there's no time! there's never any time!
[2 points if you get the reference above and 3 more if you can finish the quote up to the word "right"]
okee. so hobart, tasmania. i'm in one of 3 internet cafes. the other two are extraordinarily expensive and this one is only moderately so but closes in 20 minutes. so i'll try (though knowing me it's near impossible) to be brief.
BACK TO MELBOURNE:
in melbourne we stayed with a lovely servas family. bruce is a market technician/bluegrass musician (hey that rhymes!) who plays the mandolin among other things, and andrea works at a medical clinic as a nurse, i believe. They have three children: Dale, 20ish, ate dinner with us the 2nd night, living somewhere in the city and trying to make his way on his own; Julia, 18ish, living in the separate quarters out in the back, just finished high school (college, as they call it), ate with us the second night; and Oliver, still in HS, currently on a school trip to california with some program. didn't meet him. The first night, we met Bruce and went with him back to their home in the suburbs about 1/2 hour outside of downtown melbourne. we watched as he made a lovely stir fry with udon noodles to eat with the vegetable soup that was already on the stove. The four of us had a lovely quiet meal discussing their movie collection (all the Christopher Guest, btw, plus the Princess Bride - i knew it would go well as soon as i saw them), travelling (they've travelled quite extensively - Andrea originally from the states, bruce originally from london, met eachother travelling, travelled 2 years, then got married, then travelled again. significant periods in india, but various other places too. they started as servas travellers and then became hosts...), musical theater (they're all about to do a production of Bye Bye Birdie), and other things as well.
The next day (hot! 37 degrees!) na and i went into the city and meandered down the narrow side streets full of shops (called arcades here, reminiscent of europe) until we got to Federation Square, where we were able to buy tickets to a couple of Deaf Olympics Cultural Festival events. There were a whole bunch of booths set up in the square - a big screen showing Deaf poetry from around the world, info booths, a booth about the 2009 Deaf Olympics in Taipei, relay service booth, interpreter area, and a couple of other things. very overwhelming. Auslan (australian sign language), international sign, ASL, and so many others and combinations of everything were being flailed about all over the place. intimidating? i would say so. We got our tickets and moved on. Went back to the house for dinner and had a lovely meal with six of us this time - Julia and Dale joined us. We discussed Judaism (i need to brush up), Deaf stuff, accents, and much else over another lovely meal.
Next day into the city again to see the shows: first Quest from the USA - a serious piece about differences and society. No language - all was conveyed through movement and interactions. basic idea: society is a formless black trench coat - when people have something unique about them, they may remove their coat or have it taken off them. eventually they come to accept that the coat has good and bad aspects, but is not altogether good or evil. pretty good. afterwards we waited outside to chat with the performers because a friend of mine travelled with them to the Czech Republic last year and wanted me to say hi. We did. We met one performer, Deaf, named Luis Ray. He didn't know my friend (he just joined) but the director of the group, Paul? and one other girl, Miriam, did. they say hello back, by the way. Long story short (time's running out already!), we ended up having a chatty lunch with a group of mostly Deaf people, then we saw the afternoon show - Heads Up - an Australian duo of 1 Deaf american guy and 1 hearing aussie woman - much fun, we learned some Auslan, and chuckled a bunch. cute. - we then went to the art gallery and saw some aboriginal art with a couple of the hearing girls from Quest, then over to the Queen Victoria Square night market, which was positively packed with people, but fun. Back to the house where we ate cherries from the market for dessert with Bruce and Andrea along with Peggy White, a singer/songwriter from Canada who had just flown in the day before to perform at a country music festival here. More good chatting.
Next day: Aboriginal Heritage walk in the botanical gardens- really interesting flora and uses and just some perspective on how different each language group is all over Australia. The cultures are partially so inaccessible because there are so many different ones. It's like asking to learn about "the culture of europeans" - too vague. too many. So that was really good.
