The Gigantic Picture Entry

So after about a month and a half of saying I'll put up pictures, here we go. Reasons this is happening now: my computer is fixed, I just uploaded about a million pictures onto facebook, and I currently am supposed to be doing homework. It seemed like a great time then to take a break and procrastinate further by blogging! So, here we go:

First off, here are a few shots from my involvement in Grease/the Winery Tour in the beginning of September:



Now here are some from Glo Camp and silverchair:
work at the exact moment my co <-- That's Mariko, she's an absolute gem- together we represented the goodness that was Powderchair. Okay, so I have LOADS of photos from my break, but considering this entry has taken me several days now to get to due to the fact that Blogger decided to not have the picture functionmputer was working, I am growing tired of this entry. It is also my birthday today, which means I don't really care much about anything and am hungry. So, here is a (small) sampling of my trip to Sydney with Team the Best and my stay with Shilton:

<-- The beginnings of Team the Best at Wilson's Prom

<-- Team the Best, complete in Jindabyne

<-- Team the Best, hanging with the Police in Canberra

So begins Sydney/Shilton!


I'm definitely looking forward to going back to Sydney in a few weeks and getting some more/better photos, but these are decent enough for now. I realize even though it seemed as though I took loads of photos over my break I, in reality, didn't. This was especially true for my Tasmania batch, since I didn't want to burden my tour group by having them take photos of me every three seconds. Here are a few good ones though:
<-- Salamanca Place (with Mt. Wellington looming overhead)

<-- Port Arthur

<-- Wineglass Bay (probably one of the most beautiful places I've been to so far in Australia)

<-- My Tassie tour group (at Wineglass Bay)

<-- Claire and I holding a baby wombat at the animal sanctuary in Deloraine (where we saw Tassie devils!!!!)

<-- Cradle Mountain (totally honeymooning here- it's gorgeous when it's covered in snow, but even more gorgeous when it's clear outside)

<-- the Snow Kangaroo!! (there was a snow koala too, but the snow kangaroo is more impressive)


So that's sort of a brief picture recap of the month of September. Now I will update in real time with a short mention of a few events from the beginning of October!

Definition of Agony

What's worse than giving a presentation on Althusser in a psychoanalytic context in a tutorial run by Conall Cash's dad? I'll tell you- being utterly unable to download the new Radiohead album due to stupid Australian Internet/firewall!!!!!!!! AGONY

Country Bumpkin

I've happily back at Whitley for a week now, still without a computer but thanks to Dad I now have access to my bank account again. I actually had a rather enjoyable week of being poor mooching off of free barbecues and the generosity of my friends (thanks for the free dinners Antonio!). Thursday night was College Day at Whitley, which was much like Fall Frolic at Bryn Mawr in that it consisted of sumo suits and later Hell Week-eque festivities followed by a drunken "Poor Taste" CRD. Thursday day was "Spring on the Lawn" at Melbourne Uni aka random May Day like event, complete with barbecue, beer, and live reggae music. So, I've basically had a week of Bryn Mawr activities with an Australian twist.

Friday night was the Melbourne Welcome reunion. It was really great to see people again, especially my friends from Queens. We ended the night at Cherry Bar on AC/DC Lane, where I think I may be having my 21st. Much rocking out to the classics, complete with head banging and air guitar.

The real highlight of this week though, was Ripper's 21st at his home in the country about three hours from Whitley. Due to a lack of space in Cheese's car, I ended up driving out with Ripper at 11 in the morning and spending the day with his family on the farm. His family runs a dairy farm right near the town of Stratford (which is located, coincidentally enough, upon the river Avon). I spend the day feeding calves, playing with border collies, and stepping in cow poop. And eating heaps of home cooked food. It was pretty much the greatest day ever. Ripper's family is lovely, especially his mom, who made sure that I had a bed to sleep in last night and plenty of food in my stomach. Despite my being there only a short while, I had a really hard time leaving the farm this morning to come back to the city. As strange as it may be, I could definitely see myself living on a farm for some duration of time in my life. Which completely comes into conflict with my other desire to be a metropolitan academic. In Australia, it's easy enough to do both, but who knows what will happen when I get back home.

