Mary Beth Down Under

In conclusion

2010-01-06T10:52:00.001-08:00

To summarize my last month in the southern hemisphere:

I went to the beach for a few days before leaving Australia - if you are ever Down Under, please go to Lake Tabourie. Beautiful.

On the way to Milford Sound in New Zealand

Then I spent two weeks driving around New Zealand's south island with my friend Shelley - it was expensive and chilly and often rainy but absolutely stunning, and our experiences included climbing the Franz Josef glacier and absailing and jumping down waterfalls outside of Wanaka.

Our Fijian hosts' oldest granddaughter
teaching Shelley to dance on the beach.

Shelley and I then spent three days living with a Fijian family in the village of Namatakula - there was no electricty or hot water because of a recent cyclone, the ocean was warmer and clearer than any ocean I have ever seen, and we enjoyed delicious, homecooked meals three times a day, as well as unlimited local pineapple, papaya, and mango. If you ever go to Fiji - and you should - stay with a family ("do a homestay") rather than at a resort. This is were we stayed, but there are families who open up their homes to visitors all over the Fijian islands.

The nuclear family reunited.

I was back in the South for Christmas, and that was lovely. I'm currently loving this cold weather because it feels like a serious winter, and I can fully commit to wearing big coats and lots of hats and scarves!

Hannah and I during our 45 minute grand tour of Auburn.

My Australian friend Hannah was here for the past few days; she's currently on her way to DC, then San Francisco, then back to Sydney for another two months of summer holidays. I've never had a friend with an accent visit Alabama before, and many of you will be happy to know that she is now a big fan of sweet tea and "hot buttered biscuits" as she calls them.

Hannah's departure is the end of the obvious Australian chapter of my life, I suppose. The new year made me realize that 2009 - my year in Australia - was the best year I've ever had. It was a challenging year and in certain ways unsettling. I guess it has given me even more choices than I had before, which is both exhiliriating and terrifyingly overwhelming. This morning, I've been reading Elizabeth Gillbert's new book "Committed" and in one chapter she's comparing her life with the lives of women from an isolated Vietnamese tribe and contemplating the pros and cons of choice:

"Like most human beings, once I've been shown the options, I will always opt for more choices for my life: expressive choices, individualistic choices, inscrutable and indefensible and sometimes risky choices, perhaps... but they will all be mine.... And while we of this brave new species do have possibilities that are vast and magnificent and almost infinite in scope, it's important to remember that our choice-rich lives have the potential to breed their own brand of trouble. We are susceptible to emotional uncertainties and neuroses that are probably not very common among the Hmong..."

Who knows what's next! I say that as an excited statement, not a question, because I'm not sure there's an answer, but I'm so blessed to have spent a year of my life in Canberra. Thanks for reading and my apologies for the irregular updates in the second half of the year! I'm sure there will be more blogging in the future but not for the next several months.

Happy two thousand and ten!

Love,
Mary Beth

War damn eagle.

2009-11-27T16:55:00.001-08:00

Confession: I completely forgot about the Iron Bowl.

Until I got a text from my dad around 8am this morning when I was still in bed: "AU 14 Bama 0. First quarter." Excitement! After the the 9:15am text, "AU 21-20 end of third quarter," I jumped out of bed, put on my Auburn baseball cap, and ran to an ANU wireless spot in my pjs. Unfortunately, my computer died, and a few minutes later I heard about Bama's last minute winning touchdown. I'm sad Auburn didn't get the win but happy we played such a good game against our highly ranked, highly hated rival. And I'm happy I was reminded of one of the reasons I love Auburn. Football may not be my thing, but I love competition and community, and I love wearing Tiger apparel abroad and bonding with grinning, War Eagling strangers.

(I also love international texting. My dad was texting me, Alabama to Australia, and I was texting my friend and fellow Tiger, Shelley, Australia to New Zealand.)

I was also texting my sister, who stood next to me during the 2007 Iron Bowl, cheering for the Tigers, but who is now a freshman at Alabama and, apparently, a Bama convert.

Mary Beth, 9:23am: I've got a feeling, that tonight's gonna be a good night!

Melissa, 6:04pm: It is a good one! Roll tide roll!

Mary Beth, 10:12am: I can't take your fanship seriously lol.

Melissa, 6:15pm: Hey tigers! Hey tigers! We just beat the hell outta you! Rammer jammer yella hammer, give 'em hell Alabama!

Mary Beth, 10:22am: Except you didn't beat the hell out of us. But I see what you're trying to say.

Melissa, 6:20pm: It's a cheer. Shut up!

Good times.

I really like/relate to my friend Jena's recent blog about falling in love with Portland but still being into Auburn and the Iron Bowl. Have a read.

Bega Valley & the city of cafes

2009-11-23T22:34:00.000-08:00

Reasons I love Bega Valley

- my friend Amy's old house with the white picket fence, blue brick fireplace, and beautiful view of the valley.
- the Candelo public pool - super clean, super blue, super amazing view.
- the small town feel of Bega and other communities, similar to small town Alabama, combined with the communities' obvious commitment to "thinking globally, acting local" in terms of supporting local agriculture, local jobs in general, sustainability, and the arts.
- the Bega Cheese Factory.
- sundried tomato cheese from the Tilba Cheese Factory. (I love cheese.)
- the hippie town of Tilba - it's like a village taken out of a story book, full of amazing handmade toys, candy, bread, and all sorts of other goodies.
- the alternative local currency that people actually use, which means there's a functioning alternative economy. Really interesting.
- its proximity to many beautiful beaches.

Bega is one of many "Communities in Transition" worldwide - they're working towards complete self-sustainability in anticipation of peak oil and/or prohibitively expensive costs of food transport.

Candelo Public Pool (or, What You Can Sometimes Get If You Let The Government Raise Your Taxes A Bit).

Amy and I in the lovely pool.

The entrance to Amy's room.

The backyard view.
(And this is a very averagely priced house/property.)

Outside Candelo Bulk Whole Foods, eating my $1.87 worth of roasted unsalted cashews.

Local duck eggs. All the cartons of eggs had the farmer's name, address, and phone number written on the top. Quality control.

Reasons I love Melbourne (especially after this particular visit)

- my friend's older brother lives in the city, is a well-paid engineer, and treated us to an entire day of quality meals, snacks, and drinks in the city of cafes - vegan Malaysian chickpea curry for lunch, hot chocolate and shortbread for afternoon tea, an assortment of amazing dishes at an Argentinian place for dinner (my favorites being a churizo (sausage) and fried egg combo and churros - cinnamon donut type things - for dessert), and yummy after dinner drinks at funky themed bars. All of which I could not afford on my own! (Not to mention having a free place to stay on Saturday night.)
- the many speciality bookshops, my favorite being Books for Cooks - thousands of books about food.
- the many secondhand and/or vintage clothing stores, even though I have no suitcase space for new purchases.
- Lord of the Fries - a 100% vegetarian (or "vego" as the Aussies say) burger and fry stand. Amazing burgers and the best "chicken" nuggets I've ever eaten - without any beef or chicken involved! They also have a dozen or so international sauces, my favorite being the golden satay Thai sauce. YUM. I might have to go back for a fourth time before getting on my bus tonight.
- The Little Cupcake - yummy cupcakes and the best coffee I've had in a long time.
- The Rooftop Cinema - a movie theatre on top of a roof. I didn't actually get to go, but the fact that it exists makes me happy and anxious to return to this city ASAP.
- free wireless internet in Melbourne Central. If I ever lived here, I wouldn't have to pay for internet!

You'll notice that many of my favorite things are related to food. That's because I like food - it's one of the most enjoyable things about traveling and the one thing I don't mind spending a bit of extra money on. Plus, Melbourne is known for its cafe culture, so I'd be silly not to eat well while I'm here! (That's what I tell myself, anyway.)

A note about this particular hostel: Greenhouse Backpackers is pretty darn good. Very central, very clean, free internet and all sorts of other deals. I was definitely in a room full of weird and/or smelly boys, but everyone left everyone alone for the most part and all was well. Except yesterday morning one of the boy's alarms went off at 5:15am, and instead of having a normal alarm ring tone, his screeched "FIVE-FIFTEEN. TIME TO GET UP. FIVE-FIFTEEN. TIME TO GET UP." I, of course, immediately woke up. The boy, however, did not. The alarm eventually shut up, and sighing with relief I fell back asleep. Until 5:30am. "FIVE-THIRTY. TIME TO GET UP. FIVE-THIRTY. TIME TO GET UP." The boy didn't even roll over. This pattern continued until 6:30am at which point I removed my hair rubber band from my ponytail and shot it at the boy's head. He woke up, turned off his alarm, and I'm assuming he got up and on with his day - I'm not entirely sure as I'd fallen back asleep by that point. I had to buy more hair rubber bands after breakfast, but it was worth it.

Ah, the joys of budget backpacker travel.

Speaking of, I'm sitting in my hostel's common area and in the past ten minutes dozens of twenty somethings have wandered in because Tuesday night is Free Pasta Night. It's quite heart warming, being in a room full of other young poor hungry travelers. I'll probably enjoy a bowl of pasta and then go get some more vego nuggets from Lord of the Fries. Then, at 8pm, I'll climb on board a Greyhound Australia bus and arrive back in Canberra at four in the morning (when my friend Hannah will hopefully wake up and let me in her apartment). I had a not-so-pleasant, somewhat amusing bus trip down here on Friday night, but the line for free pasta is getting a bit rowdy... I best sign off and join/fight the masses!

PS - A volunteer just asked us to give a dollar or two to Melbourne's soup kitchen initiative as there's a big homelessness problem here... So, when I say I'm a "young poor hungry traveler," I mean I'm a young traveler who could live for weeks off her body fat and who obviously has plenty of money because she's frolicking around the world buying postcards and lattes and speciality cheeses. Perspective.

The Wright brothers

2009-11-14T02:46:00.000-08:00

This update is my response to an official complaint issued by my dad about my lack of blogging :).

I've got less than three weeks left in the country. All my belongings are almost packed. It's amazing how much one can accumulate in 10+ months. I came with two small bags and could easily return with two or three more if the airlines allowed it. I enjoy getting rid of things, though. It feels like everything gets a bit lighter and simpler every time I give something away. A few of my friends are storing my sheets and pots and pans and electric kettle in case I return and need bedding and a hot cup of tea.

An Auburn friend asked me what I was going to miss most about Australia. If I remember correctly, I said I'm going to miss their slang and how so many people are genuinely environmentally-friendly and how all my friends at B&G cook everything from scratch... I'll miss the beer and the themed birthday parties and how people know more about American politics than Australian politics... and I'm going to miss a certain brand of apple and forest fruit juice and chai ice cream and sausages on white bread and flat whites. He said he kind of expected me to say that I would miss a waterfall I swam through or a particular town or site I visited. But of course it's always the little, every day things you love most. As my departure draws closer, I do think about all the places I didn't have a chance to visit, but I'm not spending my last few weeks running around the country trying to check things off my travel list. I'm cooking dinners and watching movies and going to the beach and staying up till all hours talking with people I love, just like I'd be doing if I was in Alabama or England or anywhere else I call home.

Before I came to Australia, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make any super close friends here because I already had best friends who were as perfect as friends come. But as it turns out, I had room for one or two more. And it's a bittersweet, overwhelming thing... because it means more inside jokes, more feelings of connectedness, more perspective, more travel buddies and pen pals and advice and stories... but it also means more of that desperate feeling of knowing things are about to change and not wanting them to and more of the annoying reality that I'll be fine without them and they'll be fine without me. I've experienced this all before, and I'm happy to say, as a result, I'm good at enjoying and appreciating the present. (Which means I'm good at being deliriously happy in one place and, at the same time, anticipating delirious happiness in the future, i.e. Christmas and my final semester in Auburn.)

It's about 11pm, and I'm sitting outside on the grass by a fountain. My Australian friend Hannah is sleeping next to me, wearing one of my t-shirts that says "Winfield, Alabama." Her parents work in San Francisco, where she went to high school, and she's probably coming to visit me in early January before flying back to Canberra. I hope lots of you will have a chance to meet her - I've never had a non-American visit me in Alabama, and I love the idea of where I'm from meeting where I've been.

Speaking of Hannah, we are cohosting a Thanksgiving dinner in two weeks. Exactly how elaborate our cooking will be depends on how many people RSVP, but right now we're planning to combine a wintery, traditional American feast (pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, some sort of dressing, and cranberries) with a summery Aussie barbecue (sausages, beer, maybe lamington cakes). It's often difficult explaining the concept of Thanksgiving; usually I end up saying it's an excuse for family and friends to eat lots of food together. Some people then decide Thanksgiving is a useless holiday. But a few weeks ago was Melbourne Cup Day, which is both a big horse race and a public holiday... and I say, Australia, if you can "celebrate" a horse race, then we can celebrate the pilgrims finally being able to grow crops and prevent starvation!

Last week, Aidan, one of my Air Force friends studying aeronautical engineering, and I got into an Australia versus America fight. I triumphantly announced that his entire career was built on an American invention: the airplane. He then proceeded to very confidentally tell me that the Wright brothers were actually born and bred Australians who later emigrated to the United States. My response: "Are you kidding me" He is a very intelligent boy who is almost always right (and who clearly does not have a link to this blog), and crushing his seriously flawed understanding of aeronautical history was enjoyable.

Two days later, I offhandedly called AC/DC an "American band," though they're actually Australian. (Who knew? I didn't.) Being embarrassed and on the defensive - understandably so, as I've told all our friends about his historical revisionism - Aidan is arguing that my AC/DC mistake is on par with him believing that the Wright brothers were Australian. I don't think so.

I've decided that as a female studying history, there's nothing quite like correcting and embarrassing a male engineer. I might chase this feeling.

I'm a bad blogger.

2009-10-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

Nic, Amy, me, Hannah, Aidan, and James
at Floriade Nightfest a few weeks ago.

I'm officially a bad blogger, and I'm sorry. My updates have become less and less frequent this semester. It's probably a combination of me becoming more and more comfortable in Australia (my experiences seeming more and more commonplace) and the fact I'm getting more philosophical as I approach the end of my year abroad. And I'm trying to avoid abstract life musings on this particular blog, an effort some of you appreciate, no doubt!

Things are swell. The beach weekend was the beginning of two weeks of rainy, wintery weather. But it's consistently warm now, and yesterday I managed to get an authentic Australian sunburn! Next week is the last week of the semester. There's lots of studying to be done, and I'm trying my best to focus amidst all the end of year celebrations and the smaller spontaneous hanging outs.

I've got less than two months left now, so there's lots of talk about me leaving and lots of brainstorming about my possible return to Canberra and lots of people enthusiastically committing to future adventures like epic North American road trips... And the oh-so-common question: are you happy to be going home? Yes, of course I'm happy to be going home. But I'd be happy staying here, too. And I'm happy to say that Australia has reinforced my theory that people are good, the world is fascinating, and that moving across the world with a couple of suitcases and a positive attitude is usually a good idea.

For those of you interested in the finer details of my plans, I'm flying to New Zealand on December 4th, traveling around the southern island for a couple of weeks, spending a few days in Fiji, and I'll be back in Georgia/Alabama on December 21st.

I'll try my best to post three or four more updates before then!

See many of you soon :).

Greedy traveler

2009-10-02T19:01:00.001-07:00

I just realized I have a jealousy problem when it comes to other people's travels. This morning I discovered a friend was going to a part of the world I've always wanted to visit, and I was immediately consumed by jealousy. At first it was a fun kind of jealousy - the "no way, I'm so jealous!" kind. But ten minutes later, I still was thinking about my friend's trip and how I wanted to go, and before long the jealousy had turned ugly and hijacked my entire mood.

This happens a lot when I hear about other people's travel plans. And it's not okay. It's just as silly and unhealthy as someone who has a 2006 BMW and gets upset when their friend gets a 2010 Mercedes. (Or something like that. I don't know anything about expensive cars.) I'm a greedy traveler. I need to learn that I don't have to see everything I want to see before I'm 25, that I've seen a hell of a lot already, and that jealousy, even of friends' travels, is a bad thing. It breeds ingratitude and in my case desperate feelings of wanderlust that interfere with every day life. So I'm going to try to change.

You're welcome for that epiphany :).

Some friends and I are headed to beach this weekend. Unfortunately, it's cold and rainy in Canberra and we've been told the weather is similar on the coast It should still be fun, though.

Some of you might have heard about the earthquake in Sumatra a few days ago. I was actually meant to be in Padang for the past couple of weeks but decided (and I'm glad I did) to stay in Australia. Some American friends of mine were there during the earthquake, but I'm pretty sure they're okay. If you pray, pray for the area... it's in pretty bad shape.

I broke my coffee making apparatus last week and have yet to replace it. So I'm off on a coffee run. Coffee makes me happy.

Hope you guys are enjoying fall weather! October has always been my favorite month - at least in the northern hemisphere!

New phone number

2009-09-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

Floriade 2009!

Shelley, me, Amy, and the flowers.

I live on the other side of that tower.

Preparing to wade in icy waterfall water.

Beautiful Australian Capitol Territory :)

Aidan, me, and Shelley.

I had a beautiful weekend. On Saturday, Shelley, Amy and I took the long way around the lake to Floriade and admired the flowers, enjoyed a light picnic, and treated ourselves to sugar and cinnamon coated almonds.

On Saturday night, my friend Aidan and I saw "Up" in 3D. It was fabulous. It's definitely more of an adult-themed movie - I found it super inspiring and full of wisdom, but I think most of that would have gone over my head if I were ten. Some of the characters and plot developments were... weird... but the animation was really good and many heart strings were pulled. It would make a great family movie night, if anyone's looking for ideas. (Oh, Aidan decided to buy us the biggest Cokes and bucket of popcorn I have ever seen. As he said to the concessions employee: "Super size us." I have never ever consumed so much caffeine in my life.)

