An Interesting Day or should I say – I'm feeling a little violent! (Sydney, Australia)
(Warning - this journal is a bit long and wordy)
I suppose the title for this journal would seem rather odd on a trip around the world. For there are many interesting things. But - this day stands out in an unexpected way. For the first time on my travels (In my life?) I felt like hitting a lot of people.
- The day started off innocently enough I went to buy my Japan Rail Pass at the Japan Airlines office in Sydney downtown.
As I took the elevator up to the 14th floor I felt like clubbing the people (Building managers) who decided to put an LCD screen in the elevator with advertising. Is no place sacred? There was some advertisement for home loans I think. Fortunately there was no audio.
[ It reminded me of a Texaco gas station in my old home Aliso Viejo, CA. As soon as one would start to pump the gas a loud voice would come over the small video screen telling you to buy food or something of the sort inside. I tended to avoid this gas station until I noticed one day that the video didn’t work that often. The computer they were using had crashed. In fact in the small video screen you could tell it was Microsoft Windows. Eventually I don’t think they bothered to fix it...for I never saw the video again. Although if my memory is correct the 76 gas station down the road also had some sort of video screen ad too, but I don’t recall it being quite so annoying. ]
Hopefully I won’t get a "violent" streak in Japan - I’m expecting a lot of advertising there in various places.
- I visited a hotel above a pub as a possible place to stay in lieu of my current situation. The hostel I’m at is new, clean, and tidy but very small. How convenient - get drunk, then walk right upstairs to your room!
- I switched from a cramped 4- share dorm room to my single room at this backpacker hostel. As soon as I was getting settled the girl from the front desk came up and asked me to switch rooms. She had put me in a double room, not a single. I said ok. Another fellow brought up my new room key - but I asked him if the single room was a single bed or a bunk bed (The double bed had a single bed on top - something I’ve never seen before - so I started to wonder). I quickly learned that it was a bunk bed. This is important because at this point in my travels I’m looking for a place to work, rest, and type. I can’t do that by sitting on a bunk bed. I refused to move.
When I went downstairs I mentioned to the girl my situation. She then said to me “Couldn’t you work on the floor?” I wanted to give her a bitch slap right then and there. Work on the floor??? SLAP! I told her I might be able to find alternative accommodation the next day. Not feeling too welcome.
- I mailed my first package back to the US (Australian guidebooks I no longer need but might want as a reference - I gave one away here because of the weight).
- I went to repair the strap and put a new heel on my trusty sandals. As the man was typing up the order he asked me where I was from. As soon as he found out he launched into a series of questions and statements about president Bush, Iraq, Jews, and Osama Bin Laden. At first I thought it was harmless, but it started getting heated very quickly.
He said things like - We (who is we?) have an issue with the US government, not the people. I made the comment that a government is reflective of the people to an extent. Although with a country as large as the USA it is easy to over-generalize I repeated. He then continued - What do you think of president Bush? I hesitated for a moment to think of the right thing to say then he blurted out you can’t criticize Bush...are you afraid too? He was goading me. I’ll spare the rest of details. He was also trying to convince me that Australia only supported America in Iraq because otherwise it would get taken over by China.....ok... To defuse the conversation I placed the blame elsewhere - I made it clear that oil was the root issue. That we should be going after the reasons for oil dependency. I think a little bit of that got through his skull. By the way...he is from Lebanon.
At this point I was beginning to worry about my shoes. Would he fix them properly? After all, these are my favorite sandals. If something were to happen to them I would cry a storm that would make a Category 5 Hurricane look like a small storm.
I really wanted to sock him so he would shut up. He was very abrasive. I’m just trying to get my shoes repaired! At the same time I wanted to give our “fearless” leader (Hiding behind a lot of guns) a good ole’ 1-2 punch for causing me this trouble. The actions of my US Government will certainly make my travels more difficult in some parts of the world. I’m still going to the places on my timeline – it’s just going to be a little more sticky. I’m from China!
