Born To Be

Being a backpacker and meeting all these people from all over the world has its perks and its downsides. I love meeting new people but at the same time I am terrorised for getting to know them too much that it will be hard for me to say goodbye, life brings you many surprises and one of those was meeting these group of couple from Perth, whom I love and every time I see them it reminisces the wonderful experience of my life back in Perth. It took me a while to get over it, after we all went different ways I was so full of emotions and I just wanted time to stop and go back and enjoy more, the things is I always beat myself for not doing more and regretting that I could have done more, even thought I did a lot but I always ask too much from me. I always wondered if I did enough and it is a bad thing to do but, it is something I have to learn to let control and give myself a break and let go of those feelings. I have to forgive myself for not enjoying more out of it and that I am a human who makes mistakes and somehow learn to channel this feelings through writing because this makes me believe that someday I will read this and somehow it will tell me that I did great in Australia and that I didn’t do nothing wrong and If I could do it again, I will not want to change anything. I am learning to control this feeling of sadness because no matter what people say to you to make you feel better, it will not be fine because it isn’t easy to say goodbye and it doesn’t get easier the more you do it, in fact it feels the same way as the first time if not worse. Yesterday was a great day, I saw one of my old buddy from Perth, we had a great time partying and drinking, and catching up, but today, saying goodbye was kind of surreal because somehow I was fine but then as the time passed, the idea started to sink in, it is goodbye for good, even thought we will or might see each other in the future, it is something that none of us can guarantee that because life is so unpredictable, saying goodbies is always gutting. I do miss my friend, Manuel wherever you are, you will always be remembered as the wonderful person that I met in Perth. We had so much fun and thanks for being there because Perth wouldn’t be the same without you and Benoit. It was great meeting Manuel, the Italian speaking German, and Benoit, the French guy who can be as sarcastic as a great Parisian without sounding too arrogant. Hopefully I will see Benoit before he leaves Australia, but at the same time I wish the opposite because seeing them again will meant saying goodbyes which is the part that I dread. Meeting people is addictive, is like an addiction with a bad hangover. Somehow I will be fine, because time always heal the wounded soul.

Baby Toy

I am thrilled with my new toy, after all what happened in Brazil, I went out to get a new toy for me to play with. I am tired of using the internet cafe and not be able to use my own computer. After shopping for like a week, I have found this nice Asus, which was cheaper than buying at those big brand retail stores. It was in Sydney where I have spotted this X85SE, now codenamed T6, since we are nearing the end of the financial year in Australia, things are at bargain, they are cheap and you get claim tax back so it was cheaper if you take the tax money out and in a few days I will be lodging my tax returns so I am really excited about this month, especially the end of this months, next month I am definitely going to get a real job and hopefully tomorrow I will finish my first story, which is almost finished but I need to brush the story and make sure it goes smoothly because I don’t want a story that nobody will understand it.

Boxed Entertainment

This is what I have been missing, the ability to walk around the city and explore its beauty without the fear of being rob, I don’t know whether I should have believe what people told me about Brazil but to tell you the truth, I have been robbed so after that it is different. I didn’t feel like going out and taking pictures because I didn’t want to lose my camera.

In Australia I don’t have that fear, I can walk around and take as many pictures as I please and really nobody would even care. I was roaming the street this Saturday and I found these mountains of boxed wine, something that you can’t find anywhere in the world, even though it is cheap, as you might guessed is not the best quality but with this GFC, as someone pointed out recently which means global financial crisis, the price for this 4 litre box is really a bargain, to be able to get pissed and not spend a huge amount of money isn’t a bad idea, especially for backpackers. I do have to warn you that the hangover is brutal but you will get used to it. I did but I guess I drink anything these days.

Walking around Sydney was pleasant but mind you that I go to the same place every day that it has become my routine plus it is not that far and I would rather save 4.40 dollars and do some exercise than spend like 40 minutes waiting for the train, I mean it takes me 30 minutes to go back and forth walking to Town Hall and is faster than the train, I don’t have to wait and it’s really not that far, like 2 stops, come on people, walking is really interesting. I get to see funny staff while I listen to my songs from my old Ipod

I forgot to tell you that last week was the launch of iphone and I happened to be there because Aerolineas Argentina’s office was near there and I did get to check out the phone, it is neat but a bit expensive, like very expensive and with this GFC I can’t have the luxury to spend on an iphone plus I like my Nokias so all I could do was play some games at the Mac store and go home, I do this almost everyday. Life is so interesting when you live in Sydney

This picture made me laugh, it is really smart and funny, at first I thought it was a bird who had the unfortunate luck in running thought this add but if you take a closer look, it is just a fake bird. Ha funny eh?

