let's recap

hey there. it's been awhile. nice to see you.

i've been meaning to write since i stepped back on american soil. needless to say, that's been a month in coming. let's rewind a bit.

last real post i wrote, we were in the midst of stuvac and going into our last handful of days in sydney. i did indeed spend them with my australian friends, and came away with some great photographs that i'm still trying to figure out how to organize. (if i open up a flikr or picasa account, i'll let you know.)

that last night, i got no sleep. i stayed up late talking to a friend, and spent the rest of the night packing and getting things together. before i knew what was going on, i was being rushed into a cab that would take my housemates and i to meet the ASC group at wesley. from there it was a teary ride to the airport, listening to music given to me by a good friend and trying to ignore the sad faces around us. we were told on the bus that two of our group would not be coming to new zealand with us. it was weird. my whole life was packed into two bags and a carry-on. i was wheeling them through sydney international airport. what? we're going to new zealand? why? really, we're going?
before long, though, we were all smiling and laughing. our group was spectacular at keeping our spirits up and finding the best in things. i am so blessed by the friends i made in that group.

we arrived in auckland and settled in briefly to one of the nicest YHA's i've stayed in. now, take this with a grain of salt, because i know i'm biased towards sydney--be honest, you would be too if you made it home for four months--but auckland isn't really that much to write home about. sydney boasts a population the size of the entire country of new zealand, and maybe a quarter of that population lives in auckland. that's still nothing to shake a stick at, but when you're used to bursting metropolis 1 million population feels almost rural.

it's beautiful. don't get me wrong! we went on this hilltop--wait, it was a cinder cone--and were able to look around for miles and counted about a dozen other cinder cones without looking too hard. it's beauitful.
we spend a night or two in auckland, then hopped a bus for rotorua, a few hours away. it's a fine stop to learn about maori culture, as it has many important sites. what exactly we did is a blur to me now, but there was fine dining, hiking, hongi/hungi, volcanic springs and hot pools both safe and dangerous, sulfur smells, processing groups, and and beautiful scenery. i do believe i ran down and into a volcanic crater at one point.

after that, we went back to auckland for another day or two. a few of us went on a hike to a little spot called "fairy springs" which was so very pretty and intimate and fun. laughs were had by all. i think i even took a little--very little--video and i'll get to posting that sometime.

that last day took forever. we processed for the last time that morning, giving each other words of affirmation and generally celebrating our newfound friendships. yes, there was crying, yes, there was lots of hugging. there is never enough time to love on people, or words that can say exactly the right thing. but we try.
our plane left in the evening, which puts us at the airport in the afternoon, which has us leaving the hostel after lunch. it's hard to say what we did with all that time as we never dawdled or stopped moving. waiting in lines? asking for directions? checking and repacking bags? once on the plane, it was hard for me not to reflect on the difference between the coming and the going.
i know these people now. we've stopped asking those introductory questions of "what's your name? where you from? what's your major?" i am used to seeing their faces and enduring all sorts of strange circumstances with them (six people in a 10x10 room: the outback. overanxious museum guards: canberra. tribal dances around a fire: the bush. just as kimberly read the inscription on st. patrick's breastplate every time we boarded a bus, we prayed for traveling mercies.) i am used to dancing with them, laughing with them, fighting with them, caring for them, and suffering with them. this final plane ride was a last hurrah.
we had the wind with us as we moved, so the flight was shorter than the first. some slept, most watched at least part of a movie.people started to get up and be social in the last two or three hours, as we knew that when the plane landed would come a flurry of activity and the inevitable fracturing of our group as we made for our separate connecting flights. and that's exactly what happened.
i was one of the last to split from our group. some had flights right away and couldn't afford to socialize, others had hours and wanted to find a cozy spot to settle into. i was able to get in contact with my big brother brian just like four months before. we were together for an hour then he helped me carry my bags to my terminal.
i almost didn't get on the flight to northwest arkansas due to some bizarre overbooking issues. one person turned to me and told me how i could have checked in online before i left home. all i could do is smile. "according to the calendar, i left 'home' about fours in the future from now, and have been traveling for approximately the last twenty. checking in early wasn't really an option." a few moments later, i was ushered onto a plane.

when i arrived at the airport i've known for years, the smell of arkansas air rushed back into me. arkansas winter will cary from high 60's to mid 30's every few weeks. stepping off the plane i knew i was in the midst of a warm swing. it was lovely. my mom met me at the gate with open arms and a handful of "welcome home" balloons. i climbed into my bed that night with a strange sense of peace. i was home.

i'll admit it, this post comes a little out of left field.

dear sarah and mrs. joan,
thank you for teaching dana.
love,
meredith

this post is long in coming.

let me say, here and now, that it is insanely hard work to not become nostalgic, regretful, or homesick. now, watch as i proceed to be all three.

november 2 was the last time our ASC class met on wesley campus for class. it was an all day debriefing/processing day. the entire class sat around this meeting room, shared various baked goods, and discussed all the ins and outs of returning to the states. things we'd miss about australia, things we were not going to miss, things we were looking forward or not looking forward to at home. i sat there, in that same room where just a few months before, i was read through procedures and manuals about life in australia while trying to fight jet lag. it is a strange feeling indeed.
at the end of something like this, i feel like it's halfway normal to look back and say, "if only this, if only that." if i was feeling this way at the beginning of this week, i have effectively killed it off. i came here with few, if any, expectations and all of them have been blown out of the water. if i regret anything, it's that i may have missed some opportunities to participate in some activities. but i do not regret the other activities that filled the place of those opportunities, or wish things to be excessively different.
homesick is strange. we have been working toward this deadline of going home, longing for it, dreading it, been angry and frustrated and excited at its rapid approach. i am ready to be home, but i don't think anyone is ready to pack or leave. every time something stinks about the city (buses, prices, everything shutting down at 5 pm), i think to myself that i'm ready to go and get back to a world i understand. at the same time, every time i discover a new cafe, geographic point of beauty, architectural masterpiece, i sit and wonder how i could ever think about leaving. there is something in me, though, that is itching like crazy to get home and sleep in my own bed, be with family and those i love stateside.

this week, from monday nov 5 till this friday nov 9, was something we call "stuvac," or study vacation. it's a time of making up work for classes or getting ready for final tests and papers, so there's no regularly scheduled classes. some ASCers took off for various desitinations, such as the reef or road trips. i had my very last paper due on tuesday (CHECK!), and a multimedia project due on thursday (double CHECK), so i stuck around sydney. but, i am officially done with school, with the exception of a worksheet next week. let me tell you, it is nice to have no more homework until the middle of january!
the last few days have been spent spending as much time with australians as i can. we leave this coming wednesday morning for new zealand, (auckland, specifically) where we'll spend a week studying maori (native new zealander) culture and taking in natural beauty. there is a part of me that says, yes! we're going to new zealand! wow! and another part that says this is a terrible and cruel idea, being keeping us from loving on the australians we know and keeping us from seeing the people we so dearly want to see. at least we have that time to spend with each other--i am certainly going to miss ASC. we're an awesome group, if i may say so myself.

so yeah. i'm sorry this post is so long in coming. there's a lot about us leaving that i am kind of in denial about...oh, like that it's actually HAPPENING, for one....so it's easy to put this off. but i like you and am glad you're still reading. i'll see you soon.

i'm not bagging on australia again, i promise. but just what is going on here?

a few nights ago, the ARIAs are on: the Australian Record Industry Awards. a band called silverchair were the belles of the ball: they took single of the year, album of the year, highest-selling single of the year, best band and best rock album. this was their flagship single.

