My hand out the cookie jar

So this will be very short because the internet is all pay as you go so I don't ever have enough time to handle everything I want to. The hostel that I am at is one of the nicest I have been to, I have been meeting a lot of people and going to places like the zoo, aquarium, a 4 hour beach walk that walks most of Sydney's beaches, kings cross(has lots of strip clubs and meth heads but also good bars), Oxford st(found out the hard way that it is gay man haven). We walk down Oxford St just looking for a drink and we walk up to this bar and say jeeze it's a sausage fest (wiener filled place) and then after we grab our drinks I see 2 guys making out and another two dancing together, then I turn around and the picture behind me is a guy in his undies stretched out so we quickly left. We ended up finding a bar that played nothing but old school hip hop and rocked out very hard. This place is very warm right now and I can already tell I will be having a great time. I received my tax file number so I can start working and as soon as I get to Melbourne that's when the real fun will start. Im headed on a surfing tour with 7 lessons included and you can go out and surf as much as you want with boards and wetsuits provided and the meals are all included which you can eat as much as you want. I leave monday, your sunday, and will be gone for a week so I don't know if I will get internet access so I just wanted to write a little bit and tell everyone I'm doing great and close to settling down.

Safely In Sydney

Alright well when we last left off I hated Fiji and guess what, I still don't like it anymore in fact now it is less then when i started. What else could've happened one might ask? Well the next day it started to piss rain so there was not much to do, I naturally buy a hour long internet card and the internet goes awol about 4 minutes before every 15 minute cutoff so basically if you only want to use 15 minutes it's really ten because the internet doesn't work for the last 5. This made for a lengthy e-mail which resulted in a free half hour that I get to use now, oh hurray. Well I decide that the best thing to do is rent a scooter and this started the only bit of fun that I had the whole entire time in Fiji. I was driving it around 80 km/hr and weaving around cars when there was traffic as if I actually lived there. I got to see the town of Nadi and I mean it wasn't much but it was definitely a different site and for that I enjoyed it. I tried to drive to a beach that I heard was good but thought I was going the wrong way so I turned around but I was going the right way but ah, no issue, or no worries this oceanians say. I filled up the gas tank and it took 7 Fijian dollars which is going to make me want to buy a bike when I get home but then I'll have to move to a place that is sunny most of the time. I almost rented a bike even though I have only driven a bike once before but decided that it wasn't the best idea. Oh what prompted me to rent this scooter was because they have their driving wheels on the right side and drive on the left, after driving in LA my mom and sister have seen me for the professional driver that I am and this challenge wasn't hard at all. I can now get away from the cops in any city or town. Mom I never told you this but at Prom with the 'God Squad' I had a getaway chase after running a stop sign in the Passat which ended with us all ducking down in the car prompted by me screaming "GET DOWN!!!," as the cops slowly creep by. This is definitely something that they will all remember as one of the most exciting times in their lives and me well it doesn't quite make the top 20. Anywhoo when I am finally finishing up my cruise around town I stop in the town and walk around to check out the place. Fiji is divided into two subcultures of native Fijians and Indians, like 3rd eye Indians, and after a talk with some Fijians their is a little bit of ill feelings towards the Indians and they feel as if they are stealing from them. I laughed and although it was 5 am drunk talk I explained how it doesn't matter where you go in the world people need someone to hate, a group of people that they feel they cannot co-exist with. Where's the Camp Sunrise out here? So I'm walking down the street and get invited to a Kava ceremony which is a root that scientist have proven to cure Leukemia and breast cancer, its ground up and made into a powder that if you go to a village you need to bring this root to the chief before entrance into the village. So this ground up root is put into a silk type slip and water is poured on it to make a brown murky looking water which is drank. You clap one time when accepting Kava, say bula(hello) and give thanks to someone or wish them well, drink the Kava, and then clap 3 times. Kava makes your tongue numb and after a couple of glasses, which is typically drank all night with song and dance in the village, I believe it gets you messed up. After the Kava ceremony you are told to look around and buy something and the money 'goes to the village', yea, un huh, cuz must not know he's talkin to a hustler. Thanks and I leave only to be caught in the rain and driving a scooter in these conditions can be extremely painful and also I'm just soaked when I get back. No worries, after food I decide to go out this evening which turned into me kicking it with 4 locals on a abandoned platform of some sort until about 7am when I finally get back to my hostel. It was a solid time, when I get back I had noticed the night before that I left my credit card with bar staff so when I get back I ask them if the had seen it. A few calls later Amos the bartender said he gave it back to me so I ask for his number to call him personally and help him remember and after receiving the number I then ask to use the phone to call him at the front desk. This chump tells me I need to buy a calling card to call this dude, I'm like you just called him, sir this is between you and Amos he tells me, I finally let 4 days of built up Fijian bullshit out on this man telling him he's talking to the wrong person like that and told him to warn management that I'm on my way up because the office is secretly located on the top of the hostel. Once I arrive up there we make the appropriate calls but now due to my inconvenience I get a free ride to the airport, which I already thought I had, but I guess that was just free pick up. So card cancelled and another one sent, now it's time to bring the scooter back. These dudes tried to charge me for some damage, I start laughing at them and said ya'll aren't gonna play me for some fool, don't try to f**k with me. I'm not paying for anything else. Well could you fill the oil up, hahaha, start laughing at these clowns. First of all you got more gas than I was supposed to put in it and the gas didn't even start at the level that you told me it did now give me my ride back to the hostel. No problem sir, if you thought black people time was something there is such a thing as Fijian time. They walk all slow and drag their feet and don't want to be helpful at all. Just when I think finally I'm out of this country I realize thoughts like that may happen too early and after waiting in a very long line at the airport, which I arrive 2 hours early for, I'm asked where's your paper ticket? Well here's my booking confirmation, ok but where's your paper ticket? Well my name's on the computer right? Yes seat 17 C, but I need your paper ticket. After waiting for about 45 minutes I'm told I won't be allowed on the flight. After saying a bunch of words and basically wasting my breath the only way to get me on is supervisor approval and of course it's Saturday and no supervisor around and calls still don't help. At one point I even hear this lady say yes I've explained everything to him but he still doesn't get it. Awww man I must've snapped at that point and security was called and it came down to waiting 3 days to sort this out or buy another ticket. Dammit these fools got me again because there is no way that I'm staying another 3 days in Fiji, I even contemplated the ticket to LA and just ending my journey there thinking to myself a month is a long time, you saw a lot, just go home and try again in a year or two. Well I didn't end my journey, I'm in Sydney, when I arrived last night I just decided to go straight to bed at midnight only to awake at 5am to a man that seriously was piss drunk, coughing the nastiest cough ever and it was every other minute he would having a coughing fit. I was woken up by this guy every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours and he would even be stumbling around the room almost getting into other peoples bed like he couldn't remember which bed was his, also ended up blowing his nose in his towel and just unloaded some of the most snot possible. It was just disgusting, I get out of bed to walk around the town of Sydney and can only think of to compare it to LA or something like that. I'm 2 blocks away from China town where the Asians have Auzzy accents and a lot of the women and attractive. I watched a little bit of Saturday night college football and the ALCS game and went to the movie Body of Lies, which was good, and now I am back at the hostel filling you in on everything. Finding a job should be easy, don't know how long that I will be staying here but I will be doing a lot of work tomorrow towards figuring out the next year a little bit more. Well at the top check the pics and some are from Machu Piccu for grandma