Better Ones

The good thing that came out of it, like going to their office was that I got to meet the people who actually care about their customer, I met this receptionist, her name was Vanessa and we chatted in Spanish in which she told me all these stories about ground staff at the airports and all the baggage handler and things that could go wrong, she was nice and told me to keep fighting with them, even thought I have to make a scene or more, I hve to do it, they won’t cry because they don’t really care. She seemed to care and she wished me good luck and I wished her the best at work. There are good people who works there and they know how their system works and I do appreciate that, so even thought I am talking bad things about Aerolineas I do have to tell you that there are good people there as well as useless one so hopefully the good ones get promoted and weeds out the bad ones, but usually the good ones don’t last long and quit and the bad ones stays and gets promoted and that is how it works in the in the real world.

Banged Baggage

Once I got back to my hostel I realized that my backpack had a cut, that pissed me off so badly because the bag is not even 1 year old and it is now broken, I called the airlines and they were busy and called their office and was told that the reason why I didn’t tell them when I was at the airport was that I was tired and too stressed, well I told him that I had a long day, after I got back I went to get my New Zealand Visa sorted and then I had to shower because I smelled so badly and after that I checked my bag and saw the damage, they told me that they were going to call me that day or the next. I waited and I went to their office the next day, well and spoke to this guy who seemed nice but kept telling me that he can’t do anything and that I have to take it to the airport and since he can’t see my bag, which I didn’t bring it, that he can’t help me but he can fill the report. The next day which is today I went there again because we arranged to meet at his office and check the damage of my bag, so I got the earliest possible like 9 in the morning and I swear that this guy is mental, trying to bully me and telling me that if I wanted to get it done ASAP I had to take it to the airport even thought he told me that I could take it there but then tells me that usually they don’t deal with this type of problems, kind of mental, he told me few things yesterday and then he changed and tells me different things today and he did that a few times yesterday and tells me he can't remember telling me some stuffs, so now he is telling me that I should take it to the airport, well I told him that I was flying next Friday and that I need it to be fixed by then. He tells me that if I wanted that to happen that I should take it to the airport myself, I told him that was a blackmail because one it would have cost me 30 bucks extra to go back and forth to the airport and the time it would have taken me to get there back and forth and what was the point if I had to pay that I might as well pay for someone to fix it and he can’t tell me that now because I have already brought my bag to him, which is like why did you make me bring the bag for you if you are going to tell me that and he knew that I was flying next Friday because I did tell him that the day I first me with him. That guy is a funny and sneaky person, so after I said that he was blackmailing me he kind of raised his voice and told me that he wasn’t going to “help me out” which I said fine but I wanted to speak to his boss, in which he replied he isn’t in the office and I asked him when was he coming, I knew his name was Oscar and that I got his name through other channels, too much 24, he tells me that he doesn’t know because he isn’t going to ask that kind of question to his superior, well I said fine you are working for him and you can’t ask that question because he outranks you but I can, he ain’t my boss and I am his customer so he kind of left me there for a while, he seemed to be asking other people and he wasn’t happy with me being there, he wanted me to go home but I am a persistent so I waited like 10 minutes and he showed up. I told him the whole thing in Spanish which somehow the sneaky guy started to show more interest in my case and started to be nicer again right in front of his boss, so the boss, Oscar took my bag and gave me his business card. He seemed a nice bloke but who knows, now I would like to see more action because words are just things that people say to you to make you feel better but action is the ultimate satisfaction for me. I expect result not the way they try to sugar-coat me, I am already becoming diabetic due to excess exposure to their bullshitting .