"straight lines"

Breathing from a hole in my lung
I had no one
With faces in front of me
Racing through the void in my head
To find traces
Of a good luck academy

Ooh Ooh Ooh

Sparks ignite and trade them for thought
About no one
And nothing in particular
Washed the sickened socket and drove
Resent nothing
There's good will inside of me

Ooh Ooh Ooh

Wake me up lower the fever
Walking in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evening
Everything will be fine
Wake me up strong in the morning
Walking in a straight line
Lately I'm a desperate believer
But walking in a straight line

Something I will never forget
I felt desperate
And stuck to the marrow
Invisible to everyone else
I'm a sex-change
And a damsel with no heroine

Ooh Ooh Ooh

Wake me up lower the fever
Walking in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evening
Everything will be fine
Wake me up strong in the morning
Walking in a straight line
Lately I'm a desperate believer
But walking in a straight line

I don't need no time to say
There's no changing yesterday
If we keep talking and
I keep walking in straight lines

Wake me up lower the fever
Walking in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evening
Everything will be fine
Wake me up strong in the morning
Walking in a straight line
Lately I'm a desperate believer
But walking in a straight line


okay. the song is catchy as all get out, but seriously, can anyone tell me what it's about? no, really. i'm dying for someone to tell me.

i'm not saying pop songs need to have depth to be good. we all know we've bobbed along to enough diddies about puppy love or whatever. but to garner this many awards with this kind of following, can't you give me something to go on? so, if anyone wants to break this down for me, i'd be more than happy to listen contently.

i took this viewo a few weeks ago and have just now gotten around to posting it. i haven't re-watched it since i took it and am pretty sure the lighting is awful. and there's three of them. yeah, it got out of hand. but! i post them all not in expectation that they must all be watched, but that they're there for watching if desired.









love you guys, and miss you. also! be prepared. a massive "who wants a postcard?" proposal is to come.

wow.

this friday, october 19, marked the third month of our stay in australia. can i tell you how odd this is?

we have approximately two more weeks of school, then a week of student vacation--stuvac i'm not kidding when i say everything is shortened--which is like a calm before the storm for aussie students' last week before finals, but for us, it's a last hurrah. after that week, we clear out of here and spend a week in auckland, new zealand (3 hours ahead of sydney time). we've been told this final week is stressful. we expressed considerable dissatisfaction. then we make the big flight home to LA, i'll bounce back into arkansas around 7:00 pm US time, which is 4:00 am australia time and 1 am new zealand time. confused yet? me too. this site helps me somewhat.

someone asked me my favorite part of sydney today. the only answer i could come up with was that we have three weeks left here. it was also my least favorite part.

it stinks to be missing everything at once sometimes.

a word on cell phones! okay, all you prospective students. here's what i've learned about cell phones.

cell phone plans here are not great. at all. at home, you can walk into a wal-mart and pick up a prepaid cell phone for twenty bucks. not so here. many of us have paid $60-80 AUD for the hardware, and varying amounts for recharging our accounts. personally, i am using a phone a previous ASC student left. i had to purchase a SIM card, which was only $15-20 and came with a bit of phone credit on it. since then, i have purchased two $30 account charging cards, which will probably last me through the end of my time here. however, i don't use it much and only for emergencies or courteous moments-- i don't call up people just to chat normally. $30 is the lowest increment the charge comes in. cell phones are not necessary by any means--i know some people who love not being tied to their technology and get by fine and happy without one, but if you're prone to getting lost or love meeting up with people (who also have cell phones, which our group does), than it's probably a good call (pun intended!).

some sites to check out for research are telstra, vodaphone, and yes optus. mine is a telstra, and i'll leave the actual phone here with the interns so someone else can use it, but you've got to get your own SIM card. buy that here. i don't know how those things work internationally. happy hunting!

all right, australia. that's it. i've had it with your weird as fashion. let me clarify.

first things though: happy belated birthday lindsay! i'm sorry i'm doing such a bad job at this birthday thing, but baby steps. i hope you had a great one!

now.
there is no such thing as a trendy mullet. a mullet is a mullet is a mullet. if your hair is significantly longer in the back than it is in the front, it's a mullet. if your hair is one style the whole way around except for three square inches at the back of your neck which is at least five inches longer, it is a mullet. if your hair is one length all the way around except for one square inch at the back of your neck, that is a rat tail. you think it's attractive because one of these pieces of hair flows when you walk. hate to be the one to tell you, but these are not attractive hairstyles. you may not think they're bogan because you're wearing skinny jeans four sizes too small, vans slip ons and a band t-shirt, but i assure you: they are bogan. they are bogan and unattractive. they are bogan and unattractive and i should carry scissors in my back pocket to do you the favor of cutting it off.
also, dying your dark hair bleach blond down the middle on top of your mullet is adding insult to injury. take my word on this. if the look your going for is metro skunk, by all means. go for it. all the little girl skunks will flock to you.
let me go on. apparently, some boys are of the mindset that it's okay to take an emo-slanty haircut, sleep in it, and decide upon waking, "no, this isn't messy enough." they then go forward to apply and entire beehive worth of styling wax in order to get it at it's tangly best. again, stop it. rolling out of bed is really all you need. if that. in fact, wash the poor creature attached to your skull, and let it just go. see what happens.my philosophy is that if it leaves you and doesn't come back it wasn't meant to be.

i mentioned those pants. they need to be clarified as well. i am not interested in your underwear. no, really. i'm not. it is one thing to have extra baggy pants that do not stay on your body. it is another to have girl's skinny jeans that do not fit your body reach only halfway up your butt. it is wrong--not different, not interesting, not hardcore OR trendy, but wrong--to have your upper thighs showing when you bend over. i don't care if your shirt covers it when you stand up. it does not cover it when you sit down. again, if i were interested in your undies, i'd ask. i did not ask. so take care of it.

all australian men. all men. everywhere. leave the scoop necks to the ladies or to outdoor work. it is not a style.

and ladies, you are far from exempt. despite what you may think, it is possible to overwear the dress over black leggings and black long-sleeved shirt. that style has jumped the shark. officially. really. move forward.
on a related note, if your dress or top or dresstop--as the line is blurred nowadays--has a gather under the bust and your abdomen is not built like a model, check and double check that you do not appear to be wearing maternity clothes. in fact, check and double check that it is actually flattering you and not making a problem area worse.
also on a related note, consider pants. ooh, consider those pants. there is such a thing as too short and when what you think is a dresstop is actually just a top. remember: leggings and tights are not pants. they cover your legs, sure, but they are not pants. on a related note: this is not 1983. leggings plus oversized t-shirt that may or may not read "global warming is not cool" with a belt is not an outfit. please, please, please. would you just consider the pants?

and this, this is the end-all be-all of fashion related rants i will ever have and i wouldn't make it if it hadn't been sitting near me for the last half hour. in fact, if i were reading that this actually happened, i would not believe you. i will try to get a photo if i can.

but, my dear lady, you may not, repeat, MAY NOT wear an oversized flannel shirt as a dress. i don't care that you've got a belt cinching it in at your waist. it is not relevant that it is actually big enough to cover all the important things. no. not relevant. the principle of the thing is important here: you may not wear a shirt on its own as a dress. it would actually be really cute for putzing around the house in, and heck, at some point in time i hope i get the opportunity to do so. but do not, by any means, think it's okay to put on a pair of ballet flats and walk out the door.

i'm sorry. i haven't had enough sleep and flannel-shirtdress girl put me over the edge.

welcome to october: and your days are numbered

hello, true blue! i'm sorry i've not been good about writing like i said i would. needless to say, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

the bush trip was amazing. we went about 1.5 hours north of sydney to kincumber, where we all stayed at a youth camp on the harbor. you could still hear cars, but it was still great to get out of the city. the terrain was the most like that of home in arkansas, which i love and miss. it was like getting a little taste of the ozarks in the middle of gum trees and eucalyptus.
during our time there, we learned some basics about aboriginal culture through short hikes to different locations, small group experiences (split into "totems" which is probably an idea not too dissimilar from a "tribe"), watching rabbit proof fence, making traditional crafts like bark baskets and fishing spears (fish were actually caught by our boys!), and learning to throw a boomerang and play didgeridoo.

which i learned...so i made the investment in one.

i fully intend to teach people how to play, so ask.

our trip was followed by the first long weekend break (four days). spent it sleeping, out and about, and even to a coogee beach!

however, this week has been full of things needing to get done that didn't really pan out over those few days, so there's been a lot of rushing around and getting things together. this weekend and next week will look like that as well. here's to obligations!

when the calendar quit fiddling around with september and broke into october, i'll admit that i was a little shocked. oh man. it's october! the presence of october throws the entire experience into a very finite sort of temporariness. we've been done settling in for some time, and we've planted some roots here. the next five weeks are the time to start to shake them loose, prepare for the going home.
who am i kidding? there's another month here!

i'm doing great. not sleeping enough, but who can sleep when sydney calls? i have been missing home a bit though. i was walking through a kmart the other day when i looked up and was surrounded by Christmas paraphanalia and Christmas music of some kind. the australian summer is starting, and songs of dashing through snow and which Christmas serve to make me miss home again.

we leave in the second week of november for new zealand. our days here are very numbered.

keep praying for my sanity!

leaving for the bush

first, my oldest brother celebrated his 24th birthday this past week and i completely bungled the whole operation. i'm sorry, matt! happy birthday! hip, hip, hooray! (here, they cheer that more often than the little "and many mooore..." diddy.)

in a few hours, we'll pack up into smaller buses--a small group will go by train--and make our way an hour and a half north, near gosford. it's not far, but it'll be likely far enough away to be right in the middle of nowhere. we'll be there for five days, mostly hiking and learning from oomera, our teacher.

