Christmas, New Years... and Heat?!

I figured you all were itching for another riveting update from the expat down under. I am happy to oblige. Let's start with the most recent major holiday I missed. Christmas comes but once a year, as that old song (and animated short) says, and this year I spent it without any family. Well that is not entirely true. I spent it with Alan and Danielle and their three daughters, part of the Ferno family. When I realized I would be spending this festive holiday season with four (five if you include the dog) girls, I was instantly paralyzed with gifting fear. I had no idea what to get them. To this day I have yet to pick out a gift for my younger sister for Christmas. My mom always comes to me the night before and says, "I have this for you to give to your sister, it is already wrapped, just put your name on it". So logically, I called the women in my life and told them to find something and send it over to me. They settled on Culver shirts for the kids and a scarf for mom. Dad was easy to shop for, mini keg of beer in a bag, and I am done. The girls were ecstatic to get rowing shirts from a different school, and dad was more than happy to tap the mini and get to drinking. They were generous enough to gift me a lovely "Beers of the World" package, which were enjoyed over the next week.

And now for something completely different... Back in November, I heard about some YouTubers coming to visit Brisbane for a meet and greet. I have been watching some of their videos for about a year and figured... I have nothing better to do this Sunday, let's go wait in a line with young girls to meet famous internet people. So that is exactly what I did.
As I was waiting in line listing to a bit of music (standing to stretch my old man legs) with everyone sitting down around me, a security guard approached me signalled for me to come over. I took off my head phones to hear what he had to say. Our conversation went almost exactly like this, SG-"Some committed parents no?" Me-"Yeah, pretty crazy." SG-"You know parents can wait over in the cafe while the kids wait in line." Me-"That's convenient." SG-"So, you can go over there if you want and your girls will be fine waiting here." Me-"I'm not a parent, I am here to see people from the internet."
I found it funny because the group of girls behind me was in fact older than I was. So, that was lovely to have someone think I was old enough to have children that were fully developed. Any way, I met Hannah Hart (My Drunk Kitchen), Mamrie Hart (You Deserve A Drink), and Jack Douglass (Jacksfilms).

My New Year's plans originally had me going to Byron Bay and celebrating with the Gordons. Last minute changes, had me coming back to Brisbane with no plans. So, what do you do when you have now plans? You go to the internet of course! I ended up meeting up with some Redditors and having a few roof top drinks and watching the fireworks then calling it an early night.

I watched them from a prison cell

Lastly, the weather. While you all are complaining about the snow, and the cold, and the "arctic vortex", I have been enduring the hottest January in Australia on record. I would trade places with you in an instant if we didn't have to bother with that pesky 16 hour flight business. This is no joke, I sweat simply thinking about going outside, I fall asleep spooning ice packs, and dread seeing stairs I have to ascend. Thankfully on the hottest day I was able to sneak away to a friend's pool and cool of. But as proof of the heat I was experiencing, here is a screen shot of my phone during the day. It is in Celsius, so sorry for making you do the conversion, but you will survive I am sure of it.

That's all for now folks! I think my next instalment is going to be somethings I have learned at my job. So not really an update, but hopefully it will bring a smile to your face. Until next time... 

India: The Land of Mystery

I made it to India at 4:00am. I somehow dragged myself off the plane and made my way towards customs with my passport and visa in hand. I hurriedly filled out the customs intake form while in line to go though the customs line. I passed through customs with no problems and was then off to collect my bag. So far, there was nothing different about this place.. but that ended the second I grabbed my bag and made for the exit.

Outside the terminal, there were a few hundred people just waiting, some waving signs, some staring blankly at you, and some actually doing something productive at 4:30 in the morning. Upon not finding my driver in the first wave of people, I proceeded to the second way and was relieved to see a tall Indian man's eyes light up when I looked at him. He eagerly waved a sign that read CHRIS BOURGRAF       OHIO, USA.

What a relief.... I shook his hand and he introduced himself as Dinesh, and then informed me that my scheduled driver decided to call in sick, so he and his roommate made the trip to Delhi to pick me up. At this point I was a little lucid from the lack of sleep and the drastic change of climate, location, and people that now surrounded me. So for the 45 minute drive from the airport to my flat my eyes began flickering at 1000 mph. You know like in the movies when someone is reading something that becomes progressively more important as they continue reading. As it turned out, neither Dinesh or his roommate knew where my flat was, so we drove in circles for a solid 10-15 minutes asking random people on the side of the road.

Upon finding my flat... Wow...
First off, It is called UniWorld Spa. And it is pretty close to that description. I am on the 8th floor out of 18 or so and it is quite a flat.

And to top it all off, this is the view I have from my seat at breakfast every morning. 



After finishing breakfast, doing a little unpacking, and taking a nap. I was then picked up and taken to the school where I would be working. Mind you, this was around 10 am and I had only taken a 1 hour nap.

I think I met close to 50 people that morning and had to hang around the office till 5:30 that evening. To say the least... I was exhausted. I got back to my flat and the care taker asked me (in broken Hindi/English) when I wanted dinner. I was unable to articulate "as soon as possible" to him, so I settled for 7pm. I don't remember eating, or getting ready for bed, or anything else. I just remember barely being able to function. Thankfully my flat has air conditioning in each room, so I turned that bad boy on and fell asleep in seconds.

And thus concludes my first day in India.

I promise not to do day by day updates, but the first day was pretty staggering. I will be sure to update you soon on what I have been getting into. Until then!