I’ve spent the past month in Darwin in the very northern part of Australia. It’s been my last destination in Australia and I’ve enjoyed the people, the lifestyle and the natural beauty very much. Darwin is a small capital city (compared with Australia’s other capitals) of around 115,000 people in the Northern Territory. The NT is similar in size to Texas…and most of it is wide open, empty space. There are two seasons in Darwin; the wet and the dry. I arrived at the beginning of dry season and it was a welcome change from the cool weather in Melbourne. Temperature-wise, Darwin is like Mississippi in July all year round—32 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Farenheit and humid. I’ve really come to respect the sun in Australia and I’ve loved soaking it up here during my last month before heading off to rainy England.
Once again, I’m lucky to have a place to stay thanks to my friend Clancy. His mom Kate, who I met at Christmastime, lives in Darwin and I’ve been staying in her guest house in the backyard. Kate runs her own, government funded company that does outreach and medical training and money management services for Indigenous (Aboriginal) communities in the Top End. While I was here I had the opportunity to visit a remote community and spend some time with some elderly Indigenous women on a turtle hunt…we drove an hour and a half out into the bush to Tipperary Creek and used hand fishing lines and wallaby meat as bait for turtles. Some of the women used meat from a dead pig that we passed on the road. I was one of the only people to catch a turtle that day and one of the women showed me how to rip out the intestines and then stuff the hole with leaves and then cook the turtle over the fire. Another lady broke open the turtle and I shared around pieces of it. Kinda tasted like chicken. The most surprising part was the liver…it was actually really good. I’m certainly thankful for this unique experience.
One thing I was not expecting when I came to Darwin was to have access to a car, but Kate has been kind enough to let me drive around in one of her company vehicles and it has really allowed me a lot of freedom to explore Darwin and its surrounding areas.
I’ve spent lots of afternoons walking around the plethora of parks around here like the Casuarina Coastal Reserve, Charles Darwin National Park, George Brown Botanical Gardens, Holmes Jungle Nature Park, and the Territory Wildlife Park where I got to see a freshwater crocodile and a wallaby nice and close.
One day Joel and I went down to Litchfield National Park and went swimming in Buley Rockhole and at Florence Falls. I also was able to go hiking in Katherine Gorge with Clancy’s cousin Andrew. I saw countless Katherine Gorge commercials on Imparja television while I was in Queensland and it was high on my to do list so I’m glad I got to go there.
One of my favourite aspects of Darwin has been the weekly markets that happen during the dry season. Mindil Beach Sunset Markets on Thursday nights is the largest one and its all about the food. There are tons of food stalls serving everything from Mexican to French to Sri Lankan to Hong Kong(ese?). This is where I go each week to get my fix of Asian food…usually a Thai curry or some sort of Vietnamese. Last night I had great Mongolian Beef and Sweet and Sour Pork from the Chinese stand. Then on Saturdays are the Parap Markets, famous for their Laksas… a laksa is a Perenakan coconut based spicy noodle soup. You can get it with chicken, beef or seafood, a combination of two or with all three (the lot). And of course there’s veggies in there too. Now this doesn’t sound like typical breakfast food, it sounds just downright weird to someone from the South who isn’t exposed to this kind of food often…but this stuff just gets better with every bite. Sundays are the Nightcliff and Rapid Creek Markets. These are a bit smaller scale but I usually get some mandarin oranges from the produce stand to eat during the week. It’s also a good place to get a smoothie or a fruit drink if you’re feeling bad after your Saturday night out. I’ve learned that crushed lime and ginger is the go to drink in that situation.
While I was at Falls Festival in Tasmania over the summer we camped with Joel (a guy from Darwin) and now that I’ve made it up here he’s been my connection to a whole group of people to hang out with on the weekends. I’ve already met tons of Darwin people thru Clancy on the Sunny Coast and in Darwin everyone knows everyone so I’ve been able to get along well with a lot of people just because I know Joel and I know loads of Darwin people in Queensland. I enjoy hanging around all these guys because of all the slang used and some of the outrageous stories that come up. Sometimes there is so much slang used it’s like a different language. I’ve enjoyed adopting a bit because I’ve discovered if you adopt some slang then people aren’t as hung up on the fact that there is an American around. That said, my nickname here is Mississippi Rob, and I kinda like that. Darwin people drink a lot (they drink heaps) and I gave up pretending that I could hang with for my liver’s sake and for my wallet’s too. Last week was BASSINTHEGRASS, Darwin’s music festival in the Botanical Gardens. Headliners were 360, Grinspoon and Flume. Pre drinks were at this guys’ apartment on the top floor of a high rise building in the northern end of the city that overlooked the harbour and the gardens..cool place to spend the day before the festival in the afternoon. The festival was great…Flume didn’t disappoint and I got to hear some Grinspoon music (they’re a big name Australian rock band that has been around for some time but I had never heard a song).
Also while I’ve been here I’ve done a bit of office work for Kate and I’ve been able to finish the online section of my TEFL course.
I look forward to the next chapter in my life, teaching English in Vietnam after a brief jaunt to Europe to hang out with a heap of great friends.
It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post but I’m finally done with my job at the sawmill in Wandoan, Queensland. I’ve moved on to Melbourne to stay for a week with Aunt Sue who I spent summer/Christmas with. I love Melbourne and its’ cafe culture and laneways and trams and cool, modern architecture mixed with Victorian architecture. I’ve also come down here to celebrate ANZAC Day (Australia’s Memorial Day) and to attend some footy games. I’ve really gotten in to “Aussie Rules” football and will be going to two games this weekend and cheering on my own team (Essendon) in their biggest game of the season on ANZAC Day. Regrettably, I was not able to get tickets to this game since it is the biggest game of the season other than the Grand Final (Super Bowl). I’ll also be visiting some neighbourhoods and museums that I did not make it to when I was here this summer, sort of completing my Melbourne Bucket List. I don’t think this will be my last time in this city though. I’d like to apply to some Master’s programs here in a few years if I can figure out how to pay for that.
So, on to the point of this blog. A couple of days ago my Dad asked me what I learned while working out at the mill. I was already planning to write such a blog post and I wanted to wait until I got to Melbourne so I could get some inspiration to write and to reflect on some of the more positive aspects of my time in rural no-where. I was itching to leave the bush at the end of my 3 months there. So now that I’m chilling in a cafe on Smith St. sipping on a flat white, here we go:
Lesson 1. It is easy to save money when you spend on nothing but groceries and eat the same meals every week. Other than booking plane tickets and hostel/hotel rooms in the places I’ll visiting in the coming months, I really only spent money on food for two weeks. I always ate the same things every week. Eggs and bacon and toast for breakfast somedays and Weet-Bix cereal on others. Apples or some sort of snack at smoko break. Ham and cheese sandwiches at lunch everyday. Canned soup some nights and meat pie and boiled vegetables other nights. And loads of Mi Goreng, a cheap Indonesian noodle dish that is way better than Ramen but just as cheap. I did treat myself occasionally with some curry or Mexican food and the occasional chocolate snack.
Lesson 2. The value of my education- One of the things I was most shocked by out in Queensland was how uneducated most of the people were. Just by the simple things that they did not know. I realise I was working in a saw mill and you don’t have to have much of an education to land a job there but while I worked there I became very thankful for the education that I have received and occasionally taken for granted. And not just my university degree but my high school diploma as well. One day I was asked, “Are Mexico and America in the same country?” Another time someone bragged to me,
“I just learned who Barack Obama is last week…I don’t even know what Julia Gillard (Australia’s Prime Minister) looks like.” That’s absurd. How can someone be so unaware of things like that?