Banned Souvenirs

I wanted to make sure that I was going to utilize as much as I could of my 64 Kilos baggage limit as I could, yeah I was being greedy and since a lot of things were cheaper in South America I brought with me as much as I could so I packed a box with full of goodies but with all that I couldn’t even use the 64 kilos that I was entitled but only 30, but it was heavy as well, oh man that means I am getting old. Luckily this time they didn’t pilfered my bag and my 2 bottles of cachaca and 15 cans of beer arrived safely in Sydney but silly me I thought that you could carry 2 litres of liquor and 2 litres of other alcohol such as wine and beer but I was wrong, somehow you could do that in New Zealand or maybe after my long flight I was starting to hallucinate but the case was that I had to pay taxes which is fine because I rather tell them that I was over than them finding it and fining me for not being honest so got there and I was a bit nervous since I didn’t know how much I was going to pay. I saw the other guy pay 220 dollars for cigarettes and I thought man I am going to pay a lot more since I am like 3 litres over. I tried to tell him that if I don’t have enough whether it was possible for me to choose which ones I didn’t want to take but he told me that once I pass the limit there was no concession. I told him I didn’t know that and that I am poor and a backpacker, the guy was nice and he told me that it wasn’t going to be much since beer doesn’t have a lot of alcohol in it so it was just 42 dollars which I paid very fast just in case he would have changed his mind. After that I had to go through another custom where they told me that Dulce De Leche was not allowed in most of the stuff that I brought in with me had to be taken away, all the goodies that I brought for my friends were being taken away, luckily it was cheap but I just wanted my friends to taste the delicious groceries from South America but instead they will be getting drunk with Brazilian beer and Cachaca.

R.I.P Michael Jackson

One of few artists to have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Gained mulitple Guinness world records, including for "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"

Over 750 million albums sold worldwide

Won 13 Grammy awards

Achieved 13 number one singles in the popular music charts during his solo career, more than any other male artist.

Business Confusion

Flying in business class with aerolineas argentinas was pleasant surprise, I was promised an upgrade but I didn’t want to get myself too excited cause I have been terribly disappointed with this airline too many times to believe anything they will you so it was a well deserved upgrade for me cause all the hassle I had to deal with was way too much. Their VIP lounge at Sao Paulo wasn’t memorable, there were no staffs but a fridge with beers and soda but then there wasn’t any other guest either. I spend over an hour at the lounge before my flight took off, so I grabbed as many bottles of water and guarana soda as I could and some newspapers so I can kill some time but the only thing that didn’t go so well was my failed attempt to use their wireless system to check the internet, that was the only thing that didn’t work out as there were no staff to tell me the code, but overall it was great and as one friend of mine taught me before “Beggars can’t be choosers” My business flight from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires was ok, the flight attendant was really nice and the food delicious, the seat were the same as the ones from economy but I had the whole row for myself and nobody was sitting next to me, and I get to have a flight attendant to myself so that was the only difference.


Then I slept overnight in Buenos Aires so the next day I was surprise that they tried to downgrade me because their system was having some problems and couldn’t recognize me as a business class but as a standby but that was sorted out in one hour and I kind of forgot that I could have checked myself in with the business counter but instead I waited fruitlessly at the economy counter for an hour as well, not after that I realized that I waited in vain. Then another hour to try to sort out my flight, that was the business treatment I get as well, ha! The lounge was better, with more people and more food but since I couldn’t find a plug for my computer, I didn’t surf the net that long and it wasn’t stable either, it was a bit patchy, on and off all the time so after drinking 2 cans of beer, they called us to board the plane. The flight was great, but seats were bigger but the plane was old so the seats weren’t the most fancy ones but they were great, I slept fine and the food and wines were delicious, but the older female flight attendant was rude and a bit of a stuck up but the other two were fun and more pleasant people to be with. Now in Auckland the airline booked me for economy class but since they told me that I was flying business from Sao Paulo to Sydney I wasn’t going to just sit there like a good old me and sit economy, not after all the pampering I’ve got so I decided to ask them to switch my ticket to business which they did, bitterly but it was done, even thought there weren’t many business class seats left and it seems that Air New Zealand’s business class was quite fully booked as I found out later, but they did manage to upgrade my to business class and I did get the chance to see Air New Zealand’s VIP lounge which was really nice, their food and their wide selection of beer and wine was astonishing, I took one bottle of beer and didn’t finished it because it was 6 in the morning and it made my stomach a bit upset so I decided to drink more juice instead, I read the newspaper and I boarded the plane, the seats were smaller but newer than the ones from aerolineas but their entertainment system was fabulous, I watched a movie and I played some games before falling asleep and their TV was touch screen, I mean it was wow, I wouldn’t never had the chance to fly to Air New Zealand in my life let alone fly their business class. Then they gave me the express check through custom which I couldn’t use because I brought too much alcohol. Well the whole experience was great and the flight was smooth but once again I wouldn’t pay for business class because I would rather sit economy class, I felt a bit out of my elements when I was at their VIP lounge, all those people were all dressed up and I felt I didn’t belong to that world. I did it for the experience and it was free so why not?

