Dorans Spritual Contemplation # 2 - Stuff

One of the most beautiful aspects i have found from traveling is how light i feel, besides a backpack of clothing and a few electronic devices i own so little, and it is such a beautiful freeing thing to be not tied down by piles of things. Especially sense i use to own mounds of stuff, the contrast to a bare room here is liberating. Finding that i can be quite content with so little makes me realize how unimportant all that stuff is. Especially when i look at the world and it makes me so sad what people fight, and kill each other for. I started one day with a personal challenge, i decided to find one thing to give away each day, be it a piece of clothing i never wore or a book i would never read. whenever i got something new i would give away an extra thing just to balance it all out. Its amazing how the saying a cluttered room leads to a cluttered mind. In the book "the Gospel According to Larry" the mystical Larry only owns 88 things, always giving up one thing when he got something else, this is a bit extreme but the image is beautiful. Give it a try, the less you have the less you hold on to and the freer it all feels even if you are settled in a home, a live and job, we all could do with a little more space.

Max 2 Visited Australia

• Max 2 visted me in Australia
• We Ate and Drank with a cornucopia of international folks
• Max and I were roommates again, we gossiped and told ghost stories late into the nights
• We Made the Blue Mountains our bitch
• Max axed it running while hiking Immediately after shouting "lets do it!" I cried laughing
• We discussed life, history, spirituality and the world with Englishman, Germans, Australians and Finnish
• Talked hours of crap, because no one talks crap better than grandpa and gossip
• Had many a Happy Hour
• Partied like rock stars
• Max got laid
• Wandered the City up and down
• Max went to Tazmania not much happens in Tazmania
• Max pub crawled with all my Australian friends while i had to work
• We laughed, we cried, we punched each other mercilessly
• Got lost in the nature reserve near Manly, i tried to bury max in an old bunker
• Liz fed Max yummy nachos and kabob
• Max went to Ayre's Rock and the outback, not much happens in the outback
• Max ate a Kangroo raw with his bare hands in the desert
• We went to Bondi Beach and saw lots of topless women, max swore he would never leave
• Saw U2, Max's heart exploded when they played "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
• Me and Max hugged it out and cried like school girls when he left
• Max swore he would never leave, Max lied to me and left, his travel took him 37 hours, i laughed till i fell asleep that night thinking about his travel suffering
• Others should visit me here in Australia becuase its beautiful and rocks socks and you have a brilliant

Doran's Spiritual Contemplation # 1

First of all I am not a conventional buddhist, I am just entering a stage in my life where i am finding much more solice in meditation and through more meditation, more contemplation. Through more contemplation and some study im beginning to find wonderful new things that help me love, apprecaite and calm down my life in so many ways, and here are these things.

Take a second out of each day to appreciate something simple. There are a million things we do every day that pass by without notice. It could be as small as enjoying brushing your teeth or feeling the raze of sun as it lands on your face through the bedroom window. The way to begin to simplify our lives and be happier is to appreciate the simple things. The smell of a clean shirt, or the first bite of lunch when your absolutely starving, these are the diamonds of our day that can pull us out of our usuall thought and put us back into the present moment. If you start with appreciating one small thing on monday, and by sunday seven things, you will begin a gradual shift in the way you think. The worst day in the world may still be the worst day in the world, but all through it will be little diamonds of appreciation, sitting down for lunch, petting your dog, or a good cup of Joe. The path to a more peaceful, simple life starts with the first step, I spend alot of time on step one and am in the process of falling very much in love with it.

"Sydney Central YHA, this is Dory speaking"

So I snagged one of coolest jobs a work and traveler could ask for. Receptionist at Sydney Central Yha youth hostel, one of the biggest hostels in the world and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere sporting 550 beds, 8 floors, pool, sauna, cinema, a sweet kitchen, dinning hall, computer area library, conference room, attached restaurant and bar, yep that pimping. I got it by some stroke of luck, I wandered into the hostel with my resume and started a chat with an American girl behind the counter. We were having a chat about Maple Sugar school in Vermont she went and grabbed her manager, and a few weeks and some interviews later and i was working reception, and i could not be happier.

