Second Thanksgiving Abroad

I dubbed last year's Thanksgiving the most interesting ever, and it probably was - for the novelty of being away for the first time if nothing else.  I don't get any days off, just like last year, but this time I have a whole network of people with whom to celebrate the holiday.  Everyone I met at the Expat American MeetUp Group's 4th of July Party planned a feast at Bronte Beach (halfway between my home in Coogee and Bondi, along the coastal walk).

Steph, Kylie and Ben

Everyone was instructed to make a dish and I kept it simple with mashed potatoes.  It was more challenging than back home because I had to mash them by hand instead of with a mixer, but they still turned out quite normal.  I made them the night before since the party started at 6 pm.  I left work, changed clothes, heated the dish up in the microwave, and hopped a 10 minute cab ride to the beach.

There were about 40 people huddled around picnic tables draped with American flags, making it very hard to miss.  I saw Ben, Steph, Kylie, Clint, and a few others I had hung out with at Halloween and Urban Frisbee Golf.  It was nice to be around other people that were in the same situation.

There was a lot of turkey this time around. I couldn't find any in Santiago last year, so that was a good upgrade. I didn't have any pumpkin pie, but there was a graham cracker crust pumpkin cheesecake... good enough for me.  Being right on the ocean was nice as well, but dinner with the rooftop view of my Santiago apartment rivals it. When the sun went down it got a bit chilly, but as we walked down to the surf after dinner I kept telling myself... "You're in shorts on the beach and it's November. Suck it up and stop complaining."

So passes another unique Thanksgiving to remember.  I miss you all back home and hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Ending to the Deportation Saga

As soon as I got home from my near deportation, I emailed my company (a bit ticked off) about the incident.  I was sure someone had screwed up my visa but it turns out they have sent plenty of consultants to Australia on the 977 visa with no problems.  No one knows why I was singled out this time.  We scheduled a conference call for the next day to discuss my options.  It basically came down to this:

1. Work remotely from the US - possible, but not ideal.  The whole reason I was in Sydney was because they wanted someone on site to run the project.  That would also prevent me from my NYE and beach vacation plans right after New Years (more on that in a future post).
2. Train a replacement over the next few weeks - also possible, but probably wouldn't happen.  There wasn't anyone available locally and it would take too long to get someone up to speed.  We are at a critical point in the project and it would put the project at risk.  I also would like to see the project through, so I didn't want to do this.
3. Get a different visa - this was my favorite option because it would allow me to keep my travel plans back home as well as coming back into the country.  However, after a lot of online research on Australia's immigration website and a few conversations with people on long term visas, it would take too long, cost too much and be more hassle than it was worth since I am leaving relatively soon.
4. Stay in Australia through Christmas and stay until the end of the project - not desirable, but the easiest way to go.  I didn't want to stay through Christmas for obvious reasons, but we were all drawing to this conclusion.

I finally accepted this fact and said, "Now I'm just going to have to tell my mom that I can't come home for Christmas."

Ok, so I played it up a little.  There was a collective "Awwwwwwwwwwww" on the other end of the phone as our deployment, travel and legal representatives (all female, all mothers) showed their sympathy.  They told me they would get back to me with I was expecting some kind of compen$ation.  I was pretty down because I had been looking forward to some time at home as well as my family's traditional trip to Kentucky to visit family and friends.  And let's not forget about my puppy love.  About a half hour later, I got a phone call from our deployment manager that went something like this:

"So, Jay, we talked to Tom and Trish (*husband and wife team that own/run my company*).  They would like to fly your parents to Sydney for Christmas."
"Uh...... WHAT?"
"Since your brother is coming out for New Years, maybe you can move his flight up and you can all be there together.  Do you think your family would go for that?"
"Let me think.  YES.  I don't know what to say... thank you!"

I need to find a Santa hat ASAP...

