Bittersweet
-
Eyal and I always knew that it would be difficult building a family from
two different countries. It is just now, however, that we have to really
put that ...
14 years ago
World Cup comment
Isn't it refreshing to see men encouraged to express their feelings so openly in a public forum? Especially feelings of pain and vulnerability.... No toughing it out, keeping a stiff upper lip, soldiering on, and so forth, for these men. I love it.
June summary
We were happy to have a visit from our friend S on his way from Oregon to a wedding in Santa Cruz. Then, just after their school year finished, we went up to Sonoma County to visit Justin's parents. One of our days up there included a lovely visit to redwoods, followed by a drive along the coast.
In the last couple of weeks, Justin and I have both started classes. Justin goes every day for several hours. I am taking an online course (my first ever) and am stuying for an unrelated exam next month. I also signed up for an intensive one-week course which was only offered in Sacramento. So I took the train up to my parents' house and stayed with them for a week while attending the course. It was the first time I think that we had that particular configuration of family members for about 29 years (when my little brother was born). My sister came up for a couple nights too, and we had a first-ever dad-and-daughters dinner.
Sacramento was experiencing weather in the triple-digits (eg 105) Fahrenheit (that's 40+ Celsius), but I didn't get to really relish it (or get sick of it), as I spent my days in an air-conditioned room, and then was whisked around either in air-conditioned cars or air-conditioned light rail trains. It was eerie how little contact one really has with the climate when living in a non-walking environment.
Now I'm back in Oakland, watching soccer games with my sweetie, playing Settlers of Cattan with my brother and his girlfriend, and hanging out chatting with my sisters. Not quite as much studying as I need to do, so I'll get right on that. Hmmmph. Blogging as procrastination. I'm not the first.
In the last couple of weeks, Justin and I have both started classes. Justin goes every day for several hours. I am taking an online course (my first ever) and am stuying for an unrelated exam next month. I also signed up for an intensive one-week course which was only offered in Sacramento. So I took the train up to my parents' house and stayed with them for a week while attending the course. It was the first time I think that we had that particular configuration of family members for about 29 years (when my little brother was born). My sister came up for a couple nights too, and we had a first-ever dad-and-daughters dinner.
Sacramento was experiencing weather in the triple-digits (eg 105) Fahrenheit (that's 40+ Celsius), but I didn't get to really relish it (or get sick of it), as I spent my days in an air-conditioned room, and then was whisked around either in air-conditioned cars or air-conditioned light rail trains. It was eerie how little contact one really has with the climate when living in a non-walking environment.
Now I'm back in Oakland, watching soccer games with my sweetie, playing Settlers of Cattan with my brother and his girlfriend, and hanging out chatting with my sisters. Not quite as much studying as I need to do, so I'll get right on that. Hmmmph. Blogging as procrastination. I'm not the first.
suffering and hope
Last week I went down to the high school where I'm going to be working starting in August (did I mention I got a job? I'll be an independent study teacher at Oasis High School.) I went to watch some senior presentations. The 12th graders had pursued a chosen topic over the course of several months. They wrote papers and did some kind of project and then it all culminated in a presentation to a small panel of adults and students. I thought it would be interesting to see what students were interested in and just to remind myself what high schoolers are like and what kind of work they do.
I listened to four presentations: Selena (the singer), the internal combustion engine, violence and children, and gun violence. This last wasn't so much a presentation as a testimonial, a witnessing. The visual aid consisted of pictures of the presenter's cousin and her brother's best friend who were both shot within the same week during this past year. She didn't have statistics or solutions, she simply talked about these young men and the families they'd left behind, including a baby each. She mentioned her best friend from several years ago who'd also been killed on the street. Before she'd said much, she was crying, her mother in the audience was crying, I was crying, and I think others were too. It is impossible not to respond to raw grief.
How, then, do we human beings continue to cause such pain to each other?
In the previous presentation, two sisters, one of whom was herself pregnant, had investigated the effect of violence on children. They researched child development and then visited a first grade classroom. They asked the 6- and 7-year-olds what "violence" means and were surprised at the specific examples the children offered. They asked how many children had personally experienced or witnessed violence, and every single child raised a hand. They asked the children to draw pictures showing what violence is. They shared those pictures with us as part of their presentation. I especially remember one: a drawing of three people, two close together and the third a little apart. All three seemed to be scratched out with strong red crayon marks. The young artist had explained that the two people on the left were her cousins who had died, and the third was herself. The red seemed to link them all together with pain.