Then we went back over to Fed square and bumped into Luis Ray and the peopel from the day before again. Na's doing really well learning sign and i was really happy to be signing again, so it was fun fun fun. We had a strenuous conversation (via pen and paper mostly) with an Indian runner who placed 5th in the 110 meter...We went and found a hostel for the night (our servas family had no room - another musican came to stay) and got one after some searching. we met the servas fam a bit further outside the city at a club/restaurant for part of one of peggy's performances (awesome, by the way - peggy white - check it out), then took a tram all the way back to the city and went to the International Club (turned International Deaf Club while the Olympics were happening) and stayed there among the hundreds of signers from all over the world, flashing lights, laser light shows, and smoke until about 2:30 in the morning. We met up with Luis Ray there and he was kind enough to bop the night away with us and introduce us to a few people. Lots of fun, i must say. We danced with Turkish athletes, I finally met Shira Grabelsky (ask me if you want to know how many different ways i know her), I met a Deaf guy from Alabama, one from italy, a couple of them from Russia who were excellent break dancers, and so many others. it was really fun. nice to socialize without the pressure of conversation :). With many people we could only communicate with gestures, so no worries there. Much easier than making small talk.
Next morning we flew out here to Tassie and found our next servas hosts at the top of a very very steep hill. Huffing and puffing, we arrived to find that the 22 and 26 year old retired farmers (we did find that strange) had probably written 72 and 76 on their servas application and been misread. Nonetheless, Jim and Mae have been very excellent hosts: talkative and sweet, we've discussed politics, and been beaten very badly at scrabble. we went to the big bustly salamanca market here in hobart this morning and i made some purchases i'm happy about. we head off tomorrow on a 4 day road trip to see only a very small portion of this island. it looks so small in comparison to huge australia, but really it's the size of about ireland. so there's too much to see in 4 days. we're renting a car though and have chosen 2 major destinations, so hopefully we'll be able to work that out. it's so much planning though and it takes so much time - where do we stay how do we get there how much does it cost should we take a tour what about our flight blah blah blah. exhausting. much rather be playing scrabble out on the balcony with the beautiful view of the city and the harbor. but plan we do and plan we will.
after that we fly back to melbourne and drive the great ocean road, hopefully. then probably fly up to alice springs (and get those funny fly hats, thanks for the tip jordana) for a couple of days, then when we're utterly fried, we'll hop over to Cairns for some more sun and spend the next 2 weeks or so making our way down to sydney (while we see the great barrier reef and all that good stuff of course. there's also talk of scuba certification in the air. na definitely wants to. i'm still pondering). then a few days in sydney doing things we missed the first time around and then off to singapore. i'm really glad we were able to extend our stay here so easily. if you get a chance to use singapore airlines, they're really great. so easy. just a phone call, no charge. and the cost of the flight is fantastic - best we've seen. so yay for that.
what else? i'm feeling ok - a little tired of the planning aspects if you couldn't tell. i'm excited about servas still - the hosts seem to be really fantastic and i'm excited to meet more of them all over the place. Na and I are still doing well, though we can both get frustrated when the planning is long or things are expensive. Livejournal seems to be down right now (and hopefully has not lost everything everybody had so far - the page they have up didn't sound so good), so i guess i'm blogging for the both of us for now. maybe she's writing an email or something though, i dono.
I guess that'll be it for now. i don't know when i'll next get the chance to write much, so hopefully this will hold you for a couple of days. I'm starting to feel a small miniature bout of just the slightest tinge of homesickness coming on, so please feel free to write me emails and tell me about what's going on in your lives. i have some waiting for responses in my inbox, and i'm still gonna get there, but there are those of you i haven't heard from in a bit (you know who you are). how are you? wazzup? how're you going?
ok. i've overstayed my welcome here and am being booted off. away i go, then.
much love,
amy
email me
okee. so hobart, tasmania. i'm in one of 3 internet cafes. the other two are extraordinarily expensive and this one is only moderately so but closes in 20 minutes. so i'll try (though knowing me it's near impossible) to be brief.