this trip connects directly to the second half of our asc course: indigenous cultures and history. our prof is a very smart aboriginal woman named oomera, who has a very self-controlled way about her and also has that sort of inner calm and wisdom that me feel like she can see straight through me. she's really cool. we took a field trip with her on friday to a park in one of the suburbs. it was awesome. if the area of the park is any sort of indication of what we'll find in "the bush," it's most like the wilderness at home i've seen yet. i'm from the ozarks, and used to hills and trees and water and rocks. that is my nature. the place we visited had all that: hills, trees, birds, rocks, PLUS a particular seed that would lather when water was added and a plant one can "drink" moisture from. party time.
i mean, the outback was cool, don't get me wrong, but all that flatness and red earth isn't really my bag, no matter how pretty the stars are.

so we'll be learning from oomera about aboriginal peoples and how they interacted with the land. they never really subdued it in any sort of way a western culture would. as we're doing all this homework and reading about human's connection with land, i'm thinking about my home, the "my kind of nature" as described above and wondering if i find myself loving it there because of the more comfortable things about it (knowing where everything is, usually i'm not under huge amounts of stress while there) or because there is something comforting about the land itself.

no laptops or internet out there, so i'll be off for a little while. in the meantime, enjoy this video of me singing backup vocals for my friend joel. i'm on the far right, jeans and black jacket looking incredibly awkward. i don't think you can even hear me! this was probably over a month ago, and i'll get to explaining it all soon.



happy week, everyone. see you thursday.

silver lining

today has altogether not been good.

i fell asleep at my computer last night working on a paper. when i awoke, my screen was black.
my computer has been acting strangely for the last week or two. it doesn't appear to be a hard drive thing, but more an electrical thing. sometimes the screen will just shut itself off and take the rest of the computer back with it, sometimes the battery reader will jump from 45% full to 0%. last night, i assume, the battery just kicked the bucket. sleepy and defeated, i crawled into bed with my paper not done and plugged in the computer, hoping for the best.

i woke up this morning as my class was starting--hollaback if you know what oversleeping for class again feels like--and my computer still would not awake. no way this paper was getting done.

i make it to class an hour late, only to discover that older versions of indesign i'd been working with were incompatible with those at school. yippee. at least i got some paperwork taken care of during that time. also talked to my prof for whom the paper was due and explained about my computer. she was understanding but firm. i figured okay.

straight from class i head out to the western suburbs to run some errands that i had planned and couldn't change. i jumped on a train and pulled out a copy of mere Christianity, which i had checked out of wesley's library a week or so ago by chance. (it has been a good call, by the way). a couple pages in, the fellow behind me popped over my shoulder and started to ask me questions with a bit lip and concerned look on his face. this entire interchange was probably the brightest spot in my day.
it was like every hypothetical scenario i've ever been given about a non-Christian seeking God fell into my lap. he wanted to know about Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. He wanted to know about Passover and the sacrifice. he wanted to know about the teachings of Jesus and if we have to do anything more than accept Him to gain Eternal Life. we touched on Communion, Grace, the Holy Spirit, repentance, free will, prophecy, Islam. it was amazing. i ended up missing my stop to ride with him as he got off the train, and left with his contact information. be praying for him, he looked totally on the brink of something big. it was so cool. his name is sam.

so i ran my errand, but missed my opportunity to go by a "we close so early in the day" apple store. the good news, and the entire reason i can post right now, is that my roommate had a spare ibook (my computer) battery on her. she suggested it as a solution, i jumped at the idea. she handed it over, i popped it on. i pushed the power button and heard my little lappy whir to life. all i need now is to get to a mac store and tell them what's what.

three statements to cap off: God is amazing. i have lots of work to do. music (jack's mannequin) has a way of lifting me.

woops

i guess this blog is what happens when life happens to you. i have a lot to say, but i am tired and have some things to work on in the immediate time being, so i'll bullet-point them and tell a brief story and have to call it a day:
-the outback: sunsets, tree climbing, boomerangs, johnny cakes, sheep shearing, niffler birds, emus, kangaroo "hunting", stars, red dirt and farming thereof, original homesteads, quiet, and drought. and a dang good time.
-further notes on the auburn gallipoli mosque
-haircutting
-the scary things you find yourself saying in class (and the resulting accountability)
-the awesome factor of snailmail
-concert practice! singing! milk!
-lots of work and papers
-preparing for the BUSH trip?! already!
-two months in. already?

all those topics, and others i'm sure, but now my story for today.
and of course it has to do with buses.

i was hopping on the 370 bus today, which takes me from my house in leichhardt to my service placement at newtown mission . i'm never quite sure if i'm going to make this bus or not, but it comes infrequently enough that i can tell from a distance by the amount of people at the stop whether i've missed it. i haven't yet!
i walk up to the bus stop, proud of my timing skills, to join the small crowd queued up there, including an elderly woman with a seeing eye dog. the bus pulled up a few moments later, and we all crowded to climb aboard. i caught a look at the dog leading the woman and had to do a double take--this dog could have been brother or sister to our dearly departed family dog, princess. it had the same black face with same greying patterns, same chilled out sort of walk. this dog was a little heftier and its tail a little less perky than the puppy i'd loved, but it made me miss her something fierce.
princess came into my life when i was about three, and remained a constant in my life until spring of 2006. when i found that she had passed away, it was like a true end of an era. today on that bus, a part of that era lived on, guiding that old lady around sydney. right on, princer-puppy.

preppin' for the outback

one: there was an anniversary last week! happy 50 to my grandparents on august 30. i remember being just a little one (or was i ten? wow.) running around your 40th anniversary party and watching that amazing photoslideshow with many of your friends and our family. hope you found an amazing way to celebrate. here's to many more!

two: we leave for the "outback" bright and early on tomorrow morning. we'll drive about eight hours west to the town of conodobolin. my photo teacher told us on monday that you haven't really reached the outback until you've passed a town called broken hill, which is another eight hours west. however, considering we have class next week and it doesn't make sense to spend the better part of the next three days on a bus.

not sure what to expect--been told to layer, been told to expect hots and colds. been told to purchase a mosquito net to go over my head to keep the flies out of my face.
a word about australian outback flies. they are aggressive. they are stubborn. apparently, they will pick a spot on your anatomy and become single-mindedly interested in it, no matter how much you swat at them. they also know no respect for nostrils, eyes, lips, or ears. this is what we hear.

been told that we'll be hanging out with some cool aboriginal artists and learning about that culture through it, been told to expect not to shower for scarcity of water, been told that it's going to be amazing.

three. here's a few images i took at the national museum in canberra a few weeks ago. this place is totally awesome, but i thought these signs were comical. apparently, the horizon(s?) is just upstairs and eternity is to the right.




and to think all those poor people who have been searching for this kind of stuff since the moment the concepts were conceived--they just needed to go to canberra.

confusing posts, the common room, and the strangeness of wheaton

i realize that my last post is kind of hard to follow if the rules of chronology are to be applied at all. all apologies. one ridiculously long day makes for one incredibly confusing blog post. which leads me to a basic quandary: does one go back and correct old posts, making them readable for those who aren't following along, or are they like diary entries for a specific moment and to go back and fiddle with them is to fiddle with a testament to a moment? as the author, i will always know what i'm trying to say, so as the reader, i'm hoping you'll throw in your two cents on this.

sometimes the common room of epworth house is my favorite place to be. there's something about the mix of american and wesley students and the characters in those categories that make it a room of crazy ideas and laughter. i tell you this story in full confidence that no one will lose their respect for me, the asc program, or australians in the telling but rather that we all have a good laugh and it brings us closer together. that being said, the following just transpired in the common room:
a girl with a computer turns on "it's raining men," adjusts the computer to play to the rest of the room with a smile as big as the sunset. two or three of us start bopping (myself included) and the RA turns to me and says, "it's sunday night and we're listening to gay anthems!" i reply, "we should do this every sunday night!" he says to our friend, who is very conservative but has a great sense of humor, "milo! break out the buttless chaps!" milo just shudders and says, "naaaaaaw, man, naaaw!" it was a fantastic interchange and some of us are still humming the tune.
a note on australian stuff: "milo" is a kind of cocoa powder one mixes with hot or cold milk for an added chocolate milk flavor, not dissimilar from nesquick. [a note to future ascers: you will be introduced to milo and directed to put it in water. don't do it. it's meant for milk, unless you're in malaysia. i know some people who still put it in water and try to do tim tam slams out of it--no no no. it's milk, accept no substitutes.] it's got it's own flavor, for sure, but you use it pretty much the same way. the fellow i just mentioned as "milo" isn't really named milo--it just became his nickname because he likes the stuff so much. pronounce it "mallow" and you're halfway to australian.
one more note on things australian: i just had a proper piece of vegemite toast made for me! it's bread, butter, a very thin layer of vegemite, and a slice of a particular cheese. it was pretty good! if you're ever in australia, ask an aussie really nicely to make you a vegemite fan. they'll happily oblige.

