a whole week gone?!

A JOKE: why did the monkey play on the barbecue?**

INTRODUCTION:
well, this is the longest I've gone without blogging. a whole week. I don't even know what to do with myself. I apologize for leaving you all stranded, wondering what I'm doing and what I've ingested. I know that your lives depend on knowing every detail about my daily activities, and so I am sorry.

I'm glad people enjoyed looking at the pictures I posted. I'm sorry I can't put more up, but I'll try and get you another installment at some point. and there will be PLENTY when i return ::grin::. I hear some people are having trouble figuring out the order of the posts because they don't check every day and then it's confusing (but WHY aren't you checking every day is the real question. make this your homepage, yo.) . But seriously folks, the posts are in "most recent first" order. so if you want to start at the beginning, go to the end. make sense? and thanks to those who post comments. i always love hearing what people think.

CONTEXT:
That said, I am now in Canberra, the capital of Australia (though Sydney is it's largest city). I am sitting in an internet cafe/gaming lounge, and some guy was talking out loud to his co-players (i can only assume) and the person running this place is watching a movie that sounds pretty blue, though I can't see the screen (thankfully, i think). I am listening to WFUV streaming on the internet. It's sunday night there, so it's real old-timey stuff. I'm loving it.

WHAT YOU MISSED:
We spent the week following my last blog in Narooma (a town in the South Coast portion of New South Wales) with Ruth and Justin (contacts through my dad and fabulous people I'd met before when they travelled to the states) and their 17-month old son Saxon. Upon arrival in Narooma, Nabia and I virtually collapsed from exhaustion, even after napping/watching Harry Potter on the bus ride down for 7 hours. The next six days were spent quite happily doing very little. Although I think Ruth and Justin may think me intolerably lazy now, I did need the recharge after rushing around New Zealand and Sydney. So I read and ate and relished in the caravan-park-holiday-ness of it all. Narooma was lovely (what I saw of it): we were in a little waterfront cabin, fully equipped, next to the little bay that alternated between a long sandbar and a shallow bay, depending on the tide. One day, Ruth, Nabia and I walked out to a little island at the edge of it - it was at most calf-deep, and there were all kinds of little crabs and shells and things living in the cool clear water. The sunsets were beautiful. But we all know how I feel about sunsets.
Here are the highlights. or at least a random list of stuff that happened:
*I bought a new swimsuit because my old one is falling apart,
*I fried up some Vietnamese chicken balls (which Saxon was quite a fan of),
*I played on the Jumping Pillow (somewhat similar to a trampoline, but picture a big pillow. for jumping. hence the name.),
*I played with Saxon a fair bunch, including a successful feeding of applesauce
*I read a lot (Secret Life of Bees - good stuff. now I'm learning to love Tim Winton. Mom - Ruth can't believe you didn't give me that book she gave you by him.),
*I ate flathead fish (delish), and barrimundi too
*I had several Tim Tam Bombs (ohmigod. so they're these chocolate covered chocolate sandwich cookies - i'm sorry, biscuits - and you bite two opposite corners off, and then you suck hot tea up through them and shove them in your mouth. It sounds a little bit nasty, but actually it's fabulous.),
*I ate vanilla ice cream with milo (milo is a nasty version of nestle quick - a hot chocolate powder mix thing, but on ice cream, once you mash it in - yum. thanks justin)
*I watched Miss Congeniality cuz Na had never seen it
*I watched Lantana - Anthony LaPaglia has an Aussie accent!
*I ate at the neighbors BBQ. They threw some shrimp (prawns) on the barbie.
*I practice my Oz accent. it's not very good.
*I met a guy who sounded EXACTLY like Bruce the shark from nemo. exactly.

I think those are the main highlights, aside from the generally wonderful fun of hanging out with Ruth and Justin. There were accents, fart jokes, girls nights, nutella, and lots of laughter and good conversation. Thanks again to them for putting us up and also putting up with us :).

FUTURE PLANS:
Now we're in Canberra and we walked all over this town yesterday - went to the War memorial and the National Gallery. Today we're going to the science museum (Questacon) if I don't stay in here all day talking to you all... This evening we're flying to Melbourne, where we're staying with a Servas family tonight and tomorrow night then probably to a hostel while we try to attend some Deaf Olympics events (thanks for the heads up Emerge, that's part of the reason we came down here now. I'll let you know how it goes and if I muster the courage to actually talk to anyone) and see the city. Then I think we'll hop down to Tasmania for a bit then back up the east coast to the barrier reef (i wanna see a sea turtle!) and all that sunny stuff. we haven't quite figured out the logistics or timeframe for it all yet, but we're definitely going to move our departure back at least a couple of weeks. That way Southeast asia can have some more time to recuperate, we can have some more time to research and plan, and a month isn't enough to see australia anyway - it's too big. this place is enormous, i tell you. about the size of the states. smaller population and it's clustered to the coast, but still. it's ginormous.