Lesson 3. People don’t get out much- loads of people at the mill were just locked in a cycle, never leaving the town and just hating their jobs. Plenty of people had never been to Sydney and some had never left Queensland. It was weird to think that I had seen more of their home country in a few short months than they had during the course of their entire life.
Lesson 4. Reinforced the lesson of “Hard work pays off”- My parents have always told me this and I’ve known its true from all my time spent at Chick-fil-a and Lusa working my way up in those businesses. At the mill, my job wasn’t particularly difficult but it was hard work and often frustrating but I toughed it out and stuck with it and my work ethic eventually gained the respect of my boss. I was able to train new people before I left and was given some more responsibility in my position towards the end. Also, my main goal in taking this job was to save money. I’ve been able to save enough to get a head start on my English teaching career without returning to the States. I used a lot of the boring hours in Wandoan working on an online course to complete my TEFL certification
Lesson 5. Loads of new slang and Aussie words—sometimes “Australian” seems like a completely different language than English or American English…among the many words I learned are ‘shifter’= wrench, ‘dear’= expensive, ‘lekky’= electrician, ‘tea’= dinner, ‘slevs’=7eleven, ‘durf’=surf, ‘horrorsed’=really drunk, and there are plenty more.
Lesson 6. Welding is a lot harder than it looks- on week the mill couldn’t get any trees in because of flooding and we had to shut down for a few days. During this time we did a lot of cleaning and I helped our mechanic and my supervisor build a new chute type thing for our wood chipper. I mainly held things in place or passed around tools but I did get to have a go at welding something and guess what? It is WAY harder than it looks, but it’s a very cool feeling when you get the electrode going and you’re connecting two pieces of steel.
Lesson 7. Watching a 60 year old man get wasted every weekend is sometimes sad and sometimes funny- A couple of weeks ago an old man named Terry moved into the share house that I lived in with around 8-10 other mill employees. This guy drank serious amounts of goon (boxed wine) every weekend. On paydays he would buy beer but once that was gone he got on the goon hard. He would start drinking around 9 or 10 in the morning, get wasted, sleep during the afternoon and then get up and do it again at night. Once, I had a 5 minute conversation with him and had no clue what he was saying. I just responding with “Yeah, Terry” and “That’s crazy mate!”. One day we was really drunk on the back veranda and he fell out of his chair and hurt his back and couldn’t get up. He was just crouched down on the ground, looking like Gollum, unable to move for about 30 minutes. I asked if he wanted help getting into his chair but he just laughed…that was kinda sad…people out there drink way too much and I’m convinced that the price of alcohol is a major factor in keeping them lower class.
Lesson 8. Queenslanders hate AFL- same guy, Terry, just hated Australian rules football and made it a point to tell me every single day that I watched it. He’d stumble in and grumble “This shit! I hate this shit!” Queenslanders and more specifically, working class Queenslanders are fans of Rugby League and State of Origin rugby. AFL is a Victorian thing mainly. Somebody else always referred to AFL as ‘GayFL”
Lesson 9. I belong in a city…Or at least a town with more than 500 people- While it was cool to live in a small Aussie town for a while and get to know some nice locals, I felt really limited out there and didn’t like the isolation much. I love being in a city where there is always something to do or see, public transportation to ride and a variety of restaurants, cafes and bars to hang out in. This is why Saigon, Vietnam will be perfect…Culture amid chaos and unbelievable food.
Lesson 10. In my opinion, bogan Aussies smoke more cigarettes than French people. I was blown away by the amount of cigarettes people at work smoked during the day. Most people rolled their own and would just roll countless cigarettes throughout the day. I even wrote a poem about it one day (that’s a good indicator of how bored I’ve been, I wrote a poem). Sometimes when people would run out of money before payday they would decide to “give up smoking”. But of course, as soon as the money was in the account on Thursdays they’d be up at the servo buying more ciggies. One guy living in the house woke up each morning at 5am to, quote “Start smoking cigarettes. I usually smoke around 10 before we go down to work at 6:30.” After work, what did most people do? Sit on the back porch and smoke cigarettes and drink.
I may seem kinda bitter towards these people and the location where I was living but the truth is they’re all just characters in my story and I really appreciate the opportunity that I had to live in a rural region of Australia that most Sydneysiders and Melbournians would never normally see.
Next week I’ll be going to Darwin in the North of the country. It will be a massive change from Melbourne, but I’ll write more about it once I’m there.
January 22nd. It’s been over 5 months since I arrived in Australia. That means that I’ve now been here longer than I was in France/Europe in the Spring of 2011. It was my original intention to post a new blog entry each month but it seems that plan has gone out the window. If you remember in my last post I was preparing to head off on a trip to Melbourne to spend the summer there with my mate Clancy’s family + numerous side trips. It was probably the best summer holiday I have ever had, jam packed with lots of action and plenty of relaxation. Here’s the rundown of my Aussie summer. Hope you enjoy and make it to the end for an update of plans for my next move.
Thanksgiving Day is on a Greyhound bus from Wandoan to Brissy, eat Maccas for dinner and then have a night out with the Darwin boys in Mooloolaba…it’s a Bundaberg rum and coke kind of night cuz the semester has just ended, 5 days lounging around Jack Bailey’s apartment and going to the beach everyday, even have a go at surfing..didn’t exactly master it but I grasp that just making an effort to get on a wave is fun and a great way to start the day. Take off for the Gold Coast with Clancy at the end of November, two nights there at D-Money’s house, beach at Surfer’s Paradise with heaps of schoolies, mountain drive to the hippie town of Nimbin and on to Byron Bay with more beautiful beaches, a lighthouse lookout, and too many drunk schoolies (recent high school graduates). Steak at Hog’s Breath Cafe-45$ dinner, marathon drive to Sydney-8/9 hours, I have my first go at driving a manual (on the main highway between Brisbane and Sydney no doubt, luckily there is no one on the roads). Roll into Sydney just in time for BBQ and beers at Dylan’s house in St. Ives, crash at Anna’s apartment at Macquarie Uni, next day it’s rainy so hop on the train to the city and spend the day bowling in Darling Harbour, early dinner in Circular Quay (pronounced “key”). The next day is back to the city to pick up Falls tickets and watch the cricket in a corner hotel in King’s Cross. That night, one drink in a back alley whiskey bar in the CBD and off to bed early for another long drive to Melbourne.
Melbourne’s different, it’s better, it’s somewhere I’d like to live, it’s so far away from the rest of the world, yet it’s a powerhouse GLOBAL CITY, tick it off the list. First night out is yum cha in Chinatown and the Croft Institute bar, my uni instructor instructed me to go there. The bartender is cool, he’s from Tassie and is instantly a friend, a good connection. Tame Impala gig is next at the Forum Theatre, I knew I wanted to see Tame Impala play in Australia when I decided to come here January 2012 so this is a big event for me, they play every song I want to hear and it’s psych-rock like only Kevin Parker can come up with. Next Day is Thursday and the first day in the CBD and I see all the highlights, it’s just like I’m in Europe again, I’m all over the public transportation, I can’t get enough of the mix of Victorian architecture and the modern. The laneways and hidden cafes are awesome and the river thru the city has more than enough bridges and each is completely different. Another day, Anna and Claire are at St. Kilda. The beach is shit compared to the East Coast but I can see it being lively when it’s Sunday, or when it’s sunny, or when it’s a Sunny Sunday. That night a house party in Coburg, one of Clancy’s mates’ 21st, there are 3 bands playing, the guy’s parents are in some of the bands and they party on late into the night and on till morning with us kids. Why is America not as laid back as this? Saturday there is a heat wave to complement the hangover and we’re all standing in the cold pool complaining about the indecisive Melbourne weather, at least it isn’t Darwin everyone agrees. And I can’t wait to see the Top End and feel the humid heat. At night, Clancy’s scored tickets to Gotye at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, he’s a fantastic musician and the crowd is every different type of Aussie. Two days later we’re at the Melbourne Town Hall for Pandora’s launch party of it’s application for Australian listeners, the founder of Pandora is there and free beer, spring rolls, hamburgers and T-shirts, it’s cool to be a part of something like that in a city where music is so important. The next day I visit Fitzroy and Carlton, it’s small businesses and coffeeshops and second-hand bookstores galore. I sit and write a message to Jess in England while sipping a flat white and watching Melbournians walk by on the street. It’s a taste of Oxford and Lusa but on the other side of the world. That night Clancy and I are in the Crown Casino (the largest in the Southern Hemisphere), I’m learning roulette, it’s simple and I double my money quickly, and then just as quickly I lose all that. That’s how gambling works and I give up 20$ down, quit while you’re ahead, right? At least I’ve had the experience.