So I left wondering how my shoes would turn out later.
- After fruitlessly searching for another hotel I settled on the pub hotel I saw earlier. I called to request a discount for a week stay. But he decided not to give me a discount because of the Rugby World Cup - which is making reasonably priced lodging hard to find. The way he sounded over the phone was a bit arrogant/abrasive too. I decided on another strategy for lodging. I wanted to sock him for being pig headed. After all my week long stay would continue after the Rugby World Cup is over. Maybe it is just Australian brevity. Maybe it is redneckish behavior in the city. I will point out that the definition of redneck is different between the USA and Australia.
...then things started to get better......
- I went to go pick up my sandals. They are looking good now! I didn’t have time to speak to him again because of other customers in queue (What the Aussies like to say). Maybe I’ll go back and take a picture of him holding my shoes.
- I found Pringles Light potato chips (1/3 less fat) - Regular flavor at a store next to the hostel. Something I had been looking for but never saw in my 1.5 months of travelling in Australia. I ended up speaking Chinese to the storekeeper. He said he just saw them at the distributor - new item! He mentioned to me how two major Australian brands of foods were bought out by US Companies. Inferring that Americans are smart.
- I surfed the Internet and found acceptable lodging using my new strategy - which was to find something further outside the city, yet still accessibly by train.
One more thing...the entire day I wanted to club the people who work in the marketing and product group at Telstra - the major phone company in Australia. For all the payphones situated in downtown Sydney are open air - no booths. It’s not exactly easy to talk with buses gunning down the streets or crowds of people walking by. It seems to be so difficult to find a place to make a quiet phone call.
Now that I’ve gone to such excruciating detail to explain my day – a few insights and reminders came to me today...
1) World Cup Rugby in Australia is like the Super Bowl being played in a major US city. Plan ahead! Life is good when you have good lodging during a major event (Like during Carnaval in Brazil), not so fun when you don’t. I better start planning for the August 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece!
2) Don’t have political conversations with shoe repairmen. A sign of things to come in the future? Maybe I will really have to say I’m from a country other than the US in some places. Though personally I don’t like to hide.
I’m still going to Yemen!
3) In my travels in Australia I’ve occasionally been in the position to give my opinion about America. Especially since there have been so few Americans on the backpacking scene. Some have stated that they really like the US. More often the comments haven’t been glowing. Especially since the whole Iraq quagmire.
While I have plenty of criticisms for my home country one thing I have stated publicly when pushed is that I believe that Americans are the smartest people in the world. I was reminded of this during my conversation with the Chinese storekeeper. American Business ingenuity! But let me define that as only raw intelligence. Americans as a whole are notably lacking in the wisdom department in my opinion. During my travels I’ve continued to gather evidence on these ideas. Maybe it is obvious to you the reader – especially if you’ve read other parts of this website. Maybe it isn’t. Needless to say...it is something I hope to write more about.
4) The conversation with the shoe repairman reminded me of another one of my goals for this trip.
If intelligent people in the US (And other “Modern” countries) don’t question their religion and politics (Inextricably linked in Arabia) – How can we expect people with less resources and opportunity to learn the truth (In many Arab countries), to question their behavior and opinions espoused by the media they read. You can’t.
Thus my quest to help end ignorance (Both mine and others) and the ignorance brought on by religion and government propaganda will continue (Until I realize that it's a waste of my short time on this earth!). As for religion - they could all be true as far as I’m concerned - so practice and believe, but the ignorance it promotes about life in general is scary. History will testify to that.
Intelligence without wisdom mixed in with ignorance is very dangerous indeed. The flip side is true too - too much wisdom without intelligence isn’t very good either although I don’t think it to be quite so dangerous.
ok...I’m glad I got all this out of my system!
I reckon I’ll soon have the US Secret Service, Arabs, fundamentalist Christians, redneck Australians, and the Australian police hot on my tail....not bad for a day’s work.
