The End of One Journey and the Beginning of Another, Kavaholics, Parental Peer Pressure, Teacher Deportation, Wilsonnnnn, and Calling the Dawgs

Bula!

Alas, the trip to the Land Down Under, Middle Earth, and Paradise is now coming to an end. I have been away from home now for exactly one month, but a part of me feels I’ve been away a year. It’s been an unbelievable trip that many people will never have the opportunity to partake in. I could post thousands of photos, videos and write as many blogs as I wanted to and I would never be able to fully explain the relationships I’ve made with the people I would have never met if I had decided to stay in Athens and not do something extraordinary.

So the last time I wrote to everyone we were still in New Zealand getting ready to climb Mount Cook and swim with dolphins in Kiakoura. However the weather kept us from doing both, needless to say we traveled over 18 hours on a bus to hear 4 hours of lecture. Everyone from the other groups said this was the highlight of their New Zealand trip; however I was more upset about the fact that I was parting ways with some of my closest friends that I have spent every waking moment for the past four weeks with. Make no mistake, when you spend all day, everyday with the same people you learn a lot about them; and you decide really quick if you like them or not. However, our group of 36 people was something special. Everyone enjoyed everyone’s presence and at least tolerated mine. Our last night in Christchurch we all met up at a local Irish pub for dinner and gave out superlatives; things escalated quickly and a few people were called out. However, being the oldest of the group I was always the one to keep everyone together and make sure nobody got into too much trouble; hence I was awarded “Most Likely to Keep It Together.” Not my personal favorite but it fit, besides… I left all my wingmen back in Athens.

So about Fiji, for me, and probably 90% of you, the most I knew about Fiji was they have very good bottled water and the fact that Vijay Singh came from here. Maybe you have seen it on a post card with all the huts out in the water with glass floors…. Don’t worry, I wasn’t fortunate enough to stay in those but we were close. The actual country itself is considered to be a third world country. However we only spent 2.5 days in the city of Nadi, visiting the markets and fighting out swindlers who would try to sell you the shirt off your own back if you gave them the chance. For instance, in Fiji it is custom to wear what is called a “sulu” or basically a skirt that wraps around your waist…. Men and women. Yes, that is right I wore a skirt for a week. These photos will probably never make the Internet, sorry for the disappointment. Well when I went to buy the sulu, the guy’s asking price was $40 or $25 American. Now some of the group members paid this…. But not me. Being the astute businessmen I pride myself in being, I made a hard counter offer at a solid $2. He shot back at $10. This is when I knew I had him; so I walked away and right I was at the door I heard, “Ok buddy, I’ll give it to you for 5 bucks.” SOLD!! To the big American, who, regardless of where he is in the world, will get his price. Capitalism is a beautiful thing.

Next we went to the market, now many of us have been to a “farmer’s market” or grocery store. This was a little different. Imagine a huge market with every type of fish or vegetable outside in the sun trying to be sold by the very people who grew those crops or caught that fish earlier in the day. Only problem is that for most everything is covered in flies or would make us sick from the water used to grow the crops. Everything except for this one demon root called “Kava.”

Now let me tell you a little about this thing called Kava. It is considered a substance and is not sold in U.S. It comes from a root that is grinded up into a fine substance and mixed with water. The locals drink it at ceremonies. However, it is considered to be rude if you refuse it. Well you all know me; I’m the furthest thing from a rude person so needless to say I was first in line to try this drink I had heard so much of. To describe it I would say it was a mix between pond water and dirt and it looked the part, too. One of the guys in our group bought a kilogram and needless to say our group had drank it all by the end of our first night…. When in Fiji, right? It makes your tongue go numb and puts you right to sleep, but other than that it was not bad. The locals referred to us a “Kavaholics.” However, because alcohol is illegal in the village we stayed in, many of the tribesmen seemed eerily similar to some of the patrons of Downtown Athens on a given Saturday night.

