So the New Journey Begins!

I didn't know I'd get hit by jet lag until 7 PM when I got knocked the eff out.

The flight was alright. Too bad I didn't have time to get out of the airport to explore during my layovers because it would have been cool to roam around Los Angeles and Fiji Island. Before I got to Fiji, I thought it was some well developed country because Fiji. Come on, islands usually attract so many visitors year round. But nope, it was kind of scary when I had my layover at Fiji because the airport was patched up with wooden boards and all the seats in the waiting room had wet stains on them or they're extremely dirty. However, the people there were SUPER nice, so it's all good! I learned a few words on the way too:
Bula = Hello!
Vinaka = Thank you!

I've heard stories of people meeting their best friends on the plane. Unfortunately, I am still shy and couldn't really strike up a conversation. The kid that I was sitting next to for the flight from Fiji to Sydney was even more shy than me. If I didn't introduce myself, he would not have talked to me at all. He was so timid that he did not want to ask me to pardon him so he can go to the bathroom. He waited until the flight landed and I got up to get ready to leave before he rushed to the bathroom.

I arrived Sydney airport at 12 PM but I spent the longest time at the airport speaking with a Vodafone rep to get my T-Mobile service to work. It seems like T-Mobile picked up Vodafone AU as the roaming service. Calling and Texting were working but data was not and the guy at Vodafone couldn't figure it out what was wrong. It took me until 2 PM to get it working by changing the preferred network from LTE to 3G. Who knew.

Thank goodness that Australia is an English spoken country. I had to ask around so much since the the moment that I landed. Apparently, there are some construction going on with the subway, so there was a free shuttle from the airport to Central Station which was where my hostel was located. I got to my hostel Bounce Sydney and the first thing I did was take a shower! I felt so greasy and nasty after 28 hours of travelling on the plane.

This marks the first time that I traveled to a country where I do not know anyone and it is my first time living in a hostel. My first thought? People make it sounds like hostels are so easy to make friends because there are so many people there with interesting stories and eager to meet people. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that vibe. Some people has already been here for months and established their own group of friends. Others, they don't seem too eager to meet new people. They take a glimpse of me and before you know it they're back on their phones. If I don't introduce myself, they weren't going to talk to me. They don't seem to want to make an effort to introduce themselves and strike up a conversation. Some of them outright ignores me when I try to talk to them. How am I going to get better at meeting strangers? There was one roommate named Hannah that seemed to genuinely want to talk to me. She was from the UK and this is her second year here in Australia on a working visa. Too bad yesterday was her last day because she is moving on to another hostel. This is extremely different from meeting people from my trip to Hong Kong. I guess it was different because we were all in the same program so we all had something in common to talk about. Here in Sydney hostel, different people have different goals and and plans and some of them are not there to meet people but to just have a place to stay for the night.

I have only completed my first day here in Sydney Australia and I am already feeling home sick... I miss home. I miss my friends. I miss my parents. I miss Dexter. This place feels more or less like New York with nicer people. I honestly don't know how to meet new people and I'm really bad at talking with people. This doesn't feel any better than home. I'm so glad that I had the chance to chat with Eva, Lucy, and Unkei on Facebook. They're the three friends that I miss the most and they always got my back no matter what. Unkei told me that being home sick for the first few days is normal because I don't know anyone, I'm bad at making new friends, and I just left home flew 22 hours away. She told me to hang in there and it will get better. Right now, I feel so alone. There's good and bad about travelling alone. I like how I can set my own schedule and move at my own pace, but I have no one to share the experience with me by my side. I miss travelling with Eva and Isabel. *sigh* I just hope it does get better because it's gonna mess me up if it continues like this! Why can't we just meet new people like we did in college? It seemed like it used to just spark and we're bffls!

Today was a relaxing day. I woke up at 5:30 AM and headed off to the Sydney Opera House are to walk around and explore. I saw a lot of cool stuff, see the sunrise from the harbor, and even Skyped with my mom and showed her the place. There's a lot of free museums and free things to do around here. I got to go to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Arts and their current showing was a project about energies. Energies around us that we cannot see but hear the wavelengths that is crossing our paths each and every day. On my way back to the hostel, I came across Sydney's Chinatown which is probably no bigger than the one in Boston. There is this huge market place that sells China products and even a food market place with veges, fruits, meat, and seafood! Inside Chinatown, there's this one mini store that sells "Emporer's Cream Puffs". The line was well over two hours wait... I gotta try this sometime before I leave Sydney because if it's that popular, then something must be special about it.

Well, I just finished my dinner and using the free WiFi at the shopping plaza food court. I should start cooking since eating out is not healthy at all. I checked out the hostel kitchen and it had cooking ware and eating ware, so I should be all good to cook my own meals. My plans for tomorrow is to get a bank account up and running and drop by the RTA to get an Australian license. My watch is showing that I've walked 28k steps (~12 miles). If I keep this up, I'm gonna lose my belly fat!

Long day ahead of me and a lot to look forward to. Until next time, peace out!

Best Friends 5Ever 4Life

Can I really ask for better friends?