classes at wheaton started this week. it's so odd to realize that they are just starting their experience where i am almost halfway through mine. as a smart friend told me while i was finding myself a bit in the dumps about it, "a day with rome is a day without paris," or something like that. i'm learning to be fully where i am and be happy about it. to all you wheaties: have a great time. explore, attend, learn, invest, skip, metra. go to the wade center, the billy graham museum, the balcony of edman chapel, king's arena, and most importantly, arena theater. appreciate the bottom of the beamer center, because it might not always be there, as we learned last year! miss you much.

it's been a good day.

it's been a long day. yesterday was something unexpected, as our photo class took a little field trip to a spot across the harbor and took practice shots. for the past couple days i've been pleasantly surprised as my knee has actually started to behave somewhat normally. like, there's still something not quite right about it that seems to have been righting itself, but it is still a slow process.
that being said, i could run around a little bit on this beach/rocky shore place, and boy howdy did i ever. i was jumping, i was climbing trees, i was going up and down stairs like no tomorrow. it was awesome.

came back around five pm, sat down to work on this paper due yesterday. worked very long hours to write an okay paper and was in singularly good spirits through the entire process.

my first class wasn't until the evening--a few hours after the paper was due. when we got out at eight o'clock, a full lunar eclipse was in swing. the sun was blocking the light from the moon, turning it a reddish brown in a way i'm sure would have scared the living daylights (extend that pun if you want to) out of any society without an understanding of astronomy. it was beautiful. the night was cool but not cold, my knee was in improving order, something sweet was blowing in the breeze, the showing stars were bright. it was like magic.

came home to a birthday celebration for one of the most cherished characters in epworth house. no homework to do, all sleep to be gotten.

thanks for praying for me. something is happening here--it might just be the brightening of the weather or the fixing of my knee, but it is good and i hope it continues.

the mosque, music, and ramblings (not necessarily in that order)

our group visited one of the largest/the largest (can't recall!) mosque in the area on friday. in retrospect i should have taken in my camera so i could post pictures, but hindsight is 20/20.

it was beautiful. the auburn gallipoli mosque is a turkish style mosque, meaning the inside was covered with detailed calligraphy and designs in vibrant whites, reds, blues, and golds. we were given a tour by a very progressive/liberal muslim who was very informative and stressed the similarities between our religions before the differences--what with abraham and all. we were then ushered into a room and met a scholar in muslim theology, who took many of our questions about being islamic in australia in stride. one of my favorite things he said was towards the end, and, bearing in mind post factum translation, can be summed up like this:
the era of domination is over. peoples can't make peace with each other by sheer force any more. wars against whole countries are effective on small scales, but it is impossible to control a whole nation. the only way we'll get along is if we learn how we are similar, and respect how we are different. through that education process we'll learn that the "other" is uniquely human and respect each other.
it reminded me of a robert frost poem i read once, mending wall. the main idea is that "good fences make good neighbors", because the fence, although it separates the neighbors and keeps ones property from another's, forces the two to get together every spring to mend the fence. through being sure that your side isn't on my side, i get to hear about how your year has been and how things are going, and vice versa. it brings us together. it was quite encouraging and full of grace. my kind of outing.
headcovering worked out great. someone actually told me it suited me a little. i am currently considering a social experiment of wearing one for a day, but am not sure i want to invite that kind of attention as i already get some of it every time i open my mouth.

fellow americans still surprise me. sometimes it's negative (asking questions about praying to Muhammad even after being told, no, we don't do that, it's actually majorly offensive if anyone tries to, or watching a peer ask a scholar a question with headphones still on), sometimes it's positive (the grace i'm given when i mess up too).

passing forward free music! the robbie seay band has made their latest album available for free when you sign up for a relevant magazine newsletter. now, i have no clue who the robbie seay band is, but i've been listening to the album today and it's not bad. kind of straight up pop-rock with sort of ho-hum lyrics, but the song "shine your light on us" has a few lines that are relevant to me right now. check it out, but move quick! i don't know how much longer it will be available.

heaps of work. lots of opportunity. prayers, thoughts, challenges, encouragements welcome.

singing and anzac bicuits

today was a wholly extraordinary day.

all the music majors at uni (that's university for the septics) have to take a class called concert practice, which is exactly what it sounds like. a handful of students prepare a song or two and perform in front of the rest of the class, as if putting on a small concert. my friend joel (the same fellow who nicknamed me) was performing a song and let me be one of two girls singing backup vocals for him. i got to sing in front of a crowd! i haven't done that since i was in high school, and have really missed it. i had someone take a video, and i'll upload it soon. it wasn't anything too special from anyone else's standards, but for me, it was a lot of fun--i'm not even sure i did well!

then, i came home and got talked into making anzac biscuits. anzac biscuits are basically oatmeal cookies, but way better and way more australian. no raisins. basically "golden" (pancake) syrup, oats, brown sugar, coconut and butter. it's awesome. and, according to all the aussies in the room, i did a fantastic job. i mean, i had to add heaps of butter and more syrup to make them stick together (honestly, i don't fully trust the recipe i was given, really), but they turned out great. i'm so proud of myself.
i decided in the middle of making them that i'm going to get really good at it and memorize the recipe. ask me to make some for you when i get back!

much love. pray for me this weekend, i have a lot of work to do and am not sure how i'm going to get it all done. the ascers are also visiting a mosque tomorrow. it'll be interesting--i'm learning how to construct a headcovering out of a big scarf--also a happy skill to bring home.

long walks in the rain

it's raining in sydney. sydney has been experiencing a fairly serious drought for the last season or so, but more rain has fallen in the last few days than all of past average augusts (or so i hear).

i have a rain jacket, which makes walking in the rain an enjoyable experience. the hood is big enough that it actually stays up when a stiff wind blows. the weather feels so much like an evening in october in the states that one half expects to look up and see the trees a-changing or small children running around with identity crises asking perfect strangers for candy. it's almost disappointing to look around and see a palm tree looking peaked in the moonlight, or a bat flying from tree to tree (no kidding).

i added a new feature: a link! this is the official asc blog. there are a bunch of us writing about official asc things. i wrote the first issue about a week or two ago, and will write again in october. if you really want more australian craziness, check it out. if not, i'll be a fine one stop shop.

canberra

the bus ride to canberra is only three or four hours long, and our group isn't big enough to load an entire charter bus to capacity, so a handful of us got our own seats to and fro. that was nice.

on friday, our group was on the bus by a bleary 7 am. we stopped at macca's (that's "mcdonalds" for all you septics (septics is short for "septic tank" which is rhyming slang for "yanks," which i've learned to not take personally)) somewhere along the way, at which i learned that a cup with strawberries in the bottom, yogurt in the middle and blueberries and granola on top is not a parfait. oh no, they'll look at you kind of odd if you call it that and still not figure it out even if you point at the refrigerator and say "top shelf." i can't remember what they called it now, but suffice it to say that it was a tired, humorous, and ultimately berryish experience.

anyway. so. as soon as we arrived we were sent to the papua new guinea high commission (come on, it's an embassy, whatever) and the united states embassy. thrilling. notably, however, we got to talk to the american embassy about apec, which is supposed to be a really cool meeting of a tons of world leaders here in sydney but is sounding like a huge annoyance for everyone involved. the ascers will be out in the bush that weekend, and everyone tells us what a wonderful idea it is to get out of the city. i'd imagine the place will be in diplomatic gridlock, something that looks cool on c-span or something but is awful for the natives.

on saturday, we visited the old parliament house, the national gallery of australia (where the security guards were just a little too excited about making everybody jittery), and the australian war memorial. all were top-notch facilities of education and preservation. parliament is a large white building where it's easy to get antsy enough to find an obscure stairwell with fire extinguishers and get locked in (this really happened, but not to me), the national gallery has some of everything and i found myself strangely attracted to the "pop art" section--what am i doing looking at andy warhols?! it's just a bunch of soup! the australian war memorial was perhaps the best memorial i have or ever will go to, although it just impressed the fact that i don't understand war at all. there is something about it that my little peabrain can't wrap itself around. i just don't follow.

on sunday morning we went to the national museum, perhaps the coolest place in all of canberra (no really). it was like museum meets the sisomo generation meets every lover of all things unusual (me!)'s playground. we stupidly and exhaustedly chose to spend a half-hour less there than planned, but most of us were kicking ourselves a half hour in. the place is a must see. really. go.

