Enjoy. :)
Much love,
Morgan
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Video killed the radio star.
Hello world! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to report on my weekend. After the vlog last week, it was very hard to get motivated for the return to text-format, but return I have (albeit rather embarrassingly late)!
The reason I did not vlog my trip to Stradbroke Island last week is because it was with my Anthropology class, and we were meeting up with some Aboriginal tribal leaders, and they have that whole tricky cameras-will-take-my-soul idea going on, and I didn't want to offend anyone with my amateur film-making. For the same reason, this blog entry will be devoid of pictures. Man, things are just getting duller and duller on Snark & Blather, aren't they? Oops.
The trip was fantastic, though--a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. Our main guide was a man called Shane, and he was both wickedly funny and deeply passionate about the island, where the Moreton family has been living for generations. He brought along several members of his family, including an adorable little boy named Alfie who kept interrupting Shane's speaking with whatever exciting tide pool creature he'd stumbled across and simply had to show us. We started at a creek, where we had to survey the area for evidence of aboriginal sites, like campgrounds or shell middens. There wasn't much, but it didn't matter--as Shane explained, the space functioned more as a supermarket of sorts, where all the necessary things for living could be gathered and trade communication with other tribes could be carried out.
We breaked for lunch, and my friend Greg guiltily admitted that he hadn't brought any more to eat than a couple apples. This is the same friend who forgot his lunch during the Byron Bay trip who I gave my apple to, so I had suspected that it might happen again and brought a PB&J sandwich for him. He was delighted, and declared me "the best person ever." He now owes me a drink.
Our other stop was at Brown Lake in the middle of the island. Basically, Straddie is a pile of sand over the top of a huge water table, and Brown Lake is at the summit. It's called Brown Lake because, like with the lake I swam in at Byron Bay, it's surrounded by ti trees and the oils soaking into the water have colored it. Because this site is primarily a women's site, Shane left us here in the care of his sister and mother, along with several other women from the family and an even younger boy named Archie, who clearly thought that we ought to be paying more attention to him than to the women. The women explained how the lake served as a beginning place for all of the members of the family, where they were introduced to the spirit-beings for the first time, and that the health of the lake was indicative of the health of the tribe's women. Once again, though there was very little physical evidence at the site, we were told that the significance of the site lies in its function: Brown Lake is one of the most sacred places for the Aboriginal family that lives on the island because it is where their lives begin and end.
As we left, Shane gave us some parting advice regarding Australian sharks: "Be careful," he said. "Our sharks have a sense of humor. They love to pull your leg, and they don't always give it back."
That evening (this was Saturday, by the way), my friend Krista had her 21st birthday party at a Mexican restaurant over in Taringa on the other side of the river. Only about 8 people showed up, but they were all cool (most of them I hadn't met before) and we hung out there for about three hours. The food was way more than I could eat, though, and since Australia doesn't believe in doggy bags, I ended up eating way too much. Everybody did. But that didn't prevent us from trekking downtown via train and getting gelatti in the CBD, which we happily ate sitting just outside of a rather hilariously sketchy-looking strip club.
Sunday I went to see Despicable Me with Aran and Scarlett, and it was pretty good, though clearly intended for a much younger audience than us. We were also blown away by the 3D classes. They appeared to have color-changing lenses, because when we first pulled them out the right one was dark and the left one wasn't, and they later switched, and then evened out when the movie started. My first thought was light sensitivity, but after some experimenting we determined that wasn't it. So yes, cheap 3D glasses stumped 2 undergrads and 1 post-grad student. We're cool.
Apologies again for the lack of vlog on this one. I really do like that format better. I promise there will be some vlogging again soon, because I am leaving for Heron Island on Friday night, where I have been promised night snorkeling, and I am super excited. When next you hear from me, I will be 21 years old, and over halfway through my time in Australia. How crazy is that? Hope all is well on the home front!
Love,
Morgan
P.S. I wandered past a shop the other day called "KGB locksmith" with a hammer & sickle for its logo. Bad taste, or sheer genius? You decide.
The reason I did not vlog my trip to Stradbroke Island last week is because it was with my Anthropology class, and we were meeting up with some Aboriginal tribal leaders, and they have that whole tricky cameras-will-take-my-soul idea going on, and I didn't want to offend anyone with my amateur film-making. For the same reason, this blog entry will be devoid of pictures. Man, things are just getting duller and duller on Snark & Blather, aren't they? Oops.
The trip was fantastic, though--a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. Our main guide was a man called Shane, and he was both wickedly funny and deeply passionate about the island, where the Moreton family has been living for generations. He brought along several members of his family, including an adorable little boy named Alfie who kept interrupting Shane's speaking with whatever exciting tide pool creature he'd stumbled across and simply had to show us. We started at a creek, where we had to survey the area for evidence of aboriginal sites, like campgrounds or shell middens. There wasn't much, but it didn't matter--as Shane explained, the space functioned more as a supermarket of sorts, where all the necessary things for living could be gathered and trade communication with other tribes could be carried out.