Lazy mouthaf***as

These people are really starting to get on my nerves, the people at the hotel I am at just act as if they don't want to help me with anything. Like when I asked for a map she said it's over there and pointed to a big kiosk of brochures. When I asked her could she be a little more descriptive she huffs and gets up and gets it for me. When I ask what's on the tuna sandwich, just tuna and bread she says, ok well do you have cheese, no it just comes with tuna and bread, ok do you have lettuce, it only comes with tuna and bread. Bitty I wanted to add some things, but they act like it's a big deal. Oh the tuna comes out with tomatoes and cucumbers on it, I really hate tomatoes!!! I mean seriously am I asking for much, I'm gonna start snappin on these fools. They measure out every drink they give you so my whiskey cokes and definitely just less then good. I asked for a Iron Butterfly, white russian with baileys instead of milk, I clearly see all the ingredients but the guy says he cannot make them because there's no button on the computer that will register the drink. After a confused look and a little bit of bartering I finally get what I ordered but it was a half glass compared to what it should be. I went to a bar and literally they are measuring their bottles to the milliliter. Oh I go out with this guy from the hotel I'm staying at and ask where's the locals at and my guy tells me of this place after dark and says he will accompany me there. We arrive and seriously there is a lot of men there but I just think that it's early. Then a lot of the guys their are smiling at me, then I look at the few girls there and see they aren't girls. There was about 7 actual ladies, 4 maybes, and a good 5 lady boys. I'm thinkin if this is this guys spot why the hell did he bring me here. Do I put of the gay vibe, luckily I'm there with this other guy from the UK and we are just having a great time laughing about the whole situation. My guy Ronnie even got harassed in the bathroom while he was pissing, I waited until I saw it completely empty and bolted for the bathroom. We soon got out of there and headed to a different bar that was a little bit more to my liking and I met a nice lady from Melbourne who I hope to see when I get over there, 27 and a cutie so I'll keep you posted on that later oh had to lie and said I was 25 but I'll fix that later. Umm lets see, every time I walk around the hotel with my shirt of the hotel cooks just stare and I'm starting to get real uncomfortable. I believe that probably half of Fiji likes boys and met some Fijian girls who assured me they feel the same way about girls. It's just a weird place. Well I look forward to tomorrow being my last full day and then off to Oz where I hear a bar-tending job should be a cinch especially since Candice, 27 year old, has plugs she says. Well everyone I have been banging that Pop Champagne, Love Lockdown, Gym Class Heroes Cookie Jar, also I'm Illy is the best song on the new T.I.