After we were finally getting ready to leave Nadi, we were to set out for Botaira, a remote and exotic island in the Yasawa Islands. However, to say I was hungry would be an understatement. It had been a while since I had a slice of America in my life and I was starting to have withdrawals. However, there was beacon of hope in the not so far distance, the second closest thing to an American Embassy; no not McDonalds, rather the… Hard Rock Café. Yes, there is a God. But as He gives, and He also takes.; and we were on a tight schedule and we couldn’t indulge ourselves. A little part of me died that day. Needless to say, we left from Port Denaru and docked next to Tom Cruise’s ship “Suli.” Honestly I had my doubts. Especially due to the fact that right next to Cruise’s 70ft. yacht was in fact an 85ft. party barge that was calling my name. Moral of the story, you can go halfway around the world and boys will be boys and there will be some sort of pissing contest to be seen (Gazaway & Houston). To the man with the 85ft yacht, I tip my hat; I see what you did there… Well played, Sir.

Now we weren’t exactly riding in style of that magnitude but we did get to island hop on a catamaran and see all the primitive islands that paradise had to offer…. I know a rough life, huh? Highlight of the boat ride didn’t go to Tom Cruise…. It actually went to Tom Hanks. Halfway to our resort we stopped at the island where Cast Away was filmed. No, I didn’t see Wilson, but for those of you who know me this didn’t stop me from throwing a few obnoxious “WILLLLLSOOOOONNNNNN!!!!” quotes out there. Once again in true fashion, I was able to throw out a few other random quotes from a very unquotable movie. It’s a gift; what can I say?

When we finally arrived in “Paradise” or the Botaira Resort, we were literally located on a reef with our backs to a remote island overlooking the Pacific Ocean and a front row seat to a phenomenal sunset. We stayed in huts on the beach and had our meals at the local bar and dinner area overlooking the water… jealous yet? Wait until I finally get around to uploading all of my photos. Snorkeling, scuba diving, paddle boarding at sunset, kayaking with my friends, catching some rays and enjoying some of Fiji’s finest beers and umbrella drinks is hard work; very tiresome to say the least… Don’t worry, I did have to work my butt off for this course; three credit hours in one week is not simple, regardless if you are in paradise. We ended up staying in these huts that housed five beds, four of which were twins and one was a queen size; five people in each hut. If you do the math, you understand that four little Indians get the short end of the stick while the big Chief delights himself to the spoils of war. Needless to say, It pays off to be an Alpha Male. Well actually I wont lie, it just pays off to be extremely good at “rock, paper, scissors.” However I still liked my chances, regardless what you may be thinking.

Now the unique thing about this trip was the fact that we actually left our resort to stay the night with the local villagers on the other side of the island. None of us really knew what to expect, we didn’t know if we would be dealing with grass huts and half naked men who were chucking spears at their neighboring tribe or if we would be with people who are not so different from us. After hiking up what we were told would be an hour hike, we ended up making it in two hours. Flip-flops and hiking aren’t ideal, regardless what you think. However, I refuse to buy Chacos. So I roughed it and got in touch with my inner Tom Hanks and lost the flops.

When we arrived to our village, we first participated in the “Sevusevu” which is the traditional ceremony of welcoming outsiders into the village. Generally an exchange is made between the visitors and the villagers, I was fortunate enough to be chosen by the group to go before the elders and present our gift,; yeah you guessed it…. Kava root. It was quite the experience and I will never forget it, I felt like Meriwether Lewis going before the tribes and asking for their blessing to pass. Don’t worry, no peace pipes were passed; however, there was a lot of kava passed around and apparently because they recognized me as the Chief I was given double the amount everyone else was given. A reminder: this was 11:00 am that morning… when in Fiji right? After all of the ceremonies were finished we met our families and made introductions and were told that out of respect we had to call them “mom and dad.” Needless to say the villagers were a little confused when my southern drawl came out and they heard “momma and deddy.”

