Kia Ora

Day 1 New Zealand. We got up for breakfast at 8:30 at the Aukland YHA and left by 9:30 for the Aukland Museum. We stayed at the museum—mostly to see the Maori exhibit—for an hour and then hit the road for Whakatane. It was a 4 hour drive and tired as I was, the scenery was incredible and I watched out the window most of the way. Well, that and I really can’t sleep in a bus or any public, moving place. We saw great rolling green hills and plains and even a volcano. We drove past a bay for a stretch and saw these great green islands rising out of the water. It sprinkled on and off and we saw several rainbows when the sun was struggling to shine through the fluffy white clouds.

Now we are at the marae in Whakatane—a Maori meeting place for extended family groups that they use for reunions, weddings, funerals, housing overnight guests etc. Our tour guide for this whole trip is Lyndsay, an Anglo-Saxon Kiwi who is best friends with Matt, the leader of this marae. He is our connection to come here. A special “induction” is required when visiting a Maori marae. When we arrived we were welcomed onto the marae by the local whano, or Maori family. We stood at the gate as a woman sang (a woman is always required to do the opening song) to welcome our group. Then we advanced to the middle of the courtyard to pay our respects, then we all sat down diagonal to the locals with the courtyard between us. A man stood and gave a welcome speech, half in English and half in Maori, and the locals sang in appreciation of him. Then, Lyndsay, David (one of us ASCers) and Matt spoke and we sang for each of them. Every speech in Maori culture is followed by a song as a sign of respect or affirmation of the speaker.

When this whole welcoming ceremony was over, we brought our gear in and set up our beds in the wharenui, the big one-room meeting house. We weren’t allowed to bring any food in, wear our shoes inside, take pictures inside or sit on our pillows as all are customs. It is the mens' job in Maori culture to make the bed, so our guys pulled out a heap of mattresses and set them out. We absolutely fill the place wall to wall and miraculously they had sleeping bags, pillows and sheets for all 40 some of us, plus a family of their relatives who were also visiting.

After we were all situated it was time for dinner. I am so full right now I can’t believe it. We all transferred over to the wharekai, the eating house, where the whano cooked a big dinner of soup with a fried bread roll for the entrée, then spaghetti bolonaisse. There was also a Maori dish—potatoes with watercress and pork ribs. I wasn’t a huge fan of that dish. Dessert was apple pie type stuff with custard and cream. That was delicious. I’m going to gain at least five pounds on this trip. The Maori people are not so thin themselves.

Tonight the locals are going to talk to us about Maori culture here in the wharenui. Most of us are in our pajamas already and we just finished cleaning up from dinner. They cook, we clean is the arrangement. Matt is quite industrious and bossy, as Lyndsay described him. He has us move from place to place like cattle and has an answer for everything. But he’s a nice guy and has been very welcoming, if a little brusque, as are the other locals for the most part. Apparently when the ASC first

started coming they weren’t very comfortable because white people didn’t associate with them much. But this is the fourth semester we’ve come back and they have grown to appreciate us coming here I guess. Tomorrow we’re leaving at 10 am after another big breakfast. Right now we’re just chilling, Greg is playing the guitar and we’re going to get started with the evening activities soon.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

This last week in Sydney we have had some pretty amazing last minute adventures. Early this week a fellow ASCer was preparing to go home early for medical reasons. She’s had some unexplained stomach problems over the course of the semester and during our time in New Zealand she will not have easy access to a doctor. April and I went into the city to explore with her one more time after classes one day. We ended up seeing some places we’d never seen before in the Rocks, including Mike’s old high school, and seeing a beautiful sunset from Observatory Hill looking over the harbour and the Anzac Bridge.

My favorite memory from this whole week was when Mike took us to Bondi Beach. After a number of rainchecks from Mike over the course of the semester to do some insider sightseeing, we finally got a day planned to get up early to go see Bondi Beach and do the Bondi to Coogie cliff walk. At the last minute that morning, Mike ran downstairs and almost bailed on us because he was out of money, but we insisted he wouldn’t need to spend any so he had better pack a lunch and come. It wasn’t hard to convince him. On the way to the Eastern suburbs, we picked up Charlene and Joi on the corner of Lyons and Victoria since they wanted to come along too. When we got to Bondi, it was a cool winter day but the warmest we’d had in weeks, especially after all the rain. The sun was actually shining and we all marveled at how gorgeously aqua the water was, even in winter. Mike had only been to Bondi a couple times even though he’s lived his entire life in Sydney, so it was as much an adventure for him as it was for us. The beach was absolutely deserted at that time of year, which is amazing considering it is arguably the most famous beach in the world. We took off our shoes and walked down to the other end in the waves. Mike and I ran the whole way back because it’s only about a half mile long! At the other end, we accidentally left our shoes too close to the surf and one of mine got drenched by a wave.

When we were all together again we walked for over an hour up on the cliffs along the coast to Coogie. We passed several beaches along the way and saw the most beautiful scenery. At one point we came across a huge cemetery stretching along tops of the cliffs filled with the graves of the earliest settlers. The view from the cemetery, with its bright white monuments practically falling into the water against the blue sky was breathtaking. At Coogie we decided we had to try Bondi burgers (modeled after Portuguese burgers) at Aporto, which is the only real Australian fast food chain, and they were pretty good. Then we did the whole trek back up to Bondi and drove home. Mike dropped us off in the city at Paddy’s Market so we could do some final souvenir shopping and then exhausted we rode the bus back home for tea.

I still had some things to take care of at Wesley on Wednesday and on my walk back home I had to say good-bye to a good friend of mine and April’s. An elderly Hungarian man named Emil, the self-proclaimed “Sheriff of Undine Street,” has stopped us for a number of conversations on our walks to and from Wesley throughout the semester. He lives on Undine Street with his ailing wife, who has Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and a number of other problems, he says. He is her sole caretaker and for a breather he comes out onto the sidewalk to chat with his neighbors. He was a prisoner of war in WWII and was not able to return to his home country after the war. He moved to Australia and has been here for 60 years. He loves to tell us, in his still strong Hungarian accent, what beautiful American granddaughters he has. Often he holds us there on the sidewalk for much longer than we care to listen, but saying good-bye to him was still hard. He asked us to write to him when we reached America again.

On Thursday we took some time out of our sight-seeing to go see the Wesley play, The Good Woman of Setzhuan, since our ASC friend Hannah was in it. To be honest, it was one of the longest, most boring plays I’ve ever seen. The actors did a fine job, but the writing of the play was terrible. We heard later that the Thursday matinée was the worst performance so perhaps that contributed. As a last treat at intermission we walked down to Lyons Road to get some Lashings wedges. At orientation way back at the beginning of the semester we’d had from some catered in and we all fell in love with eating them the Australian way with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. We filled the whole theater with the smell. They made the second half go a little faster.

With the afternoon free, April and I went down to the City again for some pictures that we needed yet. We ended up meeting Pat (a Wesley student) and Ellie (Mike’s friend) on the bus and Pat got off with us in Darling Harbour. He entertained us through a street performance and walked with us through all the set-up for the FIFA Fan Fest that was taking place at midnight in Darling Harbour. After he left we walked through the Chinese Garden of Friendship and then went back to Paddy’s Market for a last minute souvenir run before heading home again.

