So I started working at the Mercure Hotel Sydney. It is a very weird feeling how it feels real. And 2 days after I started, I suddenly realised that I only have less than a year left to figure out what I want to do about myself. I need to either find a job that would apply VISA for me, or find a grad school who would give me full scholarship and job so I can earn living money... or I have to go home and figure out what I want to do. What should I do? What am I going to do? Where do I want to go and where do I want to stay??!!

Anywayz, so after a few days of working, finally the weekend came so we could have some time to ourselves. Friday night, my friends decided to watch the movie I've already seen, so I actually walked with them to the cinema, which is at an area where I've never been to. It was a great walk, always curious about different areas of Sydney. I will have to admit that there are so many secret places in Sydney waiting for me to discover them. 3 months is really not enough I have to say.

Then came Saturday. I got up thinking that I could go to Glebe Market since it's a nice little crafty market that I enjoyed the weekend before. But it started raining! I couldn't believe it! We were planning on going to the zoo! So I got trapped inside the building, and all of a sudden, I had a crave for Jaffa Cake. It was so strange, but I started looking for the recipe online. I will try to make it sometimes I hope. Then we headed out to Circular Quay. But it started drizzling again as soon as we got there... it didn't look too good so we decided not to go. Me and Danielle headed towards the market at The Rocks, it was great there. They had heaps of interesting stuff, very crafty, just the type of things I like. We walked around for a while, and then we saw this Mortor Bike Tour around Sydney. Danielle was really excited about it and we decided, why not? :)

While waiting for the tour, we spent some time in the Museum of Contempory Art Sydney. They had interesting stuff, just like the one in Paris. Very... weird photographs, but hey, that's art!

The tour was facinating.


To be continued... coz I need to see the game :)

I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge!!

The whole climb was fantastic, the view... You've got to see it for yourself. It was so high up there, but I guess I didn't feel scared at all. I was able to look down to the highway on the bridge, I looked down to the water, not scared. :) The whole city of Sydney was there for me to see as much as I want, the water, the ocean, the harbour, the Opera House, and the Blue Mountains!

Well, to make it short... I had fun, and I want to do it again!

Alright, I am gonna get ready... kinda want to watch the Germany/South Korea game tonight!

I had one of the greatest days yesterday... I had nothing to do in particular so I started walking around parts of Sydney. It is really a great city to walk around actually, although I would never have thought of that... I mean, I know there are some parts that are great to walk around. But the truth is, I enjoyed walking around in all parts. :)

Anywayz, so I wandered into the Royal Botanic Gardens. It's like heaven in there... You've got the city noisy city blocked outside, and all you get is blue sky, heaps of greenness, birds and the wonderful ocean. I walked towards the water, and there was the magnificent view of the Harbour.... the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Not just that though... there was also the openness of the blue blue ocean! I sat there on the grass under the sun and the unreal blue sky, read the whole time. Then there was the sunset... What can one ask for more in life?? That was a great moment... A moment when you spend with someone you care about and just enjoy what nature provided for you to be thankful for.

Sit back, relax a bit... look out the windown and enjoy what's free! After all, we are living in a world of commericalism!

I went to watch "Bend it like Beckham" tonight at the Sydney Film Festival. It was the film's premier in Australia... What was great was that the director of the movie actually attended the screeing!

"Bend it like Beckham" is about Indian families in England. The struggles of a first generation Indian girl with her family, the society and what she wanted for herslef and her life.

There were so many moments in the movie I wanted to scream out "that's like ME!! I know exactly how that feels!" It is so weird... no matter what background you are, cultural clashes are always the same. Weird huh?

Came back from the Red Centre of Australia... It was a facinating trip I have to say. After learning many things about the Aboriginal people, what I experienced there only added to what I've already learnt.

Jenny had already told me that the Aboriginal people would prefer we not climb Uluru. Which is perfectly right and reasonable for any human being. But what my tour guide Matty had added onto my understanding of the whole situation, I just couldn't help myself being angry looking at those people walking on the rock, not to mention the protection and poles they added on the rock to protect and help the climbers.

Jeremy went with us to the Uluru trip. On the way there, he got into an argument with the girls. It is better to not wear shorts in Egypt, even when you are a tourist... Jeremy did not agree with that. His arguement being that it is his personal choice to what he is wearing, and since he doesn't belong to the society there, he doesn't have to obey the customs there... The girls' arguement being, since you chose to visit the society, you have to go by what they belive in.