I now return to my regularly scheduled programming. I have to rest first...typing on a bed is NOT comfortable.
I suppose the title for this journal would seem rather odd on a trip around the world. For there are many interesting things. But - this day stands out in an unexpected way. For the first time on my travels (In my life?) I felt like hitting a lot of people.
- The day started off innocently enough I went to buy my Japan Rail Pass at the Japan Airlines office in Sydney downtown.
As I took the elevator up to the 14th floor I felt like clubbing the people (Building managers) who decided to put an LCD screen in the elevator with advertising. Is no place sacred? There was some advertisement for home loans I think. Fortunately there was no audio.
[ It reminded me of a Texaco gas station in my old home Aliso Viejo, CA. As soon as one would start to pump the gas a loud voice would come over the small video screen telling you to buy food or something of the sort inside. I tended to avoid this gas station until I noticed one day that the video didn’t work that often. The computer they were using had crashed. In fact in the small video screen you could tell it was Microsoft Windows. Eventually I don’t think they bothered to fix it...for I never saw the video again. Although if my memory is correct the 76 gas station down the road also had some sort of video screen ad too, but I don’t recall it being quite so annoying. ]
Hopefully I won’t get a "violent" streak in Japan - I’m expecting a lot of advertising there in various places.
- I visited a hotel above a pub as a possible place to stay in lieu of my current situation. The hostel I’m at is new, clean, and tidy but very small. How convenient - get drunk, then walk right upstairs to your room!
- I switched from a cramped 4- share dorm room to my single room at this backpacker hostel. As soon as I was getting settled the girl from the front desk came up and asked me to switch rooms. She had put me in a double room, not a single. I said ok. Another fellow brought up my new room key - but I asked him if the single room was a single bed or a bunk bed (The double bed had a single bed on top - something I’ve never seen before - so I started to wonder). I quickly learned that it was a bunk bed. This is important because at this point in my travels I’m looking for a place to work, rest, and type. I can’t do that by sitting on a bunk bed. I refused to move.
When I went downstairs I mentioned to the girl my situation. She then said to me “Couldn’t you work on the floor?” I wanted to give her a bitch slap right then and there. Work on the floor??? SLAP! I told her I might be able to find alternative accommodation the next day. Not feeling too welcome.
- I mailed my first package back to the US (Australian guidebooks I no longer need but might want as a reference - I gave one away here because of the weight).
- I went to repair the strap and put a new heel on my trusty sandals. As the man was typing up the order he asked me where I was from. As soon as he found out he launched into a series of questions and statements about president Bush, Iraq, Jews, and Osama Bin Laden. At first I thought it was harmless, but it started getting heated very quickly.
He said things like - We (who is we?) have an issue with the US government, not the people. I made the comment that a government is reflective of the people to an extent. Although with a country as large as the USA it is easy to over-generalize I repeated. He then continued - What do you think of president Bush? I hesitated for a moment to think of the right thing to say then he blurted out you can’t criticize Bush...are you afraid too? He was goading me. I’ll spare the rest of details. He was also trying to convince me that Australia only supported America in Iraq because otherwise it would get taken over by China.....ok... To defuse the conversation I placed the blame elsewhere - I made it clear that oil was the root issue. That we should be going after the reasons for oil dependency. I think a little bit of that got through his skull. By the way...he is from Lebanon.
At this point I was beginning to worry about my shoes. Would he fix them properly? After all, these are my favorite sandals. If something were to happen to them I would cry a storm that would make a Category 5 Hurricane look like a small storm.
I really wanted to sock him so he would shut up. He was very abrasive. I’m just trying to get my shoes repaired! At the same time I wanted to give our “fearless” leader (Hiding behind a lot of guns) a good ole’ 1-2 punch for causing me this trouble. The actions of my US Government will certainly make my travels more difficult in some parts of the world. I’m still going to the places on my timeline – it’s just going to be a little more sticky. I’m from China!
So I left wondering how my shoes would turn out later.
