Post Thirty Six: Night lights

 Yook at tha YIGHTS!!!!!

This Saturday evening several of the DLC crew took the train to Sydney's Circular Quay to see the Vivid Sydney light show. We arrived at the Quay and walked along through the crowds of people, taking photos and gazing at the spectacular lights projected on the Operahouse as they changed and shifted in a dazzling array that was different each moment we turned to look.

Looking at the city from the bridge

          Ariana: "Everyone turn around and smile!" Angie: "You sound like my Dad!" From Left to right: Alicia, Kate, James, Anthony, Angie, and Karen

We then walked across the Harbor bridge, and visited Luna park to see its lights and to laugh at the creepy faces that seemed to be everywhere in this tiny old amusement park. It was alot of fun to walk around the Quay/Operahouse/Bridge area of Sydney at night in the cool fall air with friends.

I find this area of Sydney to be one of the most captivating places in the city. Even though it is not 'in' the city and is certainly the tourist central, I absolutely love the Operahouse, and the Quay, and the night, and crisp night air. After so many months here, even though Macquarie is a bit of a distance from this area, I don't really feel like a tourist anymore, more like a local who just visits the place, much like I would visit a park or a museum back in the States. I find that this sense of 'my place' has developed more in the weeks since break. Even at university and at DLC, it feels much more natural to be here in Australia, again, less like I am dipping in for a bit and more like I am actually here here. It is a very comfortable feeling to be sure.

What a wonderful way to end the school semester, enjoying so many things I like about Sydney, feeling like I belong, and all with good company!

"You've no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light's light's a slight light,
And tonight's a night that's light.
When a night's light, like tonight's light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On light nights like tonight."

-Tongue Twister

Post Thirty Five: Windsday

"Oh the wind is lashing lustily
And the trees are thrashing thrustily
And the leaves are rustling gustily
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubtedly
It looks like a rather blustery day, today
It sounds that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubtedly
Looks like a rather blustery day today"

-Lyrics from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day 
(the best Winnie the Pooh in my opinion)

Today is an amazing chilly and cloudy and windy fall day. Though I have said this before, I am again reminded of soccer. It is one of those days where one finishes classes cold and tired, heads to the gym and changes into uniform or training clothes as fast as humanly possible and bundles up in the 'practice greens' for a gray practice on a squishy field under the swirling trees. A training that ends with a longer-than-necessary warm shower and a quick drive back to campus for a hot meal.

As I walk around the Mac campus I wish (as I often do) that I had brought my camera and could sneak some photos, but then again, photos wouldn't really capture this weird fall feeling in (ahem, May).

Today in approximately 2 hours I hand in my last two out-of-class assignments ever in my Macquarie experience! Then all I will have remaining is a take-home final consisting of two 1,000 word essays (I will have 2 days to accomplish this...not excited) and one in-class essay exam. Then I am finished forever with my Australian school experience as an undergrad study-abroad student! I will not take time to reflect on the entirety of my experience in this post because I am not quite done yet and I feel that if I did that then my brain would officially check out. And, since I still do have a couple things to do that kind of matter...I will wait. But I am so close!!!

This last Sunday, Andrea, James, and I went to an AFL game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. We had some trouble getting there, since the cricket ground is literally right next to another stadium that looks pretty much the same from the outside. So we tried to get in to this other stadium (which also had a sporting event happening) before figuring out that we needed to walk a bit farther on to the next one. There were no signs or anything pointing which way to go for what event, not very well laid out. We made it though and got to watch the Sydney Swans get annihilated by the Hawthorn Hawks. I couldn't really care less who won, I was not for a particular team (note: NEVER under any circumstances say you 'root' for a team, 'rooting' means...something else...) so I did not care who won. The Swans did really well in the first quarter, dominating the play, but the Hawks came out after the half and totally took over, it was almost as if the Swans were no longer even on the field!

The spectators

AFL has alot of rules, and they are all pretty complicated. I did not understand most of what was happening, though I got the general gist of the goals. I think I prefer rugby to AFL, it may be a bit slow, but it is easier to follow and there are less men on the field in rugby (about 12 each team as opposed to 17).

We left early to beat the crowds and I introduced my companions to the wonders of Breadtop. I should be paid a commission for all the business I have brought this wonderful bakery!


and that's it! nothing else interesting to report from this past weekend. Coming up, some friends and I are planning to attend a light show over the Operahouse and perhaps go to a bar at fancy hotel NOT for the alcohol, but to see the sunset over Sydney from one of the top floors, apparently it is quite worth the trip.

