Chucktown News

Here's a copy of part of the December issue of The Chucktown News that I tried to post earlier and couldn't. Sorry it's not clear. (Tiffany, don't worry about it! They get the idea! Thanks for sending it.)

In case you haven't heard, I (hopefully) got someone to take over the newsletter for me in Charleston. Her name is Anne Machowski and she'll be putting HER first issue out in March, so all of you Charlestonians look for it!

In Case of Emergency....

Or if you have a good phone plan for international calling, then give me a call! My new number is

0406 200 033

On Friday, it was still rainy and gross outside so I spent the day getting my bank account set up and buying my new Vodaphone. It's prepaid and I get free incoming calls, so call away!

Sydney: Day 2

I slept GREAT that first night in the pitiful hostel! I woke up at 6:30 and went for a run through Hyde park (where the Mormans were yesterday). The weather is not typical Sydney weather, and the forecast isn't looking good for the next week. It's not quite raining, but it's very overcast and windy. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though when your hostel as no AC and you're walking around all day.

So after my run I went to an internet cafe further in Kings Cross, and even at 9 in the morning I could tell how scary and dirty that area is. Technically, my hostel is in Kings Cross which is why some people were worried about me staying there, but I am far enough east that it's really not scary at all. Its probably a fine area, and safe as long as you avoid the alleys at 3am, but if you walk down Darlinghurst St. all you see are pretty much sex shops and adult stores. It's the red light district and all of the tour books I've read refer to the area as "Bohemian" but it should just say "kind of trashy".

After that I took a long walk down to Darling Harbor and I was there early enough to avoid a big crowd of people, so it was really peaceful. It's kind of touristy with some souvenir shops and a huge ferris wheel, but I really liked it. It was clean and pretty and pleasant.

I ate at a little cafe by the park and then walked on through to Chinatown. It was just what you would expect Chinatown to look like, only there is a little covered extension of it called Paddy's Market. I found a few cute t-shirts and gifts in there. The first picture below is Chinatown and the second is Paddy's Market.

I left Paddy's Market and walked back through Darling Harbor on my way to the aquarium, but the line was ridiculously long at that time. I'm glad I didn't go then anyway, because later on this night I met a girl who gave me a free pass for 3 months! Sweeeet!

I wandered across Pyrmont Bridge (below) and had a glass of wine on the other side at a nice little corner bar called Oscar's, then headed back to my hostel to shower and get ready to meet up with my 2 Canadian friends that I met in the Sydney airport: Katie and Gracie.

I got to Katie and Gracie's hostel (which by the way is so ridiculously nice compared to mine) at 8:30pm and met one of their roommates named Abby who is from Arizona. She's the one who gave me the aquarium pass. After about 5 minutes of hanging out with the Canadians I was already being harassed about my "ya'll"s. And they taught me, "CHABOY!!!" but I have no idea what it means. Anyway, we all headed out and grabbed a piece of pizza then went on to explore Sydney's nightlife. The first bar we went to was fun and had a really good 3 man band playing covers of Radiohead and Weezer. Abby left after the fist bar. She is the one on the far left in the pic below (which was at the first bar called Side Bar). I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but Abby wasn't a huge partier.

The second bar which was highly recommended by a local Sydneysider was called Cheers. It was awful. There was good music but there were about 5 other people in the bar and no other girls.

The last place we went to was called The Gaff. We taxied to it and it was closer to my side of town so I was happy about that. The Gaff was AWESOME! They played 80's music all night and it was packed. I ended up seeing a guy that was staying in my hostel (I recognized him because he'd been wearing the same red shirt for 2 days) and he and his roommate walked back with me at the end of the night, which was really nice. It was a good day and-besides my fall on the wet pavement on the way home-a great night!

Home Sweet Sydney

I arrived to Sydney around 10:40am (16 hours ahead of you east coasters) and to my astonishment I got my bags without any problems. I took a shuttle to my hostel and heaved my bags up the stairs to my tiny little 5 bunk beds bedroom. This hostel is pretty much one step above camping and it's not where I plan on spending most of my time this week besides when I'm sleeping. But the shower was AWESOME! I hadn't had a shower since the morning I left San Fran, so it felt nice to get clean. Here are some sad pictures of my room:

Once I was fresh and clean, clean, I took a walk down to Hyde Park-it was close by and I'd wanted to check it out anyway. It was really pretty and I got to experience a little of Australia's wildlife too. I'm not sure it it was a rat that ran by my foot or what....

