This man has the true Aussie Christmas spirit. Thanks to Jomy for sending me these pics of his ex-pat buddy in Sydney. It's so classic!

Found this thing online. You guys can tell me if you think it's accurate or not... I think it's spot on!

You Are A Pine Tree

You love agreeable company, peace, and harmony. Compassionate and friendly, you love to help others. A natural poet, you have a very active imagination. You are very soft on the inside - needing affection and reassurance. You can fall in love deeply, but you will leave if you feel betrayed.

Well, they kicked us out yesterday. Yesterday? No, today's Monday. They kicked us out on Saturday, at 10 am. Gone from College, gone from Uni, on to bigger and better things. As Adam said before leaving for Fiji, "We're actually doing something with our lives!" Yup, he leaves Fiji in not many more days and heads home to Kiette, his gorgeous girlfriend back in Boston, showing up a few days earlier than planned, sporting his suit, carrying flowers, and having an ultra-shaggy hairstyle. He can't wait, and neither can I.

I wake up each morning now to a five-minute walk to the beach. I'm staying in Sylvia's unit at Coogee Beach, and so far it's been perfect. Some friends from Melbourne came into town on Saturday and we made a night of it, starting in North Sydney at a not-too-crowded Commodore, took a taxi to the foot of the Harbour Bridge, wandered across it goofing off and taking pictures, and then taxied again to Coogee, where we boogeyed the night away at the Palace and sat on the beach for awhile. So good.

Today, the water was just shimmering in the morning sun, deep blue in the far reaches of the horizon creeping into torquoise by the shore. And, Coogee on a weekday is virtually empty, so as soon as I finish my errands here in the city for the day, I'll head back and nap on the beach a bit before going to Ben's for dinner.

Meeting the parents for the first time-- yikes! But it'll be so good, because the people who could produce someone like Ben must be amazing. I've heard nothing but amazing things about the McAlpine family, too.

I'm here in a place called Global Gossip, on the block in the city that is literally completely devoted to backpackers. Two bars, two hostels, several convenience stores, and an internet cafe/call center/mailing center. I've checked postal rates to ship some items home. Guess what I've found? Economy Air for 25 kg is $259.95!!! The rates START at $127.95... And SeaMail starts at $79.95. Sheesh! Looks like I'll be getting rid of a few of my little keepsake odds and ends that I wish I could ship back!

On a completely different topic, I head off to New Zealand in less than a week! Can't WAIT to go and be in the wilderness again. And I'm so excited about the itinerary. Here's what I've got:

November 26: Arrive in Christchurch, stay night at hostel with Eva, Andrew
November 27: Catch 7:45 am bus to Fairlie, meet up with Lyn Campbell, farmstay host.
November 27-December 2: Farmstay with Campbells (with Eva, Andrew); they have bikes and fishing poles for us and are looking for a third bike, and there's access to walking treks. We'll be doing farmwork and gardening work and such for them and staying in a cottage and eating meals with the family!!!
December 2: Caroline and Jordanna pick us up in the car and start 3-day adventure; Explore Lake Tekapo and Mt. Cook area, stay night near Lake Wanaka
December 3: Drive to Te Anau and explore Doubtful Sound via kayak?
December 4: Kayak Milford Sound, do 1-hour part of Routeborn trek
December 5: Arrive Queenstown in AM, travel up to Glenorchy on Lake Wakatipu to begin Farmstay 2
December 5-December 10: Work as housekeep and childsitter for couple who owns and runs a lodge on the lake. Free access to bikes, kayaks, walking treks, and can catch rides with other helpers going into Queenstown on their time off.
December 11: Bus from Queenstown to Picton, all day
December 12-13: Kayak Abel Tasman park? (hopefully this works out)
December 13: Bus to Christchurch, meet up with Mrs. Moneymaker's cousin
December 13-14: BBQ and stay over at Boyers place NW of Christchurch
December 15: Back to Christchurch, meet up with Tim Osbourne, an Aussie friend
December 15-17: Explore Christchurch area and beyond with Tim
December 18: fly out early AM to Sydney!!

