It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. A very long time. Well over a year. And several of my friends, family, and
co-workers have reminded me of that, which was surprising because I was pretty
confident that the only person reading this was my mother. While I always tried to blog regularly, life
took over and it just slipped away from me.
What can I say? I’m a very important
person doing very important things.
Just kidding! I was
probably just busy watching funny cat videos on YouTube.
I last blogged about Russia which was a trip I took in
October 2013 (yikes!) That trip also
included Finland and Estonia (which I previously blogged about) and Mongolia
and South Korea (which I have not blogged about). Since then, I have also taken overseas trips
to New Zealand (six trips in total), Myanmar, and Bali (Indonesia).
Back in Australia, I finally made it to the last of the
state and territory capitals that I had been missing: Brisbane and Darwin. I went on a big camping adventure in the
outback, channelled my inner-retiree in the Gold Coast, took a road trip down
the South Coast of New South Wales, and visited Melbourne once or twice… per
year… or more.
But there have been two really big exciting developments
missing from the blog. First and
foremost, I became an Aussie! I was
naturalized as an Australian citizen on August 15, 2014 – after roughly four
and a half years living in the Land Down Under.
I am now the proud bearer of dual passports entitling me to be shifty
when crossing international borders.
Secondly, I quit my job (yay!), moved out of my apartment,
and said goodbye to all of my friends in Australia (boo!). Last Sunday, I set out on a gap year: a full year (give or take a bit) of travel
around the globe. That was the impetus
for me starting up the blog again. Over
the next twelve months, I’ll be blogging about my adventures and even rewinding
the clocks a bit and filling you, the readers (my mother and one or two
others), in on all the exciting travels that I’ve failed to blog about over the
past nearly two years.
In the meantime, here are a few questions you can ponder:
1. Will I be able to
survive a full year of travel?
2. Just how many
times will I get food poisoning?
3. What is the most
random country in which I will eat Mexican food?
4. Just how long will
it take until I pop some loud, obnoxious American tourist in the face?
As I write this post, I am on a flight from Singapore to
Johannesburg. The first few weeks of my
travels will likely see limited wifi connections as I’ll be on various camping
safari tours across seven African nations, but I will do my best to post when
internet is available. Until then, trust
that I’ll be doing my best to type up blogs and have them ready as I go along. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare
for landing.
Hi Phill's mum!
ReplyDeleteHi, Phillip,
ReplyDeleteI read your post about Aborigines from 2011 (I was Googling "Bill Bryson aborigines" and you're at the top!), and I'd be curious to know if you've formed any further opinions about Aboriginal culture since you first wrote. I was Googling because I was curious to re-read Bryson's statements and I didn't have "In a Sunburned Country" with me. It's always struck me as odd that he, a very curious and observant writer, wrote and seemed to even think so little about Australia's native people while he was there. So since you've been living there, and you have the experience of being American (and you can contrast America's racial history with that of Australia), I'd welcome your opinion! (I'm American myself, never been to Australia, but would love to travel there someday.)
All the best,
Lori (near Philadelphia)
Hi Lori, Thanks for your comment! I don't think Bill Bryson thought so little about the indigenous people, I think he was just stating his observations on them - without judgement. I don't think Australia has done as good a job with helping their indigenous people as the US has (though the US isn't all that great to be honest, and the Native Americans have their own set of problems that need to be resolved I think... though I'm no scholar!) The plight of the aboriginal population continues, and it's going to take a concerted effort on behalf of all Australians (both indigenous and not) to help raise their standard of living. Of all the countries that I know about or have traveled to, it appears New Zealand has done the best job when it comes to treating their native population with respect, though I reckon some there will likely have their own issues to state!
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