Things that are different about Australia

1. Funny accent.
2. Metric system.
3. Drive on wrong side of the road.
4. Everything is expensive.

Other than those things, Australia is remarkably similar to the US. Jake's wedding went great. It was the most uncomfortable day of my life, however, because the place we bought suits from didn't have anything in my size. That extra month I spent stewing in my mother makes life difficult sometimes. We bought our suits(not tuxes) rather than renting because the difference in cost was negligible. We thought it would be $100 at first(since the $US is worth more) but it ended up being like $250. I was mega pissed at having to buy a suit that didn't even fit, but I took it back and they're trying to alter it to the proper size now. We'll see how that goes.

Things have gone smoothly here, we spent the past few days doing touristy things. We went to a sweet beach called Surfer's Paradise for the day, and saw some neato weird-shaped mountains on the way back. The next day we went to the Australia Zoo, which is fairly large and has some neat animals. We saw koalas, wombats, and kangaroos and such. I fed several kangaroos- they're quite lazy from being fed by tourists all the time, though, they just lie on the ground propped up on one elbow while tourists walk up and hold food right under their mouths. Neat, nonetheless. Pictures.

Ian, the kangaroo, and I. Note the kangaroo's casual nature. I don't think I saw a combined 20 kangaroo hops.
I thought a kangaroo with a nalgene bottle would be a funny picture. Some middle-aged guys not too far away thought it was a beer bottle(must be a forty) and started laughing about the 'boozing kangaroo' on a bender. Pretty funny. Next time I go to the zoo I'm going to have to remember to bring funny items to pose the animals with- hats, a gameboy, assualt weapons... these could all make for hilarious pictures.

A wombat. They had them out for walks on leashes. They're neat. I woudln't mind a wombat for a pet. They weren't very good with names, though- the zoo named this one 'minibus'. I don't get it.
A tiger. I was annoyed that they were all completely behind glass- it made it hard to take a decent picture. I wish they'd had some bars I could peek over or something. They couldn't have been that vicious, the handlers were just sitting in there doing crossword puzzles or whatever tiger handlers do when not taming them with chairs and bullwhips.
A koala. They apparently just sit around in trees all day, doing nothing. I don't think they'd ever even have to leave their tree if the leaves held out, and it rained well. They just lounge in the crook of a branch and scratch themselves; occasionally reaching for a leaf. Ian remarked that they look like little old men. It's true- gray hair, sitting around doing nothing all day.

I took about 300 pictures(in true tourist fashion). Once I get to Handong(and presumably, high bandwidth) I'll upload them all to facebook or flickr or something. I've got a good 600 Alaska pictures that need to go up too.. dang, I should get my domain name going again.

That's the zoo. And yesterday, Ian and my newfound inlaw Mike and (his girlfriend?) Estrelle went up to "Noosa" and did various things. We stopped at a beach on the way up, punched around an Aussie-rules football and swam. Some more of my newfound inlaws were staying in a resort near Noosa and we tarried there for the lunch hour. There was a pool and jacuzzi. I realized while in the jacuzzi that I had my wallet in my pocket. Ooops! I had been through the ocean, out, drove for an hour, and started swimming again before I realized that my wallet was wet. It dried out quickly thanks to the hot, unfiltered Australian sunshine. Australian money is plastic, too- no trouble drying that out. I did have a check in there, though. It made it alright.

Today is more or less a slack day, I leave tonight at midnight from Brisbane. I'll arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6AM, and be laid over until 1:00AM the next day. 19 hours of layover! Then I'll arrive in Korea around 10:00AM, and have four days in which to explore Korea before I need to be at Handong. I have no plans whatsoever, and I don't speak Korean. Brilliant! Korea is more civil than the US, I don't think I'll be kidnapped by pirates or anything like that. It will be an adventure, the kind that would make my mom worry. Those are the most fun.

I'll plan to arrive at HGU on the 22 or August or earlier, if exploring Korea isn't as fun as it sounds. I may actually go to HGU, check in, then go exploring, as exploring with 100lbs of luggage may not be as fun as it sounds.

Anyway, that's the plan. Please pray that everything will go smoothly and that I won't have any language-based difficulties. This will be my first time traveling to a non-English speaking country.

I am in the terminal.

I wrote this as an email to my folks, which is why it sounds personal instead of like a blog post.

Hello there! I'm in the secure zone of the airport now. I'm on flight NZ5(Air New Zealand), departing LAX at 10:30PM. I will arrive at 11:00AM on what may be the 10th for you. God gave me a cool birthday present- there were no fees to change my ticket. When I got to the ticket counter, John(the guy I spoke with originally, who could give me a sweet deal) wasn't there and I didn't end up seeing him. He apparently told someone my situation, as the lady that helped me knew my deal. There were going to be fees and a substantial change in ticket cost because only first-class seats were available. She saw the distress on my face, I suppose, because she disappeared for a few minutes(with my passport and tickets to Korea, causing me some slight distress) and when she came back, she just printed my ticket and told me to have a nice flight. I thanked her profusely and now I'm on my way! Praise God! He's so great! Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides.

