Identity Crisis

This past Friday we had the opportunity to go to Canberra which is the capital city of Sydney. The dilemma…I had to get up at five in the morning. Now I haven’t slept well lately so sleep is very precious to me. Always has been, always will be. And I know for some of you this is a very easy thing to do. You have my up most respect. So I wake up at 5 and start getting ready and Trevor who has been up for an hour now comes into my room and begins talking to me. Dilemma two…I’m not a morning person…I’m not a five in the morning person. All I wanted to do was get through the morning, talking as little as possible. Trevor was up an hour before anyone else so he was already good to go. Needless to say he dominated the conversation and every question asked to me was answered with either yes or no…even if the question was not a yes or no question. I was beat. Anywho fast forward to Canberra. We get there and the first place we visit is the New South Wales Art Gallery. We have an hour here to walk around and see what we can see…and that wasn’t much. This place was huge and to see all that it had to offer you needed at least three hours just to give a glimpse to all the photographs, paintings, and movies here. Next was the Indonesian Consolate. There we have the chance to talk to two ambassadors for the Indonesian government. They had thick Indonesian accents and it was kinda tough to understand what they were saying but it was nice of them to come and talk to us. The next stop was the New Zealand Consolate and he was awesome. Funny guy and made foreign affairs between New Zealand and Australia very easy to understand as well as enjoyable. We stopped at the aboriginal consulate which didn’t have a building. The only thing they had was tents in front of the Australian Government Building. The land in front of the building was given back to the Aboriginal people, but that is a nugget compared to the land that they have lost. The people staying on the small piece of land in front of the building are there everyday pleading for the government to do something about the land the Aboriginals do not have. (blog on the similarities of Native Americans and Aboriginals to come.) The final stop was the hostel we were staying at for the night. At this point everyone is exhausted and wanting to eat and go to bed. But the day doesn’t stop there. Arranged for us is a class debrief of everything we saw as well as what we think about two songs, Waiting on the World to change and American Idiot. The night ended around 11.30 and sleep didn’t come easy even though I was exhausted. Underneath the hostel was a bar with an outside lounge. People were loud and the smell of alcohol and cigarettes filled the room. With the missed opportunity of sleep the not so happy feelings of the day past stayed with me. The whole day I was feeling not so me like. I was a bit of a loner and just wanted to be off by myself. We visited the New South Wales Portrait Museum, not to be confused with the first place we visited; as well as the Australia History Museum and the War Memorial in closing. All of these places could have been more fun but it seemed like we were herded from one place to the next. “It is nice to have a schedule of things to do but let us enjoy it our way.” Being by myself most of the day gave me time to think about home and family and friends and missing people…it all came on like a landslide and I couldn’t really stop it. I’m glad it happened though. I was kinda wondering if it ever would…it reminded me of a first week of school. I look back and see how long it took for me to be comfortable back at Malone. It took a while for me to find my comfort. I had been there for three years and I knew how things went down. Now I’m in a new place with a group of new people. I’m now seeing how well I can adapt to new surroundings. This past weekend I remembered that it won’t be the same as everywhere else. I haven’t been here for three years so I’m not automatically going to be friends with everyone, I’m not going to trust everyone here right off of the bat. At times I may feel lonely, but I also need to remember that I’m not the only one that feels that way, so am I really alone? Crisis avoided.