How cool is that?  Did I mention that I love working for BackOffice Associates?  Even before this saga, I have been lucky to have the opportunity to travel and grow professionally among such a great group of people.  I've learned a lot in the past few years and owe them a lot already.  I'm really glad I went with a small company out of grad school instead of one of the big consulting firms, because something like this never would've happened at Accenture or Deloitte.

We worked out most of the details and my parents will be here from December 21st-27th.  My brother is going to fly in with them and leave, as originally planned, on January 12th.  I depleted all of my Marriott points to put my parents up in the Circular Quay Marriott overlooking the opera house which is where I stayed during my first two weeks in the city.  It's not that close to my apartment, but I figured it was the best spot for such a short time.  Now I'm figuring out all of the places I want to show them.  I've already played tour guide a few times, so I think we will have enough to do.  And of course, we'll spend Christmas Day on the beach.  This will probably be the most memorable (and unexpected) Christmas of my life.  I can't wait!

Deported... almost

As I returned from my trip to Fiji, I went through Customs expecting some scrutinizing for my souvenirs containing wood.  I stepped up to the official and handed them my passport plus declaration card.  They promptly asked me to come through and step to the side because someone needed to talk to me.  When I asked if this was about my souvenirs, they said no.  Hmm...

After a bit of a wait, a lady started asking me about my visa (a 977 short term business visa).  It's good for 90 days at a time for up to a year, as I understood it.  I made the trip to Fiji because my 90 days were up and went home twice for the same reason.  No big deal, right?

They sat me down in the Customs area and I watched in envy as everyone else filtered through the lines, off to freedom.  I looked back longingly as I was escorted into a little room with a camera in the upper corner, large window in the back plus a small table with a chair that was bolted to the floor.  I had this vision in my head of The Bourne Identity when he plays mute through his interview at customs until he whooped up on the agents and escaped.  I couldn't find a YouTube video of it, so this approximate reenactment will have to do.  PS - I am the one in the American flag shorts.

While I had already busted out in my head, a guy came into my interview room putting on blue rubber gloves.  Suddenly my big cajones shrunk and drew inward and I tightened my... other muscles... and took a big gulp.  I think he saw the fear in my eyes as he stepped toward me and picked up my bag off the floor.  "I'm going to look through your bag now."

"Oh."

I silently sighed in relief and watched as he pulled out and carefully expected all of my clothes from the trip.  Penetration averted.  After he was satisfied that I wasn't smuggling anything, he left (I totally could've taken him out if I wanted to) and a woman came in.  For the next hour and a half she asked me questions into a tape recorder and took notes.  Why are you here?  What kind of work you do?  Do you get paid in US or Australian dollars?  What other countries have you been to?  How much money do you have in your wallet?  When do you plan to leave again?  And on and on and on.

The interrogator would come in and talk to me for half an hour and then leave for ten minutes to speak with her manager, then come back in and repeat the process.  I'm not sure if they were trying to make me sweat or change my story, but I just went back to reading my book every time they left.  They even asked for my local coworkers' phone numbers

About two hours later we got down to the heart of the matter.  One of the stipulations of the visa is that it cannot be used for "ongoing work".  They felt that I was breaking this rule.  The 977 was only supposed to be for conferences, meetings, training, etc and even then for six weeks at a time.  Why is it valid for 90 days if it was only designed for six weeks?  Well, they couldn't answer that one.  I didn't want to make them mad enough to ship me out, so I let it go.

My plans were to go home from December 16th-27th, come back until the end of the project and leave on February 5th.  The lady told me straight up, "We are going to let you in this time, but if you come back into Australia on this visa you will not get in."

By that time three hours had gone by and as they released me from interrogation there were no other passengers left in the airport.  The baggage belts were motionless and there were only a few employees milling around.  They had to go find someone to turn on the X-ray machine for my bags, because apparently doing a hand search wasn't enough.  Then they had to find someone else to unlock the exit doors - I was lucky there were any taxis in the queue.

