51 Days and Counting...

Wow...alot has happened in the past few weeks and that is why I haven't updated this site. Where to begin. I started my new job last Monday and so far so good. I was at the bank last Monday and Tuesday and then from Wednesday to Friday I was in Lincoln for training. One thing I have noticed on the Bank side of Wells Fargo is the amount of training they put you through. I never went through this much training on the Financial side. I will be in and out of training all the way to the end of January. I guess that isn't such a bad thing. I'm getting paid to learn something and travel to Lincoln!

Anyways...two weekends ago I went down to Maryville for the semifinal game against Grand Valley State. This team has beaten us in the last two (2005 & 2006) championship games so we were ready for our revenge. Some of my buddies and I started tailgating at 2pm on that Saturday afternoon and the temperature was around 15 degrees. Boy was it a cold one! We had a fire pit going and were drinking some juice mixed with vodka. Yum!!! Normally I don't drink Vodka but this was a special occasion. haha! Needless to say I wasn't too cold but there were times that we all looked at each other and asked, "Why in the hell are we out here this early when the game doesn't start until 8pm." But that is the dedication we have to our football team and it also adds to the fact that we are crazy at times! We were the only ones out there which added to the insaneness. When we got in the game it was crazy and the fans never let up as we went on to beat the 2 time defending national champs, 34-16! The Bearcat fans stormed the field and tore down the two goal posts in no time at all. The fans then picked the posts up and carried them to a few of the local bars in town BUT first they dropped them into the iced over Colden Pond. One guy fell through the ice but don't worry it was only a few feet deep and he was pulled out quickly. Although, the posts never broke the ice. The fans then chanted, "To the bars!" So, I helped pick one of the posts up and we carried them up 4th street and towards Town Square where we dropped one of the posts off at The Pub and out of the corner of my eye I saw the other goal post being carried so my buddies and I followed. This post ended up in front of Burny's Bar and shortly after the Grand Valley fan bus drove by and we waived our flags and cheered at the top of what was left of our lungs. At this point in the night my voice was gone, I was exhausted and my head hurt. Some said before the game that if we win, we would party all night long but once that came a reality most of us went home and went to bed. But it wouldn't be a complete night in Maryville until we went to McDonald's. After stopping by McDonald's we went back to my buddy's house and talked about the game. We all were shocked that we just had beaten a team who had won each of its 40 previous games. That's right, they were on a 40 game winning streak before we beat them. This was a dream come true for Bearcat Country but the dream wouldn't last long. We advanced to the finals for the 3rd consecutive year and for the 3rd straight year we were denied a championship. Valdosta State defeated the Bearcats, 25-20 in the final seconds of the game. We ended a great season at 12-2 but the season wasn't completely finished. The championship that was much deserve wasn't won but this team overcame odds that questioned if they wouldn't even make it past the second round or win a few nail biting games during the regular season. But one thing is certain and that is there is always next season and we still have a championship game to win!!! Go Bearcats!!! Let's go after it next season!

Just a few quick notes on the trip to Australia. The days are counting down quickly and it will be here before I know it. I'm still really looking forward to it! My buddy and I are thinking of going to Tasmania when I am over there. It's just a few hour plane ride south of Sydney and there is lots to do over there. This is still in the planning stages so nothing is set in stone. It would be a great trip to do. There is not much to talk about at this point and I anticipate there will be alot to talk about after the first of the year. With that being said I won't be updating this until after the first of the year. Everyone take care!!!

That's all for now!

The Definition of Insane...

Yesterday I was curious how much a First Class ticket would be because I was debating on possibly upgrading depending on how much it was. I checked the Qantas website and I was shocked at how much it was!!! 17 GRAND for a round trip ticket!!! Are you kidding me??? That's insane! On the left hand side of this page I've included a list of links related to my trip and when you have time, check out the different travel classes the airline has. Go to the Qantas link, click on "Flying With Us" at the top of the page and then click on "Travel Classes" and then click on "First". You will then see what kind of accomadations a First Class ticket will receive. Even after looking over everything, it didn't convince me to go broke over a airline ticket.

That's all for now!!!

70 Days and Counting...

The time is certainly flying by fast and it almost seems like yesterday when I bought my ticket. My Mom and I were driving to Little Rock, Arkansas in July of this year when I made the call to STA Travel to purchase my ticket to the land down under! Fun times!

So I've been thinking about ways to keep myself occupied during my 14 1/2 hour flight to Sydney. I've always wanted a portable DVD player but the battery will die before my reach my destination. I checked the airlines website to see if they have A/V outputs by the seats but they are only in First and Business Class. Darn! My ticket is in Economy Class. I may just have to break down and pay for a movie or two along the way or read a book or magazine. I could always sleep but I don't know how successful that will be. I think I will be so excited that I won't be able to put myself to sleep. However, my flight leaves at 11:45pm and I will be exhausted from all the running around I did during that day so who knows. It will be interesting to find out. Who knows, maybe I will meet a hot Aussie girl and we will have endless conversations to keep me occupied. Wouldn't that be something! haha! I will have a full report in my first blog entry once I land in Sydney.

