Why you should go to Wollongong, My Birthday, and the Great Barrier Reef

About three weeks ago, my friend Emily and I hopped on a train and headed two hours south of Sydney to beautiful Wollongong. Our friend Warwick had shown us some spectacular pictures from Kangaroo valley (located near Wollongong, where Warwick lives) and we had to visit. Wollongong (aka The Gong) is an Aboriginal word that (probably) means “between the water and the mountains” as it is perfectly situated between Pacific Ocean beaches and the sandstone mountains of the Illawarra Escarpment. What I’m saying is, it’s an awesome place and everyone who visits Sydney should go to the Gong.

“Why?” You might logically ask. “I can see beaches and mountains in lots of other places much closer to Sydney.” The answer, in addition to magnificent waterfalls, breathtaking lookouts, and wonderfully scenic drives, is echidnas. Quite simply, echidnas. For those who never played Sonic the hedgehog growing up (or didn’t realize that the characters are based on actual animals), an echidna is an adorable spiky egg-laying mammal that is fairly rare in the wild on the Aussie mainland. Also, it’s Knuckles (from the game). So we are driving along the road in Kangaroo Valley stopping to see waterfalls, take pictures, and cross flooded bridges and we’re discussing how rare it is to see wombats, echidnas, and koalas in the wild. Not ten minutes later I’m gazing out the window and I scream “SHIT, that’s an echidna, STOP the car!” Quite frankly, I’m totally impressed with Warwick’s reaction time and the fact that he didn’t crash because my outburst was so random and startlingly loud. And there, digging a hole in the bushes on the side of the road, is one of the coolest animals I’ve ever seen in nature. We stop, take a ton of pictures, and marvel at how apparently awesome my animal sighting skills are and how rare this is. Eventually we leave the little guy to his business of hunting for insects and head off to see another beautiful waterfall. Then we’re on our way again, heading to the next site of interest. Not 100 meters down the road we see ANOTHER echidna, this one crossing the road right in front of our car! Mind you, in addition to their rareness, we had discussed how they have a huge foraging range, about 50 kilometers, they hunt for food in. And, magically, we see another one meters from the last. Suffice it to say, it was a pretty good day in the Gong. While I openly grant that most of the population cares substantially less about echidnas than I, I think I made the case for why Wollongong is plenty worth the trip south of Sydney.


Beautiful waterfall in Kangaroo Valley


ECHIDNA!!!

The day after leaving Wollongong was my 24th birthday. It was a pretty great day. I awoke to a birthday sign on my door from my artistic housemate Ali. Then, I took a ferry to beautiful Manly beach with some friends and spent the day enjoying the southern hemisphere sun. Later, after eating splendid red velvet cupcakes (made by Emily), I came home to flowers from my housemate, Juli and a wonderful bouquet of orchids from my fam. I was feeling the love. Later that week, as I mentioned in my last blog, I decided to go the Aussie route and do a pub crawl for my birthday celebration. I had dinner at an excellent Japanese restaurant with friends, then visited some of the many pubs in the Rocks. It was a beautiful night and I had a truly memorable time hanging with all the great friends I’ve made in Sydney.


Celebrating my birthday with my housemates Ali and Oliver


Beautiful Manly beach, where I spent my birthday

The following Monday I hopped on a plane up to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands at the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef, known for Whitehaven beach, the most photographed beach in the world because it has the whitest sand in the world (98% silica). Lucky for me, I was also there during the rainiest four days in the world. Literally, from my arrival to my departure it didn’t stop raining for more than like 3 hours. But that obviously did not stop me from snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and enjoying Whitehaven to the fullest. Pictures below.


Me at Whitehaven Beach


Whitehaven's white sands on a cloudy, surreal day


I love schools of fish


Parrotfish

Loving the Sydney Life

So as the universe would have it, in the month following my last post I had about 20 conversations about my hair. I think it was a product of switching from my afro to a much “smaller” natural. A bunch of people have wanted to touch it and it’s been increasingly relevant. So while I don’t have entire markets in a stupor, I’ve certainly gotten some looks, questions, and curiosity.