Now it's time to check emails and be on my way to actually DO those errands I spoke of. Miss everyone back home and I'll fill in the missing pieces of my blog eventually!

P.S. Just got an email from Paka Kurbjun about Thanksgiving. I'm happy to assure you all that I'm planning to share the love with some of my Aussie friends, and teach them the ways of Thanksgiving. Ideally, I'll invite some of them over for the evening meal and maybe I can find a turkey somewhere to cook. If not, it'll have to be ham. But I know they have stuffing and if not, I can make it the old fashioned way!! So don't you worry, I'm taking care of that holiday all by myself!! To you all, good luck feeding 28 hungry people all at once!! Love you guys!!

A friend of mine at work gave me Mother Night. I'm still not quite sure why he gave it to me other than I guess he imagined I would quite simply appreciate it. He was right, I've never read anything by Vonnegut until now, and I think he's a genius. Each page I read, each paragraph, each sentence-- each word-- I ask what was in his head as he wrote. Where did this story come from? Who is Howard W. Campbell? Surely he is a real WWII criminal... but nothing but Mother Night pops up in a Google search. Surely the man is as schizophrenic as his fellow espionage mates... but his Blue Fairy Godmother sheds light on things outside of one man's personal knowledge.

I have 25 pages left to go, so hopefully the answers will arise. Until then, I'll say that I love what this book does to the mind; the way it engages it in a historical, a psychological, a philosophical/ethical sense all at once. Pick it up sometime- it'll take a fast reader a day to get through.

As a teaser, here are some quotes that I've found ravishing:

"From the Empire State Building, I walked downtown. I walked all the way to my old home in Greenwich Village, to Resi's and my and Kraft's old home.

"I encountered many fellow lightning bugs. Sometimes I gave the cherry red signal first, sometimes they. And I left the seashell roar and the aurora borealis of the city's heart farther and farther behind me." (pg. 152)

"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile." (pg. 103)

"I have never seen a more sublime deomonstration of the totalitarian mind, a mind which might be likened unto a system of gears where teeth have been filed off at random. Such snaggle-toothed thought machine, driven by a standard or even by a substandard libido, whirls with the jerky, noisy, gaudy pointlessness of a cuckoo clock in Hell.

"The missing teeth, of course, are simple, obvious truths, truths available and comprehensible even to ten-year-olds, in most cases." (pg. 145)

"There are plenty of good reasons for fighting,' I said, 'but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on his side. It's that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive. It's that part of an imbecile,' I said, 'that punishes and vilifies and makes war gladly.' " (page 164)

"His mother understood my illness immediately, that it was my world rather than myself that was diseased." (page 168)

And finally, one amazing bit of prose that strikes a chord deep within me for all the reasons Vonnegut intended plus others he may not have even imagined:

"As for children's working off aggressions, I'm against it. They are going to need all the aggressions they can contain for ultimate release in the adult world. Name one great man in history who did not go boiling and bubbling through chidhood with a lashed-down safety valve..." (page 174)

Of course, all of these feel weightless and unsubstantial without the surrounding context of the story. Nonetheless, I'll print them here in the hopes that ounces of literary genius will spark an interest in reading the book.

The thing I find most fascinating out of it all is that he rarely, if ever, uses a phrase other than "I said" or "he said" and so on to create conversation. And yet, there is no problem in understanding the emotion of the moment...

Here's the link to a slideshow covering the past three months!!! There's a lot of photos, but hopefully you'll be entertained enough to watch it through. Still more to come!

Photo Update

[see below for new entries from Thailand to present]

So I haven't written in awhile. But, I've got plenty of time tonight, so maybe I can remember back a month, to even before the Moulin Rouge party and be able to tell you about Thailand, and about that rough week after we got back... into the next week which was fun-filled and fantastic. And after that, a sort of steady fun day, solid day, lonely day, crazy day... repeat.