On NPR yesterday I listened to some Palestinian and Isreali teenagers talking about the ways their thinking had been changed at Seeds of Peace summer camp, how they had developed friends they never thought they'd have. It made me cry and gave me hope.
I listened to four presentations: Selena (the singer), the internal combustion engine, violence and children, and gun violence. This last wasn't so much a presentation as a testimonial, a witnessing. The visual aid consisted of pictures of the presenter's cousin and her brother's best friend who were both shot within the same week during this past year. She didn't have statistics or solutions, she simply talked about these young men and the families they'd left behind, including a baby each. She mentioned her best friend from several years ago who'd also been killed on the street. Before she'd said much, she was crying, her mother in the audience was crying, I was crying, and I think others were too. It is impossible not to respond to raw grief.
How, then, do we human beings continue to cause such pain to each other?
In the previous presentation, two sisters, one of whom was herself pregnant, had investigated the effect of violence on children. They researched child development and then visited a first grade classroom. They asked the 6- and 7-year-olds what "violence" means and were surprised at the specific examples the children offered. They asked how many children had personally experienced or witnessed violence, and every single child raised a hand. They asked the children to draw pictures showing what violence is. They shared those pictures with us as part of their presentation. I especially remember one: a drawing of three people, two close together and the third a little apart. All three seemed to be scratched out with strong red crayon marks. The young artist had explained that the two people on the left were her cousins who had died, and the third was herself. The red seemed to link them all together with pain.
On NPR yesterday I listened to some Palestinian and Isreali teenagers talking about the ways their thinking had been changed at Seeds of Peace summer camp, how they had developed friends they never thought they'd have. It made me cry and gave me hope.
Blog revives!
City life continues to surround us with dizzying sensory input. So many first impressions have already faded, and I regret not blogging about them at the time. I also wish I'd been taking more pictures. Anyway, some pictures follow which represent a few slices of the past month and a half.
Aunty Me! and more
Well, Justin and I have a new nephew, and he's mighty cute. Sorry, no pix as everyone else was taking so many photos we decided to resist. We're house-sitting and dog-minding while Justin's sis is in the hospital up the street here in San Francisco.
Can't believe we've only been back 2 weeks and 2 days! We found an apartment in Oakland and moved in on the 7th day we'd been back. Since then, we've been getting to know our neighborhood, unpacking boxes of things it was ridiculous for us to have stored for a year and a half but that we are sometimes still happy to see, and applying for jobs!
To my delight, our new apartment is actually on the same street my sister lives on and just about a block away. Despite it being right in the city (it's not suburban at all--at least not in the American sense; I feel that Australians use the term slightly differently, so I don't know if Australians could call it suburban), our next door neighbors have chickens, rabbits, and a garden in their backyard. Most other houses and apartments might just have a garage or shed in the back yard or another living space, so our neighbors are definitely extraordinary.
The neighborhood is predominantly African-American, a mix of working class and probably some professionals. It is probably considered a somewhat "gentrified" area, but I don't know the history of it to know for sure whether it was more "blighted" or run-down in the past.
Interestingly, there are a lot of Eritrean and Ethiopian businesses not too far away, but we haven't seen any Eritreans living right in our neighborhood. Speaking of restaurants (I was, since all the aforementioned businesses are in fact eateries), the sheer number of yummy dining options is pretty overwhelming throughout the Bay Area. Justin was remarking today, as we walked down a street in San Francisco, that pretty much every single restaurant we might come across would have multiple vegetarian options. I just looked online and found Farmers Markets in Berkeley and Oakland six days a week.
A little geography for friends who don't know northern California: the Bay Area consists of all the cities and suburbs around the San Francisco Bay. The major cities are San Francisco, on a little peninsula or knob, then across the bay are the East Bay cities of Berkeley and Oakland. There are many more cities all along the water. San Francisco is attached to Marin in the north by the Golden Gate Bridge, and to the East Bay by the Bay Bridge. The so-called "Silicon Valley" (made up of cities like San Jose and Palo Alto) are south of the actual bay and in the valley, but are sometimes consider part of the Bay Area.