I found myself working with an amazing fun, hilarious cast of international staff, from New Zealand, England, America, Japan, Philippines, Thailand and all over Australia. The job is sometimes quite hard and requires endless patience, dealing with people from across the world. Along with this Job i also got accommodation in an old row house in the Rocks, Sydney's oldest neighborhood directly next to the Sydney Harbor bridge and 5 minute walk from the Opera house. So I have my own space between living with Liz and work, which is another bonus you can stay the night if you work late shifts. To top it off you can stay at any other Yha's in Australia for free, brilliant. However working at a youth hostel has its down parts, to much drinking all the time, dangerous on health and bank account.

American football with a bunch of Buddhists

sense being in Sydney ive spent alot of time meditating. I think i really needed to start sitting with other people so i found the Sydney Buddhist Center. It is a lovely peaceful place in new town that i started going to once or twice a week to sit for an hour and talk Buddhism. I am only one a few people under 30, and the mens sitting night is an especially funny one because around 25-30 peaceful dudes get together, chant a bit, meditate, eat some snack drink some tea and talk Buddhism. Overall a really amazing peaceful experience and defiantly a humorous one, as they are some peaceful down to earth Buddhists, but they still like Rugby, Cricket, cars going for a drink and even American football. After a few weeks of being there another American guy Ratana (his Buddhist name) comes up to me invites me to watch a game with him a few other guys, they tape the games Monday morning and watch next Friday. So i sat down with another Amercian, a Irish guy and an Australian to drink a few beers, eat pizza and watch American football in Sydney.

ps - I will also start posting some of my latest Buddhist thoughts for those interested, its amazing what sitting a few hours every week will open up, i feel like a spring that had been to tightly ravelled my whole life and is starting to finally unwinding, its a beautiful thing, if your looking for some, space, peace and happiness in your life, concentrate on your breath. Once you find it, you wont be able to go back.

a Haircut from my gay, tall, overweight, Korean male hair dresser Eddie

I went to get a 10 dollar haircut in china town and because i was told they were not to bad. I sat down with Eddie, a funny quite gay, tall, overweight Korean man with a funny as hairdo. He didnt say much, but when i told him i wanted my hair natural shaggy he said. "your hair ok, dont cut to short or you look stupid."

Thanks Eddie

ps - he did give a very nice cut, i will probably go back there as i find his no nonsense haircutting attitude refreshing

Three Sisters, a Sweed and two Americans are walking through the mountians

So me my new Swedish friend Yasper, and my American friend Matt decide to take a trip up to the blue mountains, and Katoomba the grand canyon of Australia and considered one of the top spots in all of Australia to visit. I was still waiting to hear about work and thought a few days of hiking would be sweetness. We roll in to Katoomba and find the funkiest of all little hostels called the Flying Fox. It only had about 35 beds, but it felt like Vermont, The living room was attired with a fireplace big confy hippy couches, and cushions, Tapestries, there was also guitars and didgeridoos sitting around for folks to play. We fell in love with the place on the spot and spent most evenings drinking wine and playing cards with the various internationals and the boat load of Germans that were living and working there. Day one lent itself to me and Yasper, a funny Sweed with an Irish accent hiking down through the Australian grand canyon in Katoomba by the famed three sister rock formations. The beauty of the place was amazing, and every turn lent itself to an entire different form of terrain, one turn rainforest the next rock desert, the next mountiany cliffs, we spent the whole time our gawking at the fricken beauty and by the end of the day we had hiked around 18 km's.

Day two brought us our new german friends Christian and Johanna and there new car Suzy. we all piled into Suzy and found Hanging rock, which is on the cover of Lonely Plant, holy crap is that black crazy, its a jutting rock hanging over nothing, and you have to jump a crack to get to it but oh man is it amazing! After our bonding session I kicked it to see a funk band with a rag tag international crew of An English girl, Canadian guy, Three Japanese, eight Germans a guy from Israel and a handful of Aussi's wow. We danced our pants off and when i got back to the hostel
Yasper, Matt, Christian and Johanna decided they were going to drive Suzy across the whole country. I quite poor, hung over and a tad jealous of there soon to be adventure went back to Sydney for a job interview and said goodbye to my new friends, but no worries they will show up again.


