Just arrived back from Tasmania yesterday. I can honestly say it is one of the greatest places I have been traveling so far. Before I left, I said goodbye to my dear friend Ewa who was now going to be traveling up the coast. Had a nice dinner with her and we said our goodbyes.

My last week was spent in the beautiful and cold Tasmania. It was amazing. I met up with my sister and her friend Erin from Canada. We rented a car and started traveling up the east coast. We decided to go to Freycinet National Park first. The drive there was a spectaculor 2 hours of non-stop beauty. I think we pulled over for “photo-ops” about 15 times. The mountains, the sun(finally after being in rainy sydney), the coastline, was all amazing.

We arrived at the park and did the hike to the famous wineglass bay. It was cloudy but entirely worth it. This is by far the nicest beach I have ever stepped foot onto. The sand was so bright even with it being cloudy. I can imagine being blinded by it when it was nice out. The water was so clear and it was here that I saw my first wallaby in nature. So cute, by the way…a lot cuter than kangaroos. We watched an amazing sunset that radiated off of the cliffs and almost painted them red. Driving off to our stopover for the night we found ourselves in the small town of St Helens, known as one of the busiest fishing ports during the summers. It is a huge vacations spot. Had some dinner and found out from one of the locals about waterfalls that we should check out.

Next day was spent waking up early and heading to Bay Of Fires, where the sunrises are supposed to be some of the best in the world. Well, for us it was a bit cloudy, still beautiful, but not as bright. The landscape was amazing still. Huge waves crashing on boulders and not a single house in sight. Next were the waterfalls, which were so cool. It was nice because it had rained here right before we arrived, so the water was really flowing. Walking though a jungle like forest to get there was so cool. We drove on to the next biggest city called Lauceston. There we walked around and went onto a really cool suspension bridge and walked in this enourmous gorge to a working powerplant. The gorge was so big, to think that it was scraped out thousands of years ago is mind blowing. After that we kept driving closer to our destination for the next day and stayed overnight in Deloraine.

Caving and Cradle Mountain were on the list for the next day. We headed to mole creek to see these caves. The caves were amazing. We learned that they were discovered actually by two young boys aged 13 and 11 back in the 1800’s. Now it is kept running and has been bought to keep preserved by the Australian Gov. We also got to see glow worms, which are just these worms that hang in the ceiling of the cave and look like tiny stars. Driving to Cradle Mtn. was interesting. The roads were so windy and small and when we got there it was cloudy. As soon as we started hiking it cleared and was sunny. We did a hike around a lake and got to see all the landscape and the size of the mountain. We learned that about 20% of Tasmania is made up of National Parks and that some people only go to Tas to see Cradle Mountain. It was so spectacular.

Saturday was spent at the famous Salamanca Market back in Hobart where tons of vendors ranging from jewelry to tacky tassie stuff to a baked potato stand. Yeah and thats definitley what I ate for breakfast. We wandered around and grabbed lunch there then headed down to explore Port Arthur and the history of the island that used to be filled with convicts. It was a really cool place, filled with lots of history about the old buildings, and stories. We got to go into the old cells and walk around the grounds all day and even have a short boat cruise.

We decided to keep the car one extra day and travel up to Mt Wellington because it was snow capped and we heard the views were stunning. Well…if I thought the roads were tiny and windy before these topped them. First off, there were tons of people driving up and down. The roads were barely big enough to fit two cars. We got up really high and realized that there was atually a line of cars we had to wait in. It was like these people had never seen snow before. There was about a foot and a half which is a lot for there. People, families and kids were going nuts, throwing snowballs, digging tunnels, eating it, making snowmen on their cars, and some even shoveling it into the backs of their trucks to take back down the mountain. When we were up there though, the view was incredible. All of Hobart could be seen, not to mention we were looking down on the cloud cover at one point to the left. We headed to grab some seafood afterwards and hang out in the hostel for the night.

Sad goodbyes were said the next day as we parted ways to head home. I would not be seeing Erin again this trip, but she is close enough. My sister comes to Sydney in 3 days and so does her friend. Only a little over 2weeks left….its so strange. Well off to write in my other journal.

Cheers

Lauren

PS sorry no pictures…i broke my camera…pics to come when the sis arrives….

I’ve pretty much neglected this blog for a while, but things have been so hectic lately.

So here’s where we left off:

The last two days that we spent in Trapani were really exciting.
We stayed at a great bed and breakfast, and the day after we went to Palermo to see the Catacombe dei Cappuccini. It’s these amazing catacombs with hundreds of mummified bodies from the 1700’s and 1800’s in their clothes. They’re just hanging from the walls and a lot of them still have their real hair and skin.

Then we took the train down to Agrigento and saw the Valle of the Temples, which was breathtaking. In this valley, there’s about 10 greek ruins, and some you can just walk right up to them and walk around. The one that still is completely intact, Temple of Concordia, is fenced off. We only had limited time there, but we made good use of it, and found a tour group of old ladies from Kingston, NY which was pretty neat.

We made our way back to Palermo, where the girls bought soccer jerseys (jersies? i don’t know) and we went to this restaurant I Grilli, which i was really excited about, but the guy that worked there didn’t really feel the same.

(BTW: in italian, “i grilli” translates to “the crickets.” It’s plural of grillo, and i swear it’s a real word. for some reason, whenever i tell an italian my last name, they never get it. they tell me it’s not italian. i don’t know why they don’t grasp the whole plural thing.)