 Yesterday morning we dropped our luggage off at Wesley so it would all be ready to go to the airport on this morning. It’s part of our “experience” (character building again) to carry all of our luggage ourselves to Wesley, taking it on public transportation etc. instead of having our host families drop it off. We were supposed to reflect on the amount of stuff we have. I am very glad I could fit all my stuff back in my one small suitcase for the half mile walk. I definitely have learned a lot about materialism this semester, through our class discussions and from personal experience. My suitcase must have been half the size of everyone else’s and I’ve been wearing the same clothes week in and week out. It has made my life so much simpler. Strangely, when you stop caring about your own appearance as much, you stop caring about other people’s too. I’ve donated a lot of things to the Salvo’s here so I can take some new things back, but I’m so glad I’m not taking a whole extra suitcase like a lot of other kids must.

After we dropped our stuff off we were free to do whatever we liked before we left this morning. We rode the bus to Burwood and combed every shop looking for the perfect good-bye/thank you gifts for the Jagos. It took us forever to decide, but we knew Mike wanted a scarf so we got him a blue striped scarf and Brian and Sue a display of candles, since Sue loves to light them and Brian likes to play with the melted wax. April knew of this place to get “bubble tea,” which is a kind of drink with bits of fruit floating in it. But then when we tried to get on the bus with our drinks the bus driver yelled at us and we had to wait for the next one.

When we got back we cleaned the whole bathroom that we shared with Mike top to bottom (that doesn’t get done very often) and our room, and packed our carry-ons. Then we spent the evening with the family. This was Mike’s 21st birthday. He and Jonno had a big bash planned for later in the year, but on the actual day of his birthday Brian and Sue invited the whole family over for a baked dinner to celebrate and to say goodbye to us as well. All the immediate family came—Andrew and

Marike, Camille and Andrew, Claire, and Linda came too. Sue made a delicious three course meal with soup, roast lamb, and the family favorite ricotta cheesecake for dessert. Linda, who is an avid cook, made a homemade meatpie. Mike and Sue always raved about her pies, but it never occurred to me that they meant meatpies too! A little later we went out with Mike, Linda and Claire to PJs for a short while. We came back to the house and after Claire went home the rest of us sat up talking until 6 am!

Finally we went to bed for just a couple hours before we had to get up to head back to Wesley. Our little household got up early to take some pictures at home and say good-bye to Lucky and Chili. April and I both cried this morning when we hugged them good-bye at the school. I thought for sure I wasn’t going to make it through three hugs, but I started crying even before the first one. We all promised each other that we would see each other again. Mike vehemently declared that he would come to the States, maybe not to live but he would travel there and maybe study there. I truly hope that is the case.

Tonight we are in New Zealand. I can’t believe it. I’m so excited to visit this place I’ve heard so much about, but leaving the Jagos was the most heart-wrenching thing. This week did not lend itself very well to leaving after all the fun things we did. The house was so quiet and sad last night and

this morning we all got up early to go to Wesley together—for the last time. No more late night Maccas runs. No trips to Forster and Canberra. No tagging along with Mike and his friends to pubs. No more favorite TV shows with Brian and Sue. No more family tea times. No more after-tea tea. No more baked dinners. No more family board games. No more of Sue’s special language. No more Jago jokes.

April and I keep turning to each other and telling something that happens at the Jagos, and we both suddenly remember we’re not going back ever again (for now at least) and we begin to tear up. We were talking to Kimberly earlier about dinner and April suddenly said, “We’re missing tea.” First I just nodded we tried to control our tears but Kimberly caught on to our distress and asked, “Are you having a Jago moment?” Then we just looked at each other and laughed through our tears. I think it’ll be like this until the end of the trip. I’m going to miss living there so much.

June 6

Rain rain and more rain. Will it ever stop? This is the rainiest year that people, even old people, have ever seen. And it’s also cold! And New Zealand will be even colder! I’ve gotta find something warmer to wear. So this weather hasn’t been the greatest for doing lots of things, but we’ve done some fun things anyway that didn’t require going outside too much.

Friday was our final debrief. The ASC spent the whole day in our classroom while it poured buckets outside. We went over all the things we’d done, talked about what we’d learned, and what to expect when we get back home. We also had our ASC showcase and April and I played Amazing Grace on the violin and guitar. After class was over, we all went to a Thai restaurant for dinner.

On the way home, April and I rented The Castle from Blockbuster and watched it with Brian. The Castle is what Brian and a lot of other Australians describe as “really Aussie.” It was a hilarious movie from the 80s about a working class family who fights to keep their home on the edge of an airport when it is about to be claimed by the government. I accidentally left my debit card at Blockbuster and had to go back and get it in the morning, but despite some intense worry, no harm was done.

On Saturday Carrie’s homestay had us all over for a potluck barbecue. Almost everyone came and we played bananagrams. Next week the World Cup begins and the Socceroos are playing Germany. Sue’s church held another barbecue Saturday night and showed a video by Athletes in Action (I found that amusing) about some Christians on world cup teams. Afterwards, our household went over to Andrew and Marike’s to watch Rugby Union, the Wallabies v. the Fijians. I’m never going to enjoy American football (a.k.a. grid iron) again after I’ve seen rugby and AFL. The players don’t wear helmets or pads, play doesn’t stop unless there’s a penalty or the ball goes out of bounds and their jersey numbers actually mean something. Australians of all ages are very passionate about their sports.

There’s a lot of things I’d like to do this week before we leave, but as long as I go to Bondi Beach before I go home, I think I’ll be content not doing anything else. Seeing the amount of work I have to do and the time I have left, there won’t be much that I can plan on doing. We had meant to go into the city with some people last night, but going to Andrew and Marike’s proved to be much more enjoyable. In reality, it’s the people that I’ll miss most when I leave here, and spending time with them is my priority.

Today after church at Sue’s church, we spent the afternoon packing our stuff up, just to make sure it was all going to fit before we do our final souvenir shopping and drop off our old stuff at Salvo’s. I think it’s all going to fit just like it did on my way out here, which is a relief. Hopefully I won’t find too much I want to take back from New Zealand! Strangely, packing up my stuff again gives me this excited sense of adventure. The idea of travelling again has my spirits up as much as they can be in the circumstances of leaving.

I’m so excited to see New Zealand, which sounds like the most beautiful country in the world and the Maori culture we’re going to experience sounds amazing. And I’m excited to be home again and see my family and friends. But there is so much I’m leaving behind here.

Rain rain go away

No blog for two weeks! Shame on me. Nothing hugely exciting has happened, but my time here is really running out, so things are not going to stay that way. Mostly for the last couple weeks it’s been raining. Last weekend it poured so we only went out once on Friday night to Liberty’s homestay to watch Avatar, which I hadn’t seen before then. The rain continued on and off for the rest of the week. On Tuesday I fell sick with some kind of stomach bug and spent the day Wednesday in bed feeling very nauseous. The rain was torrential all day Wednesday as well, with high winds. I guess I was glad I was in bed. On Thursday I felt well enough to get to classes all day. Thursdays are the days I can’t afford to miss because I have class from 9 to 4.

By Friday I felt better and the weather cleared up, so a group of us went into the city to see Vivid Sydney and walk across the Harbour Bridge at night. Vivid Sydney is a citywide event that runs until June when they light up many of the public buildings with colored lights and put on art events. The Opera House was lit up with different artists’ works and was absolutely stunning from the Harbour Bridge. It proved to be well worth our while to go and the city was beautiful at night. I got some gorgeous night shots from the bridge. When we got to the other side we popped in at Luna Park and then took a ferry back across the harbour and got ice cream.

