CRAVE WINNING!

Not the group that did the speeches I judged but these ones did have to speak regarding their project.

There’s nothing quite like seeing genuine joy on a young person’s face, especially at that moment that they realize they really wanted something and they got it, that all that hard work paid off, and they’re in that high of all highs.  Today, I had the pleasure of being a judge at a local Thai school for a competition about the ASEAN community through group projects, exhibitions, report writing (in the form of a book) and speech.  I was selected to judge speeches for both primary and high school level students in English judging everything from content, use of words, creativity, facts, artistry, confidence, natural speech, etc. 

From the moment that we three judges walked into the room, we were being sized up (ok, me literally as they probably have never seen a Thai female as tall as I), and then the nervousness set in for them along with smiling a lot at us.  Once everyone was settled in, the youngest begins their speech and I have to admit, he did a great job.  It takes so much courage to get up in front of a group of strangers, and delivering a speech that you had to memorize, and then say it like you would naturally talk and in a foreign language.  Every single student did such a great job and did a better job than I would have ever done.  First of all, I can’t memorize an entire page of information about other countries that I have never been too.  Second, I despise public speaking.  Third, I couldn’t do all of that in another language.  I admire all of them.  Their speeches were well researched, informative, creative, and delivered with confidence. 

There was one girl that was doing such a great job on her speech but I think with so much distraction in the back of the room that she lost her concentration and just couldn’t figure out the rest of her speech.  I felt horrible for her!  I know EXACTLY how she felt, I’ve been there!  I tried to encourage her by giving her a reassuring smile and the other judge told her to just pause, breathe, and proceed when she was ready, but she just couldn’t, she was even having trouble breathing in her deer in headlights expression on her face.   It’s really too bad, but then again, I guess we all need that moment when we just freeze while speaking in public.  It’s a moment none of us will ever forget and all learn from. 

I just happened to be there when the winning students were told that they won their speech competition and oh my!  What a moment to share with them!  The primary student, a young gal, squealed with delight sharing her excitement with her friends – she just had the best smile plastered on her face – that moment of truly feeling like she accomplished something wonderful.  The young man that won the high school competition was overjoyed sharing hugs with his teachers, looking so ecstatic and on top of the world.  Both students wai’d (bowed) me and just couldn’t stop smiling.  It was a pretty incredible experience to be a part of that moment with both of the winners who now go on to a larger competition.  I wonder if moments like these will on some level, frame who they become as adults. 

I sat with the young man who is 16 years old from Myanmar to talk with him about his speech, what a great job he did, and asked of his plans for the future.  He plans to go to university to study philosophy and psychology.  I happen to glance at his speech that he was still holding in his hand and this is what was hand-written at the bottom: CRAVE WINNING.  And win he did.  I love that he had a mantra to pump himself up with!

HEY THERE!

It's been crazy lately here, getting settled in to Chiang Mai, revising (and by revising I mean OVERHAULING) my CV, looking at apartments, interviewing, prepping math lessons (that I have no idea how to teach), going to Thai lessons, etc., etc.  SO, I'll be back on the bandwagon soon enough with some blog updates for Australia.  Ciao!  xo A

NO TIME FOR...

I spent one whole day in Noosa.  Could I have used more?  Sure.  But did I feel the pull to stay there?  No.  Noosa is a lovely town but quite touristy and sorta high-end touristy.  If I were on a regular holiday, I would have loved it.  But on a backpacker budget, not so much.  So my ONE day I spent there, I went for the nice long hike around the Reserve that goes along the coast full of people surfing, laying out on the different beaches, though forests, along cliffs, and with the possibility that one can spot a koala too.

That night, I went out with some new friends from my dorm room to the bar at the hostel where I ended up meeting some cool guys from Sydney who were there for a stag party (bachelor party for those of you from the States).  Somehow, I unintentionally got to be an honorary dude for the night and hung out with them for the rest of the evening at that bar as well as a few others, mostly just chatting away, asking about the wedding, etc. They were all absolute gentlemen who honestly just wanted to get drunk, act stupid, and have some (innocent) fun, you know, the usual.  However, the trouble was, we kept losing the best man at every bar.  At the end of the night, it seemed that he along with another of their friends got themselves thrown into the drunk tank.  Ah, Australia, you did not disappoint that night!

