Black People Don't Surf

It’s hard to compare two cities when you’ve been in one for 4 days and another for almost 6 weeks. We took a class trip to Melbourne on Sunday that I had no idea the BU people even planned until I got here. It’s a cool city, but for an older, more grown and sexy kind of crowd; whereas Sydney is a little wild and has a funkier style. Like New York, Melbourne has a grid system which makes it easier to get around, and they have diverse neighborhoods like your little Italy’s and Greek areas. They even have a bigger black population, I saw all but 5 guys and about 4 females during my four days in Melbourne (it took me weeks to get those numbers in Sydney). But who’s counting? (I am I am). Overall the Melbourne trip was a nice change of scenery and I enjoyed myself.

We went to Phillip Island to see penguins, sounds crazy, but there are these miniature penguins that live in burrows in the dirt on the Island. During the day they play around in the ocean and when the sun goes down hundreds of them make their way back to their burrows every day. Depending on the season there can be thousands of penguins on the coast of the island heading home for the night. Think Happy Feet. Whoever the person was that turned nature into an excursion for tourists is a genius. We weren’t supposed to take pictures of them, but seeing as I paid to see them I say why not.

We had to go on academic tours for the Melbourne trip, and eventually write a paper. The graffiti scene in Melbourne is BIG! One of my tours took us to see some of the graffiti lanes around the city so I may write my paper on that. If not I’d write it on the immigration population in Melbourne, especially the Chinese immigrants in comparison to Sydney or New York.

This weekend I’m going to surf camp. Yes….for those that are confused, so am I. I did it on a whim thinking I’d be trying something new and crazy, knowing damn well that I am the last person that would be caught on a surf board or in a body of water from the ankles up. We’ll see how that goes. Back home they say black people don't surf, and I said I'll try anything once when I got here. Apparently, by the end of the camp everyone gets up on the surf board. Then there’s me.

Keep you posted

From the Maker Herself

Daughter

It’s easy to take things

for granted in a family…

So many things can be left unsaid.

So just in case you don’t know

how special you are,

how easy it is to be proud of you,

or how much it’s always meant

to have you for a daughter

and see you grow up so beautifully

without ever growing away

from those who love you…

This is coming just to tell you

what a wonderful daughter you are - 

and how very much you’re loved.

Happy Birthday

The woman I aspire to be. Thank You

The Day After Tomorrow!

It's been a while, this might be a long one.

So I got the internship. I made my way to Gloria Jean’s (the Starbucks of Australia) to meet my supervisor for the interview on Friday. It was the first time I rode Australian transportation by myself, and I made it there in one piece. That morning I had a paper due and toes to polish before I headed to Edgecliff station. I slipped into my peep-toe flats and only polished the two toes I could see, ran to edit and turn in my paper, and power walked like a New Yorker to the train station. I got there 5mins early. I waited with my $4 tea in hand and Jenny walked in. We had a nice conversation instead of an intimidating interview. She used to live in New York, and a friend of hers even lived by TYWLS (my high school). Her daughter is an actress, really big in Australia, and is about to graduate from HS. Then we talked about work. International Women’s Day is a big deal for Women of Women, and they are prepping for an event in March. A lot of the tasks she described that I’d be doing I’m familiar with from preparing for events at Comedy Central. I explained to her how getting credit at Wheaton is like pulling teeth, so I have to have proof that I did real work. She was more than happy to let me write cover pieces or blurbs that she’d edit and post online.

The rest of the weekend I went to the markets around the city. Some of the booths are cheap, which is always good for me! But some booths are out of their mind if they think I’m really going to spend $50 on hand-me-downs. Being cheap, I didn’t buy anything. Eventually I’ll go back and treat myself though.





Sunday I went abseiling in the Blue Mountains. It’s a mountain range in West Sydney about 2 hours by train from where I’m staying. The train to get there is like the Commuter Rail (for my New England people) or the Metro North (for the Tri-state people). Abseiling is basically jumping off of cliffs. Yes, I had no clue. We had a harness, helmet, ropes, cables, the whole nine. First we started out with the small ones 5m, 15m and 30m (convert the meters to feet) so they could teach us how to use the rope and straighten out our legs. Then we hit the big stuff, like the Super Jump (I don't know how high up that one was).