Later in the week we head west to Warnambool to drive the Great Ocean Road, it was built along the southern coast by returned WW1 veterans. I hope American Iraq/Afghanistan veterans can do something constructive for the country and not slip into depression and alcohol abuse and violence. Where are the jobs and opportunities in America? When will it be a good time to live and work in America again? Screw political Washington D.C., I’ve given up following the drama.
The Great Ocean Road is breathtaking, the 12 Apostles (there are only 8 now) stand in the violent waves like mighty pillars and there are shipwrecks lining the ocean floor, rich Asian tourists abound and Clancy and I sneak off the trail and scramble along the cliff rocks to get a different view and brave the bitter wind, it’s December and it’s summer and it’s cold?
It’s Sunday and Aunt Sue takes us to the Queen Victoria Markets, an old Melbourne tradition. Clancy’s old man Baz comes along and so does his sister Matti. We all split up and regroup numerous times, luckily all my Christmas shopping is done and shipped to States already or I might have gone overboard. It was the biggest market I’ve ever been to in the world. I buy simple things, like socks. And mangoes for breakfast, cuz I’m into eating mangoes for brekky now, even learned how to cut them properly. At night we’re at cousin Scotty(the butcher’s shop owner)’s work Christmas party. It’s out of town somewhere at a hotel pub (surprise surprise) and it’s good to see normal Aussie people enjoying themselves and having a beer with their coworkers and their boss. And since it’s a butcher’s Christmas party there is lamb on the spit and it’s out of this world flavour.
There is still a bit of Melbourne I haven’t seen so I’m in the city again wandering thru the Royal Botanical Gardens and to the Shrine of Remembrance for all of Australia’s veterans. It’s kind of like being in Washington D.C. The monument is grand, there’s an eternal flame, and names engraved in granite. All of Australia’s conflict involvements are engraved too, things we never learn about like Borneo, Malaysia, and East Timor. The start and end dates of conflict are there too, 1962-1966, 1999-2001, etc. Afghanistan and Iraq are there too, only there is no end date, just 2001—— and 2003——, why is Australia still there? Why are we still there? Have we really been at war for nearly half my life? What was peace time like in America? I wish I could remember more of the Nineties.
The view from the top of the Eureka tower is breathtaking. It’s the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s sticks out of the Melbourne skyline way more than any other building. You can see it from Sue’s driveway 11 kilometers outside of the city. From the top you can see out into Port Phillip Bay, you can see the Flemington Race Track where the Melbourne Cup is held, you can see the MCG where I’ll be going to see the Boxing Day cricket, you can see the CBD from a totally different perspective.
December 21st, it’s the day the world is going to end, it’s just another normal day, still the nightlife is fun (at a rooftop bar), it’s no zombie disaster though, Australia survived the Mayan Apocalypse first (nevermind New Zealand).
T20 Big Bash League Cricket is different, it’s Americanised. Clancy’s uncles take us to Etihad Stadium in the Docklands to see the Melbourne Renegades play the Brisbane Heat, feels like I’m at a baseball game only I’m eating a meat pie and drinking VB instead of having a hot dog and a Bud Heavy. Attending a cricket match is a social affair and I’m reminded of summer nights at the Pearl (ugh) Brave’s stadiums and there are kids everywhere having fun and loads of free stuff and Dad’s are serious about the game and I’m trying to be interested but I’m having more fun watching other people have fun.
The days leading up to Christmas are hectic, as they are in any family, and I’m just sitting back trying to help when I can (doing the dishes and taking out the trash) and staying out of the way when I need to. And I’m just thankful to have a place to stay and hospitable folks so far away from home who can appreciate having an American around with weird/funny stories to tell about Mississippi and Europe and bogans in Queensland. Christmas comes and they really make me feel at home, I get presents- Australia knick knacks and souvenirs, the world’s largest beach towel, travel gear. The lunch time meal is surprisingly just like at home, ham and turkey and vegetables. Dessert is slightly different—Pavlova, definitely a favourite now. The other side of the family is a bit different and I get more of what I pictured as the “Quintessential Aussie Christmas”. There is steak and prawns (shrimp) on the barbie. There’s beer and cricket in the backyard. Family friends drop by later in the evening. It’s not as warm as the day before but I’m wearing shorts and sitting outside late at night. It’s Christmas in the summer in Australia and I love it.
Boxing Day…early in the morning Money flies in from Canberra and we drink beer with Baz before heading into the city for the Boxing Day Test Match vs. Sri Lanka at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Bernie flies in from Brisbane around 11 and meets us there. It’s a great day at the cricket and I’m so glad I actually finally understand the frickin’ game now that I’m in attendance for the biggest test match of the season. We leave early to beat the crowds and have a drink at the Ponyfish underneath a bridge over the Yarra.
Next morning early we’re on the way to the ferry, Spirit of Tasmania, triple J pumped on the radio and we’re psyched for Tassie and Falls Festival. Spend the night at Money’s cousin’s house in Hobart and the next day I’m driving to the festival with randoms I just met.
The Falls Music and Arts Festival in Marion Bay, Tasmania has the most spectacular atmosphere set in one of the most picturesque locations I have ever been. My work assignment is on the Green Team picking up rubbish and recycling, not the most glamorous of jobs but at least I’m getting paid to be at this festival seeing heaps of great bands. After the first night of staff only camping and making some new friends, the rest of the crew arrives on the scene and we set up camp and fly the Northern Territory flag. There are 8 in our crew (The Doctor, Bernie, Money, Joel, Dyl, Olly, Moo, and Rob Stark (me)) and whenever we meet someone new it’s always, “everyone is from Darwin, except for him…he’s from Mississippi”. The festival is everything I expected and more, hectic, hysterical madness in a field and epic live music day and night for 3 days. Coolio, Hilltop Hoods, Ball Park Music, Two Door Cinema Club, Beach House, Boy and Bear, The Flaming Lips, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and personal favourite, SBTRKT..dropping heavy beats at 2:30 am on New Year’s Day, what a rush! I was the closest to the bottom of the world that I’ll probably ever be but I felt on top of the world. Great vibes all around and everyone there knew they were a part of something special. New Year’s Day was spent in exodus from the messy field in the rain and on to Joel’s grandmother’s house in Orford where we aired out our campsite in the front yard and had a fire and lounged in the grass. The strangest thing about Tasmania is the harshness of the sun paired with the cold weather. You can be sitting outside, cold and wrapped in a sleeping bag and the sun is just blazing down with extreme UV intensity, definitely a weird phenomenon.