I ended up getting a ride home with Payne, Fraser, and Fraser's girlfriend. It was a rather amusing adventure- we had multiple car swaps, ran out of gas and had to refill the car using an empty two liter soft drink bottle, and had a minor casualty of Brawnwynn smashing her finger in the car door. As usual, I have documentation which I will post in some massive picture-filled entry once Pete McNamara decides it's time to fix my computer.

So, to recap: I want to live on a farm and play with puppies all day while taking mid-day breaks to research random things while reading modern literature and listening to classic rock and eating good food. Preferably with access to a functional computer and single Australian men.

BBQs by Sunset and by Rain: Reflections on Spring Break and the Welcomed Return To Whitley

Since I last wrote, my life has taken many interesting turns. I got back from Tasmania yesterday morning after eleven hours sleeping in an ocean view recliner on the "Spirit of Tasmania." I have never been so happy to come back to a temporary accommodation as I was to be back at Whitley. I returned to a warm shower, English muffins with Vegemite, and people genuinely happy to see me. Additionally, there was a BBQ last night with dollar drinks and Aussie sausages, which, despite the rain, never tasted so good. Topped the evening off with a visit to Puggs and a post-drinking chat with Steve.

Tasmania was cold, frustrating, but absolutely beautiful. During my trip I was reminded of my early experiences in the country side of England during my People to People trip in high school. This is because when I first went to England I didn't have any money, my clothes were all dirty, and the weather was far from delightful. Likewise, Tasmania was marked by my losing my wallet (containing all of my means of financial security), lots of dirty clothes worn multiple times over, about four days of unwashed hair, cold, cold weather, and rain. But, unlike my time in England, which was rather miserable, Tasmania was really nice. Mind you, it would have been better had the above not been the case, but the natural beauty and general feel of Tasmania compensated for anything else that could have possibly been/gone wrong.

After my last entry in Hobart, I went out to see "Stardust" in a cinema near my hostel, since the city was pretty dead and I needed some form of entertainment. All I can say is that Neil Gaiman is absolutely brilliant and I left the movie highly satisfied and tremendously homesick for Bryn Mawr. Wednesday morning I left the hostel with my tour group to go up the east coast of Tasmania. Unlike my previous tour of crazy drunken Brits, this tour consisted of myself, two limited English-speaking Spaniards, an awkwardly adorable Polish Brit, my stereotypical bleach blonde Tassie tour guide, and later, an essentially mute Japanese boy. Yes, I was the only girl, and, incidentally, the youngest of the group as well. The tour was pretty good, although I felt like a lot of the time I was holding people back- especially after I lost my wallet. Saw some beautiful sights though- Wineglass Bay may be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life.

Tasmania was slightly frustrating since after I lost my wallet I tried to contact home to get Dad to help me out. Unfortunately, Tasmania doesn't believe in phone reception, so I had about two days where there was nothing I could do about anything. It could have been much worse though- my meals, accommodation, and travel expenses were already paid for, so basically all I had to do was borrow a bit of money from Claire to get back to Melbourne. I will, again, put pictures up once my computer works again. Lots of good memories, good food, and good experiences.

Claire has been lovely about the whole thing. We went up to Cradle Mountain on Saturday and hiked in the snow and had a really nice time. I've decided I want to honeymoon there whenever that happens. She then dropped me off at the ferry so I could get back to Melbourne in one piece. Ferry would have been more exciting had I had money/it hadn't been raining. I mostly slept since I was exhausted and damp from the hike.

Overall, my trip was a great learning experience for me. Had it been earlier in the semester, all of the things that have gone wrong probably would have ruined the trip for me. My computer still doesn't work and I still don't have any money, but being in Australia with good people and seeing just how wonderful and extensive this country is makes it seem very trivial. While I realize now that I only have about four more weeks left in my semester (with lots of work I have to organize without a student card/easy computer access), I am a much happier, satisfied, and relaxed person than I was at the start of this trip. I've essentially decided that I may not go to law school after all, and that instead I will pursue my interest in history because it makes me happier than anything else. I want to spend my life traveling, learning, and meeting people. I realize this will be difficult financially at times, but I also know that for the first time in my life I want to do things not because they're expected of me, not because my highly competitive atmosphere demands them of me, but because they are genuinely things that I want to do. I have discovered what happiness is in Australia, and it's something that doesn't need a computer or a wallet to make it happen.