Also, apparently “Dustin” is a foreign and unheard of name for these people; every time I would introduce myself as Dustin, I received in return “Justin Bieber?” After a while I just quit fighting it, you pick and choose your battles. This was one of them. We interacted with our families throughout the day, got to play with the kids and had some of the best Spanish mackerel I’ve every had for lunch that day—caught earlier in the cove that very morning. Apparently these kids thought I was some type of savior because when I pulled out my iPad and iPhone, you would have thought Christmas had came early for those guys…. Especially the photo booth app, they were mind blown with all the photo effects.

That night we met in the village common area where we were given a ceremonial dinner and shown a “Meke” which is tribal dance that displays stories and the history of the local village; it was a once in a life time opportunity. Now reciprocity is a very common theme with these people and they will literally give you the shirt off their back and the bed they sleep in; but seriously they gave me their best shirt and their beds to sleep in while they slept on the dirty floor. So after their dance, we returned the favor of our own dance and songs. Now, I lobbied extremely hard for “Wagon Wheel” and “Fresh Prince” however there is always one in every group who has to have their way so we settled on “Lean on Me,” “The Electric Slide” and of course I personally led the group in the “Calling of the Dawgs” to end the ceremony. Yes, that is 3/3 countries I’ve led the chant in. Mission accomplished.

So after the dinner, we put the women and children to bed and the men stayed up for a “Mombotuo Family Tradition” of Kava drinking. Now I will say that “Dad” may have had one too many Kava bowls to drink that night and wasn’t using his best judgment. In fact, I would even venture to say that he was trying his damndest to get his “kids” (me) Kava-drunk. Now, I’ve dealt with peer pressure before during college from Houston, Gazaway and Long and been fine but when 15+ kava-drunk Fijians start giving you a hard time they make y’all look like housewives. I guess because I was the “Chief” of our group I bared the burden of the group as well. Needless to say it was a long night. And somewhere along the way one of those Kava-drunk Fijians thought it would be cute to use their tap water instead of our bottle water. Yes it’s just like Mexico down here. Nevertheless, Montezuma’s long lost Fijian cousin came to visit me that next day and the few days after. He’s every bit as cruel as ole Montezuma and packs just as strong of a punch—especially when the plumbing is outdoors. I was not a happy camper climbing back up that God-forsaken mountain. Once again folks, I can’t make this stuff up. However Paradise was not all lost.

After the once in a lifetime experience of being able to stay with Fijian locals and being accepted as one of their own, we returned to the Botaira to resume in the usual snorkeling, sunbathing, scuba diving, paddle boarding and of course the occasional lecture… depending on cloud coverage of course. To say it was awesome would do it an injustice, I really can’t describe it. Houston, I would have loved to have you out there to help storm the beaches like Normandy. Long, I made sure to request Wagon Wheel as the closing song every night at the beach bar, and Gazaway you would have thrived in the environment given your actions at Cancun. However all good things come to an end and we returned to Nadi to spend our last days there to finish up projects and take our final—probably should have studied a little more for that one…. Just kidding mom.

Oh, and how could I forget that our teacher was deported from Fiji because his visa was expired? The funny thing is that Fijians have a saying called “Fiji Time” where literally they are the most carefree, contempt, non-hurried people on earth. It’s like waiting on Gazaway and his girlfriend when we have to be somewhere on time and always end up 30 minutes late.  But apparently the Fijians take the time you stay in their country serious, Dr. Terrant found this out the hard way. But for the rest of us this wasn’t so much fun when we waited at the airport for an hour and a half for the bus…. But hey, its Fiji time, right?

We just touched down in LAX and I’m waiting on a connector flight to Phoenix for another four-hour layover before I can leave to go to Atlanta. So if all goes well I’ll be arriving in the great state of Georgia around 6:30 in the morning. You can find me at a Chick Fil-A as I grab a few chicken biscuits and multiple sweet teas. A month without sweet tea does strange things to a southern man. After that, I have a feeling that I’m about to have some serious jet lag that I wont get over until I board my plane for London in less than two weeks.