Yesterday Hannah had her 20th birthday party at Max Brenner (a coffee cafe) on George Street so we joined a group of ASCers and a few Australians there for hot chocolate. Afterwards we all walked the length of Macquarie Street to see the rest of the lights at St. Mary’s, the Mint, and the Conservatorium of Music and ended up at the Opera House.

Here’s a quick little Australian economics lesson for you: In Australia, GST or sales tax is included in the sticker price for anything you buy and you never have to pay tips. They also don’t have a 1 cent coin. So what do they do when they charge you, say, $4.06 for a candy bar? They round up the price! Where that extra money goes and what they do with is, I have no idea, but I would really like to know.

I’ve been thinking lately about how I have changed since I’ve been here and a lot of funny little things have popped into my head. For example, we watch a lot of American TV here and every once and a while they’ll show a shot of a car driving down the right (as in the direction) side of the road. A couple times I’ve had an almost visceral reaction because something doesn’t look right to me. I can’t believe that I’ve gotten that used to cars driving on the left side. I think when I go back that driving will be easy to pick back up since I haven’t driven at all since I’ve been here, but it’ll be weird to walk around American streets. It’s probably lots safer though because in New South Wales pedestrians don’t have the right of way and I often feel like that’s the case.

Another funny thing is the words I’ve picked up, like calling dinner tea. I’ve had to stop myself several times from mentioning tea instead of dinner to other American friends, or even Australian friends who don’t call it that. I also say “ages” now, “I haven’t been there in ages!” instead of forever, and I say Maccas instead of MacDonalds. I’m also pretty sure my inflection has changed dramatically but I won’t be sure until I go home and listen to myself talk to other Americans. I think all of us here have picked that up – the kind of lilting up of your voice at the end of your sentences.

A New Australian Hero

This Saturday I was a part of history. Yesterday morning, Jessica Watson sailed into Sydney Harbour on her pink yacht after an almost 7 month solo journey around the world with no stops. At 16, she was attempting to win the record for the youngest ever to sail solo around the world. Unfortunately, the 17 year old boy who currently holds the record gets to keep his title, because Jessica didn’t make her trip up over South America and instead went straight across the bottom of the globe. In her own words, Jessica says if she didn’t just sail around the world, she’s at a loss for what she’s been doing the last 7 months.

So yesterday, Jessica sailed into the Harbour, scheduled to cross the headlands at 11:30 am. I decided to go see what all the fuss was about. The news was forecasting thousands of people and hundreds of boats would be there to greet her. They were absolutely right. Jessica was going to sail past the headlands, which was her official finish line, and then make her way down the harbour to the Opera House, where she would finally step onto land and make a public appearance in front of the crowd at the Opera House.

I went down to the Opera House and found a great spot along the water with a clear view of the wharf she would land at. As it turns out, she was 2 and a half hours late to the headlands and by the time she reached the Opera House is was at least 2:30. Since I was by myself I was quite bored. A huge stage was set up in front of the Opera House where the stairs were turned into a stadium. The media was playing the coverage on a large screen for the crowd to see. From my spot on the wall I could hear what was going on. After she crossed the headlands I decided I’d had enough of standing by the wall, so I gave up my spot and went to take pictures of the hubbub before she sailed in. Seeing all the media and the thousands of people was spectacle enough.

When she finally did arrive it wasn’t too hard to find a good spot on the hill overlooking the wharf to see her take her first step onto land. Hundreds of boats sailed all the way up the harbour with her and a huge boat in front sprayed gallons of water like a fire hose over the whole fleet. I couldn’t see Jessica’s boat until she came right out to the wharf but everyone around me kept insisting they could see her boat amid all the other larger boats. Everyone cheered when she finally came into view and then took her first step onto the wharf. Helicoptors were flying overhead to capture the action. It was quite dramatic. I left right away after that, thinking April and Mike and I were going to do something during the afternoon, which we didn’t end up doing. My patience was about shot though so I beat the crowds out of the city and went home.

On the news later they showed Jessica hugging her family for the first time, making a statement to the crowds and enduring a press conference in the Opera House. Anyway, my waiting paid off and I got to experience a real Aussie event. Jessica Watson is the newest Australian hero, with a book and a documentary already on the way, and rights to a movie about her still pending. And she’s only 16! So I guess I can say my waiting paid off and it was totally worth seeing. Kevin Rudd was there, people watched from atop the Harbour Bridge, it was amazing. I hope you all saw it on TV in the US, because I was there!

Blue Mountains Walkabout

The ASC took our last group trip besides the trip to New Zealand today to the Blue Mountains. Early this morning we met at Central Station at 8am, which means we got out of bed at 6am to take a bus and a train to get there in time. The train ride to the Blue Mountains took about an hour and a half and we got off at a little one platform stop in a very rural area called Falconbridge. Our guide, Evan Yarra Murra, was part aboriginal and was raised in a an aboriginal way,but you never would have guessed it. He looked very Anglo, which is common with Aboriginal people because they are often part something else and the dark skin gene is recessive. He was very in touch with his aboriginal heritage and spirituality.


We hiked down into the bush, all 40 of us, not very far to a place on a large rock where there were some old rock carvings of kangaroos, the rainbow serpent, and a sky god. They were from a traditional dreamtime ceremony. Evan described how the ceremony would go and a bit of the storytelling involved. He taught us things like how the old people used to "feel" the elements of nature - rocks, bushes etc. - and their spirits so that they could stay in touch with their sense and live in the present moment. We all tried it - not sure how I felt about it but it was interesting. He also talked about initiation to adulthood for boys and girls when they reach adolescence. A woman reaches adulthood naturally, but a man must be shaped by culture. The initiations include removing a front tooth, a nose piercing, cuts across the chest and arms, and a journey into the bush for the boys. It sounds quite graphic.

We hiked a bit further down to an amazing sandstone cave. As you can see from the pictures, the stone was all carved out and weathered in these amazing patterns and it was a bright yellow-orange. Evan brought out some rocks to grind into ochre that we used to paint on rocks and bark and then on each others faces. We were there for a long time admiring each others' paint jobs and taking pictures.

We continued on our hike down into the bottom of the valley - the trail was steep and we were climbing all over things and sliding around - through a rainforest area and then came back up a bit to another cave for lunch. We also had the wonderful option of using the woods for our toilet. Evan passed around some artifacts like the skins of a poisonous spider and a fat grub that is a delicacy and showed us how to roll eucalyptus leaves up and stick them in our noses to clear the sinuses. We learned to tea tree oil kills bacteria and germs and can be used for all kinds of toiletries - toothpaste, hair product, deodorant, soap.

Before we headed back to the train station Evan played the bullroarer for us. The bullroarer is a small oblong wooden stick that you swing around on a string to make music. It could only be played or heard by men traditionally, like the didgeridoo.

When we got back to Sydney it was 5pm already and I went with some other girls to Melanie's apartment for pizza and a movie. We watched Bridget Jones Diary and just talked, which was a nice change to the pace of life this week.

Bus Adventures

I mistakenly believed that the worst of the homework was over. This week I can breathe a little easier, but not much. The design projects just keep coming and I have a feeling the last week of the semester, when all of them are due, is going to be insane…lucky me.