Mike was a good host. He was out most(all) of the time; I didn't see Kait at all. I suppose she's out of town. I left them half of the pie that you(Mom and Dad) gave me. I don't think it would have made it to Brisbane in my checked baggage. The first day I was there I walked about 3.5 miles after not properly memorizing the map of the area. I wasn't lost, really, I just went way too far in the wrong direction trying to find a Subway. Eventually I admitted defeat and headed back to Mike's place and checked the map. It was about a mile and a half to the plaza where the food was(and back). I walked it twice, lunch and dinner. All in all I walked 6.5 miles yesterday. Good exercise I suppose, and refreshing. CA makes sure that pedestrians are well taken care of with bike trails through the city and such, on the pretense that people should bike to work instead of driving.

Anyway, I'm happy that God has taken care of me; I knew he would. This whole debacle came about from my own poor planning, God forgave me for being an idiot and provided.

Passport in the locale, should have it today and fly tonight

I got a call this morning from the express mail facility here asking about the address that it's going to. The carrier didn't recognize the name and wanted to know what was up, and apparently it was lacking the apartment number. So it's close! I will have it today, and be flown out tonight. Whew!
-Ned

Passport issue update

My passport did not get to Ian before he had to leave, and I missed my flight. I spent the day calling around to many post offices trying to locate it with no luck. Its tracking number didn't even show up in the system when I went to sleep last night. I saw Ian and my parents, who are high over the pacific right now(still!). Ian has a good friend here in Los Angeles that I'm staying with right now- much better than chilling in the airport waiting for my passport to show up- also gives me a mailing address here.

Today I woke up early to call the Maryland express mail depot around when they opened. I called the tracking number first; and my package was FINALLY in there! It didn't get scanned in Houston until Monday night(yesterday, flight day) at 6:00PM. I can't think of much that would account for that kind of lag in pickup, even if it sat in a drop off box from Friday afternoon to Saturday or even Monday morning. I suppose the consulate could have been lying about when they mailed it, but that's in the past and it will do me no good to accuse them.

I'm worried about how much it's going to cost to get my ticket changed. When I knew my passport wouldn't come, I called Air NZ's booking number and told them the story. Luckily they can cancel my resevation on that flight and have my ticket still in the system. I asked what kind of cost would be incurred. My folks were worried it would be over $1000, but the guy on the phone told me $452 as an example of pushing it back one day; same flight. Being the persistent one that I am, I spoke with the counter guy at the airport and by chance/divine intervention he happened to be the ticketer(boss) on duty. He was nice and we reached an understanding that he'll do his best by me to keep the cost low. I just need to make sure that he's the one that I talk to when I check in.

This morning when I woke up, my passport was 'in transit' from Houston to MD. I called the help line, who referred me to the Houston express office. Now that my tracking no. had hit the system, they could put in a forward order for when it landed in MD and hit their express mail center. This was good news, and I wrote my folks about it, after I checked the detailed history on the USPS site. They have a tool for emailing you as soon as something new happens; so I put in both my and Ian's emails. Not fifteen minutes after my first email to my folks, I get a USPS one informing me that it had hit MD and been forwarded on. So right now I imagine that it's in a basket somewhere waiting for it's plane out here, or maybe even in the air. The USPS tracking lady told me before it probably wouldn't show up for two days, but I think that's a bit pessimistic. If it's leaving MD directly from an express mail facility in the morning, it should certainly be here tomorrow. It may be in LA and not yet delivered perhaps, but if that's the case and I can figure out who has hands on it I'll do my darnedest to find my way to the express mail office and get it. There's even a faint glimmer of hope in the back of my mind that it might be in-state tonight and I could track it down before morning. I won't set my heart on it, but God is in the business of miracles.

Keep on praying that I will get it as soon as possible! Thank you!

Please pray for me, my passport, and USPS

I am leaving for Australia at 10:30PM Monday evening. Close enough to be Sunday night, as I will leave Anchorage 12:50AM Monday morning, arrive in LAX at 7:30AM, and wait in the airport literally all day long. I actually plan to check my bags then leave the airport and see what Los Angeles has to offer. I am on the same flight with my brother, Ian. My passport is currently in the mail, from the Korean consulate in Houston to Ian's place. (Had to get my visa for Korea) It's going to Ian instead of me because it's quicker to go from Houston to DC than it is to Houston to a remote bush village in Alaska. Since Ian and I are on the same flight anyway, it works out well. I thank God for providing the blessing of Ian and I booking the same flight without coordinating it intentionally. Without this, getting my Korean visa and passport back on time would be impossible.

