Mid-Winter Break

Early January has come and gone and, as promised, it has been much, much slower than the late December holiday rush. Some old-timers claim that snowboard instructors make nearly 50% of their income during the holiday break, an idea that I originally found humorous, but I'm now afraid might be true.

Fortunately, Park City Mountain offers all sorts of clinics for us to take to keep ourselves busy. This week I've taken a couple of freestyle classes and a very in-depth look at snowboard maintainence. All I can say is ignorance is bliss. In the (not too distance) past, snowboarding was as simple as throwing the board on and pointing it downhill. I've got enough knowledge about bases, edges, and such that I could easily spend an hour a night preparing for the next day.

However, too much of a good thing can be bad. We spent three hours yesterday tweaking our edges (I'm now the proud owner of a "power-bevel!") and applying various substances to the base of our board. I headed up to the slopes today, prepared to leave powder burns in the snow. I stood up near the bunny slope, aimed down hill, and ... my board didn't budge. Not even an inch. It felt like I was trying to snowboard through bubble gum. It made the day interesting (it's always fun trying to do demos for kids when your board doesn't move). I'll be spending a little extra time tonight attempting to get everything back in order.

Other thoughts I had while trying to keep up with my students today:

Storm watch, 2007: After a few weeks of very warm weather (and a steady drop in our snow-pack), we finally had a strong storm blow through last night. Nearly 8" of snow later things were looking good for today -- until I stepped outside. Wow, was it cold. Today's high at the base of the mountain was 10 degrees, with a slight breeze. My routine with the students today was: two runs (about 40 minutes total); head inside to warm up (for about 10 minutes); repeat. And even that was pushing it. Taking the chair lift up was an exercise in mental strength. And the wind was blowing up the mountain, so you'd get even colder snowboarding back down. The weekend promises to bring more cold weather, but hopefully we'll crack into the teens at least.

Fleeting connections: Last week I had a Mexican student in my class. Part of my morning chit-chat with him sounded something like:

Me: Hey, Sebastian! Where are you from?
Sebastian: Mexico.
Me: Oh cool! Where in Mexico?
(Here he pauses for a second and stares at me with a strange look.)
Sebastian: Um, Mexico. It's a country below the United States.

It took a minute for me to convince him that I knew where Mexico was and I wanted to know where in Mexico he lived. He finally figured it out and started describing some place that I had never heard of, all I could do was nod and try to look like I knew what he was talking about. I felt like he kind of lost confidence with me for a while. Fortunately another student was a "magician" and was doing some card tricks. I showed off my only trick and Sebastian was totally mesmerized. At lunch he immediately pointed to the deck and said "again." Sadly I screwed it up (for the first time in a few years!) and he looked crestfallen again. Oh well, at least he thought I was cool for part of the day.

Real Salt Lake: And one thing I'm looking forward to later in the season is watching a Real Salt Lake soccer game. Freddy Adu was just traded to the team so I've been excited that I'd get to see a soccer superstar. And just yesterday David Beckham decided to join the LA Galaxy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Galaxy will be visiting Salt Lake before I leave.

Time to get bundled up and ready for the weekend. Oh, and Go Seahawks!

Back Off!







For those who aren't familiar the picture above is of the Rabbit. A 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit, my family is its first and only owner. It was first passed down to me and now is my sister's primary mode of transportation. It has run into a few (well many) problems over the years (most notable being that it's not exactly waterproof anymore -- not good for a car in Seattle). But under the hood it has a strong will to live.

The last few years the rabbit has been blessed with two signature traits (well three if you count the ever-present scent inside the car -- a curious combination of rust, mold, and something else I can't place my finger on). First, when you start the car it emits a huge cloud of blueish gray smoke. This cloud is a bold signal to everyone in the parking lot (as well as to the poor pedestrians blocks in all directions who get to smell the noxious fumes) that this vehicle is no longer stationary. Second is the license plate holder on the back which proudly proclaims, "If you can't run with the big dogs, STAY ON THE PORCH!" I don't know what's more embarrassing: being driven around by my younger sister in that thing, or the thought that my mom used to drive to IBM in it. You know, where her coworkers saw her.

Anyway, this Christmas I felt it was time for an upgrade, so I ordered a pair of Yosemite Sam "Back Off" mud flaps. The purchase was mostly as a joke, but now that I've seen them on I think it's a perfect fit. The picture above shows all three signature traits in perfect harmony: the license plate cover, which is clouded by the toxic cloud of doom and the new applied mud flaps. My sister must be so happy.

"I think I need to tighten my pants"

(I'll explain the title in a second, I promise.) So yes, kids are a little stressful to teach. But they are in fact kids and spending seven hours a day with a group of kids is going to put you in some strange situations, there's just no way around it. Fortunately, the situations I've been in have been pretty mild so far.

Yesterday, for example, my class (two 12 year old sisters and an 8 year old boy) just got off the chairlift. As I'm talking to the girls about what we're going to do next the boy says (from behind me), "I think I need to tighten my pants." Confused, I turned around to see the kid's pants undone and unzipped, barely hanging around his butt. I have no idea how he pulled this off, we were sitting next to each other on the chairlift not even 10 seconds earlier and everything seemed to be in order then. But there's really nothing to be done but head over and help him pull his pants back on and button everything back up (I didn't want him to take his gloves off -- glove removal and reapplication can be a surprisingly time consuming task -- so I got the pleasant duty of buttoning everything up).

Aside from helping keep clothing on, I've helped kids with all sorts of interesting tasks that I wasn't informed that I'd be doing before I accepted the job. But my hat goes to fellow snowboarding instructor Matt, who's had the best (and worst) experience so far. At the end of the day of the day a couple of weeks ago he's talking with a parent, who's trying to figure out where her two daughters are.

"Well," he starts off, "something at lunch must have disagreed with Julia, she says she's not feeling very well."
"Oh no," replied the mom, "how is she doing?"
"Right now she's downstairs in the bathroom throwing up."
"I'll head down there right now, where's my other daughter, Leslie?" the mom asked.
"Actually, she's in the stall next to Julia. She was going to the bathroom and kind of went on herself instead. I haven't been able to talk her out of the stall yet."
"Oh, that must be disappointing for her," exclaimed the mom.

Two points here. First of all, the mom took everything way too calmly, the "that must be disappointing" line especially threw me off. Obviously I didn't know the entire story (although I wasn't all that interested in learning more). Secondly, I don't know the exact details how Matt's afternoon went, but the look on his face told me more than I needed to know. I can thankfully say that as a snowboard instructor I haven't yet spent any time in the women's bathroom. That is definitely a good thing.

Breaking the Teaching Cycle

Teaching snowboarding is a (surprisingly) well planned out event, with a series of drills that we take students through to get them from standing on a board to confidently turning down the bunny slope (Ed. note - when I say "well planned out event" I, of course, mean in theory. In practice, the day is an exercise in controlled chaos and any learning that happens is purely accidental). We're so organized, in fact, that we have a "teaching cycle" that helps dictate how to teach a lesson. I won't go into all the details here, but a part of the cycle consists of "plan a task, present information, and check for understanding." An example of this would be something like the instructor deciding that we want to work on heel-side traverses (plan the task), the instructor telling the students what the students are going to do (present the information), and finally the instructor checks to make sure the students know what they're supposed to be doing (check for understanding).

In the course of the day I go through this process, I dunno, a million times. And after working for a few days straight it's pretty much all you're doing: outline the task and check for understanding. Unfortunately it gets so ingrained that you can't just turn it off. The first night my parents arrived in town we headed up to the mountain to rent my dad's ski gear and to pick up ski tickets for the weekend. Waiting for the rental guys to get my dad's gear figured out I decided to see how my mom and sister were doing with the tickets. Without thinking I turned to my dad and said something like, "Okay dad. I'm going to head upstairs and see how mom is doing with the tickets. You're going to stay here and get the rest of your gear figured out. When my mom and I finish up we'll head back down here and meet you by the check out. Understand what we're doing?"

I had accidentally snuck into instructor mode and was essentially talking to my dad like he was a 10 year old student.

Happy New Years!

Hope everyone had a blast! As I've mentioned, I was most excited about January 1st because it would be my first day off in over two weeks. Apparently I was so excited about the idea of sleeping that I decided to get an early start on December 31st. Instead of heading out as planned I actually fell asleep at around 10:30pm. I woke up around 11:55, but my New Year's party consisted of listening to a couple of neighbors set of fireworks outside. I can't say I was terribly disappointed, though, I really like sleeping. :)

Since I did have a few days off, I decided to take some Colin-time to enjoy the non-snowboarding perks of my job (and it hadn't snowed in over a week). I spent my days off exploring a local tubing park (which has a rope toe to pull you back up!), ice skating at the mountain's outdoor (but tiny) ice rink, and riding the alpine coaster. The alpine coaster was definitely the most fun, it's basically a roller coaster on the mountain. You get pulled about a third of the way up the mountain and then cruise back down through a series of drops and spins. It's a bit steep at $15 a ride, but at $0 a ride it's a great deal and a fun way to spend 15 minutes when you're waiting for a lesson to start.