On the other side of the coin, I can’t believe I have to leave here in just over a month. That just isn’t enough time to do everything I want to do. Yesterday I got to see a little more of the city. Sam was flying up from New Zealand and we were going to meet at the opera house, but she couldn’t call my number from a pay phone and unfortunately we never got a hold of each other. I had decided just to take the afternoon and go into the city after class anyway so I’d be down there when she called, so I ended up discovering where the government house is and walking along the bay to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair. It is a beautiful walk along the harbour with the Royal Botanic Gardens on one side and the water on the other. Mrs. Macquarie was the wife of a governor of the Sydney colony and her chair is a rock ledge her husband had carved out on a point overlooking the Sydney Harbour. Apparently it was her favorite place to sit and look out over the water. The sign in front of the spot claims it is still one of most beautiful view in Sydney, but from what I could see, you’d be staring at a tree growing out of the side of the cliff in front of you.

There is something strange about me and old people at bus stops. Last week an elderly man came out of Five Dock Club and began to talk to me about how he went back to school when he was 70 and learned to speak Mandarin and his three wives, one of whom was a millionaire, all of whom he has outlived. A week or so before that an old homeless man tapped me on the shoulder and muttered something I couldn’t understand while pointing at another person waiting at the stop. Well this week I was headed to Burwood to buy art supplies and the bus stopped outside Burwood Girls High School, letting a huge mob of girls in plaid skirts on. The older lady sitting next to me “kindly” ordered them to move to the back of the bus so more people could get on. Then she turned to me and began to systematically unburden all of her pet peeves about society, beginning with the bus system and ending with how she didn’t believe women should be allowed maternity leave! She has rung up the transportation department to insist drivers make people move to the back of the bus and that people have their change ready when they get on. She also doesn’t like the way kids are these days and she cited a story she read in the paper about a 17 year old girl who overdosed on 3 drugs and died. Where were this girl’s parents? She may have not have had a wonderful childhood, but at least she knew where she was going at that stage in her life. I carefully pointed out that that is a difficult age to make decisions and she immediately countered the fact by giving me her life’s story, how she got married when she was 18 and a half and they lived off of her salary and her husband worked two jobs. After we got to the maternity leave part and I suggested that women might have to work just to support themselves, I just let her go. There was no changing her mind. Then she abruptly got up at her stop and turned to me and said, “You have a lovely day!” in the nicest way and got off the bus! Who’ll it be next week?

May 2, 2010

I think I've lost my new little Canon camera. The last time I had it was on Monday, when April asked me to take her picture in front of Longview Street (where she is from in Texas). It’s been in my purse in its case all this time, and I usually take the camera out of the case in my bag to take pictures. Strangely the camera and the case are missing, even though I never take the case out of my bag. The only time I’ve lost sight of my purse is at my service placement in Ashfield on Tuesday. We put our bags up behind the stage and leave them there for the 3 hours we’re there. I just can’t believe it could be stolen and nothing else in my purse taken, like my wallet. Anyway, I’m really really hoping it turns up in our room somewhere, even though I’ve searched the place at least 6 times since last night.

Last night April, Mona and I went to Darling Harbour and met Laura and Emily. We had gelato and turns out it was May Day so we saw fireworks lit in the middle of the harbour. That was when I discovered my camera wasn’t in my bag. We took a walk around the harbour, which is beautiful at night, and stopped in a couple of clubs to dance. It was fun to do something with Mona for the first time and get to know her better. 

This morning I got up and went to an Anglican church in Five Dock that has a later service. It was a really nice service, some younger people, a late time, and a convenient walk so I think I’ll go back next week. The rest of my time this weekend I’ve been working on a presentation for Kimberly’s class about American health care reform. Our group met yesterday for a few hours and that’s where I am now. Brian and Sue have been gone the last couple days and are coming home tonight from their Emmaus Walks and conferences.

April 23

I can see the light! The busyness is almost over. Tomorrow is the performance of Seven Deadly Sins and then I have one big paper to research and write this weekend. This weekend is also a long weekend – Sunday is Anzac Day and Australia has adopted Monday as a public holiday. Hopefully I can fit some fun things in over the weekend, or just plain old rest. I’ve been putting in some incredibly long days this week and dragging my violin all over the place. I’ve just returned from the dress rehearsal for the opera and everything went well. The difficult music has gotten much easier, though I only had 2 hours of practice on my own this whole time – hopefully I won’t make any mistakes too loud.

Anzac Day commemorates the triumphant defeat of the Anzac Army at Gallipoli in World War II. Anzac stands for the Australia New Zealand Army Corps. There are going to be memorial services in churches all over the city and a parade through the city on Sunday. I’m going to try to make it down there to see it.

Today in our Indigenous Cultures class we visited the art gallery of NSW and the Australian Museum. The trip opened my eyes to a whole new side of Sydney I’ve been meaning to visit. I’ve been to the Art Gallery before, but all along the street it is on is Hyde Park, which extends over B city blocks with lots of grass, trees, fountains and statues. It’s akin to New York’s Central Park or Chicago’s Millennium Park. Sometime I’m going to have to explore up that side of the city.

Stress Week

This has been by far the most stressful week of the semester. It began after returning from the Outback when on Sunday we had to rush to the Art Gallery of NSW after church to complete an assignment that was due Tuesday. The church we went to was a Uniting church in Double Bay and Brian was filling in preaching so that was cool. I enjoyed his sermon. Double Bay is a really nice area in the eastern suburbs referred to as “Double Bay, Double Pay” though the congregation was only about 10 old ladies. Brian and Sue dropped us off at the art gallery on the way back home.

On Monday I went to school early and got caught up on the Internet and worked hard on one of my graphic design projects. My small ensemble class was cancelled at 4:30 so I went back to the design lab and finished up the project before making it home just in time for tea at 7. On Tuesday we had an Australia class in the morning and then I went to Ashfield for my service placement. Wednesday I spent the whole day in the lab taking time out just for lunch and the Gathering. Thursday I had class in the lab all day, and stayed almost 3 hours later until tea.

Then Friday was a killer also. I was supposed to go to class all day with the ASC and we were going to have a guest speaker teach us to throw boomerangs and play the digeredoo, but I had to go to opera rehearsal at 1pm. I came to class for the first 45 min but the guest was late so I had to leave before he got there to catch a bus to the city. In the city I met the other violinist in my ensemble class and found the Conservatorium of Music where the rehearsal was held. We got lost in the rows and rows of practice rooms and arrived at the room we were supposed to be in 20 minutes late. 1 to 3 was a smaller practice time for the Wesley students plus a few others who agreed to be there. We were handed the score for the first time and could barely play a note of it. Almost the whole rest of the orchestra had had the music for at least a week and we had never seen it before. The first violinist was pretty ticked that we couldn’t play it very well. At 3 we joined the rest of the orchestra – almost all music students – and sat in the back and tried to noodle along. By the end of the rehearsal I was finally starting to get the feel of the piece, but I only have a week to learn it and with all my graphic design pieces coming due I am going to have a very limited time to practice. We have two more rehearsals this week and then the performances Friday and Saturday.

This weekend though things have looked up. Being internet-less and design program-less my nights and weekends are pretty much my own even though if I could I would be doing my work (and I’m so tired I don’t feel like doing much anyway). On Friday night April and I went into the city with Emily, Denise and Laura where we just wandered around and enjoyed the night and got ice cream. Early Saturday morning most of the ASC kids went to Featherdale Wildlife Park. Kimberly had organized the trip but we went together without her or Melanie or Tiffany and it was an optional event. The park was filled with native Australian animals and we could pet kangaroos, koalas and emus. It was a really nice park, not as commercialized as I thought it would be, and there was a lot to see like the Tasmanian devil, dingoes, cockatoos, and the world’s most poisonous snake. We stayed until about 1 and then took the endless trip home (two trains and two buses). Kristin and Abby invited everyone over to their homestay to watch movies for the afternoon and evening so a lot of people went over there. I have a group presentation coming up in two weeks and we had to come up with a thesis to turn in on Tuesday, so our group met at Wesley and did a bit of research. Then we all joined the group at Kristin and Abby’s house and hung out for the night.