It’s been one hell ride over the past month, from climbing mountains, to scuba diving two different reefs, to jumping off a perfectly good bridge and of course making some damn good friends along the way. This was the first summer since I was 10 years old that I have not had obligations to football, baseball or basketball; I’ll be the first to admit that I felt like I was a fish out of water. However, I wouldn’t trade my experience for a million dollars; and to think that I still have one more trip halfway around the world only motivates me to continue living my life one day at a time with no regrets. You have heard me say, “Take a leap of faith;” I’m not just saying that for my health. One of the main reasons I started this blog was so I could somehow share my experiences with my friends and family; but also I wanted to somehow motivate everyone to do something extraordinary. This doesn’t mean traveling the world; it can be anything out of the ordinary. Go against the grain for once and have no regrets. For the past four years, I lived a very structured and demanding lifestyle where every detail of my day was planned out to a T. However, when football ended for me I felt like I no longer knew what my purpose in life was, and honestly I wasn’t even sure who I was as a person. I knew I needed some type of change; so I took what money I had saved and decided to take a leap of faith by seeing the unknown and forging relationships with strangers I would have never met had I not stepped out of my comfort zone. For all of you back home, I can’t wait to see you over the next couple weeks. Look for my photos to be posted on Facebook within the next 2-3 days. For all my friends in Athens, I’ll need a sofa to crash on. I’ll see yall soon. Stay classy San Diego.

Cheers,

-Dustin

Its not fun to stay at the YMCA.... Bungee Jumping, Calling the Dawgs, and Last 4 days in NZ

Haere Mai!

Greetings from Middle Earth, I hope everyone is doing well back home. Last time I checked, the Braves were on a roll so the universe is in order once again, not to mention my neighbor and buddy Alex Wood made his MLB appearance earlier in the week. Congrats brother! Since the last time I blogged, I feel like I have lived from hostel to hostel via a charter bus—courtesy of our bus driver, Maxine… a distant cousin to Dale Earnhardt. I’ve never seen a charter bus go up and down a mountain the way she has taken this one. I’ve seen no fear in this lady’s eyes.

So about New Zealand. I really cannot compare it to anything in the United States except for maybe Montana or Wyoming. Rolling hills, sky blue lakes and mountain ranges covered in snow (and a ton of sheep) only strengthen my belief that we have God. Also, the fact that I was able to safely jump off of a perfectly good bridge and write about it confirms that I’m still in good favor with Him; but I’ll tell you all more about this later.

When we arrived in Auckland from Australia, we had to go through customs—much like every other country you fly into. However the New Zealanders are very smug about what they let into their country. I found this out the hard way. All hiking and camping equipment must be checked at customs, but when only 3 people are checking 75 people’s hiking boots it becomes quite annoying. Especially when your connecting flight to the South Island leaves at 6:15 and you’re still in customs at 7:30. Myself, along with 6 others were on our first journey in Middle Earth; however, Murphy’s Law soon followed. Come to find out the scuba resort charged me twice for a $400.00 charge so needless to say. I was overdrawn, hungry and I needed a shower—not a happy camper. In the words of Gazaway and Houston… “Eat a snickers, Roy.”

We finally were able to fly into Christchurch later that night and meet up with the group. Of all places, we were staying in the YMCA Hostel. Now we have all heard the song “YMCA” and apparently “Its fun to stay in the YMCA.” This is false…. Once again bunk beds were involved; aluminum jungle gyms to be exact, which creaked if you took a breath. However, Christchurch itself was very interesting. Especially since it’s basically a city that has been reduced to rubble after two earthquakes within 4 years. A lot of the businesses are running out of storage bins you see on the back of an 18-wheeler. After leaving Christchurch, we moved around from Queenstown, to Doubtful Sound and back to Queenstown… or the 2^nd greatest city on Earth—behind Athens of course. When we arrived, Queenstown had received over 4 inches of snow that covered the surrounding mountains; unfortunately we missed ski-season by two weeks.

