What a Weekend
It’s 9:17 pm Sunday night and I can think of a multitude of things I should be doing-- Finishing a paper or doing my class reading for the week. I’d even be productive eating the dinner of sunny-side eggs and toast in front of me. Hold on, I’m almost finished...
Wow, it’s been a full weekend. It’s been a full week, for that matter. I’ve been bogged down in papers but thankfully the only one due within the next month is the rewrite I have to submit this week. I definitely got carried away with my citations over these past couple of days but they should, hopefully, be just right by Australian standards. My fourth episode went online the other day (and I know I say this a lot) and I’m really proud of it. I’ve gotten e-mails and messages from people all over the world saying they watched the 3 minute video I thoroughly enjoyed shooting. I’ve had conversations with people about things like opening a bank account abroad, filing insurance claims, and booking trips. Some have told me they’re a step closer to taking the plunge abroad and that’s great. Traveling is important and the world needs to meet more Americans, anyway. I’ve also been in touch with a few people at Rutgers about studying abroad both in Australia and in other places. My correspondence with people seeing the site has been unbelievable and enormously satisfying. Ryan—I know you already know this but I’m saying it anyway. I’m pretty sure we’re fulfilling the mission you set out on by creating JYA. The response has just been unreal.
I spent Friday taking a sort of insiders’ look at Sydney. Even though I’m planning to get out to the bush and take a couple of day trips here before I head out, I’m worried that, in my interest to travel as much as I can, I might overlook some of the great things Australia has to offer. This is why I headed into the CBD the other day with two friends, one a Sydneysider, and explored a couple of the neighborhoods I hadn’t yet really delved into. I received a first class tour from my buddy John and am now hopefully ready to show my parents on their visit next week a Sydney most tourists don’t get to experience. I visited a neighborhood called The Rocks where I stepped inside the barracks the first English prisoners slept in when they arrived in Australia. I listened to organ music inside St. Mary’s cathedral, a historic church I mentioned in Ep 2 but didn’t really know anything about. I also explored an international foods, music, and art festival in Hyde Park.
I viewed the city from atop Sydney Tower and got nauseous on OzTrek, a motion simulator ride that takes you across this vast country in about eight minutes. Lunch was at a bagel shop not far from Martin Place, an outdoor plaza where a few scenes in The Matrix were filmed. The Seven Network’s studio is also on Martin Place. You probably won’t find Al Roker there but you will find Sunrise, Sydney’s morning show that is strikingly similar to the American Today Show. Dinner was in a German restaurant in Darlinghurst and dessert in a Danish ice cream shop in Kings Cross. Everything from the food to the sites to the day in general was just outstanding. Oh, and I had an éclair in the gourmet café underneath one of the largest David Jones department stores in Australia. If you ever need a guide to some of the best eating in Sydney, I’m your guy.
World Trade Center finally opened here last week and I went to see it last night. To witness an event on screen in a theater packed with people for whom the attacks on New York happened on the other side of the world was eerie. For two hours though, I forgot that I was also on the other side of the world, 10,000 miles from the city I grew up being able to catch a train into whenever I wanted. I caught the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald on my way out of the theater and, for a split second, I was homesick. I remember every detail of that day and, of course, what it meant for my family and I had to remind myself I was in Australia. I thought about where I was on that morning five years ago and then where I am now and I froze. I thought again today about my reaction to the movie before calling Qantas and booking a stop in New Zealand on my way home in December.
When you move around as much I have over these past couple of months, it’s very easy to fall into a state of disbelief. I’ve woken up in the morning forgetting where I am or what I have to do that day. My hometown seems more of a memory the longer I’m away from it, something I’m sure will quickly change when I get back. The more times I pack and unpack my bags the more I feel I don’t really live anywhere. I know where I’m from and I know where I sleep at night. I know where my parents live with my dog—that’s home, right? I haven’t stayed in one place for more than a school year since I finished high school which, for now, is perfectly fine with me. I’m too impatient to sit still for more than ten minutes, anyway. This is life I’ve wanted and the life I plan to enjoy for as long as I can. I can see though how it wears at people and the longer I’m here, the easier it is to understand the desire people have to settle down and just stay put for a while.
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