Where's Susie?

I saw this strange waterfowl at Piedmont Park, Atlanta.

I was talking to a new coworker. Showing him how to properly photodocument on new job sites.

We're talking about foreign languages and our backgrounds. And I mention....oh my family is french.

He replied "Really?!? I thought you were asian?"

---- Brilliant.

Didn't really want to explain that Vietnam is a french colony or the fact that I'm mixed race. Too much work.

My Mom came to visit me here in Atlanta for Christmas and New Years.

We did all the fun touristy things and cooked heaps of Southern food (cornbread, biscuits, collard greens, green beans, ham hocks, etc).

And we drank beer and wine every night and fell asleep watching My Name is Earl on DVD (one of my mom's favorite shows).

Atlanta was pretty easy to navigate, well since there's actually public transport. We'd take MARTA (the rail and bus system) pretty much everywhere we needed to go. Got all over the city. So I feel well explored now.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

Centennial Olympic Park with a statue of the guy who founded the modern olympics. I think he'd be good at high jump, he's huge!

My mom and fishies. We went to the largest aquarium in the world. The Georgia Aquarium. It has whale sharks, baluga whales, sea otters, penguins, sea lions and much more! But not particularly educational. Just pretty. They don't have signs that say where the fishes are from.

We also visited the CNN center, which was actually alot of fun. Playing with green screens and sitting at the anchor desks.

We also went to the Atlanta Historical Center which has some lovely gardens with native Georgia plants. And lots of civil war history.

I had to drop off my Mom at the airport today, which was so sad. I'll miss having her around, especially having someone to cook with. But to make it even worse, the Atlanta airport was flooded with soldiers being shipped out. Crying kids saying goodbye to their fathers and mothers. Parents saying goodbye to their sons and daughters. I couldn't handle it. Don't die! They're going for no good reason anyways. Atlanta seems to have alot more reminders of wartime than LA did. The culture is just different here.

The guy sitting across from me in the cafe was just talking about how the Holocaust didn't happen.

It has been much too southern this weekend.

I went on a camping trip with the under 30s coworkers. We drove 2-3 hours outside of Atlanta to North Carolina

We sat around the campfire with our hotdogs and smores.

Then we played WildTurkey Hunt. Essentially they tie little shot bottles all around the campsite. You get a partner and try and find as many as possible. When you find one , you have to make Gobble Gobble sounds and then drink it. The winners collect the most bottles. My partner and I only found three . Then gave up and drank Johnny Walker from a flask.

It was a cold night. The ground frosted over while we tried to sleep

our frozen Wild Turkey bottles.

frosty ground

I awoke early cause it was bloody cold

Fungus

the campsite

a trail

waterfall by our campsite

vista point of Blue Valley on the way back. Don't the mountains look blue?

I live across the street from Emory University. They have a lake on their campus with some walking trails.

I flew into Atlanta last night at 6pm.

Sunset from the plane descending into Atlanta

Three of my intern roomates picked up me up and drove me to our house in Decatur. Decatur is a suburb just outside the city. It's very cute. I'm walking distance from the supermarket, a wine store, the ymca and lots of ethnic food. Yay for ethnic food. I had Thai food last night, and it wasn't bad. I found a Vietnamese food place today called Saigon Cafe. They sell all sorts of Pho, but no Banh Mi unfortunately. No Vietnamese desserts either. Lots of Chinese food restaurants. And there's a bit of mexican as well. Including El Bar. Which is an underground bar without a liquour license. Awesome name though. There's even an Indian Spanish fusion restaurant. Curry tapas? I don't know how I feel about that.

Atlanta is beautiful. The trees are red, yellow, orange and green. Full with autumn. The old houses are gorgeous, southern architecture. With their brick and huge verandas.

I went to a "work party" today. Which pretty much means you're a construction worker on the weekends to help work for my stay and for free breakfast and lunch. I work for a non profit sustainable building organization. They're building a new Eco Office. It's very innovative and the organization has won heaps of awards. But it's a non profit organization, so they need lots of volunteers and interns to help with the building. I got my hard hat on, and jumped right in. I held the ladder for people to spray foam insulation. I painted primer and fire retardent. And I sorted the scrap metal, cardboard, and wood. Lots of haulin and a bit of lifting. Quite fun for a first day.

I start my proper orientation on Monday. Looks like I'll be rotating between the office, research, building inspections and construction working.

My street

These neighbours actually bothered to rake up all their leaves.

Me and the street sign

I'm actually in Camarillo. At home for a few days before I'm off on a new adventure, Atlanta.

I'll be uploading photos from the rest of my trip soon. Which includes Swaziland, Thailand and New Zealand.

I've managed to pass through 1 and 1/2 coups. 1 being Thailand (which wasn't noticeable at all) and 1/2 being Fiji, which was impending.

I just ordered a new camera. I can't wait til it comes in the mail!