I'm Illy, couldn't mess with me even with a Brazilian Chick

Who wears long skirts, Men wear long skirts

Well I'm here in Fiji now and quickly because I only have 5 minutes left on my prepaid account I will tell you that everyone has an Afro, so I sort of fit in, also everyone wears long skirts. Men out here, since I landed at 5 local time, I ended up getting out of the airport at 7 or so and everyone was lined up for school. I saw all these guys seriously in skirts and just thought that must be a free feeling yet must improve the amount of ball sweat they all have. All men know about the dreaded B S and because its so humid and muggy down here they must have it the worse. How do you pee now I'm thinking? Well that will be a question to ask later, the 10 hour flight wasn't bad I slept for about 7 of it and crashed hard. Well everyone I will be sure to write more when i find something exciting to write about but all I foresee is beach laziness and getting ready to get a job in Australia. Love you all, this is the long haul. Peace

Day O me say DayyyyyO

Alright paly by play

September 29th, that night was my last night and I ended up going to this thing called La Bomba. Now this thing was crazy, it was a huge warehouse and was just packed with people. We are all there to watch this performance of 12 or 13 people all playing different instuments that range from different types of drums like bongos, some sort of horns, even had a guy come up to play a keyboard and play just some funky sounds out of that thing. I have videos and pics but in Peru I can't figure out how to upload any of these things because they don't have the right software. We went like 10 people deep and it was amazing I was dancing and just enjoying the perfomance and not to mention the beers they gave us were just huge. After we left I decided to put my new found independence to the test because everyone wanted to eat Chinese food and it being my last night I went to my favorite steak place and had my final Argentinian steak and it was just great. Once I got back to the hostel everyone was tired and wanted to sleep so I ended up meeting a couple of girls from the states and we decided to go out to a bar across the street that played some hip hop and the fist pump was back and I was twerking these girls from Ireland who didn't know what it was. All in all it was a good last night in Buenos Aires.

September 30th: Not much I hopped on a plane and watched Don't mess with Zhohan and it wa funnier the second time around also once I got into Lima at 12 I had a flight to Cusco the next morning at 7 so that means I got like 3 hours of sleep that night. My first impression on my taxi ride was how does this country have so many casinos so I might have to abuse some of these guys with my poker skills when I go back tomorrow.

October 1st: I arrive in Cusco ealry in the morning and I have someone waiting there for me with a Pinkett sign so I felt like a star of course and I get in the van and meet a very nice lady named Allison who is my contact person while i'm in Cusco. I signed up for a package tour so they were helping me and providing a lot of transportation for me. Allison asks if I feel ok and was a little unsure at what she meant and she let me know that I was currently 12,000 ft above sea level. At that point I did realize it was a little hard to catch my breath, dammit Allison why did you tell me that. She lets me know what the plans are for my week and bring me to my hotel which was a good break from all the dorm rooms I had been sleeping in. Cable TV, double beds, personal bathroom, it was definitely different from what I had been experiencing for the past couple weeks. That day I just took it easy and caught up on some sleep and ate at my hotel, I had chicken and rice because apparently you shouldn't have red meat your first day. That night was horrible I woke up in the middle of the night and had a throbbing headache due to the altitude and couldn't sleep for like 2 hours, just had my pillow over my head and listened to CNN. I've been watching a lot of CNN to stay in to tune not only with the US but the world. I have learned that world history when I was younger was one of my most hated classes and as Americans we don't really care about what happens around the world when we are young. The rest of the world knows way more about other countries history and just has a better sense of America than some Americans. By the way about the whole world wants Obama to win and totally believe that he will increase our reputation because the world hates us because of Bush. I have had more political talks then ever with a lot of the people that I have been meeting.