The last few weeks have been very exciting. I finished the semester, taking my last exam on the 8th and I am officially halfway through my Masters program!!! The second semester doesn’t start until the last week of January, so I am chillin/working/applying to PhD programs/partying for the next 2 months. I also have very exciting plans to go up to the Great Barrier Reef, Tasmania, Melbourne, and explore more of Sydney. To help facilitate some of that exploration, I now have a bunch of Aussie friends!! Thanks to classes, connections, and mutual friends I’ve been spending more and more time with real live Australians. And I gotta tell you, they’re great. I’ve met some really awesome people here and as much as I’m enjoying myself, I just know it’s gonna make leaving that much harder. But I’ve been soaking up and giving way to Aussie culture and have even decided to have a very Australian birthday celebration! We’re going to do a pub crawl in the part of the city known as the Rocks (it’s “Old Sydney”, you know where all the convicts used to hang out). Now anyone who knows me (which is presumably everyone reading this blog) knows that I’m not a big drinker, but if there is anything Aussies do on their birthdays (and most other occasions for that matter), it’s drink. So I figure, when in Rome, right?

Speaking of Aussie culture, every year the city holds a sculpture exhibition on the coast, literally overlooking the water. Last week some friends and I checked it out. It was a gorgeous day and pictures are below.

Now, having updated you on the goings-on of my Sydney-an (Sydney-ite? Sydney-esque?) life, I just want to take a moment to say how happy I am. Something about this whole experience has been wildly uplifting, encouraging, and empowering. I am invigorated by the possibilities of life and all that is to come. I started writing my bucket list yesterday and have committed to writing down 5 things I’m thankful for every day. Even as much as I miss my family and friends; it just serves as a reminder of how much I love them. I know it all sounds amazingly corny, but that’s where I am and I can only hope I stay there. Seriously, life is good.

And now, beautiful pictures of Sydney

Because You Asked For it

So everyone in LA is getting on me to update my blog. Quite frankly, I’ve been wanting to but I don’t want my life updates to be contrived. I want them to be organic and flow uninhibited from my rapidly moving fingers while my brain sits back in wonder. But that ain’t happenin. Both my fingers and brain are tapped out. The semester is almost over and I’ve been spending all my days in class/in lab/writing papers. To add to that, my life here isn’t nearly as exciting as life in Nan. I mean, every week in Thailand someone wanted my blood or the market fell apart because I changed my hair. Things are mellow here and, as such, a lot less exciting to write about.

Although this is a recent exchange I participated in:

Raymond from Norway: I like your hair (it was an afro)
Me: Thanks!
Raymond from Norway: It suits you
Me: I like to think so
Raymond from Norway: You know, cus you’re black
This is the same Raymond who told me that he heard that black people have all the moves. Dude is ridiculous.

But my interactions with him aren't frequent and, alas, my blog has been left lonely.

I now attempt to rectify that.

The highlight of the last couple weeks has been my English conversation class. Every week, I meet postgrad students from UNSW and lead conversations to help them practice English and become more confident (yea, you read that correctly, I’m getting paid to talk). I’m typically joined by Juan Pablo from Argentina, Francesco from Italy, Kamrul from Bangladesh, Mani and Fatemeh from Iran, Tatiana from Russia, and Chelsea from China. I absolutely love it. Sometimes we chat about what annoys us about Sydney (cost of living and unpredictable public transportation) or what we did over the weekend (flower festivals in the capital, jazz in the city). Other times we talk globally about politics, poverty, or the environment. Sometimes we get deep, and talk about the meaning of dreams, the possibility of utopian societies, or the definition of love. It’s really amazing hearing all the different perspectives and I’ve learned a ton. I’m really starting to think I might need to make this teaching English thing a permanent part of my life, I just love interacting with people from other places.

Speaking of people from other places, I take serious pride in the number of international artists in my musical repertoire. So I’ve been trying to learn more about Australian artists. I haven’t gotten very far, but I’d love to recommend to those interested: Katy Noonan (unfortunately my favorite song by her is a cover of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley) and the Black seeds (who are actually Kiwi but whose song Cool me Down is one of the best feel good songs I’ve ever heard).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWQsV_v02CY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZytEicHf6p4

In other news, the photos from the international student photo shoot came out!

Pensive, Peaceful, Pristine

(Apologies for the more than month-long delay in blog updates. As it turns out, Masters Degrees are a fair amount of constant work. But apparently, I’m a glutton for academic punishment, as I just started e-mailing potential PhD advisors. )

In my quest to give way to the world, I’m all about growth and introspection.

I just returned from a wonderfully relaxing trip to the Gold Coast in southern Queensland. Among other things I: saw the sunrise from the most eastern point in Australia, caught glimpses of wild wallabies while hiking along giant gorges, relaxed (like it was my job) on beautiful beaches, explained that despite my complexion I can get sunburn, discussed the complexities of US race relations (in particular the “N word”), and introduced a very excited Danish friend to beef jerky. I’d say it was an excellent trip overall, rife with natural beauty, really great friends, and cultural exchange (pictures below).

