the air here is so soft..almost like water...
What is really amazing is using a dirty frying pan. Last night, I made myself some dinner in a pan that had been used by some kids from Japan, and it was an extremely interesting sensation to taste their food in my own…it made me thoughtful. I suggest trying it sometime!
Our classes started today and we learned a lot about the archaeology and evolutionary theories of Australia…and some aboriginal background that was fascinating. Before showing us slides of aboriginal skeletons and artifacts, the prof. had to give this disclaimer, in case there were any aborigines in the audience, b/c apparently they consider it to be taboo to look at any pictures of their dead ancestors…and knowing this, it made it slightly creepy for us to look at the pictures…cultural dissonance is interesting.
An interesting fact…hobbits, in fact, DID exist (maybe not the kind that we think of). We learned that they are actually a type of hominid (about a meter tall) that lived a long long time ago. That threw me for a loop…I thought the teacher was joking…:-)
Also, the aborigines were the first bakers in the world.
It’s sad to be so far away from all the people I love…making friends is never hard (and the ppl on the trip are all amazingly cool and fun, and I have no problem getting along with them), but it is strange to be in a situation where no one really “knows” you…I sat on the roof late last night and looked up at the stars and felt melancholy for a good twenty minutes, which promptly changed to laughter as a giant cockroach ran over my foot, scaring the bejeezus out of me. :-)
Last night I met a boy from Israel (his name is Yan, which I think is a really cool name, and I stupidly told him so, to which he responded “heather, that’s not bad either, in fact, that sounds quite nice”) who is staying at our house, he’s studying engineering here and has never been to the US...we watched part of an American movie that featured ppl with southern accents, and he asked me if every state had their own special accent…I had to think about that for a bit, b/c it’s not really something you consider (but I guess it’s true)…a preview for “Underworld” came on, and I mentioned that I had seen it and that it was an awful movie, and he gave me this wide-eyed look as if I was possessed or something, and then I saw the date pop up for when it was due to come out (January 16th)…I had to explain that, no, I wasn’t crazy, but movies came out in the US before they came out in Australia….we watched tv for a bit, talking about where we were from…had a good laugh with him about the insanity of Australian commercials…they are so very strange…one of them showed this cartoon boy going whacko and milking a cow as if it were a weapon…and it was, incidentally an ad for a brand of shoe. Go figure.
Also met this girl from England who is almost scarily nice…she always gives us the biggest smile and “’ELLO”…talked to her about New Zealand, and other random things…we lost track of time, and incidentally burned a piece of toast, filling the room with a lovely aroma…but it made us laugh. It’s nice to bond over burnt pieces of bread. :-)
This morning, I woke up to find this strange lobster-like creature walking around my room…I stared at it for a while..it seriously looked like a mini albino lobster…bizarre.
Hmm…lesse, what else…oh, I am in love with ginger beer…tasty stuff. I really want to hug a wallaby. It’s rained twice here, and I seem to miss it each time. They have Plumeria trees and Mynah birds here (just like Hawaii) which is exciting. When you use a crosswalk here, the noise that is made to tell you when to walk sounds like alien lasers…kind of scary, makes you feel like you are in a videogame.
Gotta go do some research…and then grocery shopping…(produce is really expensive here…I had to pay $3 for a single red bell pepper…oy! And I can’t find any tofu!)
Anyway, I am off.
Our classes started today and we learned a lot about the archaeology and evolutionary theories of Australia…and some aboriginal background that was fascinating. Before showing us slides of aboriginal skeletons and artifacts, the prof. had to give this disclaimer, in case there were any aborigines in the audience, b/c apparently they consider it to be taboo to look at any pictures of their dead ancestors…and knowing this, it made it slightly creepy for us to look at the pictures…cultural dissonance is interesting.
An interesting fact…hobbits, in fact, DID exist (maybe not the kind that we think of). We learned that they are actually a type of hominid (about a meter tall) that lived a long long time ago. That threw me for a loop…I thought the teacher was joking…:-)
Also, the aborigines were the first bakers in the world.
It’s sad to be so far away from all the people I love…making friends is never hard (and the ppl on the trip are all amazingly cool and fun, and I have no problem getting along with them), but it is strange to be in a situation where no one really “knows” you…I sat on the roof late last night and looked up at the stars and felt melancholy for a good twenty minutes, which promptly changed to laughter as a giant cockroach ran over my foot, scaring the bejeezus out of me. :-)
Last night I met a boy from Israel (his name is Yan, which I think is a really cool name, and I stupidly told him so, to which he responded “heather, that’s not bad either, in fact, that sounds quite nice”) who is staying at our house, he’s studying engineering here and has never been to the US...we watched part of an American movie that featured ppl with southern accents, and he asked me if every state had their own special accent…I had to think about that for a bit, b/c it’s not really something you consider (but I guess it’s true)…a preview for “Underworld” came on, and I mentioned that I had seen it and that it was an awful movie, and he gave me this wide-eyed look as if I was possessed or something, and then I saw the date pop up for when it was due to come out (January 16th)…I had to explain that, no, I wasn’t crazy, but movies came out in the US before they came out in Australia….we watched tv for a bit, talking about where we were from…had a good laugh with him about the insanity of Australian commercials…they are so very strange…one of them showed this cartoon boy going whacko and milking a cow as if it were a weapon…and it was, incidentally an ad for a brand of shoe. Go figure.
Also met this girl from England who is almost scarily nice…she always gives us the biggest smile and “’ELLO”…talked to her about New Zealand, and other random things…we lost track of time, and incidentally burned a piece of toast, filling the room with a lovely aroma…but it made us laugh. It’s nice to bond over burnt pieces of bread. :-)
This morning, I woke up to find this strange lobster-like creature walking around my room…I stared at it for a while..it seriously looked like a mini albino lobster…bizarre.
Hmm…lesse, what else…oh, I am in love with ginger beer…tasty stuff. I really want to hug a wallaby. It’s rained twice here, and I seem to miss it each time. They have Plumeria trees and Mynah birds here (just like Hawaii) which is exciting. When you use a crosswalk here, the noise that is made to tell you when to walk sounds like alien lasers…kind of scary, makes you feel like you are in a videogame.
Gotta go do some research…and then grocery shopping…(produce is really expensive here…I had to pay $3 for a single red bell pepper…oy! And I can’t find any tofu!)
Anyway, I am off.
posted by heather at 6:44 PM
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