Running Away, Or Just Running?

Sept. 6th- Sept. 12th (Week 9) - By this time, Lina and I had been running for a couple weeks and gaining a lot of endurance really quickly, which was surprising to me. If only I was as determined to write my paper as I was to become a decent runner. I guess I was just too distracted by other things to hamper down and get it done. The topic was easy enough, I chose to argue that Rationalism (out of Wight's theories of Realism, Rationalism, and Revolutionism) is the most prevalent in today's international community. I feel like even though my professor is a realist, there is no wrong choice between the three as long as whichever you choose is argued well. Although, I'm seriously freaking out over this paper as I've found out that my professor failed half the class on this assignment last semester.

I've been using running as a release for the anxiety I've been going through, which has helped tremendously. In the beginning of the week Lina and I got adventurous and decided to try to run to Mt. Coot-tha and see how far we could get. We ended up jogging for about 20 min. and actually got to the base of Mt. Coot-tha and decided to run one of the trails. It was absolutely amazing and the scenery was so beautiful that it inspired me to continue running to the point where I felt I could just run for days. In total, the run there and back took about an hour and a half - and I should note we didn't run the whole time. It was so much fun we decided to go back again on Wednesday, even though it was cloudy and looked like rain. We started our run and got half way to the mountain base and felt a couple drops, no big deal, so we decided to keep going. Then it starts to sprinkle and we decide to keep on going, the mist actually felt really refreshing. It was all good and fun until about 3/4 to the way to the base and it starts pouring, not raining, pouring! We continue to the mountain in the hopes that it would be a quick moving storm we could wait out. Lina and I found refuge under an overhang at the public restrooms. We waited, and waited...and waited. At this point we were trying to decide exactly what we were going to do next, when we see a cop car in the distance pull off the road and head towards us. He pulls his car up to us and rolls down his window (keep in mind Lina and I are completely drenched and disheveled) and he gives us this look like he's confused if he should be worried about our safety or his safety. He asks us where our car is and we explain that we are not car owners and we ran here. When we told him we ran there from Bardon his jaw dropped and then he offered to give us a lift home. So he is this very good looking heroic cop that saved our asses, and we are stinky and disheveled morons that tried to defy the weather. Great! What's worse is that while Lina is sitting upfront giggling and flirting, I'm sitting in the back looking like I've just been arrested. He was really nice though and had no problem with making an illegal u-turn to drop us off at our front door. Oh, gotta love it.

On Friday night, Kate, Lina, and I went to see Sutra at the Queensland Performing Arts Center, but first stopped by at a local pub that I love that reminds me of home. After we had a few drinks with one of my friends from my program, the girls and I headed off to the show. It was an interpretive performance centering around Buddhist themes of minimalism while incorporating various Karate movements of Kung-Fu and Capoeira. All these pieces of the performance came together to create an intricate story only told through music and movement - leaving the audience to draw it's own conclusions to it's true meaning. It was brilliant, beautiful, inspiring, and unique. The best part was sharing this experience with Lina and Kate.

After the show Lina and Kate went off to Friday's, and I went back to the pub to meet up with some friends from my IR program. I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from Friday night and working on my paper, or at least trying to.

Love this city - hate writing this paper,

Jillian aka Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes

Not Your Regular Irregular Blog Post

I interrupt this irregularly scheduled blog posting to bring you an updated news bulletin. I got some good news from L.A. in week 8 that I thought I would update you on since most of you know about the situation with the tenants I had been defending from the management/ management company in the last building I lived in. I know I'm diverting away from blogging about my experiences here in Australia, but it's my blog, and I will divert if I want to.

One of my old neighbors had contacted me and told me that Amy and Javier (for the few of you who may not know - Amy and Javier are my last apartment managers who made the lives of the long-term tenants miserable with the goal that they would move to create market value profit) have moved out of the building and no longer manage it. About a week ago (week 7), a majority of the tenants along with several tenant rights advocates and attorneys, protested the management company and picketed outside the apartment building. Two days later Amy and Javier moved out. It only took 3 years. It is a victory that is long overdue. My old neighbor describes the apartment building now as being how he had remembered it for so many years before the management enacted their "cleaning house" tactics. Kids are now able to play freely outside and people feel safe and comfortable in their homes. He said it is like a black cloud has lifted, and it is a happy and safe place to live again.

I'm ecstatic and in slight disbelief, this has been such a struggle that we had fought so hard for. I learned a lot about myself, advocacy, and the human condition from this experience, and it is a majority of the reason I am here in Australia. These are the top lessons I've learned (hopefully you find as much value in them as I have):

1. When we are all being persecuted, we all become equal.
2. We have rights and we have a voice, and those are very powerful tools.
3. It's challenging to fight malevolence, but it's nearly impossible to fight indifference.
4. In regards to advocacy work - we can sympathize with any particular injustice, but to experience the injustice and learn first hand all the complexities of the particular situation is to understand the problem at its core. And you need to be able to understand the problem at its core in order to solve it in the most appropriate and effective fashion.

From this experience, I am completely grateful for my apartment family, they have expanded my world exponentially. This experience was both, in certain aspects, rewarding and infuriating. But, if not for it, we might have never learned the meaning of our own strength and determination.

