Beep Beep Beep Beep

Well updates, I have looked at a great place and I hope things pan out. Tomorrow they give me a call and let me know if I'm in, its a 4 bedroom house and its one level. You walk inside and there is one room on your right and then two rooms up on the left, straight forward is the living room and a little bit more is the kitchen. There is a back yard and out there is where the other room is that would be mine. Big closet, furnished, and has wireless in the room and I would get all this for a little less then $525 a month or $800 Aussy dollars. If I get a job as a bartender though you get paid around $17-$20 an hour because you really don't get tips out here but I should still be able to afford the rent. I would be moving in with three 21 year olds but they're all pretty chilled out and seem like people I could get a long with easily. Still eating great meals with everyone here at the hostel and there has been some crazy things that have happened but I won't get focused on anything in particular but it was a couple peoples birthday and lets just say that they really enjoyed themselves and everyone had a good laugh. I have an RSA course, which is your bar license here in Australia, scheduled for Thursday which I hear is just 8 horrible hours long but something you have to do so I'm not looking forward to it. Also Happy Thanksgiving to everyone I didn't celebrate at all and if I had a camera I would have taken some crazy photo to post and show everyone but my battery has died. Maybe I should just give the address of the hostel I'm at to send me snacks and letters to. Hahaha, talk later

G'Day mate

Well hello everyone and how have your lives been? Right now I am getting back from checking out a place that had a snake running around it on its own like a dog or something. I was by the aquarium and I said what used to live in here, oh thats wally's he's around here somewhere. Thinking it was a hamster or something I say to her oh really you guys have those balls they can run freely in I broke my hamsters back in one of those, oh no he's a constrictor, oh yea well thanks for showing me the place and I will be leaving now.
Everyone in the hostel is pretty sweet, thats aussy for cool, and I enjoy being here. These Irish guys I've been hanging out with are two brothers, boondock saints anyone, and they are just money. They make these meals that are just amazing and are so cheap so I have been having good meals for less, but I panicked last night and had to order a dominos for the first time in awhile. It was sooooo good, had BBQ chicken, capsicums(peppers), onions, oh man it was so good. To update on the girl I met in Fiji and would meet up in Melbourne, she still hasn't called well there goes that one. My boy Tree should be getting home soon so then I will have a mate to see that I know for a long time. As far as the weather goes it has been raining here a lot and during the day its usually around 75 then at night gets as low as 55 60, it will be good once the actual summer comes since it is right around the corner. Hey while all of you are have turkey and mash potatoes with gravy don't forget about me and have one more piece. My thirst for a homecooked thanksgiving is at an all time high and I will be coming short for it isn't celebrated here obviously, I mean I'm sure some people will cook but this is one of those American holidays that just didn't make it overseas and this will also be the first time I celebrate Boxing day which is just a huge holiday and the day after christmas. Well during these holidays I will try to make as many calls as I can and the only reason I haven't made more is because the internet connection where I'm at is just horrible and cuts out after 3 minutes. Well hope everyone is doing great, i am, been meeting some cool people and I'm realizing that being myself is the best thing because before I was acting like everyone else to conform but now Im just that dude James Juice from Minnesota, true gangsta. Well talk to everyone later.

