First update from Oz

Hey all,
I am running late to an internship meeting now, but just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive (although incredibly jetlagged).

Love,
Xu

(More posts to come.)

pre-departure pep talk

Leaving Kansas City in T-minus 9 hours.

For some reason I find all this flying around the world and leaving everything behind journey to be the most frightening thing I've ever done. Which makes me feel like such a baby because it's Australia--not even a non-English speaking country. A lot of poisonous creatures, though. Some random old guy struck up a conversation with me at Papa John's the other day as I was waiting in line to pick up my pizza because he saw that I had with me an Australian guidebook (by DK Publishing; beautiful pictures, see and buy here). Anyhow, without much in the way of introduction he suddenly launched into conversation about how Australia has the highest concentration of the most poisonous creatures on the planet, and how there's little or no evolutionary explanation for why these critters got such crazy-murderous venom lodged in their teeth/spines/spurs/you-name-it.

So my fear of being tragically stung/pierced/bitten and poisoned aside, I hope I make the most of this trip. Sidenote: I feel really proud that I was even able to fit this trip into my schedule. Seven semesters after the start of college and I have finished a major and two minors and this semester abroad is really only for the credit. I'm relieved not to be worrying about whether the classes I take will fulfill any requirements, etc. Pain in the butt, all that bureaucracy is. End sidenote. I do hope that I gain some clarity from my time abroad, especially regarding What I Want To Do With My Life (capitalized because whenever people talk about it they make it sound like a proper noun, yeesh, scary).

My main goal is to try out a non-science internship as part of the program and just break the monotony of science classes and tests and GPA-grubbing. The program is divided into two parts: the first half is spent on two classes, an Australian culture and society class and an elective of the student's choice. The second half consists of an internship in Sydney and another elective. I'm going in hoping to find an internship in magazine or book publishing/editing. Truth be told, I'm not sure what the difference is between magazine and book publishing, and/or editing of either one. Really, I'm wandering blindly into a field that I have little (read: no) experience in for the sake of stepping out of my comfort zone and seeing if I want to Do Something Else With My Life. My thought was that if I have a good experience in Australia I would take a year off next year and delay entrance into medical school. After all, what's the point of having a med school already accept me and hold a spot for me if I don't ever really ask them to hold that spot for me? Terribly convoluted sentence, I apologize. Long story short I am quite unsure about what the future holds, but my thought process is that med school can wait and life needs to be lived now. And so, that leads me to Oz.

Besides pursuing a non-science internship I also want to extensively travel and see the sites, you know, hopefully beyond the touristy garbage. After reading Bill Bryson's In A Sunburned Country (which you can buy here), I have become almost giddy with excitement to form my own opinions of the Outback. If there's anything at fault with Bryson, it's that he is too goddamn cheery about everything. Even when he's writing about being nearly stuck in the middle of the desert while contemplating what it would be like to drink his friend's pee, Bryson is utterly and uncannily radiating sunshine through every orifice. Almost enough to make me gag, but hey it was a good read overall. I recommend it (mainly since it made me laugh out loud at several parts).

It's getting to be about six hours before I have to wake up for my flight and my attention is lagging, but some final thoughts/goals/whatever:

I hope to swim a lot and catch a lot of sunshine (if only to return to Boston and become hopelessly pale again).

I expect I'll fail to feed myself and probably become frustrated with not being able to stay in contact with family, friends, and Andrei.

I want to visit Cairnes/Great Barrier Reef as well as Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and taste the Outback for myself even if that means drinking my own pee as a desperate measure.

I hope not to suck at meeting people, especially Aussies.

I don't want to die of a box jellyfish sting.

Finally,
I promise to write anyone a postcard if you leave me your address. Don't be shy now, dear reader!

Ok, more when I land on Australia ground. Thanks for keeping up with me, friends and loved ones and strangers! :)


OH, another final note: Slumdog Millionaire swept all four of its Golden Globe nominations tonight, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Screenplay. So this news plus my previous gushing review should certainly sway you into going to see it, mmk?

dirty south

On the eve of my departure to Sydney I thought I would recap my trip last week to Memphis, Tennessee. I know what you're thinking. Memphis? What's in Memphis? Barbecue and... Elvis? I had the same reaction, but then again, when I think about it I'm not sure what I would associate with Kansas City. (Barbecue and....... and....... and...).

And so last Monday I bravely traversed the Mason-Dixon Line for the only good reason there is--the love of a boy. Andrei picked me up at the Memphis airport, which I somehow managed to get hopelessly lost in. The only way we eventually found each other was to agree to meet "at the Starbucks." Not bad. (Here, Andrei mumbles something about "directionally challenged" and women, especially Asian women.)

We had lunch at his house with his grandmother, Lelia (beautiful name, no?), and then decided to take a walk with Bassie, Andrei's very cute and slobbery basset hound dog.