Once again, leave it to Americans to travel halfway around the world to locate an American honkey-tonk, named Cowboys… so original. I quickly began to see why foreigners are so hostile to Americans. After hours of singing along to Wagon Wheel, Free-Bird, and Calling Baton Rouge we felt as if we were back in the greatest place on Earth. For all you Athenians, imagine a Generals atmosphere with a Bourbon Street playlist. I believe it was the first time in college I haven’t had Austin Long next to me singing Wagon Wheel. For those of you who don’t understand the severity of this, this man and I have already agreed that we will sing this song at our weddings before we even dance with our lucky ladies. Kind of a big deal. Also, what kind of night would it have been if I did not Call the Dawgs? The Irish patrons loved it, however the natives decided it was time for us to leave.

Lastly, about the whole bungee jumping thing... I had one rule coming on this trip. Don’t be an idiot. Is jumping off a 450 ft. cable bridge with a strap tied to my legs being an idiot? No, not at all. Was it the coolest/craziest thing I’ve ever done? Yes. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to skydive and bungee in the same day, the weather was too rough and my wallet was too thin.

Nevertheless, I made my mom sweat it out for a little while before I finally told her I was ok; she told me I probably took years off of my life. However, for me, it was actually a shot of life. Having been the biggest of the group jumping, I had to go first, so there was no room for softness. I’m not going to lie; I had some serious anxiety that morning. Also, it didn’t help that I was hoisted back upside down due to my strap not coming loose that turns me right side up. Imagine a 240 lbs. tuna being hoisted upside down, 450 ft. onto a bridge. Don’t worry; there will be lots of video.

I did what I said I would; I took a leap of faith. Actually a jump of faith, instead of falling into it, I decided I’d swan dive. Go big or go home, right? Not to mention it’s the 3^rd largest bungee in the world. On to the next two.  But I learned a lot about myself yesterday. As I’ve said this whole trip: Do something extraordinary today; take a leap of faith. You will only truly regret the things you don’t do. We have four days left in New Zealand and a week in Fiji before we return. I can’t wait to see all of you guys when I get back. Stay Classy, San Diego.

Cheers,

-Dustin

P.S. I’m currently watching Wedding Crashers halfway around the world. Life is good.

Scuba Diving the GBR; Next stop: Middle Earth and the Shire

G’Day Mates,

Let me start by saying that this is has probably been one of the best weeks of my life. Last time I posted we had just left Carnarvon Gorge and were waiting on our flight to Lady Elliot Island for some Great Barrier Reef action. For me, the opportunity to scuba dive in the GBR was the number one reason why I chose this location for my study abroad; it has been at the top of my bucket less for quite sometime…. I can now officially say that it has been crossed off the list, so on to the next one—skydiving and bungee jumping in 8 days.

First order of business; for those of you reading, you have probably caught on to the fact that I use a lot of references to movie quotes, TV, shows, books, etc. If any of you have spent five minutes around any of us in Athens you know how often quotes from Step Brothers, Wedding Crashers, Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, etc. are used to relate to any situation we come across. Honestly, our girls hate it but we love it; I’m pretty sure Austin Long has quoted a line from the movie “Seven” before – Quite possibly the most un-quotable movie of all time. So bear with me if you don’t understand my sarcasm  (or lack there of) during the blog.

Back to Lady Elliot Island, or quite possibly the “coolest place on Earth,” it’s and eco resort located about 45 minutes off the coast of Australia that can only be reached by plane. We ended up taking a single engine from Hervey Bay Airport. As soon as we boarded, the pilot asked if anyone wanted to ride wingman… this was a no-brainer for me. Never having a had flying lesson before this, I felt that I was perfect for the role—really my only training was when I dressed up as Maverick from “Top Gun” for Halloween this year. The island itself is made of dead coral and has vegetation on it from thousands of years of bird poo and seeds. Yes, that’s right. I guess s*** really does happen…. “A real geographical oddity.” (Name that movie quote,  Austin.) When we arrived we were given a tour of the island and let me say that anyone who has ever watched “Lost” and seen the “Other’s Camp” it was eerily scary how much the camps resembled each other. So after 4 days of scuba diving and snorkeling I cannot begin to describe what it was like to see Dory, Nemo, Crush and Squirt and the rest of the gang. Oh yea, a few seven foot manta rays and a 13 foot tiger shark also decided to show up and say hey to us while we were down there. Don’t worry, I have a ton of GoPro footage that I’ll upload as soon as I get Internet connection that’s better than dial-up. I must say that being 3 feet from a black tip shark and a barracuda is quite a rush… time to step up to the plate and try the Hammerheads and Great Whites in South Africa in the near future. One of the biggest attractions of the island is the Green Turtles that will actually let you scratch its shell and swim with you; needless to say I gave Squirt and Crush some serious “fin” over the past week, “dude.” No whales unfortunately. The humpbacks were spotted about five miles off the coast of Lady Elliot but never graced us with their presence. I could have died a happy man right there.