How could you be so heartless

Well I guess that could be directed at many things but most importantly it is towards the travelers at the new hostel that I'm staying at. I am booked until tomorrow night but unsure on what I want to do. I haven't ventured around this large city too much so maybe heading to a smaller suburb would be the right decision but also who knows. I'm hoping to hear from the girl I met in Fiji about getting a tour and a little bit more familiar with my surroundings out here so I know where I would like to live at. The surrounding suburbs are very different from each other as in I could live in the downtown area, a beach town, a more grungy type are, and then there is more of the younger crowd party scene that is also around here. A couple of words about my hostel is that there's not much of a social scene here and the common areas is really only the bar. A lot of people work for accommodation so they have been here for a couple weeks or months all together, makes it very hard to get to meet people and it seems like you need to do the same in order to get into their circle. At most hostels there is some sort of code as far as try to initially meet someone and decide who they are from there and if they fit with you. It's hard to even cross that border here which in turn could be a good thing and help me realize that once I branch off on my own I will have friends that I either work with or I meet . That's how you make friends back home and if this is to be home then I need to start making the friends that I want and not people to help me pass the time. Every hostel I go to I meet people that are foreigners just as me and it's cool because you have that in common yet its like Italians coming to America and only hanging out with other non Americans. You don't know where the best food is you don't know where the cheap drinks are, where the girls are, also I don't want to meet girls in the bar because we all know where that might lead, I want to make some actual friends who will care where I am and won't leave me(haven't been left). I know as I like to rush things that I need to take it slow but Im out of my element and have no one to talk to it about, I try to make calls at my hostel using the internet and it cuts out on me like every 3 minutes so I have to call people back through skype and it is very annoying. I have found a couple places that are hiring bartenders and will be checking them out, I like bartending for the fact that it will cut down on my drinking since I will be working at night and hopefully will find a place with cheaper drinks by doing so as in drink for free. Well today I woke up after spending the first Saturday in a while inside and in my bed, and thought to myself what a great day, wish I had someone to share it with, well off to the market that my lonely planet(appropriately titled) had told me about and there was hundreds of little kiosks that were packed with different things from clothes district, to raw meats, to cheeses, to wines, to fruits. I buy a box of strawberries and a slice of za to have for breaky(Australian for breakfast) and then some french brie, crackers, and a bottle of wine for a later snack that I am currently consuming while watching the dark knight, new batman. I walked around for about 2 hours looking at all the shops and was wondering if I am sure if this is the place that I want to spend the next 7,8,9 months. I decide to give it a try and not give up because that is the constant thought for me right now. Give up, go home, get comfortable, the only thing that has kept me going is words from my friends about how they're happy I'm doing this and the thought of I have no idea what I want to do with my life once I do finish this trip. Work is inevitable but I'm not sure if my life will be career oriented since I don't have a passion to do much. I just wished I had some friends out here to kick it with as far as being sarcastic, the humor here is so much different, there's the little things that you don't think about, I can't understand people sometimes, they can't me, ahhhhh is all that runs through my mind. Well I also walked around for a couple hours yesterday to get a little bit more in touch with my surroundings and in the central district there's a chinatown, a target, tons of shops, and I stumbled by a skate park museum which was graffiti on skateboards and was the highlight of the day. While I'm bored tomorrow I am planning on looking for work and hitting up the Zoo or the Aquarium. Sorry for using you but when I write more often means that I'm thinking about home and when I don't means that I'm really enjoying myself at the moment. Well thanks friends and will holla again

2 months

This pic brings me happiness, it's from my b day


Well I haven't seen the most of you for two months and to a small few it has been far more time and a few others far shorter. Skype is one of the most amazing things ever that can be invented. Internet calling service that allows me to make international calls at 2 cents a minute. I put $10 on it about a month ago and have 4$ left and have made many international calls for different lengths of time, grandma's I will call you soon. So I touchdown in Melbourne today after spending a week in Byron Bay, Byron Bay after being there for a week was a surfers and vacationers getaway similar to a cape cod of sorts. Small town, couple nice places to go out and eat, main attraction is the beach, and was just real relaxed. So after seeing these places and may be completely wrong to some of the locals but I would compare Sydney to a L.A. and Melbourne to a Chicago, I like Melbourne already because I've seen the dodgy towns and am in the heart of the city right now which isn't much to brag about so far but I haven't been around yet. I hear it's a more down to earth place here and more diverse because that is lacking everywhere I go, someone tried to tag me as Tolkien, as in of Southpark as the Tolkien black guy. I immediately squashed that comparison but it is true, I am the only black person in many of the places I go which isn't a huge difference from back home but just the idea that I can't see any black people is kinda weird. Me and river were talking and I was like what would you call a black aussy person and here are some funny titles for people that we created, African Australia, Fijian Australian, African Italian, Native American Indian, or simply Indian Indian, Japanese Chininian, hahaha and so on. Well my plan should start rolling here pretty soon as far as looking for a job and finding a place, I might already have a place here pretty soon and as far as a job I start searching on Monday and am excited about starting my new little life here in Melbourne. Think about it, I have stopped traveling and have moved out of state by myself, I never thought I could do something like that back home. I mean I wanted to move to ATL, to Cali, to Arizona, but never actually saw myself doing it, was scared about not being able to find a job or go somewhere I know no one, but I will have a whole new life here by the time this 6,7 or 8 months is over. I'm real excited about that, oh also met Rivers mom and she is real cool, already started helping me and all that. I'm gonna really like it hear and won't be alone for the holidays at all