On the note of cultural exchange; Sydney and, in particular, the courses I’m enrolled in, have encouraged a long overdue paradigm shift in my life. Courses devoted to sustainable development and conservation biology always start by reminding you of the awful things we’re (people) doing to the environment. And there is always a particular focus on US society. So it gets real, really real. I recently learned that most Americans use twice as much water per day (around 400 liters) as people in Northern Europe. As such, I’ve started timing my showers. Similarly, no house in Australia built in the last few decades has an “insinkerator,” or garbage disposal. EVERY house I’ve lived in in the US has one (I won’t be using them when I get back as it’s a completely unnecessary large energy user). In Australia, the plugs have switches on them. You can turn off a plug! How do we not have this in the States?? In the same vein, about 95% of the toilets I’ve used in this country have two buttons for flushing (one for #1 and the other for #2). It saves a ton of water and I really don’t understand how we haven’t adopted this.

I recently calculated my ecological footprint here: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/.
It lets you know how many planets we’d need if everyone lived the way I do. Quite frankly, it’s depressing, and I’m one of the greenest people I know! So now I think before using a paper towel, almost never leave my laptop on standby, and I’m trying not to buy packaged produce. I walk every chance I get, I never buy water bottles, and I aim for 1/3 to ½ of my meals to be vegetarian. They’re little things, but, hey, you gotta start somewhere.

The last thing I’ve recently discovered is that my mother raised a lover of the arts. I’ve been in Sydney for less than three months, and I’ve seen six shows at the Opera House. From Savion Glover to Aboriginal Dance Theater to string quartets and rock bands, I live at the Opera House. This weekend, in fact, I’m taking advantage of free (!) live music, dance classes, and outdoor screenings of Happy Feet and Footloose as part of their spring dance performances. It’s been so nice to have affordable (I’ve paid less than AUD $45 for most of the shows), world class performance art at my fingertips!

So, in summary, I’m becoming a much greener, ambassador for my culture, who loves the arts; this is growth people.



Surfers Paradise. I miss it (I spent 8 hours inside doing work today)



Me being pensive, with giant valleys behind me



Most easterly point on the Aussie mainland, a perfect place to see the sunrise



Waterfall over a gorge



I also do science: an Australian fish (from Sydney Harbor) which, like most other Australian animals, can seriously injure you. We were doing catch and release to determine biodiversity in the area.

We No Speak Americano

One of the great things about attending a university as an international student is that you get to meet so many other international students!! One of the bad things is that you meet so many international students. The first week I was in Sydney, I participated in a ton of international orientation activities and met students from all over the world (the US, China, Singapore, France, Canada, Germany, Norway, Iran, Pakistan, Chile, Thailand…the list goes on). UNSW boasts that 1 in 5 students is international so they try their best to introduce us to the uni and to each other. And boy does it work. As a result, most of the people I had conversations with in my first week were not Australian.

However, it gets worse (or better, depending how you look at it). Being the social butterfly that I am, I asked the coordinator of my Master program for e-mails for all the master students and sent out an e-mail suggesting that people briefly introduce themselves and we meet up in the weeks before courses start. Turns out, of almost 40 students in the program, only 1 of them is Australian (and he’s in his mid 50s) and a third of us are American. Apparently the universe didn’t want me to get too far away from my countrymen during this trip. It has taken far too much effort (all things considered) to get to know Australians. And because I got to know so many international/American students so early, 90% of the people I hang out with are international students.

But I don’t despair! Every day I make progress. Last week, I did a photo shoot for the international students office (the photos will be used for their new website and brochures that they mail all over the world!) and, in addition to the obvious international students I met, I also made friends (and bowling plans) with several Aussie students. For my group project in one of my courses, I chose to turn down two American girls in order to work in a group with some Australians. And, most importantly, I got a job! My boss already commented that she loves my accent (hahah) and I’m getting to know all my Aussie co workers (who, by the way, have serious potty mouths). It’s all progress, the way I see it.

The other thing that has made this transition less of a transition is realizing that the United States’ biggest export is entertainment. I haven’t turned on a TV here yet, but I’ve been told you’ll be watching Oprah and Dr. Phil, Seinfeld and Friends, CSI and Bones, and very few Australian shows. Similarly, at clubs, most of the music is American, particularly hip hop and rap (though far too frequently over really bad house and techno remixes). And I was at one party and literally felt like I had been transported back to Princeton because of all the Bon Jovi, Journey, and “classics” like Sweet Home Alabama. I kept looking around and asking what country I was in. I could probably, if I had to, name two Australian musicians or bands (and not claim to have heard any of their music).