Bueno Aires

My trip back to Australia was almost the same as my trip to Brazil, the flight was confusing and the staffs were neither good nor bad but nothing in between, the flight attendant seems to be great at what they were doing or really uninterested about their job. The ones that were serving me were great but the ones that were not, they seem to be bored. There seems to be no coordination whatsoever and when I had a problem regarding my booking and I was inquiring about them and asking them to solve it, it was like one of their staff have told me “this is wasting my time” and since she has no idea about how to do it, it was wasting her time but I wanted to tell her that the airline had been wasting my time too, in fact they wasted more days of my life waiting at airports than I did of hers, what the fuck was she thinking that I was wasting her time, stupid cow.



I arrived at the airport in Sap Paulo and the staff told me that my flight was cancelled, that pissed the hell out of me because I was so tired for carrying all my stuff and looking for the bus station that really annoyed the hell out. For one they now have my number and if the flight would be cancelled they could have called me, even thought I called them a day earlier to confirm whether the flight would be on time or not, they told me the flight was on schedule, then to tell me that my flight was cancelled, that was like the last nail in their coffin. I was fuming and I started calling names and then she says that THE flight from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires wasn’t cancelled but the one from there to Sydney was. I told her I wanted to leave Brazil ASAP because I needed to go back to Australia to sort out my New Zealand trip which was vital to me. I had all the flight paid to New Zealand but not the visa and since I know that Virgin Blue isn’t Aerolineas I know that they won’t delay the flight. So it was urgent for me to leave, I left with my original flight not really knowing what was going happen after I get to Buenos Aires because they didn’t tell me anything and didn’t know about it either, they just told me that the staff in Buenos Aires will tell me everything once I get there and later they refused to put a sticker on my box saying that it was fragile saying that no airlines do that which is bullshit, they treat people like ignorant and they expect customers not to ask questions and be herded into a plane and once we arrived there that would be it, magically they expected to earn money like that, if that was the case then a lot of people would have been happier flying with them but, they think
they are carrying a herd of idiotic humans into another universe.



Immigration was slow, one immigration staff was in charge for a group of foreigners, most of the staffs were women, not offence to the ladies but it seems that all the men were watching football. I can’t think of any airport in the world that lets it employee watch football while the place was full of people waiting to leave, no wonder planes get delayed. For me they should take the words Order and Progress out of their flag because there is definitely no progress nor order there and it seems that they are doing the opposite. So left Brazil happy, I think I had enough of Brazil and the way they think they own the world. Getting to Buenos Aires again was the same like last time. They arranged a hotel for us and told us that the flight to Sydney was cancelled but the flight to Auckland was delayed but it will leave the next day at 10 PM, I was a bit scared because that would leave me with too little time to apply for my visa to New Zealand so I spoke to airlines and they told me that I could go to the New Zealand embassy in Buenos Aires which was close to my hotel (not really, it took me over an hour to get there) the next day and that they would put me on tomorrow’s flight and then arrange an Air New Zealand flight to Sydney, the earliest one possible. I got back to the hotel, it was a nice one, great place but I couldn’t sleep much because I was worried about my visa so the next day I woke up early and went to the embassy to find out that it would’ve taken 2 weeks to get my visa sorted, frustrated I went to Aerolineas Argentina office to make sure that my flight would depart tonight, somehow I felt that they were lying to me so I need it to confirm that I was actually leaving.