Next day we’re in Hobart at the Taste Festival for seafood dinner and a European style bar. Hobart was a lot like a European city, could really sense that it was established by Europeans in the early 1800s and not changed much since. January 3rd is spent at the Museum of Old and New Art, the private collection of a Tasmanian who has made a fortune from online gambling (are you noticing the recurring theme of Aussies loving to gamble?). Bizarre place, very disturbing at times and mind blowing at others, definitely worth the price of admission. That afternoon we chow down on bulk seafood on the last day of the Taste Festival. It’s fish and chips, and calamari, and oysters kilpatrick and smoked salmon salads, and sushi and cider to wash it all down. That night we drive to Devonport to catch the ferry in the morning, well Clancy drives and the rest of us pass out from eating so much seafood and exhaustion catching up to us from the festival.
January 5th, back in Melbourne and one by one everyone spreads across the country over the next few days, Money flies to Darwin, Clancy flies to Darwin, Bernie flies to the Sunshine Coast. I spend my last full day in Melbourne in the CBD with Matti and one of her friends and we do BYOG yum cha in Chinatown and an afternoon at the Ponyfish then a BBQ at Baz’s place before watching Django Unchained, the new Tarantino flick and shisha on the back veranda. The next day Sue takes us for fish and chips south of the city and then I’m no shoes walking out on the tarmac getting on the short hop flight to Sydney and another couple of nights at ol’ Andy Keene’s house. It’s great to finally hang out with Andy in his own country, we travelled the States a lot together and I’m super keen to road trip the East Coast with the old roommate. After two days in Sydney going to Bondi beach and the “blowhole” cliff jumping and wave tunnel swimming and bodysurfing at Bilgola and a night out with Andy’s mates at a “Southern American” bar in the city and billiards and ping pong at The Oaks we’re off on the road to eventually Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. First afternoon is pie and a swim at Hawk’s Nest Beach and burnt feet on the scorching sand dunes and then fish and chips in Port Macquarie and the start of a nightly tradition watching the sunset in beach loungers splitting a sixer of whatever Aussie brew catches our eye in the BWS that night. First night in my hammock in Australia and the wind is fierce but the view is incredible when I wake up to the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks 10 meters away and Andy’s handing me an orange juice and a ham and cheese roll. We’re off up the coast and the first stop is Nambucca Heads, we’re on Swimming Creek Beach and the shire council warnings signs says swimming is not recommended. Ironic? The sign gets ignored and we’re in the waves with the footy. Next we’re on to Coffs Harbour and the Big Banana (pronounced ‘buhnahnah’). Egg and Bacon roll for lunch and then a banana split sundae, when in Rome right? Coffs Harbour beach is different, there’s a jetty flowing into the ocean and heaps of people are floating in the current toward the waves and get out right before the creek meets the surf and run back to do it again. We jump off a bridge into the water and float down numerous times. Spent some time in the waves but they’re rough and there’s a pretty serious rip so we toss the footy around the jetty. Late in the arvo we can’t decide where to spend the night so we head blindly up the coast, Woolgoolga has a random Sikh temple and supposedly good curry restaurants but the beach isn’t that impressive so we continue to Yamba, voted Number 1 town in Australia in 2009…It’s 2013 and the place is still thriving. Best fish and chips and calamari and prawns of the trip at Wato’s. At sunset we’re headed to the beach with a sixer of XXXX summer lager…rock, paper, scissors. The sign in the car park says NO CAMPING on the beach so we camp on the beach. As the sun goes down we watch a couple of late night surfers…shark bait! In the morning we wake up super early, the view is incredible, it’s just before sunup and old people from the nearby resort are walking on the beach. They don’t care that we’re camped illegally on their beach, they did the same thing when they were young. And I bet back in the day you didn’t have to pay 40$ to set up a tent for a night in an official campground. Why pay 40$ for a campground when there are better views and the sound of the waves right on the beach? Sometimes I hate Australia’s tourist traps..and the tourists…and I’m a tourist, a bloody backpacker. I just know more Aussies than the average tourist.
Today is Byron Bay Day, I’ve already been but it’s Andy’s first time and I’m excited for him to see Australia’s easternmost point and the loose beaches and town. There’s a wallaby and a mountain goat up by the lighthouse and we hike all the way down to the rocks and are literally standing as far east as you can be on Australia’s mainland, it’s beautiful. The main beach is a little dirty from a recent tropical storm out in Fiji washing up seaweed on the beach but the water feels great and the waves are nice. There’s no way to camp in Byron without paying so we continue up to Tweeds Head after lunch in the Northern Hotel. Tweeds Head car park is full and we accidentally wind up in Coolangatta (in Queensland oh no!) where the beach is awesome and you can see the massive skyscraper skyline sticking straight up in Surfer’s 20k up the coast. There’s a warm tidal pool and heaps of people on the beach. It’s Sunday, the best day of the week in Australia (if you’re near a beach). I know I’m getting sunburned but there’s not much I can do about it, I’ve been sun baking for around 8 hours. There’s no way we could sleep in Queensland, the Gold Coast is too commercial plus we’ve been driving north for the whole trip…back down south across the border to New South Wales, a small town called Kingscliff, quick dip on the beach and grilled swordfish and chips for dinner then I read my book in the shade and Andy fishes out on the rocks. At sunset we’re on the outskirts of town on a deserted beach in high winds with a six pack of Hahn Super Dry. That night it’s so windy the tent is all bent out of shape but I don’t care, I sleep like a rock on the sand, I’m exhausted from all the sun.
January 14th, morning swim at Surfer’s Paradise and a mango for breakfast on the beach. Drive to Brisbane to check out University of Queensland, a prospective spot for Andy to finish his Master’s. I think he should go to Perth instead and I tell him so. Neither of us have ever been to Perth. We drive out of Brisbane, the streets are a nightmare, an outrageous toll on a bridge, sometimes you can’t move in Australia without the paying the government. It’s one hour to the Sunshine Coast, the final destination. There’s lunch at Hungry Jack’s in Caloundra, by now we’re both poor and ready to only afford Americanised fast food. After lunch I’m driving (on the left side of the road) into Mooloolaba and we’re immediately on the beach, it’s perfect, just like I remembered, the sand is clean, the waves are clean and fun, the sun is hot and the water is warm. The people are beautiful and happy in this part of the world. Ring the intercom at Jack Bailey’s apartment, “It’s Rob Stark”…”Ah, true! Come on up mate”, An hour’s rest and we’re back on the beach and in the waves with a tennis ball. There are clouds rolling in and big waves too. The ocean is warmer than the air outside. Plans for a BBQ are hatched and we roll to Coles to pick up some lamb and some wedges and veggies. Dinner on the veranda and a global warming documentary to put you to sleep. In the morning we’re in the ocean for a quick dip (no shower in 5 days, only swimming in the ocean and rinsing off the sand leaving each beach) and off south to Brisbane. Andy drops me in the city and we say casual goodbyes, don’t know where we’ll meet again, Australia next Christmas? Vietnam next year? America in a couple of years? Go with the flow and stay in touch.
Next day I’m on the 7 hour bus ride to Wandoan and nothing has changed. Work starts and I have my old job back, relieved at that. I realise I don’t want to stay out here for 3 and a half months…it’s too small, too remote and I’ve been here long enough. The plan now is to stay 8 weeks. In four weeks I’ll be able to buy all my flights to Darwin and Singapore and London and back to Vietnam. I’m enrolling in an online course to get certified to teach English as a second language. I’ll finish the certification in London in June with Jess and we’ll head to Vietnam to hunt for teaching positions.
I’ll spend my last 2.5 Australian months in Darwin where I have friends and a place to stay. Gotta find a job there to save $ to make all my plans a reality. Hopefully I’ll have funds to spare for a trip to the Red Centre to see Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) or to Melbourne for the footy on ANZAC Day.
Now that’s a pretty serious update. If you’ve read all the way to this point then “Good on ya”, as the Aussies say. Expect another update when I make it to Darwin.
