Lady? You want tuk-tuk? I make special price for you! Not today? Tomorrow then?
Lady? You wanna buy a scarf? Lady? You wanna by postcards, 10 for $1...
Lady? You wanna by bracelets? 5 for $1...ok 10 for $1...ok 15 for $2...
Lady? Cold water? Lady breakfast? Lady...? Lady...? Lady...?
Welcome to Cambodia!
All I knew from Cambodia was its dark past, the cruel things people did to each other here...I arrived in a sunny friendly country, with mega polite people, always with a smile, also toward each other. It gets me wondering how superficial that smile is, or whether Cambodians really succeeded in moving on. Today I heard the first reference to killing fields and the Khmer Rouge, I've been here for more than four days.
The last three days we have been busy visiting the temples of Angkor. Driving around in a tuk-tuk, or rather being driven around has become one of my favorite ways to pass the time. The rather warm and humid air turns bearable while sitting in a tuk-tuk, you can look around and never get bored, things don't go by too fast, but also not too slow and most of all...it gives the real Asia feeling!!! We had a very nice driver: Bun who brought us everywhere we wanted. The first day we visited the old city of Angkor Thom with the beautiful Bayon Temple. After that we visited several other "smaller" temples, gazing, mouth open around every corner. The heat and all the new impressions and the prospect of an early morning made us dive into our beds early. The next morning came at 4.00 o'clock as we wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Although it was cloudy and there was no actual visible sunrise it was beautiful to discover Angkor Wat as it got lighter. The other positive part was that there was barely a soul inside the walls at that time. Angkor Wat is impressively big, though other temples are at least as beautiful and less intimidating :) I kept wondering how it had looked in its full glory, but somehow that seems too much to imagine...it must have been magnificent!!! (If only I had a time machine!)
When it got really warm (9.00) we got back into the tuk-tuk and Bun drove us to the Tonle Sap (Lake) which would become a special though also a bit uncomfortable experience. Vietnamese immigrants, landless and jobless, inhabit the so called floating villages on this lake. In the dry season, when there is not much water, the villages are concentrated on the lake, but in the wet season (now) the water in the middle gets too deep and they move their houses/boats to the fringes of the lake. This means that they change places and thus also neighbors at least twice a year. From the anthropological perspective I thought this is incredibly interesting and I could immediately see many possibilities for research there...but from the tourist point of view I felt terrible...sitting in a boat, being navigated past all these houses I felt like a big intruder, staring into peoples houses and into people's lives, into what I consider people's privacy. I had not really been prepared for that...
Still, it was impressive to see how these people organize their lives on and with the water. Floating goose cages were the max I thought...but also floating fish nurseries, floating toilets, floating everything!
At the end of the day we climbed a mountain to see the sunset around the temples of Angkor, something a considerable number of other tourists had done as well...
Yesterday was my favorite day! We went to a temple farther away, which means: longer in the tuk-tuk! :) just that would have made my day...but it got better...somewhere half way we had a leaky tire...Bun kicked us out of the tuk-tuk and went looking for a new tire. You might ask yourself why this is good, but it meant we had to walk for 20 minutes and that was an entire new way of being in the countryside of Cambodia! Everybody greets you with a questioning look, children wave and shout "hello" and you have time to look around, and see that ox carriage you would have otherwise missed...it made me feel like taking a month to hike to Phnom Penh (though that would be a little warm...)
We then went to a beautiful little temple called Banteay Srei. Though very touristy as well I enjoyed looking at the rich and beautiful reliefs in the red sandstone.
But the best part was Kbal Spean. The river Sien Reap runs through this mountain before getting to the temples of Angkor and the village. In some far distant past people carved gods into the stones in the river, making the water holy before it gets to the temples. It was a beautiful hike, rewarded by beautiful reliefs and the freshness brought by the closeness of the water.
After another nice tuk-tuk ride we got off again at Angkor Wat to cast a last glance at a, once again, practically deserted Angkor Wat, it was beautiful!
Today we have a day of rest, which we really need after three days of getting up early and ignoring the warmth, exploring temple after temple... tomorrow we retake the streets to see some nice stuff in and around Siem Reap and I think that wednesday we will make the journey to Phnom Penh, in search for the awful remains of Cambodian history, the remains that here seem to be silenced by the magnificence of the past before 1975...
This internet connection is too slow to upload photos, so that will follow as soon as possible...
Australia seems already a world away, although you all seam already much closer to me (in time and in space)!
Much love from a warm and sticky but beautiful and impressive Cambodia!
zondag 1 augustus 2010
maandag 19 juli 2010
My final decision is maybe
Sun, sea, increasing warmth, gorgeous beaches, hours behind the steering wheel and camping in little towns: I'm on the East Coast!!!
With our Wicked Campervan that displays "My final decision is: Maybe" on the back we have been driving up the East Coast, from a rainy and cold but beautiful Sydney, to a warmer Byron Bay and further up, chasing after the sun! I won't make it too long here, but the summary is:
- Camping on nice little campgrounds, or in the wild
- Having breakfast, lunch and dinner on beaches along the way
- Seeing dolphins and wales in incredibly blue water
- Making campfires on the best campground ever
- Watching the sun rise from the ocean
- Singing very loud in the van, saying hello to all other wickets and truck drivers
- Putting fuel in the van every 300 km's because the fuel meter is broken :)
- visiting the Witsunday Islands and snorkeling between blue, pink, yellow and green fishes
- Enjoying life very much!!!