"Home" at last.

More on the outcome in my next post.

I Bless the Rain Down in... Fiji

For a few months I have been talking about going to Fiji to satisfy my visa requirement.  I'm on a 977 temporary work visa, good for a year but only 90 days at a time (more on that saga in the next post).  I got the approval from my client to make this trip instead of going all of the way home for a week, just to go back again for Christmas and then again when the project ends in February.  I'm glad I could save them the money for the plane ticket.

On Thursday afternoon I flew into Nadi, one of the larger islands of the more than 200 that make up Fiji, on a 4.5 hour flight.  My resort had an office in the airport, so I met with an employee who arranged to have me driven out to the pier.  From there, a driver took me and another late arriving guest on the half hour (somewhat choppy) outboard motorboat ride to Beachcomber Island, pictured at left.  The other guy on the boat, Darren, was from Oregon and in Nadi for a conference.  On a whim he decided to take a few days off.

We got to the island and had to jump into a bit of surf since there was no dock.  As we walked up to the buildings, we were greeted with a drink from the sand bar before we checked in.  I was put in a 10 bed dorm with some other random travelers while Darren had rented a private 'bure'. The resort took up the entire island and you could walk around the whole thing in 15 minutes. There were multiple paths once you got into the canopy of trees that covered the central portion with sand paths to the different buildings.

The first night was pretty quiet for all of the hype I had heard.  The high season doesn't start until 'schoolies' start to vacation in late November, which is a post-high school trip for a lot of Australians.  The next day was sunny and Darren and I took advantage of the boat trip for free snorkeling a few hundred meters off the island's shore.  I got a few pictures with my underwater camera that haven't been developed yet, so I'll post any good ones.  A few of the things I saw: crown-of-thorns starfish, blue starfish, sea cucumbers, clownfish, parrotfish, and unicornfish among others.

We met a few cool people during the day, mostly Brits, and I stumbled upon the second unicorn sighting of my life (unrelated to the fish mentioned above).  I documented my last sighting in this post. This was unicorn 2.0.  Musical taste, height, looks, brains, accent, personality, all there.  The last unicorn I never expected to see again, but did.  This one was a world traveler from London, making it much more likely to be a true unicorn.

The resort provided all meals, which were a buffet mix of fish curry, chicken, fried eggplant, coleslaw, spaghetti, fruit and other random foods.  It wasn't bad, but definitely got worn out over the next few days.  The weather turned bad, as it was the rainy season.  It ended up raining that night (and every night thereafter), but there were enough people on the island to make it a good time.  The DJ played typical songs you hear in a club and we all got out in the sand and broke it down.  There are two types of beer on Fiji - Fiji Bitter and Vonu.  I definitely recommend the latter.

Darren left but I met a few British guys (Paul and Elliott) that came in on a boat the next morning.  The storms really dampened the air and the attitude of the island.  I spent most of the time hanging around with the guys and playing cards or reading my latest book, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.  We talked about going on one of the day trips that bounced between other islands in the Mamanuca and Yasawa archipelagos. Castaway and Blue Lagoon were both filmed on islands that you could visit for the day. Unfortunately, the chop was so bad that the boats weren't running. I saw enough surf to know that even if they had the trips, I would've been seasick.  The same went for scuba diving.  They had some great wreck dives planned at a boat and WWII plane, but both were canceled for the weather.  Even though they were in deep water (~26 meters), just getting there would've been really rough.

Piling in a bunk with the pommies

The night was mostly the same as the previous night - literally.  The music was pretty much repeated and most of the people there had been on the island for a few days.  We goofed off on the dance floor as most people weren't really dancing.  I had a nice, peaceful night in my bunk because all of the other bunkmates in my room had moved on and I had the whole room to myself.  They were putting all other guests in a massive 100 bed room that was separated on the guys and girls side.  The next day was spent much like the last, listening to music as we laid around under cover in the rain.  The girls introduced me to a British TV show called The Inbetweeners and I loved it.  I got the first 3 seasons off of Nicola's hard drive, so I'll be bringing that back to the States.  I found out that the guys would be in Sydney for NYE, so we're going to try to meet up.