we stayed at the nicer of two youth hostels i've ever been in. i mean, it's hard to hold a candle to english breakfast, but it was very clean, accessible, and spacious.
also, here's a word (several in, fact) about canberra.
it's a giant park with some buildings tucked in at strategic points. it is a planned city, and there's a spot at the australian war memorial that the entire city is designed for--it's like the mall in dc with the way there's a huge lane and view with old parliament and new parliament lined up with each other. the memorial itself is beautiful and so appropriately somber--and covered with smooth stone. for those of you that like that kind of thing.

but the rest of the city is a little dull. there's people, and cars and shopping and whatnot, but the city has this odd feeling of just being empty. i never had to push a crosswalk button to cross a street. i asked for directions to a place and got lost for about five minutes until we ran back into the youth hostel. there was a nightlife of twentysomethings after dark, but they're pretty self-contained and dull looking. we lost our bus once, but just by walking around bumped back into it. the place just has an australian feeling of big and empty, but never in a way where you feel that it's quiet... too quiet. there's just no wrong to be done. i don't even think there was much vandalism there, and it's not that they lack space for it. all the interestingly dangerous people are just not in canberra. it's kind of odd and/or surreal.

by the way, as of august 19, the asc group has been here a solid month. hard to believe, right? miss you guys much but am still glad to be here.

canberra trip

did anyone else know that mullets were an aussie thing? apparently they were born here and transplanted to the southern us during the eighties as the best thing ever, or so i hear. they're still in full swing here. saw three the other day, five this afternoon. i plan on photographing them when i get a chance.

tomorrow the ascers drive three or four hours to canberra, australia's capitol. we've been told it's like a city within a park. all the aussies hear we're going to canberra tell us we're going to be bored. oh well. we get to visit a load/the only of cool places, though. we get back on sunday.

i feel much better. i'm still coughing to beat the band, but surely functioning normally again.

catch you when i get back.

thanks so much, everyone. (another vlog!)

really, like, a surprise birthday cake (with tuba accompaniment for the song) approximately 40 happy birthday wall postings, an email from mom and a little gift she suck into my bag make a birthday amazing, even when i'm sick.

"so what are you doing for your birthday?"

i'm feeling better. still not up to par, but better. i wish the last post wasn't wrought so much out of sheer frustration, but there you have it.

i turn twenty today. a few people around the house were surprised to hear that i was only twenty--someone had thought i was twenty-two or something. i think i'm still young enough for that to be a compliment, but i'm twenty now. i wonder when my perceived age will catch up to my actual age, or if i will always seem a little older than i am. it's just curious.

so people have been asking if i have any special plans for today, and my basic answer is just trying to get better. "i might take a nap," i said earlier.

have a good day, everybody.

vlog and the truth (i.e. complaining)

okay. so i took this video around noon on friday, when everything was pretty good. the sun was shining, it was warm, i had just finished the oral presentation i was up far too late working on, and i had the day to wander as i pleased and forget homework for a little while.

the truth is i had developed a small but deep cough. through the day it developed. right now, i'm nursing a jacked up voice, achey crap, chills, cough. and the building blocks of a nice little illness. or something.

on top of that, i something happened to my knee on like, the fourth day in (yeah, like three weeks ago). i wish it was an injury, but it isn't. it's like i was walking one day, it kinda was bugging me, walking the next day and it hurt more, and by the next day i was nearly unwalkable. stairs, standing after sitting, sitting for long amounts of time. i've been to the doctor who was like, it's anterior muscle pain, here are some exercises and painkillers, have fun. yeah. two weeks later now and progress is very slow. it's still bothering me, but i can walk fair enough, stairs are a problem. swelling. popping. grinding.
i just want to be able to move normally. that's all, really.

so here's a video of when things were good today. i'm going to take some tylenol pm and crash.



i've been thinking about you a lot recently, wishing i was there to be with you during this time. wishing i could rejoice with you, encourage you, mourn with you, plan and pack with you. you are precious.

buses, etc.

bus bus bus. aaaaaaaargh. can't live with them, can't live without them.

buses in sydney are kind of cruel. i mean, they're nice, but they're kind of cruel. have i already talked about this? sometimes a bus runs late, runs early, or doesn't run at all. and there's no warning for any of this--you just get to your stop fifteen minutes early and hope for the best.

the one bus route that goes from my house in leichhardt to school in drummoyne runs about every half hour in the early afternoon. i needed to get to a three o'clock class. i head out to the bus stop around 2:25 (fair enough, i should have been out earlier). i have to cross a street to get to the stop. i get to the crosswalk and see every commuter's worst nightmare: the bus pulls in while traffic is not in my favor.
i see it happen in slow motion. i start hopping around, trying to see if i can cheat through the oncoming traffic. trying to make eye contact with the driver that says wait, wait, wait, please, i need your bus, can't you see this crosswalk is in my way, please, wait. but he pulls away from the curb. he's still sitting at the stoplight, but he's away. there's no getting anywhere at that point. the lights change and i hustle across the street, and finally make eye contact with the driver and he just looks at me as if to say, welp, sorry about that, but i can't stop now. so i have to wait for another twenty-five minutes for the next bus to come and am late for my class. buses, buses, buses.

this week in our ASC classes, we've been talking about church and politics. i'm kind of in the middle of trying to figure out some of that business--how do we make Christianity work on a public level?--and was kind of excited about discussion. and, well, no harm no foul to anyone or anything, but it was a little disappointing. i suppose i had high expectations for someone to clear it all up and go, "well, this is how i sort it all out. it seems to make sense to me," and then i'd know how to base all that, what to aim for. not so much.

ahh. don't misunderstand me. i'm not questioning my faith. i'm asking how that faith, given the command to the rich young ruler (sell your stuff. give it to the poor. love them. follow me.), make sense on a larger scale, like within a government system. for some reason this topic has become very relevant to me recently as i start to choose the kind of life i will set up for myself as i get older. it's a long, complicated spiel that i'll spare you the boredom of reading. i guess all there is to say is that we've read and talked a little bit about it, and i've come to no conclusions yet, and that kinda bugs me.

nicknames

aussies love shortening things. take "aussie" for one--who really wants to say "australian" all the time? really, no. too much. gas stations are "servos," taken from the time when they were service stations, this afternoon becomes "th'sahrvo," which is really confusing if you're trying to distinguish one from the other.
names are no exception: you know a guy is a friend when you add "-o" to the end of his name. i've become facebook friends with a guy named jonothon who goes more casually as "jono." if your name doesn't work well with that, you get shortened to your first syllable, then add a "z," possibly a "za" or "zo."
the fellow i'm talking to just said, "everything in australia gets shortened." that's from an aussie. i'm not kidding around.
now, nicknames are a sign of familiarity. if you're friends with someone, you want to talk to him often, and saying his name multiple times during the day can get a little verbose. so you shorten it, right?

i have earned an australian nickname: mezza.

a few of the guys around the house who i have become good friends with asked me if i have any nicknames at home. "well, there's mere," i say, "and my brothers sometimes called me meref," (i didn't mention another nickname given to me by my brothers, for the sake of simplicity).
and they go, "aw yeah? you're mez now."

so i'm mez, or mezza, as the mood strikes you. i really like it, and i'm starting to feel little more at home. it's nice.

the library, art gallery, and things i wish i'd studied

sorry it's been a few days. i've been busy.

on friday, we had our first field trip to the new south wales library. it's amazing place-- the main library room is kind of like something out of beauty and the beast, except the room is square and only about four layers up. yeah, that kind of amazing. funny thing is, you can't take books in with you--just paper and pencils. also, you're not to retrieve books yourself. you fill out a request receipt or something, take it to a librarian, and they'll get it for you. i think i heard that only 20% of their holdings are displayed in that main room--there are floors and wings of the library that only librarians have access to. it's crazy.

the librarians gave a presentation, but i saw a photo and proceeded to retreat into my own thoughts. (sorry, gotta be honest.) it was a photo of one of the first aboriginal authors ever published. it looked like a black and white tintype, so i'm going to place him in the late nineteenth century or thereabouts, wearing a nice suit and the haircut of a white man of his time, perhaps a pair of spectacles. he had every dressing of an intelligent man, and i considered how absurd it was for anyone to ever consider this people group subhuman, or try to deny them the rights that the aborigines were denied as late as the 1970's.