Post Thirty Three: GLP GLP GLP!!!

Like most everything else at Macquarie Uni, I have not been particularly impressed with the GLP here. However, as part of the program we are invited to a prestigious event called the "distinguished speaker series" and since I wanted to have the event on my transcript, and the speaker actually looked like he could be interesting (though in the past, looking interesting and the GLP usually do NOT mean interesting), I thought I would give it a go. But I did not expect much. I was actually pleasantly surprised this time! I had a great time, and the talk was fascinating. Definitely worth the trip.

The Global Leadership Program hosts a 'distinguished speaker' every year to have a talk about some Global Issue or another. This years speaker was Waleed Aly, a well-known Australian figure in both the Islamic sphere and the Australian Media.

drinks beforehand

fellow glp'er Alicia, and guest Angie
(note the purple jacket lurking in the background)

The speaker

Mr. Aly was a very good speaker, relaxed but poised, and comfortable and engaging in just the right ways to win the crowd but keep his talk informative and knowledgeable.He spoke largely about the idea of identity, the ideas of prejudice, and the phasing out of National identity due to more global views and identities, or multiculturalism.

I particularly enjoyed his remarks regarding what he saw as the amazing differences in U.S. culture across America. That is, one can go to a small town in Washington, and then another in Alabama and get very different experiences. He contrasted this with the more homogeneous Australian Nation. Not that Australia is homogeneous and identifiable, but there is more commonality in its people and their differences than the U.S.
This pretty much affirmed my experiences in my travels around Australia, I thought I was being stereotypical when I thought of Australians as all belonging to one big town in a sense. Again, not that I saw Australians as 'the same' all over, just they are similar in the same ways and differ in the same ways across Australia. However, it was nice to see that my views and observations had not been entirely without merit.

Sydney Town Hall

Lawrence University Memorial Chapel

Also, fun fact, the Sydney Town Hall (the building we were in) room that we went to the lecture in was VERY similar to the Lawrence Chapel!!! Same balcony, stage, and seating design, even had an organ in the front! Just further affirming that I was supposed to come to this, gave good reason for the thing.


It was a great way to conclude my GLP here. Though I do have one more optional session on Ethical Living, I am pretty much done, and this talk was a fun way to end.

Post Thirty One: these Australian adventures are quickly becoming the adventures of the purple fleece jacket!

What a weekend. I have gotten absolutely nothing done! ERGH! I am currently writing a Philosophy paper which I hate. I like the class, its really interesting and I feel that I am learning alot, just this paper is worth way too much of my mark and I just wrote draft #1 and it was TERRIBLE. Hence, I hate the paper.

But ANYWAY, I shall re-write it...later. Instead I will procrastinate some by blogging. At least that way I am being productive in some way or another and not just wasting time doing nothing.

The weeks are winding up well, I have finished most of my classwork (except this monster of a paper which I am NOT thinking about!), I have done almost all of my souvenir shopping. I am checking things off the to-do list etc.

watching a street show

walking the Quay

Turtles?

The group

Cacti!

Nini

Alicia

Karen, Angie

Yesterday some friends Angie, Alicia, Karen, Nini and I went downtown Sydney. It was a gorgeous fall morning when we left, bright and blue. We headed down to the Rocks markets and I felt like it was October, the leaves are falling, and the weather was cool, it was just "wow, it really feels like October right now". We hunted around for some stuff (I shall not say what, can't give gift ideas away!) before walking to the Opera house and the Botanical Gardens. We allowed ourselves to just meander for the better part of 3 hours, taking pictures, talking, and just enjoying the park. It really is quite something to go to such a large park on the edge of such a large city and to know that you just visited the Opera house in SYDNEY AUSTRALIA.

I wish!!

I enjoyed the Cactus section of the gardens the most. I love cactusses (yes I know they are called cacti), when I get plants of my own, I will definitely buy (and name) cacti and by the way Amirah, unlike the plastic x-mas trees, I plan to name them ALL.

the ever-present purple jacket

It was relaxing to spend the day in the downtown, like I said it was a beautiful fall day. For lunch we went to Breadtop, perhaps the ONLY reasonably priced bakery in the whole of Sydney, and they have some really good stuff too.

I then went with Alicia up Sydney tower again, it was cloudy while we were up there, but it was fun to get to see the city now that we were 'pros' and knew where everything of note was.