Inspired in part by the caffeine, Aidan decided to take Shelley and I on a Sunday outing. He grew up in Canberra and knows some pretty sweet nature spots outside of town. Our first stop was the Corine Forest Bobsled Alpine Slide, apparently the longest alpine slide in the southern hemisphere! (Click here to see someone else's YouTube video of the slide.) Aidan worked with the owner during his gap year and was hoping to get us free rides. Didn't happen. But we rode anyway. It was lots of fun... located on a beautiful property in the mountains. And Shelley got to see her first wild kangaroos!

Next stop: picnic on top of Gibratar Falls. It was beautiful and delicious. Until my cell phone slid down the rock face (right here) and into the falls. Oops. Oh well. Dialing from the States, my new number is +61413085154.

After a lovely drive down through the mountains, we spent an hour or so at Aidan's house. His parents are fantastic - friendly, hilarious, and oh-so-Australian. It was a good "local" experience for Shelley, complete with cuppa teas and Aussie slang.

Finally, after stopping at a shopping center to buy a new phone, some bread rolls, and a couple of chai lattes, we ended up at a Navigator barbecue where there was good food, good friends, and some good God-centered discussions - the perfect ending to a pretty perfect weekend. I'll try to add some photos later.

Updates

2009-09-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

One of my friends from England, Sam, is studying in Sydney for a year, and he came to Canberra last weekend. Sam, Amy, Nic, and I enjoyed an evening of pizza making and Disney movie watching. It made me smile, seeing an old English friend sitting across from me at B&G, talking to my new Australian friends.

Shelley, a friend from Auburn, is visiting this week. Sadly, I have lots of work to do - hopefully she's not too bored! Tomorrow, we're going to Floriade, a big spring festival that features Canberra's many tulips. The weather has been glorious lately; hopefully, it'll stay that way.

I know some of you aren't as interested in "Islamic" issues as I am, but I assume there will be some news coverage of diplomatic talks with Iran over the next few weeks. My Islam history/institutions professor is particularly interested in Iran, and he's helped point some of us in the right direction as we try to follow and understand post-election developments. Anyway, at the risk of understatement, I really hope the talks go well. I find myself agreeing with this Op-Ed piece from the New York Times. A good one liner: "No nuclear endgame that fails to address Iran’s victim syndrome through some degree of highly monitored empowerment is conceivable to me."

On a different but related note, Iran's Supreme Leader, Khamenei, recently spoke out against critics of the Ahmadinejad governement.

Khamenei was highly criticized for blessing Ahmadinejad's reelection because the Supreme Leader is meant to be an impartial leader of the Shia community. At a big presidental ceremony, broadcasted all over Iran, Ahmadinejad tried to kiss Khamenei's hand, which would've demonstrated respect and the fact that the two men enjoyed a close relationship. However, the Supreme Leader stepped back, shocking Ahmadinejad and forcing him to recover and kiss Khamenei's shoulder instead. The incident sounds a bit silly, but it was Khamenei's very obvious way of distancing himself from the president; he was probably hoping to counter accusations that he was being innappropriately political.

However, recently, Khamenei issued a strong statement at Friday prayer warning opposition leaders that if they didn't watch what they said about the government, there would be consequences, once again alligning himself with Ahmadinejad.

Lots and lots of people, including highly respected and influential clerics, are not happy with Khamenei's seemingly direct political involvement, and according to my professor, power structures and the legitamacy of certain political and religious figures haven't been this unstable since before the Revolution. So it looks like the election riots and protests fundmentally shook things up. It'll be interesting to see how these tensions develop over the next months... particularly as the US is now willing to talk. I just hope talks aren't like, "give up everything nuclear, or we won't keep talking to you... no, you hypocrites, we refuse." Because that would be pretty pointless.

Spring.

2009-09-04T02:53:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like I have much to say. But it's been over two weeks since my last update, so I thought I better compose a line or two.

Tuesday was the first day of spring, and it was beautiful. ANU's environmental group, ANU Green, had a big picnic for all sympathetic dorm residents. We sat on the grass eating sausages and mandarins and talking about how we were going to reduce our own college's energy consumption in the upcoming "inter hall green" competition. Further on campus, there were bubble machines and a live band and people in various red costumes (my favorite was Elmo) handing out fliers for an upcoming AIDS/HIV fundraising party. I met some girls for a quick coffee in the morning and another friend for a longer coffee and a deep and meaningful talk during which we discovered each other's secret desire to study at Oxford as Rhodes Scholars. It was a very university student-ish day.

Academically, I've never had a more interesting semester. I'm learning so much. Most of the material is brand new for me, plus I'm really interested in it, which makes retention easier. I'm getting more and more excited about visiting Sumatra at the end of September. I've been talking with a girl in my Indonesian history class (she also lives at B&G) about things to see and do around Padang (a city on the west coast of Sumatra).

Earlier today, I briefly chatted with JoEllen, my best friend from Japan. We haven't talked in a few months. She has just returned from Africa, is about to start her final semester at William & Mary in Virginia, and is planning on returning to Kenya indefinitely after she graduates in December. She's partnering with a woman from her hometown who recently started a nonprofit organization that (I think) focuses on developing primary education. Hearing JoEllen's plans was encouraging. It's somehow comforting to realize that my middle school best friend and I are following similar paths - or are at least being motivated by similar things - even after years of being apart and not keeping in close touch. (She's also been studying Arabic for the past three semesters, which makes me jealous. But my time will come!)

Yuri, another one of my close friends from Japan, has just arrived in Brazil and will be studying Portuguese until Christmas. Dave, from England, who spent two months in Brazil in 2007, is in the middle of a five week stay in Tanzania where he's working with a Christian micro-financing charity. Shelley, from Mobile, is coming to visit me in a couple of weeks before starting a two month economics internship in Wellington, New Zealand. All very exciting.

On a more mundane and discouraging note, in the past four days someone has stolen my eggs and milk. I want to be a trusting and generous person, hence the lack of locks on my fridge and cupboard, and when the eggs disappeared I shrugged it off. But this afternoon I really wanted a bowl of cereal and found my milk carton, empty, sitting next to the stove. I'm still sulking and a bit angry.

Amy just showed me an article titled "Study: thinner thighs mean a weaker heart." My Friday night is looking up!

PS: In my overview of overseas friends, I forgot to mention Ben who is in Germany, desperate to get his television fixed so that he can watch the Georgia-Oklahoma game live... I know he's not the only one happy that football season has begun! I recently sold my student tickets to a very grateful freshman boy for the super cheap price of $200. War damn eagle.

Ta.

2009-08-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

Before I moved to this continent-island, lots of people and books warned me about Australians' excessive use of slang. But it hasn't been that bad. Aussies certainly shorten lots of words - brekky for breakfast, arvo for afternoon (this one is super common, I even use it), musos for musicians, bikky for biscuit, and so forth. But I hardly ever hear entire Aussie phrases. (And I don't think I've ever heard someone say "g'day.") On Thursday, a man riding a bicycle dropped some his papers, I handed the papers to him, and he smiled and said "Good on ya! Ta." And I was very happy because that's very Australian and something I could write about in my blog! "Ta" means "thank you." Apparently it's what parents teach babies to say, but everyone keeps saying it. "Good on ya" is a more fun and common equivalent for "good for you"... or something like that.

I had a mediocre school week that was improved when I received two packages in the mail!

On Thursday night I saw ADFA's performance of "Rent" and was pleasantly surprised by its quality. I'm glad the defense force isn't completely destroying cadets' ability and willingness to sing, dance, and generally be creative :).

Last night my friend Mary hosted a chick flick and cocktail night, which of course was a fantastic time. I introduced everyone to the joys of Wheat Thins (they were included in one of my packages) and peanut butter... important ambassadorial responsibilities.

Nothing too exciting comes to mind this Saturday morning. It's a beautiful (if cold) day, and Amy, her little sister, and I might walk to the markets in a couple of hours.

PS - I like this guy. I've posted his stuff before (thanks to Ben, who always shares good articles on Facebook), and now I'm officially following his blog and would like to read some of his books.

PPS - I'm going through an atheism phase, meaning I'm reading lots on atheism. This particular phase was triggered after my Islam professor told us to watch a documentary on the Quran. There were lots of old episodes from this particular TV show that explored religion; I ended up watching a really interesting one on the many different "brands" of atheism; and the next day at a prayer group I met the vice president the ANU League of Extraordinary Atheists. Turns out, he lives at B&G, and Victor, the Peruvian salsa dancer, is a mutual friend of ours. Anyway, he told us about atheism week in September and asked if we'd be interested in having a stall on the information/brochure/ask-people-questions day. And everyone kind of looked uncomfortable. And I said, "For sure, I'll sit in a chair and talk to people if that's all I have to do!" And then I went to the library and spent three hours reading Sam Harris' "The End of Faith," in preparation for his "Letter to a Christian Nation."

I wish I was getting academic credit for this stuff!

Grace, health care, Uggs

2009-08-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

My dad called and woke me up around 8am (about an hour ago). It was a nice chat. He eventually mentioned the healthcare reform hysteria - good timing since the night before I'd received/read an "urgent" email from Jim Wallis with a link to Sojourners' health care reform resource website. Anyway, healthcare talk really gets me going, and by the end of our phone call, I was already up and half dressed, ready to embrace the day!

It's a current, complicated, controversial issue, I'm not an expert, and so I won't "go there" (much) on my blog. But as an "ambassador" of sorts from the United States to Australia, I can at least say that even the most conservative of my Australian friends find it shocking that there isn't universal healthcare in the USA. They don't even know what "universal healthcare" means - to them, universal healthcare is just healthcare. I have to explain to them that the American government does not provide healthcare for anyone (unless they're your employer) and that next June, when I graduate and am no longer covered by my parents' plan, I will have no coverage unless I pay for it myself. I should record the looks on people's faces and make a short YouTube video. If nothing else, it's an interesting difference not only between American and Australian policy but also between Americans' and Australians' understanding of their government's responsibility (and capability) and what they're entitled to as citizens.

People ask me what I'm going to do once I'm not covered by my parents. My current plan is outlined in this excerpt from a recent online conversation:

FRIEND: I'm watching CNN...the nuts are coming out of the woodwork now. You better take good care of yourself... healthcare for your [our] generation is going to be a major issue.

ME: I'm gonna marry an Australian. Or a UKer. Or anyone, really, in the developed world. Since they all have universal healthcare.

FRIEND: Oh....that's that *(*#** socilized medicine1!!!!!!

Obviously, it's not that simple since I wouldn't automatically become a citizen. Still, it's something to think about... and maybe ask about after every second date! (Kidding. I think.)

Another difference between America and Australia: Ugg boots. It all became clear to me yesterday evening. Ugg boots are just a type of boots to Australians. They aren't a brand. Americans know them as an expensive brand name that became hugely popular about ten years ago. Here, they're made by all sorts of companies and are primarily worn as comfortable around-the-house shoes... I didn't realize this until last night. In the past couple of months, I've had several people laugh and ask why I'm wearing my Uggs out in public, and I've always been confused as to why that was funny. Now I know. (But I continue to wear them in public.)

My friend Jena recently relocated to Portland in search of a change and a job. Her recent blog post made me smile in agreement: when grace comes to visit.

Real Malay food

2009-08-11T03:22:00.000-07:00

We're in the middle of week 4 of second semester, and time is flying at an annoyingly rapid pace!

I really like three of my four classes this semester: Islam in southeast Asia; Islam: history and institutions; and Indonesia: politics, society, and development. History and institutions is my favorite class as the professor is very knowledgeable, an excellent lecturer, and really engaging in tutorials (when we discuss, debate, etc.). He's really good at allowing his lectures and our discussions to flow naturally and at blending current events with historical narratives. He's a big deal scholar, spent some time at Oxford's Centre for Islamic Studies, and I was right to hope his course would be treat. Yay! So far, the meat of the course has been a review for me, but I can tell I'm going to start getting into new territory soon.

I knew next to nothing about Indonesia or Islam in southeast Asia before this semester. I realized how much I take for granted having a preexisting cultural-historical framework when I study history. Like, when it comes to European history and even some Chinese and African history, I've known basic dates, events, and issues since elementary school, and that makes learning relevant new material a lot easier because I have "hooks" to hang the new ideas on. Unfortunately, I have no "hooks" when it comes to Indonesia and the rest of southeast Asia. 90% of the material is brand new, plus I'm totally unfamiliar with southeast Asian languages, which makes remembering non-English words difficult. But it's exciting. Especially as I'm friends some southeast Asians and am going to Sumatra next month.

I'm also taking Iranian history, but I'm not enjoying it very much because I find the lecturer boring... and I'm not completely sure he knows his stuff. He probably does - it might just be the language gap (English is definitely not his first language). And I think his style and the fact that he's primarily a Persian language scholar has biased me against him as a historian... so I'm trying to reopen my mind!

Tonight my friend Nur cooked me dinner - "real Malay food" - and it was delicious. We also had a long discussion about Islam, particularly about the Sunni/Shia divide. The whole talk started with her asking about my classes, and then I started asking her questions based on her reactions to my "academic" understanding of historical Islam. I told her my Iranian history professor seemed pretty anti-religion, and she said that Iranians understand Islam differently from other Muslims (meaning her and - this is my interpretation - other Sunni Muslims) and maybe that understanding of Islam had turned my professor off religion. I asked her to explain what she meant by "understood Islam differently," and she talked about Shias putting too much importance on imams (priest-like figures) and Ali (Muhammad's brother-in-law, major character in early Islamic history). We talked a bit about it, and eventually I asked her if she thought Shia Islam was not "real Islam." After a moment of hesitation and a little smile, she kind of nodded and was like, "Yeah, kind of." That's the first time I've ever heard a Muslim friend actually say something like "no, that's not real Islam."

A rough (very rough) Christian equivalent would be Protestantism and Catholicism. Lots of Protestants (like Muslim Sunnis) question Catholics' "Christianness" because of the pope, all the rituals, the praying to the saints, etc. (like Muslim Shias).

Nur told me she never really had thought much about Shia/Sunni differences until she came to the ANU because in Malaysia everyone is Sunni. (She didn't put it this way, but that's the reality of Malaysian Islam.) I asked her if she'd ever talked with a Shia Muslim, and she said she didn't think she had... but she wouldn't want to talk about this stuff with Shias because it might get heated. Plus, according to her, Shias are "allowed to hide" the fact that they "worship" Ali, etc. from other Muslims, so she might not even know that they are Shia.

The conversation went on to other equally interesting things... But hearing my Sunni friend, a sweet, quiet, lovely Malay girl, express controlled but passionate disapproval for Shia Islam made many things "more real" to me... one of them being all the Shia/Sunni violence in Iraq... another being the importance of actually knowing the people you think you understand.

The same kind of thing happened the other night when I was talking to Amy and her boyfriend James about Christian missionaries and the oh-so-stale creation versus evolution debate. We weren't really arguing, but at one point James - who grew up in a Christian family but is pretty anti-religion and a biology student - said something like, "but yeah, science can prove the Bible is false because the Bible says the world is 6000 years old." And Amy and I were like, "wait, the Bible doesn't actually say how old the world is. " And James was really surprised that there wasn't a Bible verse that said "the world is X years old." It's irresponsible for him to be hating on a book for saying something that it doesn't actually say (as it's irresponsible for people to suggest that the Bible explicitly tells us how old the earth is). But we're all irresponsible a lot of the time because we don't know everything...

There's so much to learn! And I learn the most from talking with other people. That's why it's so fun to travel and to "start over" in new places.

Bite sized rants & musings

2009-08-04T04:19:00.001-07:00

Does America realize that Australians sit around their TVs and make fun of Americans on a semi regular basis? (It's not just extremist Muslims who (think they) hate us.) They especially like to laugh at "the religious ones" who say, yes, they believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, but who don't know what to say when the Australian interviewer asks if we should stone our children for leaving the faith... What may be worse is when the person says those Leviticus verses were meant for a different time, and then the interviewer suggests that the homosexuality verses were meant for a different time, too. And the person says, no, those verses are meant for now, and the interviewer looks at the camera, getting a big laugh from the Australian public.

Of course, someone could have had a good answer to those questions, but Australia will never know.

Do Australians realize that Australia is in the same white Coke Cola drinking racist colonizing materialistic boat as America? Not all Americans drive Hummers and eat off styrofoam plates. And not all Australians can locate North Korea on a map or identify Tony Blair (or Gordan Brown - whatever). Why doesn't an American TV show interview Australians (or English) on the streets of Sydney (or London) and show the world there are idiots everywhere? And that most people aren't complete idiots, anyway. Even if you've never heard of Tony Blair, you might can fix a leaking roof, make something edible grow in your backyard, or speak four languages... all more useful than being able to identify England's ex-prime minister, really.

I'm becoming like the people I spend time with. Especially my food habits. I don't eat meat very often, and when I do it's almost always chicken (that's just my upbringing, I guess). My friend Katie is becoming a vegan after reading several books during the holidays on the mistreatment of animals. I could never go vegan. I love milk too much. Katie also loves (or loved) milk, but she thinks locking cows up and taking calves away from their mothers is a bigger deal than her missing out on milk. Fair enough. But I love milk more than I love cows. If I could own my own cow and leave some milk for her calves, I would. But I can't. (Maybe I will add owning my own milk cow to one of my future lists.)

Speaking of food, my dad sent me this cool blog, Fifty Bucks A Week. I might start trying to stick to a a similar budget (while still eating decent, non-instant food). I think I could do it if I cut out coffee and limited eating out.

I made veggie curry last night. It was preposterously bad. Afterwards, I realized that I hadn't changed the "recipe" since the last time I made it... I guess I just waited a few months, half forgot how bad it had tasted, and hoped it would automatically turn out better the second time. I was dreading eating it again tonight, but our friend Meaghan surprised us with pumpkin soup and damper (kind of like shortening cake meets biscuit meets scone). Soup + damper with butter and honey + glass of milk = a satisfying winter meal.