All in all, it was a relaxing weekend, but the relaxing was forced upon me because of the weather.  I got to snorkel a few times, but no scuba diving.  I'd like to go back and travel between the islands on one of the 7 day passes.  The snorkeling was great right off the beach and at a better time I'm sure the diving would've been spectacular.

I also picked up a few good souvenirs (pictured below).  The first is a tiki mask that cost about $10.  The second is 3 cannibal forks in a hand carved frame.  I had no idea while I was there, but Fijians practiced this all of the way until the late 1800's.  Yum.  So I came back to Sydney on Monday and so begins another story...

Cleveland's Response to Lebron

A few weeks ago I posted of Lebron addressing the fans of Cleveland (oh yeah, and to sell some shoes).  Cleveland now has a response, and I think they've one-upped him.



In other news, I'm going to Fiji in a few days. Expect some great posts next week!

Crowded House Concert and Flugtag

Earlier this week I got an invitation from Steph to go see Crowded House in concert.  Crowded House, now what did they sing again?  "Hey now, heeeeeey now, don't dream it's oooover!" I got on YouTube to hear some of their other songs which were vaguely familiar at best. I still thought it would be a good time, so I accepted.

The concert was at Hordern Pavilion and was one of the more interesting places I have gone to see a concert. The venue was tucked into the 'Entertainment Quarter' of Fox Studios, near Centennial Park. As we entered Hordern, it reminded me of a circus tent with bleacher seating on three sides and a stage at the other. The entire middle of the venue was just flat concrete for standing room only tickets, which is what we had. The crowd was a bit older on average, as expected since they were most popular in the mid to late 80's.

Crowded House is an Aussie/New Zealand band (depending who you ask) and have a big following. Everyone around us knew most of the songs and were singing along, except for the annoying couple beside us that were either texting or talking during the ENTIRE show. The set was pretty long and included 5 or 6 songs in the encore, totaling about two hours. I must admit, by the end I was definitely ready to go.

I'd still recommend seeing Crowded House live, even if you don't follow them. The band was very engaging with the audience, letting them finish popular lines for them (and most were very happy and able to join in). One of the best parts of the show was when the lead singer announced that a contest winner was going to come out on stage to sing a song. They had posted a 'backing track' on their website with the instructions to write lyrics and submit yourself singing them, with the winner performing them live. It must have been a pretty amazing experience for the girl that won. I've never seen that at a show before but would like to see other artists do the same.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pics or video :(

On to Sunday...

The highlight of the weekend was the Red Bull Flugtag. (FYI - Flugtag is German for Air Show) I attended the Red Bull Soap Box Derby last year in Atlanta... and somehow forgot to post about it. This is the original Red Bull event and has been held since 1991. I first heard about it a few years ago and have had this day marked on my calendar for months. The event bounces around to different cities throughout the year and had last been in Sydney in 2008. I got really lucky that I was here at the right time.

The basic idea of the Flugtag is this: you enter a design to Red Bull and they select the top 40 to be contestants.  There are 4 people per team and there are certain craft dimension and weight restrictions.  Three people push and one rides the creation off the pier and into the water.  Your team gets points for creativity, design, style and choreograph of the pre-flight dance.  Four judges rate each team out of 10 and you get an extra point for every meter the pilot gets from the edge of the pier.  The world record was set in Minnesota earlier this year at 63 meters (most didn't make it more than a couple though).

I met up with Steph, Mark and a few of Mark's friends for a day in the sun. Here's a video of The Flintstones team's routine and launch:


We walked around for a bit through the staging area and then found a seat in the grass really close to the ramp.  Here are a few of the pictures of the day: