"You know who you are"

3.24.2012

Saturday. This weekend went to Jervis Bay! We had to be at school bright and early (7am). Michelle drove us thankfully. We got to school by 7:15. We waited in the Student center for a while until the charter bus came. I sat next to Ronnie on the bus. We chatted and slept most of the way down. We stopped at view point for a bathroom break. Then the second half of the ride the entire back of the bus played riddle games. Like, in "the land of odd there are trees but no leaves". And the riddle is you have to figure out why there are trees but not leaves. Or beef but no cows. Or football but no golf. There were several other games like that too.

Once we got there, we broke up into tent groups of three. We set up the tents. They were army style canvas tents. I tented with Alina and Elise.  Once we were done setting up we ate lunch and sat around for a while waiting for the next thing. Three Aboriginal men met up with us and were our guides. Paul, Bernie, Joe.  They took us to an indigenous botanical gardens that they run. Joe played the didgeridoo. They showed us real boomerangs and how they made knives and spears. We learned about aboriginal beliefs. We learned a lot about plants and animals. They showed us a lemon scented tea tree. The leaves, when crushed up, smell like citrus. It can be used to help sore throats and as bug repellent. I took quite a bit and rubbed it all over me. Anything I can do to not be eaten alive! (not that it really worked). After that we walked around and saw lots of things. There are lots of plants that are only there in that particular garden, which makes me nervous. We would walk by a tree and Joe would say, “that is the last tree of it’s kind,”.

Then we went back to camp. Michelle (director michelle) asked for volunteers to hep set up dinner. I didn’t volunteer but when she counted out as many as she needed, she was about to go to write down their names, but then she said “Okay, you know who you are. Just come find me when you get off the bus,”. I had a rather long existential conversation in my head about her use of the phrase ‘You know who you are,’

Do I? Do I really know who I am? Does anyone know who they are?

That didn’t last too long, because I wanted to get down to the beach! It was beautiful! I took at least 200 pictures. Here is a sample:

 Later, we went back to the campsite for dinner. Dinner wasn’t quite ready, so we had to wait a while. We ha  burgers that were actually sausage. Overall, not the best dinner I’ve had. But hey, it’s camping. I survived.

After dinner, Joe, Paul and Bernie came back with some of their family and they showed us a traditional dance ceremony. They were all painted up and everything. They showed us several dances and sung lots of songs.

Afterward, had “s’mores”.  That’s in quotes because it wasn’t real s’mores. They don’t really have the right fixings here. They have very strange marshmallows and they only have crackers that resemble graham crackers.

Then I played several card games with Sarah, Megan M. Ronnie, Carly and Elise. It was super fun. I learned a few new games from Megan and Sarah. Megan is a master at card games. She says it’s because she lives with her grandma. I believe her.

Finally, it started to rain so we decided it was time to go to bed. I ended up staying up for another hour or so chatting with my tent mates. When I did go to sleep I slept like a rock. Until I woke up and found my feet to be soaking wet…

"I Kind Of Forget You're American"

3/23/2012

Friday. I got to school rather early. We had to meet for our group presentation today. But in between practicing for that and actually going to class, I sat with my 2^nd year friends for a while.

They were talking about candy. Actually, they were talking about how weird the word 'candy' is. They call candy lollis. Like a lollipop, except everything is a lolli. They were saying that they word candy just “sounds so America”. To which I said “What’s wrong with being American?” Then Blako turns to me and says,

“Oh yeah… You know, I kind of forget that you’re American,”

“…………….thhhhhhaaaannnnkkkkkk yyyyooouuu???”

I wasn’t sure how to take it. But then I decided it was a good thing. That just means that I am blending into Australian culture so well that he wasn’t even seeing me as just an American. So SCORE!

After that, group presentations took up a majority of the day. I think our group did alright, but Kimberly is a notoriously hard grader. So we shall see. After that, Carly, Erica and I (and some other people) went to the concord library to do some research for an upcoming paper we have. Nothing says Friday night like good ol' research!

To top it off, once the library closed, I went home and read articles out of our reading guide. I’m on fire people. You can’t stop me! We did take a break to go to the servo and get Magnums. I also picked up an Ice Coffee thing for tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we’re going camping at the south coast, Jervis bay. It’s supposed to be very pretty. Thus concludes my wile Friday night.