Back to Uluru... Matty told us on the way to the rock before the sun rise, it is all up to ourselves if we chose to climb. When the Australian government gave Uluru back to her original owners, being the Aboriginal people, they had agreements. Australian government made sure that the Aboriginal people giving the visitors the right to climb Uluru, and in return, the Aborigines asked that no one to ever climb Kata Tjuta again. The deal was done.

The Aborigines asked to have the right, however, to close the climb for Uluru whenever they feel it is needed to be shut down depending on weather or other conditions. They feel, as Matty told us, if anyone gets hurt or died while at Uluru, it is their responsibility.

The reason why Aborigines agreed to let people continue climbing Uluru is that they observed that, it is in the nature of "white people" to conquer everything. And it is in white people's nature to "conquer the summit of all hills and mountains... The Aboriginal people understand and respect this nature in the culture of white people, so they let the Australian government allow people to climb Uluru. Jenny told me before that Uluru is a sacred site and Matty said that now they are trying to make people understand, there really is nothing to see up there... But they respect the nature of the culture...

This leads me back to the arguement Jeremy and the girls were having... Undrestanding other's culture is really important... but more importantly, is to respect other's cultures. One takes the first step by visiting other cultures, great, but why doesn't one go on a step more, and respect the other cultures??

Last night, in my Australian Culture and Society class, we had a guest lecturer. Jennifer Newman is an Aboriginal woman (snake woman, as she called herself). She is half Aborininal and half white (Irish I think...) and is very proud of her heritage.

During the class, she told us one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard in my life so far... When she finished the story, I had tears in my eyes and they were ready to come off rolling down.

Jenny's parents got married before the "protection laws" in Australia were taken away. So they married at a difficult time, where it is basically not accepted by anyone from both societies and I believe, not by the government really. Many years later, at Jenny's sister's wedding, she asked her mom how it was like back in the days when they got married. Her mom said that she was going to make a cup of tea, and only came back to the room an hour or so later. She never told Jenny anything directly about her marriage with Jenny's father. However, she told Jenny little stories about her family.

One of the stories mom told Jenny was about mom's aunt Lilly. Aunt Lilly married an Aboriginal man Arthur back in the 1920s which was totally unacceptable by the society. But she did. Mom remembered that when she was little, when there was a family reunion, Arthur would come home with Aunt Lilly but would stay outside of the house, just hang out with the kids. Mom was sad about it because she liked Arthur.

Came the war and like many Aboriginal men, Arthur went to the war. At the same time, Aunt Lilly had a nervous breakdown and was sent to the hospital for 2 years. During those 2 years, Arthur kept on writing post cards and letters to Lilly but they were all stopped by her family. In the hospital, Lilly kept on asking if Arthur wrote, but was told that nothing was heard of him and it was probably because of the war. Things were difficult to come through. On the other end of the ocean, Arthur never got any replies from Lilly and thought of the same thing.

Lilly got out of the hospital, moved away to another town and became a servant for a farmer helping him taking care of the house and kids. And nothing was known about Arthur.

Jenny, being a professor at University of Technology in Sydney, took some students down to Canberra for some Aborigines origine research. The students were making a list of names of people they wanted to look up. Jenny, by chance, saw one of the students wrote down the surname of Arthur and asked him if he knew Arthur. The student asked her why she asked about Arthur, so Jenny told him the story about Aunt Lilly and Arthur. The student had a smile on his face.. and said at the end of Jenny's story... I know Arthur, he is my father.

So he told Jenny the rest of the story...

Arthur came back from war and went back to the town where he and Jenny lived but only to find an empty house. No one in town seemed to know where Lilly was. He moved away and met a Chinese lady. Never married her, but they had 13 children together. He kept on telling her: I can't marry you because I am married, I just don't know where Lilly is.

One day, he went to the town where Lilly moved to, and while walking down the street, he saw this familiar face. She saw him too... It was Lilly. Arthur took Lilly back with him and introduced her to the family. She was accepted by the family.

They both became too old and moved into one of those homes for old people... spent their last years together and are barried together.

Ain't life funny and amazing??

I learnt how to surf!! Even though I only got up a few times and fell off after 2 seconds, I had heaps of great fun! I am really tired though, and still have to do my paper that's due in about 12 hours... OH WELL :)