Today now is Sunday and I am not doing anything but church tonight if I can help it because early tomorrow it begins all over again. May is supposed to be a big project month and if it gets any worse than this I don’t think I’ll survive. I also have absolutely no idea what my grades are because I’ve received no grades back. But I’m hanging in there and hoping there’s an end to this work. I’m very stressed, but I’m always aware that this is such an amazing opportunity and no matter how much work I am doing, I’m still here in Australia and it’s awesome. And I have some great company around me and they are going through the same things.

Outback, April 10

I've just completed the craziest two weeks of my life. I have done more in the last two weeks than I have probably ever done in two consecutive weeks. But it’s been awesome. The things I’ve seen and done have amazed me and I’ve seen so much more of this amazing country than I thought I would.

So much has happened that it’s overwhelming just thinking about writing it all down. I’ve just returned home from the Outback. We got up this morning and headed out of Bathust at 8:30am. Around 10:30 we stopped in the Blue Mountains at Catoomba to see the Three Sisters. I had read about the Three Sisters before and I didn’t think I would get to see them, but here we were on a morning tea break. The Three Sisters are three large rock formations that stand out the side of a cliff. There are many stories that surround how they came to be there, but they are highly sacred to the Aboriginal people and the most common story is that their father changed his three daughters into rock to protect them from a witch doctor. It was a bit like being at a lookout in the Grand Canyon with a great view over the Blue Mountains.

Last night we finished life stories. I went first and told a bit about my spiritual journey to this point. The rest of the stories of the night turned out to be quite emotional and by the end of the night everyone was crying and the like so it was a good bonding experience. I’m exhausted though now and glad to have the weekend to get some rest. I’m afraid I wasn’t very social the last couple of days since I was so exhausted. However, Sydney is kind of a letdown after all we’ve seen and done. It’s back to the school work and everyday life. But this was the trip of a lifetime and I’ve had so much fun. I can’t believe that so few Australians ever even make it out to the outback. They have no idea what they’re missing – the peace and quiet, the wide-open spaces, the wildlife, and the simplicity of life. We all left wishing we could stay much longer.

Outback, April 9

We’re camped at another motel on our way back to Sydney tonight. We spent the last 2 nights at Mt. Boorithumble as the place is called and the whole experience was AMAZING. We slept and lived in a little out-building with its own kitchen where the Dykes host their large extended family for family reunions. Two brothers named Kevin and Murray own the 200,000 acres or so of land where they raise cattle and sheep. Their sister is a host mom for 4 of our girls and Ian is connected to them as well. They aren’t a tourist joint like Trilby and the ASC was the only big group that came to stay. The property is up for sale now though so Kimberly can’t make plans to stay there since it may sell at anytime and I heard something about there not being enough water to support us either. Wasn’t the case this time.

The afternoon we arrived we had some time to walk out in the bush. After walking around for a bit, you feel like you’ve seen it all. The dirt is covered with biting ants (don’t stand in one place for too long) and thistles. When you walk, millions of locusts fly up in front of you giving you this perpetually grand entrance. They are not very nice when they land on you or your food though. Between them and the flies and the frogs at night it’s a pretty gross experience, but I was surprised at how quickly I got used to it. On our walk Amy, Christina, Kristen and I found a little lamb by itself bleating away and weren’t sure what to do about it so we left it out there hoping it would find its herd.

At night we cooked dinner and ate it around the campfire and continued life stories. Later Ian took a small group of us out roo spotting in the dark. The Dykes have these rustic utes with metal cages on the beds for hauling things around. One of them has a spotlight on top of the cage that can be twisted around to spot things in the dark. We all climbed up in the cage and Ian drove us around the dirt roads in the middle of the night shining a spotlight into the bush. We didn’t see any kangaroos, but we got drenched with water from the puddles on the road and had a pretty amazing ride on the bumpy roads at top speed. A lot of us slept outside that night on a tarp. I opted not to seeing how tired I was and the stars were covered by clouds. I got a good night’s sleep in an almost empty room and enjoyed it very much.

On Thursday morning, Kevin and Murray showed up early in their Toyota utes, loaded us up in four of them (Kimberly drove a closed one with a few people inside that switched on and off with the rest of us) and took us on a drive around the property. Once again, we got drenched and dusty, RED, and beat up a bit from the bumpy roads. Grace, I wonder if that is what Haiti felt like. We say some kangaroos and emus. At the end of the way out there we stopped and spent time on a hill alone reflecting on our application essays that we wrote a year ago about how we would challenge ourselves on this trip and how we hoped to grow. Then we wrote letters to ourselves that we will read at the end of the trip.

On the way back I was in Murray’s truck and we came up behind two kangaroos. Our ute chased one along a fence for a good 800 meters until it decided to try to hop the fence and didn't make it. It bounced off the fence, got on its feet and kept running. Then it tried again and this time it fell over and we must have run over or nearly ran over its tail. It got back up and ran the other way down the fence. We of course were screaming with excitement the whole time and somehow I managed to get some pictures. A couple people got some video footage so watch for it on Facebook (which now that it is Easter I can use!).

At some point during the drive back a tree passed over the top of the cage and scraped my thumb. It was a small cut but it was bleeding pretty bad and just before we got back to the camp we stopped at the original homestead of the land and I asked Kimberly for a band-aide. It turned into a big production – the whole wash and disinfect thing and I washed it out myself. Then Kimberly started putting cream on it, turned away for a second, and I was gone. I fainted in the middle of the outback and was out for a couple of seconds. I didn’t see it coming and I woke up with Kimberly and Melanie hovering over me. I’m not exactly sure what made me faint, but it was hot of course and I hadn’t drunk much water so that must have contributed. Ironically, I was not the first to faint in the outback and the other person who did was also a Spring Arbor student.

Amy and Kristen and I took another bushwalk that afternoon and found the same lamb we found the day before. Someone else had found a lamb that night and had led it back to its herd, so we were hoping it was the same one. Turns out he was still out there by himself bleating away so we decided we better do something. He turned out to be really docile so we picked him up and I carried him back to camp. We took him back to the sheep pen where they had just been gathered up for the lambs to be tagged and neutered the next day and while I was there we saw a lamb be born! It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen and a bit disturbing, but we happened to be there at just the right time to see it.

For dinner we cooked lamb (I know right?) and sausages, ate s’mores, and shared embarrassing stories around the campfire. I slept out under the stars that night, which were so beautiful and you could see every one. I didn’t stargaze long though because I was so tired again. For the whole time we were there we competed in the “no shower challenge,” trying to get the largest percent of any group to avoid showering the whole time and everyone made it without showering for the three days. Some people were so dirty after the truck ride they had to jump in the creek to clean off.

The next morning we got up for breakfast and cleanup, then went to the sheep shed to watch Kevin and Murray and some neighbor boys tag the lambs’ ears and put rings around their tails and testicles that will make them fall off eventually. Given my lovely fainting episode the day before, I wasn’t exactly in a state to watch for very long. Then we loaded up our belongings, left Mt. Boorithumble and ended up here, in Bathurst at the Gold Mines something Inn. A shower has never felt so good.

