On the Way to Sydney (September 2006)

Here are some pictures I've taken on my way to Sydney via Los Angeles. To go to Sydney, you first fly to the West coast. I chose LA for obvious reasons... Koreatown. It's not Korea but as close as it could get to a small Korean town... someone mentioned the similarity to Garibong-dong... if you know what this means. But compared to any other Koreatowns outside Korea, this was by far the best.

There are some more pictures taken from the NW flight from Mpls to LAX, my new office in UNSW, and some pictures of the beach in Coogee (where I stayed for one week) and Maroubra (close to where I will be staying for the next 12 months). Of course, I gave up the hope of finding a place where I can wake up every morning with an ocean view... That's the cost of living in a big city. I just forgot about that while I was living in Mpls.

Road to Sydney

 

　New house (September 2006)

Some pictures and videos from the new house… Feels so empty, but eventually, it will feel like a home. I moved into my new place on September 18th, or conforming to the way that people say here, 18th of September. I had to clean up the place since the owners were not that tidy or responsible. And after five groceries and two trips to Target, this is what I have so far. Good that I have furniture and some electric appliances in place. Otherwise, it would have been a nightmare looking for things with public transportation. Also there’s one picture of my first homemade dinner in Sydney. As you can see, I’m still waiting for my stuffs to arrive from US, so in the meantime, I’m relying on whatever I can improvise. See the miso soup in the cocktail glass? The best investment I had so far was the rice cooker… It really creates magic!

          New House

          More New House

 

　Visitors to Sydney (September 2006)

I guess living in a cool city implies lots of visitors rushing in. My first visitor was Jiwon from Seoul. For three days from Sunday till Tuesday, we went out and had great fun, going to all the famous landmarks. Something new in the picture is the presence of The World, one of the most luxurious cruise ship, that happened to stop in Sydney at that time. It was so gigantic that it overshadowed all the other landmarks nearby, including the Opera House. Can you believe that the cheapest room in that ship costs $1600 a day? You can even buy a three-bedroom unit, which costs upto 9 million dollars. Wonder who in the economics profession can afford to buy such a place…

          Visitor in Sydney

 

Labour Day Holiday (October 2006)

Even the Labour Day holidays are reversed in Australia. And unlike union-unfriendly US, here in New South Wales, they have a day off, making it a nice three day holiday. Trying to break out of the usual routine, I decided to give my bike some real action by going to the Centennial Park and riding all the way to downtown. I didn't realize going for a leisurely bike ride would be so refreshing and fun. As for some other pictures... the first few pictures are pics of Ikea stuffs I bought. I had to carry a chair in one bag and a desk in the other. Of course, I couldn't make it. Ever felt your face muscle getting seriously distorted? Try carrying these two bags for three minutes. Also there are some pictures of the Coogee beach, where I went to watch the Australain Football Leagues final. It was good that I understood the rules relatively fast. The beach makes me want to stay in Sydney, despite some horrible customer services I receive from some notorious Australian companies  (ever heard of Optus, Commonwealth Bank anyone?).

          Labour Day Holiday

　

Adelaide (October 2006)

Australia is a vastly huge country/continent... and there are so many things I would like to explore. Well, my first destination outside Sydney was Adelaide, South Australia. In fact, I was invited to give a talk at University of Adelaide, so the first priority was purely academic. The fun was marginal, to say the least. Ehem..

Well, with some free time given, I had the chance to look around the city. I went to the South Australian Art Gallery, the Cricket ground, Lights Point (where the founder of the city lay out the blueprints), and the beach side.  The impression I had was similar to Minneapolis actually (wonder which city I'm insulting)... small, but has a lot of cultural offerings, not too crowded. People in general seemed nicer than people from Sydney. Too bad that I didn't have time to enjoy the wine valleys, which are known to be the best in Australia, or the world, as the locals say.

          Adelaide

 

My house, finally! (October 2006)

Finally the shipment from the US arrived and I spent the whole weekend, unpacking and arranging stuffs. Once I was done, I realized that things would never be this neat... so to commemorate this state of no return, I thought I would take pictures... (again).

          Final House

         

Introducing baby Sean! (October 2006)

Over the weekend, I met Shino and was introduced to baby Sean. The baby seemed to like me (unlike some experiences in the past) and kept smiling and wanting to play with me.

          Sean

 

Viva Mexico! (November 2006)

My first conference as a 'lecturer' was in Mexico City. I went to present my Trade Liberalization paper at the LACEA-LAMES parallel meetings. Well, apart from the academic experience, I had a lot of fun meeting my ex-Minnesota friends. On the last day we went to the Anthropological Museum and to Teotihuacan, where they had the pyramids.

          Mexico City

　

Parents in Australia (December 2006)

My parents have visited me again... it's been around 6 months since their last visit in Minnesota. This time they wanted to see how I'm settling down... we did the mandatory tour of Sydney, a weekend visit to Melbourne, and some other surrounding areas of Sydney, including the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley... 

          Parents in Australia

               Last days...visiting Hunter Valley and dinner at Sydney Tower

　

More pics from Australia (December 2006)

Probably my last picture upload for the year 2006.. it's been a fun rollercoaster ride. Here are some miscellaneous pictures I took... some pictures from my house (new furniture added), my Golfie, and pictures taken on the Boxing Day. I drove to Stanwell Park, about 50 km south of Sydney.

               More pics

　

　

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