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.