but i looked again. how easy it is for me, a white girl from one of the most privileged countries in the world with my globalized and multicultural mindset, to look at this photo of a man dressed in a way different from his heritage, and think it would take a fool to not know him for a human.
i can't write this next thought without feeling awful about it. this is a much less artfully done version of the thought, straightforward and boring. sorry:
sometimes i wonder: if i hadn't been raised in a world where cultural diversity was a good thing, where the awareness of other peoples and places was a necessity for understanding the world around me, where standards for acceptable human behavior were extremely specific, would i think other peoples and cultures in- or subhuman, or simply as lesser people, as well? am i so arrogant to think i would be above every standard my culture has impressed on me? it's easy for me to look at the photo of the aborigine in western dress and say, well duh, of course his life and experience is equal to mine. but what if that man had appeared in front of me in the dress of his culture , when i'm used to human beings behaving in such a way and only that way--what would i think? how would i respond?

then we went to the art gallery and filled out a worksheet given to us. i never thought i liked art museums much, but something about this one i liked. see, i'm an art minor, but i'm a design person. i have no idea what makes fine art "art", and museums often just frustrate me. but something about this one got me humming iron and wine tunes (iron and wine is a band), missing people from the states, and unusually present.

one thing to study before visiting a new country is the currency. especially australian currency, my goodness. i've never felt like such a tourist! see, different values are different sizes and, most notably, colors. a native can tell straight away which note is which by a brief flash. us americans have to pull out the entire thing and look for the number. so study these things! it will save you loads of time and make you look so legit. also: study the basic geography of sydney's suburbs. namely drummoyne, concord, leichhardt, ryde, gladesville, paramatta, burwood, the like. know where they are in relation to each other and to the city--NOT to the harbor. bridges will pop up where you don't expect them and all of a sudden you're on the south/north side.

have a wonderful night.

on cities, home, missing

buses in sydney are, how would one put this lightly?, tempramental.

sometimes they're early, sometimes they're late, sometimes they don't come at all, but most of the time, they're on time. this does suck, however, when you find yourself waiting for the last bus of the night when the two previous buses didn't come. imagine standing at a stop for nearly an hour with full knowledge that not one but two buses should have come during that time, but didn't, and this next bus is your only chance to get where you need to go quickly--with no assurance that this last bus will show at all. this happened to a friend of mine. thankfully, i got on that last bus with him.

the only real comparison i have to offer is that of chicago. public transportation is much less complicated there, although i will say that the city has a few advantages in that way. it doesn't have a harbor with undulating coastline to deal with. it doesn't have its old non-grid street system to complicate the roadways. it is, geographically, quite a bit smaller than the area of sydney and suburbs.
that being said, buses don't have schedules, more or less. they come during times of the day (ie, my route ran from early morning to late evening), as often as they can. there is no opportunity for one to be late or early or not come, as it is wizardlike in appearance. it just comes when it comes. there'll be another one just like it in fifteen to twenty-five minutes.

i miss this about chicago. and now that i've reached my subject, i miss a great many things about chicago. i miss charlie, my bike, i miss the pocket map i have since sent to my roommate for on-the-go navigation, i miss the cab numbers programmed into my cell phone (which i never used but was so glad to have), i miss the general guidelines to stay out of the south side at night and the the lake is to the east. always to the east.

here, the buses come on "schedules," which they seem to shirk. i'm afraid to get a bike on the road because of the very real threat of riding into oncoming traffic (keep left, keep left, keep LEFT), any pocket-sized map would be as big as this continent itself, the harbor is to the north...wait, where are you again?, the dangerous spots as likely as the nice ones.

i don't know if this makes any sense. i'm tired and a little frustrated, so i'm calling this quits. goo night.

on australian currency

okay. when my family sat down and worked out the fine print of me coming to australia, you know, eletricity, health insurance et cetera, we decided that the best way for me to have access to money was travelers checks, acquired in the states and transferred to australian dollars at an obvious moneychanging facility. that way, one could avoid credit card financing charges (which your card may or may not have), and atm charges (which your bank may or may not have), or worries that one might run out of resources without realizing it.

now, don't get me wrong. this is a good plan, and for anyone travelling to australia, do consider it. however, it can be inconvenient at times. banks aren't always open (meaning hardly ever), plus i've experienced in both banks, currency exchanges (which are more common downtown, but also not always accessible) charge an $8 AUD. now, if you're changing $100, it's not a huge deal. $100 gets you somewhere around $110 AUD, so when they take away eight of them, it's like breaking almost even. prices in australia aren't too much higher, maybe only by a couple bucks--depending on where you go and what you buy. and stuff.

what i suggest, to any future ASCers, is to find a way to make use of ATMs. they're all over. there are two banks i've seen in almost every suburb i've been in thus far (okay, i'll give, it's only been about two weeks), are national australian bank and commonwealth bank. some banks in america (like, i've heard bank of america, but that's just hearsay) are affiliated with these two banks and you can find a way to access your funds fairly easily via atm, maybe without charge? check it out before you get here to see if your bank is afflilated with either of those two. or look into opening an account with one. or consider travelers checks. your call.

but be sure that whatever you get here and try to do anything electronic, you call your bank or credit card company and tell them you're going to be using their services overseas. apparently when your account, usually receiving charges from somewhere in the midwest (or other region, what have you) starts to get charges from the other side of the planet, it's high-profile fishy. your account provider can/will keep you from withdrawing more, or anything at all. and trust me, it's easier to make calls to your company while still in the states. so just do it.

nothing too much new today. i'm finding that my photography class might be more challenging than i thought. but at the end, i'll know how to take a picture of a penguin in front of a mountain while the sun is setting behind it. (this particular setup almost made my mind explode today. it was hilarious.)
thanks.

i'm here!

hallo! it's a beautiful early sunday afternoon in the suburbs.

our group got back from spiro camp on friday afternoon. basic schedule ran as thus: sing. eat. sing. listen to talk. eat. sing. free time. sing. eat. listen to talk... something like that. we learned the joys of morning and afternoon tea, which are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MEALS from lunch, breakfast or dinner. it was slightly ridiculous, with a huge heap of awesome.
had some great conversations with people, got around well enough despite knee issues. (i complain. whatever.)

yesterday was a day of adventuring, thanks to sydney public transportation. i thought we were gettiing on a train to paramatta, but the train decided it didn't want to go the whole way. so they diverted us to a bus, which got us where we wanted to go. on our way home, we jumped on a bus we thought was going to a place where we could connect to a train to get home. after riding it for a half hour and discovering it did not indeed go where we thought, we transferred to another bus going into the city filled with loud young people. (i felt so old--i was so tired and wanted these kids to just sit down and be quiet...ahh.) but we made it to the city, wandered about, and made it home on the night bus. all in all, a full and wonderful day.

let me know how y'all are. (the aussies, by the way, crack up when i break into southern drawl. it's fantastic.)

a little vlog today.

like i mention in the video, i'll be gone at "spiro," or spiritual emphasis camp, tomorrow until friday night. my knee is still bum, which will make running around in merroo, by the mountains, real fun. but it will be good.



have a good couple of days, everyone.

classes begin

first off, let it be said that it is a huge encouragement to know people are reading. it's even cooler to have people actually interacting with each other via the comments--oh WOW. yes. let's have more of that.

first day of class today. well, it's school. it's odd to be going back in july. photography is going to be challenging but good--the entire class seems to be on a similar skill level and without pretension. our prof is young and looks like a grown up version of young goob from meet the robinsons.



i mean, without the black eye and a better sense of self-esteem.

it's late, i'm tired, and i've been having a really interesting conversation with people in the house about politics and culture. less charged than the other, you'll be happy to know, but still interesting.

and i had no idea that e.e. cummings had rules about his capitalization. good show. i'm aware that it's kind of post-counter-culture move, and it doesn't bother me. just a style i tend to like.

have a good night. hopefully there will be more to say tomorrow.

class schedule, scuba, and capitalization

two required programs:
monday:
8:45 am-12 pm: the view from australia/ indigenous history and culture
3-5:50 pm: photography II
tuesday:
6-8 pm: video production
wednesday:
1 pm; the gathering (chapel)
4-5:50 pm: arts and culture
thursday:
9-11 (am): multimedia II
3-4:30 pm: bellydancing*
friday:
all day**: the view from australia/ indigenous history and culture

*a friend of mine convinced me to take this with her. don't misunderstand me. i'm excited about it, but if it seems out of character, that's why.
**classes won't typically go all day. some fridays will be used to get a head start on weekend travelling, others will dismiss at half-day.