And apologies on the photos, I was too lazy and only used my old iPhone 3GS for the hike so no fancy (clear) shots.

GRAFFITI LOVE IN...

“Introduce a little anarchy.  Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.  I’m an agent of chaos.  Oh and you know the thing about chaos?  It’s fair.” – The Joker

Melbourne.  Now this was a city I was looking forward to!  I noticed Aussies have a thing about asking visitors or voicing their own opinion as to which is better, Sydney or Melbourne.  Sydney is supposed to be big city, posh… sparkly, shiny, and new with nice beaches and parks.  Melbourne is supposed to be the smaller, more eclectic city.   Well, both are true.  As much as I enjoyed the little bit of Sydney that I was able to see, it felt... dare I say, too much of an American city to me.  Like I mentioned, it felt like Boston and San Francisco rolled into one.  In Melbourne, I spent even less days there than Sydney, but because the city itself is smaller and walkable, it felt like I was wandering through a curious and intricate maze – I never knew what was around the next corner, and I liked that.  I connect with the grit that Melbourne possesses.  Sydney is perfect but I prefer the beautifully flawed.  Melbourne is a whole dynamic of so many things packed in a small space.  It’s traditional architecture meets artistic grit.  It’s dark mazes of shops, bars, and restaurants meets a big promenade of high-end department stores with $7 slices of pizza.  It’s city-supported alleys filled with graffiti meets sterile, chic art galleries.  It’s east meets west. It’s a whole… thing.  I think what I’m trying to say is that it has it’s own thing going on and it has it’s own identity that belongs solely to itself.

One of my favorite things about Melbourne is that it encourages kids to practice their art – mainly graffiti, by allowing them to spray paint alleyways, sort of like a continually evolving gallery.  I love graffiti art!  I don’t like tagging, but I do like graffiti art especially when there is some sort of message to be learned from it and at the very least something to ponder over.  Kids of all ages were in the alleys and would spend several hours in the afternoon working out their sketches and then painting it out.  There's some impressive, awesome work out there!  Though I gotta admit, my favorite is Heath Leger’s ‘Joker’ artwork which has not been painted over.  I like to think it’s out of respect for great art, a great character, and homage to the artist that is no longer with us.   RIP Heath.  

If there is one place in Australia that I would have liked to have spent more time to explore it would be Melbourne because of it's eclectic people, cool art scene, amazing food, and plethora of craft beers.  There were just too many nooks and crannies to get to in such a short period of time and I would love to continue exploring all the alleys to see new works of art going up.  Perhaps one day I will make it back to Australia... until then, I have the rest of the world to continue exploring!

Beautiful ...

I love these photos.  Absolute and pure joy for them both.

And then there's this guy.  Clearly, not a fan of the bubbles.  Or maybe the children.

I like this strange looking bird... that clearly needs a bath.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be looking forward to Sydney.  I had heard that it’s a lovely city but very much a “city”.  After a place like Byron Bay, it’s sometimes difficult for me to swing from being out in nature to being in a big city.  But at the same time, I heard that it was a beautiful city with a lot of things to see and do. 

After an overnight bus, I arrive in Sydney where I proceeded to my friend Mike's place that I was staying with.  Upon arrival, he gives me a tour of the house and let’s me know that I get to have his bedroom while I stay as he understands how tough traveling can be when you have no sense of home anymore and wanted me to be comfortable, and he stayed on the couch.  Already, he is being far too generous to me.  I would have been fine with the couch but Mike is a gentleman and trying to make me feel at home.  And let me tell you, it was so nice to have that space after all of the smelly, uncomfortable dorms that I had been staying in during my travels. 