For some reason Blogspot on this computer is in.... possibly Japanese???

My weekend in Sydney was absolutely amazing. Shilton was a wonderful host/tour guide and managed to show me the major attractions in the course of a day and a half. She will hopefully be coming down to Melbourne for my 21st at Perseverance with a few of her friends so that I can return the favour by letting her sleep on my floor :) We both came to the realization at the end of my visit that we should definitely hang out when we get back to Bryn Mawr. Sunday was the most random day- there was some cultural festival so there were crazy Asian events everywhere (like sychronized knife chopping). We saw the Opera House, Darling Harbour, the Rocks, the Botanical Gardens, took a ferry to Manly Beach, had breakfast/cocktails in Newtown, and had a farewell gathering of goon and tim tams on top of the International House. It was really an amazing trip and I'm looking forward to going back to Sydney and staying with Rafal, whom I actually got to have lunch with while I was in town as well. Overall, first half of my crazy impromtu break was good.

Currently I'm sitting in an internet cafe in glorious Salamanca place in Hobart, Tasmania. Despite having to wake up at 5:30 this morning after going to bed at 3, I am functioning surprisingly well. I had no trouble getting to the airport and slept for the entirety of my two hour flight. When we landed I was greeted by an expansive panoramic view of green mountains and blue sky filled with puffy clouds. It's breathtaking here, although in a completely different way from Sydney. Today I'm mostly wandering around Hobart taking pictures and doing touristy things. There are a lot of really good art galleries and museums, so there is a lot of stuff to look at for free (and I like free after spending heaps of money in Sydney). Tomorrow I'm off on another crazy bus trip up the coast, although I doubt it will be as insane as my time with Team the Best. But we'll see. Anyway, I should probably end this since I'm paying a dollar for every ten minutes (and I'm distracted because the guy running this place is rather attractive).

Keep leaving me comments- they make me feel loved :)

Team the Best

So I'm in Sydney! Yay! I haven't actually seen anything yet because I woke up not too long ago. I'm currently typing in my hostel waiting for Shilton to show up so she can show me where things are. So far my random crazy adventure trip has been really fun and I've made a lot of friends already. I am excited for Tasmania and can't believe that I have done so much in the course of three days. I am slighly anxious about getting back to Melbourne just because I realized the other day that my computer really doesn't work, which means I'm going to have to find an alternate way of saving pictures/writing papers/facebooking. I already have a ton of pictures from my three day trip to Sydney, as well as from the silverchair/Powderfinger concert (which was absolutely glorious by the way!!)

I am feeling slightly better health wise, although I look like death and everything I own is dirty. Hopefully I'll be able to organize and clean up a bit while I'm staying with Steph. I'm hoping to get in touch with Rafal today once I figure out what's going on, but so far I'm just playing it all by ear and it's working rather nicely.

I really enjoyed the fact that I was the only American on my bus trip (and was appropriately nicknamed "Team America"). It was mostly Brits actually, an Irishman, two members of Dane-land, and a couple of Koreans. Really cool group for the most part. I'll put pictures up from everything once I have a functioning computer.

So yeah, don't worry about anything, I'm having fun, I'm safe, and I am truly having an adventure. Miss you all! Leave me comments/send me love!

LONG OVERDUE ENTRY

I realize it's been a LONG time since my last post, but there are a few reasons for this:
1) I was in a play
2) I had 6000 words to write in a week and a half
3) I got sick
4) I've been planning my spring break
5) My computer broke

Therefore, let me attempt to update on what has happened in my life since the beginning of September.

On the first Thursday of September, I ended up finally meeting with my Australian cousin, Rafal. He's the most delightful mix between a stereotypical Polish guy and an Aussie it's ridiculous. He also seems to have a fair bit of money (he was going to have his personal driver take me back to Whitley from the center of Melbourne). He also is very keen on getting to know me, and the American side of the family, better. This means he won't mind terribly when I come with two suitcases and knock on his door in November.