Read "The Poisonwood Bible." It's good. Also, if you're bored and want to read a book that might describe the next twenty years of Mary Beth Brown's life, read "The Best of Friends." Both books/authors are listed on the right side of this page. If you haven't listened to Regina Spektor's new album, "Far," you should. This is currently my favorite song.

Salsa lessons this semester! Amy and I were going to take a class, but then my friend Ryan said he was looking for a partner and that we could take private lessons with our friend Aidan and another girl for basically the same price as a big class. Sign me up.

Salsa is another skill that's probably (definitely) more valuable than being able to identify Tony Blair. Now that I think about it, why do any of us even read the news? We should spend that time dancing... burning calories, strengthening our hearts and limbs, and if we're young and on the prowl, developing skills that will increase our chances of attracting a mate. Think about it.

The swing of things

2009-07-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

It's official: I am never going to catch up on all the photos and stories I need to share, so I'm gonna stop while I'm ahead! To see pictures from Queensland, click here.

Hannah and I went to Adelaide over the weekend and had a great, if cold, time. We spent a very long day on Kangaroo Island - saw some amazing animals, met Steve Irwin's cousin, had lots of laughs. Unfortunately, I got a sudden cough on Saturday night, which turned into a rather ugly cold/flu. In the grand scheme of things, it hasn't been THAT ugly, but I haven't had a fever or felt this bad in several years. At the same time, I've still managed to get up every morning and make myself food, etc. so I'm not on my death bed or anything. The doctor checked me out yesterday and said I have a viral cold or flu, that 65% of flu cases in the ACT are swine in nature, but that they aren't testing anyone, even "at risk" patients, because it's so common and the symptoms are exactly the same as the regular flu. So for fun, let's just say I have swine flu (though I probably don't, but lots of people do, and I might, and it sounds cool).

I feel a lot better today, thankfully, because I have a lot of work to do in order to catch up and get my "normal life" reorganized and stable. The last two and half months have been a whirlwind of activity, and I know the next few will be busy as well... I need to rid myself of this cough, wash my clothes, make some to do lists, and get in a routine!

Once that happens, hopefully my updates will be more regular and informative :). Until then, check out the new blog I started during the holidays. It's not related to this one, really, and is rather self-explanatory... There is a permanent link to the new blog on this page, or you can access it by viewing my Blogger profile.

Hope everyone is well!

Pictures = thousands of words

2009-07-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm back in Canberra, and over the next week, I hope to highlight our July adventures using photos and videos... I'm starting with the most recent locations/events - the past week in Sydney - and I'll work back in time through Cairns, the Whitsundays, and maybe Melbourne.

Sydney

After spending two weeks in Queensland, Melissa, Will, Elle, were in Sydney for three days before flying back to the States, and I stayed in town for the full week. Elle and I walked across the Harbour Bridge, and the four of us visited Featherdale Wildlife Park, a great hands on animal center outside of the city. My friend (and Elle's sister) Hannah has been living in Sydney for the past two months doing an internship with Amnesty International and taking an Australian politics course, so I enjoyed a free place to stay - a great location on George Street, which runs right through the middle of town. We enjoyed delicious (and cheap!) Mexican good and a great night out on the kids' last day in Australia; I saw the new Harry Potter movie (city cinemas = way overpriced, though) and visited Bondi Beach; we had Lebanese food and Hannah and I tried bellydancing (oh dear) before enjoying a small but hilarious improv comedy show; I discovered Glebe Point Street, home to at least three delightful secondhand bookshops and a bohemian Saturday market; we went whale watching on Saturday and camel riding and coffee tasting yesterday. And I'm back in Canberra today. Whew!

A fun shot of the Sydney Opera House!

The city from Harbour Bridge.

Elle and I exploring Circular Quay; the bridge in the background!

A Brown/Duprey photo shoot in Hannah's loft:
everyone laughing hysterically at my jokes, no doubt :).

A more normal shot of Elle, Hannah, me, and Melissa.

Featherdale Wildlife Park: a cute koala tries to hide.

The cutest little girl petting a wallaby.

A video of a very "pregnant" wallaby mom... I'm not sure how wallaby pregnancies work... I know the babies develop in the pouch and don't really come out of the pouch until they're older than infants... so it's not really the same as normal pregnanices and births. It must be something like having a 6 month old baby inside you... this mother looked so uncomfortable. We stayed with her for a long time, hoping one of the park's employees would walk by so we could ask them some questions... I plan on doing some research later.

The kids and Hannah's friends before hitting the city!
(Will = the only boy in this shot! Ha.)

Elle, Melissa, Hannah, and I rocking out
to some 80s hits at Scruffy Murphy's, a pub in downtown Sydney;
Will also participated in the enthusiastic singing, you just can't tell from this photo!

The sisters on the kids' last night in Australia.

Boys engaged in an intense game of rugby on Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach!

Svetla (Hannah's roommate) and us at the beginning of our whale watching cruise.

Hannah and I riding a camel through The Rocks!
It was a part of Sydney's Aroma Festival, the southern hemisphere's largest coffee festival. There were four sections: The Oasis (the Middle East, where we rode the camels), The Orient, The Continent (Europe), and The Latin Quarter.

A rather unexciting video of our camel ride.

Fun fact: Australia's camels are considered the best camels in the world.
They are exported to Saudi Arabia and other countries...

"For lovers of coffee, chocolate, tea, and spice."
Yay :).

"White Man"

2009-07-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to Zack Thornton for posting this YouTube video on his blog. The song is called "White Man," but I reckon it should be called "God Is Love"... but I reckon they want people to listen to it before rejecting it, so they went with the former title! At any rate, it made my morning.

Last day in Cairns. Don't really have anything planned. I want to sea kayak, but it might be too late to do that. We'll see. Free pancakes at the hostel in an hour. Definitely taking advantage of that!

I found the best cafe right down our street, and then I found out it was highly recommended by Lonely Planet. So good. The best coffee I've had in Australia. And a few mornings ago I had their buckwheat waffles with heaps and heaps of beautiful, fresh mixed berries and amazing maple syrup. I would eat there for breakfast every morning if I wasn't attempting to maintain some sort of budget. Speaking of a budget, last night I splurged (I've been doing a lot of that) and ordered an entire rack of ribs... I was craving meat. It was delicious. (But I wished my dad was around to finished off the few ribs I couldn't handle. Ribs are better when shared with one's father. Or maybe that's just me.)

Last night two German guys moved into our dorm. We were all in bed bed or getting ready for bed, but we ended up talking to them for a bit. They'd just arrived in Cairns and said it didn't look like that great of a city. I agree. It's kinda like Panama City... not as gross but just kind of tacky. But it's a great "base" for seeing all the cool stuff in this region.

I regret not planning this trip better, but then again, this is merely my winter break... and it's been a pretty fabulous winter break. I've tasted the backpacker's life again, and it is a sweet life :). It takes a couple of weeks to sink into the lifestyle, but now that I have, I look forward to the next opportunity I have to take an extended trip... I just love staying in mixed dorms where you meet new people from all over the world every couple of days, using a communal kitchen where you use mismatched, not-quite-clean dishes and eat free pancakes on Saturday mornings, wearing the same sets of clothes three or four times before hunting down the cheapest laundry place you can find... Now that I think about it, that actually sounds alot like my life in Canberra at B&G!

Elle, Melissa, and I took a ferry to Green Island yesterday to do some snorkeling. The reef off the island wasn't too great... mostly destroyed, probably by all the snorkelers. But Elle and I visited a super cool, privately owned "zoo" and saw some massive, scary crocodiles and held a small one. And during our glass bottom boat tour of the reef (it was more alive than the reef near the beach), we saw two sea turtles! I was super excited. I've inexplicably been really into turtles lately.

I've decided I'm not really into the ocean... in terms of me being in it. Snorkeling just stresses me out. I always feel a little panic rising in my throat when I submerge my head in the water and start swimming... it's cloudy and I can't see anything and I can hear myself breathing like Darth Vader. After I push the panic back and swim faster towards the clearer water, I'm fine and enjoy it for awhile. But inevitably, I forget I'm breathing out of a tube and swim too far down, inhale water, and into salty, choking chaos I spin (or flounder). Which is manageable if I'm snorkeling off a normal beach in a normal ocean - I can just stand up or tread water. But you're not supposed to stand or touch the Great Barrier Reef. It's already being destroyed by global warming and overfishing and who knows what else; I don't wanna kill the coral! But yesterday I got so sick of feeling like a fish out of water, I decided to risk the coral's life. I definitely saw people judging me as I stood there cleaning out my goggles and snorkel. I didn't care. Damn coral was probably dead already, anyway. (We were walking back to our boat and Melissa was like, "I almost drowned in three feet of water earlier. I thought 'I'm dead. This is gonna be so embarrassing.'" She also was thinking about the coral's well-being.)

Another problem I have is operating swimming goggles. I always tighten them too much and never can figure out how to loosen them. I stood out in the ocean for ten minutes trying to get the goggles back on my head and finally gave up and decided to swim back to the beach with no goggles or snorkel. Bad idea. I kept running into rocks, which made me panic, which made me forget to take deep breaths. So I was coming up for air about every 4 seconds, which could have caused me to hyperventilate. I was expecting one of the lifeguards to call out and ask if I was okay because I was definitely demonstrating all the signs of an "I'm about to drown" swimmer.

Moral: I'm not a natural in the water. I'd be a bird rather than a fish. And I prefer jumping out of airplanes to exploring the depths of the sea.

I do like being on boats, though. I've really enjoyed sitting on top decks and having my hair and face and clothes blown around by the wind and watching the ocean and islands and sky. (Though this does nothing for my looks. Apparently I look a little like Michael Jackson after I've spent a day on a boat. Good, good.)

We fly back to Sydney at 5:45 tomorrow morning - that should be fun. I'll try to take a picture of Melissa when I get her out of bed. As of now, I'm planning on spending the next week in Sydney with Hannah (the kids leave on Wednesday) and heading back to Canberra on Sunday. Then second semester classes start on Monday. Crazy!

Uncle Brian & aeroplanes

2009-07-07T05:01:00.000-07:00

Sometime after I jumped, cheesing it up for the camera :).

Right before/during the jump.

Before my jump...

freaking out after one of the instructors was sucked out of the plane (on purpose)...
probably asking why the heck I was doing this!

Our Uncle Brian Tour was amazing. AMAZING. This tour was made for me. We rode on Gus the Bus who was like Herbie... he had a personality, a romantic interest, everything. I had a homecooked meal in a little family owned teahouse on top of a green hill overlooking miles and miles of mountains and green and cows. I swam through a waterfall! I sang cheesy songs with twenty other people at the top of my lungs all the way back to Cairns. There was a full moon. I was dirty and wearing mismatched clothes. It was delightful. I so, so, so recommend Uncle Brian to anyone who visits Cairns.

So this morning, Will, Elle, and I jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet... skydiving! I'll write more about the experience later... Most notably: the views were amazing, we traveled at 120mph during our freefalls, the pressure change really hurt my ear drums, and - weirdest of all - I was not the slightest bit scared during any of it. Weird. I'll have a DVD and photos up at some point. Currently, I'm starving and want lunch!

From Cairns

2009-07-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

Hello to all!

I spoke to my dad on the phone as we were waiting for our Hamilton Island to Cairns flight this morning, and he encouraged me to update my blog. My apologies for the lack of updates... I think I've been so overwhelmed with planning trips, I've lost the will to TALK about the trips! I'm kind of planning this one as we go, planning a weekend trip with Hannah at the end of July, trying to work out when I'm going to Indonesia and with (or without) whom, and I'm probably tagging a two week New Zealand/Fiji trip on the very end of my Australia stay. AGH! And various flight sales and people make it necessary to think about all of this at once!

"The kids" (Elle, Will, and Melissa) and I have been traveling together for about six days, and I've realized that as "older sister" I automatically get the Mom/organizer role. I've never had this role before, and for those of you that know me I've never been very mothering. Not that I'm heartless and life-repelling - I do love babies and animals - but when it comes to people over the age of twelve, and when it comes to traveling, I have a very independent, we're-all-in-this-together attitude. (With strong no-worries-let's-decide-last-minute undertones.) On this trip, however, the kids are looking to me as the primary caregiver and decision maker, despite my initial efforts to get them to read the guidebook or offer their opinions. Apparently, they don't have any, which I've come to accept. I think they're mostly just happy to be high school graduates "on their own" in the land down under. It's been weird for me, though. More stressful, I think, and not as "I'M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE!" because I'm worried about them having the time of their life. And because I don't have anyone my own age on the trip. (I honestly did not think I would mind, as I thoroughly enjoy Elle, Melissa, and Will's company.)

Anyway - the point is - on the plane today, I was reflecting on the many family vacations when Melissa and I have sulked and complained or just stumbled along with absolutely no expressions on our faces. And how that might have been frustrating for Mom (and Dad). Not that the kids are sulking or complaining... more of the stumbling along, expressionless and opinionless. And it wouldn't bother me except that I'm planning the entire trip, and if they're not having fun (or acting like they're having fun), then I'm not really having fun. We are having fun, though. I'm just not used to being Miss Mary Beth, cruise director.

It will continue to be a learning experience! And I'm a fan of those.

So we spent the last five nights in Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays. That's in northern Queensland and it's in the subtropics, so the weather was superb, if a bit chilly at night. Airlie Beach is a small but bustling little beach town, lots of backpackers and families (school's out for winter holidays at the moment). We stayed at a big hostel called Magnum. They were having a winter sale, so we got a bungalow with a private bath. We shared the room with a Canadian couple for two nights - the guy was a chronic snorer. Elle hates snoring even more than I do, and one night a random guy came into our room and collapsed on an empty bunk... and started snoring. So we had two snorers that night. Good times with a very angry Elle! A fun Dutch guy stayed with us a couple of nights, as did an Austrian couple. We didn't really do anything big for July 4th, and the Austrian guy questioned our Americaness. I quote: "If I were American, I would run around all night wrapped in my flag, shooting pistols in the air like in the movies!"

The Whitsundays are absolutely beautiful. Basically they're a bunch of islands off the northern Queensland coast. We took an all tour boat tour of the islands on Friday, hiking up to Hook Point for great views, spending a couple hours of Whitehaven Beach, and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Yesterday we took a tour of the rainforest in Conway National Park... it could've been a good tour, except the tour guy, Steve, was socially awkward and kind of a jerk. He was patronizing, which never makes me or Melissa anyone's biggest fan. We decided that even Daddy would've been making thinly disguised sarcastic comments to Steve and remembered the "Nazi!" incident at Barcelona's airport when Daddy was mildly harassed by a security officer at the airport... Again, good times!

The Whitsundays are beautiful. I re-realized this this morning when we were waiting for our ferry to Hamilton Island airport at 7am. The sun had just risen, I was sipping my large coffee, and I felt very blessed to be where I was. I'll add photos later, but of course they won't do the islands justice!

We're in Cairns for the next six nights and have only planned tomorrow, another tour of the rainforest and the Atherton Tablelands. I'm pretty excited about this tour: it's a small group, kind of a hippie organization, and it involves swimming under waterfalls and down natural rock slides. Some of you might know that I have a "to do list" I must complete by the time I turn twenty-nine. (I made this list before the "Bucket List" screenplay had been written!) On the list includes hangliding (check), swimming under a waterfall, skydiving, surfing, sailing, and swimming with dolphins. And I hope to complete all of the above by the time I return to the States.

We're staying in an "upscale" hostel called The Northern Greenhouse. We're paying about $28AUD per night for a mixed dorm... but we currently have the dorm all to ourselves, and it has its own bathroom and a small, stoveless kitchen. Not too shabby. There's a great lounge area that's outdoors but covered by a huge tent canvas thing (where I am now, took a long nap earlier), free coffee/tea in the communal kitchen (Elle and I bought some groceries after arriving around noon), free travel advice and tour booking, free pancakes on Saturdays, AND a book-swapping shelf. Score.

I've really enjoyed being able to read since the semester's finished. I found C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce" in a secondhand bookshop in Melbourne for $5AUD and read that on the plane to the Whitsundays. I started and finished "Eat, Love, and Pray." (Fantastic, but annoying, because it's exactly the kind of book I would like to write... at least I know there's a market for rambly, pseudophilsophical, female travel writers!) And this afternoon I finished "Three Cups of Tea." It took me a while to get into it, but about halfway through I was sold. I strongly recommend all three titles. Oddly enough (or not, considering I choose what I read), they're all loosely related... lots of travel, Christianity, spirituality, Islam, personal journies...

My internet time is about up, so I better publish quickly. Love and miss you all :).

Where we are #1

2009-07-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

So we're on the Whitsunday coast! We arrived after a two hour flight from Sydney... landed on Hamilton Island and ferried to the mainland. We're staying in Airlie Beach at a huge backpackers hostel called Magnum. They're having a "winter sale," so we have our own bungalow (though four other people might show up at some point) with our own bathroom and fridge. It's very rainforesty and hippie... yay :).

This trip is very impromptu, so I'm not entirely sure what we're doing after we leave this internet cafe!

After we got off the ferry, Melissa and I bought ice cream before walking around the boardwalk to Airlie's main street... After check in, we rushed to a fish and chips shop and enjoyed dinner by the water, watching the sun go down. Twas beautiful (except for the seagulls who were desperate for a snack).

We're here until Monday when we fly further north to Cairns. This internet cafe is closing very soon, so I'll leave it here for now!

Brief update

2009-06-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

It's officially holiday time, so I'm not sure why I'm being so slow updating this blog! I'm the same way with phones calls. I need to call at least three people in the States, but for some reason I have yet to sit down and actually make the calls...

