Laura... Somewhere @lauraustralia-blog - Tumblr Blog

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Wow, I haven't updated in a long time! So before I start in on my birthday I'll throw in some background details. The school year ended, and I'm now living in NYC with my friend Rebecca. We found a nice little apartment on the Upper East Side. It's small, but it's worked for us so far. Rob and I are still together and going strong. I have an internship with Environment New York, where I'll be doing a lot of social networking and campaigning and writing media releases and so forth. I start that up on Thursday. Haven't found a paying job yet, but I'm working on it (and there may be a way for me to get paid for part of my internship). Okay, I think that's fine as a context update. So on to the reason I'm blogging today.

Yesterday was my 21st birthday.

I got a wonderful box of beautiful and/or delicious things from my mom, and my dad&stepmom got me an ipad. They are trying to send me something else as well, but I was in Philadelphia all weekend, so I wasn't there to receive it. I hope they try to deliver it again today, whatever it is.

Got a lovely birthday email from my homestay parents in Hobart, Tasmania-- it was all done in pink and blue font, which was fun. I miss them a lot.

Nothing yet from my homestay parents in Lismore. I know they must be having a hard time getting email these days, but I hope everything is all right with them and that my messages are going through.

Last night I found a funny, cozy little pub called Shoolbred's. It's quiet, lots of big cozy chairs and a fireplace, and that's what I wanted. I had Rob, his friend Oliver, Rebecca, and her boyfriend Tom come with me and we just talked and I had two very different beers that were both delicious. However, I think now that I'm 21, I'm going to face that weird phenomenon where no one ever cards me again. The bartender at Shoolbred's didn't ask for my ID, so I actually asked her to card me, because I just really wanted someone to do it.

The party's not quite over. Tonight I'm getting more friends together to go to a place called Please Don't Tell. It's a speakeasy-type bar and I will dress up a little and it'll be fun. I invited two girls from my journalism class, Jillian and Karima, as well as two friends from my first year at SLC, Anderson and Lucy. And Rob will be there of course, and hopefully Oliver and Rebecca too. I'm looking forward to it, it will be a little bit higher energy I think.

I am having some sad feelings today. I never get another 21st birthday-- part of me feels like it should have been a huge party where I got trashed or whatnot. But for those kinds of things, I need a more outgoing friend to lead the way, and I don't really have one of those here (although some of the people tonight are very outgoing so it may come together like that after all). Most of my friends are out of this state at the moment. JP would be PERFECT for this. I really miss her.

I also feel like time is slipping away from me and I'm not making the most of it. It seems a little silly, since I'm only 21, but I'm constantly anxious and it really keeps me from going after things. I'm going to take the first steps toward fixing that today and find someone here in the city who can help. Because I know I'm a little lazy, but I'm not THIS lazy. It's a depression thing and I need to fix it or I'll never get anywhere.

I did schedule another aerial class for tomorrow though. And I started running today. I also realized recently after talking to a professor that I love copy editing. And publishers need copy editors. So I'm going to start hitting up publishing companies to see if they need my services. Not only will I get to correct grammar all day, I'll get to read all the new stuff before it comes out. The idea of doing that makes me excited in a way that not a lot of things have before.

I think I need to speak to my mom again today. It's hard for me to see right now, but any one of you who is older than me would tell me that the good stuff is still to come. And I certainly do feel freer. Before I was 21, I couldn't go to concerts or comedy clubs or poetry readings if they took place in a bar. Even if I had no intention of drinking!

So in some ways this is kind of a tough week for me. But I know that there will be plenty of moments for celebration coming up. When my party friends are around again, we'll just celebrate for no reason, and that will be good too.

I tend to stay away from cool shiny Apple products. Because as cool as they are, those things are programmed for obsolescence, and I'm just not down with that. I also sort of resent advanced technology in general because I feel it's redefining normal interpersonal interaction to include a lot more staring at a screen and a lot less... actually talking to each other. It bugs me. On the one hand, it's cool that if something is under debate you can look it up in seconds. On the other hand, those kinds of jovial arguments are a form of social temporal continuity. You and your friends could maintain an ongoing argument for months on end, and have a blast doing so. Not anymore. Now I see too many tables of people who are all silently looking at their phones.

...But I didn't mean to get into that here. I actually meant to go against that particular view and talk about how useful I think owning an iPad (or any kind of tablet, really) would be.