I realised recently that it has been over a month since my last entry. The November 13th date marking three months in the country, hence calling for a new post, came and went in just another repetitive week of work. I also recently realised that the sight of kangaroos crawling around the backyard does not particularly excite me anymore. This can only mean one thing. I have become truly adjusted to the Aussie way of life. As I stood on the back porch watching the kangaroos, who more often than not come around in the late afternoon just before sunset, I thought about how I still always enjoy seeing them around but the occasion does not really surprise me. They’re an Australian icon for a reason…they are everywhere, alive and dead. A friend, or mate if you will, once told me that he sees at least 50 dead kangas on his drive from Darwin to the Sunshine Coast, a drive of at least 20 something hours. Now, I figured this estimate had to be somewhat exaggerated but from my experience driving to nearby towns and seeing numerous dead kangas in span of two hours, I know that seeing upwards of 50 in a marathon drive would not be impossible. And now I seem to have started off this post with a depressing anecdote about dead kangaroos. To cheer things up, I’ll tell you a happier story. The other day as I was walking thru the bush to my shady spot where I lay in my hammock and read in the afternoons, I happened upon two members of the kangaroo family that frequent our area. I was very close, probably no more than 5 meters away. I stopped and stared, and they stared back. But as soon as I took a step closer, they bounced away in the opposite direction. That’s how it always goes, and the normality of the occasion confirmed how accustomed I’ve grown to life out here and it’s simplicity.
The past month has eased along pretty quickly now that I look back. Not much has changed in my plans, except that I have definitely decided to return here to work and live in Wandoan after spending the hotter summer months in Melbourne staying with Clancy’s family and working odd jobs thru the Christmas season and also working at the music festival in Tasmania, which I am very excited for. As if a music festival was not enough live entertainment, I’ve also purchased tickets to see Tame Impala (one of my favourite Aussie artists) in concert in Melbourne in early December.
The good news about coming back to work here for another 3 months is that I will have lived in one place and worked for the same company for 6 months. This means that I will be considered an Australian resident for tax purposes and will receive a considerable amount of money back on my tax return when I leave the country. As a foreigner, I pay pretty much double the taxes that a citizen does. I pay 500$ in taxes every two weeks. Already this year I’ve paid well over 2000$ in taxes and my employer has paid nearly 600$ into my retirement fund. I’ll get all of my retirement fund when I leave the country and I’ll be very glad to see a good chunk of those taxes appear in my account too.
In addition to being a hardworking, tax-paying member of Australian society, I’ve also been doing my part to experience a bit of the local culture. Towards the middle of October we were invited to play in a social tournament of lawn bowl by Wendy, an older lady that works down at the mill with us. Lawn bowls is the national pastime of pensioners in Australia, but it is also good fun to go and play with mates every once in a while and have a few drinks. The game is exactly like the game that I used to love to watch old French men play in city parks, Petanque, only lawn bowls is on a bigger scale, which is to be expected since this is the vast, expansive country of Australia. Basically a small ball is rolled down the field and everyone has larger, not entirely round balls to roll down to see how close they can bowl to the smaller ball (which is called a kitty). It sounds simple but is awfully challenging. The shape of the larger balls makes it necessary to roll your ball either left or right in such a way that causes it to either curve around close to the kitty, roll way past it into the gutter, or veer of course into another groups’ game. I had a couple of good bowls, indicated by the players who stand at the opposite end of the field and holler out, “You’re on kitty mate!” I have no idea how the scoring works, even after hours of playing. I left that to the old folks and instead enjoyed my beer and conversation with some of the locals. I talked with one man who had spent a couple of months working on a ranch in Montana on an agricultural exchange in the early 1990s. Of course, he loved America and told me about the road trip he and his mates took from Montana from Texas. Inevitably, the conversation turned to politics, and he wanted to know what I thought about Obama, and we went on to discuss Australia’s economical success compared to America’s current difficulties. It’s moments like these that always seem to remind me that I am proud to be an American, but I feel so lucky to have a job here in Australia and to be saving money to fund my continuing world travels.
Also in late October we spent an evening down at the local pub. We had just returned from a grocery shopping trip to Dalby and were keen for a beer to keep away the monotony of the weekend out here. It just so happened to be the night of a rugby match between New Zealand and Australia. I believe it goes without saying that there is a huge rivalry between the two countries. Think MSU vs Ole Miss or Ole Miss vs LSU on an international scale. It was good fun to watch the game in the company of the many miners that also live in town and we also saw a couple of people from work. However, we have not been to the pub since, because I’m more keen to save money while I’m out here. I can spend on alcohol when I’m more likely to have a good time with friends in a bigger city with a much more social setting.
And speaking of such a situation, we did make a trip to Brisbane at the very end of October. I’ve failed to mention before that one of the Germans (Fabian) who started at the mill at the same time I did got his foot crushed by a slab of timber in a rather unfortunate accident. He spent at least a week in the hospital where the doctors installed metal rods thru his foot to stabilise 7 broken bones. Luckily, his toes were all intact thanks to our steel cap boots, but the same cannot be said for the rest of his foot. Needless to say, he is still on crutches here at the end of November. After he was flown to Brisbane for surgery and a week at the hospital, the company put him up in a 4-Star hotel across the street where he remained for about 2 and a half weeks. His allowance for room service was 82$ a day. On one of the days we visited him, he had lamb for dinner, a large salad on the side, as well as a cheese plate, in which we all indulged. It was pure class…and much better than the stuff we cook up out here. But understandably Fabian was bored out of his mind spending 24 hours a day, immobile, in a hotel room. So he was very glad to see the rest of us and actually excited to head back to Wandoan where he has spent much time on the back porch reading books with his foot propped up. He is returning to Brisbane this week to have the metal rods removed from his foot. After that, his recovery time is at least 3 months before he’ll be properly walking again. I really hate that this has happened to him on his Australian adventure, but at least he is still getting worker’s comp.
Our trip to Brisbane was a great getaway from small-town Wandoan. On the drive in, I saw numerous signs for little cafes advertising cheesecake so once we were settled into our hostel (which we had a bit of difficulty finding) we set off into the CBD, and I was on the hunt for cheesecake. After some souvenir shopping for family Christmas presents, Josh and I found cheesecake for a reasonable price at the Coffee Club, a chain coffeeshop. We had seen a cheesecake dessert for 13 or 14$ earlier in the day but I could not justify spending more on bloody cheesecake than I would on a meal. So I settled for a 7$ slice of cheesecake and a 4$ flat white (a coffee). You must remember, everything in Australia is generally twice as expensive as it is in America.
That night we visited Fabian’s hotel (which I’ve already talked about) and then went back to our hostel in Fortitude Valley. I satisfied a long standing craving for Mexican food with a quesadilla and a Sol from Mad Mex and then we retired to the hostel bar for a night of drinking overpriced Aussie beer. I think if you ask any American who is overseas about what he or she misses most about home, one of the things is bound to be Mexican food. Or maybe it’s just me.
The next day we spent the afternoon on Brisbane’s South Bank. It’s a huge park with an artificial beach right in the city centre. It’s the only such beach in Australia. Since it was Saturday there were heaps of people out and about. This is one of the main things I love about this country, the sense of community and shared happiness that seems to happen so often in Australia.
The next day we drove the 5 hours west to Wandoan, stopping in Toowoomba to do our grocery shopping for the next two weeks. Since then time has gone rather quickly, and I’m eagerly anticipating my departure again, a few days spent on the Sunshine Coast and then a huge road trip down to Melbourne for the summer.
