I have been exceptionally lax for ages, mainly because I didn't like the US and was depressed. But now I am feeling much much better; I've left the US and am now in Australia. I very, very rarely felt like the US was somewhere I would like to live, California was too clean, too fake everything looked a little but like a Hollywood movie. It was all too bland for my liking. By contrast Melbourne feels real; it has graffiti, green parks, good public transport and great free museums. I love it. It also has Oz, who naturally enamours me to any place.
A few weeks before I was due to come to Australia Oz and I broke up because he was a bastard, anyway my mum tried to convince me to go back to the UK, but I am very glad I decided to ignore her and come regardless. Oz was very apologetic and we got back together. I am currently staying with Oz and his parents, but I move to my own place tomorrow. I'm enjoying living with Oz, but I'm looking forward to having my own room for the first time in nine months and I'll be living pretty central Melbourne.
Anyway, nowt that exciting has happened so far, but I'm having a great time. I'll try and fill you in when I have a real adventure.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
A Pilgrims Progress
Sorry that I haven't blogged for months, I was depressed due to a variety of reasons but am feeling much better now because I have moved! I've moved in with a friend of mine and share a one bedroom apartment with her and I love it. Also, I've jut baked some brownies (always helps!).
Anyway, last weekend I went on a trip with my Material Catholicism class (I love that class so much!) to Our Lady of the Rocks, a pilgrimage that take place on the 13th of every month and draws hundreds of pilgrims from all over California. The visionary goes on a 20 minute walk accompanied by some attends and statue of Jesus and Mary and somewhere along the walk she sees Mary who tells her what to preach on (usually the wrongness of abortions), whilst she is having a chat to Our Lady the pilgrims drop to their knees and pray and/or take photos of the sun (it is supposed to be a gateway to heaven where the faithful can catch glimpses of Jesus, Mary, etc). I had to write a report on it for the class and here it is. Enjoy and if you want to feel free to leave me a grade in the comments (I may well come to regret suggesting that):
Our Lady of the Rocks was originally located in Lopez Canyon, Pacoima, California, but it quickly became far too popular and the owners complained. It’s easy to see why, there were hundreds of pilgrims and the facilities at the new Mojave location could barely cope with them all. So Mary told the seer of the visions, Maria Acuna, to move it to the Mojave desert in the middle of no where so they cannot disturb anyone.
Well they certainly found a location in the middle of nowhere, we arrived the night before in the dark and it was very difficult to find. There were probably only 10 other people when we arrived, but everyone was very welcoming and they invited us to come and it by shrine with them and do rosaries. Initially one woman, Irma, led the Rosaries in the dark around a single shrine with a candle on it. Knowing relatively little about Catholicism I was ignorant as to how long it would take and was amazed at how long these people at around quietly praying. Halfway through a few car loads of families turned up and children descended disrupting, but not ending the rosary session. We left to have dinner soon afterwards but returned a few hours later when there were four people saying the rosary, this time with their focus on a candle on the floor, it seemed much more spiritual a time with one woman openly weeping and people clearly in pain praying away, these people had a purpose to their pilgrimage. During the whole pilgrimage I was amazed at how much people would endure on this pilgrimage, people in obvious pain, pregnant, and with small children. They really had faith.
Faith was something I lacked and Irma was quick to pick up on this and tell myself and my companions that it was vital; we would see nothing with curiosity. The trouble with faith is that something has to inspire it in the first place, but I saw nothing to negate my scepticism. I heard many tales of people seeing (and even touching) the Virgin and Jesus, either directly or through photographs of the sun, I was even shown photos that people claimed showed the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Ghost, but in my mind they were easy to explain by camera faults. The one testimony I heard that really held true was by the son-in-law of Mary Acuna, who himself did not believe in the apparitions but had seen someone be healed and actually remove their neck brace, the doctor of the person healed was so amazed that he called Acuna to find out what she had done. Faith is very important, but curiosity can uncover some proof, unfortunately faith is required for belief, and so I go on as an unbeliever.
Throughout the night people arrived, with a big coach load of pilgrims from Oakland arriving just before dawn. The first thing the pilgrims who arrived a few hours prior to the main event did was set up the folding chairs they had brought, reserving themselves a good view, some even brought gazebos (a few of which were actually roped off) and reserved their entire family a big spot. However later on when the service began the chairs and gazebos seemed to be irrelevant, people mostly stood up and pushed forward for a view, but that was hard to come by with countless numbers of umbrellas up not even the tall were guaranteed a view.