This is my last week at this job before I head over to the bank. I will be on PTO from next Tuesday to Friday and then start on the following Monday at the Bank. I'm excited to start this new chapter in my life! In other news, the Bearcats beat West Texas A&M in the 2nd round of playoffs last weekend and will travel to Chadron this weekend. If we win against Chadron then we will play the winner of Grand Valley/Central Washington game and I will most definately be going to that game. I predict NW to win 35 to 21 over Chadron! Go Bearcats!!!

I still have awhile until my trip but starting in December I will start tanning so I don't fry when I get over there. I mean who wants to see a white pasty American on the beach? Probably no one! Haha!

That's all for now!!!

79 Days and Counting...

I apologize that I am one day off...this post was suppose to come yesterday but I simply forgot to write something. There isn't much new other than I sent STA Travel my old ticket so they could send me a new one. I went to the post office here in Council Bluffs, IA last Wednesday to send the ticket via Express mail so it would get to them by Thursday. It cost $16.25 to overnight something of that weight (which wasn't more than 5 ounces). So this change in flight has cost me a total of $51.25! Not bad but this cost could have been avoided if I would have planned right in the beginning. Oh well...it's done and there's no turning back now!

I was curious about how my American Express credit card works overseas so I called them up to see what they charged. I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to get hosed with international service fees. The guy said they charge 2% of whatever you charge. So...if I spend $2000 in Australia they will charge me $40 in service fees. That's not bad since I have 0% interest until June/2008. I will be giving them another call back in January just to make sure this guy gave me the right information. You never can be sure about these credit card companies...they are fishy at times.

Other news in my life: I put in my two weeks notice to my managers last week after I was offered a job at Wells Fargo Bank in Bellevue, NE as a Personal Banker. I'm pretty excited for the new position and looking forward to start training on December 12th. My official first day at the bank is on December 10th and I will have to drive to Lincoln, NE everyday for training. However, I think it's only a few days a week for 6-8 weeks so not bad. Eventhough I changed jobs they are still allowing me to take 2 1/2 weeks off of work for this trip to Arizona/Australia! The day's are flying by and with the holidays fast approaching it won't be long now until I'm boarding that Boeing 747 jumbo jet en route to Sydney!!!


That's all for now!

Change in Plans...

Last week I got to thinking about possibly staying an additional day with Garett in Sydney. This morning I called the travel agency to see how much it would be to change my flight. I talked to a guy and he said it would be $35 to switch my departure from Sydney to a day later. Personally, I didn't think that was bad (expensive) at all. I was thinking it would be way more than that. The down side to this switch is that I'm going to be extremely tired for work on Monday morning since I'm coming back on Sunday instead of Saturday. My original plan was to use Sunday to rest from my long trip back which will be around 19 hrs of flying. But I keep telling myself that this might be my only chance to go to Australia so I better make the most of it. So...I had the guy switch my departure to Sunday, Feb 24th at 12:00pm and I would arrive LAX at 6:30am the same day. In order to guarantee this change, I have to mail my original ticket that I received from STA Travel within the next few days so they can issue me a new ticket. Tomorrow morning I plan to stop by the post office to send the ticket back to them!

That's all for now!

90 Days and Counting...

I'm going to write something on every 10th day until I leave for my trip. Soooo...I'm starting with 90 days til departure and that means 3 months until I board my Southwest flight en route to Phoenix. There probably won't be much to say until about 40 days out but regardless I'm looking forward to my trip even though its still many days away. I talked to Garett the other morning for awhile but then something happened and we got disconnected. He called me around 8:30am CST (my time) and it was 1:30am (the next day) Australian time. He said he couldn't sleep. Garett emailed me after that to say that he ran out of minutes on his calling card. I was telling a good story when all this happened so he will just have to wait until next time! haha!

What else is going on in my life right now: This weekend I'm going down to Maryville, Mo with my Mom to watch Northwest Missouri play Missouri Southern in a football game. It's their last regular season game before playoffs. Go Bearcats!

Still to come in upcoming posts:

• What I plan to do while I'm over there
• Final preparations before I leave
• Day to Day Journal of my adventures in the land down under
• A complete financial analysis of my trip
• Plus more...
  

That's all for now!

Visa and Passport

Just some quick info on getting a Visa to travel . Australia is a country that requires tourist to have a touring Visa while you are visiting their country. So, I went ahead and got one set up recently even though I'm not leaving until February. Unlike the passport that may take several weeks to get, this is a simple process and most of the time can be processed and completed in the same day. The travel agency I purchased my ticket through (STA Travel) processes your Visa's for free with the purchase of a flight but if your travel agency doesn't offer this service then they are around $20-$60 and can be purchased from various travel companies. I faxed STA a copy of the inside cover of my passport with my personal information on it and they did everything for me. Pretty smooth! When I first heard that I needed a Visa, I asked someone, "I have a visa card with Wells Fargo so why do I need another one???" And, I quickly found out that this was not the same type of Visa as a credit card. DUH!!!