Although my couple of days off got me somewhat rejuvenated, I was still a little slow rolling out of bed early this morning. However, looking out my window I saw that the .5" inches of snow that was forecast had turned into a full on storm. There were a few inches on the ground and it was coming down hard. Nothing makes me happier out here than being out in fresh snow, so I was in a great mood all day. The snow kept up too and by 3:00pm we had over half a foot. I dropped my students off and immediately jumped back on the chair to get a couple of runs in for myself. I was still in my team uniform so I was limited to green runs (and a couple of easy blues), but new snow is new snow; I didn't have time to change.

And that's where things sit now. The snow is still coming down, I can't wait to see the damage tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, it was a little warmer today (in the high 20s) so the snow is a little wetter than the champagne powder we're used to. I'm sure I'll figure out some way to survive, though.

Lessons Learned, Part 1

As I've hinted at several times, my first few weeks as a snowboard instructor haven't been perfect. Mistakes are (of course) to be expected, I'm just not used to a job where mistakes can be so painful and stressful. For example, on my first day in the kids' school I was given a group of two kids who had never snowboarded before. We slowly made our way down to the First Time chair. As we started down the run for the first time it became obvious that there was a very large split in the two students' ability to pick up snowboarding. The girl was athletic, had great balance, and a strong desire to keep moving. By the time we were three-fourths of the way down the slope she was starting to put turns together. The boy, on the other hand, wasn't picking things up as quickly. To put it kindly, his body wasn't really designed for snowboarding. He was a little over five feet tall and easily weighed over 200 hundred pounds. Additionally, he was built like some sort of inverted pyramid; the bulk of his weight was quite high off the ground. Needless to say his high center of mass dictated a poor sense of balance, meaning he spent a lot of time on the ground. And when you've got that much weight meeting the mountain it hurts, no matter how you try to soften the blow.

So I spent a lot of time with him, struggling to pull him to his feet, trying my best to keep him in control, and cringing as his body continued its futile assault on the snowy slope. Finally I yelled down to the girl, who had been waiting for way to long and desperately wanted to keep going, telling her to make her way down to the bottom as I continued my slow journey down. It took me a minute, but I slowly realized that, despite her skills, this was her first time down the slope and she shouldn't be left alone at any point or for any reason. I looked back down to where I last saw here, but (as she was told) she had continued down and was now lost in a sea of beginners.

Slightly panicked, I was able to get the boy down in some semblance of a reasonable speed, but as we approached the lift she was no where to be found. Slightly more panicked now, I told the boy to hang tight for a second while I took a quickly look through the First Time run to find her. He seemed happy to nurse his sore body for a few more minutes and I took off back up the lift, scanning the slopes the entire time. Five minutes later I arrived back at the bottom, without the girl and now in full-on panic mode. I was faced with the unenviable task of calling Radio Central to tell them I had a "misplaced guest" (we don't want to scare people by saying "lost child"). I then had little to do but continue on with my other kid as the ski school, ski patrol, and the girl's parents were all alerted.

A long thirty minutes later the girl was found. She had taken the right path but had jumped on the chair next to First Time (which had just opened that day) and was enjoying herself on that run. She was thankfully okay and her parents were also extremely understanding (they claimed she has a knack for getting lost). Regardless, it's my job to know exactly where she was at every second and it was a huge failing on my part. Expecting a painful talk with my supervisor, I headed toward him after my lesson finally finished. He was (obviously) not happy, but in the end just wanted to make sure I had my act together before the busy season started. I told him I would.

Three days passed -- two days off and one surprisingly successful kids class -- and the pain slowly left me. I felt absolutely horrible for the mistake I made, but in the end everyone was okay and I definitely learned something from it. On the fourth day I was again tasked with taking care of two kids for the day. They both picked up snowboarding fairly slowly and as we reached the bottom of the First Time run for the first time, they were still working on traversing across the mountain. The last hundred feet of the the First Time run are a little steeper and narrower than the rest of the hill and as one of my girl traversed across it, her board slowly pointed down the fall line and started picking up speed. "Keep your weight on your toes!" I yelled after her but as she picked up a little speed she started panicking. She shifted her weight towards her heels (sending the board straight down the hill), screamed, and fell backwards awkwardly where she lay still. I speed down to catch up with her. I sat in the snow with her, helping her breath and relax, but she was obviously in pain. "My wrist hurts real bad," she whispered, fighting back tears, "I think it's broken."

I gently took her board off and helped her get comfortable. She was still in a lot of pain, but was surprisingly calm. Together we walked down to the first aid HQ (which, for some reason, is right next to the First Time run), and started to get her comfortable again. Unfortunately, since she was a minor, the paramedics could to little until her parents arrived. Even more unfortunately, no one could get a hold of her parents. They were out on a snowboarding lesson too and for some reason it took us nearly two hours to track them down. I had to continue on with the rest of my class so I was unable to sit with her as she waited. After each run down I poked my head in, hoping I wouldn't find her still sitting alone in the waiting room, but there she was for two hours. Finally her father arrived, x-rays could be taken, and her suspicions could be confirmed: she had a fracture in her forearm.

I knew there was nothing I could to help and there was really nothing I could have done to help prevent it from happening, but I still felt awful. She was in from Florida and was going to be staying in Park City for seven days. Those seven days would now be spent laying at home, trying not to move her arm. I sat at home that night, thinking about my first four days as a snowboard instructor. My track record: one lost kid and one broken arm.

Teaching snowboard is not -- as I originally envisioned -- playing around with kids on the mountain all day. Every time they stand up I see a fall back down waiting to happen, every fall a possible broken bone or dislocated joint. Every time I turn my back on a student, even for a two seconds, there is a possibility that they will disappear. I've always considered programming to be a stressful job, but I've decided that stressful is an extremely relative term. A careless moment at the office never left a coworker lost (well maybe mentally, but never physically) and the closest thing to a workplace injury I've experienced was a sore wrist from too much foosball. But taking care of kids for a day is stressful. Taking care of kids for a day while trying to herd them around an incredible crowded mountain and teaching them a dangerous and painful sport is extremely stressful. Every day now I get home and let out a sigh of relief: no lost kids and no broken body parts means the day was a success. Everything (or anything) else that happens is a bonus.

Merry Christmas!







As advertised, things have been busy this. Remember when I said "it certainly doesn't feel like a grind yet"? That was so last week. I've been teaching for about two weeks now and although I'm not a seasoned veteran by any stretch of the imagination, I feel like I've been in the trenches for a while. And I've got a big circle around January 1st, 2007; that'll be the first day I get to sleep in past 6:45 and I plan to stay in bed well past that time. But, yes, I've got some good (and bad) stories to share.

But I won't be sharing them quite yet. Today is one of busiest days on the mountain, but I'm not working this morning. I have a couple free minutes to relax before heading back up there for the afternoon. I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. I was lucky enough to have my family join me in Park City for the holidays. It's been a great holiday gift and fun to (finally) share a white Christmas with them. I hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays with friends or family, too.

Starting the Grind

Today marked the beginning of the first rush season at Park City. From now through 2007, the mountain could be generously described as controlled chaos (and controlled is very generous). There are people all over the place, it's amazing how fast a town can go from quiet and relaxed to bustling and overflowing. Of course, lots of people means lots of work, so we're in full swing right now. I'll be working every day till January 1st, 2007. It's a long stretch, and I've been told that I may be half-dead by the time all is said and done.

But it's hard to imagine that right now. I spent this morning as a "runner," meaning I greet kids (and parents) as they arrive outside and talk to them to figure out which class the kid should be in. After separating the kids and parents (which can be very easy or very hard) I then take the kid over to his group. There's always a few things that come up when you're doing this, today was no different. I ran back to the rental room with a woman who decided that maybe her beginner would be better off with a helmet. I also go to run a kid downstairs who needed to use the toilet, urgently (fortunately we require all students to be potty trained before they can take a snowboarding lesson...).

So not exactly an exciting morning, but I helped a couple of families relax on their vacation, which always feels good. And since I wasn't teaching kids I was free for private lessons and ended up booked for a couple of lessons in the afternoon. The last lesson didn't end until 4:30, so I was out in the snow (and the 18 degree weather) from about 8:45am to 4:30. It's a long time to be out there, and I was (and still am) tired. But I had fun. Then I realized that someone will be paying me for my time out there. And all I was doing was helping people out and snowboarding. So it certainly doesn't feel like a grind yet, but talk to me in twelve days. :)

Winter Wonderland!







I know, I know, 3 feet of snow fall in 2 days and the best (and only) picture I have is of my car? Well, it's the first thing I saw walking out of my building this morning, and pictures of trees, buildings, mountains, etc. covered in snow really aren't that impressive. I tried though. I took a bunch of pictures of me laying (and getting covered by) the snow, but there ended up being too much Colin, not enough snow.

