Friday, November 12, 2010

and are we there yet?

Well, today is my last day in Australia.

It doesn't even feel real. It's still hard to believe I'm actually here, let alone that I won't be tomorrow.

I suddenly got cold feet. I'm not ready to leave yet. Four months isn't enough time.

This past week was the best that anyone could hope for. It was hot and sunny, and I went to the beach every day. I thought my last week would be about trying to jam-pack it full of things I hadn't done yet. But I found that all I really wanted to do was be with friends and family. Things like going out to breakfast, or participating in a Harry Potter marathon, or walking around the beach became highlights of my whole trip.

I don't want to leave this.

But I do at the same time. Four months is too short to be in Australia, but it's a long time to be away from home. Not just like, home-where-my-house-is-home. But home like, home-where-my-family-is and home-where-my-friends-are and home-where-my-country-is.

This is the most bittersweet experience of my life. Both ends are so extreme.

But first I'm taking the Ring to Mordor going to New Zealand. See you guys after I battle some Ringwraiths, fight off a giant spider and climb Mount Doom.

current song: Are We There Yet by Ingrid Michaelson

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

we are the tourists in the cafes

Today in class, we watched this short movie called The Story of Stuff. It's this woman who researched how all our 'stuff' is made, and where it goes once we throw it away. You all should watch it here. It's so interesting, and brings up a lot of issues we don't think about very much. I don't think everything she's saying here is gospel truth. But it definitely got me thinking.

After the movie we had a discussion, and someone brought up this quote from Saturday by Ian McEwan. It's kind of long.

"How restful it must once have been, in another age, to be prosperous and believe that an all-knowing supernatural force had allotted people to their stations in life. And not see how the belief served your own prosperity- a form of anosopnosia, a useful psychiatric term for a lack of awareness of ones own condition. Now we think we do see, how do things stand? after the ruinous experiments of the lately deceased century, after so much vile behavior, so many deaths, a queasy agnosticism has settled around these matters of justice and redistributed wealth. No more big ideas. The world must improve, if at all, by tiny steps."

Things don't operate the way they should. The world doesn't work like it was created to. Some people have nothing and some people have too much. We watch the tragedies of the world happen on the news from our dinner tables and often can't motivate ourselves to do anything about it. I don't know where my shirt was made, or who made it and whether or not they have enough food. I don't know if the person who sold it to me was paid fairly and I don't know where it will go once I finally give it up. Isn't that a problem?

I don't know exactly what I even think about all this yet. Or what I think I should do with it. But what I really want is for you to watch that movie and read that quote and tell me what you think.

current song: Camera Talk by Local Natives