Anyway, briefly: Amy and I returned from Melbourne on Monday night. Twas a good, relaxed visit, full of cafes, markets, and good books. As it was one of Australia's first cities, it has a distinctly European feel it, which I really like. It's considered to be more artsy and culturally than Sydney, and I definitely got that vibe. I'll have to compare the two more fairly after I've spent a few days in downtown Sydney; I've only been to Sydney suburbs so far.

You can click here to see some photos from the trip.

Melissa, Will, and Elle arrived in Canberra via bus about two hours ago. United left Melissa and Will's bags in LA, surprise surprise. Hopefully, ideally, they'll have the bags tomorrow. If not, they'll buy a few outfits and we'll track their stuff down when we head to Sydney in a few days. Melissa slept about ten hours on the flight; Will didn't sleep at all. They all seemed pretty energetic when they got off the bus... Melissa just asked to be taken to food, so they had some pasta, and we had a few hysterical laughs about nonsense... Ah, air travel-inspired delirium! There's nothing like it!

Tonight, we're going to make homemade pizzas with a bunch of people, strum on some guitars, then maybe head to the pub for dessert. Should be a good night. We're still in the planning stages for the rest of the trip, but those details should be nailed down pretty soon.

I'll try to write a proper update before we hit the road!

Thrice reheated coffee

2009-06-16T01:37:00.000-07:00

Some random thoughts.

My last final exam was today. Final exams in Australia (and I believe in England) are so different to final exams in America. I was in a gym/room with 500+ students. Desks were organized into long rows, and my South Asia class was directed to row 25 where our exam booklets were waiting for us. We had to fill out an identification card and during the first twenty minutes of the exam period, monitors came by and checked our student IDs to make sure we were who we said we were. None of the professors were there, just general university personnel. (Actually, they probably were just retired Canberra citizens. I knew a woman at Goldhill in England who worked as an exam aid.) Anyway, it was weird. Luckily, I had people to explain what was going on, otherwise I might have panicked a bit.

I have one more essay to complete, and then I'll be done. When I'm not a student, I think I'll miss the unadulterated joy that overwhelms me after completing a semester.

Speaking of not being a student, I know my parents are wondering what the heck I plan to do with my life after I graduate next May. I would like to assure concerned friends and family that - in addition to having ridiculous amounts of fun here in Australia - I am seriously and regularly thinking about and planning for my future. For the past several weeks, I've been reexamining the Peace Corps as a legitimate option. (Funnily enough, I just discovered that my Auburn friend Jena (who I've quoted before) is currently working on her Peace Corps application!) I am definitely not announcing that as my final choice but did want to mention it. I find this article about the Corps to be interesting and helpful as I weigh the pros against the cons, question my motivations, etc..

It's gotten quite cold in Canberra. Winter has indeed arrived. There's no heat in my building this week, but if I avoid my room except for bedtime it's not so bad. Last week I bought a hot water bottle to warm my bed; it's nice even when the heat is turned on. I'd never heard of sleeping with a hot water until I was in Bolivia. We were given them when we were in the middle of no where, wearing every item of clothing we had in a feeble attempt to stay warm. I think the hot water bottle concept was introduced to me the night after I'd been food poisoned, and I was just happy to be alive. At any rate, I was amazed that I'd lived nineteen years without it... so simple, so wonderful.

Australian and English accents confuse me. Like, I thought I'd lost my ability to distinguish between the two. But today I walked to my exam with an English exchange student, and the whole time she was talking, all I could think was, "How upper class and posh!" The Australian accent is definitely more awkward, less classy sounding.

Amy and I are flying down to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon and returning on Monday night; we'll be staying with Amy's cousin. I hope to have some good stories and photos to share upon our return!

Postcards

2009-06-14T06:08:00.000-07:00

I started collecting postcards in elementary school - maybe after we roadtripped out West - and for awhile, when my family and I were overseas, I bought one at every city or "site" I visited. I kind of let that slide after 2005 and sadly didn't buy any postcards in South America. But I'm trying to resurect the habit here in Australia.

On a partially related note, I never get mail here. And I love getting mail. And Dan apparently is about to send me a postcard. So I thought I would propose something to my blog readers: if you send me a postcard (or card, but postcards are cheaper to mail, generally, I think?), I'll send you one back! (Maybe I'll start sending people random postcards regardless of whether or not I get one from them.)

Jump on the international mail bandwagon! My address is:

Burton & Garran Hall
49 Daley Road
Acton ACT 0200
Australia

Milk & honey

2009-06-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

My belated 21st bash:
Aidan, Amy, and Nic: three of my favorite Aussies

Left to right: me, Hayley, Aidan,
Nic, and Mary at Shooters.

Katie and I in our southern wear, playing in the mall
before the hoedown shindig at Shooters.

I'm running out of titles for my updates. This entry's title = two of my favorite comfort foods. I've been having lots of honey on toast and big glasses of milk lately.

This time next week, I'll be finished with the semester, for better or for worse. Today, I should finish a couple of assignments, completing two courses, leaving only two to go!

Last Wednesday, I gave my Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar presentation to my host club in Belconnen. I've been to several meetings this semester, have gotten to know a few Rotarians, and am quite comfortable being a part of the club. Upon arriving at the Belconnen Soccer Club around 6:30pm, several Rotarians told me that I better not talk too long because "today is the State of Origin." I was confused at first but quickly remembered being told about this Super Bowl-esque rugby game between New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD). (It's actually three games, played over about six weeks.) Those reminding me to keep it short and sweet were, of course, smiling and laughing. But as an Alabamian and an Auburn Tiger, I understood the "but seriously." look in the men's (and a few women's) eyes. I quickly decided to skip the Powerpoint presentation and speak straight from my notes. As a result, I think I spoke a bit too quickly and wasn't as organized as I might have been. Still, my talk seemed to be well-received. I gave a brief autobiography, describing my grandparents' and parents' jobs and how my family lived in Japan and England; I described small town Alabama and Auburn University; I highlighted some negative aspects about my home state before describing my favorite things about the South. There was a good bit of laughter, particularly when I discussed good Southern cookin' (and obesity) - several Rotarians argued with my assertion that grits were a must-try. And a couple of men shouted out "Hushpuppies!" and "Okra!", expanding my list of southern food staples. I ended the presentation by talking about some of my experiences in Australia and what I'm looking forward to during the coming months.

After the meeting was over - I finished seven minutes early! - one Rotarian approached me and told me, if I was interested, he'd like to talk with me about his experiences as a commerce diplomat in Tehran and (I believe) Israel during the late 70s. This was, of course, in response to my expressed interest in Islam and the Middle East. I look forward to hearing about his experiences and asking some hard questions, particularly next semester when I'll be enrolled in an Iranian history course. (YAY!)

Last Thursday was my belated 21st birthday bash. Everyone dressed "southern" and congregated at a pool bar called Shooters. Very classy! It was a fantastic evening. I'll post some photos later.

Speaking of dressing "southern" and the State of Origin rugby games... I was unsure of which team to support, New South Wales or Queensland. Most people around here support NSW (we are basically in NSW, except we're in the ACT... like DC basically being a part of Virginia, except it's not), but I wanted to talk with a few QLD supporters before making my final decision. After my birthday dinner at Wagamama's on Thursday night, a few friends and I were walking to Shooters in full southern costumes - jeans, boots, checkered shirts, cowboy hats, cut-off t-shirts with "BAMA" splashed across the front - when several inebriated Aussie blokes saw us and shouted, "Wooooo! Queensland girls!" This confirmed my growing suspicion that Queensland is to Australia as Alabama/the South is to the United States. Ergo, I have decided to support Queensland in all matters athletic. This has upset many of my friends, but I don't mind because I love controversy and competition. Plus, QLD destroyed NSW in game #1... I think we're going to win this year.

Monday was the Queen's birthday (it's not her real birthday - how confusing). It was also Amy's birthday. Despite the drizzle and cold, about ten of us had a picnic on the National Portrait Gallery lawn. Salami, mature cheddar cheese, basil spread, sun dried tomatoes, and sourdough bread sandwiches = perfection. After lunch, we visited several art exhibits, kicked around a soccer ball, and attempted to have a singalong, but it was really too cold for anyone to play the guitar. Later that afternoon, Amy, her boyfriend James, Ben, Hannah, and I went to a fancy chocolate cafe for hot, sugary beverages. Back at B&G, James and I cooked dinner for Amy: I made pumpkin risotto, and he made the best cake I've ever tasted. It was a happy birthday, indeed.

Left to right:

Ben, Dave, me, Julie, Shawn, Hannah, Amy, and Hayley

in the National Portrait Gallery.

Nic, Hannah, me, and Laura, post-picnic.

Busy! Fun!

2009-06-02T04:38:00.001-07:00

I do still intend on following up my last post, but this evening I just wanted to drop in and say hello to my faithful readers :). I hope you all are doing well! Here's a brief update:

Thursday is my last day of classes this semester - where has the time gone?! I have a paper due on Friday, another paper due on Tuesday, and two final exams (those aren't for another two weeks). I never got back into the "study hard" mindset after our two week fall break and consequently will suffer tremendously during the next ten days. Alas, I have no one to blame but myself.

Insufficient studying and related stress aside, I've been enjoying Australia and its people immensely. There was a huge birthday party two weekends ago, a huge James Bond themed birthday party this past weekend, a fantastic afternoon of soccer and pizza on Sunday... This Thursday is my belated 21s birthday dinner and party, and Saturday is B&G's Farewell to the Foreigners party, sending most of the international exchange students home in style. (My friend Sven and I think we're the only study abroad students staying for the entire year.) When there's not a big bash planned, there are always feasts to spontaneously cook, movies to watch, cups of teas to drink, shopping to do.

All the fun has taken a tole on my sleeping habits; most nights in May I didn't go to bed before midnight and didn't get up until 10am, at the earliest. For the past two weeks, Amy has been coming to my room when she wakes up (10am or later)... We lie around for fifteen minutes or so before washing our faces and stumbling into the kitchen where we enjoy an 11 o'clock breakfast and brainstorm ways to turn ourselves into more productive human beings.

Speaking of Amy, the two of us are flying to Melbourne for a few days after we finish our exams. On June 26th, Melissa, Elle, and Will arrive in Sydney, and we will begin what we hope is an epic three week adventure up Australia's east coast. They fly home on July 15th, and I plan on staying in Sydney with Hannah (she arrived last week) until she finishes her "summer" course and internship. Then we plan on going on an epic adventure before returning to Canberra for Bush Week, the first week of second semester classes (i.e. no work required). This year's theme is Christmas in July... On July 24th, there will be an ANU-wide New Year's Eve party. Sweet.

I know I keep saying that time is flying... but it really is. It's a little unbelievable. This is a fantastic country, and I've made and continue to make amazing friends. Leaving is going to be difficult. People are already asking me, "So do you think you'll come back to Australia when you graduate?" My answer is still, "I doubt it," but the longer I'm here, the more appealing that option becomes. That, however, is twelve months away.

Amy and I playing in the autumn leaves.

(Most of the trees are bare now.)

Sunday's afternoon soccer game

with the Navigators.

Vicky, Allee, and I did not exercise...

We ate Australia's version of Cheese Puffs, instead.

Hayley, Laura, Mary, me, and Hannah

at our friend's 21st birthday party, James Bond style.

Comments on "careless comments on culture"

2009-05-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

About two months ago, I wrote a blog entry called Careless comments on culture. I discussed a number of things, but the main force behind the entry was my realization that some cultural tendencies/differences annoy me, no matter how open minded I try to be. Recently, a student from Singapore found my blog and left a comment on that entry, responding to my generalizations about Asian/white culture(s) and stereotypes. I was delighted by her response simply because having a blog feels more worthwhile (and is more fun) when what I say gets a reaction. Otherwise I'm just talking at people! I've gotten Soong Yeng's permission to repost her comment here. I plan on continuing this dialogue later on... and you might want to reread my entry in order to better appreciate Soong Yeng's perspective.

Heys. I'm a Singaporean [Singapore is in asia but not in china:)] thats probably going to ANU to study in july and i was looking for fellow freshies when i found your blog. its a good read and i hope that my life at Anu will be as vibrant as your's sounds.

I feel compelled to comment about the Asian sterotypes that you mentioned briefly. Especially about the cliques. i guess i feel somewhat defensive because i suspect that i am so likely to join a clique of my own. and because of that i wanna defend that behavior. do pardon me, i think i'm feeling guilty.

Anyways, i think that asians form cliques not only because of the languages we speak [my first language was English and my chinese proficency is better not described :( haha] but possibly also because of how we feel "inferior" to whites. [Is there another word for whites? To describe white ppl in general, whether from america europe australia or where ever]

I'm going to make horrible generalisations here, so please dont get offended.

I know I think that whites are less likely to want to mix with me and that I probably have nothing in common to talk to them about. and if i'm unlucky i may meet racist people. so its "safer" to stick with other asians. Yet at the same time i do want to meet whites because they seem so much more interesting. and different from me. not to mention independent and brave.

and I feel now, that I have to choose between the two because asians and whites don't mix. but then i'm not in australia yet. so i dont know anything. :P

and while i can't think of any excuse to speak in high cutesy voices, i think its just an expression of enthusiasm and "high-ness" <--Does high-ness translate? high as in the kind of high ppl get during alcohol and drugs but achieved via natural adrenaline and NOT any drugs.

and i know of ppl that cover their mouths when smiling cause their teeth are not straight. also Chinese, in general, I think feel its more demure to laugh behind a hand. Surely you dont wanna see my tonsils?:D

Yup. I do hope you respond to this. Hopefully via email. You can reach me at ...
Soong Teng

Thanks, Soong Teng!

I'm enjoying thinking about her response, particularly in light of some experiences and conversations I've had since I wrote that entry in March. Looking forward to more discussion soon.

Grades & native peoples

2009-05-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

For those of you not on Facebook, here are links to my photos:

Autumn photo shoot

Random Canberra

I accidentally deleted comments left by Dan and an anonymous Star Trek fan. My apologies; it wasn't intentional. Feel free to resubmit your comments!

Already, I'm comfortable and at home in Canberra. I would happily stay here for a few years. My comfortableness can be measured by the number of text messages I send and receive every day; or by how many times I've allowed myself to dissolve into hysterical laughter and tears in front of others; or by how easy it is to find something to do besides school work.

A while ago, I mentioned the difference between the American and Australian ways of grading (marking) university work. Here, there is High Distinction (80-100%); Distinction (70-80%); Credit (60-70%); Pass (50-60%); and Fail. "HD"s are not like As... they are much rarer than As. And Passes are not like Ds... they're much more common than Ds. For example, on my first graded ANU assignment (a 500 word essay on the Marshall Plan), I got a 58%. My lecturer's final comments on my work were: "Well-done, Mary Beth! A great start to the semester!" I was angry and embarrassed... but mostly confused. How can an essay that warrants a "well-done!" be only 8% away from failure?

Needless to say, it's a bit disconcerting, especially considering my grades have to be transferred to Auburn. I'm sure there will be some sort of "translation" process... still. Earlier this semester, the seemingly more stringent grading system made me want to "prove myself" by aiming for HDs... maybe next semester.

I also mentioned indigenous Australians a while back. Before moving to Australia, I was warned never to bring up the "Aboriginal issue" as it was super controversial. Luckily, I've had plenty of natural conversations about the "issue" as I've befriended people. Sometimes I find it lines up with cookie cutter conservative/liberal perspectives on race, discrimination, government responsibility, and history: academics, passport holders, and hippies think the Europeans were/are racist and imperialistic (and that indigenous Australians fought back and had a chance), while business majors, military personnel, and patriotic Australians think the issue is stale, no one should receive special treatment, and Australians should stop apologizing and political correcting and reconciling.

More often, however, I'm surprised by people's "stances." For example, Amy is a hippie, a traveller, pretty left wing when it comes to the environment, social rights, and economic policy, yet she has no patience for "reconciliation"; she says it's because her dad, employed by the government, works with Aborigines in the Northern Territory, and she's seen the alcohol abuse, the crime, the laziness, the taking advantage of welfare. (These are her words paraphrased.) Apparently, these are realities we haven't discussed in my history course.

What I find most interesting is comparing indigenous Australians to American minorities. The most common comparison I've found in my readings is between indigenous Australians and black Americans. I suppose the two groups have caused similar political disturbances... Australian activists use(d) the 1960s civil rights movement as an example for organizing their own efforts. And in both countries, everyone has an opinion on affirmative action, prison statistics, and Bill Cosby (or whoever the Aussie equivalent is). But surely Aboriginal peoples have more in common with Native Americans: infected with European diseases, forced off their land, currently a tiny fraction of their original population, many living on reserves, statistically more likely to be obese, alcoholics, and gamblers...

It's just that Native Americans became an afterthought long before our Civil War. We've been thinking about slavery and black rights and Obama for two centuries, not the "Indians." If you're really progressive and educated, you might make a joke on Thanksgiving, something like: "Happy turkey, syphilis, and displacement day!" But for the most part, Native Americans are a nonissue. I suppose indigenous Australians might be a nonissue, too, if Australia had imported millions of Africans as slaves during colonialization. Who knows?

I saw the new Star Trek movie last night and enjoyed it.

This weekend I went to Sydney to hear Jerry Bridges speak. Some of you might know who he is; apparently as an American Christian who likes to read, I should've read one of his books by now. Anyway, he was a good teacher. And there was a fantastic barbecue on Saturday night.

Left to right:

Laura & Hayley at the back;

Hannah, me, & Maryanne.

Alex's art

2009-05-13T17:41:00.002-07:00

Alex, another good friend, has started doing regular pastel drawings and posting them on his blog. After I commented on a posting, he offered to draw me a pastel.

I'm pretty sure I want my life to look like this picture. I'm also pretty sure I'm framing it.