Outback, April 7

Things have certainly changed since yesterday. I continued raining on and off yesterday and stormed and poured last night. 30 of the last 50 kilometers to Trilby Station are on dirt roads and the rain made them impassable. So, we stopped at a small copper mining town called Cobar, visited their little museum, and stayed the night at a motel, hoping the rain would stop and we’d get through to Louth the next day. We had a good night in spite of the setback and starting sharing what Kimberly calls “life stories” of everyone in the group.

Well today not much has changed. Liz at Trilby said they got 3 inches of rain and the roads were still impassable. The soil is all sand and clay, so it gets very slick and the rain will take weeks to drain. No one can take a vehicle anywhere out there. So today we had to form a new plan. Ian, who plans the accommodations and all for this trip, called up the place where the ASC used to go in the outback that is connected to one of our homestays. We had a worship and devotion time at the motel while we waited for the reply. The woman at the house had to drive out an hour to find her husband and brother-in-law out tending the sheep. The answer was yes so we packed up to go. We have to make our own food at this place, which we weren’t prepared for, so Kimberly and Melanie bought out the entire Cobar grocery store and we finally headed out to the outback.

The place we’re going now is south instead of north and this place is supposed to be much more rustic than Trilby, so that’ll be cool. Cobar turned out pretty cool too, even though we were all disappointed not to be going anywhere. Some of us put on a game of ultimate frisbee last night and the food was really good at the motel. My busy week is catching up with me though. I am exhausted.

Outback, April 6

We’re on the way to the Outback! Day 2 on Ian’s bus – just left Matilda’s Motel in Dubbo and are scheduled to arrive at Trilby Station in Louth at 4:30 pm. Today is April’s birthday and she’s turning 20.

Yesterday we left school at 1pm and drove out through the Blue Mountains or the Great Dividing Range. Today seeing Dubbo in the light we can see that the soil has become much more red. However, as a motel worker shared with us this morning, we are going to see an outback that no one has seen in this lifetime, even farmers in their 70s. They’ve had a record amount of rain that happens only every 100 or 200 years! The grass is green and there is water in the creeks. The mossies are going to be bad but hopefully it’ll be worth it. According to Ian, rain usually comes up from the south and up over western NSW, but this time it has been coming down from the north over Cairns. The group of ASCers who were up there last week said it rained almost every day.

April 3

We’ve had a lovely day today up at Forster. In the morning after brekky we went down to the beach – technically called Cape Hawke beach or to Brian and Sue, One Mile Beach. It is a beautiful beach with clean white sand and blue and aqua water. The surf was very strong and rolled up the surfers like a carpet. The waves were so strong it wasn’t good surfing weather but it sure was beautiful. We climbed the dune at the end of the beach and had terrific views of the ocean and even saw some dolphins out in the water bobbing around. When we came down we discovered the rock pools a the rocky point under the dune. I collected shells and we found a red sea urchin. I could have stayed all day hunting for shells but we came back to the house around noon, packed up lunch and took it to a picnic area on Wallace Lake. There are three lakes up here, called the Great Lakes (hah), that are just inland and open out into the sea.

After lunch we took a drive to a little handmade wooden toy shop to buy a little wooden doll for a collection Sue has been adding to for nearly 30 years since she started coming up here. Next we went to a coffee shop along Smith’s Lake’s edge. We had coffee and hot chocolate and walked along the little cove. Then we went to where Smith’s Lake meets the ocean by the breakwater and took another walk out onto the breakwater. There were lots of families out there and some surfers on the beach off to the side though the waves were very calm. Finally we went back into Forster and cruised the little boutiques.

For dinner we had fish and chips in Forster, then crossed the bridge to Tuncurry to see a movie in the local theater. We saw The Blind Side, which lived up to my expectations and was a pretty good movie. The weather is definitely cooling up here with a “blowy” wind off the coast and while I was hot on the beach this morning it was chilly the rest of the day when not in the sun. We even had a few minutes of rain after the shops at Forster but that passed over pretty quick. It’s very peaceful up here and this is a good holiday.

Forster, NSW

I’m up at Forster with Brian, Sue and April. We got back very early this morning to Strathfield on the train after our trip to Melbourne. Michael picked us up at the station and we came back and conked out for another couple of hours. Brian and Sue went to their respective Good Friday services while we slept and then we got up, showered and packed for Forster.

The drive up was fantastic. It was a long drive – at least four hours – but tired as I looked out the window the entire way because I didn’t want to miss a thing. We saw some kangaroo roadkill, koala crossings over the road (basically thick telephone wires surrounded by wire cages that the koalas can grab onto) and some beautiful bush and farming country.

We arrived up at Forster around evening and stopped at some beaches for the view. It is beautiful along the coast here – particularly at a beach we got out at called Elizabeth Beach. The area reminds me of a mix of all the beach places I’ve been. Particularly it is similar to Maine being rockbound (though by red rocks not black and gray) plus Florida’s tropical plants and trees. We saw a kookaburra in a tree at Elizabeth and glimpsed some pelicans down at the estuary on the way to dinner at a little Chinese restaurant in town. You know the kookaburra song? It never even occurred to me that it was talking about Australia until now!

The house where we are staying is Sue’s mum’s old house. She is now in nursing care near the Jagos in Sydney and the house is on the market. It is totally empty except for a lounge and chair, a vacuum cleaner and some kitchen supplies. We were “camping” on airbeds in the different rooms. The house is just up the hill from One Mile Beach and there is a beautiful view of it from the front door. It’s so beautiful and peaceful up here and I’m going to sleep so well tonight.

Melbourne

Melbourne is awesome! I haven't had time to process the whole trip yet, so I'm making this post to revise later.

Aussie Rules Football

This week has been a flurry of preparations. Tomorrow I am flying to Melbourne for the week and next week the ASC is going to the Outback. I’ve been busy booking tickets for Melbourne and getting caught up on my school homework. For the next two weeks I’ll be travelling Australia!

This week has had some excitement of its own as well. I spent the beginning of it at the school all day every day working on homework. Friday’s Indigenous class was watching the movie Rabbit Proof Fence and hearing the stories of two actual members of the Stolen Generation. Their stories were heartbreaking to hear and all we’ve been learning about their history was really given a reality it didn’t have before.

On Friday night April and I went down to the markets on the Rocks since this was the last weekend it was open. It’s an open air market with stands full of arts and crafts like jewelry and candles. Several other groups of ASCers were going also and we all met up and hung out for the night in town.

Last night we went to an AFL (Australian Football League) game at Olympic Park. It was awesome. Aussie rules football is a cross between soccer, NFL (referred to as “grid iron” here) and rugby. They play on an oval field similar in size to a soccer field and there are four poles at each end of the field for goals. The game is played by kicking and passing the ball around the field. You can’t run more than 5 meters without bouncing or passing the ball. You must either punt it across the field or pass it with an underhand serve type motion like in volleyball. The ball moves back and forth across the field by interceptions and tackles. When a player is tackled the game doesn’t stop like NFL, it simply bounces around the field until someone gets a hold of it and the play continues. If the ball goes out of bounds, sometimes in goes to the opposite team, and if the call is unclear, the referee will throw it back in behind his back. The players don’t wear any padding and they do wear really short shorts. They also shave their legs and put Vaseline on them. But don’t be fooled, the average size of an AFL player is 6’ 6” and the game is very aggressive. You score points by kicking the ball through the poles. If it goes through the center two poles it’s worth six points, if it goes through the outside poles it’s only one point. We had some of the best seats in the house right behind the goalposts and five of us (myself included) had seats in the third row! Unfortunately, the Sydney Swans lost to Victoria’s St. Kilda, but it was a close game the entire time and we only lost by 8 points. We weren’t expected to do even half that well. AFL is not as popular in NSW as it is in Victoria so many of the 19 AFL teams in Australia are from the Melbourne area. St. Kilda was the runner-up at the championship game last year.