So, yes, the snow has finally come. This was probably the deepest snow I've ever snowboarded in, it got to the point where I had to find some "less" powdery places because it's just too hard to snowboard in snow up to your hips. But I won't complain. Plus, a great day in the snow can help ease the highs and lows of the previous days. I'm officially a snowboard instructor now and my first three days have been filled with (a few) highs and (a few more) deep lows. There are details that I don't want to go into now, which is fine cause I've got snow to play in.

Tomorrow is my day off and it was supposed to be the day that I get all my Christmas stuff figured out, do my laundry and all that jazz. Unfortunately, when the snow gods talk, I listen. So I'll be up on the mountain again. True, some Christmas gifts may suffer, but that's the price my friends are going to have to pay so I can enjoy my life a little more. Sorry!

I'm off the gym right now, I'm actually going to snowshoe over there! I feel so Nordic.

Utah -- Embrace the Difference!








Who new that traveling within the US could be as fun and strange as traveling around the world? Well I guess everyone knows that Utah is a little different, so it's not really a surprise. But it's been fun discovering the little things that make Utah -- well Utah.

I already mentioned that I was asked for ID while purchasing a lighter. "Welcome to Utah!" the clerk exclaimed, perhaps a little too excitedly. She also mentioned that they give away matches for free. Asked her why, but she decided against attempting to explain the difference.

Before arriving in Utah, everyone had told me their horror stories of the strange liquor laws here. So I was surprised (and happy) to see beer at Albertson's. I was wary, though, as I had heard lots of strange tales. On closer inspection I was dismayed to see that all of the beer was capped at 4% alcohol by volume (aka extremely weak). I don't consider myself a heavy consumer, but if I'm going to pay for alcohol it'd be nice to actually get some alcohol with my purchase.

However, the locals seem to have a good sense of humor regarding Utah's better known stereo types. The beer isle is filled with local brews, most of which make some joke about something Utahian. My favorite so far is "Polygamy Porter" (see picture above), who proudly display their tag line: "Why have just one?"

Speaking of large influences in Utah, I was able to spend a day last week down in Salt Lake City. I didn't have much to do, so I started the day at Temple Square (Mormon HQ). The square was very nice and I would have loved to take some pictures to share... Unfortunately, it's impossible to make it more than 30 steps inside Temple Square without being accosted by a pack of Mormon missionaries. I actually took a guided tour of the square with two sisters, which was fun. I learned a lot about Mormon and Utah's history. And talking with the sisters wasn't too bad, they are two of the most content and relaxed people I've met (I wasn't completely at ease, though -- I made a few comments that I'm pretty sure offended them, which left me afraid to laugh or make jokes at anything).

At the end of the tour I was left in the middle of Temple Square with the charge to "enjoy the atmosphere." I thanked them again and turned to look check out the Tabernacle. I immediately ran into two more (very nice) sisters who wanted to know all about me, the tour I just took, and my religious history. They were very friendly and polite, making it difficult to end the conversation. Ten minutes later I finally bid them farewell and continue on my trek. And, of course, I meet some more friendly Mormons. And have another mind-bending ten minute conversation. I look around and realize it's impossible to go anywhere without this repeating, so I resign and head for the exit. Oh, but of course there's a group posted by the exit, waiting to say goodbye.

Fortunately the rest of the state doesn't seem as eager to discuss my religious history, but my guard has been raised. In New Zealand and Australia I learned that it's much easier to avoid politics than to attempt to agree with with the rest of the world and simultaneously defend the US. In Utah I'm learning it might be easier to avoid religion, too. :)

Christmas Blues

Christmas has always been a stressful time for me. Well not Christmas itself, but the month leading up to it. Christmas shopping is like a perfect storm of bad things: big lines, crazy people, and stressing out over finding the "perfect" gifts. I've discovered a couple of new wrinkles this year that make the experience even more exciting. First is shopping in a new town. As a new resident to Park City and Salt Lake City, I have no idea where to find what I'm looking for. And it's not like I even know what I'm looking for. Usually I just wander around hopelessly until I stumble across something that works (hrm, that sounds like a familiar pattern actually, wait for my next post). Unfortunately, it's hard to wander around when you don't know where the good wandering places are.

Fortunately, there's a great fall-back place called the Internet. As someone who has (recently and repeatedly) bought toothpaste, deodorant, and soap online, I'm more than happy to do my Christmas shopping there too. Sadly, the "home" I'm staying in doesn't really have a shipping address. As you might guess, this makes it exceedingly difficult to actually purchase things online. So, I'm being forced to think up drastic new alternatives. On the bright side, I don't really have that many friends, so I don't have that much stuff to buy. :) Still, I can't wait for December 25th, cause then I won't have to worry about it anymore.

Making Connections -- Well Almost

Due to a series of miscommunications, I haven't actually started teaching yet. I'm scheduled to start Thursday, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have been up on the mountain a couple of times, though. This morning I was cruising on "First Time," the bunny slope. I was watching some other beginner classes and working on a few tricks (the bunny slope is a great place to practice freestyle moves).

In line to get back on the lift I notice a family that's sort of freaking out about something. I ask if I can help out and it turns out they're not sure how to get their (very young) son on lift. I offer to help out, and we survive the lift without any incident. On the way up I mention that I'm a snowboard instructor and learn that the family has a couple of other sons that may need some snowboarding lessons in the upcoming week. She asks for my name so she can request me if they end up getting lessons.

So I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Helped a family get up the lift and made some possible connections. I cruise off the chair and go back to work on my freestyle moves (in this case, some nose and tail rolls). Of course, I immediately catch an edge and eat snow right in front of the family. Oh yes, I certainly left them with a great impression!

Road Trippin'



Well it's been a long, long trip, but I've finally reached my new home for the next five months. I pulled into Park City, Utah a little after 7:00pm last night, 10 days after leaving Kirkland. Sure there was an extended break in California, but that's still a lot of driving. Some things I learned on this trip:

• I hate Oregon. It's basically a state that no one knows or cares about, but it takes forever to drive through. The biggest problem is that Oregon has decided that 55mph is a reasonable speed limit throughout a large part of the state.


• One fun fact from Oregon, though: you're not allowed to pump your own gas. In a throw back to the 50's, Oregon has some strange law that requires gas attendants to do all that dirty work work you. Fortunately, they don't tip them (or if they did I missed my queue), so I can't really complain too much.


• Nevada, on the other hand, is great. Yes, it's a beast of state to drive across, but the speed limit is a dreamy 75mph and the roads are straight. There's something to be said for setting cruise control at 90, kicking back and cruising.


• Driving from Seattle to San Francisco is too much for one day. As I found out, it's 13.5 hours of in car driving time (not including the rest stops), and you end up sore in all sorts of weird places for days afterwards. So on the drive from SF to Park City I opted for the two day route, which was much, much better. But since it was a two day trip, I needed some place to stay, which leads me too...


• Casino's are a great place to stay for a night. I stopped in Reno to grab dinner and watch some Monday Night Football and decided to eat at the El Dorado Casino. The bartender mentioned that rooms were going for $38 a night! That was way, way better than crashing in some motel in Elko, Nevada.

So that pretty much sums up the last two weeks of my life. I've been in Park City for about 24 hours now and Utah is definitely a little different (who knew you'd get carded for buying a lighter?!). That's good, though, I like different. Tomorrow will be my first day on the mountain and I start teaching on Monday. Between getting acclimated with Utah and struggling not to ruin my students' first day on the snow, I should have some fun times coming up soon.

Until then.

The Greatest Snow On Earth





And we're back! I realize I've probably lost pretty much anyone who may be reading this, but I've enjoyed my little vacation at home. For those of you who haven't been following the news in the great northwest, we're currently enjoying the wettest month in the Seattle's history. We're up to like 16 inches of rain and counting, with rain forecast for the remainder of the month. Of course, all this rain means that we've got a lot of snow, too. The mountains opened last Thursday and I was able to kick off my second consecutive winter up at Mt. Baker last Friday.

Which brings me to the second season of my endless winter. Starting December 11th I'll be a snowboard instructor at the Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah. I've never been to Utah before, but I'll be spending the next five months enjoying the self-proclaimed "greatest snow on Earth." I've really enjoyed relaxing in Seattle, but now that snow is falling, I can't wait to get out to Utah. And one reason I can't wait to get out there is because you will be out there too. Yes, you. I'm going to have a one bedroom apartment to myself for the next five months, and I'm more than happy to offer up a place to crash, entertainment, and free snowboard lessons to anyone who is interested. Park City is only 45 minutes from Salt Lake City, so I'll even play the role of chauffeur. So you let me know what I need to do to get you out to Utah and I'll make it happen. Deal?

My journey actually starts early tomorrow morning with a 12 hour drive down to San Francisco. I'll be hanging out down there for a week or so before continuing with another 12 hours over to Utah. Should be a lot of fun, or -- failing that -- a lot of driving. And now that I'm back in "travel mode" I'll try to keep this area a little more active.

Until then, happy Thanksgiving!

Birthday Bungy!





My sister really enjoyed my bungy videos from New Zealand and was convinced that she would do it some day, too. I decided that "some day" would be sooner than she expected and, as a birthday present, told her it was time for her to put her money where her mouth was. We gathered up six fellow victims and headed down to southern Washington to jump off the "highest bungy bridge in America."

