Leaving on a jetplane...

This is not a holiday, not a sabbatical, and not exactly simply a study tour. In a way it is the natural pace of life for me. New places, people, experiences, and ideas are more vivid in motion. In order to turn up the volume of these next few weeks, I'm leaving the screens at home: no ipod, no laptop, no fancy phone. Its just me & my thoughts in the world. Where in the world? Darwin, Vietnam, Singapore, and a weekend stopover in Newcastle and the Blue Mountains. It's a bit more of a planned adventure than my usual. Maybe that's what 'growing up' means to me.

My lectures in Vietnam are the primary reason for this country hop. Despite the fact that I will probably spend the first few days scared to eat anything, don't speak a word of Vietnamese, and am allergic to the sun now, I have a good feeling about the weeks to come! The unit material is dense but intriguing. Funny to think we are going to one of the backpackers' party havens to have lectures, discussions, then observe them in their 'natural environment' by night. I'm making every attempt possible to not have expectations, but of course that's easier said than done. I expect to get sick at least once, to learn a lot, to write a lot, and hopefully come back in one piece...albeit a slightly different one.

As for the informal education components of this trip, crocs, snakes, many coffees with couchsurfing friends of the future, and who knows maybe even a late night pash out of the blue. On the road, anything is as possible as you let it. That's the perfect entropy of time and space disregarded. Practicing being in the moment, of the moment, and completely with the moment is one of the main objectives of this experience. I have this hankering feeling I've been missing something big but it's still here. I just don't know how to look. Maybe the shift in vantage point will help.


The next time I find myself in a proper bed will be Tuesday in a hostel in Hanoi. The next meal I enjoy will be filled with warm top end sun and anticipation of the cage of death. The next time I see my classmates it will probably be in a hostel bar. The next time I hear familiar beats and rhymes will be live in Newcastle. And the next time I return home to this room, this house, this screen I will be many new places richer and that much closer to whatever it is I'm meant to aspire.

My Own Personal, Impromptu 'Slut Walk'

Last night, well 4 am, as I was cheerfully walking home after a fantastic night of music, dancing friends, and conversation when some guy in a beat up ute (mini pickup truck for my American readers) yelled, "F*#k'n slut" out the window as he drove by. Honestly, it more saddened me than anything. What does this guy hope to achieve from behaviors like that? Why is walking down a street, at any hour, a sluttish behavior? If I lived in a culture that showing your hair or being an unaccompanied female was abhorrent, maybe. But I don't. And frankly, I don't think anybody should. If anything, by the fact that I was walking home alone at 4am on a Saturday morning it was pretty apparent that I would be enjoying my bed solo. Maybe he found that offensive. All I can hope is that bro-charming there and his classy wheels made it home safely but does not have the opportunity to reproduce or raise more little car calling men. It made me think, can we make sperm bank donors pass an etiquette/basic human civility test? If we haven't thoroughly tested if this type of behavior is possibly inherited and not solely learned...it can't hurt. This event didn't make me feel threatened or vulnerable, as this guy was obviously just an idiot who probably shouldn't have been driving and definitely should not have been talking. In some ways he is just as much a victim as any of us for wondering about the world guided by the kind of negative ignorance that leads one to such actions. That can't be pleasant. I only wish there was a look, a song or an image that could tap into every man, and for that matter, every person's emotional memory and remind them of one time when their mother or maternal figure used her feminine strength to make them feel safe, strong, and loved. For the time being, all we can really say is, "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"Or in this situation, "Shut up and drive" would've sufficed.