking at the people just chilling out on their yachts gets kind of depressing after a while when you start to realize how much money it would cost to live like them, so I decided I would continue my walk along the harbour and look at something a little more in my grasp like the beautiful women walking along the harbour. After this I needed a bit of a cool down so I decided to do something I really enjoy…. Playing some magic the gathering. I know I know real lame but I found this cool little store and preceded to get my Friday night magic on. All in all it was a very successful Friday.

One of the best decisions I have made since I came here has been staying at Wake Up! One of the many hostel’s here by central station. I have met so many great people and every night is a big party and everyone is always down to have a good time. Honestly I love everyone back home so much but I don’t think I ever want this to stop. I know everyone has heard it from one of their friends that have gone travelling how it is one of the things they must do in their lives and they are so very right. There is something about not having any schedule and seeing a really cool bar with a hell of a view and just sitting down having a cold beer and letting the world turn. It is a truly amazing feeling and one I hope everyone gets to experience in their lives. When you’re finished you get up and walk to this next experience. In one case it could be a casual stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens and seeing a beautiful purple tree or walking under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and just reveling in what an amazing piece of engineering and innovation that human kind has put together. At night you head down to Sidebar and meet even more amazing people and talk about where they are from and what their plans or what they have done to get to this point in life. As for now it is almost 630 and I think I am in need of some food and maybe cold schooner.

                                                                                            Tata for now, Tanner 

Day 1: LAX and a Tardy Bag

                Prior to leaving on my journey I was explaining too many people which exact route I would be taking on my path to Sydney and every time I would mention that I would be taking a bit of a layover at LAX. At this point everyone would stop me to express their utter discomfort and disgust they experienced during their time at LAX. Having only been there once in my life I had not really found LAX to be so horrible, though I may have only been twelve and left all the discomfort for my father to experience. This time though I got to truly experience the filth and confusion that is Los Angeles International Airport. Upon arriving you are immediately greeted by a lovely sprinkle from the leaking air conditioner which leads you into the maze of sweaty smelly people who have no idea where they might be going because there are only twenty signs in this state sized cess pool and of those twenty you might be lucky if it leads you remotely near where you need to go instead of a wall the states they working on this route. When you have finally made it the outside of your terminal, there is literally a billion of them, the lovely air of makes it way quickly into your nose, a lovely blend of tobacco smoke and urine… Now usually at any other major airport you could grab a shuttle to your next terminal and not have to find your way but at LAX they think you would much rather experience mixture of scents they have to provide. That is there are shuttles but they are mostly for people practising in the occult and fortune tellers because like the rest of LAX…. Yep you guessed it no signs. Now on a normal day in just travelling through, out or in this seems like a horrible place to send your evening but I was fortunate to run in to problems with my baggage, thanks to the lovely people at Alaska Airlines for that. So I found myself running from one terminal to another and trying to decipher the hieroglyphics that have now replaced words in America. To say the least not very pleased with the whole occasion. Luckily enough I had the pleasure to fly business class for my journey to Sydney which thanks to the wonderful team at Quantas Airlines was the best flying experience I have had to date(serious this time). This being my first time flying business class I was treated to a different group of passengers. The man beside me had just finished a three month journey across America where he attended various Aerospace conferences. Apparently he works for some company that is currently trying to reinvent long distance travel by bring the craft into orbit and let it orbit to just before your destination and then begin re-entry. According to him this would make any long distance journey no more than an hour long. Real cool dude all together he had a fancy briefcase and really looked the part of business class traveler. I on the other hand looked like I might have a rich parent that was sending me across the world. We were also treated to a cool little experience as it was our pilot’s last flight before retiring after 36 years and more than 26000 hours in the air, so as we taxied into the airport we got the salute from the fire trucks as they covered us in litre after litre of water. But as the saying goes all good things come to an end and thus I was greeted by a lovely message from my airline informing me that my bag had been called in for a talk with Mickey Mouse and was thus now catching a flight the next day. So I now sit here at the hostel after having spent a hundred and fifty dollars to look and smell like an acceptable human being until my bag is done his business with the big man in the castle. Lucky the city is beautiful and it being summer and makes all the beautiful women come out. So for now I was say good bye as a particular summer dress looks like it needs my attention.

                                                                             Peace and Love, Tanner, basically Anthony Bourdain

Day 0: NERVOUS!!!!

When people tell me about their travel it seems they have kept out one key piece of the story. The days leading up to the dropping of everything you have ever known and leaving to the other side of the world are completely and utterly nerve racking. It feels like if I am not up to anything or thinking about something other than leaving then my stomach is on constant red alert and my head feels like I just spent a night drinking appletini’s. And when you complain to people about these problems they just come at you with how jealous they are of you leaving to a hot place. Like come on people I am not spouting out my complaints to you because I want to hear how fortunate I am. I want to hear how it’s going to get better or just to at the least have your sympathy for my stress. I know slightly unrealistic of me but if you know me well than you should quite use to the unrealistic.

But enough of my pain and more of the introduction; my name is Tanner Aronson and although nighty percent of will have come to this blog from a link I posted on social media some of you may not know my story. So my story, about 8 months ago I applied to a partnership program at the University of British Columbia that would take five environmental students to different universities around the world to work at an university to complete the last of their bachelors and or masters and then be hooked up with a nearby company to work for the remainder of what would be a yearlong program. I applied to this program on a the very slim chance that I would get on seeing as my grades while I was in school were not quite the A’s that I expected the rest of the competition to have. As it turned out they picked five students and I was not to be one of them although disappointed the organizers did advise me that I had made it to the final ten, which to me put a little more appreciation into how the university viewed experience. Fast forward to the start of September I get a call from one of my former professors at UBC asking if I would be interested in heading down to for an interview. As it had turned out the lady destined for the job at the University of Sydney had decided to back out and stay in Vancouver for reasons of her choosing. I immediately accepted the job and made arrangements to leave for Australia. So that’s the background and where we are at today me awake early morning of the day of travel with my mind going the airspeed velocity of an unladened swallow, African of course, and unable to sleep so thus I find myself making my first blog entry of what I can only hope to be a successful journey. So for now I think I will sign off as I can feel sleep slowly approaching.

                                                                                                Tata for now, Tanner