Being the birthday girl, Kelsey was nominated as the first jumper. It's set up so you do two jumps in a row. You dive off the first time, get pulled back up, and then you immediately jump off backwards for your second jump. I was a little concerned when they started strapping my sister in, she didn't look like she really wanted to do this. And I was even more concerned when they pulled her up after the first jump, it looked like she was to start crying. Thanksfully, she was very happy afterwards and is already ready to go again.

Note: if you watch the video of her jumping, you'll her a lot of screaming. Kelsey is responsible for the first, short, high-pitched scream you hear. After that everything is drowned out by the two girls who were standing next to me. There were absolutely terrified for Kelsey. I really should have panned over to them instead of trying to follow Kelsey, they were quite a site. I think one of them (I won't name any names) might have peed a little during that jump. Good times all around.

There are a few more pictures online, but nothing too special. We've got some professional pictures being sent over, they should be much better.

Oh, and of course my sister videoed my jumps as well. Since I was the "seasoned veteran," I was nominated to go last. I managed to keep things in control for the most part. The first jump was great, but the second jump (jumping backwards) scared the hell out of me. If you listen to the two videos (below) carefully, you'll notice a subtle, but distinct, change in scream. The scream in my first jump is a "I'm the man, this is awesome!" scream. Jump two starts off the same way but quickly changes to an "Oh my god I'm going to die!" scream. I think you can hear the jump master making fun of me on that one as well.

Seattle: metronatural





The city of Seattle just unveiled a new tourism slogan, "metronatural." After stomaching the initial shocking stats (16 months in development and with a $200,000 budget) and trying to figure out exactly why metronatural sounds so... well just wrong, I've decided that while the slogan is horrible, it was really close to be good. I don't know what good is, but Seattle really is a city in touch with nature. How many cities do you know have this view? And it was definitely time to replace the old slogan, which looked something like: @L (that's supposed to be an eyeball before the @ symbol).

And speaking of Costa Rica, I've decided I don't really want to sit around and write about it. Always look forward, never backward. And I got to tell my favorite story already, everything else is the same old beautiful wildlife and exotic animals. I should have some new trips lined up soon. In the mean time I'll see how much fun I can stumble into during my break back up in the northwest. For example, I'm taking my sister bungy jumping this weekend! That will certainly be interesting...

Seattle: On Vacation





Now that I'm "home" everyone keeps asking, "what's been your most favorite place to visit so far?" My standard answer has been New Zealand, which was truly beautiful. I keep telling everyone how much it reminds me of Washington: green, mountainous, lush forests... All that good stuff. But being back in Seattle (after being away for over two years) I realize that yes, New Zealand is beautiful, but it's got nothing on Seattle. I've always loved Seattle (as everyone from California already knows, I act as an unofficial Seattle ambassador down there), but had forgotten about the small details that make this area special. Like today, an unexpectedly warm, sunny day with clear blue skies in the middle of October. Sadly my vocabulary won't do it justice, it's really something you need to experience first hand.

So Seattle and New Zealand are now running neck and neck for the "#1 place I've been in the last three months." Of course, if anyone asks me I'll still say New Zealand. If nothing else, it's a better conversation started. And now back to Costa Rica.

¿Habla Inglés?

Having just spent two months in New Zealand and Australia, I felt pretty confident that I'd be able to handle a short trip to Costa Rica with ease. Landing in San Jose, Costa Rica I (belatedly) realized there was one detail I had completely overlooked: I don't speak Spanish. I'm obviously not the first person to run into this problem, but after two months of traveling I was expecting to feel like I was back in my element. But it's been a long since I've been surrounded by an entirely foreign language. Fortunately Costa Rica is tourist friendly and it's pretty easy to get around with just a couple key phrases.

After a few days in the country I found myself picking things up a little more quickly. It's strange how much you can glean from a conversation even if you can't understand the language. Based on where people are standing, who they're talking to, body language, and the occasional familiar sounding word I was able to get a good idea of what other people were talking about.

Unfortunately that understanding didn't translate so well when it came time to respond. As soon as someone started speaking at me, my brain would immediately freeze up. Sometimes I would understand their question, but wouldn't be able to formulate a coherent response (even if that response involved correctly choosing between "si" or "gracias"). Other times each word sounded familiar, but the question didn't quite add up for some reason. The vocal highlight came late one night on our way back from a turtle beach walk (more on that later). Everyone was saying thanks and good night to each other. Happy to blend into the chorus I called out "buonas nachos!" It's so close to "buonas noches", and yet oh so far away. I had already started walking away as I was speaking, so I really didn't have time to correct myself. I keep telling myself that no one else heard me, but I've got a feeling that I was on the receiving end of many, many jokes later that night.

Home (Again)!

Well I've successfully survived another vacation. Costa Rica was beautiful and, as promised, I didn't have any time (or desire) to write any stories while I was down there. But I'm back with a few good stories and a few pictures. Actually a "few" pictures seems generous, I didn't really use my camera at all. If you take a look through my measly collection I'm sure you'll agree I should have been a little more trigger happy. But I was too busy enjoying my vacation to try and take pictures of it. Anyway, I said I've got a few stories to tell, so I'll get on with that.

Perma-Vacation!





So when does returning home actually feel like a vacation? When "home" is a temporary stop between two other vacations. :) I've just spent a week in Seattle and, although I've been busy, it's been vacation-busy, not a back-home-busy. Hanging out with friends, playing golf and tennis, and generally unwinding is not how I'm usually greeted after a vacation. I mean the only reason I even ended up unpacking was so that I could start packing back up for Costa Rica (and I use "unpacking" in a very loose sense here -- everything is in a heap in my room).

But as much as I've enjoyed Seattle, it's time to get back on a plane. I'm spending a little over a week down in Costa Rica and it's going to be busy. If things go according to plan I'll be seeing San Jose, the Arenal Volcano, the Monteverde Cloud Forest, and the Osa peninsula, a remote location on the Pacific coast. It's the middle of the green season so it's going to be wet, hot and humid, but I can't wait. Plus I've got my sister's handy Costa Rican Spanish phrase book from her trip here a few years ago so I should pretty much just blend in with the locals. :)

I have no idea if I'll be able to upload pictures and stories while I'm down there. I won't have as much leisure time as I did in New Zealand and I don't want to waste it on the Internet (well maybe just a little bit...). But fun will be had, pictures will be taken, and legends will be born (in my mind at least). And it'll all make it's way back up here at some point.

Next stop: San Jose, Costa Rica!

Bungy!









Like the sky diving video, I think these are much more entertaining with a running commentary. But that's not going to happen, so here's a quick run down of each jump. The Kawarau Bridge is the oldest permanent bungy site in the world (the bridge was built just for bungy jumping). It's 141 foot (43 meter) drop, with an optional "splash landing" in the river. I opted to just get my hands wet. I wish I had done more, but I was too freaked out to think correctly. The second jump is the Nevis Highwire. At 440 feet (134 meters), it's one of the highest jumps in the world. It's about 8.5 seconds of freefall which, as you can see, translates to a long time on the first trip down.

Embrace The Fear





Up next is my sky diving adventure with NZone, complete with cheesy camera work and bad sound track. It's not a total loss, though. If you looked at the pictures you may have noticed that my face gets a little funky as I first fall out of the plane. But they don't capture the moment the same way that a slo-mo camera in my face does. It's hard to tell if I'm having fun or trying not to throw up. In reality I guess it was a little of both.

Under the Sea!





In case you haven't heard, Disney has unlocked the vault and is re-releasing The Little Mermaid in all its two disk splendor. To celebrate the occasion I too am opening up the DVD vaults, starting with stunning video of me slowly chasing a sting ray along the bottom of the ocean. It's not much to look at, but you get to hear me breath like Darth Vader.

On Tap

You may have noticed that this blog is titled the "binarynoise.net travel blog." You may also notice that I'm not really traveling right now, which might imply that this blog will slowly die. Fortunately, I've found a solution: keep traveling! If there's one thing I've learned about my trip to New Zealand it's that traveling is awesome. I'm hanging out in San Francisco right now and I'm heading up to Seattle tomorrow. I personally consider that traveling, but it's not too exciting. To make up for it I'll be visiting Costa Rica for a week, starting October 6th! Yes, it's the middle of the "green" season (a tourist-friendly term for rainy season), but it's gonna be a great trip. I've already got San Jose, an active volcano, a cloud forest, and jungle peninsula lined up. That'll get me through the middle of October and who knows what's after that.

So what else do you do when you're hanging around the Internet capital of the world without much to do? You organize your photo collection! I uploaded my last set of pictures, which include some more Sydney pictures, day trips in Cairns, and Auckland. I also tagged all the pictures so you can check out a group of pictures without wading through the rest of the collection. You can take a look here. There's some pictures from Africa mixed in there too, but I think you'll figure out which pictures belong where pretty quickly.