I don't think about cool electronics as status objects. I don't look at someone with an iphone and an ipad and surround-sound speakers grafted into their skulls and think, "Man, I wish I had that kind of money, I would TOTALLY spend it on those things".

I am, however, a student during this era. And when I see someone in class with a tablet, I think, "Man, I wish I didn't have to carry my heavy-ass laptop around, or kill a tree printing out this 75-page article, in order to be prepared for class".

It's mostly the fact that, as a college student, I have to read A LOT of stuff. And if a friend says, "Let's go study at Starbucks!", I can't just go to Starbucks. I have to either go back to my house, get my computer, and carry it into town, or I have to go back to my house, email myself some articles, and then go print them out and carry them into town. If I had a tablet, it would be easy to carry the files I need, and I could have them with me all the time. And if I hadn't downloaded them yet, I could do so right there.

So I wish I could afford it. But then again... I'm already luckier than 95% of the human population just to be able to type this out right now from my own room with my own bed and with none of my limbs blown off by landmines.

Wow do I feel like an entitled brat now for whining about tablets.

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lauraustralia-blog

Look like planets, don't they?

Devour Above is a piece created by fine-art photographer Christopher Jonassen resembling planets being viewed through a telescope. However, the surfaces are not planets, but the base of battered frying pans.

“…I wanted to create a link between the tiny marks we leave behind every day to the enormous impact this adds up to over time”

It is under this magnification that we as humans begin to understand the slow destruction and mark that we leave on this planet as we look to the sky and witness the damage that the universe has done to the planets that share our solar system. It’s an inspiring piece that perpetuates that the devil is in the detail and the effects of mass greed. Ideas such as this beckon interesting textures from items that could potentially mimic the sky. View more of his work here.

Love Songs & Police Brutality

Today I woke up with the John Mayer song "Your Body is a Wonderland" stuck in my head. It's been in there all day... I'm not really sure why. It annoys me a little because John Mayer is kind of a douchebag. However, the song is very romantic and nice to listen to.

So for whatever reason, I've been hanging out with love songs all day. Tonight I rediscovered this one, which I think is adorable. I've never listened to anything else by Corey Smith, but this particular song makes me smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV0mhkdE6yk

And now I'm taking a break from the essay I've been writing all night and dancing around to this song instead. I could have wrapped this thing up hours ago, but... I got interested in it. Now I'm writing about how the pepper-spray incident at UC Davis in 2011 was not just a clear cut case of police brutality. I found a full video of the protest, and... those students hold a big chunk of responsibility for what happened there. Which just kills me, because I really wanted to be on their side. But they did some just phenomenally stupid things. This is the video, if you care to watch it. I didn't like sitting through it, I wanted to cry a few times. But it really sparked something for me with this essay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhPdH3wE0_Y

Alright. Gonna go have some cereal and then finish banging this out. Ha, I wonder if that's what John Mayer said before he wrote the song.

It feels like there are words Trapped just below my sternum I try to turn them into something, but they won't unwind and my lungs cannot expand and the inside of my collarbone is itching as they try to climb the walls. When they find my lips and teeth too hard to pass, they travel up my spinal chord to where my brain sends the command to move my hands. My hands destroy each other every time I turn my head. Those words again. They get so tired of The twenty-seven bones that keep them in.

Right, So, Passover

I spent a week at this Jewish retreat center up in Connecticut working as dining staff for Passover. There were about 200 people there, 150 elderly and around 50 parents with young children. This was a totally new thing for me in a lot of ways. First of all, I've never done food service before. My dad used to say everyone should work in food service at least once, and I have always believed that waitressing would be very, very character building. If you pay attention to your waitresses, you can see that it is clearly a stressful job.

I loved it, though. Waitressing is awesome. I really, really enjoyed bringing food out to people on giant trays trying not to spill them. I enjoyed clearing those plates away. I enjoyed refilling waters and asking how everything was. I enjoyed running around for the persnickety old Jews. I already had an inkling that I work best under pressure, and this experience has made that even clearer for me. I like it when the heat is on.

So do the old Jews, apparently. They asked us to turn up the thermostat eight or nine times a night. My fellow waitresses and I were sweating in our little white button-downs.