So right now I’m on the bus to Brisbane where we will fly out to New Zealand in the morning; but first we are going to have a reunion at Irish Murphy’s and see what the city has to offer tonight.  On a side note, I’m looking out my bus window and aside from the fact that we are driving on the other side of the road, I cant help but notice that God spent a little extra time on this part of the world.

Everyone I’ve talked to who has went on this trip told me that New Zealand is by far the better part of the trip. Honestly, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. My mind is still blown from everything that we have done in the past 12 days. I’ve done things that most Australians don’t have the chance to do. The fact that I still have New Zealand, Fiji and Europe to conquer in the next two months makes me believe that I may be the luckiest person in the world.... in the words of Watts Dantzler: #blessed.

By the way, if any of you want to text me or call me, download the Viber App and add me. My number is 7064980945. Earlier in the week I got to talk to some of the boys on the phone and I realized the withdrawals I’m having from the lack of “Bro Time.” I’m sure y’all have become soft since I’m not there to constantly give you a hard time about everything. Don’t worry; I’ll make up for it when I’m home for a few weeks. But by far the happiest I’ve been was getting to talk to my sister for the first time the whole trip. Miss you Brooke! Love you too mom and dad! Don’t freak out when my debit card statement comes through from the scuba diving….  I’m not sure when the next time I’ll be able to post will be; I’m guessing the internet connection in Middle Earth is subpar but I’ve heard great things about the women and extreme sports. Apparently the next week and a half involves riding the trails filmed from Lord of the Rings, fly-fishing in NZ, skydiving, and bungee jumping with an 8 second free-fall. So I’ll be hanging out the in shire with Frodo and the gang over the next two weeks if you need me.

I set out on the trip with a few goals in mind. The first: to meet new people, gain a cultural experience and take a leap of faith. I’ve never really been overly comfortable in water (I generally sink to the bottom), however I’ve done multiple dives over the past week and snorkeled open water with some pretty dangerous critters that could have easily eaten me as a nice entrée, so I guess that required me taking a leap of faith. The next step is to jump out a perfectly good airplane and off a perfectly stable bridge. I’ve met some damn good people that I’ll be friends with the rest of my life and I’ve seen a part of the world that I never thought I’d be lucky enough to see if I hadn’t made this trip happen. So I’d say right now I’m on track to meet these goals. I guess all of those who wander aren’t lost. Stay Classy San Diego.

Dawgs On Top,

-Dustin

P.S. Owen Wilson was right; the toilets do flush backwards in the Southern Hemisphere. It really does freak you out.

Week One. "Livin' in the Land Down Under"

G’day Mates! (in some cases dingoes),

I guess the saying “when in Australia, do as the Aussies” applies to this situation. I hope everyone in the states has been doing well over the past week; I apologize for the delay in my blog posts, however the past few days have been quite chaotic to say the least. First of all, we had a safe trip from the states to the “land down under;” however it was one of the longest days of my life. I flew out of Atlanta last Sunday at 3:30 pm and landed in Dallas/Fort Worth 4:30 (central time). After almost missing my flight, due to poor communication between American Airlines and Air New Zealand, we flew into LAX at 6:00.  So I literally chased the sun the entire day. However the weirdest thing to me was the fact that I never saw the day May 13, 2013; we literally left the states on the 12^th and landed in Brisbane on the 14^th.  But after a 14-hour flight from LAX to Auckland, New Zealand we then connected on another 5-hour flight to Brisbane, finally arriving at 1:00 pm, Brisbane time. Needless to say after watching the show "Lost" I was playing the scenarios in my head 30,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean.