On my way to sort out my flight I did see bits of Argentina. For me it was nicer than Brazil, people could actually understand me and I could actually talk to them, the food was great and so was the people, friendly they were, I actually enjoyed more Argentina than Brazil, it does seems to be a place to go and work, I could actually try to find a job there, maybe in the future, who knows. I wasn’t worry about anything there, the city makes you feel safer than in Brazil, the streets were cleaner and the streets were nicer. I got to Aerolatas office and after sitting there at their office for 4 hours and waiting for them to sort out my flight and because there was so much confusion and disorganization at Aerolatas (the Brazilians call Aerolineas that way) , they didn’t know the flight was cancelled and they didn’t even know that I was on the flight that was meant to leave that night and they even told me that the flight to Auckland was cancelled and then told me that I have to leave the next day, then someone told her that the flight is still going on but since I don’t have my visas ready to transit visa to New Zealand I couldn’t take that flight because that would have involved two different airlines (they tried to talk me out of flying that night so that they wouldn’t have to pay an extra ticket for me) but I did go to the embassy and they have told me that there was no problem to fly back and that I didn’t need any visa to go back since I was flying back to Australia. I felt good because I have actually caught their lies. After 4 hours of sitting there and almost falling asleep they told me that my flight is ok and that somebody had changed my booking for the next day and have confirmed with me over the phone and because of that there was this “confusion” see more bullshit. I cannot believe that they can lie to their customers straight to their face.




They have never apologized for anything, not once and they didn’t seem to care, they were the most arrogant airlines I have ever travelled with, they tried to tell me that I was wrong which pissed me off and but I put them in right back to where they belong and then they changed their tunes with me. They knew that I wasn’t going to take any shit, full me once shame on you, but trying to full me twice that would have been shame on me. After I spoke to them I went to their complaints department since they still haven’t paid me for my stole stuff and I know that they will try to tell me fairy tales so that I could fuck off and leave them alone but to be honest I doubt they will sort it out once I get back to Australia. Basically they told me that the whole process should have taken just a few days but it was Brazil staff who weren’t efficient, that sounds like that same stories the Brazilians told me and since those two countries don’t’ like each other I wasn’t surprise to hear that at all but I didn’t believe either of them. I know that I will still have to fight for it once I get back to Australia.

Boy In Me

Tonight we planned to go to Festa Junina or Sao Joao in Portuguesse, San Juan in Spanish and Saint John in English and is to celebrate that saint’s day and it has been historically related to the midsummer and Saint John festivities in Europe which take place in the beginning of Brazilian winter so as we prepared to go there I decided to take a nap. I was so tired, me and my friend Sandra we went to eat Rodizio and ate as much as we could and then came back and drank some Vinho Quente which is like a kind of mulled wine with apples and herbs which is great for winter and it warms you up and makes you sleepy, and somehow it gave the weirdest dream ever, I dream that I was old with my grandchildren and other relatives, I was in the hospital laying on my dead bed, I was about to die and in that I was dreaming of being young and taking advantage of my youth and what I should have done when I was young, it was kind of bizarre, cause it felt so real, I felt like I was about to die, and I was looking at my grandchildren and they were all so young and so innocent, as I breathed my last breath I died and I went somewhere that I can’t describe or remember but it was so fast then I woke up feeling breathless and took a long breath to realize it was just a dream. Does that mean anything because I don’t want to regret my for the rest of my life what I could have done and didn’t do. I want to do more, people keep telling me that they don’t dream much but I dream every night, it’s great, I love my dreams but sometimes it feels just too real, after that nap, we went to the party, it was crowded with people, it was free admission so it was packed, it reminded me of Bolivian Kermess, where people sell food and let children play games, like a fair or festival, it was a the cavalry military quarter, something like that and they were federal police training place and there were plenty of horses one which was a nice one and very photogenic, somehow it liked to munch our clothes and hair and keep and was very affectionate and wasn’t scared in letting people caress it, none of the horses over there seemed to be worried by the amount of people walking there and looking at them. It was nice to see them; it made me realize how much I love animals. They are an interesting creature to watch and be inspired by.

Bonfire (La Fogata)

People were queuing up to eat those nice and BBQ pigs legs called PERNIL which looked quite delicious which I don't know what it is called in Portuguese but it certainly looks mouth-watering but since we already ate and weren't didn’t hassled into queuing up twice, first to buy the ticket and then to get the food so buy decided to just walk around and take some pictures and mingle with the crowd and listen to the live band



That is something called Pote De Ouro or homemade drinks.



The last one is my favourite on, it is called crazy meat, which is somehow the cheapest meat you can buy at the market, cooked under pressure and then you cut it into many pieces and then you cook it again with some herbs, tomato paste, onions and carrots and it is called poor people’s food and is served along with bread.