And now only a few days left until Cambodia, that feels very weird...especially the idea of leaving Australia after all this time! However economically it will be a relief to our purses :) And it is also an adventure we are looking forward to!
Cheers to you all and here are some pictures!
Sydney Opera House by night
Botanic Gardens and Opera House by Day
Sunrise in Byron Bay
Dolphins!!!
Sunny Byron Bay
More Beach
Camping
Our Camper Van
Witsunday Island
With our Wicked Campervan that displays "My final decision is: Maybe" on the back we have been driving up the East Coast, from a rainy and cold but beautiful Sydney, to a warmer Byron Bay and further up, chasing after the sun! I won't make it too long here, but the summary is:
- Camping on nice little campgrounds, or in the wild
- Having breakfast, lunch and dinner on beaches along the way
- Seeing dolphins and wales in incredibly blue water
- Making campfires on the best campground ever
- Watching the sun rise from the ocean
- Singing very loud in the van, saying hello to all other wickets and truck drivers
- Putting fuel in the van every 300 km's because the fuel meter is broken :)
- visiting the Witsunday Islands and snorkeling between blue, pink, yellow and green fishes
- Enjoying life very much!!!
And now only a few days left until Cambodia, that feels very weird...especially the idea of leaving Australia after all this time! However economically it will be a relief to our purses :) And it is also an adventure we are looking forward to!
Cheers to you all and here are some pictures!
Sydney Opera House by night
Botanic Gardens and Opera House by Day
Sunrise in Byron Bay
Dolphins!!!
Sunny Byron Bay
More Beach
Camping
Our Camper Van
Witsunday Island
vrijdag 9 juli 2010
One month of Northern Territory
Dear all,
Such a long time ago...I'm sorry...but now, finally I found some time to write a blog about the past month!
Where to start...I might start at the beginning: 5 hours delay when flying from Melbourne to Alice Springs. But is that the beginning? Maybe I should start with all the stress of the last week and all the saying goodbye...but that is boring :)
So, the 5th of June Sterre, May and I flew to Alice Springs. On our way to the hostel we met Eveline, a girl from Switzerland who would become our 4th team mate. Together we hired a car in Alice Springs and drove down to Uluru, almost 500 km trough the outback. Driving through the outback was wonderful! Long highways, through a slowly changing landscape which, to my surprise, was not boring at all!
And then there it was, the big red/brown monolith, rising from the ground in the middle of nowhere, it does give a special feeling when you see it, suddenly, after a random curve in the road. Sunsets and sunrises give the rock an incredible, though very short, moment of splendor! We took a day to walk around Uluru, which was a beautiful hike in the shadow of that big red rock, although it also felt a bit intruding after all the things I learn about Aboriginal issues and Aborginal relationship to country and sacred sites. The following day we went to Kata Tjuta, less known, but at least as beautiful, a group of rocks where you can also hike and be amazed by the landscape, the colors and even some camels (!) in the distance!!!
On the 10th of June our ways parted, May went back to Melbourne, Eveline stayed in Alice, Sterre took the bushbus to an Indigenous art project north of Alice Springs and I took the plane to Darwin, to go wwoofing for two weeks.
I stayed with a lovely family, with four kids aged 2, 4, 6 and 8. There I picked pawpaws, planted zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes and basil, played with the dogs, got completely pierced by mosquitoes, escaped a few dangerous snakes, lived together with frogs, spiders and cockroaches, played nanny, learned how to operate a wipper snipper and gazed at the sky completely loaded with stars until the mosquitoes drove me back into my caravan. Two weeks of warmth, hard work, lovely people and peace in my head, exactly what I needed after a busy semester in University.
On the 26th of June I met Sterre again in Darwin as well as Sissel. So nice to see them again! We chilled in the park, enjoyed the warm weather and exchanged stories. On the 28th Sterre and me went on a 3 day tour to Kakadu National Park which was absolutely fantastic!
During those three days we camped under the stars, cooked on the fire, hiked to waterfall tops to jump in there for refreshment, saw crocodiles, birds and of course a lot of mosquitoes and enjoyed beautiful landscapes! It was absolutely relaxing and exiting at the same time!
I was not looking forward to go back to cold Melbourne after that month of warmth everyday, but once I arrived there I felt so at home...I didn't realize I had made myself so much at home in that city until I felt how normal it was to sit in the train again, to walk those streets, see certain people, go to certain places...I almost felt like I could start a new semester there right away...but then...it was cold, there were too many plans and I'm too much looking forward to go back to Holland to even consider the thought of staying there!
And then, on the 5th of July Ilse arrived! At 5 o'clock in the morning I was trying to stand strait up on the airport to welcome her in the city that I have been calling home. The next days were very busy with everything Sterre and me wanted to show Ilse and also still wanted to or had to do ourselves before leaving. Days flew and before I realized my nose was glued to an airplane window after Holland jumped to the finale on the world cup, hoping to see a last glance of Melbourne, a glance that was stolen from me by the clouds that might have wanted to make saying goodbye easier by painting Melbourne in an unattractive grey but who only succeeded in making me sad.