Later on I learned so much about the history of Cusco and the Quesua people this day and wasn't affraid to ask questions. I went on a city tour and saw 4 ecological sites, the first was the Cathedral. Now when the Spaniards came here and found the Incas and Quesua people they basically told them to give us a room full of gold to bring back to our king and we won't slaughter you, Incas are the kings Quesua are the people. The Incas did and then the Spaniards killed a lot of them and then tried to domesticate the people. So the Cathedral was built to teach the Quesua people religion since their gods were pretty much everything they saw. The moon, the sun, the puma, the snake, the condor, the wind, the rain. The Spaniards took a lot of the gold back to Spain and the church has ton of gold all throughout it, I mean so much gold in there. Anyway I 'm not going to give you a history lesson but after that we saw where they tore down these temples that were there and learned a little of how the Quesua people built there temples. No mortor, no cement, all the stones were made pefectly symetrical and would fit exactly right with the other. It was amazing to see and to understand because they had sooooo many stones and to build temples like that it was pretty cool to see. Next we went to a different site where once again temples used to be that were destroyed by the Spaniards and they had stones that were actually in shapes of llamas, puma paws, snakes that used to be completly covered in gold, again just cool to see. So the people here are all short and I make them look like dwarfs and some of the native people that don't live in the city wear extravagant hats, tops, skirts and I have pics of that.

October 2nd: I wake up early to take the 645 train to Maccu Pichu and it was a 4 hour train ride and I ended having a discussion with an 70 year old man from New York who told me a lot about himself. He called me Santiago and just loved what I was doing and we talked about his mother and how he's taking care of her, his divorce, his sister, how he has no kids and I slowly realized that he is gay. It was kind of weird cause I think he liked me if you know what I mean. When I arrived I found out that I was in his group for the tour, oh hurray, and we(30 of us) take a bus to the top of Macchu Pichu. It was crazy to see and it's seriously on top of a mountain and there's all these mountains all around and I just took some time to sit back and reflect a little. I would abandon the tour at some points to take pictures and to just look around. I hear, Santiago would you get in this picture and he took a pic of me with the mountains in the background, again weird. I had him take a picture with my camera and seriously even after explanation he still had his eye directly on the 3.5 inch screen thinking it was some sort of view on the disposable cameras. Needless to say I found so other people to take my pictures. After I went down and had lunch and as I'm sitting there I realize I having lunch in the Andes, helped me strive for more on this trip. After the train ride back that night I decided to go out with the guy who worked at my hotel to an all Quesua club and I was the only foreign person there. I had a lot of fun, salsa, samba, all different types of music was being played. Now me Juan and Wilbur decided to go in the middle of the dance floor and I was dancing and looking at all the girls look at me and the baddest girl showed up with 2 other friends so we had a good ratio. Those girls come by us and are just hounded by all the guys there coming up to them and they are just playing them to the left, shoving them away, putting her friends in between them and her, one guy even got muffed(hand to face). Juan says in his little accent, James she wants you. I was like naw man go ahead go holler at her, when I start drinking I fall back into my old speech patterns and use words like chop her up, holler, spittin game, I doubt they have any idea what I'm talking about. So after I kept my back to these girls the get attacked by three guys who decide its cool to wear backpacks when you go out. They move even closer to us and now this girl is giving me the, as I like to call them, good eyes. This girl was close to my height and decided to show her puppies as some might like to say and had more back than a little bit, the women here have no buns. After ahwile I approach the girl who seemed un approachable and dance with her for about 2 hours complete with dips and twrils and a whole lot of me not knowing what I'm doing but once again I faked it. After awhile I decided to leave this bar, Juan, Wilbur, and the girls and head out to another bar in the main square. Met some other girls and a nice man named Eloy who handed me more pounds than ever. Everytime we made eye contact it was JAMES with the pound extended. I ended up getting back to my hotel at around 630 am and went to bed.