On November 6th, the same day as the US presidential election, there was a horse race of supreme importance in Australia. I’m speaking, of course, of the Melbourne Cup. It is literally a public holiday in the state of Victoria. I had read that the race stops the entire nation. Apparently this is very true, as about 2 o’clock in the afternoon our boss stopped all operations down at the mill and we all gathered around his truck to listen to the race on the radio. Listening to a horse race on the radio is unbelievably anti-climatic, or at least it was to me. Some of the other workers groaned when the winner was announced and I can only guess this was because they had bet money on a losing horse. I may have mentioned before that Australians like to gamble. They will literally bet on anything. There are some disgusting statistics out there, but the main sum of it is that Australians gamble more than any other nationality on earth. And with as much money as is earned down here, who can blame them. Still, there are plenty who have problems with gambling and I find the gambling help hotline commercials very entertaining.
The main point of all this is to describe the revered ‘pokie’. This is the main venue of gambling in Australia. The Canadians call them VLTs, we in America call them slot machines, in Australia they are pokies, and thousands of people are hopelessly addicted to these flashy machines that occasionally pay out big, but more often than not eat your hard-earned money like it’s a slice of toast with Vegemite. Anyway, recently a man at work won 21,000$ on a pokie machine in Chinchilla. That’s right…twenty-one thousand dollars. I could deal with that. And in fact I was talking with a mate at work about pokies and said that I figured I could not leave Australia without winning or losing some small amount of money by playing the pokies. The only problem is that I do not know how they work. My mate at work explained pokies to me in the straightforward way only an Australian can. “You put your money into the machine, and then you press buttons until you have no money.” I rather liked this explanation and I rather like the way life is going in this country.
I’ve been in Australia for two months now and things are going great. Not a lot has changed or happened in the past month since I last posted but I’ll still write about some progress made at work, my plans for later in the year, and some thoughts about food.
Two weeks ago I dreamed that a gallon of ice cream costs 32$. I may have mentioned before how expensive things are in Australia but I’m finally getting used to it now that I’m earning an Australian wage and not blowing thru money that I saved before coming down here. When my birthday came up last week I baked a cake and bought a bucket of ice cream to share with the roommates. Luckily, the ice cream was not 32 dollars. Instead, I got 4litres for 8 dollars. I considered this a good deal. I’ve been cooking all of my own meals in an effort to save money and also because there aren’t exactly restaurants where I live. The nearest Maccas (McDonalds) is two hours away and I hate myself for eating there whenever we go to town! I’m eating lots of pasta with mushrooms as well as couscous for dinner and bacon and eggs in the morning time. I’ve also consumed quite a bit of Vegemite. In fact, I’ve gone thru a whole 150g jar since I landed in Sydney and bought a jar straight away. The staple Aussie snack has become a daily treat in arvo (afternoon) before I read or go to the library for some internet time, or play cards and watch TV with the roommates.
Work is going really well, still “hard yakka” (difficult work) at times but I’m used to it now. At the end of September there was a week of holidays for the staff (like Spring Break) and I was able to work thru the week anyway doing various odd jobs around the mill: painting, greasing bearings, helping the mechanic install a new motor onto one of the belts, etc. During the break a crew of engineers installed some new machinery that makes my job on the green chain simpler and easier on my back. The only hang up was one of my Australian coworkers/roommates (Nathan) who has a very bad temper and tends to fly off the handle for no reason. In addition to the attitude problem, this person smokes weed out of a chocolate milk bottle bong at six AM before we go to work, when we take our lunch break, and all afternoon after work and often has the tendency to slack off at work. I’ve never seen someone who smokes so much weed yet has such a bad temper. I thought weed was supposed to make you relax!
Here’s the good news. Yesterday, Nathan and Charlie (the aboriginal roommate who I can barely understand) left town after work and did not return today. They’re fired so now I won’t have to live or work with these lazy assholes. Here’s more good news. My boss’ boss has been in town this week to observe the new machinery and watch us work. After seeing how I handled things on the green chain without Nathan around, the big boss told me he was really pleased with my work today and even offered to extend my visa so that I could stay with the company for longer. I’m glad to know that I’ve proven my work ethic to the company and I’m honoured that he would consider arranging a visa extension for me but I think I’ll decline on his offer. I have no intention to make a career out of working at the saw mill. That said, I will consider coming back out here after New Years’ to work a couple of more months and earn even more money with the pay raise I would get after staying on for 3 months.
Speaking of New Years’ Eve. I got a job working at the music festival that my mate Clancy and I are going to in Tasmania. It will be a good opportunity to get behind the scenes at the music festival, enjoy some perks and make a bit of money to offset my costs while I’m there. Clancy has also lined us up a job for when we get to Melbourne in December and got us tickets for a cricket match at the MCG on Boxing Day (holiday the day after Christmas that Americans should start celebrating).
This weekend, the roommates and I are heading to Dalby, a town 2 hours away, to do all of our shopping for the next fortnight. It’s always good to get away from this sleepy, tiny town and the views along the way are always nice.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I’d love some mail though and can be reached at:
Robert Wilson c/o Parkside Holdings
P.O. Box 40
Wandoan, Queensland 4419
AUSTRALIA
In my last post I was sitting in terminal in LAX waiting to board an 11:30 PM flight to Nadi, Fiji and then onto Sydney, Australia. That was one month ago now and I had no clue how my job search and Australian experience would start. Sydney was an incredible city, I arrived, cleared customs and made it to the CBD without any problems. Too easy, as the Aussies say. I spent that first afternoon setting up my Commonwealth Bank account and Telstra mobile phone service. I also did a small shop at the grocery store for some essentials like bread, Vegemite, and bananas. That night I met up with friends Amy, Kate, Sam and Sean from Macquarie who studied abroad at Ole Miss in the summer of 2011. We all picked up right where we left off and had a great night out having drinks in various places throughout the city. I was able to stay awake quite late that night despite travelling for about 30 straight hours from New Orleans two days earlier. The next morning I woke up around 7 am and could not believe I wasn’t able to sleep later…and then I realized it was afternoon time in the States. I did all my touristy sightseeing on this day, making sure I saw all the things I wanted to like Hyde Park, the ANZAC Memorial, The Hyde Park Barracks, St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Darling Harbour, and of course the Opera House. I ate a sausage roll underneath a massive tree in the Gardens and then met Dylan (another Aussie friend from Ole Miss) at Darling Harbour for a beer. That evening I stayed at Anna’s apartment (a friend from Ole Miss studying abroad at Macquarie) and got to see the Macquarie University that I had only heard about from all the Aussies I’ve known who go to school there. The following day was spent with Andy’s family (Andy was my Aussie roommate last year). The family was super hospitable and I really enjoyed spending time there out in the suburbs northwest of Sydney. In the morning Andy’s parents took me to the airport and I flew to Brisbane where Clancy (another Aussie who studied abroad at Ole Miss) picked me up to drive an hour north to the Sunshine Coast. By this time I had responded to a job listing as a cleaner at a hostel in the town near where Clancy lives and goes to school, Mooloolaba. When I arrived at the hostel, the girl there offered me a different arrangement as the stand-up paddleboard guide, driver, and head of the Saturday night BBQ at the hostel. I agreed to start the following Monday and spent that weekend partying and seeing the surrounding sites with Clancy and his mates. I had my first go at stand-up paddleboarding with Jack Bailey and wiped out in the waves…luckily the paddleboarding for the hostel only required paddling out in the bay and canals away from the swell and waves. On Sunday we went to Perigian Originals, a fortnightly community music and arts festival. It was a fun time with all different ages and types of people there. Monday, I got on a random bus from Clancy’s student apartment to see where I would wind up and slowly made my way to work at the hostel where I spent the afternoon settling into my room and doing some grocery shopping at Coles.