I just started a new book for my contemporary Australian literature course. This one is by Helen Garner entitled "Joe Cinque's Consolation." It's non-fiction... I'll just type up the back cover synopsis:

In October 1997 a clever young law student at the Australian National University made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests - most of them university students - had heard rumors of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. He died one Sunday, in his own bed, of a massive dose of Rohyphnol and heroin. His girlfriend and her best friend were charged with murder.

Helen Garner followed the trials in the ACT Supreme Court. Compassionate but unflinching, this is a book about how and why Joe Cinque died. It probes the gap between ethics and the law; examines the helplessness of the courts in the face of what we think of as 'evil'; and explores conscience, culpability, and the battered ideal of duty of care.

If you can be bothered to order it from Amazon, you might enjoy it. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but it's a true story. So far, it seems to be very well-written. And the most interesting thing for me is the main characters are ANU students and I recognize all the suburbs and streets and university buildings mentioned.

Booked solid through August?

2009-05-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Someone suggested taking a road trip this weekend, and I had to say no because I'm already going to Sydney. We then consulted my calendar, and I have something going on every weekend - and week, during the holidays - until August. I then exclaimed: "And then I only have three months left!" I already feel panicky about leaving. There's not enough time, it flies, and nothing slows it down!

Amy has decided to go to Sumatra with me during spring break (end of September). Sweet.

Graduation is all around. Lots of high school friends are now finished with college. I remember their high school graduation like it was literally yesterday afternoon. I remember what I was wearing, the food at the post-grad party, Hannah's friend from Florida falling asleep from jet lag, walking down to The Rye at midnight to try to get into a club (mission failed). Friends from Auburn have graduated, too. It's weird - people will be gone when I get back. And of course, Melissa is graduating, which is a huge deal, if for no other reason than because I remember my graduation like it was this afternoon. And she doesn't seem old enough for all that college entails. Actually, she does, but I feel like I should have a baby to maintain the "big sister" distance. (Though, really, I like that it's disappearing. No baby required, I guess.) And I'm realizing in less than a year I'll be graduating. Again. For the last time? To quote a reader of this blog and class of 2009 Auburn alum:

[Facebook]

Jena Robinson so... what do I do now?

Friend's comment: get a job, hippie.

Word.

Today I made coconut rice for lunch. Basmati rice boiled in coconut milk, dash of salt, then topped off with some browned coconut shavings. Microwaved a frozen piece of hoti fish in a Thai peanut sauce to get my protein. Delicious. Meanwhile, a friend baked "damper," which I'm pretty sure is an old school term for food. But in Australia it = an easy-to-cook bread popular on camping trips in the Outback. Amy's reaction to the cook's decision to make damper: "How Australian of you."

Dan in Taiwan

2009-05-09T02:30:00.000-07:00

My good friend Dan is studying abroad in Taiwan this summer. I've really enjoyed reading his Facebook updates as he's prepared for the trip, and I'm enjoying even more his initial responses to his first experience outside the United States.

Reading about Dan's initial experiences, I recognize myself in a lot that he writes. Like, his detailed descriptions of the airports and his flights to Taiwan are very similar to my first journal entry after my family flew from Atlanta to Tokyo. But I was merely eleven years old, while Dan is twenty-one. So it's like, eleven year old travel novice meets twenty-one year old philosophical college student. It's a huge explosion of discovery and awe and delight and overreaction and uncontrollable smiling.

I guess I'm somewhat of a seasoned traveler now, but I still get overwhelmed with joy as you can hopefully tell by some of my blog updates. And it's just really fantastic to watch a friend fall in love with the world - step by step - like I fell and continue to fall in love with the world. Especially after knowing Dan for two years, sharing my stories with him, listening to him say "I want to travel," but wondering if he would ever make it happen. So congrats, Daniel! I'm really excited for you! (And you're welcome for the free blog publicity.)

If you're interested in reading about Dan's experiences and reflections, I encourage you to do so. A favorite excerpt from his first real update:

I’ve been writing this blog for 2 hours (it’s now 7 AM), and the entire time I’ve been struggling to find the right words to describe how I feel about this place. The closest I can come is this (for everyone who’s been to Disney World): remember being a kid at Disney World, how everything felt so cool and new and different and special? It was great, but at the same time, even as a child in the back of your head you knew it was farce, that it wasn’t real. Imagine that feeling of awe at being somewhere so incredible, without the subtle tickle in your consciousness knowing it’s staged. I feel like I’m on an incredible adventure; every corner I turn is better than the one before, with no perceivable ceiling to how good the day can become. Disney World has a border, walk beyond it and it’s merely Florida, another place in the United States you’re familiar with. Beyond this place is a seemingly limitless plane of water, there is no familiarity in which to retreat. And I love that.

Last night was B&G's Multicultural Ball. Raspberry cheesecake aside, my favorite part of the evening was the dancing. There was a great DJ who played great multicultural music, plus I had the pleasure of dancing with Victor, a postgraduate student from Peru. Victor made us look good, despite my limited salsa skills. (Quote of the night: "You dance pretty well for a North American.") Probably the best two dances of my life. But I have decided that I need to start working out just so I can physically match my enthusiasm; I was too exhausted to go out salsaing afterwards. Instead, Sven (from Germany), Victor, and I stayed up until 4am watching movies and talking about the night life in Cusco (Peru), why Mary Beth hates French (Victor and Sven are both trilingual), the difficulties of writing academic papers in a nonnative language, how none of us will ever get rich with our arts degrees, marijuana legislation across the globe, great white shark attacks, surfing, Canada, ping pong, and other random topics.

Multicultural Ball: me and Janiy.

(Pronounced 'Jenny'; she's beautiful and from Singapore.)

Me, Nur, Nitol, Raj, and Janiy.

The first three = the Easter breakfast group.

(Nur is from Malaysia; Nitol and Raj are from Bangladesh.)

Couchsurfing

2009-05-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

I bought a new digital camera yesterday! I was inspired by ANU's beautiful autumn campus. This is the view from my favorite wireless spot. It'll be even prettier when the leaves completely change color.

The following photos were taken yesterday evening before B&G's "Party like it's a pandemic" swine flu party...

Amy, me, Katie

Concrete spheres are fun late at night.

Flo (Dutch couchsurfer) and I,
looking at two different cameras, apparently.

Flo, me, Brendan, Amy, and Katie

One of my links on the right is for couchsurfing.org. Couchsurfing's official mission and description are as follows:

CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.

As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to make the world a better place, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing isn't about the furniture- it's not just about finding free accommodations around the world- it's about participating in creating a better world. We strive to make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!

Basically, Couchsurfing is an online community where you can find people all over the world offering other people a "couch," or a piece of floor, or any place to sleep at night. It's a way to travel and not pay for accomodation; but it's supposed to be more than that. Couchsurfers are supposed to interact with their hosts/surfers, hang out together, see the sites, etc. Even if you're not looking for a place to stay at night, it's a great way to find warm, friendly, helpful people wherever you go in the world.

I've been a member for about a year now, but no one ever travels to Auburn. There are always travelers in Canberra, however, and the number of available "couches" is relatively small here as we're a smallish city. So I've gotten at least two requests per week (from people wanting to sleep on my "couch," i.e. floor) since arriving in Canberra. I've always said no because I had too much school work, was leaving town, etc. This week, I finally decided to accept someone's request even though I have lots of work. (It's a very chill organization, and there's no requirement to entertain or feed anyone. Still, when there are interesting people around, I tend to neglect my work... Actually, I tend to neglect my work regardless. Different story.)

After I accepted the request a couple of days ago, I emailed my first Couchsurfer directions to B&G from the Canberra bus station, explained how I never lock my door, how to get in, and sent her my "welcome to MB's couch, here's some info" Word document. And yesterday I came back from class, and there she was - Flo van den Berg, a 24 year old Dutch girl - reading on my floor. We talked for over an hour about our travel experiences, Holland's university system, her Couchsurfing experiences and other ways she's traveled cheaply... And then we walked into Civic so I could buy groceries and she could buy close-toed shoes (she lost hers in New Zealand). For dinner, I cooked pasta, garlic bread, and salad to share with Flo and Amy, and Amy talked about some of her Couchsurfing experiences and we talked about where we wanted to travel and Flo was curious about how B&G worked as such a huge student residence. It was a delightful evening. Last night, I was in bed reading some Walt Whitman* and Flo was on the floor reading a book she'd picked up at a youth hostel, and I thought, "I have a random Dutch girl sleeping on my floor!" The best part is that we're already friends, and in ten years, if I'm in Holland, I know I'll feel comfortable looking her up.

Couchsurfing is a really cool project. If you travel or live in a place where travelers are common, I encourage you to check it out. All sorts of people are involved: college students, families, older couples. You have complete control over your information and who you allow to stay with you. Couchsurfing experiences are overwhelmingly positive, and the negative experiences, from what I can tell, are usually minor enough to make good stories.

Links of possible interest:
Couchsurfing and safety
Courchsurfers around the world (map)

*I did a research project on Walt Whitman in high school. He's one of my favorite poets (though I haven't really read enough poetry to have favorite poets). I'm rereading "Leaves of Grass," and last night I came across a short poem called Beginning my studies that resonated with me. It describes the experience I have every semester, when I start off super excited about learning and when I diligently read everything I can and take notes and start assignments weeks ahead of time...

BEGINNING my studies, the first step pleas’d me so much,
The mere fact consciousness--these forms--the power of motion,
The least insect or animal--the senses--eyesight--love;
The first step, I say, aw’d me and pleas’d me so much,
I have hardly gone, and hardly wish’d to go, any farther,
But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in ecstatic songs.

My decision to reread "Leaves of Grass" at the busiest time of the semester is a great example of me stopping and loitering. Ah, well.

Autumn in April

2009-05-03T06:29:00.001-07:00

B&G is a wonderful place to live but the worst possible environment for a chronic procrastinator. There are always people around, cooking food, sharing food, telling each other not to worry about that exam tomorrow morning, generally being a beautiful thriving university community.

Around 10pm, because I had a headache and no desire to continue reading, I decided to make pancakes. While I was making pancakes, a guy I'd never met (who looks like a Chinese body builder) came up to me and asked me what I was making. I told him I was making pancakes, and he said "You must have an essay you don't want to write!" We laughed and talked about how grades don't matter, the people with the highest grades/marks haven't necessarily learned the most, and that the whole institutionalized education idea had serious flaws. In the end, we acknowledged that we were probably just trying to make ourselves feel better about our lack of discipline. But after the pancakes and Chinese Body Builder's encouragement, I did feel a lot better.

I'd planned on getting back to work, but then Raj appeared in the kitchen as I was finishing my last pancake. He looked a bit sad but said hello. As I was leaving the kitchen, he asked if I wanted to have dinner with him - homemade beef curry and dal (soup-like stuff) and delicious pepper/egg mashed potatoes. I thought I better accept the invitation as his food is good enough to be sold in a restaurant.

So I've spent the past two hours watching him cook and, mostly, listening to him talk. He's eighteen and three months out of Bangladesh, and it turns out he's been really homesick lately. He's not an unusually talkative person, but tonight he just went on and on about his friends and family back home, the adjustments he's had to make here, Bangladesh in general, etc. I could tell he really needed to let off some steam. I enjoyed listening and eating. It was good.

I was walking to church tonight around 6:30pm. It's gotten colder and the leaves have turned orange and are beginning to fall and it was almost completely dark. I was walking through ANU's campus, lots of big trees and the fountain was glistening in the moonlight and I could hear the ducks quacking... I can't remember exactly what I was thinking, but I suddenly had one of those "I can't believe this is my life" moments. My mind suddenly centered on the fact that I'm living in Australia. "Alone." (At least, I arrived alone.) I've been here two and a half months, and already I feel settled and comfortable. And then my mind rapidly remembered - or realized - Alabama and then Japan and then England and then Alabama and then Europe and South America and friends I still have after years of being apart and friends that are coming to visit me and new friends I'm making and my family who's my family regardless of where any of us are in the world and situations and life lessons I never thought I would be in or learn. And then I realized that I'm hardly twenty-one years old, and in the grand scheme of things I haven't seen anything yet. Remarkable.

Technology & the military

2009-04-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

I'm in Australia. My family is in the United States. We're about 9414 miles away. About thirty minutes ago, I discovered I'd done quite well on one of my midterm exams. I texted my dad. Two minutes later, using Skype probably, my dad called me and we talked while I walked back to B&G. As soon as I'm back, we hung up, I logged onto Facebook, and within ten minutes, my mom had written on my wall, "I heard the good news about your exam. Congrats!" During this tiny window of time, my sister, parents, grandmother, and I were engaging in a banter-filled conversation about Wagamama's, a yummy Japanese restaurant. It just blows my mind how small the world is now. Not that I've really ever experienced anything differently; but I can try to imagine life with cell phones and the internet. It blows my mind. How did our parents and grandparents make last minute plans with their friends? Some friends and I were discussing this the other day and started laughing hysterically at the idea of needing a landline every time you wanted to call someone... I haven't used a landline in over a year. I do wish I lived in the age of real, handwritten, snail mail letters. I'm trying to keep that art alive.

ANZAC Day was Saturday, and it proved to be a memorable experience. Friday night, I didn't get home from a McDonald's excursion until after twelve, and by 4:30am Saturday morning I was dressed and out the door. We attended the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial, where I was about six feet away from Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, during the entire ceremony. It's incredible - Obama's dog probably has more security than Australia's prime minister. Afterwards, Laura, Allee, Mary, Mary's cousin, and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. (It was a disgusting day - chilly, rainy, and overcast - so a warm restaurant and several cups of coffee = happiness.) Around 9:30am, we headed back to the Australian War Memorial to get good seats for the National ANZAC Day Ceremony. Laura's boyfriend, David, is in the Air Force at ADFA (Australian Defense Force Academy - I've mentioned it before) and was helpful in that his uniform gave Laura and I legitimacy in "backstage" areas.

The parade and ceremony were long but interesting. Those of you particularly interested in WWII would have understood/enjoyed the parade more than I did. I took several video clips that I'll try to share later on. The clip included in this post is after the hour-long procession, and the two lines of cadets that emerge from the bigger group (excuse my lack of accurate terminology) are known as the Catafalque party; they guard the four corners of the actual memorial stone while all the wreaths are laid. Getting selected for this is, apparently, kind of a big deal. I'm friends with Rob (Air Force) and Ben (Army), the front two guys in the first line, and I was the official photographer/videographer for the day... (Not really, but I like to pretend I was.) I took lots of photos that I'll share later.

After the ceremony was over, Ben, David, Rob, Laura, and I went out to lunch with Rob's family. It was fun to be around an Australian family, to see Rob and Ben in their post-adrenaline rush, "it's over, that was so exciting" phase, and to eat some yummy mushroom risotto. By the time I got back to B&G around 4pm, I was absolutely exhausted. But it was a good day.

Ever since moving/living in England, I've been critical of "the military" because of the violent role it plays in trying to bring peace. And I still am critical. And so I find it odd and interesting - especially combined with my experiences on American military bases - that I've made and continue to make so many ADFA friends, most of them Christian guys. I can't decide if it's a good or bad thing that I'm having to be less vocal/think more critically about my questions about the military and Christianity's compatibility. It's probably a bit of both. At any rate, I never would have guessed this would be part of my experience in Australia. Another great benefit to spending time overseas: unexpected surprises in the types of people you meet!

Procrastination

2009-04-21T22:45:00.001-07:00

On Monday night, I went to a girls-only movie night/sleepover at my friend's house. We watched "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Juno," ate lots of chocolate, and talked about our complicated emotional lives and laughed hysterically at jokes I can't remember. The next day I went shopping with Amy and her younger sister who is visiting; we tried on shoes, visited the puppies at the pet store, and ate rasberry gelatto. Sometimes, I really enjoy being female.

I have heaps of work to finish before next Tuesday - like always, I have no idea where the holidays have gone. Today I've put in quite a few research hours and have 1) developed a painful ache in my right hand from gripping a mouse for too long, and 2) (re?)discovered that I really enjoy learning about international diplomacy. I'm working on a research paper that will examine and hopefully say something unique about America's use of "soft power" in the Cold War and the "war on terror." I have two additional essays to finish, as well. (And when I say finish, I mean begin.) There are a few books I really want to use, but they're already checked out. This frustrates me because I know there's someone in Canberra sitting at home with a cup of tea casually flipping through the three books I need - we could drink tea and flip through them together - but the librarians won't give me the person's name or phone number. Lesson learned: check out every book you might possibly need months before your assignment is due.

ANZAC Day is on Saturday. It's basically Australia's version of Memorial Day. Millions of people will be visiting Canberra, and I plan on going to the dawn service and the 10am parade. I have a friend in the army who got selected to do this important ceremonial thing... I don't know much about it, but it's a big deal and will be broadcasted live all over the country. I'll share more historic details and, hopefully, photos after the event. PS - Just got an email update from the State Department. Clinton issued the following statement about ANZAC Day. It's not that exciting, but I think it's cool because I'm here!

On April 25, the American people join Australians and New Zealanders across the globe in remembering and honoring those who have served with distinction in the defense forces of their countries over many decades.

ANZAC Day is a day of respect and remembrance, a day to mark a defining event for Australia and New Zealand - Gallipoli - where courage and loyalty demonstrated the intrepid character of two young nations, whose heroes now rest in peace in the soil of a friendly country.

The United States recognizes the profound importance of the ANZAC tradition to the history and cultural identity of both countries. Along with you, we pay our respects and express gratitude to your dedicated troops. Most importantly, along with you, we remember.

I'm proud of myself - tonight, everyone and their moms have gone out on the town. I exercised self control and am staying in to get some more work done. Go me. (Of course, I'm rewarding myself by eating my weight in brownies. Can't win them all.)

Homemade brownies!