Sour Taste In My Craw

Well I made it home safely. Well not "home" exactly, but I'm the US. Auckland was a great two day trip. Strangely enough, my favorite thing in Auckland was the hotel. It wasn't anything special, but it was the first time in two months that I (a) slept in a bed that I actually fit on, (b) slept in a room without 1 - 5 roommates, and (c) enjoyed a real shower, not a trickling stream of variable temperature water. I had one night in Auckland and, instead of looking for night life, I curled up in bed with junk food and watched New Zealand TV. It was a great night.

My trip home was fairly uneventful. Sadly, I had forgot about our country's fantastic security measures and lost a rare souvenir in the process. I don't feel like retelling the story, I think it'll just get me fired up again. But this whole "no liquids in your carry-on" seems a little ridiculous. It reminded me of the different routines we get to go through over here, and made me miss New Zealand before I left.

So what else did I learn in Auckland? Oh yeah, even a sleepy country like New Zealand can get suspicious if you don't have the right answers for a customs officer. In this case the wrong answer is a single, young, male traveling to Auckland for just two days with no idea where he's going to stay for the night. They really didn't like that last part. I thought it was kind of fun to land in Auckland with no idea where I was going to go for the day, but the customs agent wanted to know something a little more specific than "Auckland" as my destination address. They eventually let me through, but it would have been a lot easier if I had just picked a hotel at random and gone with that.

I also passed my last test in Auckland, driving a rental car on the wrong side of the road. Things actually went pretty smoothly. The only hiccup was about 20 minutes into my inaugural trip. I was sitting at a light, trying to figure out where I was and where I was going, when I looked up and saw a police officer behind me. I didn't necessarily panic, but I forgot everything I was thinking about and concentrated 100% on not breaking any laws. I survived the ordeal but ended up completely lost and turned around. Sadly, it wasn't the last time I'd get completely lost driving around Auckland, but fortunately I really liked driving so I didn't mind.

Travel Tip #135 (September 24th, 2006)

Don't wait until the last night of a six week vacation to do all of your souvenir shopping, especially if that last night is a Sunday night. You might think, "Hey I'm in a tourist-powered city, of course everything will be open on a Sunday night." But it won't. And you'll be left with nothing to show your friends and family when you get home, not even a cheap boomerang.

On the subject of unsolicited advice, I finally watched An Inconvenient Truth a few nights ago. I feel like the message got diluted a little bit by his back story, but I'm glad I saw it, even though it was a little depressing. But as Gore mentions, a lot of people go straight from ignorance to despair, skipping the "let's do something about this" phase. I'm attempting to do my part by encouraging everyone to watch the movie. If you can't (or don't want to) see it, you can wander over to www.climatecrisis.net and see what you can do to help solve the problem.

If I've only learned one thing this trip it's that every part of this world is beautiful and completely unique. I'd like to help keep it that way so my kids can see it some day too.

Finding Nemo (September 23rd, 2006)







Finally got some more pictures up! As promised, the diving pictures aren't all that spectacular. But I got a couple good pictures of Nemo (the clownfish), so I didn't come out empty handed.

Tonight is my last night in Australia. I've got one more day trip tomorrow and then I slowly start heading home with an 11:50pm flight down to Auckland, where I get a day to relax before flying back to San Francisco.

I've been keeping myself busy the last couple of days. Instead of sitting in town for my last three days I set up three day trips. Two days ago I went river rafting on the Russell River. What was fun was that instead of the large 8 to 10 person rafts we had a fleet of small, two person rafts. So basically the guide would tell us a good path to take through the next set of rapids and send us on our way. Good fun all around, but I'm not sure about their river categories down here. The Russell River is listed as a level 4 rapid, and although there was one 5 foot waterfall (which was great fun!) you could pretty much walk through most of the river, if you had to. I wanted to fear for my life at least once. :)

Today was a slower paced trip up to the Atherton Tablelands. It's amazing how lush Australia is along the coast, it feels like I'm in central America or something. Spending the day in a 4x4 truck bouncing around the jungle and outback isn't the absolute greatest way to spend a day, but you get to see a lot of terrain that way. It was so relaxing up there that I wish I could have pulled over and slept in the sun next to a lake for a few hours instead of plunging forward in the 4x4. Next trip, I suppose.

Another big problem with these trips is that everyone keeps asking "So how long are you here for?" This is usually fine, "6 weeks" is a pretty solid answer. But today I had to start saying, "Actually I leave tomorrow night." And this leads to a whole discussion about going home, which isn't something I'm really ready to think about yet, let alone discuss. In fact, I'm not ready to think about it now, so I'm going to go have a beer and watch rugby game instead.

A Day At The Beach (September 15th, 2006)







[Note: I wrote this up last week but have been waiting for the pictures to get online before posting it. Sorry for the strange ordering...] It looks like I made a good choice of hostels. The WakeUp! hostel has been great to me so far. On Thursday they offered a half-day walking tour of Sydney followed by a free BBQ and half price drinks for everyone in the tour. Today they had another free walking trip, a tour of five Sydney beaches, from Koogee to Bondi (one of Sydney's most famous beaches).

Yesterday's tour of downtown was a great way to see most of Sydney's major points. We stopped by some water fountains at Darling Harbor, saw the Sydney tower a couple of times, and (of course) checked out the Opera house and harbor bridge. The bridge had people climbing all over it and climbing it looks like a pretty fun trek. But then I learned that it's $189 Australian dollars for the BridgeClimb. I don't think it looks like that much fun.

Sydney is full of parks, though, and we were able to take in some of the local wildlife (I don't think feeding the cockatoos is technically permitted, but it made for some fun pictures).

Today we took a 15 minute bus ride out to Koogee beach and from there walked a few miles along the coast up to Bondi beach. Bondi beach is home to Australia's oldest surf lifesaving club (not sure why they're so particular about the name, but they are). The water didn't look too treacherous, but -- as if to prove that it is -- the lifeguards were pulling someone out as we arrived. There was an ambulance, lifeguard truck, the whole shebang, but no one seemed to care too much. I guess it happens a lot at Bondi.

And although Sydney feels a bit like most big cities, there are always subtle differences that make you realize you're not home. For example, there is no "Jack in the Box" chain, but there is something very similar. And for some reason I really liked this sign in the bus, reminding senior citizens not to fall asleep while on the bus. Oh yeah, and everything really is backwards down here. Not only do cars drive on the wrong side of the road, but horse races run clockwise. I was watching some sport highlights last night and was shocked to see horses sprinting backwards down the track. Even the escalators run backwards. I know that doesn't make much sense, but imagine you're standing at the bottom of two sets of escalators. The one on the right would be going up, right? Not in Australia! I've almost walked onto the wrong escalator a couple of times in the last two months now.

Tomorrow I'm heading out of Sydney for a day trip to the Blue Mountains. There are two types of tours, the "hardcore" trip that includes a 3 hour hike through the bush and the "tourist" trip that includes a stop at a wildlife park to feed kangaroos and koalas. I like to think that I'm pretty hardcore, but after 8 hours of walking in the last two days I'm ready to a let a bus do the transporting for me. Plus I want to pet a kangaroo. :)

An American Birthday Present (September 21st, 2006)

I've got 10 minutes left, so one more quick story for the day. The year is 1988, Sydney is celebrating it's bicentennial anniversary. America, in a nice gesture, gives Australia a birthday present. So what does it give? A gallery celebrating joint Australia - American connections. In theory I think that sounds okay. But as you walk into the Australian Nation Maritime Museum in Sydney you're greeted with a huge section titled the "USA Gallery" and currently dedicated to the American Navy. A quick look at the plaque says that this was given to Australia by the US to celebrate Australia's 200 year anniversary. Great, so it looks like America gave a memorial of itself to Australia for Australia's birthday. I think things like this don't help America's self-absorbed public image.

The Locals (September 21st, 2006)

I recently realized that I've complained a fair bit about local accents and curious word choice, without giving proper due to the great phrases non-Americans are contributing to the English language.

My favorite, by far, is the New Zealander's "sweet as!" line of sayings. Did something work out well? "Sweet as!" Sweet as what, exactly? It doesn't really matter, it's just sweet as. And it's not just limited to sweet, either. "Cool as", "cold as", and "funny as" were all used frequently. As far as I can tell you can throw "as" after any adjective and it'll work. Definitely fun.

Another great word is "knackered." This seems to be more of a British thing, but that's okay. The way they say "I was absolutely knackered" is so passionate, you can almost feel the knackered-ness just from talking to them. Knackered is almost always intensified with "absolutely" and everyone uses the same passionate emphasis. It always makes me smile.

What else? Oh yeah, one of my favorite words of all time, "queue." Dunno why, but I've always liked that word. And people down here use it! All the time. I don't really have any funny stories for queue, either. I'm just happy to see it getting some use down here.