Overall Blue Mountains = Rock my fricken socks off, if you don't go your a silly nanny

Im a bad Blogger but i promise ill change

To all my friends and family who stumble across my blogs, im sorry i am such a bad blogger, i promise to change and i promise i will not be a religious every day blogger because i wouldnt want to read about what i do daily, but the good stories you will get, the next few will be catch up blogs but oh boy are they good. =)

Manly

Only a few days after the LowenBrau experience, I decided to spend a few days hanging out in Manly, one of the two amazing beaches within the boundaries of Sydney. My friend Arron said that his mom lived in Manly and that he would take me there and show me around the place. I could not have asked for a better guide, he drove me around we ate some delicious burgers then he took me to a sweet spot to go snorkeling. My first snorkel experience in Australia was absolutely amazing complete with schools of multi-colour fish, baby sharks and giant blue fish who I can never remember the name of. I someone who use to be scared to death of even being in water was floating surround by all this natural beauty. I stay a few more days in Manly and found myself one of those nights eating dinner with a host of foreigners, a guy from Sweden, two girls from Finland, Two Englishmen, a girl from the Netherlands. Sitting around a table talking and making friends which such people from across the world is one of the reasons I love traveling so much. The next day I went for a hike in the Nature reserve around manly which is also an old military base, and I found some of the most peaceful and serene spots I have found so far in Australia. I spent time meditating underneath a rock overhang looking out at the ocean and also met another American name Matt and his aunt who were also out for a hike. Me and Matt became fast friends and talked plans to do some traveling down the line. Beautiful sites and good people make the world go round.

Aran’s Birthday trip to Germany

Liz’s good friend Lisa’s boyfriend Aran had a sweet as birthday party that took place at the beautiful German drinking hall in the rocks known as the LowenBrau, a place of excellent German beer. They serve these beers in Giant steins in the style of German beer halls and all the waitresses and waiters wear the traditional garb. This is an amazing place to have a birthday and also a very amazing place to spend all your money and end up rather inebriated. The night began with a whole crowd of us showing up, our numbers easily in the 20’s, and by the end of the night the majority of our crew had either been kicked out or cut off with only five or six of us remaining.

Newcastle and Kangaroo’s

I made a sweet trip up the coast to Peggy’s home near Newcastle Australia. Now Newcastle gets bagged out a lot for being a working class city, but Newcastle rocks! I mean it has beautiful as hell beaches, and plenty of funky hotels for everyone (for you non Australians most bars are called hotels because they use to be both). So I shimmied myself on up to the coast and me and Peggy went to the beach. Now the pictures you see of Australia being beautiful beaches or beautiful cliffs all along the whole country is pretty much true. He not only stopped by some gorgeous sand beaches, didn’t chill to long as it was fricken freezing and then climbed down some cliffs to play on the rocks. Day two of adventures with Peggsters took us to the mental hospital. Well not really the mental hospital but the nature reserve that surrounded it. I told her I had wanted to feed kangaroos so off to feed kangaroos we went. The kangaroos on the nature reserve run wild and there are heaps of them, but us in Peggy’s car armed with a loaf of bread went off to find them. We first found ourselves quite lost and did our first off roading on some silly as dirt barely roads in Pegs low ride car. Somehow after surviving this we became lost of back roads, and only after seing a bus with special written on it did we realize we had finally found the nature reserve through some back door secret entrance to the mental hospital nature reserve.

It was quite beautiful with a lake and many a kangaroo just chilling. We first fed just a few but Peggy being quite small got scared and decided to stay in the car. Kangaroos as it turns out are a bit more frightening in person , as they are much bigger than one thinks and are known to mess you up if provoked, and the male Kangaroos look like male body builders. We then made our way to the big spot where they all hang out.

Usually there is a lot of people who go to feed them but this being a slightly crap weather day we were the only ones. I proceed to step out of the car and slowly the horde began to surround me and my bread. First one, then three, then ten, and I had to keep getting reloads of bread through the window from Peggy. Before not to long I go for another piece of bread to feed the masses and Peggy informs me that I had just used the last piece of bread. The Kangaroos all seem to have heard this at the same time and start climbing on me as if maybe I had one more piece hidden in a back pocket, I climb in the car and they proceed to surround the car like an angry mob and one tries climbing in the window! This scene with Peggy shouting and reversing the car, me laughing and trying to roll up the window and a Kangaroos hanging out of that same passengers side window was a ridiculous picture at best, and I really hope that we brought some amusement to the residence of the mental institution watching. Stay tuned for the next adventures of Peggsters and Doran Danger as they wander the land causing a ruckious!