Oh, I love that little button-down too. I had such a hard time picking it out because I didn't used to think they looked good on me. But I grew very fond of it over the course of the week.

One pair of guests used me as flirting practice for their awkward 30-year-old son. They weren't even subtle about it. He pretty much stared at my navel the whole time.

Anyways, I have more to say about this, but I'm going grocery shopping. I'll finish this post up when I come back.

Passover

I just spent a week at a Jewish retreat center, working as dining staff for Passover. I have a significant amount to say about this, but it's 3:20 am and I really should just sleep now.

One important thing I learned though: Coffee. Old Jews love coffee. Do not get between old Jews and their coffee.

Leading the Blind

Last week I spent a day helping a blind lawyer get around the courthouse. His name is Rich, he's somewhere around 60 and he's been blind for about half his life. From what I can tell, he's a good lawyer. It was interesting being his assistant because I got to experience what a lawyer goes through in the average day.

I mostly just led him around by my right elbow, read him documents, and wrote things in his planner for his usual assistant to read back to him later. He and I don't have much in common, but it was still fascinating, largely because I've never spent any amount of time with a blind person before.

I also got $70, so that's a plus.

Airborn

Had another hoop lesson yesterday. Now I'm super sore- but super excited.

I don't have the physical strength yet to get onto the hoop in a particularly pretty way, or to move very smoothly once I'm up there. But what I do have is gumption. When I'm learning a new trick, I simply care less about the possibility of falling than I do about successfully performing the trick. Plus, I am simply aware that it is pretty hard to fall out of the hoop if you don't want to. You might flail around looking a little silly, but you're probably not going to free fall and hit your head. And even if you did, you're not very far off the ground anyway.

My instructor this time said she felt ready to perform after about 6 months of training. She was a dancer beforehand, so I'm sure she already had a significant amount of physical strength and muscle memory to help her along. I don't expect to be performance-ready in six months. But it no longer seems like that remote of a goal.

It's not all that surprising to me that I feel more motivated to do this than to do my environmental thing. I have concrete goals on the hoop, and I can easily measure my progress. Sustainability goals are much more... abstract. What I can try to do though is use the hoop to satisfy my need for visible accomplishments while simultaneously doing my work for environmentalism. Just like any person with a dedicated hobby.

Yep. This is gonna be good.

The Intelligence/Work Ethic Paradox

When I was in high school, I was one of the kids who did all the homework, studied for the tests, and got good grades. I always hated those kids who never did the homework, never studied for the tests, and somehow still managed to get good grades. That did not make sense to me at all. I assumed it was teacher favoritism and was extremely resentful of it.

I understand those kids a little better now-- because somehow, I've become one of them.

Sarah Lawrence is not an easy school to get into, and it's not an easy school to stay at. The workload is extremely demanding. Most of it, however, involves writing, reading, research, and engaged discussion. These all happen to be things I am really good at. So I find myself in this interesting situation where I can put in what I consider to be minimal effort, and still maintain a solid GPA and wonderful relationships with my professors.

Those kids in high school got away with it because they were smart; they didn't have to study or spend hours on the homework because understanding of the material came so easily to them.

And now, somehow, I can get away with starting a 5 page paper at midnight the night before it's due and receive a glowing response. The ease with which I handle this material, and these specific tasks, allows me to be extremely lazy.

I don't want to be lazy, though. I know I'm not submitting my best work. I even straight up asked my professor if he had really liked that 5 page paper, or if he had just been nice (he apparently really liked it). If I'm being praised for intelligent half-assery, what would happen if I put in serious effort? I don't feel right about putting in less than my best for this education. It's hard to stop, though. When you know you can get away with playing guitar instead of doing research, it's very tempting.

In sum: I'm too good at this for my own good. And that's not good. Because I could be doing so much better.

Los Angeles

I just spent a week at Venice Beach in Los Angeles with the boy. Well, most of a week. There was a serious hiccup in the middle there. After a few lovely days on the beachfront, we drove back towards Fullerton so he could meet my parents. About halfway there, my car broke down. What I now understand was steam came pouring out of the hood, and I had to pull over in the carpool lane onto something that was not exactly a shoulder. In retrospect, it was an extremely dangerous place for me to stop, but I was panicking.

The highway patrol towed us off the highway... right into the worst part of Los Angeles. Luckily my car service guy showed up quick and got us to my dad's house. We did in fact have a lovely dinner, though dessert involved some very serious emotional turmoil.