So since then, things have been strange, because people are leaving left and right. It’s sad to say goodbye to all the friends i’ve made that don’t live in the US, because it may be years before i get to see them again. I hate to think about it.

Also, exams have been crazy lately. In italy, they only do oral exams. It’s super-intimidating – it’s a real test of your language skills to be able to think on the spot and explain what you’ve learned in the class in about 10 minutes, while a professor stares you down. Fortunately, i’ve gotten good grades so far, but i still have 2 more to go. I feel so overwhelmed because all the other students (even students from the US who go through our SUNY program) are only on a pass/fail basis. However, I’m under a lot of pressure to get the same grades that i do at home in order to maintain my GPA. The catch is that i’m not even doing it english. This is my second language, and i’m pretty much expected to be as proficient in it as i am in english in order to accomplish this.

Needless to say, i’m kind of having anxiety attacks pretty frequently.

Because of these, whenever i’m not studying, i’m at the beach or the bar (i know, i know, poor baby). It’s hard to really relax when i have these obstacles looming over me. I also find i’m calling home more and more often for support and to vent.

The other day, I had an oral exam for my Democracy in Spain course. I thought these oral exams would be one by one, called into the professor’s office for ten minutes and then we rotate. But no.

I had to take it in front of a classroom of 27 italians. That was pretty much my worst nightmare realized. But i guess what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

And i think i have bedbugs. I don’t think i can learn a moral lesson or get stronger from that. just itchier.
I think i may have brought them back from a hostel i stayed in in Florence last week. But i’ll leave that story for next time….

So I’ve realized that when I began this blog I set out to do something- to discover English culture and decided whether my perception of it was correct or not. But I realized halfway through that it’s sort of a silly question, for several reasons.

First of all I was studying in North London, I’ve had many people tell me that London is not England at all (and some like it better that way) and I think it’s true. London is a huge captial city and microcosm of the world. Culture exists but it’s everyone’s old, new and mixed culture. Finding English people in London is difficult and the ones you do find are usually more “global” with the places they’ve traveled, the people they’ve dated and the way they think. I felt this even stronger at my university especially with the people I interacted with.

I chatted to one of my few English friends about this and I remember him agreeing that “English culture” or what was previously thought to be “English culture” is slowly disappearing and becoming more ambiguous like “American culture”. Things you would normally associate with being English are no longer as true as they used to be. However I still found shadowy glimpses of it within London (like Cornish pasties, Sunday roast dinner you could get at wetherspoons, and of course tea and pub life, however I feel even this can be debated or perhaps seen as a “watered down” verison of culture).

I also see my previous association of “English culture” as pure “consumer culture” and entertainment since I was familar with their TV shows, movies and music. I was guilty of the same perception and lack of knowledge as the English have of Americans, since conversations on the night bus (once someone finds out your American) usualy evolves around 9/11, Iraq and TV shows. (I have had more reminiscent talks over TV shows with people who are from anywhere but the U.S.!) At first this seemed a hostile view as my old flatmate felt, but it’s purely a lack of knowledge based on anything besides what is presented in the media.

So I’m not really sure how much I learned about England, but I do know I’ve learned a lot about London and through London a lot about many other places in the world. So if anything, I’ve learned about London culture something unique in itself. And it’s an enriching experience that I will continue to expand on and never forget.

Sorry I haven’t written in a while, things are winding down right now, but will be picking back up in a week.

We finally had our superhero’s and villians party. It was great. The girls(heleen, caitling and I) dressed up as Lara Croft Tomb Raiders, Ricky as Canada man, our friend matt as Flouro Boy and our other friend emma as a ninja turtle, to mention a few. The night started out great, reminiscing about how much fun this semester was, and how we were all planning to meet back up later. We went out after some drinks at our apartment to Bar Broadway, for one last hoorah! Towards the end of the night when everyone was a tad bit rowdy, we all got in circle from our apartment and started yelling ‘Geegal’ so so loud. (thats the name of our apartment). The bartenders and bouncers started gettting pissed off so the kicked us out! HAHA! It was so funny that our last night there we got kicked out! We got back to the apartment and I had to say goodbye to Heleen because I had class in the morning. Well let me tell you the tears started flowing for about an hour. Its amazing to me how close you become to people in such a short amount of time. She is one of my best friends, and now I am going to Amsterdam in December!! She is the first one to leave out of the group, and I think I am the last, but my sister will be here with me for the last 2 weeks, so it won’t be that bad.

Exams have finally started. I had my first one on Saturday, and I am glad to say I think I did amazing on it. I studied as much as a could, but I think it just wasn’t that hard. I’m glad. Two more to go on Tuesday and Wednesday then I am officially done!!! WOO HOO!!

Friday, the Dali Lama is coming to give free talks in the Royal Botanical Gardens, and I am going to go lounge alll day and listen to him speak. Then  my trip for Tasmania starts the next week, with my sister and her friend Erin. 6 cold cold days I am looking forward to. It should be a blast though. We are going to rent a car and drive to National Parks and go hiking pretty much for 5 days. See some whales, seals, and penguins on the coast, because the are all migrating, then head back to Sydney.

The next week my sisters friend flys in then my sister to Sydney, then we are going to head up north towards Cairns, and do some diving and some laying out on the beach, so I can get my tan back before I go home. I am totally excited for the end of this great adventure!!

Well I have to get back to trying to study!!

Cheers, Lauren