I'm very excited to live in this area for the first time, even if I'm about 15 years older than most people are when they move to the Big City. It'll be fun exploring and getting to know new places, new people, new culture, while still being in some ways on familiar ground. When I was a fifteen year old in combat boots and purple hair, my best friend and I would ride the bus to the City (SF) and just walk around all day long, looking at the people, delighting when we were mistaken for locals (by other visiting suburbanites).
Today Justin and I walked along Haight Street and were amazed to see how little it has really changed over the years. The same kinds of businesses (and some of the same actual ones), the same kinds of people (and some of the same actual ones) hanging out and ambling down the street as when we were teenagers visiting there.
Can't believe we've only been back 2 weeks and 2 days! We found an apartment in Oakland and moved in on the 7th day we'd been back. Since then, we've been getting to know our neighborhood, unpacking boxes of things it was ridiculous for us to have stored for a year and a half but that we are sometimes still happy to see, and applying for jobs!
To my delight, our new apartment is actually on the same street my sister lives on and just about a block away. Despite it being right in the city (it's not suburban at all--at least not in the American sense; I feel that Australians use the term slightly differently, so I don't know if Australians could call it suburban), our next door neighbors have chickens, rabbits, and a garden in their backyard. Most other houses and apartments might just have a garage or shed in the back yard or another living space, so our neighbors are definitely extraordinary.
The neighborhood is predominantly African-American, a mix of working class and probably some professionals. It is probably considered a somewhat "gentrified" area, but I don't know the history of it to know for sure whether it was more "blighted" or run-down in the past.
Interestingly, there are a lot of Eritrean and Ethiopian businesses not too far away, but we haven't seen any Eritreans living right in our neighborhood. Speaking of restaurants (I was, since all the aforementioned businesses are in fact eateries), the sheer number of yummy dining options is pretty overwhelming throughout the Bay Area. Justin was remarking today, as we walked down a street in San Francisco, that pretty much every single restaurant we might come across would have multiple vegetarian options. I just looked online and found Farmers Markets in Berkeley and Oakland six days a week.
A little geography for friends who don't know northern California: the Bay Area consists of all the cities and suburbs around the San Francisco Bay. The major cities are San Francisco, on a little peninsula or knob, then across the bay are the East Bay cities of Berkeley and Oakland. There are many more cities all along the water. San Francisco is attached to Marin in the north by the Golden Gate Bridge, and to the East Bay by the Bay Bridge. The so-called "Silicon Valley" (made up of cities like San Jose and Palo Alto) are south of the actual bay and in the valley, but are sometimes consider part of the Bay Area.
I'm very excited to live in this area for the first time, even if I'm about 15 years older than most people are when they move to the Big City. It'll be fun exploring and getting to know new places, new people, new culture, while still being in some ways on familiar ground. When I was a fifteen year old in combat boots and purple hair, my best friend and I would ride the bus to the City (SF) and just walk around all day long, looking at the people, delighting when we were mistaken for locals (by other visiting suburbanites).
Today Justin and I walked along Haight Street and were amazed to see how little it has really changed over the years. The same kinds of businesses (and some of the same actual ones), the same kinds of people (and some of the same actual ones) hanging out and ambling down the street as when we were teenagers visiting there.
First Day in CA
From just behind Forest's house in Berkeley, we walked up a beautiful hill with panoramic views of the area.
We walked through stands of these huge old eucalyptus trees which filled the air with their unique aroma. These are a different type from any of the many varieties that grew in the Katherine region, but I felt like I was meeting these old familiar trees with a new understanding of their homeland.
This picture proves that I am here, but unfortunately does little justice to the actual view, due to the back-lighting situation. We could see San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge stretching to the right and the Bay Bridge coming toward us, a string of tiny shiny cars sparkling like a diamond necklace. Further to the left we could see downtown Oakland and the hills just visible beyond. The top of the hill we were on was covered with bright green grass and full of birds singing. Absolutely lovely.
As for city life, it is pretty overwhelming to see so many people and so much activity. Just as small towns like Katherine have their charms and challenges, so too do cities, and right now the challenge for us is not to go into sensory overload!
We walked through stands of these huge old eucalyptus trees which filled the air with their unique aroma. These are a different type from any of the many varieties that grew in the Katherine region, but I felt like I was meeting these old familiar trees with a new understanding of their homeland.