The next two weeks flew by, I fit in around the hostel pretty well and hung out a lot with my on British and two German roommates. I went paddleboarding nearly everyday with people from all over: New Zealand, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, England, Ireland, France, Germany,etc. I also got to have my first hand at driving on the left side of the road and got used to it really quickly. I suppose I’ll be confused all over again when I get back to the States and have to drive on the right. The job at the hostel only covered my accommodation there so I was not making any money. Even though I job hunted around town and passed out numerous resumes, nothing came up. I was also applying to travellers job posted online and finally received a response for a post asking for labourers to stack wood. I am now in the middle of nowhere Queensland working at a saw mill full time sorting stacking timber for 20 dollars an hour. It is exactly the kind of experience that I would never get to have back home and I’m working alongside some true blue Aussies, mainly bogans. I’ll be able to save a ton of money over the next three months since I am living in a house onsite for 75$ a week and cooking all of my own food. Once again, I’m living with 2 Germans and a Brit, only now there are 4 Australians around too.
There is a family of kangaroos that live near our house and I see them hopping around all the time.
This first weekend was pretty boring and I was struck with fervor of creativity in an effort to make my living space a little more livable since I’ll be out here in the middle of nowhere for the next three months. I found a trestle type thing in the garage and searched out two boards from the yard to make myself a desk. I also took two bricks from the yard and a plastic crate, set them down beside my bed and took an unused shelf from the cabinet that the microwave sits on to make myself a bedside table. I found an artificial tree outside laying on the ground and put in in my room to fill some space and add some color. I also took two picture hanging hooks from the house and put them on either side of the wall above my desk and strung some fishing line I found between them. Then I took clothespins from some of the drying lines that are around to hang pictures, postcards, and such in my room.
The only place in town where I can get wifi is at the library and they’ve only just got it set up. I’ll probably come here only once or twice a week to check on things and stay in touch.
So I’m moving to Australia. The land that makes you think of Kangaroos, that funky Opera building in Sydney and people with funny accents running around calling each other ‘Mate’. It’s something I’ve got to see. Although I’m not only expecting the stereotypical things, I’m expecting big adventure. For me, it’s always different and exciting visiting a new country, and Australia will be no exception. I’ve met enough Aussies over the past couple of months to have a general idea of what the people and the lifestyle is like and I want to take part. The perfect thing is there will be no language barrier. I’m free to talk fluently with people while I set up a new life in a foreign land.
People ask me, “what are you going to be doing in Australia?”, or “why are you moving to Australia?”
I usually answer that first question with “finding a job” or “I want to live there”. The answer to the second question is something that I’m not always sure of. It seems there are 2 real reasons. One is that I don’t want to go to more school or get a job in America..I’m simply not ready. The second reason is that I’ve wanted to travel the world and live in Australia particularly since at least 5th grade, so now I’m making that happen.
I don’t really know when I’ll return to America, I have no return flight booked. My work visa for Australia lasts for one year and I hope to stay the whole 12 months. I feel it is good for me to get out of America for a little while after graduating from college. I’m extremely uninterested in the possibility of Mitt Romney being elected president. In fact, I’m sick of hearing it in the news. I want to think Obama will be able to make some forward progress in a second term, but I’m just not sure. I’ll just be happy to keep American politics at an arms’ length and learn more about Australian politics and their relations with Asia (something never taught in Croft). Hopefully when I return to the States, the economy will be reviving and the population won’t be in such an unhappy funk. But for now I can pretend to do something with my international studies degree and have some great experiences in the farthest away place I can think of.
I’ll be blogging again while I’m travelling, but I’m planning to post more pictures than I do writings. We’ll see how it goes.
Those of you who liked my writing while in Europe might enjoy this catch-up. I’ve finally found a moment to sit down with a cup of coffee and write about what I’ve done and how I’ve felt since I got back to the States. I’ve found that I miss writing regularly and I’m getting geared up for my starting my thesis in the fall. More on that later. Last time I wrote I layed out my summer travel plans and stupidly said that life would be back to normal at the beginning of July. Mitch and I did have a great time touring Europe but I just don’t have the time to type out every thing that happened to us. If you see me, pick a city and ask for a story…I’ve got one for you.
We had our flight home early on the 20th of June. Amsterdam-Schiphol to Dublin to Chicago. I became such a pro at airports over last semester but was ready to be done with them for quite a while. Flying 6 times in two weeks is just exhausting. I got patted down by some creepy Dutchman at security but other than that it was a chill day. In Dublin we went through American customs so that we would not have to deal with lines in O’Hare…there was a little confusion since I had not been in the States in about 5 months and did not have a French residency card (I never finished that process). The trans-Atlantic flight was not bad…even cut an hour short because we got a good headwind. Unfortunately Sarah-Fey and Joe were late to pick us up. This gave me time to exchange the 7 Euros that I had left and ecstatically buy Starburst and Cheddar Chex Mix in a little shop in the international terminal.
I had not seen SF since right before she left for Ecuador in late December and hadn’t seen Joe since we did shots of Jager right before I got on the plane headed for Paris in January. It’s great to see friends after such a long time. We headed into downtown Chicago where we were staying with one of SF’s friends from high school. I knew I was going to get screwed by the time change, especially after an 8 hour flight and getting up at 6 am after a long Amsterdam day, but I was game for a good time in Chicago. We sat around the house exchanging stories and catching up and then walked down the street for a good American burger for dinner. When we got ID’d ordering a beer I mentioned something about it being my first time being ID’d in about 6 months and the waitress told me to stop being a “Europe bragger.” I told her to fuck off and then we got terrible service the whole meal…yes, I know I should not have said that to her…and I was so happy to be ordering from someone who spoke perfect English for the first time in months too!
Natalie-a friend that SF met in Ecuador had come down from Wisconsin to hang out and they wanted to go out and about downtown at night. It was strange comparing big city America with big city Europe. We took a taxi down to the John Hancock Center (4th tallest building in America) and went up to the Signature Lounge on the 95th floor. This was a classy joint but most people there were dressed pretty casually…I was impressed that we could even get in but we were got a table and service right away…the view from up here was amazing. And let me add that Mitch passed out before we left on this little venture. He has put in enough time in Chicago before. After one expensive drink in the Signature Lounge we walked down to the “beach” by Lake Michigan. At this point I had been awake for about 24 hours and was just dragging. We caught a taxi home and I just died. The next day we packed up, ate at Qdoba and did touristy things downtown (The Bean, Buckingham Fountain, Navy Pier, etc.) then headed to Lincoln, IL to Mitch’s parents house. Here I got to shave and shower and get all my clothes washed…I had been wearing the same clothes for over two weeks at this point. We went out to some local restaurant and then just played pool and Mexican hat before going to sleep at 11 PM like a bunch of losers. Next day-Mitch’s 21st- we ate lunch at some Asian restaurant, stocked up on beer for the lake house and started on the 5 hour drive to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. The next few days were all the same…day drinking while floating around in the lake and hanging out on the pier or on the porch at night. It was fun/interesting to be on a little vacation with Mitch’s family—much different from any vacation I had ever been on with my family. It was here that I had most of my “reverse culture shock” that you hear about. I found myself getting overwhelmed by the “American-ness” of the whole experience- drinking Bud Light and floating around on a pool noodle. Sometimes I just had to sit on the pier by myself and think. I needed time to process being back home after so long.
On Saturday SF, Joe and I headed out early in the morning for Oxford. We stopped in St. Louis to see the Arch and kept on driving. 3 hours north of home the AC went out and the trip got really miserable really quickly. We stopped in Memphis to get my suitcase and computer from Emily Hightower. Luckily, all of my wine bottles were unbroken. That night we had dinner at Ajax and drinks at the Burgundy room and then turned in early.