Scheduling is a bit awry, however. My express mail item to the Korean Consulate left here(bush Alaska) Monday morning at 11:30. By 3:30PM, it was in the mail in Anchorage. It did not arrive in Houston until Thursday at 10:30AM. I left a message on the Korean Consulate visa dept's machine to please process ASAP. I called again this morning(10:00AM here, 1:00PM there) to ask if they had it yet, and when it would be mailed. Turned out I forgot a few documents, which I faxed to them pronto. The fastest that they could get my visa(and passport) in the mail was after the express mail pickup deadline, even after 5:00PM.

Right now all I have is the casual word of a visa dept's employee that my visa should have been in the mail sometime today(friday) not long after 5PM. Also, I have not actually been able to get in touch with Ian to find out when he leaves and if he is in fact expecting the package. My parents have not heard from him recently either. Assuming that my passport and visa don't count as being mailed today(3rd), but tomorrow, the USPS site tells me to expect "2 delivery days". Not sure how that translates, "days" is quite vague for something that is supposedly overnight. It will most likely not arrive tomorrow(Saturday). Several different USPS claims have been made regarding whether or nor they will deliver express mail on Sundays - their site says "Delivery to most locations 365 days a year, including Sundays and holidays at no extra charge." Why, then, does their calculator use the wiggle-word "delivery days"? If delivery is 365 days a year, isn't every day a delivery day? Right now the express mail package does not show in the USPS tracking system(not unusual, but disconcerting nonetheless)

Since Ian is on the same flight that I am from LAX, he will need to arrive in LA some time before 10:30PM on Monday. I do not know when he is arriving. What is important is whether or not he will be able to collect mail(and my passport/visa) before he leaves on Monday. I have no data on which to venture a guess for this probability. Express mail is supposed to be delivered before "Noon or 3PM". We'll see.

To sum it up:
My passport is in overnight mail to my brother, who will meet me at LAX.
The USPS is real, real shaky with overnight mail.
I am not drawing any conclusions yet as to whether or not I'm going to have to knock out a flight attendant in the airport and steal his uniform in order to get on the plane without my passport.

Please pray for my situation. I trust that God will take care of me- He gave me everything I have, He provided everything I needed to make this amazing international trip. I am going to trust Him to provide for me when man's ways seem unreliable and broken. Though I can see so many ways typical of man's ways for this situation to end up wrong, I know that God's way is the best way. I now only need to trust in God- He has done everything up until this point to get me on that plane, and I must trust that His will is for me to be on that plane.

Thank you Lord for your blessings, please use this potentially disastrous situation to build me up. I will trust You and Your plan for my life.

1 Month later, Ned posts.

I've been in Alaska for about 6 weeks now, and I haven't posted since nearly the beginning. That's because all the internet here is by satellite: it's slow, and a privilege. I'm only supposed to get email once a week, but the tech guy(Mark) has been nice to me when I've had needs for arranging important stuff for Korea/Australia etc. Blog posting has been off-limits most of the summer, but I asked him to post about a week ago and this is the first time I've gotten Blogger to load right since. So here I am. What's new? Well, I like Alaska. The past weeks since I posted have been filled with counseling(lots of work), a break week, and this week I'm on Work Crew leading a team. Counseling is pretty much what you'd imagine- being 4-5 campers parent for a week. I don't really know how I ended up at a children's camp, as I'm not especially fond of children. They're too irrational, at least to an engineer type such as myself. Break week was nice, we spent 2 days cleaning up camp then the rest relaxing- this involved a 2-night camping trip up the lake(15 miles=1hr by skiff) That was neat. There are bald eagles around here, I've taken some pictures. (Can't upload but one, must keep bandwidth use low) Around 800 pictures total so far.

I got my passport in the mail today, that was nice. I was heaps-big worried about that.

Not sure what else to say- living in bush Alaska is a much different lifestyle than the lower 48. The people are different. I like it better than the lower 48 in that way, everything is very practical here- it's the antithesis of liberal Massachusetts. It's a nice place.

To all my friends from LETU: continue to rock. Sorry I can't respond individually, but I miss you all and think about you more than you might think.

Family: I love you, and I'll see most of you before too long down under.

Assorted others: Thanks for reading my blog, I'm glad you care.

Mark: I knew you'd check up on me. I like you anyway.


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This picture is from where the mis-named Dry Creek meets Lake Clark at the far end of the old runway here. During the younger camps, we picnic here once a week. This is a small version of about 16 high-res pictures stitched together into a 360.

Yep, still in Alaska

Things are going well here in AK. I've spent the past week helping the camp director(AKA Pastor James) get the camp in shape for camp. Neat stuff. I get to burn trash and use the ATV. ATVs are tools here, not toys. It's a fine line if you ask me. All the stuff that I've been doing is stuff that's interesting to do but not interesting to read about. That's why this post is so short.

Anyway, the rest of the summer staff showed up yesterday and today. Campers arrive on Monday. We'll see how that goes.

P.S. AK is beautiful. I would seriously consider living here if the job prospects for welding engineers in bush Alaska weren't so... unlikely.