Me and the Basset

Bassie liked me immensely, surprising everyone, but I always knew that us bitches would get along. Something that I didn't really understand about dogs until this trip was that they try to eat their own poop (or other dogs' poop) ALL THE TIME. And the dog walker, in this case me, can only pray and struggle to pull the dog AWAY from the poop before it makes contact. Or perhaps it's just Bassie, who has an acutely keen nose and no good taste whatsoever.

The rest of the week's highlights included: gorging ourselves on Memphis BBQ, touring the National Civil Rights Museum, visiting the Memphis Zoo, touring St. Jude Children's Hospital where Andrei's mom works, going to New Years party, and enjoying the perfect 68 degree weather that lasted the entire week I was there.

First, the BBQ: divine. I'm not really sure what this age-long battle between Kansas City BBQ and Memphis BBQ is all about, but it was pretty clear to me that Memphis BBQ is top-notch. We visited Neely's, which has been featured on Food Network and USA Today, and got pulled pork sandwiches with the most delicious coleslaw ever. Sidenote: despite not being technically American, coleslaw is my favorite American food of all time, hands down. Corky's was also excellent, especially those delicious little bread rolls. Finally, we went to Tops BBQ, which was my least favorite by far because the barbecue sauce was sour and a little too funky for my tastes.

We drove downtown the next day to visit the National Civil Rights Museum, which has been built inside the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The museum was SO absolutely detailed and outlined pretty much every single event and person who participated in the centuries-long fight for civil rights, from Nat Turner and Harriet Tubman to Malcom X and MLK Jr. The balcony that MLK Jr. was standing on when he was assassinated is still intact, and they have built a scintillating exhibit across the street in the boarding house where James Earl Ray purportedly shot from. This exhibit included all sorts of conspiracy theories regarding the assassination, and there's nothing I like better than a conspiracy theory.

The Zoo was also pleasant, especially the polar bear and sea lion shows that we attended. The biggest, FATTEST male sea lion in the show was named Andre and weighed in at over 600 lbs. A coincidence, no?

Andre the fatty.

The Memphis Zoo also had two Giant Pandas on exhibit, who were cute but not very giant at all (and to be honest, they did not look very well cared for).

For New Years Andrei and I went to his friend Phoebe's house for a lovely dinner party with other friends and Phoebe's parents. We drank ourselves silly and had yummy cheeses and grapes--an overall superbly classy New Years.

Finally, here are some pictures of me with the Anghelescus:

(Check out the bowtie.)

Also,

The Dialogue
Bassie: You guys are going out?! I want to come too!
Andrei: Olé!

:)

here goes

Soooo my intention is for this blog to become some impressive account of my adventures in Australia (fondly known to Aussies as "Oz"). But in greater likelihood this will only scrape up to be a dilapidated shack in which I'll house my Oz-related thoughts--posts that'll get updated by whim and certainly not by any devotion.

But don't let that put you off, reader!!

But seriously, after reading other people's travelblogs from previous semesters I get the feeling that I will have none of their flair for travel writing. For one thing, I'm not much of a showsperson and I don't usually write to entertain. And for another thing, I lack the wanton narcissism it takes to document one's life for all to read :)

Oh well, here's my best attempt at shameless tell-all tales for your entertainment and my posterity, dear reader. And also for Thao, who will just have to live life vicariously until she lands in Paris and tastes sin for herself.

Enjoy!

slumdog millionaire

Not many movies inspire me to write, but I felt totally sucked into the narrative of Slumdog Millionaire and I can't get it out of my head. It might be that I just watched The Namesake again with my family on Christmas, but I feel such a particular kinship with Indian narratives as someone who has lived in China and then emigrated. Truly, when I see the ghettos of Mumbai in Slumdog or the uniquely immigrant struggles of the Gangulis in The Namesake, I feel like someone is knocking on the very door of my consciousness.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Slumdog Millionaire is a story about a young man named Jamal who wins twenty million rupees, or the equivalent of one million US dollars, on India's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" show. He is accused of cheating on the show, but the movie unravels how he was able to answer the questions not by book smarts but by experiences he had in the ghettos.
A much better and more coherent teaser for the movie is here.

I loved that the narrative began from the present (as Jamal is being tortured and accused of cheating on the show) and then proceeds in flashbacks. The editing for the movie is incredibly well-done, and Mumbai just JUMPS off the screen with the vividness of all five senses. (One reviewer I read said that he could smell Mumbai from watching, and that's true for better or worse.)
I also especially loved how Jamal and his brother made a living as kids by ripping off American tourists--so, so, SO in tune with the tense relationship between "third world" citizens and the Western tourists who treat entire cultures as quaint vacations. And at first I thought that the emphasis on the love story would turn me off, but it actually made the movie much more charming--I was floored by Jamal's utter devotion for Latika even though time and different life experiences repeatedly tore them from each other's company.
Epic, and v. romantic.

Plus, Slumdog featured a remix of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," so 'nuff said.