Since I seem to be in a sharing mood, this quote is what continually inspires me and keeps me going:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

That concludes this not-really-breaking- news-actually-more-like-old-news-at-this-point update. Please stay tuned for more irregularly scheduled blog posts...

Skyrockets in flight, peeww, Brisbane festival delight...

week 8 ( Aug. 30 - Sept. 5) - In real time (sept. 14th) I just pulled my first all-nighter finishing up my second paper for this program. I'm slightly delirious at the moment but I need to stay awake til a reasonable bedtime hour so I sleep through the night. In this valiant post-grad effort to maintain consciousness, I will blog to you about stuff. This is your disclaimer that there is an 89.9% possibility the following blog writing may not make any sense. Ok, here it goes...

So at this point I've been here for almost two months. A lot of my lifestyle has changed, I've changed. TV is non-existent, news is received by various reliable and (mostly) unbiased internet sources where I get to pick and choose the information I receive. I've realized the amount of sensationalism in most news programs actually added anxiety in my life, so it's a great change to get rid of that unnecessary stress. I also had a goal before I moved here to learn to become a good runner so I could take advantage of the surrounding beauty in the neighborhood and local forest areas. Slightly delayed in that goal, but Lina and I started running this week and plan on running about 4 days a week. I'm not a runner, at all. In fact, I really have always hated running and my body generally gives out after two minutes of trying. But, after all the obstacles I've overcome the past couple years, I feel that I've mastered mind over matter and running should be a breeze. Plus, I know it's going to be an amazing feeling to run through some beautiful forests. I promised myself I would remain cognizant of the fact that I only have this life and this moment so I really plan on taking full advantage of everything I have. In any case, if I don't send out another blog post within the next week, please send search and rescue crews to Mt. Coot-Tha.

I've really been trying to be productive in getting my paper done this week, but the idea of possibly coming home next week had me completely sidetracked. I couldn't focus on getting my paper done at all. I've been feeling anxious, happy, sad, nervous, excited, pretty much everything, and all potentially over nothing. The waiting game was a complete life distraction and my work was suffering from it.

Luckily the weekend came up quick to give me a decent reason for not being productive. The beginning of September marks the month long Brisbane festival, and yes, Brisbane is such a great city that it deserves a month-long celebration. The kick-off festivities began Saturday night where the city puts on a yearly event called RiverFire. It's basically a massive fireworks show where they shoot fireworks from buildings and bridges around the river and downtown area so everyone gathers by the Brisbane River to watch. They also have F111 fighter jets that do a dump and burn, where they set the engine exhaust on fire and the jet takes on the form a giant fireball flying through the sky, it's very cool looking in a slightly Armageddon-like sort of way. Kate and I decided to go to my classmate, Ben's house (he lives right on the river), to see this sight for ourselves. We partied and drank on the roof of his apartment building with several other people from my grad program. After the fireworks show a group of people stayed for a couple hands of poker. Fireworks and poker, all in one night, I was indeed a very happy girl!

Photo #2 - the jet fighter dump and burn (it looks far more ominous in person) here's a video as the picture does no justice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbK1koSNxc0&feature=related

I have successfully made it to midnight, so goodnight to me and good morning to you.

To tired to think of something clever,

Jillian aka Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes crab cakes

My Italian Vocabulary: Buon Giorno! Ciao! Bravissimo! Spumoni!

Week 7 (Aug 23rd - 29th) - All I can say is, I encourage you all to start off your week with an Italian man cooking you dinner. I also encourage Lina to continue attracting Italian men so I can reap the culinary benefits. Andrea is a sweet and delightful Italian man who happened to be our waiter at this Greek restaurant we love going to. After Lina said "Buon Giorno" to him, he was smitten and offered to cook us an authentic Italian meal, and boy was it delicious. We started off with spaghetti and meat sauce and for the main course had mashed potatoes and pork marinated in this yummy sauce. nom nom nom. I tried to watch him while he was cooking, but seriously, who am I kidding? I doubt I could ever replicate that meal. Andrea is very light-hearted, charismatic, and passionate about life, which I'm not sure if that's just him or common traits of Italian culture, but either way his personality is extremely refreshing and am so glad we have found a new friend in him. Although, we didn't get to hang out with him too much as he has relocated up to Cairns to be a scuba instructor.

The rest of the week I just continued studying and reading. Friday night we were all itching to go out so we went to Friday's (it was appropriate given the day). It's not at all like TGIFriday's, it's actually our new favorite hang out spot. All the 9-5ers go after work to unwind and loosen their ties. While sipping on drinks we get to have a beautiful view of the Brissy river and a lit up bridge that I can't remember the name of (but it looks like a miniature version of the Golden Gate bridge). By huge random coincidence, we ended up seeing Lina's bus crush and ended up talking with him and his friends and hanging out with them for the night. We had a great time and some good laughs. In a desperate attempt to get rid of my heels I coerced one of his friends to trade shoes with me. I so sneaky sometimes! hehehe...

On Saturday we decided to get out of Brissy and head to the beach at Surfer's Paradise, which has pretty much become synonymous as our retreat from school work. What is it about the ocean that possesses the innate ability to calm the soul? I crave being near it.

On Sunday we headed back to reality and another week of studying and writing papers....

Wishing for a little less papers and a lot more beaches and Friday's,

Jillian a.k.a - Jilly, Jillypet, Jillybean, J-Dilla, J-Bones, and sometimes Crab Cakes