The weekend of the 8th was Grease weekend. It was really fun to do a musical again, even if I wasn't the lead. Before the Saturday show I went on a wine tasting in the Yarra Valley. This ended with me being ridiculously pissed and giddy- making my choreographed moves for Grease much more over the top than they usually are. The winery tour was absolutely lovely- we went to four different wineries, had a wine and cheese picnic, drank wine on the bus, and generally enjoyed the weather and the company. I really appreciated the fact that most of the people on the tour were international students and not Americans.

I really wish my computer was working right now.

Anyway, Grease went tremendously well- I took tons of photos which I may or may not be able to show you, depending on whether or not my computer is revivable or not. I am really glad that I was involved in the production since it helped me to get closer with a lot of people from Whitley.

Last week was essentially the week from hell. Post-Grease brought the realization that I had three papers due on Friday, once of them being a research paper that I hadn't done any research for yet. It also meant that my break was around the corner and I hadn't made any travel plans yet. Someone, I managed to write three really good papers and arrange some sort of travel plans. I am traveling by myself, but I'm pretty excited about what I'm doing.

So far, I have gone to Glo Camp with a group of people from Whitley, which, although religiously based, actually wasn't that religious but was TONS of fun. Like my experience with Grease, Glo Camp really let met get to know people a lot better. The theme of the camp was secret agents, and my agency was "Control." We won all of the activities (including trivia night) and had strong comebacks from behind each time. We were an absolutely terrific team.

I've come to the realization that I am far more skillful at doing certain things here than I am at home. This namely applies to physical/athletic/social things. I organized a volleyball match yesterday (and appropriately declared my team the Mozzies after the mosquitos that were attacking us all weekend) and had a victorious win. I kayaked (and fell out into really cold water, which probably hasn't helped my cold much). I went sailing, played on the beach, ran around in the woods, got dirty, bruised, sore, and loved every minute of it. I love Australia so much and I'm really excited for what the rest of break has in store for me.

Tomorrow, I am going to see SILVERCHAIR AND POWERDERFINGER!!!!! I am going with a friend of mine from Uni (sadly not my blonde haired/blue eyed/Greek/Australian/Jewish future husband) who actually reminds me a lot of Christine. Wednesday I am going to see Hairspray with Emma, and then I leave Thursday for my grand adventure.

Thursday: I am leaving Whitley at 6 in the morning to leave on my three day bus trip to Sydney. I'll be going to Wilson's Prom and more of Gippsland where I spent this past weekend.
Friday: More hiking in Snowy River area, Mt. Kosciusko, and general outdoorsiness. Basically lots of really nice views and fresh air.
Saturday: Heading to Sydney with a stop in Canberra. I am hoping to stay with Steph Hilton in Sydney for a few days and see some things, if not I may end up calling Rafal.
Tuesday morning: Flying out of Sydney for Hobart, Tasmania. Spending the day in Hobart, probably resting from the madness that will likely occur in Sydney over the weekend.
Wednesday: Checking out Port Arthur and Australia's delightful convict history.
Thursday: Tassie beach day.
Friday: Beaches, waterfalls, rainforests, etc. Ending in Launceston.
Friday night: Going to Claire's house!! Staying with her and going to Cradle Mountain until Sunday morning.
Sunday: Taking a bus to Devonport, where I'll be taking the Spirit of Tasmania back to Melbourne.

So that's roughly my break. There will definitely be some spontaneous things that happen in between, but that is part of the reason I'm really excited. I am really enjoying this ability to just do whatever whenever and have it not really matter that much. My grades are fine (I got my first paper back last week and did surprisingly well), I'm happy, I'm sick but getting better, and nothing really can ruin it. It would be lovely if my computer worked, but I am optimistic that someone can figure out what's wrong with it and get it back to normal so that I can show you all the wonderful pictures I've been taking. Otherwise Facebook might have to be all that's left of my time in Australia :)

Anyhow, my computer doesn't work, so don't expect me to be on Facebook much/terribly prompt with emails. I will be leaving Thursday morning, so you'll hear even less from me after that. I miss you all and hope that this entry helped relieve any worries/curiosities/etc. I'm alive and I'm thriving and therefore you should not be concerned.