What I didn’t know until the day prior was that we were going to a rugby championship celebration where the team gets dressed up and goes to some pubs.  And what I didn’t understand was that “dressing up” actually meant costume party.  In broad daylight.   In public.  Typically, backpackers don’t travel with costumes, so I was able to go as myself (yes, that can be frightening too, possibly considered a costume unto itself!).  We arrived at our first pub and whoa!!!  These guys really got into the festivities!  We’re talking guys dressed up as big babies wearing Depends, Fred Flinstone, Teletubbies, the Hulk, guys in leopard print outfits, some dressed as women, etc.  And these guys were soooooo much fun to hang out with!  They (ok, we) were drinking a ton as it was a celebration of them winning their championship the day before and drinking out of their trophy cup.  Though this was day two of their celebration.  Finally a guitar comes out and everyone starts singing for the rest of the day.  In broad daylight.  In public.  Yes, we were those people in the bar that had gotten obnoxiously drunk. So for pretty much the entire day into closing, the group got plenty drunk in true Aussie-style. I’m so glad I was able to bear witness to and be a part of a time revered celebration of a rugby championship with some pretty amazing Aussies and a few Irish (naturally). 

The unfortunate part of my time there in Sydney was me getting a small case of tonsillitis.  Which totally threw a monkey wrench in my plans.  I wanted to go to all these different places, beaches, landmarks, and instead, I really only had time to take care of business (visa for Thailand), banking stuff, and see the Sydney Opera House (which is such a lovely architectural gem and amazing at night time), walk around the city, take a short little cruise around the bay, and meet up with some friends of mine that I met in Thailand who were (and are) living in Sydney for dinner.  I wish I had more time there as I was seeing so many parts of Sydney by bus and wanted to stop and walk around more, admire the architecture, window shop, go to the parks and museums, do some hiking, go out to the beaches, and spend more time with Mike, but I had to get going to my next destination.  The one thing I can say about Sydney is that it reminded me of Boston and San Francisco rolled into one with it's little hidden neighborhoods with different styles of traditional architecture in each area and small communities in each.  I could see myself really enjoying Sydney if given more time.

Since I had such limited time there, I went walking around the city to get to know it along the waterfront, through the Quay, and wandered into a park that had this guy entertaining children with bubbles.  I sat and watched this huge group of children with their parents just absolutely crazy excited about these massive bubbles floating in the air.  I loved their over the top excitement that I found myself so happy watching them.  It was the highlight of my day.  So thought I would share a few pix of what I was witnessing… along with a guy who clearly was not excited about the bubbles.  Enjoy!

It’s crazy to think that I met Mike all the way on the other side of the world!  I remember when I first met him on the subway in Barcelona as a big group of us were on the subway on our way to go to a bar on the beach.  He just starts chatting up my friend and I and to be perfectly honest, I could barely understand a word he was saying with all the people on the subway and with his thick Irish accent – my ear hadn’t been trained to listen to a thick accent like that yet! (But after all my travels with Irish people, it is now!)  At some point, my friend leans over to me all giddy because she LOVES Irish men and was pretty excited to have met Mike.  After we all were walking the streets of Barcelona together and talking the night away, sharing travel plans, etc., thus began Mike and I keeping in touch as I was going to Ireland during that trip and he had some recommendations of places for me to go.  I love the power of Facebook!  It kept us in touch, with me following his travels as he lived in different countries abroad until he settled in Australia.  And because of that one night of hanging out and wandering around Barcelona, he offered to let me crash with him in his home in Sydney.  Mike is an incredible guy and I would have loved to spend more time getting to know him better (unfortunately, he had to work while I was there too).  He’s not only a handsome Irishman with a cute accent (yes, ladies, I do believe he may be single if you’re living in Sydney), and is an incredibly decent man, has a big heart, is very intelligent, well-read (he loves the Game of Thrones series too!), funny, athletic, gracious, well traveled, has lived in several countries all over the world, and has a great sense of personal style (yes, that matters to me).  Seeing him again in Australia after my travels confirmed that the world is indeed small and people really are generous.  I have no doubt that I will see Mike again.  He’s just one of those people that I just know we’re going to run into each other in some other part of the world because that's just how we are and I will then hopefully have the opportunity to host him in my new city as he did for me.