... ... ...

thoughts on scuba.
i have never gone scuba diving, so much of this will be speculation. but it works for the metaphor.
i feel like i'm culturally scuba diving. i've been plunged into a different world. everything is new and slightly surreal. the water is slightly foggy. the ways to go and options are still yet to be realized, and breathing normally is a challenge. but breathing normally is possible: the surroundings will become commonplace, the bus and train systems will be as familiar as the backroads at home, i will develop favorite shops and restaurants and church, and i will stop feeling like a sore thumb with my accent.
speaking of accents, i've visted two english-speaking countries with different accents in the past six months. both times, i feel that we, the travelers, brought more attention to ourselves by being self-conscious of our american accent than the accent itself. there is something about the way we think our nation is percieved that makes us (me) so aware and nervous to be that american: stupid, fat, loud, obnoxious. in reality, i only know a few americans actually like that, certainly not enough to stereotype the entire country. i/we would do well to just be ourselves, human, instead of worried of where we come from. (although i talked to an young lady today who spoke for all of australia: "we think bush is an idiot." to which all i could answer was, "yeah, a lot of people in the states think that too. but it's interesting how split the nation is--there are people who can't stand him, and people who stand behind him." personally (as if you asked), i'd say i don't know enough to say either way for sure. i do think that the nation has been ready--nay, looking--for a new president since 2005. there are other more educated reasons, i'm sure, to explain why the race has started so early, but that's my two cents.

sorry to get political.

... ... ...

a note on capitalization:
the pretentious explanation: capitalization gives respect. i like to give that respect to the God's Three Persons, and a few other case-sensitive (oh, forgive that pun) situations. that's about it.
the practical explanation: when i was first learning how to type, it was tough for me to coordinate several fingers to push two buttons at once. i got in the habit of typing without caps, and grew to like the way it looked. i do it now as a personal style, even though I Can Coordinate My Fingers Better Now. sorry if it's hard to read.

opera house! opera house! opera house!

this morning we finished orientation around the school, and in the afternoon took off for a scavenger hunt. we ran around the city taking photos of various imoportant buildings for two hours.







then, we went on a tourboat around the harbor and took this video. i have not played it back, and i know the quality isn't very good (i don't even know if you can hear me or anything on it, for goodness sakes), but it's the closest thing i can do to remember a sense of that moment. it was cold but amazing.



after the cruise, we had mongolian barbecue together. the sun sets around 5-6 pm (did i say that already?), so for those of us coming off daylight savings time, 8-9 pm feels about 11-12. we're all exhausted by 7:30.

oh! also: this photo goes out to wyomians:


and this is me and my roommate, becca. she's as genuine and friendly as the day is long, and i think we'll be good friends. (in case you need telling, this isn't a flattering picture of either of us. we're on the boat: it's windy, it's cold, i have a double chin and she thinks she looks bald.)


also, as long as we're uploading pictures: i wuv mah brudder. i'm bummed i couldn't see lindsay as well, but circumstances are circumstances. much love to you both!

the travelling story

(all times very approximate.)

12 pm CST: i leave my house for the airport
330 pm CST: plane leaves from XNA
630 pm CST/ 430 pm PST: plan arrives in LA
800 pm CST/ 600 pm PST: meet brian for dinner at panera
930 pm CST/ 730 pm PST: meet most of fellow ASC'ers at air new zealand check-in desk
(recieve tickets, go through security, arrive at gate, grab light sustenance wait)
1230 pm CST/ 1030 pm PST: plane leaves from LAX
1 pm CST/11 am PST/ 6 am ST (7/19/06): plane lands in auckland.
(cross international date line during 12.5 hour flight. confused yet? so were we.)

that's where it all goes to pieces in my head. we somehow ended up in sydney between 1000 and 1100 am on the 19th. in all, i had three flights to deal with:
XNA to LAX: 3 hours
LAX to AUCKLAND, NZ: 12.5 hours
AUCKLAND to SYDNEY: 3 hours.

i'll leave the mysteries of crossing the international date line to the physics masters. my brain explodes when i try to figure it out.
i'm finding i recover from jet lag quite well, as i am able to sleep almost anywhere and keep myself awake when i really should want to sleep. things get pretty funny when our group can't figure out how long we've been travelling.

thursday was a day of "keep the kids awake" with basic orientation, games, and food (um, TIM TAMS? where have you been all my life?). today was more intense orientation, covering classes, facilities, procedures, etc. after that, a handful of us decided to go downtown. nutshell: opera house, harbor bridge, beautiful, and tons of places to spend money, plus cool history i can't wait to see in the daylight.

upcoming posts!
-daily schedule (classes, etc)
-tour of housing
-opera house pictures
-service placement, etc
-straight-up stories!

OH! i forget this is about stories some times. i'm sorry about the length, but here's a quickie.
i live in student housing. it's neat, but not always the cleanest. some fellow ASC'ers from down the hall found a roach in their room and started flipping out. it was quickly killed. however, that made my roommate, becca, and i are squeamish to investigate our room, but investigate we must. while putting a suitcase inside an upper cupboard, we found one.
of course, our initial response was to flip. a few deep breaths and screwed up courage later, i climb on a chair with a shoe in hand to investigate further. the roach is still, and doesn't move when i blow on it. i squeak, thwack it with a shoe, and it bounces onto its back-- still no movement. blow again. nothing. becca hands me a pamphlet to scoop with and a grabs a trashcan for immediate disposal of said roach. i scoop, she holds, the vermin is away. we vanquished the (proabably already dead) roach! yippee for us!

all is well. leave some love!

the henry rollins story

first off, i look back over the pictures i just posted and miss chicago a little bit. if anyone from saatchi is reading this, would you just comment a "hey!" or something and let me know? it would make me quite glad.

secondly, my plane from arkansas to LAX takes off in a little under 24 hours. a good friend of mine commented on saturday that a week from then, i'll have everything figured out. it's so odd how true that is. by next saturday, i'll likely be unpacked, know at least three names (my roommates for sure--hiya katelyn, rebekah and carmen--yay facebook), know how to get to and from school, and all that crazy jazz. all in a week from now. a week ago i hadn't started packing.

but now! the story of henry rollins.

it's my first week at saatchi. i'm so jumpy and eager-to-please and do something good and right, i'm sure i'm annoying the office. andy, someone in the right rank to tell just about anybody in the office what to do, comes to me one afternoon and asks me to find a downloadable version of the theme song from the henry rollins show. simple enough, i say. i start searching, and realize this is going to be harder than i thought. i know then that rollins was a musical artist, spoken word artist/standup comedian, author, show host, etc., not to mention physically imposing enough to make me more than my fair share of nervous, but all around, a reasonable and cool fellow. what i didn't realize was how big his body of work is and how difficult it would be to just get the opening of this show--which i have never seen--isolated, considering anyone wanting to watch an online segment isn't interested in how it starts. i'm bouncing around from site to site, and i come across one that lists contact information to rollins himself. right. i think. this email address goes to henry rollins. just sitting here on my desktop. plain as day on this webpage. riiight..
but, i'm running out of options and it's getting late in the day. i keep the window open as a hypothetical last-ditch effort if nothing else pans out. i mean, even if the email goes to some crazy fan, the fan might be able to help me. as the time dwindles out, the email looks more and more viable. on my way out that evening, i shoot an email to him, briefly stating who i am and what i'm looking for. i log out and go home.
the next morning, i check my email first, almost forgetting the previous day. much to my surprise, there's an email waiting for me from the rollins address. exactly what was said will be lost to future generations--it slipped through the internet cracks when i switched email addresses. but he wrote me back, and the whole office was pretty convinced it was legit. i emailed him back how impressed i was that he actually answered my questions, and his response was pretty much that it shouldn't be. awesome.

and that is the story of how i emailed henry rollins.

chicago pictures: round two!

i'l try to keep this as light as possible.


one north state: it's odd-- this address lays just off madison street. madison is the street that goes most directly from the train station to millenium park, the street i would most commonly walk making trips into the city during the school year. i've passed by it almost every time i've been in chicago. i always wondered what was actually inside it, and now i know.


me and charlie hanging out in front of "the bean", a large, reflective sculpture in millenium park. more formally known as cloud gate.



this is charlie, my bike. it's a 1970 (or '71) schwinn collegiate. i bought it at a used bike shop called working bikes for fifty bucks. charlie's a little squeaky and the breaks could use some help, but it's in very good shape for its age. plus, a previous owner attached a wheel-generated light to the front--it still works. i can thank charlie for my newfound knowledge and confidence while navigating the city.
and just how did it get named charlie? well, just look at him. doesn't he look like a charlie to you?

and, just to gloat some more: the view from the apartment.

to the south:




to the north



fourth of the fireworks downtown (the red white and blue-topped building is the hancock tower. i can assure you that i could see the navy pier fireworks a thousand times better.)


still to come:
-expectations!
-the story of how i emailed henry rollins--and he responded back!
-a brief explanation of why i don't capitalize things!