2009-04-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Most of you are transitioning from winter into spring. Here in Canberra, we are making the summer-autumn transition. And apparently I am allergic to something(s) in the air because the last two mornings I've woken up with a really sore "ears, nose, and throat." This morning, my ears hurt so bad and my voice sounded so strange I decided I better call my mom for some medical advice. I felt slightly better after the conversation, as I knew I would. I'm currently trying to choke down some hot tea and honey.

I'm part of the "Third Culture Kids" group on Facebook and got a message from them this morning, which prompted me to click around the group, read some of the discussions. I forgot how much I have in common with other "TCK"s and how often someone will describe their experience or dilemma and after reading their description I'll have a "YES! EXACTLY." moment. Now I want to reread the book. But it's in Winfield, and I have hundreds of other books I need to read for the first time.

Thanks to the several people who responded to my cries for help in the kitchen! Last night (and this is totally unrelated to the advice you guys gave), I told Amy that I wished I had some brownie mix. Amy said, "Brownies are such an American thing. Americans always make the best brownies." I said, "I wonder if we could make them from scratch." Amy said, "I have cocoa!" I said, "I need to work on my essay." Five minutes later, we were looking up brownie recipes online, and an hour later, we were in ours pjs gobbling up the delicious homemade treats and laughing about how fat we were getting (ah, the joy of female friendship). I used my all-purpose flour and recently purchased baking powder. We didn't have white sugar, just the raw stuff, which concerned me, but as Amy said, "it can only go so wrong." And they turned out great, moist and chocolatey. The few we shared with others were well-received.

Easter

2009-04-12T18:17:00.001-07:00

I was feeling bummed about Easter on Saturday. Eighty percent of B&G had gone home, Canberra was quiet, and all I had to do was (is) read, research, and write. I didn't know where I was going to church because I haven't really picked one yet, and my Navigator friends (i.e. my current Christian community) were with their families. I was sitting around with some random people I'd met and it slowly dawned on me that I could celebrate Easter however I wanted: it didn't have to be family and Sunday dresses and 10am church services and... chocolate eggs?

After some brainstorming, I decided I would go buy lots of breakfast food and cook Easter breakfast for whoever wanted it. On the way to Civic, I listened to some good Jesus music and got excited about the unconventional, initially "lonely" Easter that was causing me to acutely remember what Christianity is about. I told a handful of people to come to the kitchen around 9am for breakfast, didn't see a few of the ones I planned on inviting, but figured whoever was there, was there, and it would be good. And it was!

Around 9am, my friend Raj from Bangladesh knocked on my door and we sleepily stumbled down to the kitchen where I made coffee and he boiled some milk for chai tea. We were the only two in the kitchen, and after I got out the bread, hot cross buns, eggs, sausage, strawberries, grapes, juice, milk, and pancake mix (just in case), he asked how many people I'd actually invited. My friend Nan, from Malaysia, showed up around 9:30am; she's Muslim and doesn't eat sausage but decided she wanted some pancakes. Raj then asked me if I wanted him to make his omelets, which I'd tried last week, and I said yes - they're so good, full of onions and chili and some other spice I can't pronounce. So it was the three of us for a long time, and Nan asked me about Easter and how my family celebrated and what was up with all the chocolate in the shops. I explained the basic Easter concept, the fact that it's really a secularized western holiday now but it's meant to celebrate the basis of the Christian religion, i.e. Jesus dying but not staying dead. And I told her I didn't understand the chocolate either. Both Raj and Nan expressed relief that there were westerners who still had serious traditions.

Nan then started talking about what Muslims understand about Jesus, how they believe he's in heaven and will come back to Earth at the end of time. Then Raj, also a Muslim, started talking about Quranic passages about Jesus and kind of making fun of Nan for not knowing what he was talking about, and they got into some debates which I was able to follow (yay!). Raj described a great service he attended at a mosque where there were over a thousand worshippers and at the end of the imam's sermon, all of them said "amen" in unison, and he still remembers the powerful feeling of belief and unity. Nan, such a sweet girl, said, "You can get the same feeling at a really great music concert," and then we talked about emotion and religion and "feeling" truth.

We finally got everything cooked and set out (way, way too much food, but it looked so nice) and were joined by a guy from India - can't remember his name - and my Australian friend Tash. Raj, who had been giving Nan a hard time about not knowing her Quran, hungrily devoured a sausage, and Nan was like "That's not halal, is it?" And he proceeded to explain why he ate whatever meat he wanted and why it was okay. I laughed and said that was convenient. We talked about Lent and Ramadan and how both are often used as excuses to "party hard" before and after the fasting/abstinence periods. Raj, Nan, and the Indian guy talked about ways of sacrificing meat; someone asked how we kill cows in America and whether I thought crushing their heads in machines was humane. I said I did not but that it didn't have religious significance for many people. Raj then asked why Christians don't do animal sacrifices or worry about different types of clean/unclean meat, and I thought, "Am I in some cliche 'explain the significance of Easter' movie?" Later the conversation moved to politics, as it invariably does, and I explained "the Bible Belt" concept, and the Indian guy randomly said "Yeah, I assumed you were Christian because you're from America."*

We sat around munching and talking until noon, and by then I'd had the most memorable Easter morning of my life. I listened to some favorite hymns on YouTube (that sounds horrible but I didn't have a church to go to at 2pm) and sang in my room, and it was pretty great.

*I'm sure some of you have read the recent Newsweek article "The End of Christian America," and some of you might have read "The coming evangelical collapse" in Christian Science Monitor (I haven't read the latter yet). If you're interested, here's a thought-provoking response, provocatively (?) titled "Don't Weep For the Demise of American Christianity." The author discusses reasons for the church's decline and whether or not the decline is a bad thing. There's a great quote from the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Alert Mohler, Jr.. It's worth a read and a ponder (as are the other two).

I hope everyone is having/had a wonderful Easter! I certainly did. (Though I did miss my family!)

Cooking anxiety

2009-04-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

A friend told me about "cooking anxiety" when I first moved into B&G. He said it was a condition from which many residents suffered as a result of having to cook in front of others. I laughed and thought my high self-esteem and lack of ambition as a cook would exclude me from feeling any kind of anxiety or embarrassment in our very communal kitchen. Wrong.

Over the past two months, I have become increasingly aware of my ineptitude in the kitchen. Not only am I am intimidated by the Asian kids and the Indian kids and the Malaysian kids (their dishes are so much more colorful and flavorful than white food like potatoes and pasta), but a lot of the Australian kids out cook me, too. And it's embarrassing! I often cook with Amy and Katie. (Amy doesn't believe in microwaves. I showed her how to cook a potato in the microwave yesterday. She was really excited. Those are the kind of culinary lessons I have to offer.) They make everything from scratch. Birthday cake: flour, water, egg, vanilla, whatever else it needs. Icing? Scratch. Want it to be pink? Food coloring. Okay, that's obvious, but what if you want to write "Happy Birthday" on the cake with the homemade icing? Put the icing in a plastic bag and use it as an... icing squeezing device. Pancakes? Bisquick? False. My friends laughed at the idea of Bisquick. Pancakes = flour, milk, eggs, salt, sugar, maybe some vanilla. I tried pancakes this past weekend with my own flour. Something was weird. I didn't know what. Amy tried a pancake and was like "You didn't use self-rising flour, did you?" Nope, I'd bought and used the non-self-rising kind. When do I use self-rising and when do I use the other stuff? And can I add something to the non-self-rising to make it self-rising? Because I don't want to have to buy another bag of flour. These are the questions I wish I could answer.

Based on my observations, Australian kids eat more fruits and veggies than American kids do. They cook with fresh veggies all the time. I don't know how to cook vegetables. I'm learning how to cook onions until they're really soft (even these seems to be a bit of an art). I add onions to a lot of things, and that's been working out for me. Anything beyond that, I'm lost. I've conducted several failed experiments with vegetable curry. I tried to add curried veggies to pasta last week - disaster. Absolutely disgusting. Probably why I've never seen or heard of curry pasta.

My last Au Bon Pain meal in Auburn I had Thai chicken and snow peas. That was the first time I'd had snow peas, and I've been obsessed ever since. I eat snow peas almost every day... Lately I've been marinading chicken, cooking it in a pan, and throwing the snow peas in for a couple minutes at the end. Yum. Katie recently informed me that raw snow peas make a good snack. And they do! Do Americans eat snow peas? I'd never heard of them until that fateful lunch at Au Bon Pain. Spinach is still my favorite leafy green vegetable, and yesterday I decided to throw a handful in with some leftover coconut rice and chicken. Yum. And nutritious.

I only have a big pot and a small frying pan at the moment, but I'm becoming more and more ambitious and thus am considering make some more purchases (even though I'll have to leave them behind in December, a fact that discourages me from buying anything, ever). My problem is lack of imagination. If anyone has any good recipes - or general cooking tips - they'd like to share, please email me! I'm particularly interested in vegetable-based dishes because I find vegetables intimidating.

I'm eating lots of fruit, which is good. I've always said I disliked peaches, but everyone eats peaches and I decided to try a fresh one (don't think I ever have before). I liked it; it was very juicy. I only wanted half of it, though. The next morning I cut up the remaining half and added it to my oatmeal, along with some raisins and crushed almonds. So much better than Quakers Instant Peaches & Cream Oatmeal. It was delightful.

Two nights ago I had dinner with my Bengali friends. They cooked, and I ate. It was incredibly spicy but delicious. There was non-sticky white rice and then a whole chicken cooked in some sort of spicy delicious sauce. And then a guy had made this yellow soup that was mild but flavorful; we poured that over the chicken and rice. My friend Nitol said, "Mary, I'm going to eat with my hand, but I have you a fork." And I said, "No! I've always wanted to eat with my hand," thinking it would be easy and fun. Wrong. It is hard! Harder than eating with chopsticks, in my opinion. Nitol and her friends had to correct me about five times before I even shaped my hand correctly, and even then I couldn't get the food into my mouth. I watched Nitol intently and realized she was putting four entire fingers in her mouth (very quickly) while I was trying to use just my finger tips. After about ten minutes, I picked up my fork. Nitol said: "I knew you'd need that." Thanks, Nitol.

Lots of B&Gers have gone home for the Easter holidays. It's been a quiet day. I'm trying to do eight solid hours of academic work every day for the next week. It's almost midnight on day one and I've done five hours of work. Great start. Since I'm going to be relatively isolated over the next two weeks, buried in books, I'll probably be updating my blog more frequently as a way to communicate with the outside world and, of course, to procrastinate.

Monday's 'to do' list

2009-04-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

1. Reschedule (again) my flights to Indonesia. I woke up this morning and realized that if I wanted to, I could be in Sumatra on Sunday morning. Thrilling.

2. Make a work/play plan for our two+ week holiday starting this Friday. I have an essay due next Tuesday and two essays due the last week of April. None of them have been properly started - awesome. I have an invitation to road trip to Sydney next weekend. Don't think that's a good idea. But I hate to pass up these opportunities! Decisions, decisions. If I finish most of the essays by week 2 of the break, I think I want to head to Melbourne.

3. Buy a new cell phone. I'm using a super old model that came with my worldwide travel SIM card (purchased for my South America trip). I was sprinting across a street a few weeks ago, trying to avoid being hit by cars, and the phone fell out of my pocket. It looks pretty bad, and it's terribly slow. Great conversation piece, though. Everyone likes making fun of it.

4. Find a better cell phone plan. Right now I'm buying credit as I need it. I've made quite a few international calls recently using a calling card, but I'm using my regular cell phone minutes even when I use the calling card, which ends up being relatively expensive.

5. Buy more winter clothes. It's getting cooler, and people say I'm going to freeze.

6. Buy a loud alarm clock.

7. Finish eating my grapes before they go bad. (Or, as the locals say, "before they go off.")

8. Schedule my Rotary presentations.

9. Study like mad for my south Asian history exam tomorrow. The material makes me feel insane. But it is definitely interesting.

10. Catch up on world news. Figure out this North Korea fiasco.

11. Write a narrative-based blog entry about the fun I've had during the past two weeks, the thoughts the fun has inspired, and the Australian university grading system, which scares every American study abroad student.

Caffeine, campfires

2009-03-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Being briefed by an army guy before our random adventure activities.

Me being led...

and our team after we made it through

the "mine field."

The meat of an Australian barbecue. (Gross. But good.)

Laura and Dave (across from me) and Ben

This past Wednesday, around 9pm, I enjoyed homemade cheesecake and a homemade latte at someone's house. The caffeine kept me awake well past 2am, and I've been basically nocturnal ever since. It's about 1:30am right now, and after typing up a quick post, I'm going to eat some toast and peanut butter and hopefully fall asleep.

On Friday night, I enjoyed dinner at Nando's, a Portuguese chicken restaurant that we liked in England, and hung out with some people from South Africa. We watched a Best of Chris Rock DVD. (The fun-ness of this experience will be more apparent to those familiar with Chris Rock, an American comedian.) During a bit when Chris Rock was joking about racism in America, my friend made a joke about me being from Alabama and one of his friends quickly looked up at me and in a very meaningful, incredulous tone asked, "You're from Alabama?" We laughed. It was fun.

I didn't sleep much Friday night, and yesterday I went to an all-day event with a Christian group called Navigators. I was exhausted most of the day but still really enjoyed myself. We were at Belconnen Baptist Church in the morning, and after lunch (and Krispy Kreme donuts!), we drove to Cotter Reserve, a sort of national park about twenty minutes from the center of Canberra. It's a beautiful, green, spacious place. I want to go back with a camera. Lots of families around, lots of camp grounds. We had some random "bonding" activities that afternoon, including me being blindfolded and led through a "mine field," set up through a stretch of forest and river, by army guys... you can't make this stuff up. (The Australian Defense Force Academy is in Canberra, and I've met quite a few "ADFA guys" as they're affectionately known. It's weird being around what are essentially Australia's equivalent of West Point students.)

We had a great barbecue for dinner and later reveled in the joy of guitar-playing and marshmellow-eating around a campfire (see picture below). The stars were absolutely amazing... only second to a sky I saw in the middle of No Where, Bolivia. I found the Southern Cross for the first time and saw a shooting star. After we drove back to Canberra, I hung out at a friend's apartment, collapsed in bed around 1am, and slept past noon today. It's been a good weekend.

Baby goat sausages

2009-03-24T23:00:00.001-07:00

I just completed and submitted an assignment that's not due for another thirty hours. I'm shocked. Of course, I'm still overwhelmingly behind with some of my reading... but I hope to fix that this weekend.

Last Friday, I sacrificed a graded assignment so that I could attend a Persian New Year celebration and an unrelated lecture on Pakistan and Afghanistan. I turned my assignment in two days late, which means 4% will automatically be deducted from the final mark. The trade off was worth it, in my opinion. (This is why if I'm ever a professor, I will deduct 10% for each late day. No mercy on students like myself.)

The Persian (or Iranian) New Year is called Nowruz and is actually a Zoroastrian holiday. (Zoroastrianism was the region's main religion before the spread of Islam.) A woman played several traditional songs on the santur, a stringed instrument that looks/is played like this:

Twas very beautiful and, to me, unique. We started to stand up and proceed to our buffet lunch, but a guy asked if he could sing a traditional song in Persian and everyone was delighted. That was cool, too. Then we enjoyed lunch in the Centre of Arabic and Islamic Studies courtyard - the food was SO good. I can't remember what any of the dishes were called, but they were delicious. It was a small gathering and I didn't know anyone there, but I ended up meeting a guy from my South Asian history class, and we had a good conversation. Awesome.

Then I went to a lecture called "Afghanistan: From Great Game to Grand Bargain." Barnett R. Rubin was the speaker... he's an American political scientist, currently (primarily) employed by NYU, an expert on Afghanistan, published in Foreign Affairs several times, working with some Obama people on new Afghanistan policy, etc. I found the lecture very informative and thought-provoking, though I'm not sure if another expert would have. I won't bore you with what I learned because I'll probably ramble about Israel, Palestine, and Iran some time in the near future.

Three hours later, I went to a lecture by Antony Loewenwtein entitled "Israel-Palestine in the Obama Age: where to from here?" It was great if controversial. Antony L. is a young, Sydney-based, Jewish-Australian, fairly well-known journalist and author who focuses on the Middle East. I liked his energy and style and agreed with at least 80% of what he said about the controversial topic. Without going into much detail, he thinks Israel is undemocratic in its discrimination against non-Jewish Israelis, Israel's actions against Palestine are as terrorist in nature as Hamas' actions against Israel, it's dangerous and disturbing (my words) that there is so little public debate about Israel in the USA and the west, and finally, he thinks that Obama probably won't change the situation because it is politically unacceptable to criticize Israel.

He discussed the recent event of Charles W. Freeman, Jr. being forced to withdraw from consideration as chairman of the National Intelligence Council because of accusations (made by a Jewish lobby) that he was too critical of Israel. Antony L. argued that allowing this to happen was Obama's first demonstration that he's not really going to change anything. (Relevant articles if you didn't hear about this and/or are interested: NYtimes article; Freeman's withdrawal statement in the Wall Street Journal.)

Antony L. also spent some time talking about himself as a Jew and how Jewish Israelis and the Jewish diaspora have a special responsibility to speak out against questionable Israeli policies and actions in order to show non-Jews that it's not anti semitic and it's important to criticize the Israeli state.

I just ran across this blog entry: A Week of Speeches. Apparently, its author lives in Canberra and went to the Khatami and Loewenwtein lectures (plus another one), too. Read the blog; it's good.

I'm not going to comment on the Khatami lecture right now, but I will later. (It was a fascinating experience. The blog above makes good general comments about the actual lecture.)

I understand not everyone is interested in these things :), and I appreciate your patience as I share and process my thoughts!

On a completely unrelated note, I volunteered with some Rotary members this weekend. The following is the event's write-up and photo published in our club bulletin.