- After fruitlessly searching for another hotel I settled on the pub hotel I saw earlier. I called to request a discount for a week stay. But he decided not to give me a discount because of the Rugby World Cup - which is making reasonably priced lodging hard to find. The way he sounded over the phone was a bit arrogant/abrasive too. I decided on another strategy for lodging. I wanted to sock him for being pig headed. After all my week long stay would continue after the Rugby World Cup is over. Maybe it is just Australian brevity. Maybe it is redneckish behavior in the city. I will point out that the definition of redneck is different between the USA and Australia.
...then things started to get better......
- I went to go pick up my sandals. They are looking good now! I didn’t have time to speak to him again because of other customers in queue (What the Aussies like to say). Maybe I’ll go back and take a picture of him holding my shoes.
- I found Pringles Light potato chips (1/3 less fat) - Regular flavor at a store next to the hostel. Something I had been looking for but never saw in my 1.5 months of travelling in Australia. I ended up speaking Chinese to the storekeeper. He said he just saw them at the distributor - new item! He mentioned to me how two major Australian brands of foods were bought out by US Companies. Inferring that Americans are smart.
- I surfed the Internet and found acceptable lodging using my new strategy - which was to find something further outside the city, yet still accessibly by train.
One more thing...the entire day I wanted to club the people who work in the marketing and product group at Telstra - the major phone company in Australia. For all the payphones situated in downtown Sydney are open air - no booths. It’s not exactly easy to talk with buses gunning down the streets or crowds of people walking by. It seems to be so difficult to find a place to make a quiet phone call.
Now that I’ve gone to such excruciating detail to explain my day – a few insights and reminders came to me today...
1) World Cup Rugby in Australia is like the Super Bowl being played in a major US city. Plan ahead! Life is good when you have good lodging during a major event (Like during Carnaval in Brazil), not so fun when you don’t. I better start planning for the August 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece!
2) Don’t have political conversations with shoe repairmen. A sign of things to come in the future? Maybe I will really have to say I’m from a country other than the US in some places. Though personally I don’t like to hide.
I’m still going to Yemen!
3) In my travels in Australia I’ve occasionally been in the position to give my opinion about America. Especially since there have been so few Americans on the backpacking scene. Some have stated that they really like the US. More often the comments haven’t been glowing. Especially since the whole Iraq quagmire.
While I have plenty of criticisms for my home country one thing I have stated publicly when pushed is that I believe that Americans are the smartest people in the world. I was reminded of this during my conversation with the Chinese storekeeper. American Business ingenuity! But let me define that as only raw intelligence. Americans as a whole are notably lacking in the wisdom department in my opinion. During my travels I’ve continued to gather evidence on these ideas. Maybe it is obvious to you the reader – especially if you’ve read other parts of this website. Maybe it isn’t. Needless to say...it is something I hope to write more about.
4) The conversation with the shoe repairman reminded me of another one of my goals for this trip.
If intelligent people in the US (And other “Modern” countries) don’t question their religion and politics (Inextricably linked in Arabia) – How can we expect people with less resources and opportunity to learn the truth (In many Arab countries), to question their behavior and opinions espoused by the media they read. You can’t.
Thus my quest to help end ignorance (Both mine and others) and the ignorance brought on by religion and government propaganda will continue (Until I realize that it's a waste of my short time on this earth!). As for religion - they could all be true as far as I’m concerned - so practice and believe, but the ignorance it promotes about life in general is scary. History will testify to that.
Intelligence without wisdom mixed in with ignorance is very dangerous indeed. The flip side is true too - too much wisdom without intelligence isn’t very good either although I don’t think it to be quite so dangerous.
ok...I’m glad I got all this out of my system!
I reckon I’ll soon have the US Secret Service, Arabs, fundamentalist Christians, redneck Australians, and the Australian police hot on my tail....not bad for a day’s work.
I now return to my regularly scheduled programming. I have to rest first...typing on a bed is NOT comfortable.
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