Live your life ehhh ehhhh ehhhhh

So hello everyone who follows, I'm currently in a place called Byron Bay which is about 13 hour straight drive from Sydney north up the east coast. I'm only staying here for a week because I need a job quickly to counteract all the money that I have been spending since being here. Well the last time I wrote was on Friday evening here and the next morning I woke up and played basketball with one of my roommates. He had seen the court before and asked me to head up there with him and I was more than eager to get my chance to hoop some cats. Now we arrive and there is already a game of 3 on 3 going on so me and John see if we can get in a game, of course we are accepted and after a little stretching I join the game. We start out and after taking one missed shot I start out balling these cats, I mean hitting turn arounds, my spin fade move is out of this world, and droppin dimes(assists) like you couldn't believe. FIrst game we win final score was 10-7 , yea who plays to 10, and I easily scored half of the team points and quickly turn into a go to kind of guy. Since the game was so close they decide to play same teams and this time we really smoke them and finish off at 10=4. Naturally they want to switch teams up and the two next best guys, yup I am domination, want to be on the same team because they are friends and I'm stuck on a team with the worst guys on the court. My whole team is smaller than me and they're whole team is bigger than me, with a guy about 6'3" guarding my simple 5'10" frame, at one point who says to a teammate GUARD YOUR MAN I GOT HIM, I laugh and say no you don't and scored. Ballin!!!!!!! The score was 4-4 playing up to 7 and I had scored all 4 points myself, blocking this 6'3" guys shot at least 3 times, I was always finding open teammates but they could never finish and I told them we are going to win because we've made all these mistakes and still are tied with them while we basically just played good D and they would only score off put backs when I wouldn't get the rebound. So I'm on the wing, I'm just grabbing the ball off a long rebound and the defender hasn't stepped up yet. I'm gallop towards the hoop just thinking I'll go straight up, shimmy the ball a little in the air and just take a layup. Two other guys run over to help so I got 3 guys trying to jump with me as I go up, woooosh first guy is just up in the air but he knows he can't block me, second guy is behind the first just getting in peoples way, and the third guy actually sandwiched me while I was in the air but still I manage to form a shot and place it off the backboard and its GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!!! My feeling off accomplishment was quickly taken away from me as coming down I landed another guys foot and twisted my ankle the worst it has ever been twisted. F*********#############KKKKKK I scream as I immediately fall straight to the ground and try to stand up to walk it off and fell right away again. I'm out, I'm done I tell them and this brings me to where I am now. A huge fat ankle with swelling and bruising still on my foot and since I left Monday for my surf trip I spent Saturday and Sunday in bed and walking with 2 crutches. Seriously couldn't walk on it and about 10 hours after it happened, and I took a cab back from the outdoor court, My ankle swelled up to 2 times its normal size. So Monday after a 6 1/2 hour bus ride to Mojo it was my first time walking on it without crutches and lets just say for the past week I have surfed every morning and afternoon and my ankle hasn't had the opportunity to get any better. So at this surf camp you wake up at 7:30, eat at 8, so I wake up at 7:59, surf right after breaky and I would just snag rides from the guys to and from or it's about a 15 minute walk. We didn't really get much lessons you just kind of jump in the water and they tell you the technique of popping up on your board but other than that its just you on the waves. Paddling on the surfboard is one the most tiring things to do and you always have to do it. So long story short I can stand up on a surf board sometimes, can't really ride the waves to the side like you see the professionals doing, but I can ride them in to the beach. My ankle was really holding me back as I was grimacing sometimes while trying to jump up on my board, also wet suits are very tight physically. At night we would just sit around campfires getting pissed(drinking) and having a lot of laughs, saw a lot of bare ass cheeks and mine is on a couple of peoples camera as well, sorry mama. Well the week went by fast, there was about 40 of us, the instructors were your typical care free, fun loving people that would just say some of the most outlandish things. Dishes every night is decided by some sort of game and is different for example first night was an intense game of Jenga, second night was some sort of a Relay Race where it gets a little bit more raunchy with shotgunning beers, 5 sex positions displayed with a 3 hump minimum, clothes on, spinning around a rake 15 times and finishing off with a fast eating contest. The night I was on show they gave each team a balloon, there was partners that represent each team, we would break up into 6 teams, me and a female went up when they asked for volunteers. We were the only team that had opposite sexes which proved to be better because the game was sexual position and you were timed to see if you could pop a balloon. First up was two guys and their position was doggy style so the laughs were just exploding out of us. I got reverse wheelbarrow. Well the first day of the tour the book your accommodations in Byron Bay and I decided to stay at a different hostel than the one that they suggested just incase I didn't like anyone on the tour. I ended up having a great time and really enjoy the town of Byron, and booked a flight to Melbourne on Friday the 7th and will arrive in Melbourne to be picked up by my bud River who leaves Monday for a trip to Thailand for a month. So I will be looking for work in Melbourne and have already made a couple of reservations to check out some apartments that are for rent. Rent is about 400 a month but thats like 325 back home or something close to that, and hopefully working in a bar at around 20+ dollars an hour I should be able to find some work to help me pay for that. The hostel I am currently in is really rustic and has lizards, and yellow necked turkeys running around, I hear has dangerous spiders and snakes, and wireless in the room for 10$ a day. I just bought a steak with mushrooms and salad for my dinner that I will prepare tonight, yea I started to cook because its cheaper, and just am enjoying relaxing as I have the time too. Well everyone I need to know any good songs I need to download or if there's anything I am missing. I see Obama is expected to landslide but we will see what the voter does when he gets into the both. PEACE