FEELINGS:
Now for the feelings portion. I know I know, it's a wordy entry, but it's been a while and when am i not wordy? before i talk about myself some more, to keep you interested, i'll give you some ozzie vocabulary i've enjoyed so far:

gobsmacked = shocked
dodgy = sketchy
cheeky = sassy
good on 'im = nicely done
good-o = good
right-o = right
mozzie = mosquito
tazzie = tasmania (sense a trend?)
dunnie = toilet
toilet = bathroom (just a toilet)
bathroom = shower room
fluff = fart (the verb or noun)
massive big = huge
gorgeous = adjective for everything - not just pretty things. also
nice or convenient or fun or anything of a pleasant nature
how're your mother and father = iffy, as in "the weather's lookin
a bit how're your mother and father, so we might not
want to go to the beach.'
whaddya reckon = what do you think?
how're you going? = what's up?
trackydacks = sweatpants
underdacks = underwear
jumper = sweatshirt or sweater or warm top of any sort
whinge (rhymes with hinge) = whine

nothing too exciting, but fun nonetheless. just trying the accent is fun, really.

So yeah. The war museum made me uncomfortable. War usually does, but I don't know.. it's strange to learn how subjective your own education is. I mean, once you shift perspectives, everything changes. In the states, we don't learn about the rest of the world nearly enough. not it's current state, not it's history. Here, World War II is all about Japan. We don't learn about all the island grabbing and fighting that happened in southern asia. That part of the world changed hands quite a lot, it seems, and we never even really learned about Australia's participation at all. It just makes me wonder and question everything else I ever learned. Whose perspective was that from? and what did it leave out?

Also - aboriginal art. [here's a link to a gallery that seems maybe halfway decent - good thought, Emerge] After new zealand and being so enthralled with maori culture - learning about it, talking to people, visiting that maori village.. it was all reasonably accessible, you just had to seek it out. I loved the art and the symbolism and the mythology. So I came here and was excited to learn about Aborigine culture and art - I'd seen some of the dot paintings and such and was ready to go. It's a much sadder story here, though, it seems. So far, I haven't been able to find all that much information about the culture and mythology and art. Yesterday at the gallery I did get some more info about why the dot paintings are dots and that type of thing, but the culture is much less accessible and much more secretive. On one hand that's good, because who am I to butt my nose in and be asking questions about it - maybe it's protected this way. Also, it seems there aren't many Aborigines living with the mainstream culture here. It seems the ones that are around are looked down upon and made jokes about (neighbors in Narooma made some references to "the Abbos") - many have trouble with addictive substances like alcohol because their systems aren't used to them... So it's seems to be a pretty sad story for the native people here. We walked by the old parliament building yesterday and there were camps set up - a protest - for aboriginal soveriegnty and rights, i think. But I can't seem to gather much information about it even though I'm trying. As far as the mythology and symbolism, the stories that come with each picture- the interpretations by the artist - are very hard to understand. Many are aerial spatial maps of locations where significant events occured or of mythical animals in Dreamtime, which is, as far as I can figure, the time when this landscape was created, by way of these huge mythical animals slithering and roaming about. But I want to hear the stories and the rituals and things. I've been slightly put off by not being able to do it. I'd rather not be put off by it, but there it is. Hopefully I'll be more successful at some other point along the way. I was interested in buying some art, but now I'm not so sure I'll end up with any. Some of it is pure knockoff and I don't want that, but the stuff that is authentic is exorbitently priced and i haven't really connected with any piece yet. hmm. a quandary for sure. but i may find myself a digeridoo yet. [added later, from the safety of new servas house - nice - Another idea about this is that the oppression here is much more recent than other places. as recently as the 70s, children were being taken from their parents to be brought up in white society. So, there's been no recovery time. the adults of this generation were still the ones directly affected. not enough time has passed for a resurgence and an effort to educate. more to think about...]

ok. i've been in this fluorescently-lit basement for a little bit too long for my liking. nabia hasn't even started blogging yet, but maybe i'll try to occupy myself otherwise soon. possibly outside. ooh, that's a thought. oh, and if anyone has information on how to get visas when you're already travelling, i'd welcome the info. The next couple of countries we're ok with an onward ticket and sufficient funds I think, but we will need a few visas along the way - do we have to visit consulates? how do we find consulates? i'll find the info by the time we need it, but it's not as easy to find as one might think. no worries, though.

well, g'day and i miss you all.
signing off,
amy

**it wanted to be a "g-rill-a"

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