The only other item that I will need to leave the States and enter Australia is a Passport which I already have from my trip to Cancun earlier this year. These can run around $90 to $200, (includes all costs: shipping, two photo's from Walgreen's, and that actual cost to get one) depending on if you expedite it or not. I had to expedite mine since I ordered mine at the last minute before my trip to Mexico. These can be ordered at your local Post Office and take up to 3 months depending on the demand.

I just checked the countdown and only 99 more days until I depart to Phoenix and 101 til Australia. It will be here before I know it!

So far this Trip has a value at:

• Ticket from Omaha to Phoenix to Los Angeles and back - $364
• Ticket from Los Angeles to Australia and back - $1407
• Travel Insurance coverage for 14 days - $80
• Student ID card - $20
• Touring Visa - $0
• Passport - $0 (already have one)
• Total expenses so far - $1871

So it begins...

Well, the biggest trip of my life is almost here and I plan on making it huge!!! My buddy Garett is over in Sydney, Australia (AU) now for an internship for 3 months and then he's traveling around that region of the world for 4 months. He left the States towards the end of July to spend a week in Fiji before he finally arrived in Sydney and won't return to Omaha til March 2nd. But first allow me to back up a few steps in this process. When he first told me he was going to Sydney for 7 months I thought to myself what a great opportunity for him and the experience he will gain is priceless. When I was in college, I always wanted to study abroad but never made it a priority to make the arrangements. And then time got away from me and before I knew it, my college days were over. :( And it almost seems impossible to experience something like that at this point in my life but I guess never say never. So, back to my point here. Since Garett was going to be in AU. (I've always wanted to visit) I thought to myself why not make a trip out of it. After talking with him about it, he agreed that it would be a great idea for me to come visit him. This was all happening back in April and May/2007.

Here is some more info about the planning of my trip to AU. Garett graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, IA in May/2007 and I attended his graduation party at his Mom's house in Omaha in May. Now the question was, when do I come visit him? I checked on prices in January/2008 and the plane tickets from Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Sydney, AU were running around $2000+ roundtrip. YIKES!!! Now I was kinda freaking out because I didn't know how I was going to afford this trip by spending that kind of money just on the plane ticket. Next I check the ticket fares in February/2008. Much to my surprise they were around $600 cheaper. This is because January is a prime vacation time in AU and it's their summer season too. Ok, now I wasn't freaking out so much anymore knowing that the tickets weren't going to cost me 2 grand but regardless still a good chunk of change! I mostly checked the major airlines websites and STA Travel (Garett bought his plane tickets from this student travel agency). I did call Travel and Transport in Omaha, NE to see what they could offer me but I never got a call back from them. I talked to a lady there and gave her the dates of when I would be leaving and arriving but I guess she got busy and forgot about me. Oh well, I highly doubt they could of beat the deal I got from STA Travel but I thought it was worth a try to see what the local company could do. Now was the time to decide when I was going to make my journey to the land down under and for how long. For some reason 2 weeks struck me as the right amount of time to spend over there since it is a 14 hr flight from LAX. And beings there's so much to do in AU, I figured I better make the most of it because who knows when and if I will go back there. So the dates were set: I am leaving from LAX on February 8th and returning to the states on February 23rd, 2008. But before I leave the states for just the third time in my life I will leave Omaha after I get off work on February 6th and head to Phoenix, AZ to visit my Uncle Dan. I will spend a few days in Phoenix before I make my way to Los Angeles to board my flight to AU. I purchased my plane ticket from STA Travel and bought some travel insurance in case the airline were to lose my luggage, have to be evacuated from AU for some major reason or get sick (since my American health insurance won't work over there). The ticket from LAX to AU cost me $1507 (includes travel insurance) which isn't bad considering it's a 14 hr trip there and half way around the world. =) Before I purchased my ticket, I applied for an American Express Blue card and got 0% for 12 months so I could pay it off within 12 months without paying any interest. I did this because I didn't have that kind of money off hand so I thought this would be a smart way to finance my trip without paying any more than I have to.


Here is my tentative flight itinerary for my trip to and from AU:

• Feb 6th: Depart Omaha @ 8:05pm and arriving Phoenix @ 10:00pm
• Feb 8th: Depart Phoenix @ 6:45pm and arriving Los Angeles @ 7:05pm and departing Los Angeles @ 11:45pm
• Feb 10th: Arrive Sydney @ 9:15am (I will never see Feb 9th, 2008 because of the time difference)
• Feb 23rd: Depart Sydney @ 12:00pm and arriving Los Angeles @ 6:30am and departing Los Angeles @ 10:50am and arriving Omaha @ 5:50pm