The day ended with some relaxing on the couch, meeting up with some other DLC friends, and watching a bit of POTC 3 and then LOTR 2. A good way to spend a Saturday. and actually, writing this post has made me feel a bit more relaxed! Hopefully I can get this paper done and then fun plans for the future include baking some cookies, perhaps going to the Jenolean Caves, perhaps going to Hunter Valley to Wine taste (AU is well known for its wine apparently), and going to see the Distinguished Speaker for the GLP. All of this will hopefully happen this coming week/weekend and I can blog about it then!

Post Twenty Nine: A week back in Sydney

ok, just FYI for those of you who are less technologically adept than others, if you click on any picture that is posted on this blog, it will make it much bigger and easier to see.

Having said that! Back to Sydney!

I finished my travels around Australia on the 22nd of April, flying to Sydney later in the evening. Since DLC does not let us move back in (without paying an arm and a leg, which if you will remember I did not have any left), I stayed with some friends in the Macquarie Village. This was really nice, their apartment was more homey than a dorm is, and I enjoyed having a couple lovely meals that we made together. and just spending time chatting with friends after returning back to campus!!!

There is not much left to my break adventures, the 24th was Easter, so I met up with Angie (returning from New-Zealand) at St. Mary's Cathedral, the oldest one in Australia, for the Easter Mass. I found that it was not anything particularly special, the Cathedral was beautiful, but that's about it. One is not allowed to take pictures inside, and seeing as it was Easter, I thought I should probably adhere to this policy, but I have put in the blog a picture that I got from the web.

On Monday, Angie, Alicia, Karen and I went to the Royal Easter Show. It has nothing to do with Easter, this is just the Australian version of a State Fair. We saw horses and dogs and cows and alpacas, we also sampled alot of local foods such as chilies, nougat, nuts, granola (muesli), and meats. I watched a really cool sheepdog (yard dog here) demonstration with an Australian Kelpie performing. It was rainy all day, but we still enjoyed walking around the show together, Angie and I also had Deep Fried Cheesecake....it was....a heart attack on a stick, but it was pretty good, I think I prefer funnel cakes as my fair food of choice though.

I can spell better than this!!

After this, it was back to the Village for the final dinner with my host friends. I made them chocolate peanut butter brownies, and since Australian cocoa was used out of necessity I used DOUBLE the cocoa for one batch...it turned out to not even be chocolaty enough then! But they were still fairly decent.

To end the break adventures, I finally got to move back into my room on the 26th, (they had cleaned very nicely and the cockroach was not stuck to my wall anymore!!) before classes commenced again on the 27th.

Here ends my narrative (of break anyway, I will keep posting other stuff). I have nothing more exciting planned at this point, just finishing up classes and surviving the papers that are worth %50 of my grade....

Post Twenty Five: Beginnings

April 8th, 5:30pm: First Journal Excerpt (please note that this is a bit edited, not exactly the original journal entry IHRTLUHC) 

"So it begins. I moved totally and completely out of my room at DLC since according to their stupid policy one has to pay extra to stay over break. Supposedly they need the space for paying conference guests...psh...I wonder what the conference guests will think of the cockroach that is still stuck to my wall."

I flew out to Alice Springs at 6:05am on the morning of the 9th. It was super hot there, and very dry, upon exiting the aircraft my hair instantly stood on end from the dryness. I was not impressed with the backpackers I stayed at (Toddy's), although the people employed there turned out to be the most friendly in my hostel experiences. Since I arrived at 2 in the afternoon I had some time to explore the town, not needed, Alice Springs is absolutely void of anything to do, it is more of just a jumping off point for tours out to the Red Center (Uluru etc.) I stayed at Toddy's only for the night, meeting Corelie, a Swiss student who was also from Macquarie and was going on the same trip that I was the next day!! Fancy that, we had not met prior to bunking in the room!

The first of many 'look, my face!' pictures

The next morning was when things really got started. Leaving the hostel at 5am, we picked up the rest of our group at another hotel. There were only eight of us and our guide on the trip, this turned out to be a real blessing because it meant that our group could get places faster, ask questions more freely, get to know each other well, and bond quite quickly (most of the other tours had at least 20 people if not more). We drove out of AS as the sun was rising over the outback, it was quite beautiful but this was just the beginning! the four hour trip took us farther and farther from everywhere. Along the way, Corelie and I measured the prices of everything by comparing the price of a container of Tim Tams at all of our various stops (the prices rose from $4 in AS, to $6.95 by the time we reached Ayers Rock).

We stopped here for firewood. Note: this was not the road we took, just an offshoot from the paved one we were actually on.

 We arrived at our campsite and ate a quick lunch before heading out to Kata Tjuta for a hike. KJ is much like Uluru, except it is a lot of big rocks, not just one giant one. Here, our guide Bron explained how KJ and Uluru were formed.