Sydney was here to welcome us next, with a dazzling urban landscape, I think the prettiest I have ever seen, especially by night, when all the lights seem to mirror a sky full of stars, with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge majestically gazing over the deep and dark waters of the bay. Although the rain pours down almost every hour of the day we managed to see the botanic gardens, visit the world press photo exposition, go to a modern art exposition on Cockatoo Island, walk through the CBD, and, of course...go to the Opera in the Opera House!!! That was really very nice :)
Today we bought a guitar and tomorrow we get our campervan, the road trip can begin! We'll try to get north of Brisbane in a few days, like birds traveling after the warmer weather, in search for sun and the good life...
Love to you all
Sara
Uluru by sunset
Walking around Uluru
Kata Tjuta
The farm
Being Nanny :)
Croc in Kakadu
Beautiful wetlands
Campfire
Top of a waterfall
And bottom of another one!
Winter in Melbourne
My beloved skyline for the last time!
Such a long time ago...I'm sorry...but now, finally I found some time to write a blog about the past month!
Where to start...I might start at the beginning: 5 hours delay when flying from Melbourne to Alice Springs. But is that the beginning? Maybe I should start with all the stress of the last week and all the saying goodbye...but that is boring :)
So, the 5th of June Sterre, May and I flew to Alice Springs. On our way to the hostel we met Eveline, a girl from Switzerland who would become our 4th team mate. Together we hired a car in Alice Springs and drove down to Uluru, almost 500 km trough the outback. Driving through the outback was wonderful! Long highways, through a slowly changing landscape which, to my surprise, was not boring at all!
And then there it was, the big red/brown monolith, rising from the ground in the middle of nowhere, it does give a special feeling when you see it, suddenly, after a random curve in the road. Sunsets and sunrises give the rock an incredible, though very short, moment of splendor! We took a day to walk around Uluru, which was a beautiful hike in the shadow of that big red rock, although it also felt a bit intruding after all the things I learn about Aboriginal issues and Aborginal relationship to country and sacred sites. The following day we went to Kata Tjuta, less known, but at least as beautiful, a group of rocks where you can also hike and be amazed by the landscape, the colors and even some camels (!) in the distance!!!
On the 10th of June our ways parted, May went back to Melbourne, Eveline stayed in Alice, Sterre took the bushbus to an Indigenous art project north of Alice Springs and I took the plane to Darwin, to go wwoofing for two weeks.
I stayed with a lovely family, with four kids aged 2, 4, 6 and 8. There I picked pawpaws, planted zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes and basil, played with the dogs, got completely pierced by mosquitoes, escaped a few dangerous snakes, lived together with frogs, spiders and cockroaches, played nanny, learned how to operate a wipper snipper and gazed at the sky completely loaded with stars until the mosquitoes drove me back into my caravan. Two weeks of warmth, hard work, lovely people and peace in my head, exactly what I needed after a busy semester in University.
On the 26th of June I met Sterre again in Darwin as well as Sissel. So nice to see them again! We chilled in the park, enjoyed the warm weather and exchanged stories. On the 28th Sterre and me went on a 3 day tour to Kakadu National Park which was absolutely fantastic!
During those three days we camped under the stars, cooked on the fire, hiked to waterfall tops to jump in there for refreshment, saw crocodiles, birds and of course a lot of mosquitoes and enjoyed beautiful landscapes! It was absolutely relaxing and exiting at the same time!
I was not looking forward to go back to cold Melbourne after that month of warmth everyday, but once I arrived there I felt so at home...I didn't realize I had made myself so much at home in that city until I felt how normal it was to sit in the train again, to walk those streets, see certain people, go to certain places...I almost felt like I could start a new semester there right away...but then...it was cold, there were too many plans and I'm too much looking forward to go back to Holland to even consider the thought of staying there!
And then, on the 5th of July Ilse arrived! At 5 o'clock in the morning I was trying to stand strait up on the airport to welcome her in the city that I have been calling home. The next days were very busy with everything Sterre and me wanted to show Ilse and also still wanted to or had to do ourselves before leaving. Days flew and before I realized my nose was glued to an airplane window after Holland jumped to the finale on the world cup, hoping to see a last glance of Melbourne, a glance that was stolen from me by the clouds that might have wanted to make saying goodbye easier by painting Melbourne in an unattractive grey but who only succeeded in making me sad.
Sydney was here to welcome us next, with a dazzling urban landscape, I think the prettiest I have ever seen, especially by night, when all the lights seem to mirror a sky full of stars, with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge majestically gazing over the deep and dark waters of the bay. Although the rain pours down almost every hour of the day we managed to see the botanic gardens, visit the world press photo exposition, go to a modern art exposition on Cockatoo Island, walk through the CBD, and, of course...go to the Opera in the Opera House!!! That was really very nice :)
Today we bought a guitar and tomorrow we get our campervan, the road trip can begin! We'll try to get north of Brisbane in a few days, like birds traveling after the warmer weather, in search for sun and the good life...
Love to you all
Sara
Uluru by sunset
Walking around Uluru
Kata Tjuta
The farm
Being Nanny :)
Croc in Kakadu
Beautiful wetlands
Campfire
Top of a waterfall
And bottom of another one!
Winter in Melbourne
My beloved skyline for the last time!
woensdag 2 juni 2010
Last weeks Melbourne - a combi of everything!