Watch Out, Jacques Cousteau (September 21st, 2006)

Still working on getting my land legs sorted out, but I've successfully added two more certifications to my trip: Open Water Diver and Adventure Diver! The three day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef was amazing. Not necessarily relaxing, but it certainly wasn't short on adventure. It's been very windy in Cairns for the last week (and continued during our trip), which makes the water very choppy, especially on the way out to the reef. Day 1 started with a 3.5 hour ride out and at least 60% of our group (about 35 divers) made a personal contribution to the ocean. The rest of us sat still in the back of the boat, grim faced, doing anything possible to help keep our stomaches where they belong and to avoid hearing the constant sounds of the less fortunate or see the parade of sea-sick bags dropping from the second level into the sea. Not exactly the highlight of the trip.

Once we set up at the reef, though, the waves were much more manageable. And the diving was beautiful. Our first two dives were open water certification dives so we'd drop down to 10 - 14 meters and do drills like taking our mask off and on, removing our regulator, and getting our buoyancy correct in the water. Everything went pretty smoothly except during a mask clearing exercise (getting sea water out of your mask) when one guy accidentally spit his regulator out (which is okay) but instead of reaching for his secondary air suplly he grabbed his snorkel mouthpiece. Obviously the snorkel isn't going to do much good at 13 meters, but fortunately our instructor was right next to him and got the regulator back in before the guy attempted breathing through his snorkel.

It was at that point that I realized how stressful being a diver instructor actually is. Diving the Great Barrier Reef 3 - 5 days a week sounds like a pretty fun job, but when you're in the middle of the ocean, 30 feet below the surface, in charge of 8 to 10 people who've never dived before, "relaxing" can turn to "panicking" in a split second, at any split second. Our instructor was a lot of fun, but you could tell that he was keeping a close eye on us the entire time we were under the water. His job was definitely not as relaxing as I had imagined.

Anyway, we were officially certified as open water divers on the second morning and were able to do our first dive without an instructor shortly after that. I felt like I had joined a club at that point, as the "real" divers (the ones who weren't doing the certification course) actually started talking to us at that point. All of a sudden we were real people in their eyes; they even helped us pull our wetsuits on and everything. :) It was a little strange being out there with just your buddy, but you quickly forget about it as you drift around the coral, staring at the hundreds of different fish (who are just as curiously staring at you). I came back from my first real dive as happy as could be.

"We saw two turtles!" I happily tell another diver.
"Cool!" he respondes, "did you see the white-tip coral shark?"
"Woah, no. That would have been great!" I tell him.
"Yeah, what about the octopus, catch a glimpse of that?"
"Oh... no, didn't see that either." I'm still happy, but not as peppy as I was 30 seconds ago.
Another diver walks over, "Did you guys see the school of 15 barracudas?"
"No..." I trail off. But then I realize, "Hey, but I saw two turtles and it was great!"
"A dive is only as much fun as the diver makes it." They smile and head upstairs. I think that was a compliment...

After our free dive we did a night dive, which is one of the strangest things I've ever done. It's absolutely surreal standing on the back of the boat when it's pitch black out, realizing that you're about to jump in with just a small flashlight (or torch, as they say down here) to light your way. I jumped in, looked down and saw a huge fish hanging out just below me (where "huge" is say 1.5 feet long). Fortunately he was as freaked out as I was and he took off. After the initial shock of basically 0 visibility, things settled down. And once under water everything was fine. It's probably the closest I'll come to space exploration, and that's just what it felt like to me. Slowly spinning around, seeing things appear from nowhere and disappear back again was strange, but fun. We didn't see too much at night, but did find a huge green turtle and we all followed it for a while. They're really graceful in the water and at night, with flashlights providing the only light in front of a pitch black stage, our turtle was mesmerizing and we floated along with him for a good 5 minutes.

The last day started with a deep dive down to 26 meters (about 85 feet) to see if anyone would get nitrogen narcosis. Going down to 26 meters doesn't really feel any different from 15, except when you look up you realize that the surface is a long, long ways away. We also brought some fun toys down to see the effects of the additional pressure and loss of color (everything starts turning to shades of blue the deeper you get). In the end no one suffered from narcosis and things went pretty smoothly. Sadly, it appears that I'm some sort of oxygen Hoover; I was going through my tank faster than anyone on all the dives. On the deep dive I ended up low enough that I needed share air on the trip back to the surface with my buddy. It wasn't stressful though, and I guess it was a good experience to actually go through a low on air experience.

Whew, I feel like I could write about this forever. I took one roll of pictures down on the reef and got maybe 2 or 3 good pictures. I'll get them up soon, along with my Sydney photos. But for now, I'm going to veg for a bit.

Crikey! (September 17th, 2006)

It's been a whirl-wind four days here in Sydney. I've been so busy walking, hiking, shopping and enjoying the sun that I really haven't had much time reflect on the city. This morning I walked up to the Rocks, an upscale part of Sydney next to the harbor bridge. Simone, one of my new friends from the snowboarding course was working there for the weekend and promised there'd be some free food if I found my way up there. The free food won me over and I spent a very relaxing morning at a French cafe. In my blissful daze I hear an older British couple discussing the meal they just ate. The woman summed it up with very British, very stodgy, "Well that was rather pleasant." It was funnier if you actually heard her say it. But as I was chuckling to myself I realized that she pretty much summed up my stay in Sydney. Rather pleasant, indeed!

So next stop: Cairns, Australia. Talking to the backpackers in Sydney I'm a little less excited about Cairns that I was a week ago. It sounds like the city isn't all that great and the surfing is basically non-existent (the barrier reef kills pretty much any wave activity and the pleasant box jelly fish hang out along the coast). But I can't wait to go diving. I'm heading out on a three day diving trip bright and early tomorrow morning.

I've got a bunch of pictures and some stories from Sydney that I'd love to share, provided I can find some free. After the dive trip I'll see if I can get my act together. :)

I'm Lovin' It (September 15th, 2006)





I've finally found a reason to visit McDonald's. I can't even remember the last time I've been in one, it's been a while. But McDonald's offers wireless Internet and I have some pictures I want to upload. I stopped by the enticing named "Internet Everywhere" first, but sadly, they don't offer wireless. They do, however, offer a surprisingly complicated pricing scheme. Their pricing info reads something like: "Spend 50 cents or more and you'll only pay $3 an hour; spend at least 3 dollars or more and you'll only pay $2 an hour; spend at least 5 dollars and you'll only pay $1 an hour!" I'm still not sure how much an hour costs.

Ah, but as I'm sitting here uploading pictures (or attempting to upload, I guess), McDonald's is doing what it does best: delivering poor quality content. My 30 minutes for $8 was a little steep, but would have been worth it to get my pictures uploaded. However, I've got about 10 minutes left and I've only successfully uploaded 1 picture. I'm lovin' it!

First Impressions (September 14th, 2006)

Sitting in the back of an airport shuttle, haphazardly wandering toward my hostel, I realized that Sydney is, in fact, a very large city. It's a bit of a shock to the system after six weeks in a town of 8000 permanent residents. I was tempted to write Sydney off as yet another big city, but after just one night in the city I can already tell I'm going to like it here. Some things I've discovered:

Darling Harbor is a great place to spend an evening. As odd as it sounds, they have really cool water fountains. I took two complete loops around the harbor and found myself staring blankly at the water displays both times.

I found out that Australia does have a great beer, Victoria Bitter (and no, I haven't seen any Fosters yet).

And I just realized that this is my first time alone in a hostel. The place I'm staying is massive and is absolutely packed with people like me. I'm a little torn because they've got a really nice bar here where you can hang out with travelers from all over the world. But I'd also like to find some local spots and, you know, maybe meet an Australian. :) I've got a few nights though, I guess I can have both.

The hostel is offering a free walking tour of Sydney today, it should be a good way to meet the city properly. And I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in nearly two months, so I'm already happy this morning.

Stay Classy, Queenstown (September 13th, 2006)







So it's finally starting to feel like things are coming to an end. Which is good, cause I'm about to hop on a plane to Sydney. Pretty much everyone else in my course packed up and left two days ago. It was a little strange and a little sad to say goodbye, but with new friends all around the world I guess I have even more reasons to keep traveling. I don't have much time, so how about some odds and ends from around New Zealand?

With no one around and nothing to do I was finally able to take a hike up Queenstown hill. It's a great hike with fantastic 360 degree views from the top. I've got a few pictures up if you follow the image above.

After an action packed weekend I decided it was time to kick it down a notch yesterday. A relaxing, two hour cruise on Milford Sound sounded like a a nice way wrap my trip up. However, the sound is kind of in the middle of nowhere; it's a 5 hour drive from Queenstown. I thought I was going to be clever and get a flight back from Milford Sound (saving me 4 hours), but due to some technical issues (i.e. the woman booking my trip had no idea what she was doing) I ended up getting the full 13 hour experience.

The drive out there was actually quite nice. I learned all sorts of fun facts about New Zealand, too. For example, there are about 4 million people and 45 million sheep (or as our driver said, "over 20 sheep for every New Zealand man!"). Farming is big deal in New Zealand and the three most farmed animals are sheep, cattle, and (surprisingly) deer. We drove past a few deer farms and it was strange to see deer packed up, grazing in fields. To get the complete New Zealand experience I even tried some venison sausage for dinner. It was fresh from a neighboring farm and was extremely meaty. Probably the meatiest things I've tried. It was a little overwhelming, but worth a try.