We breaked for lunch, and my friend Greg guiltily admitted that he hadn't brought any more to eat than a couple apples. This is the same friend who forgot his lunch during the Byron Bay trip who I gave my apple to, so I had suspected that it might happen again and brought a PB&J sandwich for him. He was delighted, and declared me "the best person ever." He now owes me a drink.
Our other stop was at Brown Lake in the middle of the island. Basically, Straddie is a pile of sand over the top of a huge water table, and Brown Lake is at the summit. It's called Brown Lake because, like with the lake I swam in at Byron Bay, it's surrounded by ti trees and the oils soaking into the water have colored it. Because this site is primarily a women's site, Shane left us here in the care of his sister and mother, along with several other women from the family and an even younger boy named Archie, who clearly thought that we ought to be paying more attention to him than to the women. The women explained how the lake served as a beginning place for all of the members of the family, where they were introduced to the spirit-beings for the first time, and that the health of the lake was indicative of the health of the tribe's women. Once again, though there was very little physical evidence at the site, we were told that the significance of the site lies in its function: Brown Lake is one of the most sacred places for the Aboriginal family that lives on the island because it is where their lives begin and end.
As we left, Shane gave us some parting advice regarding Australian sharks: "Be careful," he said. "Our sharks have a sense of humor. They love to pull your leg, and they don't always give it back."
That evening (this was Saturday, by the way), my friend Krista had her 21st birthday party at a Mexican restaurant over in Taringa on the other side of the river. Only about 8 people showed up, but they were all cool (most of them I hadn't met before) and we hung out there for about three hours. The food was way more than I could eat, though, and since Australia doesn't believe in doggy bags, I ended up eating way too much. Everybody did. But that didn't prevent us from trekking downtown via train and getting gelatti in the CBD, which we happily ate sitting just outside of a rather hilariously sketchy-looking strip club.
Sunday I went to see Despicable Me with Aran and Scarlett, and it was pretty good, though clearly intended for a much younger audience than us. We were also blown away by the 3D classes. They appeared to have color-changing lenses, because when we first pulled them out the right one was dark and the left one wasn't, and they later switched, and then evened out when the movie started. My first thought was light sensitivity, but after some experimenting we determined that wasn't it. So yes, cheap 3D glasses stumped 2 undergrads and 1 post-grad student. We're cool.
Apologies again for the lack of vlog on this one. I really do like that format better. I promise there will be some vlogging again soon, because I am leaving for Heron Island on Friday night, where I have been promised night snorkeling, and I am super excited. When next you hear from me, I will be 21 years old, and over halfway through my time in Australia. How crazy is that? Hope all is well on the home front!
Love,
Morgan
P.S. I wandered past a shop the other day called "KGB locksmith" with a hammer & sickle for its logo. Bad taste, or sheer genius? You decide.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Come to Australia!
It's been a long week and blogs are kind of boring, so let's just skip the part where I whine about Australian midterms and watch this here video instead:
:)
P.S. You should also probably go watch this video, because it's awesome.
:)
P.S. You should also probably go watch this video, because it's awesome.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
YOUR MOM's a cultural ignoramus.
Hello, hello, hello! It's been bloody hot and humid this week, and the evenings are almost worse than the days because you just feel disgusting and clammy, so I've pretty much shut myself in my room. Although, to be fair, that probably has more to do with the fact that I am currently drowning in papers than it does with the weather. Seriously, Australian midterms are awful. It all just sort of...crashes down at once. Not awesome.
But, at the moment is it raining, which has made me substantially happier, and I've decided to surface from the depths of academia to give you a report on what I've been doing over the past two days (other than getting really depressed by the topic of my history paper: genocide).
So no, I haven't been the most diligent student and instead took the last two evenings off to do fun stuff, which is probably bad for my academics, but great for my sanity and for you because I have awesome things to report!
First of all, Friday evening I met up with my friend Julie (remember her from the Moreton Bay Research trip?) and we went to a restaurant in the CBD that she loves. It's called "the Pancake Manor" and it's exactly what it sounds like: a restaurant, dedicated entirely to pancakes, 3 meals a day. It was amazing what creative things they came up with. They had chocolate pancakes. Not pancakes with chocolate in them, but actual chocolate pancakes made with chocolate batter.
Julie warned me against those, however, saying that it was a bit like eating an entire chocolate cake on your own. Instead, I ordered the banana & chocolate ice cream pancakes, which were still so incredibly thick and overwhelming that I could only eat half of it. Julie got strawberry and chocolate, and we each topped it off with a shake. Mine was spearmint, which was delicious at first, but wound up tasting a bit like toothpaste toward the end, so I didn't finish it, either.