And than suddenly there's only a few days left, you are selling your dear guitar, thinking what to send home, what to take, what to leave, making exams, finishing papers, being ill, organizing cars, hostels, a wwoof farm, vaccinations; saying goodbye to friends and attending a whole range of interesting activities linked to Reconciliation Week...crazy!
The past weeks have indeed been quite crazy, but apart from me having quite a bad flu/cold and feeling a little stressed about organizing the coming months, I did really nice stuff!
For example, I went with Sterre and Julie to Wilson's Promontory, a national park, 2,5 hours drive from Melbourne. Incredibly beautiful! The weather was really nice, and we did a few nice short hikes, climbed a hill top, went to squeaky beach (were the white sand (quartz) makes a squeaking noise under you feet) and saw a whole bunch of kangaroos! It was really good to be away from the city and from all the uni work for a day!
And then, last week was Reconciliation Week and on friday Sterre and I went to a hip-hop thing, with three bands, all young people rapping about reconciliation, racism, and the sort! One of the bands was really good, with the guys doing incredible beat-box, dance, freestyle, etc, it was quite amazing! And monday we went to a poetry evening, with poets, singers, theater writers and our poetry-slam-performing tutor (from the indigenous course at uni). I heard beautiful things there, very powerful language, almost a bit confronting at times, but I guess that's the point of it all...I love Melbourne precisely for that, for the fact that if you feel like doing something, the only thing you have to do is look around, there's always something going on!
And well, friday my laptop goes on a journey home, three months before I follow him. It's going to be weird...we have never been apart for such a long time since we met! Hopefully our relationship will survive the separation :) But I'm going to mis him for sure...and that means that it will also be harder for me to keep in touch with you! I will try to keep my blogs going, but email/skype/facebook are going to be on low activity levels...
Well, I guess this is where the real adventure begins!!!
Cheers
Sara
P.S. Here are some pictures from Wilson's Promontory National Park
View from the hill top
Julie, Sterre and Sara enjoying the view
The hill top
This really looked like a fairy forest, because the bushes looked like trees and were around 1,5 meters high, I could practically see the fairies dancing around there :)
Squeaky Beach jump
Kangaroo family!
CUTE
The past weeks have indeed been quite crazy, but apart from me having quite a bad flu/cold and feeling a little stressed about organizing the coming months, I did really nice stuff!
For example, I went with Sterre and Julie to Wilson's Promontory, a national park, 2,5 hours drive from Melbourne. Incredibly beautiful! The weather was really nice, and we did a few nice short hikes, climbed a hill top, went to squeaky beach (were the white sand (quartz) makes a squeaking noise under you feet) and saw a whole bunch of kangaroos! It was really good to be away from the city and from all the uni work for a day!
And then, last week was Reconciliation Week and on friday Sterre and I went to a hip-hop thing, with three bands, all young people rapping about reconciliation, racism, and the sort! One of the bands was really good, with the guys doing incredible beat-box, dance, freestyle, etc, it was quite amazing! And monday we went to a poetry evening, with poets, singers, theater writers and our poetry-slam-performing tutor (from the indigenous course at uni). I heard beautiful things there, very powerful language, almost a bit confronting at times, but I guess that's the point of it all...I love Melbourne precisely for that, for the fact that if you feel like doing something, the only thing you have to do is look around, there's always something going on!
And well, friday my laptop goes on a journey home, three months before I follow him. It's going to be weird...we have never been apart for such a long time since we met! Hopefully our relationship will survive the separation :) But I'm going to mis him for sure...and that means that it will also be harder for me to keep in touch with you! I will try to keep my blogs going, but email/skype/facebook are going to be on low activity levels...
Well, I guess this is where the real adventure begins!!!
Cheers
Sara
P.S. Here are some pictures from Wilson's Promontory National Park
View from the hill top
Julie, Sterre and Sara enjoying the view
The hill top
This really looked like a fairy forest, because the bushes looked like trees and were around 1,5 meters high, I could practically see the fairies dancing around there :)
Squeaky Beach jump
Kangaroo family!
CUTE
donderdag 13 mei 2010
Autumn in Melbourne
Wednesday, the 11th of May.
The train makes its way through Melbournian suburbs while I write something I will later type out for you if I happen to like what I wrote. The sun finds its way to the earth through big high clouds that happily spill their rain on this dry country. While the rhythmic cadence of the train makes the passengers doze off…lost in their worlds of iPhone music and window staring, trees that turn more red everyday seem to try and underscore the message the increasing cold has been trying to get through to us: the winter is coming. Besides that rather depressing message, they carry another one: three and a half weeks to go and semester will be over. Three and a half weeks…can you imagine that?!!! The downside is that I find myself swamped in essays and exam preparation. 24 hours a day do not seem to be enough to get everything done by the time trees have lost most of their leaves…
But I do fun stuff too, believe it or not! Almost two weeks ago, with a few other girls we hired a car and made a trip to Phillip Island. This island is about 2,5 hours driving from Melbourne and famous for its cute little penguins. We managed to pick the finest weather in weeks to spend a day out and thus got a lot of sun to recharge our batteries. The honor of driving was entirely mine and after my first apprehension with driving on the “wrong” side of the road, and thanks to my fabulous co-driver, I had lots of fun! It was good to drive again!