But back to Milford Sound. Despite spending 10 hours in a bus, I think the trip was worth it. Seeing mountain peaks rise straight up out of the water, reaching several thousand feet was unreal. I took a bunch of pictures, and it's late so instead of writing about everything we did I'm just going to point you to them. When I get some free time I'll give a nice running commentary too, there's a few good stories there.

The latest local saying that has been causing me problems is "You alright?" This seems to be a common way to greet friends, so it's something I didn't notice much at first. But now when ever I see anyone it's always, "You alright, Colin?" And it's even worse when they say it as a statement, instead of a question. Several times in the last week I've walked into the common room to be greeted with, "You're alright, Colin." Invariably I skip a beat as my mind checks to make sure I'm not bleeding or missing any limbs.

Also, "tea" is the most ambiguous word in the English (UK) language. As far as I can tell, tea can mean: tea, coffee, a specific afternoon meal that goes with tea, lunch or dinner. Additionally, sometimes they say dinner when they mean lunch. It's always a surprise to what ends up on the table when someone says, "I'm just going to make some tea."

And my most random story of the trip so far: the last time I was in Phoenix, Luke, one of my most favorite cousins in the world, was showing off his most recent superhero cartoon, "The Adventure of Captain Underpants!" An interesting idea, to say the least. On the way to Milford Sound we stopped in Te Anau, the tramping capital of New Zealand (tramping is a fun word, sounds a little dirtier than backpacking). Anyway, I walked into the post office / stationary store and what do I stumble across? Captain Underpants! Complete with action figurine. Weird.

What else... Oh yes, be careful what you wish for. A good friend of mine, Guy, has been saying for weeks how he can't wait for the course to end so he can attempt some ridiculous jumps on Coronet Peak. "I'm gonna put some wrist guards on and jump until I break something!" he's boasted on more than one occasion. A mere three days after the course he made good on his promise, shattering his wrist on the largest kicker on Coronet Peak (while wearing wrist guards, even). Seems like a unique souvenir, I guess. Except that he was supposed to spend the next 6 months in northern New Zealand, interning on a farm. It's going to be hard to do much farm work with one good arm, so he's been forced to reexamine his plans. Hopefully he can join the farm after recovering, but he may be forced to abandon his plans altogether and head back home a year earlier than originally planned.

And that's pretty much life down here in New Zealand. As I've mentioned several times, I can't wait to find some sun. I haven't been snowboarding since Friday and my body is having a hard time justifying living in a cold, barely heated house for no apparent reason. Until then!

Free-falling! (September 10th, 2006)







So what's left after jumping from 134 and 440 feet? How about jumping from 12,000 feet? It seemed like a logical step, as well as a great finale for my weekend of celebration. However, I woke up this morning with my stomach turning. In my mind I kept imagining dangling from the side of an airplane, staring down at nothing. I spent the entire morning doing anything possible to avoid thinking about the jump, but finally the time came to head over to drop zone. We started by watching a DVD of previous jumpers and strangely, as soon as I saw them jumping I knew everything would be okay. Everyone looked so happy, it looked like it was impossible not to have fun.

The whole event went off without a problem. Sure, my insides were all tied up in knots as 10 of us stacked up inside an impossibly small plane, my face pressed up against the glass panel that would slide back once we hit 12,000 feet. But unlike bungy jumping, you don't have to do much. Your master diver directs you around and basically pushes you through the door. All you need to do is attempt to smile so the pictures don't look too strange (sadly, I failed that task).

I splurged for the photo/DVD combo pack too, so you can see some pictures over here. I really like my inability to control my facial muscles as I'm dangling out the side of the plane, the "look out I might lose my lunch" expression as we started falling, and me being way too excited about holding the camera man's hand in flight.

I went into the whole experience thinking "make sure you enjoy every second, this is a once in a life time opportunity!" I definitely enjoyed the whole thing, but I'm not sure it was actually a "once in a lifetime" thing. I may be up there again someday. But for now I'm happy to have both feet planted firmly on the ground. I've accomplished everything I wanted to do here in New Zealand. And although I'm starting to feel a little sad about leaving, I can't wait to see Australia!

Sweet As! (September 9, 2006)







Where to start? The picture covers the important bits; I'm officially qualified as a New Zealand Stage One snowboard instructor. In all honestly, this last week has had it's fill of ups and downs and it feels great to have it all finished. The mountain didn't deal us any favors, either. It rained Monday and Tuesday and my snow gear didn't fully recover until Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday we were treated to solid ice in the morning and thick, sunny slush in afternoon. And on Friday a nice cloud layer settled in; the reduced visibility made our final exam a little more stressful than it needed to be.

But I did well this week. After I finished up the last bits on Friday I went home happy. We wouldn't know our results for another five hours, but I knew I did as well as I could have through the week. I wasn't 100% sure I passed, but I knew I gave it my best.

However, the last thing on my mind right now is snowboarding. For the last six weeks I've spent pretty much every waking moment snowboarding, talking about snowboarding or thinking about snowboarding. I stored my board away Friday afternoon and don't intend to stand on it again. Instead, I've been focusing on celebration.

So how does your average snowboard instructor celebrate? After our award ceremony we all went out for a few drinks. There's also this strange tradition where all of the new instructors take a jump in lake Wanaka. When we wandered over there at 11:45pm it was roughly 0 degrees Celsius and the lake wasn't much warmer. After discussing the options with my fellow boarder Stijn, I was convinced to take a dive and came out a little colder, but very happy (thankfully those pictures are really dark...).

I didn't stay out too late though, as I had more antics planned for Saturday (and standing in bar with wet, freezing cold boxers on is about as much fun as it sounds). I was booked for not one, but two bungy jumps! As a first time jumper I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was trying not to think about anything too much. Saturday started with a drive to a Kawarau bridge, the first commercial bungy site opened (in 1988). I had convinced myself that a 134 foot jump is not impossible, but once I actually saw the bridge I knew there was no way I'd willingly jump off it.

I walked onto the bridge and told the operator that I needed some time to consider my options. He seemed to understand and said, "No worries, why don't we just get your harness on and you can think about things." No harm in that, so I slowly pulled the gear on. "Why don't you come sit down here?" he suggested. It seemed a little closer to the edge than I wanted to be but my legs weren't working very well at this point and sitting sounded like a good idea. As I'm sitting down he started wrapping something around my leg. "Wait, I'm not quite ready," I told him, hearing an unsettled sense of urgency in my voice. He nodded, laughed and kept moving forward.

Somehow I found my self standing up and moving toward a very small and very unstable looking ledge. I took one look down, saw the river flowing 134 feet below and immediately sat back down. "I just need to think about this for a minute." Everything seemed to be moving took quickly. Just a minute ago I was arriving at the bridge, convinced I wasn't going to jump. Now I was fully strapped in, standing inches away from the edge. "The longer you wait, the harder it gets," he responded. Somehow that convinced me to stand up again. But still, standing over the edge, I knew there was no was I could jump off. Suddenly he started counting down, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1" and for just a split second I was able to forget where I was and what I was doing, and I jumped.

As soon as my feet left the platform everything changed. I can't come close to describing the feeling, but I loved every last second of it. I screamed, I yelled, I grinned like an idiot. My hands splashed into the river, I bounced around, and I could feel the adrenaline kicking in. I conquered -- at least temporarily -- a very strong, innate fear of heights and I felt fantastic!

But that wasn't the end of my day. For some reason I'd signed up for a second jump at the Nevis Highwire site. As I mentioned, the Kawarau bridge is famous because it was the first commercial site opened. Nevis, opened in 1999, is famous because it's one of the highest free-falls in the world. A 440 foot drop, each jumper is treated to over eight seconds of free-fall. Eight seconds doesn't sound like that much time, but count it out in your head. Now imagine falling the entire time.

I joined up with a few friends (Stijn, Sophie and Chris) for the main event. After an incredibly steep drive up to the absolute middle of nowhere we finally laid eyes on the jump site. It's really a surreal set up all together, which probably makes the jump a little easier. And after the Kawarau jump I knew that, despite the fear, the fall was actually fun so I felt a little more confident as we were ferried out to the platform on a tiny gondola. Actually, I think the gondola ride was the scariest part. It's a tiny little thing with a grated floor so you can see straight down below you as you slowly crawl away from the canyon wall.

Anyway, despite looking a little concerned before the jump, I was a very happy camper as I was pulled back in. And with that, I was done. It's strange, the feeling I felt while falling was unlike anything I've ever felt before. I absolutely loved it. Yet, I don't really remember what the feeling is and obviously can't explain the feeling to anyone else. I guess that why they get repeat customers. The fear as you stand on the edge of nothingness, peering down hundreds of feet, is almost incapacitating. Yet the euphoria you feel the split second you jump off is absolutely overwhelming. I still get both nervous and excited just thinking about it.

