Wally's Wanderings

The Past Few Months

lauren_koch — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:21:00 GMT

Dear all.

Over the plast few months I have been very busy. It's been hard to write blogs about boring everyday stuff. I got up, went to work, came home, ate dinner and went to bed. Reteat ad nausium. You get the point.

What I can tell you about the past few months and my boring life is that I've been working two jobs. One as a server/cashier in a Pizza joint (think dominos but they also serve pizza by the slice) and a dollar store (think the reject shop). Life's been pretty dull really.

Both jobs are fun and I plan to go back to them, even just for a little while until something better turns up. What I can tell you though is the differences in culture I've found in Canada.

As a cashier, I deal with a variety of people on a day to day basis. I also handle a lot of cash, asthe job title would sugest! lol!

Here in North America, tax is NOT included in the price as it is in Australia. In British Columbia, there are two taxes to pay. 5%GST and 7%Provincial. Each Province (state) has a slight varience in their tax. Generally between 6-9% depending on what the provincial government decides for the time. So, I go shopping and budget as best I can. It's when I get to the checkout that I pray and hope my maths is correct. I have to add 12% to EVERYTHING. Almost NOTHING is exempt from tax. Fresh Food still has 7%, but the GST is waived (phew!).

I still don't understand why everyhting is just not labled with the prices including tax. The cash register knows what the real price is... All they have to do is print out the price tags with the tax included!

I guess they just want people to spend more. Greedy Bastards. Though, I guess with the global economy heading down the drain in a hurry, it's not too bad of a plan...

Aus to Utah

lauren_koch — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 23:29:00 GMT

It all started early in the morning after about 1 hour and 40 minutes sleep. I was certainly not ready to wake up! But wake up I did and gathered my things together and headed off to Sydney with Mum and Dad and Julia in tow.

We got down to the airport with no hassles or delays after treating my eyes to one last look of Sydney harbour from the bridge.

After checking into my Air NewZealand flight and a final hot chocolate with my family, I passed the gates of no return... Only to return and hand Julia my mobile phone as it was pointless to take it with me as it won't work in the USA and Canada.

So after passing the point of no return for the second time, I finally headed through customs with no fuss and into the edparture lounge for my flight. We boarded out small airoplane and set off for Auckland, NZ.

It was a very uneventful flight - I slept most of the way!

Arriving in Aucland was cool. My first look of the land of the long white cloud since I was about 18 months old... It was great to hear all the Kiwi accents! A very uneventful layover. I ate burger king and read the paper - how to lose weight and never put it back on. The Aitkens Diet all over again...

Anyhoo, when it came time to board the flight to San Francisco, the gate number didn;t appear for ages! About 5 mins before our departure time it came up and so there was a mass exodus for the gate lounge. (Gate 3 for those of you who were wondering!) I met a lovely young American girl, Flo, who was heading home to Phili after visiting her sister who has been studying in NZ this year. She plans to study abroad next year. I think that sounds like fun!

Anyhoo, after getting on the plane, I realized that I had a full row of seats to myself - how lucky am I!?!?!?!? I got to stretch out and sleep undisturbed all night long. Ahh. Blessed sleep! But stupidly I took off my shoes. Anyone who's ever flown long distance knows that this is a No-no. I knew this, yet I still went ahead and removed my shoes. Ooops! My feet swelled to about 3 times their normal size!

I must say though, Air NewZealand rOcks! AWESOME roast lamb for dinner and cheesey scrambled eggs for breakfast. The BEST plane food I've eaten ever! Certainly will be flying with them again!

Spent 3 hours of my 6 hour layover in San Fran playing cards with Flo, then spent about half an hour going through security for my next flight.

American airport security for domestic flights is even more strick than security for international in australia! You have to take off your shoes and jackets and rings and watched and have all your liquids in a clear plastic bag. And none of the security officers smile... Oh, and EVERY officer you pass rechecks your boarding pass and I.D. Still no smiles and don't try and joke, thay'll pull you aside and strip search you. Thank goodness that it wasn't me who tried to make the security officer smile!

Another uneventful flight and I arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah without further ado to the cheering voices of 6 grade school delegates, their parents, 2 high school delegates and Sydel! Complete with signs and Balloons! And john williamson's Home among the gumtrees...

Here's the photo!

More words to follow!

Love to all, Wally.

11 days out.

lauren_koch — Wed, 3 Sep 2008 21:36:00 GMT

Well, here I am. 11 days to go!

Well, to be perfectly honest, the travels all start in 6 days.

I head off to Melbourne on a whirlwind tour and farewell of friends and family. I'll be down there for 4 nights and 4 days, seeing all the sights,revisiting my old haunts and just generally hang out in my favorite Australian city. Yay!

Melbourne will be wonderful. Wet I imagine, but wonderful none the less.

Catch me soon!

Lauren

And So It Goes

lauren_koch — Sat, 9 Aug 2008 22:29:00 GMT

And so it goes. Time rambles on (and on and on and on!).

I've been planning this trip for nearly a year now. Finally it will happen! It was first postponed in Febuary after my funds dried up. I was not happy Jan! As I worked to get more funds, it became apparant to me that I would need to change my original plans to include anither stop off in the USA to meet up with one group of new friends I met in July this year.

I've been working as a tour guide along the east coast of Australia recently. All my groups have come from the USA and this year I met a fantastic group of young ambassadors from Massachusettes (and New Hampshire!).

After this new development, my plans have changed to include Boston and then on to Salt Lake City in Utah.

I'm so excited!

Plans should be just about ompletely finalised on Thursday. Stay tuned!