Edit to keep track of my journey:
27 Aug - 29 Aug, 2015 Flight Boston -> Australia
29 Aug - 07 Sept, 2015 Sydney (4th Katoomba Blue Mountains)
08 Sept - 16 Sept, 2015 Perth (13th Rottnest Island, 14th Nambung Pinnacles)
16 Sept - 18 Sept, 2015 Indian Pacific Train (Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Cook, Nullarbor Plain)
18 Sept - 28 Sept, 2015 Adelaide
29 Sept - 09 Oct, 2015 Melbourne
10 Oct - 15 Oct, 2015 Tasmania
16 Oct - 20 Nov, 2015 Melbourne
21 Nov - 22 Nov, 2015 Sydney Pokémon Symphonic Evolution Orchestra @ Sydney Opera House
22 Nov - Present, 2016 Melbourne
Dec 1, 2015 - Part Time Job Housekeeper @ Melbourne Metro YHA

Just Buy It!

Six months ago, I said "That's compulsive buying." Sitting in front of my work computer and getting distracted with Facebook, I was hating my job and longing for a change. But it was easier to just go home, log on to League of Legends, and binge ranked games until I should go to sleep because I need to go to work in the morning. Video game was my drug to numb the mind and avoid facing reality. As long as I am playing video games, I do not have to think about anything else. A lot of people fall into this rabbit hole and it's hard to get out because change is hard; change is scary. It's not hard to wake up, go to work, come home, play games, go to sleep, and repeat. This has worked since high school; instant boost of gratification for every game I win. Was I happy? Sure, at times when I win games. How about long term?

Ever since after high school, I have become aware of what I have become growing up and started to crave for personal development. I want change. I want to be a social butterfly. I want to be confident in myself and confident in the words that I speak. I want to be a leader, a motivator, an inspirational speaker, an astronomer. Just kidding. I got a C in Introduction to Astronomy. I took college as an opportunity for change. I ended up making a lot of friends; of which includes a few of my very best and closest friends that I can ever meet and will ever meet in my lifetime because they are just that dear to me. These friends are my drivers to success, but success can never be achieved with just drivers. The ultimate decision is on me to take action and implement for the success.

Three years ago, I failed to secure a job before I graduate. I was devastated and upset at myself for being a failure because I had high expectations for myself. I didn't want it to end like that. I took this time to look for an abroad opportunity and take an extra semester to pierce through the job market again before I come out of college. That senior year, I landed a summer internship program with The University of Hong Kong. It was the proudest moment in my life because I was chosen out of a pool of prestigious Ivy League and top ranked school students from all over the world to participate in a summer program hosted by one of the highly recognized universities in the world. In this program, I was also given the opportunity to intern with Lenovo, which was at the time #2 largest computer vendor in the world right behind Hewlett Packard (currently #1 during the time of blogging). I felt a sense of improvement and all my friends said they saw it too. I was more confident than before and socially better! I ended up landing a job three months out of college and I was really grateful about it and thankful for my ex-manager for giving me the opportunity.

Work was great while it lasted. A year ago after my company went into an acquisition and merging, it wasn't the same anymore. The management decided to get rid of majority of the American employees and outsourced them to India. The India team wasn't the brightest of them all which ended up causing our team a lot more time doing extra work just to fix things and make things right. As for myself, I felt my life have came to a stop. I wasn't learning anything new from my job and I was not improving myself in any way. It could be that I developed depression while living on my own. I didn't want to do anything but binge League of Legends hoping that the bad feelings would go away eventually on its own. I was unhappy and I wanted change, but I grew comfortable of my current state. I have friends, I have a source of income, I was living for free at home, and I have Dexter. But the bad feelings keep coming back the moment I log out of League of Legends. I thought maybe Anime Boston would be a good break, but this year was... Meh.

My friend Isabel came to live at my place for a while because she was working at the Providence office and didn't want to commute back and forth too much. I started talking about my situation to her and she recommended that I look into this working holiday visa as it might be a good alternative for me. I looked it up and still wasn't sure about leaving everything behind. I've went to Hong Kong on my own, but I had family members there but these countries that the US has working holiday visa with are completely foreign to me. Also, I'll be leaving Dexter behind... I just couldn't do it.

As time went on, I felt even worse. I needed change and I need it now. I decided what the heck, lets apply for the visa and think about it later. My originally decision was New Zealand, but I didn't have enough time to provide the medical documents, so I chose Australia as my second choice. This was June. I provided all my documents, got accepted for Work and Holiday visa for Australia at the beginning of July, and decided Yes! I'm going to do it!

I think travelling is the great opportunity that everyone should take if it's available to you. I have always traveled with my parents and I felt sheltered by them. They make sure you don't talk to strangers and come home safe. Traveling alone is different. You will meet so many new people, see so many things, experience many different cultures, and you will see the world differently. It's not about seeing the world, but meeting the people and develop a different point of view at things. I want personal growth and improvement. I'm sick of being me and I want to be a new person. I want to be a better person.

I passed in my two week notice on July 15, 2015. My manager was excited for me for taking the opportunity while I'm still young. He wanted to me to stay a bit longer, so I gave him another two weeks. My last day of work was on August 15 and I will be flying on the 27th. I have came a long way and I'm not sure if this is the best decision I've ever made in my life but damn does it feel good to make this decision.

Bon voyage, Henry.