And I opted for the DVD pack, so I can relive the jumps whenever I want to (I've already watched them three times today). I'll try to get them online at some point, but if that doesn't work out I'll just carry the DVD on me at all times. If you run into me we can have a little sit down and I'll tell you all about it. :)

I'm a Tourist! (September 3rd, 2006)







Queenstown is self-described as the adventure capital of New Zealand. Looking through a local guidebook it's easy to create a lengthy list of crazy adventures that you'd like to do some day. That list might look something like: paragliding, bungy jumping, jet boating, and sky diving. The activities are extreme and creating a list doesn't cause too much mental anguish. But eventually "some day" becomes "today" and you're faced with the cold reality of what you're about to be doing. "Wait a second," you remember. "I'm not really fond of heights, maybe just taking in the view from the top of this mountain will be enough for now."

Taking the gondola up Bob's Peak (creative name, huh?) this morning, several thoughts like this started creeping into the corners of my mind. I don't really like heights, and the thought of stepping off terra firma and soaring three to four thousand feet above Queenstown didn't sound as relaxing as I originally imagined. But the weather has been unpredictable lately and the paragliders said they only had a 30 minute window to take off and would probably be closed for the next few days cause of the winds. So I was determined to step off the cliff. As a bonus I was hoping to do it without screaming like a girl.

The flight was awesome! My fear of heights lasted about 2 seconds, but once we were airborne I forgot all about it. The view, the quiet breeze rustling the sail, and the warmth of an unusually hot winter day was all I thought about. We spent the first part of the trip catching thermals off Bob's Peak. Takeoff is at 2500 feet, the thermals can easily push you to 4000 feet (where you're forced to level off to avoid running into planes). Then we slowly circled around Queenstown getting a great 360 degree view of the Southern Alps as we descended. We finished off with some fun banks and rolls. We managed to get our bodies nearly at the same height as the sail! It was a little strange seeing the sail in front of me, not above me where it belongs. But I was busy enjoying the g-forces the moves create.

Today was a great day for being a tourist, and I got my money's worth. In addition to paragliding, I went on a concrete luge (also at the top of Bob's Peak), played in one of the most elaborate putt-putt courses I've ever seen, and took a trip on the Shotover Jet.

The Shotover Jet is a specially designed jet that needs just 5cm of water depth to operate. And operate quickly. We maxed out at about 80kph (around 50mph) and the whole time we were less than two feet from rocky canyon walls. Oh, and the jet can spin a 360 at around 40kph. It was a very wet boat ride, but again, it felt like an authentic Queenstown experience.

I've got 26 photos to prove it all, you can take a peek over here. Sadly, today was my last day of fun for the week. The Stage One starts tomorrow and it's all business until Saturday. The Stage One is the reason I came here and my plans for the winter on contingent on actually getting this certification. It's time to saddle up and kick some ass this week. See you on the other side.

The Fergburger Experience (September 2nd, 2006)





I knew there was a reason I started talking about food in the last post. I just didn't remember why until I sat down to yet another shabby Thai meal for dinner tonight. For those keeping track at home that's three different Thai restaurants and three poor Thai meals. I realized pretty quickly that this most recent place would be subpar, they didn't even have Singha (Thai beer)! In fact, their drink menu consists of water and Coke. You can bring your own bottles of wine in, which they'll graciously uncork for $4.

Oh, another thing I haven't quite figured out yet is the correct end of meal / pay the bill dance. If I walk up to the bar they seem obviously embarrassed that you were forced to come over and ask for a bill. But they don't come anywhere near you as long as you remain seated at your table, leaving you to stare intently at the kitchen door, hoping to catch the eye of a waitress on her way out (and do the little "oh of course I haven't been staring at the door for 5 minutes, but I'm ready for my bill" eyebrow wave).

So what's my latest tactic? When I'm ready to leave I start the "I'm getting ready to go" routine: stand up, go to the bathroom, etc. Invariably, just as I'm slipping my jacket on, the waitress will stroll up with a very smug "wow I'm good; he's getting ready to leave just as I'm bringing the bill over" smile on her face. It's a little bit of routine that I could do without, but did I mention that tipping isn't common down here? Leaving the restaurant knowing you just ate and didn't have to tip still helps dull the pain for a bad meal.

But where was I? Oh yeah, Fergburger. Quite possibly the best burger I've ever eaten. Truthfully, I've only been there twice so far, but I'm fairly certain that each burger takes 10 to 16 months off your life expectancy so I'm eating there sparingly. But listen to the ingredients for the Southern Swine, my favorite so far: prime New Zealand beef, American streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, aioli and tomato relish. Hot damn! And you can see for yourself how big those things are. It's not an endeavors for the feint of heart. I guess the place was a local legend when it first opened; hidden on a side street, customer base growing through word of mouth. However, it was recently relocated and it's now open 22 hours a day (7am - 5am) and any time you go in you'll be faced with at least a 20 minute wait. My first time in there I left the cashier with a receipt that said "#371" on it. They were currently serving order #290. But the wait is well worth it. I've got another night planned with the Ferg' on Friday, assuming the Stage 1 goes well. I'll try to bring my camera this time.

Involuntary Time Off (September 2nd, 2006)

In the not too distance past I mentioned how busy we've been so far, even though we anticipated having up to 4 days a week off. What I would have given for a free day back then. Well, as always, be careful what you wish for. The snow gods must have been listening and in the last week I've been subjected to three unscheduled vacation days. On Tuesday I was too sick to leave bed (though I was able to read through The Grapes of Wrath), on Thursday we took the bus up to Coronet Peak but the mountain was "on hold" due to high winds ("on hold" means the lifts aren't running but the mountain isn't technically closed so they don't have to offer ticket refunds...), and today the mountain was officially shut down all day long due to "gale-force winds." Oh, and rain. There's been a weird weather pattern over the south island for the last 3 days which has caused some very warm weather (a balmy 15 degrees in Queenstown and nearly 10 degrees at Coronet Peak) and extremely strong winds from the north. Any snow that wasn't blown off by the wind was surely destroyed by the downpour today. Everyone is excited to see what the mountain looks like when we head back up there on Monday.

So what have I been doing with all this new found freedom? Sadly, nothing off the list of tourist activities I've been hoping to do. Paragliding? They don't operate in windy conditions either. Bungy jumping? Not in the rain. Instead I've been walking around town, buying souvenirs I don't want and eating food I don't need. In fact, I was excited because I was finally heading down to the Mexican place for dinner. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), two of my roommates went the night before and told me the food was so bad that they each had to send it back. Now I realize that this could be a sign of a good Mexican place, but I'd been sick for a week and didn't feel like tempting fate at that point.

On the flip side, though, when I told them I'd never eaten proper "bangers and mash" before they insisted on cooking for me. Well that's not quite true. I ended up peeling the potatoes (with an old, tiny peeler; I don't know how I didn't cut my knuckles on it), setting the table, and cleaning up after dinner while they sat around and watched The West Wing. But I got a great meal out of it, destroying my theory that all English food is terrible.

An Old American Saying (September 1st, 2006)

I was just reminded of an old American adage that goes something like, "Fool me one, shame on me. Fool me — can't get fooled again!" (If you have no idea what I'm talking about I encourage you take a three minute detour to check out this video.)

During the first week of training I made the mistake of keeping my goggles up all afternoon long (one trick we learned as instructors is to take our goggles off while talking so the students can see our eyes. I figured it'd be easier to remember if I just kept them up). I got home and my eyes were itching like they had sand in them. Rubbing my eyes, I walked into the bathroom, looked into the mirror and was greeting by a pair of absolutely bloodshot eyes. The sun wasn't out all that much, so I was a little surprised to see that. But, as has been mentioned several times since, there is basically zero ozone down here, giving the sun a much more dramatic affect than one would expect. My goggles have been on pretty much since them.

Today was a very mild day on the slopes. So mild, in fact, that my goggles were making my forehead sweat. Fortunately that's easy enough to fix, so I popped my goggles up and left them there for the rest of the day. And, predictably, I'm sporting bloodshot eyes again. Can't get fooled again!

We're entering our last weekend before the big daddy, the New Zealand Stage One exam. Our last day of training was today, so we're basically as ready as we're going to be. There's a different feeling this time around (compared to the NZ CSI exam). Going into the CSI I didn't know what to expect and definitely didn't feel prepared to take the exam. "Well, I'll just go in there and do the best I can," I thought as the week got started.

This time around I know pretty much what to expect. More than that, our trainers have definitely given us all the skills and knowledge we need to pass this test. Meaning that the only way I can fail is if I screw up during the exam. Obviously the same "give it your best" attitude is appropriate, but it's nice having some preset excuses to fall back on. I'm afraid I don't have any this time around.

And there's one part of teaching -- "student analysis" -- that can go horribly awry very quickly. When you meet a new class you have just a couple of minutes to figure out what the students know, determine what they want to achieve, and detect what's preventing them from getting there. The detection step is crucial. One slip up there and your entire plan is built around fixing the wrong problems (which translates as an automatic fail). In three of our six practice sessions today the person designated as "teacher" didn't correctly diagnos the students' fault. It's stressful and you don't have much time to get it right. But if I do go on to be an instructor I'll have to do it 6 times a day, so it's obviously a skill that needs to be present.