No Time To Worry, Just To Act

I've been keeping up a hectic travel pace for quite awhile now. The last time I had some serious time when I was in Melbourne 6 weeks ago. Since then I took a 3700 mile road trip across to Western Australia, checked out Perth, worked in the vineyards for a month, met a whole group of Taiwanese people and learned some Mandarin, had an awesome conversation with a pretty girl on my flight back to Melbourne, hung out with Danny, Lorraine, and Angie for some crazy adventures, and I'm leaving again in 15 minutes in a rental van with an Australian girl I met for the first time last night, bound for a 3 day music festival and then onwards to a roadtrip with unknown destinations.

Geez, how I do even start to explain and record all of these stories? They are stacking up faster than I can ever hope to write them but it's still important to get the whole experience down. I'll have to be diligent about writing by hand and hope to get it online at some point in the future.

For now, I can tell about some of my highlights. In Manjimup, I integrated into the Eastern culture of the Taiwanese and really got a feel for their style of thought. I actually felt some culture shock coming back to Western life. We are so much colder than they are. I have been looking to spread the Burning Man spirit of generousity and love for all beings but I found that the precepts that I hold most valuable are ones that have been a part of Eastern life for thousands of years. They understand that the body and everything else is made of energy and their medicine reflects that knowledge. They are aware that anything is easier if you work together to achieve it. They know that if you give to someone in your community and support each other, they will support you in turn when trouble knocks at your door. I've taken so many things from just 20 of them in one month in Australia. I can't wait to live there and be immersed in it.

I'm serious about learning Mandarin. My best friend from Manjimup, Dillon, is flying to Melbourne in 2 weeks to meet me and we'll be traveling from then on. With his help and my hard work, I think I will be able to speak Mandarin by the time I leave in June. I will be helping him with English as well and I think he will dramatically improve. Dillon is one of the most genuine people I've ever met. We are very different from each other but our core values are the same. We compliment each other well because we have opposite strengths and weaknesses. Both of us have the patience to teach and are passionate about learning and each of us has extensive knowledge that the other does not possess. Some of them got together to host a farewell dinner for me and I was really touched by it. I gave many presents to them and received many as well. Fema made me an awesome "Finch" stamp so that I could leave a unique mark on the travel books of the people I meet in the future. Dillon gave me the most meaningful present that I've ever received in my life and it brought tears to my eyes. He made me a 10 page picturebook/letter in Mandarin, with an English translation, complete with pictures from my time at the hostel. We hung out all the time and he told me he wasn't able to work on it until I went to bed so he had sacrified sleep the entire last week to put it together. We studied until 3am the night before we parted ways, listening to the Billy Joel concert across the street.

Gotta go now. My ride is here. I hope to update more soon.