Yesterday I had a meeting with one of the directors of a program called Yalari. It's a non-profit organization that provides Aboriginals kids with full-tuition scholarships to top boarding schools all around Australia. Sound familiar?

I told him all about Posse and TYWLS. I got his contact information from the professor of my Aboriginal Studies class. I told my professor that Sydney Uni turned me down for their mentoring program because I'm not a student there, and she immediately gave me his number. I could get used to this networking thing. I told the director about my interest in mentoring while I'm here. I want to meet people, not just be a tourist. He said he was looking for a mentor for a group of girls that go to Abbotsleigh boarding school for girls in North Sydney. They're in grades 7-9 and some have mixed feelings about being in boarding school away from home. Abbotsleigh is a ritzy school, and pretty white to be honest. He said they would really like me (I hope so) and being a black girl they would be able to relate to me more than anything.  I might be able to go to the school this Friday to meet them, and then make trips once a week.

The rest of this week is BIG. A bunch of assignments are due, my Birthday (Thursday), for those of you that forgot J, and field trip to Melbourne from Sunday to Wednesday. 

Peace for now

Oh Yes He Did!

Friday nights outing took a turn for the worse. I did have a good time, and I try not to let small things ruin my night. But tell me how I was leaving a club and felt a tap on my butt! I turned around thinking it was my friend and she said it wasn’t her and pointed to a man sitting down on a couch. I was heated! I swear I saw red. I walked up to him got in his face and said every curse in the book (sorry Mommy). I turned into a monster, and I couldn’t stop. I kept thinking ‘No he didn’t? How dare you!’ If you let people do things like that and keep quiet they think they can get away with it. I wasn’t having that! He knew he was wrong and didn’t say a word. Humph – I was proud of myself.

Saturday got better. Wrong Skin was so good! And my first time at the Sydney opera house up close. Even the bathroom was nice. The play was a love story, about two people that want to be together but because they are from different Aborigines tribes their love is forbidden. The newspaper described it as modern Romeo and Juliet with a little twist. For one the actors were brown. There was singing, death, crying and a lot of dancing. The guys in the play were the Chooky dancers from Elcho Island, an island off of the Northern Territory in Australia. The Chooky dancers are all over YouTube, and performed their tribal dances as well as modern ones in Wrong Skin. The entire thing wasn’t even in English. The performers spoke in the native language of their tribes the whole time. I love how art is interpreted and the message still comes across, even with a language barrier. It’s like being at home and watching Telemundo. The entire soap is in Spanish but you catch-on and follow the storyline while all the words go in one ear and out the other like gibberish. When we were walking out of the opera house we saw some of the actors from the play! So I asked some stranger to take a picture for me:

Sunday was the Festival of the Winds. It’s a kite show at Bondi Beach that happens every year. Of course the show ended at 4pm, and we got there at 4:05pm. The Sydney bus system is confusing and turned an hour ride into a two hour detour. But kids were still there flying their kites. Better late than never.

Little kid getting thrown in the sand from the wind.



For the next two weeks my Australian Culture and Society course is being offered in categories. We each get to pick an area we want to focus on and have a guest lecturer come in and teach us on that particular subject. I picked Aboriginal culture as my section; I want to learn as much as I can about them while I’m here. Redfern is a town over and they say it's like Harlem, I want to go.

I just got a call from my internship advisor and I have an interview for Women for Women this Friday! I’m excited. I have to email her so she knows who to expect, like a blind date. Can’t be too hard not many black people walking around Sydney.

Other than weekend events nothing else is really going on besides papers and class. I’m trying to NOT spend money; I don’t like to see the numbers in my account go down. The $6 laundry job was trash. My clothes didn’t even dry all the way so I had clothes hanging on the balcony, real ol’ school. And come to find out it’s not just the dryer on my floor, they’re all a waste. Tomorrow I’m going on a hunt to find a Laundromat around here hopefully it’s cheaper.