now to return to packing.

mailng address- EDIT 7/21/07

mailing a letter:
(my name)
Wesley Institute--ASC
PO Box 534
Drummoyne NSW 1470
AUSTRALIA

mailing a package:
(my name)
Wesley Institute-ASC
5 Mary Street
Drummoyne NSW 2047
AUSTRALIA

"Australia ’s remoteness created an environment unlike any other on Earth. Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service helps protect it. Food, plant material and animal products from overseas could introduce some of the world’s most serious pests and diseases into Australia, devastating our valuable agriculture and tourism industries and unique environment."
-Australian government.

yay! i like letters!

expectations to come!

packing, among others

one. it helps that i've almost done this before. it must get easier every time, perhaps?

they tell us to expect temperatures as cold as thirty and as hot as one hundred (fahrenheit). at this i raised my eyebrows a bit--four months in northeastern illinois (known for four complete seasons) hardly sees that kind of range. about forty-five seconds worth of research concluded that averages range from mid-forties to mid-seventies, although i'm sure it can and does get colder and hotter. however, i'm really thinking that preparing for four months of those two extremes is highly different than preparing for the averages. any student who was at wheaton this spring could tell you that, as the mercury only rose above freezing in two days out of thirty-four from mid-january to mid-february. (that was a very special month--people just scuttling from one building to another. oh memories.)

anyway. the packing fun is underway. my first step was to do an inventory check--see how newer items settled in with old. i don't think i've done that in a very long time. i picked out everything i wouldn't mind wearing repeatedly for four months. there's quite a bit there. this says that one, of the clothes i have, i like many of them very much. two, i have a lot of clothes. (rabblerabblerabblematerialismrabblerabblerabble.) i'm going to have to cut the entire lot of it in half, at least a third for sure.

two. i've found myself listening to Christmas this evening. specifically, a series of albums titled "hark! songs for Christmas" by an artist named sufjan stevens. my dad makes fun of my fascination for this artist because of his funny name (pronounced "SOOF-yawn"), but i'm convinced at the very least that he has made the only Christmas music listenable all year long. it is not obnoxious or overly-Christmasey, in the way that perry como or the chimpmunks would be in july. it's soft-spoken yet lush and deep; the themes are treated in such a way that you understand at first listen that this man loves God. i hate it when modern artists will take a traditional song like silent night and rework it like a pop ballad, complete with vocal flourishes, climactic synth backup and an obligatory key change in the middle--it starts to sound almost in praise of itself instead of the Lord. that's where stevens nails it. the music itself is quiet, taking it back before the hype replaced "miracle" with "magic." the event was so small--just a baby born in a shed. so understated. so humble. stevens echoes that. and i love it.

anyway. i'm remembering one of my favorite parts about the language of the Christmas story. we always talk about Christ in a manger, an item i was always knew to be a feed trough but looked suspiciously like a rough wooden crib in depictions and lighted lawn ornaments. in french, manger means "to eat." it also has connections to "mangeoire," which is associated with agriculture. i'm sure any historian, etymologist, or christmas enthusiast will tell me how those words are actually unrelated nad how wrong i am to try to associate them to each other. but i like the idea that somewhere down the line of cultures and generations of friends and family telling the Christmas story, one particular culture left their fingerprints on it in one particular way. and well, i'm stubborn.

three. tomorrow's story is my list of expectations. tomorrow's? alright, i'll level. it's tough to have something to say every day, especially because i'm still at home. but it's still my plan to be one-a-day, and hopefully when i'm on the road it'll be more feasible.

setting expectations

"come to australia expecting the unexpected come opend to new ideas and attitudes (including those you do not agree with or even like). come expecting to be uncomfortable. come expecting to hear criticisms of your country's government (including the current president), and be willing to learn from these instead of being offended. come with an open heart and mind. the many challenges you will confront this semester provide incrdible opportunities for learning and growth. ... in getting ready for a program like this--one that you have been thinking about now for six months of more--you have naturally developed ideas about the program and how you will take advantage of your time in australia. ideally, you should forget everything you've imaged at this point, because the asc will be quite different from what you're expecting."
page 3, the basic information guide.

i've been through a handful of scenarios where everyone tells you to leave expectations behind. i've been to central mexico twice, visited london this spring, spent modest amounts of time in different places in the united states doing completely different things. i've started school in a new place far from home, i spent my first two weeks away from home at seven, first month at thirteen. now, i'm not saying i'm well traveled, and i know there is much of life still to see. i'd be hesitant, however, to consider myself completely new to potentially life-altering situations (or "plas" as i will call them).

that being said, i'm beginning to get a general distaste for being warned to "forget expectatitons" or encouraged to not set up any at all. for many of these plas, the only times i have had anything educated to say about the experience was how it exceeded, met, did not meet, or forced me to re-examine the expectations i had. when i had some sort of criterion to hold the experience up against, i was able to consider it more deeply than if i had none. i would have some kind of standard, some sort of goal that desired to be met or challenged.

unfortunately, i'm just recently figuring this out now. i wish i had set up some actual expectations for other plas in my life, and as a result have more to say about them. but oh! here is an opportunity to make right what i have done wrong in the past. i will start going against suggestion immediately and set up some expectations for my trip. have a wonderful day.

ps. go see ratatouille. good clean fun, and it's mostly over little kid's heads so you won't hear them squealing in the theater--if you're opposed to that kind of thing.

itinerary

i received the last package from asc yesterday. in it was a book, some bag tags and other travel paraphernalia, and an itinerary.

7/17: depart US
7/19: arrive australia*
7/19-21: orientation
7/26-27: spiritual emphasis camp
8/17-19: canberra trip
9/7-10: bush trip
9/28-10/1: labour day/public holiday
10/5-9: study vacations**
11/12-13 exam week
11/14-20: new zealand trip
11/20: depart for home

*because of travelling west over the international date line, i will never have a july 18. our plane will take off on july 17 and arrive on july 19. crazy, no?

**study vacation is not a break time. "this is a time for make up classes, drama, graphic design, dance and music practices shows and performances."

yeepah!

thunder rolls in

i'm home and the countdown begins. twelve days.

i've been considering the things i could say about australia, and i've decided to begin exposition with a little timeline. hold on to your hats (it's not that exciting).

end-of-summer 2006: i toy with the idea of a semester abroad. my mom will say that it was always in the plans, but i honestly can't remember. i find myself on the lookout for different programs.

somewhere in september/october: i get some kind of mailing in my campus mailbox advertising best semester programs with the cccu. i flipped through the booklet, mostly uninterested, until i reached the last page. australia studies centre. it featured studies of arts, culture, history, and service. um, hi there.

november: mom visits me in wheaton while on business. i make what i think of as "the pitch" to her. she's heard me talk about the program before, but always as a hypothetical. this time, it was for real, and she was on board.

november-february: conduct semi-casual research, including reading other asc student's blog and copious google mapping. seriously. my google bar got some real work.

january- (i know, out of sequence)- i go out to coffee with a friend, and tell her about my plans to be gone in the fall. she raises her eyebrows, asks for more information, and within the half hour, decides to apply too.

february- finally finish my essays and turn in my appliation. mom helped lots.

march- i find out that both myself and my friend have been accepted to the program via email--less than a day later i spend a week in london for spring break. let's just say that lead-up week was high-stress.

late march- re-apply for my passport, as my current one expires a few months too early. (apparently it needed to last at least for six months after the end of my trip. it was about three months shy.)

march-may: fill out manymanymany forms for both wheaton and the asc to make sure everyone knows where i'll be in the fall and what i intend to do when i get back. it's amazing how many signatures, sheets, and copies need to be made.

may- a whole slew of things fall into place. i recieve my new passport, a new set of instructions from the asc. i apply for a visa, register with the state department, and generally get more things underway.

june- after a month and a half of back and forth with visa complications, everything works out. i find out where i'm living, start reading the required book, in a sunburned country. recieve the basic information guide (aka, the "big"), and recieve word that some other information is coming--but it was sent to the wrong address. i'm still waiting for that. so yeah.

july-stilil waiting for last piece. but everything else is in place, and that's a very weird place to be. i've felt like any piece coudl fall through and not work out and oh, i wouldn't be going. but they're all here. i think i know what's in the last piece, and it's not a huge deal. all the big stuff is underway.

i have strange hopes that future asc students will be able to look at this blog and find answers to questions, the same way i wanted answers last fall. i realize that given the lack of depth in this post would have frustrated me as a prospective, and might just clutter the casual reader's page--so i'm not sure all this was really worth it. sorry.

to those who have stopped by and left love, thanks! it's reassuring to know that someone's reading. really. leave love.