The island was prettier than I had expected it to be, so we enjoyed green cliffs, sleepy koalas, an incredibly blue ocean and gum tree forests crowded with birds and wallabies. At the falling of the night we were delighted with the slightly overrated but even though good fun coming ashore of world’s smallest penguins who, defied by intimidating seagulls and hundreds of people staring at them, gather enough courage to march over the beach and make their way into the sand dunes to spend the night. (It’s absolutely prohibited to take pictures of them, so you will have to use your imagination on this one!)
Furthermore, last Monday I had to fulfill a participant observation task, seemingly compulsory for every Melbourne-visiting-human-being: A Footy Match! Footy is Australian-rules (American) football and consists of an oval field with a lot of players who try to shoot a very unhandy bouncing ball through some poles, thereby being aloud to hit one another practically however they like, something that contributes to wild cheering of the crowd. Although the constant scoring of points (especially because one team was way better than the other) made it less exiting, in my eyes, than soccer, I ended up amazing myself with wild cheering (especially on the fights) and with having a great deal of fun during the almost 3 hours such a game takes!
Besides that, my life is colored by occasional parties and dinners, working at Lentil as Anything, some rare but beautiful sunsets at the beach, the friendly smile of my coffee makers every morning, the letters, postcards and emails from the other side of the world, my guitar, Sterre’s return from Fiji this weekend, and traveling plans!
This is how the future looks now:
May: battling towards the end of semester
June: Uluru, Kakadu National Park and two weeks of WWOOF
July: Road trip on the East Coast with Sterre and Ilse
August: Cambodia (with Sterre and Ilse) and Vietnam (with Sterre)
And this is some visual material for those who think images say more than words :)
Cheers to you all!
Sunset at the beach
Chilling on some friday afternoon
Walking around on Phillip Island
Sorry, I just have to keep posting Koalas :)
And a Wallaby!
The crew!
Beautiful coastline
And amazing weather!
Waiting for the penguins...
Sara driving Left!!!
The train makes its way through Melbournian suburbs while I write something I will later type out for you if I happen to like what I wrote. The sun finds its way to the earth through big high clouds that happily spill their rain on this dry country. While the rhythmic cadence of the train makes the passengers doze off…lost in their worlds of iPhone music and window staring, trees that turn more red everyday seem to try and underscore the message the increasing cold has been trying to get through to us: the winter is coming. Besides that rather depressing message, they carry another one: three and a half weeks to go and semester will be over. Three and a half weeks…can you imagine that?!!! The downside is that I find myself swamped in essays and exam preparation. 24 hours a day do not seem to be enough to get everything done by the time trees have lost most of their leaves…
But I do fun stuff too, believe it or not! Almost two weeks ago, with a few other girls we hired a car and made a trip to Phillip Island. This island is about 2,5 hours driving from Melbourne and famous for its cute little penguins. We managed to pick the finest weather in weeks to spend a day out and thus got a lot of sun to recharge our batteries. The honor of driving was entirely mine and after my first apprehension with driving on the “wrong” side of the road, and thanks to my fabulous co-driver, I had lots of fun! It was good to drive again!
The island was prettier than I had expected it to be, so we enjoyed green cliffs, sleepy koalas, an incredibly blue ocean and gum tree forests crowded with birds and wallabies. At the falling of the night we were delighted with the slightly overrated but even though good fun coming ashore of world’s smallest penguins who, defied by intimidating seagulls and hundreds of people staring at them, gather enough courage to march over the beach and make their way into the sand dunes to spend the night. (It’s absolutely prohibited to take pictures of them, so you will have to use your imagination on this one!)
Furthermore, last Monday I had to fulfill a participant observation task, seemingly compulsory for every Melbourne-visiting-human-being: A Footy Match! Footy is Australian-rules (American) football and consists of an oval field with a lot of players who try to shoot a very unhandy bouncing ball through some poles, thereby being aloud to hit one another practically however they like, something that contributes to wild cheering of the crowd. Although the constant scoring of points (especially because one team was way better than the other) made it less exiting, in my eyes, than soccer, I ended up amazing myself with wild cheering (especially on the fights) and with having a great deal of fun during the almost 3 hours such a game takes!
Besides that, my life is colored by occasional parties and dinners, working at Lentil as Anything, some rare but beautiful sunsets at the beach, the friendly smile of my coffee makers every morning, the letters, postcards and emails from the other side of the world, my guitar, Sterre’s return from Fiji this weekend, and traveling plans!
This is how the future looks now:
May: battling towards the end of semester
June: Uluru, Kakadu National Park and two weeks of WWOOF
July: Road trip on the East Coast with Sterre and Ilse
August: Cambodia (with Sterre and Ilse) and Vietnam (with Sterre)
And this is some visual material for those who think images say more than words :)
Cheers to you all!
Sunset at the beach
Chilling on some friday afternoon
Walking around on Phillip Island
Sorry, I just have to keep posting Koalas :)
And a Wallaby!
The crew!
Beautiful coastline
And amazing weather!
Waiting for the penguins...
Sara driving Left!!!
donderdag 15 april 2010
Lentil as Anything: feeling at home
Dear all,
Yesterday I had my first day of (volunteer)work at a restaurant called Lentil as Anything. I will, from now one work there once a week.
Let me try and describe the magic of that place to you...