BBQ Achieved: Sanitorium Triathalon

Fred F, Len G, Peter K, Jenny W, and Mary Beth cooked some 550 vegetarian sausages for the young athletes and their families on Sunday. After a very slow start, the BBQ team was rushed off their feet catering for the crow. The sausages were donated by Weetbix. At Weetbix's request, we charged $1 for the sausages and after paying for the bread and onions, eventually made a profit of $439.00. The stand next to ours had some farm animals. At a quiet point in the morning, Mary Beth checked out the possibility of getting some meat for our next barbecue.

Mmmm. Baby goat.

Iran, insomnia, & images

2009-03-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

[New Khatami story on theage.com.au.]

It's almost 1am, I can't sleep, and so I'm up perusing nytimes.com.

First of all, check out all the interesting lectures happening today at the ANU. I want to go to the politics, Fiji, Palestine, and black holes ones.

Second of all, I'm registered to attend a public lecture by Dr Seyed Mohammad Khatami, Iran's former president and (until today) a reform candidate in this year's upcoming election. I'M SO EXCITED (to hear him speak and for the elections).

I signed up for the lecture yesterday, and a few minutes ago I ran across an article about Khatami on nytimes.com. Turns out that he withdrew from the presidential race today in order to support another reform candidate. I hope to hear more about his decision next week when he's in Canberra. I've read a book on Iranian history (it was long, contained lots of Persian, and I'm proud) and written a short paper on the coercive (or not) means used to get the Assembly of Experts to legislate Iran into a theocracy after the 1979 revolution. I don't know or remember much, but I know enough to be interested. I'm happy I'll be taking a full Iranian history course next semester.

Other news: I will not be traveling around Sumatra alone in April. Here are some photos from the past few weeks!

Adorable duck family. The dad is alert and protective.

Our backyard in Tuross Head, where I went for the beach retreat.

I love beach towns that also have green and mountains!

This is my classic beach retreat pose.
You're welcome, Dan.

Michelle looking beautiful, me approaching with seaweed.

Ah, the joy of being alive.

The 2009 B&G Commencement cocktail party.
Red and black are our colors, the Redback spider is our mascot. Shudder.

We have our own house jazz band! They're not bad.
(Also: platter of fried fish that I pursued soon after this photo was taken.)

Katie Peterson on the left, stranger in the middle,
Manasvee Vinijchaipattanakit on the right.
(Yes, that's her real name. Everyone calls her M.)

Me and Nitol.

Careless comments on "culture"

2009-03-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

This post is long and doesn't have a specific point or conclusion. I'm just thinking out loud.

I've decided that my experiences with cultures outside my own (however you might define my culture) are actually quite limited. Relative to most others my age, yes, I've traveled a lot and have developed "world citizen" skills and language. But virtually all of my international experiences have been with my family or with friends from very similar backgrounds. I only lived overseas within an American military subculture, so I've been around other Americans, studying in American schools, buying lots of American goods. Such a fluffy American - or at least western - cushion "protected" me somewhat from everything not American or western.

I'm not as cushioned in Australia because I'm living on my own, among the locals, and I'm not part of any American subculture. But, while I won't suggest America and Australia are "mostly the same," I will argue that America and Australia (and England) are quite similar in the grand scheme of things. There are cross-cultural misunderstandings and unique senses of humor and political, racial, religious frameworks that don't have an equivalent in the other countries... But, we're all considered "white" (I'm speaking in majorities and generalities), we're European or from European descent, we're all wealthy and consumer-driven, we're political allies... And America and Australia even share (different versions of) an "independent" spirit as used-to-be-English-colonies.

So, Australians are more like me than are Indonesians. Or Sudanese. Or white South Africans.

There are lots of Asians here. I have experience with Japanese culture having lived in Japan. But I'm learning my limited experiences didn't really teach me or assimilate me into Asian culture. Since arriving in Australia, I've noticed that some fairly common Asian "tendencies" annoy me... mannerisms, voice inflections, social habits and interactions. Some of these things really annoy me. And that is not "PC." I'm not okay with it. I, Mary Beth Brown, love different cultures! And I value the ability and willingness to step outside one's own shoes and walk in someone else's. So why do I find myself thinking: "AGH! These Asian girls are so obnoxious! Please shut up." And why do I - and others from American-European backgrounds - notice (at best) or judge (at worse) Asians who form "cliques"? (Mean Girls reference: "the cool Asians.") Is it so different from me hanging out with mostly Australians? If I moved to China, wouldn't I be excited to find other Americans and to be able to speak English?

No matter how much I want to be a citizen of the world (not in biblical terms), I will always operate out of my Americaness or westernness. I will always feel like I have to apologize for my country, or defend my country, or deny my country... or apologize for, defend, deny western culture. I hate it, but sometimes Asians - just because of their normal social behavior - will annoy me. Just because they don't conform to my idea of normal social behavior.

(I'm making huge generalizations.)

I think the fact that Asian social behavior is not that unusual makes it potentially more annoying than more obvious differences. Obvious differences are interesting and cool. Like people who don't wear clothes. Or who show up to dinner an hour after the agreed upon time (because that's the social norm). More subtle things like using high pitched "cutesy" voices or hiding your mouth with your hand when you smile are not interesting and cool. Maybe it's just me.

I really hate kissing on the cheek to say hello or goodbye. Unfortunately, I think it might be the norm in some Australian circles. It makes me really uncomfortable and nervous. I never know what side to offer or what to do with my lips. I'm afraid I make a really loud kissing sound that isn't quite right.

I'm trying to go to Sumatra next month but don't have anyone to travel with. I met some Indonesians last week and asked if I could travel successfully in Sumatra alone and they both said, "No, I don't think so. You should have a friend with you... it'd be best if they spoke Indonesian." I've been perusing Lonely Planet and Couch Surfing, looking for travelers who will be in Sumatra during April. I posted on LP's Indonesia forum. Click here to read my question and see the various responses. I find them very interesting; most are encouraging me to disregard the Indonesians' advice about me traveling solo. Several comically (offensively?) describe conversations they've had with Indonesians regarding solo (especially female) travel.

If you were born in the 80s or 90s, you should read "Stuff White People Like" by Christian Lander if you haven't already. If you're a parent of someone born in the 80s or 90s, you would also enjoy it. If you fit into another category but are interested in 21st century western culture, you should read it, too. The book is basically hundreds of satirical descriptions of things that "all white people like," why they like them, and how they think liking these things makes them unique, special, or whatever. There's lots of advice for people who aren't white, explaining how to exploit the "stuff white people like" in order to get white people's business, make white friends, etc. It's hilarious and "so true." But after awhile, if you're like me and always, eventually, take everything too seriously, you start feeling offended. Because Landers is making the point that eating organic food, liking coffee, wanting to be black, using Moleskin notebooks, taking a year off, not majoring in business, adopting kids from around the world, etc. does not make you unique. At all. I could continue to comment on the book, but in the end... it's funny, insightful, and I'm sure Christian Lander likes all this stuff, too, so I try not to feel too cliche.

During dinner last night (I cooked chicken, snow peas, and hand-mashed potatoes!), an Indian guy introduced himself, and after obligatory introductory comments we started talking about India. I have lots of questions since I'm taking a history course on south Asia, and he loves India so much, he was happy to listen and help explain things. (Also: he offered to show me around his country whenever I visit in the future, and he wasn't offended when I asked him if he was a Muslim. He's Hindu.) His friend joined us, also from India, but apparently this guy hates the place. Really hates it. It turns out the second guy left India when he was four and has lived in Australia since. He returns for a couple of months every year, and he says this has allowed him to see all the corruption and other negative aspects of India that he "[hasn't] seen in Australia." He mentioned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and some story about his family fighting over his grandfather's inheritance (which I suggested was a universal problem). The first guy was pretty angry with the second's rantings, and I told the first guy I trusted his opinion more than the second guy's. Would the second guy hate India so much if he hadn't been living in Australia all these years?

Photos and less philsophizing soon.

From Degree, a popular ANU coffee shop

2009-03-05T14:22:00.000-08:00

Friday! It's becoming my favorite day here in Canberra. Thursdays were my favorites in Auburn - Friday right around the corner, every one tends to be happy, usually a cheap evening meal full of laughter and general merriment, house church at 7pm followed by The Office at Zack and Dan's, and, depending on my energy level and annoying academic deadlines for various assignments, continued fun into the wee hours of the night.

Canberra Fridays aren't as fun. But, I don't have class, I treat myself to breakfast and expensive coffee, I Skype with people, I get some work done, I read, and at night there are social events (hopefully)... Now that I think about it, Canberra Fridays don't sound special at all. Maybe I'm just in a good mood this morning. (Note: If you have Skype and would like to chat, join me for "Skype Happy Hour," my Friday mornings, or your Thursday afternoons, 3-6pmish, if you're in the eastern/central time zones.)

Last week, I met my host club president and accompanied him to my first Belconnen Rotary meeting. It wasn't a conventional meeting as we first went to a local school for disabled children to see some of the playground equipment Belconnen Rotary had helped purchase. Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious Chinese meal and I was informally introduced to many members of the club. Belconnen is hosting quite a few students at the moment. There's another Ambassadorial Scholar who is finishing up her scholarship term this semester (but she's staying in Australia afterwards), an exchange student - high school age - from Sweden who arrived last July and is here for several more months, two local high school students who recently came back from Turkey and Austria exchanges, and me, the newbie.

This week, I attended their normal meeting, held at Belconnen Soccer Club. I got to talk with one or two members in more depth and briefly but formally introduced myself to the entire club before enjoying dinner. After routine business, the exchange student from Austria gave a presentation about her year abroad - her photos made me miss Europe! Next week, Lissa, an Ambassadorial Scholar from Florida (hosted by a different club in Canberra), is giving her presentation. It will be good to see what she says and how she says it as I will begin giving my presentations soon.

Lissa, Aidin (another scholar from Sweden), and I attended an Abba concert on Tuesday night with Lissa's host club. It was a surreal experience to say the least. Obviously, it wasn't the original Abba group but rather Abba "recreated." Honestly, I like the Broadway/West End/Hollywood Abba soundtracks much better than "Abbamania." Still, it was at least fun in a "how did I end up here" way. I managed to enjoy "Mamma Mia," "The Winner Takes It All" (a good song, in my opinion, if you leave out the cheesy drums and electric), and of course "Dancing Queen." See the (illegally recorded) video clip below.

I've been exploring Aussie coffee lingo since my first couple of hours on the ground in Sydney. I still haven't figured it out, though. I order flat whites, which apparently are lattes without froth. Except mine always have froth - an amateur barista problem, perhaps. But there's cost, as well. In some places, lattes and flat whites are the same price, but in others, flat whites are up to sixty cents cheaper. Both drinks = espresso + steamed milk. I don't get it. Another perplexity: you can't buy plain, filter-made coffee in cafes, book stores, etc. Your only option is espresso-based drinks. I had just trained myself to order plain coffee in the States, and now I'm quickly succumbing to my old espresso addiction. I'm trying to learn to drink a cup of lightly caffeinated tea in the morning and then be done with the whole hot beverage business, but it isn't the same. I like coffee at night. I miss Auburn's coffee shops, many of which stay open super late. Here, they stay open till 7pm, tops.

Monday is Canberra Day, so we have a three day weekend. I'm going to Tuross Heads (crappy website), a beach town south of Sydney (map), with a Christian group from the ANU.

I'm about to head to town to buy some sunscreen and a beach towel. Enjoy your weekends!

Snow and more sunburn

2009-03-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

I've been lucky/blessed in that, so far, I haven't really been homesick, but I have to admit, I wish I was in Auburn right now (or at least I wish I was there twelve hours ago). According to Facebook photos, the ground was white and there was actual falling snow and large snow men and real snowball fights and lots of red, wet, chapped, but happy faces. The last time it snowed in Auburn I was at work and by the time I got off, it had stopped and most of it had melted and everyone had gone inside.

I got sunburned again yesterday after being outside for about ten minutes. Again, not a bad burn, but my shower this morning wasn't pleasant. Also, I've been bitten, multiple times, by some sort of blood-sucking insect. I'm not sure when - hopefully not while I was sleeping - but during my first lecture this morning I noticed certain toes and parts of my legs were itching, and upon further inspection I found huge mosquito bite-like things... I'm allergic or at least really sensitive to bites like that, so my toes and the bites on my legs are pretty red and swollen. It is indeed attractive. (I know I keep commenting on insect bites, but I'm convinced it's a relevant topic as I seem to attract many more insects on this continent than I do in America.)

My friend Amy and I wanted to go a fruit and veggie market yesterday afternoon, but the free B&G bus trip filled up before we got there. So we decided to be independent and take a bus. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong bus and ended up in Woden instead of Fyshwick. But we still managed to find a big shopping center, and we got some cheaper groceries (cheaper than the ones in the shopping center within walking distance of ANU). And I treated myself to a Magnum Almond ice cream bar, England's finest frozen treat in my opinion. Mmmm.

Future things to come: my first evening with the Belconnen Rotary Club (my second will be this Wednesday); a comparative look at "race" issues in Australia and America; and a FREE ticket to an Abba concert tomorrow night with some fellow Ambassadorial scholars!

Real life in the world that is small after all

2009-02-27T15:52:00.001-08:00

This past week real life began in the form of lectures, tutorials, and lots and lots of reading. Australia's tertiary education system differs a bit from America's - I guess it's more like England's, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Anyway, I'm taking ANU's maximum load - four courses, six units each, equaling a total of twenty four units. Roughly, Auburn says that six ANU units = three AU credit hours, which means I'm taking Auburn's minimum load. Tricky.

On Mondays I have a two hour Contemporary Australian Writing lecture and then a one hour tutorial. From what I can tell, a lecture is when the professor (lecturer) lectures; there is no student participation of any kind unless the lecturer asks for questions, but I don't think that happens often. Tutorials are for student interaction, discussion, question-asking and answering, etc. Some lectures are massive, and tutorials - or "tutes" - provide a smaller group where everyone has a chance to participate. On Tuesdays I have a one hour Religion and Politics in South Asia lecture, followed by a two hour History of the Cold War lecture, followed by a one hour Cold War tutorial. On Wednesdays I just have a two hour Indigenous Australian History lecture, on Thursdays another one hour South Asia lecture, followed by a one hour South Asia tute, followed by my Indigenous Australian tute, and on Fridays I am free!

Not really, though. I have lots and lots to read for my tutorials, and I have four major research essays to complete by the end of April. For most courses, the essay is the first (and next to last) "real" assignment I have. Also, we have a two week break in April, during which I am going to Indonesia or Malaysia (plans are still in the air!) , and all my essays are due during or after this break. So - I need to have them all done before I leave. I've never finished ONE essay before its due date; forget about four. It should be interesting.

On Tuesday, my friend Amy and I were grocery shopping in Civic (the city centre), and while we were trying to decide what cookies (biscuits) to buy, a guy approached me and asked if I was Australian. I said I was not, I was American, and he said he was, too. He asked where I was from, and I said I was from Alabama. He said, "Really? I was born there!" Me: "No way! What part?" Him: "Winfield." And then of course I freak out because 1) that's where I'm from, 2) no one is ever from there, 3) Winfield is tiny, and 4) the chances of running into someone who was born in Winfield... in Canberra, Australia... in a random aisle in a random supermarket... is even tinier than the town itself. His dad was a doctor at the hospital in the late seventies - their last name is Sani in case anyone remembers them - and later they moved to California. Meeting him was fun.

There's a hole (or holes? I'm not sure.) in the ozone layer over this part of the world, so the UV rays are alot stronger. Apparently there's a huge skin cancer awareness campaign that tries to keep Australians informed and wearing sun screen. Yesterday morning I spent a few hours on the campus lawn talking to some friends on Skype and even though I was in the shade at least half the time, I managed to get burned on my shoulders and on the insides of my knees (sitting Indian-style). It's not that bad but bad enough to make me put 40SPF sunscreen on my shopping list.

First week photos

2009-02-20T19:36:00.000-08:00

First night in Canberra: my sarong (and blanket); my only friend (and pillow), Honeysuckle; and dinner, Jale's Instant Noodles (beef-flavored, fork included).

Overlooking some of Canberra's suburbs

An elevated view of Lake Griffin and Parliament

Pauline from France and me: our first cooked meal since arriving. Yay for quiche!

Ciyang from China, me, and Pauline: standing in front of Parliament (the white building you see is the old Parliament building; we're facing the new one)

The current Australian Parliament building

B&G Multicultural Night: (left to right) Nitol from Bangladesh and Jay from Malaysia

(Left to right): Amy, me, Katie, and Em

Sometime after midnight, Amy and Katie were excited to point out the first native possum I've seen in the wild. Very cute and not at all bothered by bright flashes or high-pitched "LOOK!"s.

For those of you interested in my living situation: the sink in my room.

Half of my room.

The other half.

Casino Night.

About thirty minutes after this photo was taken, this girl stole my money... As in, when I wasn't looking, she grabbed my pile of money and walked away. To be fair, it was fake money. Still, I was unable to bid for anything at the auction, and I had to watch her win a very nice B&G hoodie, partially paid for with MY cash. I was not happy.

Best birthday ever

2009-02-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

As my parents have pointed out, I have an impressive birthday resume. I turned thirteen in Beijing where I walked the Great Wall, I celebrated my sweet sixteen in Venice, and I was in Berlin with my new German friends when I turned eighteen. And while all of those were spectacular, I think that so far my favorite birthday was ("is," really, as it's still the seventeenth in Alabama) my twenty-first.