Once we arrived, we hit the ground the running and went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Honestly, I was pretty skeptical about this whole part of the trip at first. I feel like once you’ve been to one zoo or aquarium you’ve seen them all. However I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, the refuge is mainly for the Koalas, but the Kangaroo’s or “Roo’s” took the show. We were able to enter into the field full of rescued and domesticated Roo’s and actually “bro down” with them. It was safe to say I was in my element at this point. Its hard to describe these guys, it was almost like they were similar to deer (very over populated and always causing car accidents in Australia) but there really is nothing that I can compare them to in America.

After the sanctuary, we headed to our hotel that was located in downtown Brisbane where I proceeded to take what I believe to be the greatest shower of all time. Between four different plane rides and the Koalas and Roos, it was safe to say a shower was much needed. From there my two roommates, Sam and Kevin, some sophomore Sigma Chi’s that I’ve grown close to, and I rounded up whoever wanted to explore Brisbane for the night. Needless to say we ended up finding a place called Irish Murphy’s Pub, one of the coolest pubs I’ve ever been to in my life. However let me tell all of you back in Athens who complain about a four dollar beer, imagine paying ten dollars for one. The two nights we spent in here featured two of the best cover bands I’ve ever seen, heavy 90’s rock and classic rock that all of us “yanks” could sing along to. But of course it was limited to "strictly to 80's Joel" and Freebird is frowned upon down here. And yes, when 65 UGA students go abroad someone will find a place to eat after a night downtown. Nevertheless, the one and only Liz Wright sniffed out a Mickey D’s… one of her finest moments in life.

After three days in Brisbane, none of us were too happy to leave and we are already looking forward to our one night there in a few days. From there we headed to Carnarvon Gorge that is located ten hours inland in Queensland (Northeastern Territory of Australia).  We’ve been here for three days and participated in day hikes throughout the gorge, one of which was 10 miles of up and down climbs and hikes; the second was an ascend up Ballomba Bluff for a view that was nothing short of breath taking. Although I did question my sanity as I climbed up a path that was comparable to the path taken into Mordor by Frodo and Sam in that Lord of the Rings movie. Literally. I’m not joking, carrying 240 lbs. up that mountain made Coach T’s stadium runs at Sanford look like a joke--that’s hitting every step Sanford has to offer. At night, it was pretty much the same story. We stayed in a “community” that was similar to the one in “Wanderlust,” minus the nudists and Jennifer Anniston. We slept in what they called “tents” that had beds… bunk beds. Needless to say I wasn’t as happy to sleep in these bunk beds as Dale and Brendan were in “Step Brothers.” I would have rather roughed it outside in a hammock or in an actual tent; I had the mindset that we were doing the real thing.

Overall, the past six days have been some of the best days of my life. We have roughly 36 in our group since we split up in Brisbane and I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know each and every one of these people. Everyone has their own story and different background and this trip has allowed some of the brightest students at UGA to travel halfway around the world and gain a cultural point of view that most people will never experience. I truly regret not having already studied abroad during my early years of college and recommend that if anyone is ever given the opportunity to take a trip like this to not think twice. However I will say that I am glad to call America my home, I enjoy driving on the right side of the road, sweet tea, and a nice rib-eye… although I will say that Kangaroo meat does look like a fillet but tastes like a gamey type of duck; nothing a little Dale’s and Worschershire sauce couldn't fix.

To everyone back home I wish y’all could be here with me, especially you Houston… I’ve needed my wingman, although I’m pretty sure you would have held up the white towel halfway up the mountain today, the same applies to Gazaway and Long.  Talk to you guys soon.

Dawgs On Top,

-Dustin

-P.S. Trying to upload photos on Australian wi-fi is comparable the age of AOL Dial-Up, I'll do my best to upload some on facebook and twitter asap.