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.