The life of Scooping

I am far in the past with these posts as ive been a lazy boy but they will catch up with the present soon i promise

For a little over a week I was the only Vermonter to work for Ben and Jerry’s in the country of Australia, which I took as a point of great pride until I realize I was working a hoax. It was all a sad conspiracy using the amazing wonderful Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream as a scape goat. There is two Ben and Jerry’s shops in Sydney, one is a bit far away looking at the beach, with a staff of 20 and a total sweet small shop feel, and then there was the one I was working at in the mall attached to the giant franchise imax movie theatre that dominates Australia known as Hoyts. Now Hoyts had a staff of around 150 people and I became one of them under the Ben and Jerry’s guise, and the majority of these staff were 18 or under besides the managers who were mostly over thirty. And there I was selling the best ice cream on earth at horrendously expensive prices with a bunch of 16 year olds, not exactly the dream job of the year. This coupled with a few weeks of excellent sickness ended my brief history making stent with Ben and Jerry’s of Australia.

Peggy, Dory and one of the best scavenger hunts ever

Peggy came from Newcastle to visit me in Sydney! Pegsters and I go all the way back to the Mcla theatre department. She worked in New York and then came down to Australia with a year work and travel visa. With the amount of silly experiences we have gone through, I knew we would get into sillines, but didn’t expect this. We were going to go to the zoo, but didn’t feel like shelling out the cash so somehow the idea of a scavenger hunt came up. We didn’t want to choose the stuff ourselves our do one of the pre-planned scavenger hunts so we texted everyone we had in our phones and came up with a list of 30 places, people and rules we had to follow and we gave ourselves 6 hours to do it, here is what we got texted to us:

Sydney Opera House

Yellow Boat Taxi

Clown face

Person with purple hair

Coke sign at Kings Cross

Get tattoos

A prostitute

Red Oak Brewery

Photo entering the tool shed on Oxford St.

Sweet Car

War Memorial in Hyde Park

Miss Meggories Chair

Women with a tramp stamp

Someone topless in a Santa hat

Birds eye view of the city

Ants eye view of the city

Get someone to lead us to one of our goals

Emu and Kangaroo in the City

Always at least one of us in each shot

Manhole covers with historical info on them

Must drink in each pub we enter

Warf #3 signpost at Circler Quay

Get someone to give us a hug

Center Point Tower

Queen Victoria Building

An old pub at the rocks

A Happy hour

Luna Park

We found and photographed everything but someone topless in a Santa Hat, Get tattoos and a woman with a tramp stamp. By the end of the six hours we were decently drunk, had tramped across the city, gotten an old lady to help us friend a prostitute, been hugged by a guy from a bar, and even bought temporary tattoos that turned out to not work 6 minutes before our time expired. After we went out and got a bit pissed with a bunch of good aussi folks to celebrate our achievments, not a bad day in oz.

The Neighbourhood

After a few days of bumming around with Liz I moved into with her into her new apartment with her housemates Kyle and Carlee on Abercrombie street in Chippendale. Little did we know that it was directly across from Everliegh street, one of the most notorious drug street s in all of Sydney. We were also a 5 minute walk from Redfern station, an excellent centrally located place only a stop from central, but also known as one of the most violent stations in all of Sydney and its located next to a police station, wow. This all said I feel far safer here than I recon I would in a tough neighbourhood in the states because:

A) they don’t have guns here

B) I recon I could out run a lot of folks

C) I don’t own much so I dont have much to steal

D) im not a tough looking male so other males may not see the excitement in fighting me

This being said the neighbourhood on the other side of us and the street we are living on is really nice, we are locate 5 minutes from Sydney University a hustling throng of young college students and home to at least 20,000 of them, as well as the neat neighbourhood of Chippendale, its funky, a bit quite lots of nice, cute row houses and has some excellent coffee shops and little spots tucked in to explore. I adopted one coffee shop, The Shortlist as my local place because they have a decent cup of Joe, it reminds me of Mocha Joes, funky tables and decore, super awesome friendly staff and they have wireless internet. I made a point of getting to know all the chill staff and visit a bunch so I can be a regular. I Hung out the other day after they closed and they offered me a beer and made me a member of the “Mine” game which if you manage to get anyone else playing to say the word “Mine” they must do 10 push ups. I am currently 0-2 and feel my mad muscles coming in as I don’t know if I am witty enough with word games to trick the veteran staff, wont stop me from trying though.

Australians like to drink

I think this post speaks for itself

a girl

We hugged in the airport

We went on a high end cruise around Sydney harbor, drank champagne, danced like idiots, ate great food.

We have not seen each other in 13 months

Dr Suess

And here how i felt leaving for this insanity they call traveling:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

Ill do a bunch super fast to catch you up on the silliness but what better way to start off looking at that thing you call life