BACK TO MELBOURNE:
in melbourne we stayed with a lovely servas family. bruce is a market technician/bluegrass musician (hey that rhymes!) who plays the mandolin among other things, and andrea works at a medical clinic as a nurse, i believe. They have three children: Dale, 20ish, ate dinner with us the 2nd night, living somewhere in the city and trying to make his way on his own; Julia, 18ish, living in the separate quarters out in the back, just finished high school (college, as they call it), ate with us the second night; and Oliver, still in HS, currently on a school trip to california with some program. didn't meet him. The first night, we met Bruce and went with him back to their home in the suburbs about 1/2 hour outside of downtown melbourne. we watched as he made a lovely stir fry with udon noodles to eat with the vegetable soup that was already on the stove. The four of us had a lovely quiet meal discussing their movie collection (all the Christopher Guest, btw, plus the Princess Bride - i knew it would go well as soon as i saw them), travelling (they've travelled quite extensively - Andrea originally from the states, bruce originally from london, met eachother travelling, travelled 2 years, then got married, then travelled again. significant periods in india, but various other places too. they started as servas travellers and then became hosts...), musical theater (they're all about to do a production of Bye Bye Birdie), and other things as well.
The next day (hot! 37 degrees!) na and i went into the city and meandered down the narrow side streets full of shops (called arcades here, reminiscent of europe) until we got to Federation Square, where we were able to buy tickets to a couple of Deaf Olympics Cultural Festival events. There were a whole bunch of booths set up in the square - a big screen showing Deaf poetry from around the world, info booths, a booth about the 2009 Deaf Olympics in Taipei, relay service booth, interpreter area, and a couple of other things. very overwhelming. Auslan (australian sign language), international sign, ASL, and so many others and combinations of everything were being flailed about all over the place. intimidating? i would say so. We got our tickets and moved on. Went back to the house for dinner and had a lovely meal with six of us this time - Julia and Dale joined us. We discussed Judaism (i need to brush up), Deaf stuff, accents, and much else over another lovely meal.
Next day into the city again to see the shows: first Quest from the USA - a serious piece about differences and society. No language - all was conveyed through movement and interactions. basic idea: society is a formless black trench coat - when people have something unique about them, they may remove their coat or have it taken off them. eventually they come to accept that the coat has good and bad aspects, but is not altogether good or evil. pretty good. afterwards we waited outside to chat with the performers because a friend of mine travelled with them to the Czech Republic last year and wanted me to say hi. We did. We met one performer, Deaf, named Luis Ray. He didn't know my friend (he just joined) but the director of the group, Paul? and one other girl, Miriam, did. they say hello back, by the way. Long story short (time's running out already!), we ended up having a chatty lunch with a group of mostly Deaf people, then we saw the afternoon show - Heads Up - an Australian duo of 1 Deaf american guy and 1 hearing aussie woman - much fun, we learned some Auslan, and chuckled a bunch. cute. - we then went to the art gallery and saw some aboriginal art with a couple of the hearing girls from Quest, then over to the Queen Victoria Square night market, which was positively packed with people, but fun. Back to the house where we ate cherries from the market for dessert with Bruce and Andrea along with Peggy White, a singer/songwriter from Canada who had just flown in the day before to perform at a country music festival here. More good chatting.
Next day: Aboriginal Heritage walk in the botanical gardens- really interesting flora and uses and just some perspective on how different each language group is all over Australia. The cultures are partially so inaccessible because there are so many different ones. It's like asking to learn about "the culture of europeans" - too vague. too many. So that was really good.
Then we went back over to Fed square and bumped into Luis Ray and the peopel from the day before again. Na's doing really well learning sign and i was really happy to be signing again, so it was fun fun fun. We had a strenuous conversation (via pen and paper mostly) with an Indian runner who placed 5th in the 110 meter...We went and found a hostel for the night (our servas family had no room - another musican came to stay) and got one after some searching. we met the servas fam a bit further outside the city at a club/restaurant for part of one of peggy's performances (awesome, by the way - peggy white - check it out), then took a tram all the way back to the city and went to the International Club (turned International Deaf Club while the Olympics were happening) and stayed there among the hundreds of signers from all over the world, flashing lights, laser light shows, and smoke until about 2:30 in the morning. We met up with Luis Ray there and he was kind enough to bop the night away with us and introduce us to a few people. Lots of fun, i must say. We danced with Turkish athletes, I finally met Shira Grabelsky (ask me if you want to know how many different ways i know her), I met a Deaf guy from Alabama, one from italy, a couple of them from Russia who were excellent break dancers, and so many others. it was really fun. nice to socialize without the pressure of conversation :). With many people we could only communicate with gestures, so no worries there. Much easier than making small talk.
