tour

so i have australian history on fridays (830 kickoff, and yes that's on purpose), and today we got an orientation thingy for our broome trip, im really excited. like, randomly yesterday afternoon, i was hanging out in the esplanade (aka: my front yard) and all of a sudden it hit me all over again.
im in australia.
IM IN AUSTRALIA.

and how cool is that?

anyways, yeah, so we're going to broome in three weeks or so. actually, we're going to the whole kimberly area, flying into broome and jeeping it from there up to the tippy top part of australia. or something like that.
its going to be amazing for a bazillion reasons, one being no time. i love that. five days of nooooo idea what time it is. cold showers, no electricity, sleeping in tents, sharing backpacks, no makeup, cell phones, mp3 players, watches, tv, radio, internet, and you get the idea
just lots of sunscreen, bottled water, hats, cameras, and things that could kill you.

but seriously, im so excited. we're going to pool our resources and buy sports equipment for this no budget, catholic aboriginal school. apparently students started doing that a couple of years ago, and now every group that goes up brings the kids stuff. all the equipment they have in their gym is from US students. so we're going to keep up the tradition.
there are 3 different groups going, basically the three different dorm things (although i've taken to calling it "the house" - "dorm" doesnt fit the feel of port lodge), and i think we're all going to bring stuff up.
im kind of nervous too though. i honestly thought that going here would be similar to being in the US, esp with the european/aboriginal relationships.
dude, i was wrong.
first off, i didnt know that the oldest recorded civilization in the world is here. i dont know, you grow up thinking everything that matters started off in the mediteranean or something, and there were random cavemen in other places, and (of course) ireland's always been on top of its game.
but the tribes here have been around since pretty much forever, and i guess the deal is that while obviously they came from somewhere, probably asia then tripped down the islands here, once they got here they stayed. im pretty sure they said that the aboriginals here are the only culture in the world to not have a story for how they got *here*
they've always been here, their oral traditions and relationship with the land is pretty much unlike anything i at least have heard of. i mean, pretty much every culture has some sort of relationship with the land/nature, but not like this.
i had no idea how hard it is to live here. (ok this is ridiculous, i pretty much want to just go on about everything i've learned so far)
after our kimberly talk, we went on a 'historical tour of fremantle' (i was supposed to be in this one group, but i snuck into the other cos i like the lecturer more ... i suppose you didnt really need to know that, oh well!), anyway, i love this guy cos he's from northern ireland, moved out here when he was a kid, grew up in sydney, and now lives here with his family and teaches history. yeah.
oh yeah! i love him because as an irish guy, he gives a sweet tour, mostly focusing on irish history.
anyways, yeah, so ... yeah, living here.
its insane. like, i get why the whole white guy/aboriginal thing is still so bad here. i mean, you hear all the stereotypes, australians treat women badly and are racists. its just because they were colonized later than the states and they're about 50 years behind us.
yeah.
no not really. it really is a completely different country here. honestly, im starting to think that things are so bad with the aboriginals because white people dont know how to live here. this isnt our country, and the majority of the aboriginal community still sees us, all europeans, as guests ... who decided to take over and run the place, and badly at that.
and this isnt some revisionist history, white person guilt ... and its not something that ive been told ... i dont know, im on the verge of beginning to understand something, but i cant formulate it yet. which is why im so excited for kimberly .... and i know and appreciate that ive only been here for five weeks, and im just trying to absorb too much and my brain is a tad fried right now, but yeah ... im starting to feel like im getting my sense of direction back, and thats a good thing.

moving on, the tour was crazy sweet. its amazing how much ive walked by every day since i got here and never really saw. like this monument to the last 62 of the last convicts deported here, just happened to be fenians. they were pretty sweet. and yeah, one of them ended up escaping, got on a whaling ship to the states, moved to chicago, and started the tribune. he has this great quote about his first sight of fremantle, from the convict ship, ill put it at the end, im offline right now. (im never going to get used to no wireless)

so what else is new ... oh yeah, i got a job.
=)

im a waitress! at this pizza place! and i have no idea how much im getting paid, how often ill work, if it sunk with the owner that im *illegal*, or what. all do know is that its a family owned italian restaurant, just down the road from port lodge, my friend trisha starts tonight, and i start tomorrow. and i have to go buy black pants cos im really smart and DIDNT PACK THEM. grr. but yeah, isnt that AWESOME. it is. oh yeah! hahaahahha, when we first walked in i just went up the counter and asked if they were hiring, "oh yeah! sure"
"great, im a study abroad student, over at notre dame"
"ok"
"umm .... so what are you looking for"
"everythings avail. you ever waitressed before?"
"um, not really"
"oh thats fine, we'll train you. how long are you here for"
"till the end of june ... "
"four months then? ok"
".... uhh, what hours are you looking for"
"oh whenever you're avail, really whenever you want"
"... um, ok *give him hours*"
"ok, well give me your phone number and name and ill give you a call in the week to let you know whats open"
"ok ... ill talk to you later then?"
"yeah! bye!"

this all went down in about five minutes. i walked out with trish, and we just look at each other "did that really just happen?"
i didnt think it could be more chill than my fish place, but yeah ... they might be given a run for thier money. on the other hand i have to wear a pseudo uniform .... although that could be whatever i wanted, as long as its black.
i love italians.

but, after my tour this morning, hearing all about the "on the waterfront" nature of fremantle (dude, this place has a cool history) , i just remembered how much i wanted to work on the docks here, or a fishing company or something. so i went straight over to the student life office afterwards, to see if they had anny ideas. they werent too bright (ive been so spoiled by myND, its crazy. i could go up to the career center, and say "i want to work on a boat" and they'd find me something. but i digress) , but once i finnish this im going to hit up the harbour and see if i can find something.
i miss my fish. =/

but yeah, so im excited to work. not only could it possibly mean moolah (im still a little skeptical that itll work out), but its a phenomenal way to meet more australians, i can wow them with my killer american customer service skills (yeah, they arent too into that here), and lets be honest. esther likes working. she's good at it. =)

my arms look really good. i hope this tan never goes away.

OH yeah. i think its prolly long out of the theatres but if at all possible, papa needs to see "Wild Hogs". its a very much esther+papa movie, along the lines of george of the jungle and dudley doright fame. i was pretty much in tears the whole time, and i was only semi tired. =D

kk, loves to all. i feel like i had more to say, so you might get really lucky and have two in one day.

oh yeah, what does everybody want from here? we were talking about that yesterday, and any suggestions would be well recieved. hee hee.