I will also be riding a bicycle for the remainder of my time in California.

We saw Wreck-It Ralph and The Hobbit, two movies I highly recommend. We explored Venice Beach and Little Tokyo. I swear to god, Los Angeles is the ABSOLUTE WORST PLACE TO DRIVE in the United States. Trying to get around that city is like trying to get through a cornfield maze on LSD while people try to run you down with lawnmowers.

So that adventure is now over. Gearing up for the next one. Onward to the edge!

End of the Road

So we had our last few days at some lovely apartments in Lennox Head. They were right on the beach, just a few minutes walk from the shops... great location. I was with 7 other people in a house that had a fire pole from the second floor to the first, which I don't fully understand, but it was fun. I spent a lot of my time at another apartment though, where JP, Marshall, Caitlyn, and Chase were staying.

I used this time to keep working on my cooking skills, which I may not have yet mentioned. When I was at Jenny and Nigel's in Tassie, Jenny left for a few days, and after Thanksgiving I basically took over cooking dinner. I made summer squash spaghetti, roasted rosemary potatoes, and Mapo Tofu. I also made scones. They have an old-fashioned hand-crank mixer, which was AWESOME. I gotta find me one of those.

In Lennox head I made summer squash spaghetti again, orange chicken-style vegetables with fried rice, pizza, more scones, and cinnamon rolls. This is super fun! Hopefully I'll get to cook dinner with and/or for my parents when I get home.

My presentation was a big success in general. I did get in trouble for going to the Ta Ann protest, though. Apparently despite my role as an outside observer, I wasn't even supposed to be there. It's not going to affect my grade, I just got a talking to. This does bother me some, however, considering that the program is called "Sustainability and Environmental Action", not "Sustainability and Environmental Play it Safe at Home". Aren't we supposed to be using this course as an opportunity to get involved? Anyway, in general it went well and my classmates told me they really enjoyed it. It was great to see what other people were doing-- one guy made a bottle tree out of actual plastic bottles.

Leaving them was really hard. After spending so much time with a small and consistent group of people, being alone feels very unusual. They have just been such an amazing support system, like nothing I've ever had before. My stepmom has this "sisterhood" that gets together every year, and I always wanted something like that-- now I feel I have one, and I intend to make it last, even if I have to organize all our reunions myself. To be honest, there are a few people that I probably won't ever see or really talk to again, but the ones I got close to will never be rid of me. :P When I left, Nate told me I was the most interesting person he'd ever met. That was such a huge compliment! I know I can be pretty unusual, and that's not everybody's bag, but some people enjoy it and those are the people to keep up with. Everyone in my group has their own talents and energy. Marshall's the sweetest, Chase is ridiculously funny, Nate is witty and a great filmmaker, Emma's just completely genuine, Caitlyn is adorable in every way, Caleb's a fantastic conversationalist, JP... I don't even know how to describe JP. She's the coolest. And of course there are 8 others with their own special traits.

I'm not sure how I'm going to adjust to a normal school setting (where class is not on the beach) and a normal community dynamic (where people aren't constantly with you). But of course, I will adjust.

Over the winter break, one of our lecturers is going to put me in contact with a former SIT Australia student who now runs an organic winery not too far from me in California. The winter break is fairly short, but if I get in contact with him now, maybe I can work there over the summer.

I'm in Lismore with my homestay family now, making all sorts of arrangements for transportation to Brisbane, my one night in a hotel, and transport to the airport the next morning. It's tedious, but I feel very responsible.

So it looks like this is it! I'm working on a photostream, so check back for that link.

Thanks for reading... and see you soon!

Writing this Paper

I just reached the 32 page mark! And that's solid text, no Table of Contents or Appendices or anything! :D

I've been spreading this all over the internet... and it seems to be getting some attention. :)

#environment #forest #direct action #Tasmania

November 20

I haven't written in a while, mostly because I don't think what I've been doing makes a particularly entertaining story. Not that it's not important- it's just not very exciting. The Social Media Blitz has wound down, though now we're working on spreading the news of an anniversary event. One exciting bit is that I wrote up some letters of inquiry, and managed to solicit a donation for the event from one business! I got two refusals, but still. I consider it an accomplishment.