So, it would seem, this whole making friends with Australians thing will be less of me giving way and a lot more of me making way. The title of this blog comes from a horrible remix of an old song that has been overplayed at parties around the city. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR8logunPzQ

To illustrate my point, see below



From left to right: Emily from Missouri, Anetra from Maryland, Wesley from Malaysia, Paige from New Orleans, Megan from Texas, and Sarah from the UK




Christine from the States (I forget where), Ryan from Texas, Anetra you know already, Nate from Boston, Hayley from New Zealand via the UK, Emily you've also met, Raymond from Norway (in the back), Ashkan from Iran, and Ernesto from Mexico.

Kangaroos loose in the top paddock

Australia has become internationally known for its strine, or slang. In fact, in my first few days here I was given multiple lists of strine to be aware of. Some of it is familiar to us Americans, either because it’s cliché (“throw another shrimp on the barbie”, we all know that a barbie is a bar b que, and in fact they call them prawns) or because it’s similar to our own (howsitgoin’ is just a faster version of our common greeting).

Some of it, however, is pretty bizarre or just takes some getting used to. For instance, everyone asks “how ya goin?” The first few times you hear it you wanna say “by bus” or “by foot.” Obviously no one is asking about your mode of transportation, they mean to ask “how are you?” Then there’s strine that is related to the British influence, like calling the trunk and the hood the boot and the bonnet, respectively. The title of this blog “Kangaroos loose in the top paddock”, as strange as it sounds, is more or less the same as our “not the sharpest tool in the shed” or “a few tacos short of a combination plate” (does anyone actually use that last one, or is it just me?) in that it refers to an intellectually slower individual.

The truth of strine, however, is that a lot of it is dated and Aussies my age aren’t using it very much. But if you get a chance to hang around some older Aussies (let’s say 50 and up), you could hear chickens referred to as chooks, mosquitoes called mozzies, or biscuits (cookies) called bikkies. You might be told to bring a plate (not the dish mind you, but food to share), or that something should be saved fo’ron (as in for later on). The last one I heard and asked “oh is Ron your cat?” because we had been talking about a friend’s cat beforehand. Anyone will tell you to have a cuppa (tea, coffee, milk, water, I never know what’s being referred to) and you’ll find yourself having a sanga in the arvo (a sandwich in the afternoon). In general it’s easy enough to figure out strine and get used to it but you might have to laugh at yourself along the way. Please note, if you come to Oz, there is no rooting for sports teams (as root is strine for fuck).

And now some pictures, mostly of animals!!



The White Ibis, regularly seen stealing sangas and digging through the rubbish at uni.



Purple swamp hen, hanging out at the park



Fruit bats (large fruit bats, about a 3 ft wing span) roosting near Sydney Harbour



A UNESCO world heritage site, the Sydney Opera House (pictures of the inside in future blogs)



Me and the Harbour Bridge



Cool croc eyes





Roos



A sleepy koala

Give Way

So here I am, in Sydney, Australia; cold and excited. It’s been surreal walking about town, reminding myself to look the opposite way when crossing the street. It doesn’t feel like I’m on the other side of the world. But I most certainly am, and this blog will be the evidence of that.

The title of this first entry comes from the signs on the street. Here in Sydney, they use the same triangular signs with the red border, but instead of the word “yield” it says “give way.” I thought the phrase “give way” is very representative of my plans for my time in Oceania. For the next year, I am planning to give way to everything. I’ll give way to Australian (and Kiwi, German, Dutch, Malaysian, Chinese, French, Egyptian, etc. UNSW is a VERY international school) accents. I’ll give way to 1 and 2 dollar coins that I keep losing in my purse. I’ll give way to very expensive food and paying rent fortnightly. I’ll give way to Aussie slang and winter in July. I’ll give way to Vegemite, meat pies, and always calling French fries chips. I’ll give way to birds that look like they belong in our zoos, living the life of a pigeon.

I’m giving way to every invitation and all this country has to offer…and then some. In the 5 days I’ve been here I’ve visited two beaches, taken a cruise of the Sydney harbor, toured old Sydney and gotten a crash course in its history, gone bird watching, gotten lost on the bus, and taken at least ten walks. I’m really excited to be here, and I won’t let the experience be lost on me!

Some noteworthy/interesting things:

• At two different, unrelated events (during the tour of Sydney and the welcome event for international students) the Aboriginal tribes have been recognized. Sydney’s land was taken from the Gadigal people (most of who died from smallpox when the Europeans first arrived) and at both of these events the Gadigal people were acknowledged and thanked. I thought it was awesome and definitely a practice that we should adopt.
• There’s no central heating in my house and it’s like 45 degrees outside.
• I’m quite easily recognizable as American once I open my mouth. Although someone almost thought I was Canadian because I was so nice to them (their words).