*Sydney Update*

I am truly living the life right now. I've now been in Sydney, Australia for exactly 1 month, with another 2 months here before I return back to the states. 2 days after I arrived in Sydney, I found and settled into the apartment of my dreams in a nice busy suburb of Sydney called Milsons Point. It is very close to the city, just across the harbor. In fact, I go running across the bridge every now and then to enjoy the gorgeous view of the water and the Opera House, as well as downtown. Milsons has the most spectacular views of the harbor and the Harbour Bridge and is close to all nice fooding places. My apartment is a 1 bed loft-style with an elevated "room" for the bed, and comes fully furnished; everything is included.

Being here and living on my own has really made me independent, with finding my own apartment, setting up all the associated stuff with it (including a 2 week wait for crucial internet haha), getting food. It feels like I really am an inhabitant of Sydney haha, since I've memorized most of the important train stops, different suburbs, city layout, etc. It's pretty cool learning a new city. I've made a bunch of friends here, mostly through my cousins, and so I don't get too bored. However, it is funny for me to walk around during the day in Milsons Point, since most of the people who are here (or who live here) are businessmen/women all dressed up in professional attire, while I walk around in jeans/t-shirt most of the time.

My daily routine, and I really mean routine, is getting up bright and early at 7am, playing online for 6-7 hours until lunch time at 2pm or so, then getting something to eat or making it myself. Then it's just relaxing the afternoon away, sometimes with a nice run into the city or northwards towards the northern suburbs where my family lives. I don't know how much longer it will be before this lifestyle becomes boring for me, but for now, I am truly loving every second of it. The independence and freedom to do whatever I want is simply awesome.

I am flying to Hong Kong in late April, stopping over for 3 days to visit my grandma and some friends there (and eat sweet HK fooood) before flying onwards to Nice, France via Paris. From there, a taxi ride to Monaco, Monte Carlo for the EPT Monte Carlo tournament. I hope for the best but have realisitic expectations for that tournament (i.e., busting the first day). Perhaps I will play some of the side events as well. One of my good friends from high school/college is actually going to meet up with me there and stay for a bit in the hotel, so that will be pretty exciting. After the week or so there, I'll be flying back to HK for another stopover of 3 days before heading back to Sydney. From there, 3 more weeks till the beginning of June when I return to the States and head to Vegas for a month and the WSOP!

For now though, I'm just enjoying every minute of my life as much as I can. I appreciate it so much. Poker has really given me such an opportunity and I'm trying to take full advantage of my position as much as possible. I feel so lucky and blessed to be where I am. Speaking of poker, that is going as well as ever as well :) The first 3 months of this year have been awesomely good to me and I can only hope for continued fortune...