Blako Malfoy

3/22/2012

Thursday. Today, I woke up late. Typical. Ended up working out alright.  I had thought class started at 9 but it didn’t start until 9:30. And I got to school around 8. So I hung out, talked to my (Aussie) friend Blake for a while. Blake recently dyed his hair bleach blond. This kid has super dark hair naturally. He did it to support his friend who has leukemia. You can either shave your head or dye it a ridiculous color. And somehow there is some benefits that can go toward a fund. I think it makes him look like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. So now I call him Blako Malfoy. He liked the nick name.  

Went to servo together so I could go to ATM to pay Becky. Ran into Brigette and Peter. After I got my money, I went back up to school, paid Becky. Went to class, ate lunch, went to drawing class. Today we worked with ink and paint brushes. That was fun and different. Had another naked lady. This week was a little more awk because she wasn’t as comfortable. I feel like she was new to the whole ‘nude model’ thing.

In other exciting news, toady I asked Percy if I looked Australian. He said yes and told me I had good style. That. Was. AMAZING!!! Percy is a super fashionisto. For him to tell me I had good style meant a lot. He also told me I have long eyelashes. He was just full of compliments today. And I loved it.

I came home worked on oral presentation. While working, I killed a mosquito! Success!

Rachel: 1

Mosquitoes: …a lot more

Ninja Mosquitos

3/21/2012

Wednesday. Pretty boring day. Went to school. Did work. Went to The Gathering. That wasn’t that great. Worship was good though.

After that I went on an adventure to find an ATM. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I’m going to the Great Barrier Reef in June. I’m going with a handful of friends from ASC. And to keep it simple, we had Becky pay for all of the flights together and we are all going to pay her back. So I needed to get to an ATM.

I found an ATM and went to use my travel card with the special account that doesn’t have all of my money, but only a little bit. Well when I got that card I had to make a new pin. And seeing as how that was a long time ago, my brain has temporarily misplaced the file that holds that pin. So I couldn’t get any money out of the ATM. But don’t worry, I had a plan. I still have my regular card, but it was back at the house. So I went back home and fished out my other card. Then I went to the ATM that is in the Servo just a few blocks away.

 I was able to get some money, but not as much as I needed, because the ATM RAN OUT OF MONEY! I didn’t even know that could happen! Now that seems silly that I didn’t think about it. I guess I figured it wouldn’t happen to me. But it would happen in the particular time that I need money to pay someone back. Becky will just have to wait another day.

I went home. Becky came over for dinner and stayed to work on our group project. After all was said and done, I watched an episode of the Simpsons with Braedon. Then went to bed. Actually, I went to the flat and fought to get a fly out of the house for about 30 minutes before I decided it was futile and just locked it in the bathroom.

The bugs here are awful. Especially mosquitoes. Honestly, I will be sitting at the table doing homework, and I will have 5 new bug bites. But I have never seen one actually land on me. They are like ninjas! And I have seen them flying around. They are HUGE! So why can I never feel them land on me? NINJAS

Movies and Chips

3/20/2012

Tuesday. A funny thing happened today. A girl named Mary in my ASC class told me that she had yet to know everyone’s last names in our group. And seeing as there are 3 Rachel’s, this can be problematic. So she said that when she was talking with someone, I came up for some reason, but she could not figure out which Rachel the other person was talking about. So she asked said person: “Rachel… the one who has all the scarves?” Yup. That’s me. The Rachel with the scarves. I’ll take it!

In The View class, we watched an Australian movie titled Galipoli. It is basically a telling of the story of the battle of Galipoli in WWI where many Australians died. It was a really interesting movie. It had young Mel Gibson in it. You could definitely tell it was made in the 80s. The sound track alone was a dead give away. Through this movie we learned about Australian endings vs. American endings. Most American movies end on a happy note with the whole story wrapped up into a neat package. Australian movies do not. A lot of the time their movies end on a really sad note or end in defeat. So that was a downer. But a good movie all the same. 

After that I had a few more classes. In Ad Design, during our break, my friends took me down to the servo to pick out something new to eat. They introduced me to Red Rock Deli chips. And when I say chips, I mean chips. Not fries. Anyway, these chips are delicious! I got the Honey Soy Chicken flavor. (There’s a lot of chicken flavored things here). And it really did taste like chicken, in a good way. The texture was totally different of course. But I thought they were really good. 

When I got home I ended up watching another Australian movie with Erica and my host brother Kieran. We watched a movie called The Black Balloon. This was sort of a depressing, independent type film. It’s about a 15 year old boy, Thomas, who has an older brother with severe autism, Charlie. Charlie is always causing Thomas grief and making his life more complicated. The whole movie is following Thomas and his ability to find some sort of normality in life despite his families special circumstances. It didn’t really have a happy ending. Nothing was concluded. The movie just sort of ended. I still liked it, it was just thoroughly un-American. 