"When Australia was squeezed from West and East by techtonic plate movement, it created mountains tall enough to have ice on top. The ice melted and huge chunks of rock fell off into the sea that covered this part of Australia, then they were covered by earth as the seas dried. Then Australia was squeezed again from North and South and these rocks were pushed to the surface a little, exposing them again to the upper world (scientists believe Uluru is a massive rock that extends down into the earth much farther, what we see is just a small bit of it). So basically, KJ and Uluru are Giant earth pimples." -Ariana Flood, Journal entry April 10th 2011.

The Kata Tjuta (Aboriginal name) or Olgas (Settler name)

Sunset over KJ

The Hike was enjoyable, I was constantly reminded of sleeping cattle as we walked among the huge red rocks just resting out in the middle of nowhere. We then finished this first day with a spectacular sunset over the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) before returning to camp for some Kangaroo for dinner and a celestial starshow that was unlike anything I have, or ever will see again I imagine. The stars were so numerous that one actually had to look away from the milky way because it was too bright! We got to sleep in swags (basically a mattress inside a sleeping bag) out in the open under these stars, and I had the pleasure of waking a few times and just having to look up to be awed again.

Yes, I was awake this early, and no the sunrise was not any more beautiful than the sunset

Day 2 we headed out to Uluru itself at 5am to see the sun rise on the Rock and then to circumnavigate the base of it. I was struck by the spiritual feel of the Rock. It really was special, I was not expecting it to be so interesting, I mean, it is just a rock in the ground...but there is something about it that just takes your breath away. Perhaps it is that every single step of the way the rock changes as the light, or your position shifts, perhaps it is the absolute silence other than the morning rustle of wind that almost is music unto itself, or maybe there is something more. Regardless, Uluru was even more amazing than I had imagined. 

truffula grass?

part of Uluru

After our walk we got to learn some about the Aboriginal culture and beliefs surrounding it, in particular one story about a Dingo God who massacred a group of Indigenous women, so violent he left his mark on the rock itself in the form of a massive pawprint.

The pawprint on the left, a faceless and armless woman on the right. See it?

We then headed in our bus for our 6 hour drive over to Kings Canyon (it takes a while to get anywhere out there), our last stop of the tour. Along the way was more outback, outback, outback. I was reminded of my out West trip in the U.S. when a certain person in the car kept commenting on all the "sagebrush and juniper", only out here it is something like "deathplant and buffo grass". 

In the swag

Kings Canyon was also quite amazing. Though apparently it is rusting. that is where the red color comes from. Kings canyon is like the Badlands, the paths were marked, but mostly we were just walking along the rocks and along the canyon. At one point one could shout and actually hear the full echo, it was really cool. Also, since our tour group was so small we were able to move quickly and finished the walk in only 3 hours with plenty of time to stop and take pictures, we just didn't have to wait for people to catch up or rest etc. We finished with the canyon at 10am, just before the thousands of flies started coming out, and departed from the Red Center taking our 6 hour trip back to Alice Springs. 

According to Aboriginal legend, these are all warrior men who were turned to stone in case they were needed later

two anecdotes of AS before my departure


"Getting ready to leave Toddy's I was greated by a young police officer who asked if I had found anything missing (sort of an odd question, how does one find something if it is missing...). Apparently the person a couple doors down had been burglurized in the middile of the night as a couple of locals had opened her door and stolen her backpack. We had been warned that AS was not a friendly place after dark, but this truly brought it to reality........Unrelatedly, later, while I was waiting for the shuttle for the airport, I was approached by a couple of young men who asked to use my toilet. I laughed and told them it was not MY toilet and as far as I was concerned they could go ahead. whilst one of them left, the other sat with me and introduced himself as Guy from Israel. He and Yanni (the other) had been out in the desert doing a reptile survey for the past week. Yanni joined us again and Guy treated us all to Paul's local iced coffee which Guy insisted was the best in Australia (pretty good though more milk than coffee). We chatted for about a half hour and I was invited to share a taxi to the airport with them after lunch, but since I had already paid for the shuttle I declined promising to meet up with them upon their arrival at the airport instead. I did end up finding them again while we waited for our respective flights and they sang for me a song they were planning to put up on Youtube, entitled "the crayfish funnyfarm song" to the tune of Yellow Submarine. Someday perhaps I will be able to find this video and these two awesome guys again." -Ariana Flood, Journal Entry April 13th 2011

Doing homework at the airport and drying out my shoes after washing them