It was also of note that the game was played in the Olympic Stadium. Outside was a bunch of poles with the names of all the Olympians who competed in the 2004 Sydney Olympic Games. Among the list of Campbells there I was of course. Dan, you were on there too!

Tomorrow afternoon myself, April, and three other girls from the ASC are flying to Melbourne and staying in the Youth Hostel until Thursday. It’s project week up at Wesley and we have no classes. We’re basically going to tour the city, attempt to see some penguins, enjoy the shopping and arts culture of Melbourne and then we’re taking the train back to Sydney Thursday night and not getting back until 7am Friday morning. One we get back it is up in the air whether we go north to Foster with our host parents for the weekend, and then Monday mid-afternoon we’re headed off for the Outback, or “back of Burke.” It’s going to be a 2-day, 12-hour drive and HOT with lots of flies, but I’m so excited. This is going to be a crazy two weeks but there’s so much to do! After we get back it will be halfway through the semester already and then we will have a lot of school to plow through. But there’s still so much to do in Sydney. There’s a whole half of the city I haven’t seen yet and I’m planning on seeing a ballet at the Opera House soon. Before we know it we’ll be off for New Zealand and then home.

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Rebecca Campbell and I am a university student from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Right now I am studying abroad for the semester in Sydney, Australia.

During my time in Australia, I have been learning about the Indigenous nations of Australia, the Aboriginal people, who represent the oldest surviving cultures in the world. Since the European invasion in the late 1700s, they have been robbed of their culture, land, and dignity and forced to assimilate with European culture. Their sovereignty has never been formally recognized through the offer of any kind of treaty or settlement and were even once regarded as flora and fauna rather than people until 1967. The government has taken their children from them and forced them to work to build an advanced western nation they have no place in. The children who were stolen are known as the Stolen Generation and were taken from their families as late as 1972, meaning many of these people are as old as you are.

I am writing to urge you to take the time to recognize the Aboriginal nations of Australia during your visit to Australia in June through a visit to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. The tent embassy was established in 1972 to protest the atrocities being served to the Aboriginal people and to represent their sovereignty and rights, which have been largely ignored by the Australian government even today. The people there are willing to share with you their stories and tell you more about the situation. Your recognition of their struggle would mean so much to them.

The stories of the Stolen Generation and of the Aboriginal population are heartbreaking and I have had the opportunity to listen to several of them firsthand. The relationship between the Aboriginal peoples and other cultures that now inhabit Australia are in desperate need of healing and reconciliation. I believe that this begins with the recognition of those who were here before us.

Please show the traditional owners of this land the recognition and dignity that they deserve.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Respectfully,

Rebecca Campbell

Structure and selected quotes from Melanie Vacik, Best Semester 2010.

Canberra

I haven’t written in over a week, so a lot has happened, especially this weekend. On Wednesday, April and I attempted once more to go to the beach, but ran out of time when we got into the city since the bus was leaving so late. We decided to celebrate our bad luck by getting a Gaytime – which is actually an Australian popsicle that is very popular here and for good reason.

On Wednesday night April and a group of ASC students went to see Wicked at the Capital Theater in Sydney. Mike invited me to play cards at a friend of his’ house so I went along and played 500, which is somewhat akin to Euchre only with an 11-card hand. It was a fun night though everyone raved about how awesome Wicked was. I’d really like to see it in the states sometime.

On Thursday we went to the travel agency Sue had told us about and discovered that at this point a flight alone to Cairns was going to be over $500, so that’s out of the question for next week. We’re planning now on going to Melbourne with a few other American girls.

This weekend was also the Canberra trip. We left the school in a charter bus a 6am Friday and arrived in Canberra around 10:30am. The first stop was the New Parliament house just to use the bathroom. The New Parliament house is built half into a hill so that grass grows up over the top of the roof. The reason for this is that the government should never be higher than the people.

After that we went to the Indonesian embassy and the New Zealand high commission. At New Zealand, a woman of Maori descent sang us a traditional welcome and also before and after the speaker, who was a New Zealand politician. He gave a great talk about New Zealand’s difficulties being a small nation isolated in the South Pacific. They are no smaller than any other small republics like the Scandinavian countries, but their isolation and dependence on Australia makes them have to be doubly as clever and on top of things to even be considered for an invitation to an international round table. I can also officially say I've been on Indonesian and New Zealand soil now.

After that we visited the Aboriginal Tent embassy, which was different from anything I have ever seen. It was located just across the street from the Old Parliament house (which the government outgrew in the 1960s) on a park land listed as a National Heritage site. On it a group of Aboriginal advocates have pitched their tents and have been living there in protest for 10 years. They have created their own “embassy” asking the Australian government for some kind of change. The Aboriginal people of Australia have never been given a treaty of any kind like our Native Americans. A woman named Auntie Jude who was part of the stolen generation talked to us on the park steps about her tragic history and her wish just for some basic rights and benefits in reparation for the way she and her people for the way they have been treated. She was taken from her family because she was a half-cast child and placed in a white family for her entire childhood. Only when she was an adult did she finally go back to meet her real family and come to know them better. She’s been living at the tent embassy for about a year now since two days before Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Aboriginal people. We were all really touched by her story and felt very strongly about what has happened to these people. The Aboriginal population is down to about 2% and most of them are now involved in alcoholism, and drugs and live in slums. Many Australians are embarrassed by the problem, but they are the cause of it. Only a couple generations ago these people lived as part of the land, and now their entire culture has been demolished.

After that we checked in at the YHA in Canberra and had pizza for dinner. After dinner we had a long “processing” session about the day and talked a lot about anti-Americanism and the way America is viewed here in Australia. Before I went to bed I walked around Canberra to see the city with Haley and some other kids and played catch phrase. It was a great time to bond with some other people that I haven’t spent much time with and I feel like I’ve gotten to know a lot more of the ASCers after this trip.

The next morning we headed off to the National Portrait Gallery. I was soooo excited about this stop and it was amazing. We were only there for about 45 min. so I had to be fast but it wasn’t a very big museum and the painting were amazing. I wrote down tons of names of artists and Australian who had been painted to look up later. Next we went to the National Museum, which was a lot of history and such but still enjoyable, and had lunch beside Canberra’s manmade lake. Then we went to the National Gallery where we went to with Brian and Sue in February. The Master’s exhibit that we visited had been extended two more weeks at the National Gallery and line was insane. It extended probably 4x longer than it was when we went and snaked all the way through the museum. I am so glad we went earlier! The permanent artwork in the rest of the museum was beautiful as well and my favorite piece was a full-length portrait by Australian artist Hilda Rix Nicholas called Les fleurs dédaignées. The gallery also had a Jackson Pollack, a couple Monet’s, the Chuck Close, and a couple Andy Warhols, though I liked the more traditional paintings done by some Australian artists in the Modern period.