And if you're wondering how I got that picture of myself, it was taken by one of two Mormans who were trying to convert me in the park. I told them no thank you but could they please take my picture. Haha

After the park I got some dinner and then went to BED! As uncomfortable as those little bunk beds look, it was like heaven when my head hit that pillow.

Taipei, Taiwan

Well, I'm sure you guys were all worried about me and my 16 hour layover in Taiwan (thank God I didn't wander off too far. If I got stuck there I don't think I'd ever learn the language! Although I did pick up on this one: "nee-how"=hello). But I managed just fine!

I had to get some lunch (breakfast? dinner?) in the airport and I decided to try some local cuisine and this is how that turned out:

I altogether avoided the floating testicles and the egg, but the rest really wasn't half bad!

After visiting the Information booth, I found out that the government sponsors a free city tour from the airport and back (apparently I'm not the only one with an ENTIRE DAY layover) and it hits some interesting spots. Our itinerary was this:

1)The Longshan Temple- This is the oldest and most famous temple in Taiwan. It was really neat to see everyone praying and burning incense and offering gifts to the gods.

2) Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall- Chaing Kai-Shek is a very well-respected late president. Our tour guide said that if wasn't for him, they'd all be Japanese and probably communists. This was a really pretty building. In the first picture below is the outside of the building and the man there was our tour guide; in the second picture is a model of Kai-Shek's office. All of the furniture was authentic.....Kia-Shek was not.

3) Martyr's Shrine- A shrine to the fallen heroes of China's wars. I'll be honest, I didn't pay much attention here. There were guards standing outside-you know, the kind that can't talk or move-and one of the girls in our group was dancing around in front of them and both of them started cracking up! It was hilarious. Their supervisor had to come and cover their faces up with his hands.

Giggling Guard:

4) Building 101- The tallest building in the world. It's mostly private office buildings and shopping/restaurants on floors 1-5.

After my tour was finished and I was back at the airport, I still had 3 hours to kill. I bought a few souvenirs and took advantage of the free wireless internet, then boarded my plane for SYDNEY!!!!!

San Fran Part 2- Best day ever!

So, I love San Francisco! That may be my next big move after Sydney.

On Saturday (the 12th), Adam and I went to breakfast at one of his favorite little spots in Alameda called Tillies. It was a cute little diner and the breakfast was pretty delicious. We stayed there eating and talking for a long time and then went back to his apartment and changed into the clothes we were going to wear for dinner.

We set out driving around 3pm and explored some of the mountainous areas that were really beautiful. We wound up at a place called Muir Point which had a little lookout point over Muir Beach. It was pretty and we used a little self-timer action and got some cool pictures from up there:

So, after we made our way back down the mountain we did a little coastal walking. The Pacific is really gorgeous...I've gotten so used to the Atlantic that I forgot there was any other ocean. The walk along the beach was nice besides the one spot where the vultures were feeding on deal seal. Ew.

After that it was getting close to sunset time and Adam had a spot he knew of where we could get some good pictures. I'm not sure where exactly we were, but it was absolutely gorgeous. These pictures speak for themselves:

It was such a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city, the water, and the sunset.

After we left there we went to Sausalito for our dinner reservations at a place called Horizons where everything on the menu sounded amazing. We ate in a little V-shaped booth looking out a huge window over the water. Again....beautiful.

When we finished dinner Adam drove me around through the Marine (or Marina) district and all of the housing through there was really cute. We drove through and around the Golden Gate Park which is where the Tanner Family is having their picnic at the beginning of Full House. Haha.

So, after that we went back and on Sunday I spent most of the day unloading some of my clothes to leave at Adam's. I got my bags organized and read up a little bit on Taiwan and Sydney and then we were off to the airport at 10pm for my midnight flight!

Hailey Ann in San Fran

The journey begins!!!!!!!!!! After some sad goodbyes and a few fun nights with my Charleston friends, I'm finally beginning the long haul across the world. I stayed up pretty much all night packing last night, then got to the Charleston airport around 5am with my entire life packed up in my enormous bags. Even my carry on bags are outrageous! The strap on one of them broke as I was walking through the Houston airport....so that's great. I'm seriously thinking about unloading some stuff here in Cali and letting Lulay (the friend I'm staying with) ship it to me later. I can't maneuver all of this stuff by myself!

Anyway, San Francisco is nice. I haven't seen much of it yet but I like it so far. It's chillier here than I thought it would be. Adam and I are going to get some sushi tonight so I can see what it's like on the east coast.

I'm hoping to sleep in tomorrow...I could use a good night's sleep.