I arrive at the beautiful old convent that hosts the restaurant at 16.00, walking through the community garden that lies behind it. There is of course a faster way to get there, but I like to walk through the garden! Outside on the terrace a few people lazily drink their tea (Lentil has been open already since 9.00). When I get inside everybody greets me happily and after an hour almost everybody (regular staff and volunteers) knows my name! The search for an apron is unsuccessful so I decide to do without. Until six it will be calm so we use that time to chat, clean all the tables, in- and outside, serve the people who are around and build up the vegetarian and mostly organic buffet. The person who is in charge of the volunteers tells us one more time how we can explain to people the philosophy of this place: Lentil as Anything is based on the concepts of social inclusion and trust. That is why there are no fixed prizes and just a box, on the counter, where everybody can donate what they can afford, or what they think it was worth, or what they would like to donate...the hope is that those who can, will donate a little bit more, to compensate for those who have no money. If by any means the money donated exceeds what the restaurant needs this goes to a house where homeless people can sleep.
It is Wednesday and that means: African Night! That also means that today there are quite a few Africans working and that some of them are drumming and jamming on some djembes and congas. When they are not, African music fills the air, and nobody can stand still...But is is not only Africans...the staff comes from basically all over the world, quite a few of them being refugees to whom Lentil is a place where they can build up a social network, have a nice time, learn some kitchen and serving skills and even get help in trying to find a job.
At six it starts getting crowded...some people already know their way, others seem a bit lost when they come, for the first time, into the big hall with all the tables, food, music and smiling people. So we, the volunteers welcome them, show them where they can sit and explain them how it works. It is funny, when you are not working for money people seem to be a million times more grateful when you offer to get them a bottle of water, or when you ask them if you can take their plates! Often you even hear a soft: "I could also do it myself..." or a big "Thanks so much! That is so nice of you" and well, that makes me smile and feel happy to be there, and I guess that is what makes the atmosphere so special!
Seven is kind of the peak of the night and you don't stand still! Coffees and chai lattes have to be brought to tables, tables have to be cleaned, people have to be seated and taken care of. Still everybody is in a good mood! There is no shouting, no hurrying, no stress. Even the people in charge have a smile when they pas by and ask how you are doing. Because the customers are not impatient: somehow the feeling of not having to pay more than you think the service was worth makes people much friendlier :)
After the peak I can have my own dinner. So I serve myself some of the delicious food and look for an uncrowded corner. Sitting there I look around. There sure are some weird people sitting around, just some minutes ago when I asked a guy if he would like some water he started talking about the problems he had with the motor of his car. He talked so fast that I couldn't understand and he just wouldn't stop, so after a minute I wished him a pleasant night and went on. He talked to the air about his car for a few seconds onwards and then resumed to his plate. But there are also people who note my accent and ask where I'm from, what I am studying and how I am enjoying Melbourne. When I come back with their coffees they tell me that after a brief discussion they concluded that they both don't know what anthropology is so if I would be kind enough to explain what it is exactly that I am studying :)
The drums beat outside, people talk and laugh, everybody is fine to be how he or she is, no matter what that means, everybody is welcome here...it reminds me a lot of the wonderful place where I grew up and I feel happy..I finally feel at home in this city on the other side of the world!
Around 9.30 the last guests are leaving, the music turns louder and it is time to clean up. At 10 I walk to the bus. My feet hurt and I start to feel that I am tired. But I have a big smile on my face. It was a beautiful day!
Here is a link with an interview with the founder of Lentil as Anything, because he can explain the philosophy way better than I can!
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1887
And here are some photos to make up for the photo-less weeks that have passed by since the beautiful surf-trip!
Much love to you all!
Sara
Eater Brunch in Sterre's sunny backyard
Blowing and painting eggs - childhood revival!
The result!
My room as it looks now...
Stony Point, the end of the world, or at least, the end of the line...We went there for a hike
Walking over the swamps and mangroves
We were promised heavy showers, but that's the nice thing about the weather here...it will never rain a whole day...
We got home sunburned :)
Yesterday I had my first day of (volunteer)work at a restaurant called Lentil as Anything. I will, from now one work there once a week.
Let me try and describe the magic of that place to you...
I arrive at the beautiful old convent that hosts the restaurant at 16.00, walking through the community garden that lies behind it. There is of course a faster way to get there, but I like to walk through the garden! Outside on the terrace a few people lazily drink their tea (Lentil has been open already since 9.00). When I get inside everybody greets me happily and after an hour almost everybody (regular staff and volunteers) knows my name! The search for an apron is unsuccessful so I decide to do without. Until six it will be calm so we use that time to chat, clean all the tables, in- and outside, serve the people who are around and build up the vegetarian and mostly organic buffet. The person who is in charge of the volunteers tells us one more time how we can explain to people the philosophy of this place: Lentil as Anything is based on the concepts of social inclusion and trust. That is why there are no fixed prizes and just a box, on the counter, where everybody can donate what they can afford, or what they think it was worth, or what they would like to donate...the hope is that those who can, will donate a little bit more, to compensate for those who have no money. If by any means the money donated exceeds what the restaurant needs this goes to a house where homeless people can sleep.
It is Wednesday and that means: African Night! That also means that today there are quite a few Africans working and that some of them are drumming and jamming on some djembes and congas. When they are not, African music fills the air, and nobody can stand still...But is is not only Africans...the staff comes from basically all over the world, quite a few of them being refugees to whom Lentil is a place where they can build up a social network, have a nice time, learn some kitchen and serving skills and even get help in trying to find a job.