Bigotry

Last night I went out for a walk with my beer in hand, yes it is allowed to drink on the street in Brazil, so I was walking around and then the scream of a group of people coming from somewhere behind a snack shop attracted my curiosity, who knows why but I went there to check out what seems to be drawing the attention of a small crowd of people there, as I approached I noticed a lot of people behind the snack shop or lanchonete, there were probably 3 guys cornering another guy and kicking him and throwing punches as well. I was like why isn’t anybody helping him, or at least somebody must be calling the cops. I tried to figure out what were they yelling at him, didn’t have clue, I was looking for an answer and nobody knew why but as more street people arrived and joined the lynching then somehow I kind of realize that somehow or maybe he did something to the homeless people so that made all the homeless attack him but what would he do? I am still not so sure what happened but it left me wondering why nobody called the police, I didn’t cause I didn’t know the number, I tried to call the police once long time ago but they hanged me up all the time because they didn’t understand me. People did tell me after the fight was over that the police wouldn’t help at all so calling them was meaningless. Whatever happened it will remain a mystery and really not knowing Portuguese does really make a difference in living here, I am use to live a place where I can speak the language, that is nicer, living here is like living in limbo, always wondering what is going on around you, that is nothing nice because I want to know what is happening around me not that I am curious but because it makes you a part of a community and it makes you feel that you belong there, life is about that feeling, the feeling that you meant to be somewhere and do something, at least that is what I think. I want to be part of something not just a bystander although in that situation I was just a bystander cause I did nothing to change its course.

Brazilian Mulatas

Brasargent

In Brazil there are 4 ways to buy food, you order them, you pay for all you can eat usually called Rodizio or you pay them by their weight, well if you can't eat a lot, paying you food by how much they weight might the best deal for you but if you can eat a lot, you might as well pay for the Rodizio which is all you can eat BBQ but the funny thing is you can also pay for a “self service” meal and is the same as the Rodizio but you cannot eat the BBQ but you can eat a lot more than those who pay by how much their food weights, so if you like to devour like a hungry lion on a picnic in Brazil? I do suggest you to starve a whole morning and eat as much meal that you can and eat healthy and cheap by the evening because meat are heavy and you won’t feel much hunger after eating that much meat. Well the last option is by ordering your food from a menu which is not really a good one because all you can eat food is as expensive as buying one kilo of food and one kilo of good quality of food and a mixture of food is better than a single plate of something that you might not even like.

Bigotry

Tonight we planned to go to Festa Junina or Sao Joao in Portuguesse, San Juan in Spanish and Saint John in English and is to celebrate that saint’s day and it has been historically related to the midsummer and Saint John festivities in Europe which take place in the beginning of Brazilian winter so as we prepared to go there I decided to take a nap. I was so tired, me and my friend Sandra we went to eat Rodizio and ate as much as we could and then came back and drank some Vinho Quente which is like a kind of mulled wine with apples and herbs which is great for winter and it warms you up and makes you sleepy, and somehow it gave the weirdest dream ever, I dream that I was old with my grandchildren and other relatives, I was in the hospital laying on my dead bed, I was about to die and in that I was dreaming of being young and taking advantage of my youth and what I should have done when I was young, it was kind of bizarre, cause it felt so real, I felt like I was about to die, and I was looking at my grandchildren and they were all so young and so innocent, as I breathed my last breath I died and I went somewhere that I can’t describe or remember but it was so fast then I woke up feeling breathless and took a long breath to realize it was just a dream. Does that mean anything because I don’t want to regret my for the rest of my life what I could have done and didn’t do. I want to do more, people keep telling me that they don’t dream much but I dream every night, it’s great, I love my dreams but sometimes it feels just too real, after that nap, we went to the party, it was crowded with people, it was free admission so it was packed, it reminded me of Bolivian Kermess, where people sell food and let children play games, like a fair or festival, it was a the cavalry military quarter, something like that and they were federal police training place and there were plenty of horses one which was a nice one and very photogenic, somehow it liked to munch our clothes and hair and keep and was very affectionate and wasn’t scared in letting people caress it, none of the horses over there seemed to be worried by the amount of people walking there and looking at them. It was nice to see them; it made me realize how much I love animals. They are an interesting creature to watch and be inspired by.