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!

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...

Vacation Plans

I'm here in Australia on a short term working visa, which means I have to leave every 3 months.  I've gone back to the US twice (in June and August) and my next 90 days is coming up in November.  I had the opportunity to go home again, but I would just be turning around in another 4 weeks to make the same trip for Christmas, then again when the project finishes in February.  So instead, I've been plotting to make a trip to an island somewhere near Australia.

My visa requires that I leave the country for 24 hours, so I could do something in as short as a weekend.  I looked into Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand, but then I thought, 'Why not Fiji?'  It's fairly close, it's cheap and I'll have a good time.  I was a little worried that the client would have a problem with paying for me to fly on a long weekend away, but I could always request that they send me home and double the flight cost (not that I would).  I spoke with my company's travel coordinator and team lead back in the US and they were all about me getting a few days away.

I did a bit of research online and learned a lot about Fiji.  I had always thought it was just this remote little island, but it is in fact a group of 200+ islands.  The main island hosts the two largest cities of Suva and Nadi and the rest you can mostly reach by boat.  I found a cluster of islands called the Mamanucas that looked promising. There were a bunch of islands to choose from that ranged in prices and I finally settled on one called Beachcomber. From the pictures I saw, it looked like you could fit it inside my high school's track.

After I booked 4 days at the resort I posted on Facebook that I was ready for some R&R on Beachcomber Island.  My friend Dan quickly informed me that this is the party island of Fiji, so I probably won't be doing much resting.  Ah, well, I guess it's destiny.  We'll see what happens, I'm definitely looking forward to it in about 3 weeks.