Peace

Boobs and Kangaroos

I'll admit, living abroad is cool and all, but I did get homesick the other day. I had a dream that I was home and woke up pissed when I saw white walls and the suitcase next to my bed. It feels like a far far away version of Massachusetts, but not. I'd definitely give Sydney more credit than MA. Since classes are so long, I have free time during the day and try to find things to do. I read for class, wander around the city until I get lost and find my way back, eat, and use my not-so-free internet. Oh, I did run today! There's a park across the street; nice way to start the day until your legs start burning. I usually wear two sports bras when I run for extra security; I'd hate to lose an eye, but I left a bunch at home. Lame. So when a friend said, 'Kenya your jus'ta bouncing' I said, 'Thanks I know,' with a smile. Unfortunately, gravity doesn't befriend us all, but for now I'll manage.

Yesterday I went to iron my shirt and there was a FAT waterbug in the ironing room. For those who aren't familiar, a waterbug is a huge roach that flies. Australia doesn't start out with small roaches, theirs come out the womb supersized. I just pray they don't end up in my room.

My mass media class went on a field trip to ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) studios. It was pretty cool to see all the behind the scenes TV and radio production. I had a revelation too – I think I want to work in radio. Just another thing to add to my 'when I grow up' list. For lunch I went to another part of the city and finally had kangaroo pizza. It was good, if you ate the meat on the pizza. If you take a piece of meat off and eat it by itself, it has an after taste. Someone said it tastes like deer meat, but I never had deer before. The restaurant also had emu and crocodile pizza, one day I'll try them too. Kangaroo is enough wild animal for one day. I cook pretty much every day and teach my friends here to cook too. They are all recipe illiterate; I mean that in the nicest way. Chicken, pasta, sausage, we do it all. Going out for food is nice and all but too much money, so why not experiment in the kitchen for free.

A couple of us have been looking up things to do in the city this weekend. There are markets, performances, art shows, and free massages all over. We just have to find them and take advantage. I'm going to see a musical/dance performance this Saturday at the opera house called Wrong Skin (it's an Aboriginal production), reviews will follow.

Peace J

Nothing in Life is Free…

Paying for the internet per page loaded should be a crime. Since it is not I'm a café crook. I go into random café's around my apartment, order a hot chocolate and go web-crazy. I'm never alone; I always bring an accomplice, because 'borrowing' internet should always be a group activity. Like today, I just left Well-Connected Café, (no pun intended) and got my Facebook fix.

Since I've been in Australia I noticed a lot of people stare at me. I don't even have to open my mouth to speak and they automatically know that I'm not from Sydney. It's expected, I know, but to be such a multicultural city I thought I would get less looks. But what can I do, by all means stare on. I was talking to my roommate and she even said she gets an arrogant vibe from some store employees or people on the street. As if we are dumb Americans, lost and confused in Australia. I might be lost and confused at times, but I'm not dumb!

Today I went into K-mart with a friend and an employee asked to search our bags before we left. The same thing happened in the beginning of the week in a mall and I took it lightly then. But if it happens again I'm going to flip. The thing about the K-mart incident was that my friend bought $40 worth of stuff; it wasn't like we just walked in and walked out, like at the mall. We'll just see what happens the next time I go into K-mart.

First Sydney club last weekend was interesting. Found out people don't really grind here. That was … lovely (sarcasm). Nothing to lose sleep over, I just danced across the floor with everyone else. Good times. Club and bar hopping is fun; I'm taking advantage since I can't do it at home yet. I found a hip-hop club over here! Funny story, at the club last night the bouncer got my friends to bring me outside so he could give me a rose. Definitely one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me! He looked like he could be Daddy's age, that was the shady part, but he wasn't disrespectful. I just laughed and said thank you.

First full week of classes is officially over. Each class is four hours long, yes FOUR, and they are all pretty late in the day. Mass Media in Australia is good; it's a small class and the professor is a really funny woman. We have a quiz on my birthday, doesn't get better than that. Australian Culture and Society is like a history class. All the talk about the colonization of Australia by the British and removal of Aboriginals is a mirror image of the British coming over to the US and booting out the Native Americans. I get riled up in that class!

That's really it for now. I'm waiting for my clothes in the laundry $3 to wash $3 to dry (makes me miss Wheaton)!!! Much more to say soon hopefully, like when I try Kangaroo pizza! Paying for internet has been making my Skype use very limited, so I apologize. Most of the time I'm on at night (East Coast time) which is when the BU building opens and wireless is free.

Peace,

Kenya