This picture proves that I am here, but unfortunately does little justice to the actual view, due to the back-lighting situation. We could see San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge stretching to the right and the Bay Bridge coming toward us, a string of tiny shiny cars sparkling like a diamond necklace. Further to the left we could see downtown Oakland and the hills just visible beyond. The top of the hill we were on was covered with bright green grass and full of birds singing. Absolutely lovely.
As for city life, it is pretty overwhelming to see so many people and so much activity. Just as small towns like Katherine have their charms and challenges, so too do cities, and right now the challenge for us is not to go into sensory overload!
Doing Diddly in Darwin
We made it out of Katherine safe and dry. We holed up with Waz and Pas in their elevated house on the river's edge until it was time to leave. Our final night (Monday) was spent at Digger's Den (natch); however, there was no pizza (as apparently the pizza bases come in a truck which was unable to get through the flood waters). Anyway, it was a good send-off for us, including much laughter, impassioned discussion of punctuation, and some better-than-usual customer service. The last couple days in Katherine were the beginning of the Dry Season with picture perfect blue skies and low humidity.
Darwin's weather is also lovely. We've eaten on the wharf, visited the museum, swum in the hostel pool and taken care of a few sundry errands. A bit more vacationy stuff lies ahead, and then we'll be on that plane!
Will post pictures when next in a position to connect laptop to internet (am in internet cafe now).
Darwin's weather is also lovely. We've eaten on the wharf, visited the museum, swum in the hostel pool and taken care of a few sundry errands. A bit more vacationy stuff lies ahead, and then we'll be on that plane!
Will post pictures when next in a position to connect laptop to internet (am in internet cafe now).
The Big Brown
Recent flooding in Katherine left a few people inconvenienced, like these gnomes:
Actually, the water was quite high in a number of areas of town, including inside our friend Rob's house. Pictures of this will appear at a later date.
We discovered from listening to the news that Katherine is a city and has a "CBD" which was flooded. As you can see from this photo, people were panic-stricken:
Both photos courtesy of Wazza. Thanks, Waz!
Actually, the water was quite high in a number of areas of town, including inside our friend Rob's house. Pictures of this will appear at a later date. We discovered from listening to the news that Katherine is a city and has a "CBD" which was flooded. As you can see from this photo, people were panic-stricken:
Both photos courtesy of Wazza. Thanks, Waz!
Last Day
Today's our last day in our unit ("apartment" in American English, to which I will soon revert). Most everything is gone and the place is looking gloriously bare, thanks to many friends who helped by giving new homes to our things. We've been bicycle-less since Sunday, which hasn't in fact been as inconvenient as I'd expected since it's been raining almost non-stop.
Here's a little weather statistics summary for you:
In March of 2006, Katherine got 455.8 mm (18 inches) of rain. The most in one day was 102.2 mm (4 inches).
As of April 4, we'd gotten 27.6 mm (1.08 inches). Today's observation said that we'd got 51 mm (2 inches) between 9 am and 10:30 am, but I'm a little suspicious of that. Anyway, it's been raining not in big thunderstorm showers, but in a constant drizzle kind of way, like rain in California. In contrast, in April 2005 Katherine had zero (0) mm of rain!
What about temperatures? Well, temps in April 2006 have ranged from a low of 23.6C (74 F) to a high of 32.3C (90 F). I have cold toes right this moment and our thermometer says it's 82F in here! (My toes, though, are on the cold tile floor and have been still for some time.)
We are so excited about coming home, but know it's going to be really overwhelming. I hope you Californians will not be surprised when you find us cowering under the sofa, unable to take it all in.
See you soon!
Here's a little weather statistics summary for you:
In March of 2006, Katherine got 455.8 mm (18 inches) of rain. The most in one day was 102.2 mm (4 inches).
As of April 4, we'd gotten 27.6 mm (1.08 inches). Today's observation said that we'd got 51 mm (2 inches) between 9 am and 10:30 am, but I'm a little suspicious of that. Anyway, it's been raining not in big thunderstorm showers, but in a constant drizzle kind of way, like rain in California. In contrast, in April 2005 Katherine had zero (0) mm of rain!
What about temperatures? Well, temps in April 2006 have ranged from a low of 23.6C (74 F) to a high of 32.3C (90 F). I have cold toes right this moment and our thermometer says it's 82F in here! (My toes, though, are on the cold tile floor and have been still for some time.)
We are so excited about coming home, but know it's going to be really overwhelming. I hope you Californians will not be surprised when you find us cowering under the sofa, unable to take it all in.
See you soon!
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