The last place we went was the War Memorial. It is the second largest war memorial after the one in London and is really quite nice. We had a guided tour through the exhibits and then stayed around for the closing ceremony at 5, which was the trumpet song played at the last post, kind of like taps. Finally we headed home exhausted and got back at 9:30 pm Saturday night. Kimberly and Melanie kept us busy all day both days down to the minute but everyone did a good job following directions and being where they were supposed to be even with such a large group. We were told we would be left behind anywhere we weren’t back to the bus in time and provided with an itinerary and numbers to call a taxi to take us to the next place. Fortunately that didn’t happen to anyone on this trip.

The Nation of the Long Weekend

Now closes Week 3 and I've been here almost a month! I've suddenly become aware that my friends at home are having their spring breaks! That seems so strange since it's beautiful and sunny down here and school has just started. My first break is in two weeks though for Easter when we go to the Outback. There's also a week before Easter break for "project week" at Wesley. It's mostly for the drama students who are preparing an Easter play but my classes have nothing due, so I have an extra week off! I'm toying with the idea of going to the Great Barrier Reef or to Melbourne with some other ASCers. We learned this week that Australia is known as "the nation of the long weekend" because Australians don't like to work that much. For example, ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps) Day falls on a Sunday this year, so the Australians made Monday a day off for a public holiday. So I can understand that two weeks off is a relative necessity every once in a while.

Earlier this week April and I made Mexican enchiladas and guacamole for our host family. We took the bus to the mall to buy some supplies and ended up in an accident. A couple of school buses were stopped at a bus stop  and our driver tried to get around them. Instead, she caught the rear fender of the bus on a guard rail and pealed back the whole corner of the bus! A literal fender bender. We all had to get off and wait for the next bus to come. What we didn't realize was that we were only about two blocks away and could have just walked! The cooking went really well, seeing that neither of us had ever cooked enchiladas or even peeled an avocado. Mexican is not very common over here so a lot of people really miss it and it's a unique food for most Australians.

Last night was the first family night where a smaller group of ASCers go to Kimberly's apartment, have dinner, and hang out. We had a great group and had a ton of food. Everyone wanted Mexican food, so we cooked Mexican for dinner and had some great conversations. After that we headed home on the buses and saw Sydney's weekend night life - so different from the day! Everyone is dressed up and out clubbing or going to pubs. We probably looked ridiculous in our street clothes and all carrying our backpacks from school.

This weekend I'm tied down until I get my latest graphic design project done. There seems to be no time to work on it during the week so I'm doing homework on Saturday morning:(. The picture at the top is from a park on the bay really close to my house. Isn't it beautiful (the view I mean)?

The Pacific

This week had its ups and downs. School picked up and there wasn’t much of anything to do to keep me distracted. I was missing home and feeling a little out of place, but there were some really good moments in the week too. The other night it poured all evening and into the night. And I mean poured non-stop all night. It rained earlier in the week too, and this amount of rain is quite abnormal here. April and I had no plans for the night so we decided to go into town to see Alice and Wonderland, but because of the rain we decided against it. A ten-minute walk in the rain to the bus stop just didn’t sound appealing.

Rain was also on the forecast for the rest of the weekend, but yesterday morning we woke up to some beautiful sunshine. I went in to Wesley in the morning to practice my violin and get internet and then April and I were going to try to make it to Town Hall to meet some other ASCers to go to Bondi for the afternoon. We ended up getting a late start and then the bus was almost half an hour late so we took the ferry to Manly instead. The ferry ride was about 20 minutes and very beautiful. The sun was beginning to set since it was around 4:00 and we arrived at the beach at the end of the day. The ferry passes the break in the harbor going out to the ocean and stops at Manly on the harbor side. You get off the ferry on the harbor side and follow the crowds down a narrow street and out onto the beach. It is absolutely stunning.

The water is so blue and clear and the sand is impeccably clean. It was late so we could only stay for about an hour but just standing in the surf was amazing and so beautiful with the sun setting behind us. It was my first time in the Pacific. We saw heaps of surfers out riding the waves but the area you could swim in was only about 10 yards wide. Not sure why this was yet, though from what I’ve heard it could have been blue bottle sightings or shark sightings or the swells were too big. Yikes. Regardless, we are definitely planning on going back to the beach soon.

Yesterday night we went to see Alice and Wonderland in 3D with Brian and Sue. I enjoyed seeing it and they did a really good job with it. This morning we went to the Anglican Church with Brian and I really appreciated the service. We have to go to a Catholic Church and an Assemblies of God church pretty soon to complete our tour of the denominations for class. It's another beautiful day with a nice breeze. For now we’re just chilling and keeping updated with you people at home. I hope spring comes soon!

Service Placement

Today I went to my first service placement visit. I walked down to an entirely new bus station, waited for 20 minutes by myself, and got on a bus going somewhere I’d never been in my life. After a short time of initial confusion and stopping once to ask for directions when I got off at my stop, I made it to the church right at 3:00. The place I was going was a Baptist church in Ashfield where the Wesley Youth Service hosts an after school program for kids 12 to 18 on Tuesday afternoons. Basically I just come in to hang out with the kids and have fun. The ASC program requires us to complete 35 hours of service before the end of the semester.

The kids stop in after school to have a snack and then play ping-pong, Wii, card games, or art projects. I played ping-pong with Dennis (my supervisor) before the kids arrived and he told me I would give some of the boys a run for their money. I played for a while with one young boy and then joined the coloring team out on the footpath (sidewalk) for a while. A kid named Jessie peppered me with questions about American pop culture for probably and hour and then proceeded to fill me in on what I didn’t know. That’s definitely one thing I've been surprised by in Australia - all their pop culture is American so they want to know what it’s really like over in America and if we’ve seen everything they’ve seen. Unfortunately I’m very limited in my knowledge of pop culture so I don’t get very far in those conversations. It’s very strange when someone from the other side of the world knows more about Adam Sandler or Paris Hilton than you do.

After I helped clean up, I headed back down the street to look for my bus stop. I ended up getting a little lost and got on the wrong bus. I was the only one still sitting on the bus when the driver called “last stop” and I had no idea where I was. Turns out I was headed in the wrong direction on the right bus. I asked the driver if the bus had already been by my stop, yes, and he was very nice and told me he could drop me off back where I had come from before he ended his shift. I was very grateful and found the real bus stop no problem after he pointed me in the right direction. I got home a bit late for tea (an alternate word for dinner) but it was an interesting experience and the more places I go the quicker I learn the public transportation.

Today in the View from Australia class we talked about the difference between Australian thinking and American thinking. It’s not a surface thing that you see right away, nor is it easy to spot unless you know what you’re looking for. We look the same as them, we dress the same, we speak the same language. But it all goes back to our “national myths” as they are called. In America we speak of the “American Dream.” We believe that everyone can achieve a great life if they only dream big and work hard. Any hint of socialism (think healthcare) and we are off on how we have worked for our money, we deserve to have our own benefits, and if someone doesn’t have what we have, it’s their fault.

In Australia it’s just the opposite. The Australian view of life is very fatalistic. They see themselves as the children of petty thieves, unjustly judged, thrown into a harsh wilderness and left to survive on their own. Life is only as good as life gives you and you shouldn’t expect more. The “laid-back Aussie attitude” stems from this belief. People don’t set high expectations or goals because they think they may be setting themselves up for failure. They are much more apt to let the government take care of things. I really resonate with the “let life happen” mantra of the Australians. I’m kind of a chill person and like to let life take me where it wants to, though I definitely feel like goals are good things for us to have in order for us to make progress. Somewhere there is a happy medium, but I think I may be Australian at heart.