"When did we meet?"

3/19/2012

Monday. Woke up super late. Typical. Woke up at 7:15. I had intended to leave at 7:15. So that wasn’t happening. But even with that large setback, I still managed to get out the door by 7:45 and made it to school by 8:30 for a class that starts at 9. So that was awesome.

In photo class we started shooting photos using lighting (with my newly bought attachment!). I got some cool pictures. But I need to some up with 3 more objects to shoot (we’re supposed to have 6 total, I just don’t have anything with me that is cool to photograph).

When I was done I helped some other people with their shoots. I helped Allison by pouring red liquid into a clear class. This proved to be harder than it looks. To pour at the exact right time and not spill it everywhere. I ended up making quite a mess, which was a drag because you have to clean it up between each shot. I mean, she eventually got a good shot, but I don’t know if Alison will be hiring me as an assistant any time soon.

After class I had another counseling session with Merridee. It went well. I’d tell you what we talked about, but that’s confidential. After that I did work on campus in the design lab. There were lots of kids from my class there who were working on the same thing. They were chatting about Australian T.V. shows and one guy (whom I met the first week of school) wanted to know if American’s got Australian T.V. shows. He was sort of just wondering it aloud. But when he realized I was in the room, he turns to me and says:

“American!”

Oh heck no. I will not be referred to as ‘American’. So I called him out

“Do you know my name?”

“….uhh…no…”

“Would you like to?”

“…Yes.” (good answer)

“Rachel”

“Okay, Rachel. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Anthony”

“Oh, I know your name.”

“How do you know my name?!”

“Because you told it to me….when we met”

“We’ve met before?! When did we meet?”

“On the first day of class…”

Clearly I made an impression on this kid. This may actually be the story of my life. I ALWAYS REMEMBER PEOPLE’S NAMES AND THEY NEVER REMEMBER MINE!

I didn’t take it personally. It’s not like we hang out. I’m just freakishly good at remembering names. I mean, have you seen how many names I drop in this blog?!

Anyway, he won’t be forgetting my name now that I made a spectacle of it. So after I finished that I met up with Carly and we walked to the bus stop. Saw a bus drive by but we were too far even to run for it. So we stood at bus stop like chumps. Then, on the horizon, we saw a car that resembled Neil’s. We both thought, ‘hey is that Neil? Wouldn’t it be nice if it was and he saw us and picked us up and took us home so we wouldn’t have to stand at this bus stop?’

Turns out it was Neil, but he didn’t see us. So we did not get a ride home from school. Which actually ended up being okay because by the time we got home dinner was ready. But we did not hesitate to rag on him when we got home for not stopping to pick us up. He felt bad, and told us next time to flag him down and he would absolutely take us.

After dinner, the girls and I plus Braedon walked down to the servo a couple blocks away and picked up some ice cream bars. Magnums to be specific. And these are, hands down, the best ice cream bars in the world. They are kind of pricey at the servo, but they are worth every cent! I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up a Monday night.

Things I Miss

3/18/2012

Sunday was quite uneventful. I slept in, did homework, went to the library and did some work on a group project. I ended up posting a lot of blogs and pictures and such. I really can’t think of anything outstanding to say about today. I got a lot done I suppose.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Gosh, that is a really boring day. Why are you even taking the time to write about it?” I will tell you why. Because I want to! You probably did the exact same thing today but since I did it in Australia it is ten times more exciting.

Anyway, because I feel the pressure to give the people what they want, I have a list of back up topics to blog about, incase I should have an off day where nothing notable happens.

Today I will talk about some things that I miss about America. I’m not going to list any friends or family, because that is obvious. So don’t get all offended if your name isn’t on the list of things I miss.

(pssst. Hey you. Yeah, I’m talking to you, not any of the other readers. I miss you the most. Don’t let anyone else know it, okay?)

Okay. Things I miss from America:

1.     Disneyland

I really miss going to Disneyland. Having a pass and just rolling in whenever I feel like it. I really hope I can get a pass for senior year. Even if it’s the lowest possible pass, I just want to get back there

2.     My curling iron

Okay, yes they have curling irons here. But they are expensive and I don’t feel like spending the money on a device that will do me no good after 3 months.

3.     Topanga, my car

Most days I’m really over the bus. I would love to have my car. Miss you Topanga!