Once our stomachs were sufficiently bursting with pancake goodness, we trekked across the bridge to the cultural center to meet Aran for a poetry slam hosted by the Brisbane Public Library. I didn't participate in the slam, but Aran did and he did so beautifully, the MC was endlessly entertaining, and there were a lot of other awesome poets there, including a guy named Myles Something (help, Aran?), the spoken word duo Emily XYZ & Myers Bartlett, and these guys:
You can't tell in this picture, but that guy has an awesome ruffle over his butt.
The crowd was deliciously snarky, the judges reasonably objective, and on one occasion an audience member got so excited about a performance that he stripped down to his boxers, gave a mighty "YOWP!!!" and ran out into the street. Once the show was over, Aran and I wandered up to West End in search of coffee, but were ultimately thwarted in our quest, and instead settled for bottle coffee and stick ice cream, which we ate sitting outside the same little library I used for my internet connection when I first arrived in Brisbane. In the hour and a half we spent hanging out on the bench, we made several friends: an old man picking up trash for his shopping cart who though I was Irish and Aran was Jewish, a rather large bat that had a go at the back of Aran's head, and a very drunk man in dress trousers and a button-down shirt, who wandered up to us excitedly, brandishing an opened package of smoked salmon, and earnest announced, "I love smoked salmon! And it's bloody cheap! Only $5!" before stumbling away up the road. Delightful.
This evening, there was an event going on in South Bank called "Riverfire," which is a yearly thing where there are fireworks and a fighter jet does a fuel dump over the crowd. I wasn't 100% on going because I've seen fireworks and I've seen fighter jets and I had a lot of work to do on my paper, but Emil called me up and insisted that it was going to be the coolest thing to happen in Brisbane all year, so I met up with him and Aran and Scarlett (and later Binte and Laeka) at the cultural center, where we secured a place for ourselves sitting on top of a barrier wall at the bus stop.
Ultimately, Emil was right: it was pretty freaking cool. I would try to describe it to you, but I would fall far short, so instead, here's a video, even though it really doesn't do the event justice either, because I didn't get any footage of the fireworks coming off of all the buildings downtown, too:
So that was my weekend. Coming up next: history paper due Monday, cinema paper due Friday, and then I'm taking an awesome trip with the QUEST kids to the hinterlands to see a waterfall and some glow worms! So stay tuned. :)
Much love,
Morgan
But, at the moment is it raining, which has made me substantially happier, and I've decided to surface from the depths of academia to give you a report on what I've been doing over the past two days (other than getting really depressed by the topic of my history paper: genocide).
So no, I haven't been the most diligent student and instead took the last two evenings off to do fun stuff, which is probably bad for my academics, but great for my sanity and for you because I have awesome things to report!
First of all, Friday evening I met up with my friend Julie (remember her from the Moreton Bay Research trip?) and we went to a restaurant in the CBD that she loves. It's called "the Pancake Manor" and it's exactly what it sounds like: a restaurant, dedicated entirely to pancakes, 3 meals a day. It was amazing what creative things they came up with. They had chocolate pancakes. Not pancakes with chocolate in them, but actual chocolate pancakes made with chocolate batter.
Julie warned me against those, however, saying that it was a bit like eating an entire chocolate cake on your own. Instead, I ordered the banana & chocolate ice cream pancakes, which were still so incredibly thick and overwhelming that I could only eat half of it. Julie got strawberry and chocolate, and we each topped it off with a shake. Mine was spearmint, which was delicious at first, but wound up tasting a bit like toothpaste toward the end, so I didn't finish it, either.
Once our stomachs were sufficiently bursting with pancake goodness, we trekked across the bridge to the cultural center to meet Aran for a poetry slam hosted by the Brisbane Public Library. I didn't participate in the slam, but Aran did and he did so beautifully, the MC was endlessly entertaining, and there were a lot of other awesome poets there, including a guy named Myles Something (help, Aran?), the spoken word duo Emily XYZ & Myers Bartlett, and these guys:
You can't tell in this picture, but that guy has an awesome ruffle over his butt.This evening, there was an event going on in South Bank called "Riverfire," which is a yearly thing where there are fireworks and a fighter jet does a fuel dump over the crowd. I wasn't 100% on going because I've seen fireworks and I've seen fighter jets and I had a lot of work to do on my paper, but Emil called me up and insisted that it was going to be the coolest thing to happen in Brisbane all year, so I met up with him and Aran and Scarlett (and later Binte and Laeka) at the cultural center, where we secured a place for ourselves sitting on top of a barrier wall at the bus stop.
Ultimately, Emil was right: it was pretty freaking cool. I would try to describe it to you, but I would fall far short, so instead, here's a video, even though it really doesn't do the event justice either, because I didn't get any footage of the fireworks coming off of all the buildings downtown, too:
So that was my weekend. Coming up next: history paper due Monday, cinema paper due Friday, and then I'm taking an awesome trip with the QUEST kids to the hinterlands to see a waterfall and some glow worms! So stay tuned. :)
Much love,
Morgan
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