I like to think I'm a fairly independent person. I don't necessarily need people around to make me happy. But sitting alone at dinner tonight made me feel kinda lonely. I came in and, as usual, did my survey around the dining hall to see if anyone was there I knew. unfortunately, no faces stuck out of the small crowd. So, I sighed, wondering to myself if I should just grab a plate and steal to my room, or maybe join Lucy in front of the TV-- her post for the past week and a half. Then, I muttered to myself that I wish I had a kitchen so i could at least eat by myself in private... grabbed a plate and served a bit of the mush, found some veggies, and took a seat. Thankfully, Cass showed up about 10 minutes later and joined me, but boy! It made me miss knowing so many people back home that I would have killed to have a meal with and just laugh about fun times. I can see it now-- being at Jeff's place with Pete and Geary and Sara and Dave and whoever else, after that football game. Jeff's grilling, Dave's offering us all a beer, and the rest of us are at the poker table, betting pennies against each other. I've found a koosh ball and have decided it's really rather amusing to pelt it at Petie when he's not looking. He screams OW! and then pelts it right back as I debate whether to cower or try to wrestle it back from him... Sigh... but, snap out of it, Jan... you're here, not there.

Dave mentioned when I interviewed him for an article I wrote that he was in a bit of an emotional valley. He didn't say it quite like that, but did claim that when he left for Australia, the study abroad office warned him that there would be a sort of roller coaster of emotions throughout his time. However, the big dip was supposed to happen soon after the initial arrival.... but for him, it happened right around the beginning and middle of September. Right about the time that friends back home are going back to school, enjoying catching up and partying, and just living the life he left. I really identified with what he said then, and I still feel it quite a bit. Since I started getting the flurries of emails of my friends catching up and planning parties and just reliving memories they have and creating new ones... it's been hard. Especially since I'm friends with mostly fourth years who are also graduating uni, have 4 years of memories in their friendships... even when I'm included, the nature of things makes me feel like even more of an outsider. As much as I'm a part of things here, I'm so very very seperate. It's a feeling I've tried to escape since middle school. (Karl, you know what I'm talking about!)

Don't get me wrong. I've been having so much fun here in Australia, it's ridiculous. But it's most certainly coupled with equally low times.

As much as I absolutely love Australia, and could easily come back and live up this culture-- the weather, the surfing, the laid-back living, the crazy people, the easy access to beaches, warm winters, and a ton of people who are so active with sport-- leaving so many comforts at home would be so difficult! Then again... we're all going to disperse from UVA anyway.

This experience is bearing up on the future and as they clash, I'm going mad!!!!!

I've been avoiding writing because every time I have some time to write, I am usually not in the best of moods. After I write this entry, I'll shape it up and try to write the entries as they should be told.

Dear All,

This is Benny. Welcome to my entry. I hope you enjoy.

Upon hearing that many of J's American friends were being swamped with study, I decided to pass on my pearler of advice: "Work can get overwhelming, but don't let it kick you in the nuts." (Apologies to the grandparents for the foul language). Janice found this particularly amusing (and slightly concerning) and suggested i pass on this advice - and here i am.

I think i may also pass on two pieces of advice that my parents passed on to me... First, (from my father) when looking at a prospective "lady-friend", have a long, hard look at the mother. Good guide. Secondly, from my mother, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to a woman's is through her mother". Basically, if the mother likes you, so will she. Have i just gone against this advice by writing this here? Perhaps. Recently, i have decided that you need to expand this advice to include older brothers (hi karl!) and best friends (g'day pete!). Thoughts?

Hope all is well, believe me when i say that we are taking good care of Janice. She has even taught us a thing or two... like sloshball... and coal fires?! what the heck are coal fires doing under Pennsylvania?! THAT MAKES NO SENSE, YOU CRAZY AMERICANS!

Farewell from Down Under,

Benny

P.S. Ye and God said to Abraham, "You will kill your son, Isaac." And Abraham said unto his Lord "I can't hear you, you will have to speak in to the microphone." So God said "Oh, i'm sorry, is this better? Check, check, check, check, check... Jerry, pull the high end out, i'm still getting some hissback here." (For those who are unawares, Family Guy is amusing. Hello Caroline!)