At six it starts getting crowded...some people already know their way, others seem a bit lost when they come, for the first time, into the big hall with all the tables, food, music and smiling people. So we, the volunteers welcome them, show them where they can sit and explain them how it works. It is funny, when you are not working for money people seem to be a million times more grateful when you offer to get them a bottle of water, or when you ask them if you can take their plates! Often you even hear a soft: "I could also do it myself..." or a big "Thanks so much! That is so nice of you" and well, that makes me smile and feel happy to be there, and I guess that is what makes the atmosphere so special!
Seven is kind of the peak of the night and you don't stand still! Coffees and chai lattes have to be brought to tables, tables have to be cleaned, people have to be seated and taken care of. Still everybody is in a good mood! There is no shouting, no hurrying, no stress. Even the people in charge have a smile when they pas by and ask how you are doing. Because the customers are not impatient: somehow the feeling of not having to pay more than you think the service was worth makes people much friendlier :)
After the peak I can have my own dinner. So I serve myself some of the delicious food and look for an uncrowded corner. Sitting there I look around. There sure are some weird people sitting around, just some minutes ago when I asked a guy if he would like some water he started talking about the problems he had with the motor of his car. He talked so fast that I couldn't understand and he just wouldn't stop, so after a minute I wished him a pleasant night and went on. He talked to the air about his car for a few seconds onwards and then resumed to his plate. But there are also people who note my accent and ask where I'm from, what I am studying and how I am enjoying Melbourne. When I come back with their coffees they tell me that after a brief discussion they concluded that they both don't know what anthropology is so if I would be kind enough to explain what it is exactly that I am studying :)
The drums beat outside, people talk and laugh, everybody is fine to be how he or she is, no matter what that means, everybody is welcome here...it reminds me a lot of the wonderful place where I grew up and I feel happy..I finally feel at home in this city on the other side of the world!
Around 9.30 the last guests are leaving, the music turns louder and it is time to clean up. At 10 I walk to the bus. My feet hurt and I start to feel that I am tired. But I have a big smile on my face. It was a beautiful day!
Here is a link with an interview with the founder of Lentil as Anything, because he can explain the philosophy way better than I can!
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1887
And here are some photos to make up for the photo-less weeks that have passed by since the beautiful surf-trip!
Much love to you all!
Sara
Eater Brunch in Sterre's sunny backyard
Blowing and painting eggs - childhood revival!
The result!
My room as it looks now...
Stony Point, the end of the world, or at least, the end of the line...We went there for a hike
Walking over the swamps and mangroves
We were promised heavy showers, but that's the nice thing about the weather here...it will never rain a whole day...
We got home sunburned :)
zaterdag 3 april 2010
Australia is more that trips, beach and beautiful pictures!
Dear all
Australia is not only trips, beach and beautiful pictures…Australia is also sitting on trains at 8 in the morning, it’s being addicted to the coffee to go at the shop of the nice Greek people at the station who stand there, sometimes for more than 12 hours a day, and always have a smile and a joke for you, it’s sitting in the library writing papers, preparing presentations, it’s having dinner with nice people from all over the world, it’s getting home tired and going to bed early, or having long skype conversations with the other side of the world on early weekend hours!
What I mean to say is that my stay in Australia has become something different than the holiday it was the first weeks! And regarding that fact today I want to share with you not what I have been doing, but what I have been learning…
I will not bore you with all the interesting things I have been learning…there is just one thing I want to tell you today, so that maybe, a few more people in this world will think a little bit further than the stereotype! It is regarding the Indigenous peoples of Australia: the Aboriginals.
I wonder how many of you share the ideas I had when I came here: the Aboriginal people are the indigenous people of Australia, who have been completely overwhelmed by the coming of the Europeans and have, like the North American Indians, succumbed to all the bad things the Europeans brought.
During the last weeks I have been immersed in reading about, on the one hand, the amazing cultural complexity of the people we gather under the name Aboriginals and on the other hand the cruel way in which we, or a least our ancestors have been blind to that complexity, have been arrogant enough to think we had a ‘civilization’ to offer them, and the things we torn apart by bringing that ‘civilization’ to them…
There are two things of which I think it is important to think while looking at the situation of Aboriginals today. The first is the importance of the family. I have been learning about the role of kinship in these communities, and without trying to Anthropologically explain the complexity of it to you, I guess I can take a shortcut and just tell you that everything in their ‘culture’ is related to kinship relations. You cannot address someone without knowing how that person is related to you, for it is the place of a person in society that defines his or her name. The worst punishment people could get before the Europeans came was to be banished from a community, for without a community and its relations, one is literally no one!
The second thing is the half-cast child removal policy that was used in Australia between more or less 1930 and 1970. This meant that children who were not fully Aboriginal (and thus were thought to be more intelligent) were removed from their families to be European-style educated. Sometimes the justification was that these children were neglected by their families, but other times ‘being Aboriginal’ was reason enough…These children were grouped together in homes where they got an ‘education’. I will not go on about what happened in these houses…I just want you to think about how it must have felt for those kids, whose identity was so closely connected to their family, to be ripped off from that family, to be told to be ashamed of the color they had and the language they spoke, and to be told that they were lucky to get the chance to become ‘civilized’…These kids forgot their languages, and with the language they forgot the stories they had been told, they forgot names, they forgot who they had been. 1970 was 40 years ago…
Imagine to grow up without a clue where you belong, imagine to grow up in a place where people see you as inferior, imagine to get out of that foster home and not finding a job because you are Aboriginal, imagine to be 20 when you find out who your family is, but you cannot talk to your own mother, because she doesn’t speak English! Imagine the identity crisis…imagine the trauma…Can we judge the people who turn to anything that might anesthetize the feeling of pain and loss?
