Sunday, January 27, 2008

Ebb and Flow

The pulse. The ebb and flow. The frogger-like intercity navigation.


"Don't make a choice! Make love to both of them!" A man calls at us.


Sitting in a Korean restaraunt. It's reminding me of China.. You can't hear the roar of the city here. Only the sounds of plates or bowls bumping one another and the multi-lingual voices of other customers. Korean music plays in the background. This is a quiet sanctuary tucked between dirty sky scrapers. We peer over a wall at a man mixing some Kimchi in a giant red bucket in the alleyway beside the restaurant. I don't know if he knows he is being watched... But we know he is...

Korean food is amazing. In fact Koreans in general are pretty amazing! The ones I was living with were pretty resourceful. If I was cutting the fat off some bacon or meat off a bone they wanted me to save it for them so they could use it for something! So I'd put it into a little bowl in the fridge, covered in Gladwrap. Maybe all Koreans aren't like this, but these ones didn't waste anything compared to the Aus people also living with us! Hey, maybe more people are like this than I realise.

My room mate broke her sandals pretty badly. She could afford to buy new ones but she chose instead to glue them back in place. It took her ages but eventually they we're as good as new. She only had two pairs of shoes. I think I might have eight. And I wear maybe.. three of those eight pairs?

You get the drift I suppose..

I'm back now in my Country town. You can see the end of it - the rolling green hills , their backs covered with vineyards, the damaged and repaired road winding it's way through Gumtrees and other trees - from the roof. Actually I might go sit up there now.


Monday, January 21, 2008

Redistribution

I like the title of this Blog. "Redistribution". I think it's a good way to describe what is currently happening to all the people I've been living with this past year. First they were gathered, then shuffled carefully over 12 months and now they're about to be dealt out - redistributed to new places. Meanwhile the omnipotent hand of the dealer has already reached for the next pile of cards... Drawing it towards the table to undergo the same process.

I'm not trying to call life a game :) But hey who knows.. Maybe it is... But not a pointless one. A purposefully, carefully and joyfully played one. I don't know. To say it's not a game (to me) seems to take something away. Anyway... All of this to tell you that things are changing are here! The Old students are packed up and leaving and a new group have come.

One thing I notice about myself when I'm suddenly in a big group of people I don't know very well is that I get a little insecure. I seem to need to make sure that everyone gets in their brains the 'sort of person I am'. So I speak louder and more often. I make more jokes, stealing quick glances at the newcomers to check if they're laughing. I take more care in what I wear. If I pick up an instrument (which is pretty normal for me) I pick the most popular songs I know or the most difficult to play.
"Ahhh.." They say. "Yes.. This girl is worthy..She passes the test."
I could keep this up all day..