After one night on a train from Chaing Mai to Bangkok, a day spent in the city, another night on a plane from Bangkok to Sydney, and another day spent doing work, my third big night hinged on a friend's 21st birthday party. 21sts in Australia are big, important deals, which is funny because it's the same age our big party is, but ours is because we can finally drink! And their drinking age is 18...

Usually, there's a theme, and a huge party ensues with lots of drinking, eating, and being merry. After everyone is sufficiently tipsy and very nearly drunk, close friends and relatives stand and give speeches. The tradition is that the parents' speeches are sweet and loving and sentimental-- their baby has just reached his or her early 20s! And then come the friends' speeches.... filled with dirt and grime, accusations and realizations, friendly reminders and sometimes cruel kicks, the birthday girl or boy has to realize it all just falls under the category of "paying out" and it's all in good, loving humor. Sometimes, the parents have to realize this even more so than the one in the hot seat!

Cicily's birthday last night was an entertaining one. It was my first (and probably my last) chance to witness one of these infamous rituals, and it was a blast. Benny gave a speech with Tom, using hit song titles from 1984 onward to bring up the things they love about Cicily as well as to shed some light on the somewhat more secretive parts of her life. Lucy, her best friend, dropped a few things that made my jaw drop-- it was quite the spectacle. Everyone was dressed to greater and lesser extents in the Moulin Rouge theme-- true to my nature of procrastination as well as wanting to have the perfect costume (Daddy knows this all too well from my senior year Oscar the Grouch costume), I successfully procrastinated yesterday by wandering down to the Beads, Sequins and Feathers store in Newtown to spend a bit of money on some feathers and sequins to make a little hairpiece.

A few raspberry champagnes, some M&Ms, pizza and a Heineken later, the remnants of the crowd danced and sang a bit, enjoying each other's company and restoring the victim of the 21st speeches to her original (?) dignity. It was a perfect night, and everyone's moods seemed to express excitement that spring is peeking around the corner!!

Finally, a picture of Ben and myself to show you folks! The ecstatic pair matched, black outfits with a tinge of rouge - red feathers to red tie. There were a few moments last night (during the speech) when his cheeks also matched the tie and feathers. I probably shouldn't mention the point where he called Cic Lucy in the midst of telling her how special she is...

Emirates is a beautiful airline. I'm not sure how we got such good rates, but with a TV in every seat back with 50 or so movies to choose from, and at least 70 games to choose from and play between seats, how could one get bored?

I did very little of my Newswriting work, between getting some shut-eye and playing games. Poor Caroline had had little to no sleep on the train or on the flight, so the morning was not treating her so well.

But, upon arrival in sunny Sydney, we all felt rejuvinated. Despite the fun we had on the trip, we were immensely grateful to arrive on Australian soil, have our visa stamped in the passport, and know that we'd not be surrounded by those speaking Thai for a long time to come. Welcome home to fixed prices, a familiar language, the gleaming sun and sturdy buildings. Welcome to where you can smile at a stranger without the fear that he'll try to sell you something or scam you. We took a taxi part of the way home and then happily walked the rest.

After seeing Ben for a bit, I spent the day getting ready for Cicely's 21st!

"The chef, Perry, said the floods in Chiang Mai were the worst in 30 years, which means we'd have to take a taxi to the next town to get the overnight train back to Bangkok. Stopped off at Tesco Express for some supplies before heading to the train too."

Got to see more of the countryside before night fell on the train. Felt pretty crappy for the majority of the day... didn't make much effort to hide it, which i'm pretty shameful of. Guess I was sort of disappointed the trek was so short, and I was finished with the trip for all I cared, now that the trek was over. I didn't really want to think about going back to Bangkok, or paying the leaving fee, or dealing with those tailors again. Plus, I definitely was missing Benny, my own language, and the sunshine and dry weather. Nonetheless, I should have sucked it up and seen the trip through. Took a few choice words from Caroline once we'd arrived in Bangkok for me to shape up and realize I was being selfish, and THEN we saw the trip out. Checked out our goods at the tailors, grabbed a few of our Thai food delights and then hit the road for the airport.