A Year in Australia
The Move and My Hair

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It was a long trip to get to Oz. First I would fly from Toronto to Cleveland, then Cleveland to L.A., then L.A. to Fiji, and then (after a 5-day stopever) Fiji to Sydney.

Go on enough flights and you're bound to run into some problems. If they don't accidentally send your luggage to Guatemala, they might accidentally send you there. Luckily, my trip included only near-catastrophes.


My last picture in Toronto before boarding a flight to Cleveland.

Of course, flights aren't the only connections that can cause you grief when travelling. When I got to Sydney, it turned out that the University hadn't sent someone to pick me up and deliver me to my new home, as they'd said they would. There was only one thing to do: walk outside, sit down and smile to myself. Yes, I was in Australia!


Eventually, we got things worked out, and I found myself unpacking in my third floor shared apartment.


Once the University housing office gets a hold of you, they give you a Spider Chart so that you'll know what the deadly ones look like. It isn't the nicest thing to see on your first day. Click on the picture for a closer view.


My bedroom.


Looking straight down from my balcony we could meet our downstairs neighbours: Jen and Max on the first floor, Zally on the second floor.

Follow Your Dreams...

Scary as it is, I've always wanted to dye my hair blue. Seeing as how I was about to be unemployed for an extended period of time, and my parents were WAY too far to do anything about it, I decided it was time to fulfil that dream.


And so, with the help of Megan, whom I'd met on my August 2000 trip across the U.S., we bleached my hair, wrapping my head in plastic wrap so that I wouldn't make a mess everywhere I walked.


Soon, I'm a new man.


Megan applies the dye while I carefully study a brick wall.


My new head of purple hair. And maybe a little bit of purple forehead.


| Intro | My Move and My Hair | The People in Harris Park | Moving Up to Parramatta | Sydney's Wildlife |

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