On Sunday we got up early and drove to Brandon to go to my dad’s church…my first church service in quite some time. It was great to see family and friends there. We had lunch at my aunt’s house and swam in the lake and then Joe and SF headed south to their homes. The next day I drove back up to Oxford. It felt so good to drive my car again…it’s really weird not driving for 6 months. But believe me, it’s August now and I’m sick of it…well, mainly sick of putting gas in my car. Now that I’m done working at Chick-fil-A I don’t have to drive there and I can just ride my bike to the café, Croft and class. The first week and a half of July went by slowly as I waited for the bakery to re-open and to get back on the schedule at Chick-fil-A. I spent a lot of time by the pool and catching up on politics and music. It felt good to just be settled back into Oxford. In early July we met a large group of international students who were taking summer classes at Ole Miss and we started hanging out with them a lot/going out to the bars with them. It was fun to hang out with Australians, South Africans, Uruguayans, British and Irish kids and kind of vicariously re-live the excitement of being “abroad” even though I was at home. This bunch kept Oxford summer from being extremely boring and I was sad to see them go. Coincidentally, their last night in town was our first night in our new house on Jackson Avenue so we had a big late night party after the bars closed.
The first bit of August has been spent getting settled into the new house and working out my last few days at Chick-fil-A. I’m only going to be working at Lusa and Croft now. Business is picking up at the bakery and I’m hiring some new people to come and work this fall.
I’m enjoying my last weeks of summer but I’m ready for school and all the excitement to start. We are renting out Joe’s bedroom to an Australian foreign exchange student this fall while Joe goes to school in Germany. He arrives in town tomorrow.
This last fall semester of college should be incredible. There is a ton of great music coming into town. I’m taking some really interesting classes on international conflict and international organizations and I’ll be doing my thesis work on immigration in Europe. I live 3 minutes walking distance from the Square and close to campus as well. I’ve told everyone that asks me how France was and if I’m glad to be back: “It was great, I’m glad to be back-but I could go back.”
I’ve been privileged enough to travel to a lot of places in my life. I’ve made a lot of trips with family and friends over the years. I remember cross country road trips with my grandparents, family vacations with Mom and Dad and the little bros, that one time Eric and I told our parents we were going to visit some friends somewhere and drove to the beach and back in one day (Mom and Dad are just learning of this), taking my parents’ van to go backpacking in the Sipsey Wilderness or the Ozarks, going to Destin after graduation, that one Tuesday that Eric and I skipped school and flew to Orlando for the hell of it, driving through the most dangerous parts of Jackson in The Olds just for the hell of it, going camping in the north of Wisconsin with my cousins, convincing Meghan and some other college friends to go see Death Cab for Cutie in St. Louis on a Monday night freshman year of college, road-tripping to New York City for New Years Eve in Times Square, numerous wild trips to Indiana, driving to West Point Military Academy with Aubrey and then spending the night in the airport in New York before flying home the day school started back after spring break, going to Lollapalooza in Chicago, taking Meghan to the Atlanta airport when she was going to Tokyo, too many late night trips to the infamous Graceland Too, or weekend trips to Memphis, flying up to Boston on a paid for research trip, Iron and Wine concert one night in Birmingham, numerous trips to Starkville or Hattiesburg to see friends at school, lots of trips in between Oxford and my parents house, my hurried flight out to Atlanta to get my visa during exam week and then a crazy weekend in New Orleans after exams last semester and then finally the much awaited flight over here to Europe. It’s the places that you go—no matter how close or far away they are— that leave the biggest impression on you. It’s the things that happen to you when you travel that give you stories to tell. The trips you make are the things you remember. I’ll always remember my weekend traveling alone through Eastern Europe and the people I met there, I’ll remember going to Amsterdam for the first time to see The Black Keys with Meghan and Willem, I’ll remember going to Morocco with Grace, and touring the south of France with Theodra. This semester abroad has been a truly great experience— not only did I get to improve my French skills and grow accustomed to life in a different country but I also had some great travel opportunities and I’m about to have a few more. Mitch (one of my roommates from back in Oxford) and I are meeting tomorrow at noon in Paris. He’s been doing a May-session class in London the past few weeks. We’ll be heading to Barcelona tomorrow night and staying there for 3 or 4 days. From there we’ll be off to Rome, Stockholm, Berlin, Prague, and then Amsterdam before flying back to Chicago. Sarah-Fey and Joe and Anthony will pick us up at O’Hare and we’ll slowly make our way back down to Mississippi over that next week (stopping to celebrate Mitch’s 21st Birthday in Illinois/Missouri). I’ll be out of touch for a while but life will be back to normal at the beginning of July. Thanks to all of you who have read my blog this semester, I really enjoyed writing it.
Before this semester, the most time I had spent outside the country were a few days in Montreal, Canada, part of an insane road trip that my best friends and I pulled off last year. But those of you who know me well know that trip is a whole other story entirely. Before leaving this semester I had all these dreams and preconceived notions about what I thought Europe would be like. But I also came with an open mind. One thing was for sure in my mind—Europe would be better than America. A little over four months later, I’m still thinking that the European lifestyle is better (for your health definitely)…but now I’ve got more of an appreciation for my life in the ol’ US of A. A sort of understanding of the things that I really love about America that make it a great place to live despite not being Europe. There are plenty of obvious things that people miss when they travel, but when you’re away for longer than a few weeks some things you miss are just strange. This list will have both types.
· I miss my friends-you don’t really realize how close you are to some people until you’re NOT spending every day with them.
· I miss my apartment-and all the things in it- like the bar, the awesome sound system, my grandmother’s orange couch that I intentionally sleep on at night sometimes, the kitchen fridge stocked with more condiments and sauces than actual food, the beer fridge behind the bar, the fights over cleaning (or not cleaning) the condo, the struggle to safeguard your gallon of milk, people randomly showing up at any time of the day or night, arguing over who will take Joe to work/pick him up, wearing my bathrobe to go get the mail at the clubhouse, trying to sleep despite the screaming that occurs when Mitch scores a goal on Fifa (seriously dude?), the one day a month when Anthony does his laundry and meticulously folds every single piece of clothing, trying to get Joe to put more than 5 dollars worth of gas in my car once in a while—things like that
· I miss weird cheap snack foods-I seriously dream about food at least once a week
· I miss my school-the language program this semester has been fun but I like the things I learn about for my degree like development in the third world and policy issues in Europe much more. Ready to feel like a college student again and not like fourth grader learning grammar.
· I miss drinking the rest of the last pot of coffee in the Croft kitchen when I have to work in the building that night. I miss drinking too much coffee at Croft in general. I miss passing afternoons and nights studying or attempting to write papers or eating lunch on the porch with my friends.
· I miss the walk through The Circle to Bondurant-my favorite walk on campus
· I miss working at the Portuguese bakery and running my mouth with all the regulars. I miss getting there at 8 AM on Sunday mornings and Carla making me an epic breakfast of eggs, bacon, sourdough toast, hashbrown casserole, orange juice and coffee to cure my hangover. I miss her sending me home with tons of pastries in the afternoon so we can have “Lusa feasts” at the condo.
· I miss my weekly walk from campus to the Square to have lunch at the bar at Ajax-same thing every time-country fried steak with a double side of mashed potatoes and gravy and a Bud-heavy.
· I miss my favorite bar-Proud Larry’s and going to see live music nearly every week.
· I miss Mexican food…and Taco Bell
· I miss driving my car, but not putting gas in it
· I don’t miss working at Chick-fil-A but I miss the money I make there
· I don’t miss sorority girls or frat stars
· I don’t miss fat people- I mean there are fat people here in France but its like an epidemic in Mississippi
It seems there should be more things that I don’t miss. Maybe I’ll think of some more later. Writing this, I’ve realized how much I love my college life and that now I’ve only got one more year of it left…time to get back and enjoy it.