The day started with a 6am fire alarm drill that initially I thought was a car alarm. Waking up early was fine, though, because at seven some B&Gers and I worked up a sweat on a short but strenuous Black Mountain hike. Absolutely beautiful, especially at the top where we enjoyed a light picnic breakfast and a panoramic view of Canberra and the surrounding mountains. And on the way up, I saw three wild kangaroos! One was still a baby - so fuzzy and CUTE - and must've just recently been able to leave mom's pouch. I spent the rest of the morning exploring campus: my best finds included cheap(er) coffee place and a used bookstore where I bought a $3 copy of "Wild Cat Falling" by Mudrooroo, the first novel by any writer of Aboriginal blood to be published in Australia. At noon, I met three girls on campus, and we walked into town and enjoyed fantastic modern/UK Japanese food at Wagamama's (courtesy of Mom and Dad - thanks!). The rest of the afternoon I did some shopping, found a cheap household goods store, received several phone calls and texts from home, and at six PM headed to my first Australian bush dance.

And it was fan-TASTIC. Two friends and I shared a table with some Indian students and enjoyed delicious food and drinks before the actual dancing. We had a live "fiddle" band... I guess it was kind of like old school blue grass music - I obviously loved it. And the lead fiddle player invited us onto the dance floor to learn traditional bush dances. (There were probably 300 international students at the event, so technically we were supposed to take turns, but I dance 7 of the 8 dances. So. much. fun.) Bush dancing is quite like "square dancing," not that I have lots of experience square dancing, but it's not too difficult and there's lots of opportunity for bouncing and jumping and swinging and clapping. Because many dances were progressive and had us changing partners, by the end of the night I'll bet I'd danced with guys from at least twenty countries. (Observation: Generally, Middle Eastern and Indian guys dance surprisingly well/confidently. Guys from the Far East were much more awkward. I guess there's more dancing in India than in China.) By nine-thirty, many of us were sweating profusely but didn't want to stop. Afterwards, the lead fiddle dude came up to me and complimented me on my bush dancing skills (it's in my Alabama blood) and I asked if there was some sort of organization that bush danced regularly... and there is! Of course I'd probably be the only one under forty there, but I might check it out anyway.

Around ten, all the B&Gers went back to B&G, and we caught the tail end of the "Anything But Clothes" party. No, it was not encouraging public nudity, but rather everyone wore outfits made out of newspaper, cloth shopping bags, cardboard, and other recyclables. After that, we went dancing in town, where I worked up another sweat, and I collapsed in bed a few hours later, exhausted but thoroughly content. My legs are so sore from the hike and all the dancing, and I think I'll need a nap today.

Many thanks for all the birthday wishes :).

White bread and sausage

2009-02-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

I'm finishing up day five of my Australia adventure, but it feels like I've been here for months. Not in a good way - but not in a horrible way, either. What struck me time and time again while I was traveling, and what continues to strike me as I settle in, is how EASY it is to move across the world. It's shockingly easy, so easy that often I work myself into a near panic, wondering what documentation or whatever I've overlooked. But my visa's good until next March, I've got great Australian health insurance until next February (yay socialism!), my first semester's tuition bill is paid, I have a cell phone, a not-entirely-empty bank account, a bed, desk, lamp, sink, and clothes for (almost) any weather. And a week ago I was living in Winfield, Alabama. It's just weird.

Yesterday the international office took new students on a bus tour of Canberra. I met Pauline, from France, Cilang from China, and Hani from Syria as we drove through Canberra's numerous suburbs, passing various foreign embassies (surprising enough, America's is the largest) and stopping at the Australian parliament and a fresh foods market called Fyshwicks. I learned alot about the Australian government during the parliament tour. Random facts: voting is compulsory, and on the ballot voters have to rank all candidates preferentially - if their number one choice does not get a minimum percentage of the overall vote, their second choice is counted. So, if I voted for someone like Nader, but he only got 2%, my vote would then go to my second choice, who might have gotten 48% of the vote. I like this. The market was fantastic (Mom, you would love it). Fresh fruit, veggies, meats, and bread at really good prices. Pauline, Cilang, and I stopped and had massive quiches for lunch, only $5 each (whenever I use $, I mean Australian dollars, unless otherwise noted).

Today is the beginning of "O-Week" or orientation week... insanity. There are general ANU events planned, and then my hall, Burton & Garran, has its own separate program. Last night was the newcomers launch. I didn't have fun and left early - meeting new people can be very exhausting and last night I just lost the will to go on! Tonight is "Drag and Diva Night." Guys dress as girls, and girls dress as divas. Idk. I probably won't be sharing photos. (I do, however, have some good ones of parliament! I'll add them later.)

It's still chilly and overcast. Also, invisible insects are always biting me. If I sit down - on the ground, on a bench, on the steps - ants are crawling on and biting me (not hundreds but six or seven). Even when I'm walking, I'll feel sudden and random stings... kinda like when you swim in the ocean and you look around for a jelly fish or a toxic piece of seaweed but nothing's there. Maybe nature knows I'm foreign.

Australians are really into barbeques. An Australian barbecue seems to = huge link sausages on white bread doctored with ketchup or barbecue sauce. It sounds kinda gross, but I think it's quite good. But messy. And difficult to eat while trying to explain why I have two names and "no, it's not okay if you call me Mary." (Seriously, I had this problem in England. "Mary Beth" is only three syllables. The same as "Stephanie." Again, Idk.)

Two words: sensory overload

2009-02-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

So I'm here. In Canberra, Australia.

During my 40+ hours of flights, layovers, and bus rides, I was keeping a mental list of interesting observations and personal reflections to share with you, my readers, but being here 28ish hours has erased that particular mental list. I'm currently in super hyper survive-and-also-make-friends mode, which makes me feel a little insane. I won't try to write a coherent update right now, as I'm in an internet cafe, surrounded by various household items I just purchased (including a cheese knife - this amuses me greatly for some reason), and in great need of a toilet because I'm overhydrating myself.

Some brief details:
1) It is chilly here, not hot, and raining. Apparently, another heat wave is predicted to return this weekend, and I will no doubt be bright red on Monday.

2) I've met quite a few people and, relative to the <2 days I've been here, I've befriended Michelle from China, Simone from Italy, and Laura from Iran. I met the first two in different places, they met each other because of me (bringing people together, it's what I do), and Laura sat next to us during lunch today at international orientation. (There was curry. I was so happy.)

3) I bought some groceries yesterday but then realized I didn't have any dishes. I was so hungry last night, I was about to cry. (Really.) I was preparing to eat an instant noodle meal (beef-flavored) provided by Burton & Garran Hall (where I live) with my fingers - using the hot water from the bathroom faucet - when I realized it came with a plastic fork. I was so happy, I DID cry (a little). It tasted so good. Also, I was without sheets and a pillow last night. It was very cold and I only had a thin sarong and jacket as blanket and pillow. I woke up several times, feeling very sorry for myself.

But today has been a good day. I now have bedding and a few bowls and spoons to accompany my Cheerios and milk. I also have a working mobile/cell phone! I will be sharing the number with you guys next time. All incoming calls are free and international texts are only $0.35AUD!

Departure, take two

2009-02-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

I got a book for Christmas called "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term Travel" by Rolf Potts, and it's full of bite-sized pieces of travel wisdom that inspire me and ignite my imagination. There's one in particular that came to mind a few weeks ago, something about vagabonding (and/or "traveling") being a mindset that you have wherever you are: you travel, looking for adventure, and you stay at home and look for adventure in the "ordinary," too.

As I was driving back from Auburn after my Indonesia plans fell through, I realized how beautiful the hills and trees were along 280. I had a similar experience driving from Winfield towards Florence. I realized that if I hadn't grown up here and was instead a foreign citizen visiting Alabama I would find the scenery unique, quiet, refreshing, and definitely worth digging out my digital camera. If I was a foreign citizen visiting Alabama I would delight in little local cafes like City Cafe in Tuscombia and Charles' in Fayette where everyone knows everybody and the waitresses are so Southern and so friendly and a cup of coffee costs less than a dollar and a cheese omelette is scrambled eggs with a Singles slice melted on top. I would go out of my way to hear the country bands in Auburn's bars, to visit Dothan's annual Peanut Festival, to that one molasses-making festival in a town with an Native American name I can't pronounce or spell. (Of course Mule Day has always been a favorite.)

I managed to stay in my "adventure in the ordinary" mindset for about a week before I started taking things for granted and getting bored again. But mindsets are kind of like muscles, and I think when I come back for my last semester in Auburn I'll be able to "work out" this particular muscle, knowing that I will soon be bidding a final farewell to Auburn (I think).

Headed down to Auburn this afternoon. I'll be back in Winfield this weekend, and then I fly out of Atlanta on Monday morning. For real this time! I've been planning this year for almost TWO years and am ready to see it happen!

A new president

2009-01-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to train myself not to emote whilst blogging. I always emote, so it's difficult!

The new presidency is a big deal, especially for Americans my age. I'm both excited and wary. I'm confident Obama has the intelligence and resources to implement real, good change and to empower the many hopeful individuals in America and around the world, and I hope that in four years honest critics will be able to say that his leadership and policies were highly successful.

For many reasons (most of them unrelated to politics), it's a thrilling time to be alive and hardly twenty years old!

Bushes and trees

2009-01-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

The downstairs TV is on, and I'm listening to a crowd cheer for (scream at) Obama. Apparently there is an "Obama Express" that's taking the the family to DC. I'm very disillusioned with politics and religion today, and so my reaction to the Obama Express and the screaming crowds is: "Why all the fuss?"

Thursday night, I watched Bush deliver his farewell address. I'm so used to hearing and watching Bush speak, and one of the reasons I'm anticipating this next presidential term is that I want to hear and watch someone else. It'll be nice to just have a little change (no pun intended, I promise). I was twelve when we elected Bush, and I "grew up" politically during his two terms. I wonder if my political convictions would be different if I'd grown up during Reagan or Clinton. And I wonder how Obama's presidency is going to affect 11-and 12-year old Americans who are growing up politically right now.

Several hours before Bush's address, I ran across a part of Katie Couric's interview with Governor Palin that is particularly relevant during the current Israel/Hamas conflict. Couric asks, "What happens if the goal of democracy, Governor Palin, doesn't produce the desired outcome? For example, in Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections, and Hamas won." During his address, Bush made a statement that speaks to this issue about democracy and, in my opinion, the state of Gaza. He said: "When people live in freedom, they do not willingly chose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror. When people have hope in the future, they will not cede their lives to violence and extremism."

I'm almost finished with Thomas Freidman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and I recommend it if you're at all interested in geopolitics, the environment, and American economic growth during the next several decades. Freidman argues that we're entering a new era: the "Energy-Climate Era" and that we face serious problems as as our (the world's) population is growing, the middle class is expanding and consuming, and our planet is heating up from all the greenhouse gases. I don't always agree with some of his larger premises, and after a quick Google search I discovered more than a handful of critics of the author's "bombastic" statements (a lot these critics are Birkenstock-wearing hippie intellectuals - I can say that because I wear Birkenstocks - rather than climate change critics). Still, if you're like me and far from being an expert, there's a lot to learn from the book. Some highlights that come to mind:

1) "Global warming" should be called "global weirding." Though it's true that CO2 and other greenhouse gases are being trapped in the atmosphere, creating a blanket around the earth and causing it to heat up, the effects of this increased temperature are not always melting glaciers and disappearing winters. During the past week, I've heard three people cite this recent cold spell as proof against "global warming." One state or country's temperature is not indicative of the entire planet's temperature. As our planet's temperature changes, things will get weirder, not necessarily warmer. Some places will have droughts, some places will have torrential rain, some will have colder winters, others will see less and less snow.

2) Freidman discusses the fact that climate change is a "political issue" in the United States but that scientists have the (mostly) objective information and numbers that reveal climate change to be real and humans to be largely responsible. I still haven't figured out why people don't trust science and/or think scientists have some sort of political or social agenda. I suppose it has to do with the culture war, science versus God, etc. And the angry atheists in their lab coats - who do have social agendas - don't help.

But climate change is not evolution part II. I find it absurd that the most climate change criticism comes from a demographic - conservative Americans - whose majority believes in a God who created a perfect earth, gave it to humans, and then gave them a second chance when they screwed it up... and the stereotypical defender of climate change is the New Age hippie or the atheist scientist who believes the mountains and rivers and valleys can be explained by cold hard math. It doesn't make sense to me. So I believe the scientists because I don't have proof that they are lying or that they have motivation to lie (and it makes sense that oil, etc. is dirty because it smells bad, kills things when it spills in oceans, and creates horrible gray skylines in industrial cities... and coal gives people black lung). And because I love planet earth. To borrow from my favorite hymn:

Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder,

Consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made...

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.

When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur

And see the brook, the feel the gentle breeze,

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee...

I really hope the American church will adopt an ethic of conservation over the next decade because it makes so much sense to conserve what the church believes God has given them. Pro-life can apply to unborn babies and trees, both good and worth saving. Yay! (No more soap boxes.)

3) "Manage the unavoidable, avoid the unmanageable" is Freidman's catchy phrase about the importance of controlling and preparing for the effects of damage already done and preventing further damage.

4) Freidman confirmed my suspicion that me recycling and unplugging appliances is functionally useless, that we need a new system to replace that which has been the norm since the Industrial Revolution. However, without cultivating a concern for these matters - an ethic of conservation, a willingness to change our habits and lifestyles - the old system will remain unchallenged. So while I won't delude myself by believing I'm saving the planet by not using plastic bags and paper plates, I will do what I can, being aware and changing my own ways so that, at the very least, I am respecting nature and making room for a new system.

5) Freidman believes strongly in capitalism. Most of his argument is about why it is in America's best interest, if she wants to remain the world's economic, social, and military super power, if she wants to successfully defend herself against individuals and countries that hate her, to change her ways and, as many politicians have been saying lately, "to jump start the economy with clean energy technology" (or something like that). Freidman believes the key is not government regulation but rather innovation: "if you take only one thing away from this book, please take this: we are not going to regulate our way out of the problems of the Energy-Climate Era. We can only innovate our way out..." But he argues that the only way there's going to be enough innovation in clean energy is if the clean energy market is competitive, and the only way that is going to happen is if the American government allows it to be competitive, using taxes, incentives, etc.

Hope you're staying warm!

Don't worry, be happy!

2009-01-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

So scratch the rough itinerary I outlined in my last post. I'm no longer going to Indonesia.

I was to be traveling with a couple from California; another American who lived in Indonesia for several decades was to act our leader/guide. The couple is expecting a baby; the woman is about four months pregnant, and two days ago, during a routine ultrasound, the doctor found that the baby had several severe abnormalities. The baby won't survive birth, and the couple is having to decide whether to induce, wait, etc. Obviously, their travel plans are off, and our leader didn't think it wise for me to travel alone with him. For those of you who pray, please pray for this family.

I wanted to continue to Indonesia because... I really want to go, I'm already completely packed and ready to go, I like adventure, I've already said good-bye to everyone, I don't want to have to explain four hundred times why I'm still here, and rescheduling and/or canceling flights will costs a lot. I sent out several emails asking for contact information for families living in/near Padang, and I got a very helpful email this morning detailing who I could stay with in Padang... quite feasible and fun-sounding. But by that time, I had already changed some of my flights, and it was too late.

I'm now leaving Los Angeles on Monday, February 9th. I'll go straight from Sydney to Canberra and begin international orientation. I'm not sure what I'll be doing for the next three weeks; I'll probably spend most of it at home in Winfield. I'm very disappointed, to say the least. And restless. And a bit freaked out about the money issue. (I think I'm now a believer in travel insurance.) But I trust that the next few weeks will be good and that this turn of events will make more sense in the future.

Also, I'm sorry this blog is so dull! I'm boring myself, haha. I'll try to come up with something interesting to post before I leave next month.

I hope the new year is treating everyone well. I believe 2009 is going to be a good one!

Ten days and counting

2009-01-01T13:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was in the UAB hospital helping my dad check out his parents (from this point on, they will be referred to as Pop-Pop and Grandmama). I was going to meet Shelley and Erika for New Year's Eve, and since I don't know my way around downtown Birmingham, Daddy told me to follow him to 280, where I could then navigate without assistance. About an hour before we left the hospital, I started feeling really nervous and sick to my stomach, and I had no idea why. The anxiety increased once I got into my car, and eventually I realized "it" had begun: pre-adventure jitters. It's the same feeling I, and many other "performers" I assume, get before going on stage to sing or play or speak. It's not pleasant, and I always vow never to perform again. And right now part of me is wondering why I'm putting myself through all the stress and uncertainty of an international relocation. But I know scary adventures are like playing a hard piano piece in front of a large audience: the anticipation sucks, but it's so worth it in the end.

I leave Atlanta/LA on Sunday, January 11, arrive in Sydney on Tuesday, the thirteenth, fly to Perth later that day, spend two nights there (gotta find a hostel!), fly to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on Thursday, January 15, and finally I fly to Padang in Sumatra (one of Indonesia's major islands). I'm sure I'll have stories to tell before I even get out of Australia... hopefully they won't involve lost luggage or missed planes!

Three months and counting

2008-11-19T09:14:00.001-08:00

Welcome to my Australia blog!

It's about three months before the academic year officially begins at Australian National University (ANU). I haven't share this blog with anyone yet, but I thought I'd write a couple of short updates as I wrap things up in Alabama and finalize my move to Australia. I'll be sharing this link with friends and family, as well as with Rotarians both here in the States and in Australia. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my updates light, entertaining, honest, and true to my personality :) while at the same time being informative and somewhat professional as I document my experiences as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.

I'm currently overwhelmed with visa applications, tuition down payments, plane tickets, and a variety of other necessary evils. It's hard to imagine everything approved, stamped, paid for, and good to go by January... I plan on spending some time in Indonesia before I fly to Canberra, which complicates things further. But anything for travel, right?

Here at Auburn we're excited about our week-long Thanksgiving break. Two friends from high school, Hannah and Buck, are spending Thanksgiving with my family. Should be lots of fun. I love how the three of us are still getting together even after 4+ years of living in different parts of the country/world. I have alot of work to do before the end of the semester, though... mainly longer essays and research papers. Hopefully I'll be able to ignore the pumpkin pie and old friends and holiday movies and the joy of being at home long enough to get some work done!