October 3rd: I had a free day to explore the city and thank god because the only thing that I explored was the American speaking channels and the toilet. Dry heaving at 12,000 ft is very, very painful and I had a bit of the hangover, well more than a bit. I stayed in bed all day and watched a very touching episode of Extreme home makeover or whatever its called. They took this guy Luis who was in the army and lost his leg but had crutches because his artificial one was too painful and he couldn't move around the house that well. As he goes away they fix his house but send him to a clinic that gives him a leg suited for him and has computer chips in it and at the end he's doing the salsa, it was a great episode. Seriously though pain all day.

October 4th: I wake up at 530 to go on my Lares trek. After a 3 hour van ride I'm in a group of 8 with 7 people from Holland who all took this trek unknowing the others did and have seen them before in their travels. I'm an outsider and sometimes they would speak in English so I wouldn't feel like one which was nice of them. First stop is the hot springs which I jump in and really enjoyed it, we have lunch there and these cooks were great. We head out and go on a 7 mile hike through the terrain and we walk by pleanty of people who live out there and that just helped me realize the difference in our lives and just aprreciate a little more the things I do have. During this hike I felt a little bit of pain in my groin muscle which through the evening and the cold got tight on me and I was really affected by this. Dinner was great the night was freezing. It probably got down to like 40 degrees and I woke up plenty of times.

October 5th: I wake up in extreme pain and after breakfast I tell our guide my problem and walking was very painful. He gives me some icy hot and tells me lets see how you feel in 10 minutes. I apply the icy hot never using it before, it was soothing and then all of a sudden my balls are on fire. The most pain ever, it should be something you do to get into a frat because seriously icy hot on the balls put me out of commission for about 20 minutes. Still it was very difficult to think I could continue and hike another 17 miles in that condition so I had to walk back accompanied by a guide and a couple who also couldn't continue because one had an allergic reaction. Around 5 hours later I am back at my hotel and in bed to rest up and get my leg better. I ordered a pizza and to much suprise Sunday Night Football was on so that helped me pass the time while I was in the hotel.

October 6th: If you haven't noticed these are getting shorter because I am tired of writing but I woke up to eat breakfast but was bed ridden for awhile because my leg was still hurting but I ended up making it to an internet cafe to write my short litte blurb yesterday and found a place that had Monday night football. What a game that was, Vikes vs Saints I really enjoyed it and ended up going out with a guy I met there from San Diego and had a great night.

Well that catches you and me back up, I'm doing fine, get to see my Mom and my sister in 2 days so I really excited for that and then I head off to Austrailia. I got a work visa so that allows me to stay for a year and I'm most likely going to take adavantage of the full year and work while I'm out there so that means I'll be traveling 9 months longer than expected bringing me home sometime in 2010 and I just wonder what kind of man I will be then. Everything will be so different so I am looking forward to the opportunity that I am recieving and my hunger for more knowledge through my travels is growing stronger everyday. I wanted to come home when I first started but that was just being uncomfortable and now I am growing more and more comfortable with what it is that I am doing. I miss everyone still and I will write again. PEACE

Sorry to my fans

For taking so long to get something posted on here but the internet has been real bad and I have also been quite busy since I signed up for a package tour here in Cusco. As far as pics no place has the software compatible so when I get my computer shortley I will not have the same problem and I will relay all of them to you guys. SO to make this easier for me I'm going to it by days and actually I'm not because I just asked and the lady said she closes in 5 minutes here. Damn, well short summary of Peru, people are real short here and I am a giant. First day in Cusco the lady tells me that she hopes I can adjust quickly and my dumb ass had no idea that I was landing 12,000 ft above sea level which does have an affect on you body. I had headaches, troubles catching my breath, and it was so bad I woke up in the monring and couldn't sleep for another two hours because of my headache. I'll explain the city tour more later that I took but I learned soo much and the city is extremely poor. I thought people in Minnesota were hustlers but these people are extreme hustlers and sell everything and go from one job to the next. Even the kids are not afraid to ask for anything. Picture Picture, payme. Hola Buenos Dias, dame un caramel. Its kind of funny to see and I have some great pics of the locals who wear colorful clothes and exotic hats and skirts, carry their kids on their back, or the men carry like 150 lbs of things. Macchu Pichu was cool, I explain more later I'm getting the shooo. So everyone I have one more full day in cusco and then lima for a night and then I meet up with the fam in LA. Sorry its so short but I will write a lengthy one tomorrow.