The thing that shocks me most is that the average Australian seems not to give a shit! It might be the feeling of guilt that builds high walls around people, but I think it’s mainly the stereotype, the shameless silence about these facts in high school teaching curricula and the avid attempts of certain people to paint the history of Australia brighter than it is…
I don’t mean to depict Australia here as a heartless and racist country because it is not (at least not everywhere). I just want to share this little bit of the other perspective with you, so that, if you ever hear that Aboriginals are alcoholics more interested in spending money on alcohol than on the education of their own kids, you think twice…Even in the case of this being true for some people, there is a reason for it…
I could go on an on about this! I could also tell you how amazingly interesting and fascinating Aboriginals are, and how much we could learn from them if only we bothered to listen without a feeling of superiority. But I am afraid that I might already have lost some of you with this incredibly long blog!
For more stories, frustrations and fascinations there is always email or skype!
I wish you all a very happy Easter!
Love
Sara
Australia is not only trips, beach and beautiful pictures…Australia is also sitting on trains at 8 in the morning, it’s being addicted to the coffee to go at the shop of the nice Greek people at the station who stand there, sometimes for more than 12 hours a day, and always have a smile and a joke for you, it’s sitting in the library writing papers, preparing presentations, it’s having dinner with nice people from all over the world, it’s getting home tired and going to bed early, or having long skype conversations with the other side of the world on early weekend hours!
What I mean to say is that my stay in Australia has become something different than the holiday it was the first weeks! And regarding that fact today I want to share with you not what I have been doing, but what I have been learning…
I will not bore you with all the interesting things I have been learning…there is just one thing I want to tell you today, so that maybe, a few more people in this world will think a little bit further than the stereotype! It is regarding the Indigenous peoples of Australia: the Aboriginals.
I wonder how many of you share the ideas I had when I came here: the Aboriginal people are the indigenous people of Australia, who have been completely overwhelmed by the coming of the Europeans and have, like the North American Indians, succumbed to all the bad things the Europeans brought.
During the last weeks I have been immersed in reading about, on the one hand, the amazing cultural complexity of the people we gather under the name Aboriginals and on the other hand the cruel way in which we, or a least our ancestors have been blind to that complexity, have been arrogant enough to think we had a ‘civilization’ to offer them, and the things we torn apart by bringing that ‘civilization’ to them…
There are two things of which I think it is important to think while looking at the situation of Aboriginals today. The first is the importance of the family. I have been learning about the role of kinship in these communities, and without trying to Anthropologically explain the complexity of it to you, I guess I can take a shortcut and just tell you that everything in their ‘culture’ is related to kinship relations. You cannot address someone without knowing how that person is related to you, for it is the place of a person in society that defines his or her name. The worst punishment people could get before the Europeans came was to be banished from a community, for without a community and its relations, one is literally no one!
The second thing is the half-cast child removal policy that was used in Australia between more or less 1930 and 1970. This meant that children who were not fully Aboriginal (and thus were thought to be more intelligent) were removed from their families to be European-style educated. Sometimes the justification was that these children were neglected by their families, but other times ‘being Aboriginal’ was reason enough…These children were grouped together in homes where they got an ‘education’. I will not go on about what happened in these houses…I just want you to think about how it must have felt for those kids, whose identity was so closely connected to their family, to be ripped off from that family, to be told to be ashamed of the color they had and the language they spoke, and to be told that they were lucky to get the chance to become ‘civilized’…These kids forgot their languages, and with the language they forgot the stories they had been told, they forgot names, they forgot who they had been. 1970 was 40 years ago…
Imagine to grow up without a clue where you belong, imagine to grow up in a place where people see you as inferior, imagine to get out of that foster home and not finding a job because you are Aboriginal, imagine to be 20 when you find out who your family is, but you cannot talk to your own mother, because she doesn’t speak English! Imagine the identity crisis…imagine the trauma…Can we judge the people who turn to anything that might anesthetize the feeling of pain and loss?
The thing that shocks me most is that the average Australian seems not to give a shit! It might be the feeling of guilt that builds high walls around people, but I think it’s mainly the stereotype, the shameless silence about these facts in high school teaching curricula and the avid attempts of certain people to paint the history of Australia brighter than it is…
I don’t mean to depict Australia here as a heartless and racist country because it is not (at least not everywhere). I just want to share this little bit of the other perspective with you, so that, if you ever hear that Aboriginals are alcoholics more interested in spending money on alcohol than on the education of their own kids, you think twice…Even in the case of this being true for some people, there is a reason for it…
I could go on an on about this! I could also tell you how amazingly interesting and fascinating Aboriginals are, and how much we could learn from them if only we bothered to listen without a feeling of superiority. But I am afraid that I might already have lost some of you with this incredibly long blog!
For more stories, frustrations and fascinations there is always email or skype!
I wish you all a very happy Easter!
Love
Sara
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