Next morning we flew out here to Tassie and found our next servas hosts at the top of a very very steep hill. Huffing and puffing, we arrived to find that the 22 and 26 year old retired farmers (we did find that strange) had probably written 72 and 76 on their servas application and been misread. Nonetheless, Jim and Mae have been very excellent hosts: talkative and sweet, we've discussed politics, and been beaten very badly at scrabble. we went to the big bustly salamanca market here in hobart this morning and i made some purchases i'm happy about. we head off tomorrow on a 4 day road trip to see only a very small portion of this island. it looks so small in comparison to huge australia, but really it's the size of about ireland. so there's too much to see in 4 days. we're renting a car though and have chosen 2 major destinations, so hopefully we'll be able to work that out. it's so much planning though and it takes so much time - where do we stay how do we get there how much does it cost should we take a tour what about our flight blah blah blah. exhausting. much rather be playing scrabble out on the balcony with the beautiful view of the city and the harbor. but plan we do and plan we will.
after that we fly back to melbourne and drive the great ocean road, hopefully. then probably fly up to alice springs (and get those funny fly hats, thanks for the tip jordana) for a couple of days, then when we're utterly fried, we'll hop over to Cairns for some more sun and spend the next 2 weeks or so making our way down to sydney (while we see the great barrier reef and all that good stuff of course. there's also talk of scuba certification in the air. na definitely wants to. i'm still pondering). then a few days in sydney doing things we missed the first time around and then off to singapore. i'm really glad we were able to extend our stay here so easily. if you get a chance to use singapore airlines, they're really great. so easy. just a phone call, no charge. and the cost of the flight is fantastic - best we've seen. so yay for that.
what else? i'm feeling ok - a little tired of the planning aspects if you couldn't tell. i'm excited about servas still - the hosts seem to be really fantastic and i'm excited to meet more of them all over the place. Na and I are still doing well, though we can both get frustrated when the planning is long or things are expensive. Livejournal seems to be down right now (and hopefully has not lost everything everybody had so far - the page they have up didn't sound so good), so i guess i'm blogging for the both of us for now. maybe she's writing an email or something though, i dono.
I guess that'll be it for now. i don't know when i'll next get the chance to write much, so hopefully this will hold you for a couple of days. I'm starting to feel a small miniature bout of just the slightest tinge of homesickness coming on, so please feel free to write me emails and tell me about what's going on in your lives. i have some waiting for responses in my inbox, and i'm still gonna get there, but there are those of you i haven't heard from in a bit (you know who you are). how are you? wazzup? how're you going?
ok. i've overstayed my welcome here and am being booted off. away i go, then.
much love,
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 1/15/2005 03:17:00 AM
3 Comments:
Hi princess -
Been unable to unblog your blogs for a little while, but got all caught up today (15th) so I'm pretty much up to date. You got all my riddles you answered correct. Mom said she wanted the answers too for game #1, but she did play game #2 and was 100%.
Glad your trip is so fantastic and you are experiencing so much. I hope this is not construed as being disrepectful or frivilous - but is small talk in sign done only with your pinkies?
Miss you and look forward to seing you.
Unc B.
I'm so glad you got to really enjoy and interact in the Deaf festival. It must have felt wonderful to sign again, and hurrahs to Nabia for being such a good student! (and to you for being a good teacher,too!)
Your "itinerary" sounds ambitious and fun- don't fry too much please, and thank goodness some enterprising person invented the fly net thingee for the rock place. (now, doesn't mom sound intelligent in that last sentence?)
Keep us posted on your wonderful experiences- everyone is truly living vicariously through your blog!
Love, mom
You are doing so much. Thanks for blogging for the both of you, tho Na did email, you each share such different details. It's great to have the two perspectives. WHAT ARE THE FLYHAT THINGEES ?
We are good, celebrated Fethi;s 60th birthday, with your folks, Samir just back from Paris, and a bunch of other friends. Many people facsinated with your adventures. What's the current idea (don't want to say the dreaded "plan" word) on Singapore and beyond?
Hugs and love, your Aunt Barbara
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