We never actually made it to the Pickled Frog. There are definitely advantages to living in the city itself that I feel I'm missing out on. But on the other hand, this is an actual house, that I get to live in for free, with a nice shower, my own little room, and decent food.

Even so, I was thinking of leaving on Monday... and then we decided we were doing Thanksgiving dinner. For nine.

So, this is going to be a fun experiment. Roasting a turkey for the first time, on my own. I'm keeping it really simple, and you probably can't go too wrong with turkey, butter, and salt.

I've had a pretty crazy day so far- I had Nigel drop me off in Hobart so I could do some work in a coffee shop. However, I hadn't gotten very far into it when my laptop keypad stuck. It's been sticky for a while now, but a good thump has done the trick before-- not this time. The keypad is firmly stuck in place, meaning it highlights everything and I can't click on anything. I went to a computer shop which told me I would need to pay them $400 to replace my keyboard. So after I laughed derisively and walked out shaking my head, I eventually managed to find a ride back here to the house, where I can use an external mouse. So that, unfortunately, is half a day lost. But I'm back on it now.

I'm looking forward to being home for Christmas. The feeling is bittersweet though. When I think of Christmas, I picture myself in my mom's old condo- it's the most consistent home I've ever had, and knowing that I won't ever get to see it again is really painful. I basically left it as I'd always known it, and when I came back, it was to a completely different place. There was no way to avoid that because I was away, and the move was necessary. But after all the moving I've done, all the temporary rooms, it was the only space I've ever felt was stable and mine. My heart is a little bit broken over losing it and it will be a long time before I have anything like it again.

I guess that's the sacrifice of the adventurer.

November 5

My "Social Media Blitz" with Miranda has been going extremely well. We've attracted over 1500 facebook likes in the past two days, and we're now over our goal of 5000. We're also almost to our goal of 500 Twitter followers (I think we were at 300 before).

Look at us go! This is amazing, considering I haven't even met the other members of my team in person yet. Miranda's lovely to work with though- we generally talk in the evenings to discuss our progress, and I find our talks really helpful. She's also just fun to converse with. :)

JP and I will be moving to the Pickled Frog Hostel soon. I'm really looking forward to it, because I love working in coffeeshops and it's too far to walk to any. JP and I have been going up the nearby mountain trail pretty regularly, though. In fact, we nearly didn't make it out last night. The path starts off enclosed by trees, and eventually emerges onto the mountainside. We hiked pretty far up, not really thinking about the oncoming sunset because it was still very light out on the open hillside. When we descended, however, it got dark FAST. Soon we were walking through dense woods in near-complete darkness. We weren't in any real danger, and I kept my wits about me a lot better than JP did, but we were both really happy when we reached the road. We got back to the house just as Nigel was considering taking the dogs down to find us. So.... not doing that again!

Continuing in my quest to buy as little newly made clothing as possible, the other day I found an incredible sort of Victorian-style blouse, a flowy long vest/dress thing, and a gorgeous blue scarf for the vast sum of $11. The scarf is a real boon, because I am nearly always freezing over here. I can't remember the last time I bought clothes for so little. And now I feel frugal, sustainable, and stylish to boot.

Although now I miss my boots.

October 30

So I am safely installed in Hobart, Tasmania. I'm here with my classmate JP, who found a lovely couple willing to take both of us in while we begin our Independent Study Projects.

Some of you may have heard-- after two years, the Tasmanian forest talks collapsed this week. No forest protection was agreed to. That means that Miranda Gibson will have to stay up in that tree indefinitely. You can read the full story here: http://observertree.org/

It's an absolutely awful situation, and Miranda really is a hero for staying up there. We all feel that our commitment to the Observertree media strategy is even more important now, and I've been working fairly solidly on it for two days. I'm mostly doing research so far- trying to figure out how to make things more popular on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest. I've learned out a lot, and I have some good strategies laid out. As I'm in contact with other key members of this media team, I think I'll soon have access to Still Wild Still Threatened's official Tumblr, and I can start promoting it from the inside. Here's the link to it, if you care to have a look. http://moratoriumnow.tumblr.com/

This is an exceptionally lovely place to work. I can't wait to meet up with my teammates, and I'm really excited about everything I've seen on my own so far.

#miranda gibson #environmentalism #direct action #observertree #Tasmania

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