Whilst the service was conducted entirely in Spanish there were a fair few white non-Spanish speakers, but they tended to arrive a lot later than the Hispanics, and came in smaller groups. Despite turning up later than everyone else they were quite pushy and would happily push others out of the way in order to get a good view. However, I found that a lot of the pilgrims were quite selfish, they were there for their own reasons and didn’t want anything to get in the way of that, so they would push or not help when they easily could. For example when I was in a long queue for the one toilet and an elderly lady with a zimmer frame and a carer, who was clearly in pain, was making her slow way to the end of the queue, but no one stepped forward and allowed her to push in. I was fairly near the back and told her she could take my place but should try to push in at the front, she followed my advice, but the people at the front would not let her in and so she still had to wait five minutes. It might not sound like much, but it showed how selfish a lot of the pilgrims could be, and how unchristian they were, or perhaps they just really needed the toilet.
The more people arrived the worse the toilet queue became, and I quickly discovered that it is a great way of hearing people’ testimony, standing around for upwards of half-an-hour is enough to make anyone talk! I got chatting to Maria, a middle aged Catholic woman on her second pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Rocks. The first time she came her whole family group as well as herself saw Jesus’ face whilst on their way home. She was hopeful of another sighting that day, but I was unable to find her later and discover whether she had or not. I also met someone who had been coming for well over ten year but had never seen anything, yet still had faith.
I was impressed by the sheer faith of the pilgrims, some of whom come month after month, to travel long distances to a pilgrimage that is not approved by the Church. They have probably never met Acuna, yet they still believe her claims to having visions of the Virgin. It is impossible for a non-believer, such as myself, to give a true account of the event, I could only ever be a bystander. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. In the early stages there was a great sense of community and true spirituality about the place, and I suppose that when the pilgrimage happens on a weekday it is likely to be what I experienced the night before, it will draw only the truly dedicated and be a more intimate experience. Despite the lack of intimacy or community during the actual pilgrimage the pilgrims took away a lot with them, even if it was just hope or reinforced faith.
Anyway, last weekend I went on a trip with my Material Catholicism class (I love that class so much!) to Our Lady of the Rocks, a pilgrimage that take place on the 13th of every month and draws hundreds of pilgrims from all over California. The visionary goes on a 20 minute walk accompanied by some attends and statue of Jesus and Mary and somewhere along the walk she sees Mary who tells her what to preach on (usually the wrongness of abortions), whilst she is having a chat to Our Lady the pilgrims drop to their knees and pray and/or take photos of the sun (it is supposed to be a gateway to heaven where the faithful can catch glimpses of Jesus, Mary, etc). I had to write a report on it for the class and here it is. Enjoy and if you want to feel free to leave me a grade in the comments (I may well come to regret suggesting that):
Our Lady of the Rocks was originally located in Lopez Canyon, Pacoima, California, but it quickly became far too popular and the owners complained. It’s easy to see why, there were hundreds of pilgrims and the facilities at the new Mojave location could barely cope with them all. So Mary told the seer of the visions, Maria Acuna, to move it to the Mojave desert in the middle of no where so they cannot disturb anyone.
Well they certainly found a location in the middle of nowhere, we arrived the night before in the dark and it was very difficult to find. There were probably only 10 other people when we arrived, but everyone was very welcoming and they invited us to come and it by shrine with them and do rosaries. Initially one woman, Irma, led the Rosaries in the dark around a single shrine with a candle on it. Knowing relatively little about Catholicism I was ignorant as to how long it would take and was amazed at how long these people at around quietly praying. Halfway through a few car loads of families turned up and children descended disrupting, but not ending the rosary session. We left to have dinner soon afterwards but returned a few hours later when there were four people saying the rosary, this time with their focus on a candle on the floor, it seemed much more spiritual a time with one woman openly weeping and people clearly in pain praying away, these people had a purpose to their pilgrimage. During the whole pilgrimage I was amazed at how much people would endure on this pilgrimage, people in obvious pain, pregnant, and with small children. They really had faith.
Faith was something I lacked and Irma was quick to pick up on this and tell myself and my companions that it was vital; we would see nothing with curiosity. The trouble with faith is that something has to inspire it in the first place, but I saw nothing to negate my scepticism. I heard many tales of people seeing (and even touching) the Virgin and Jesus, either directly or through photographs of the sun, I was even shown photos that people claimed showed the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Ghost, but in my mind they were easy to explain by camera faults. The one testimony I heard that really held true was by the son-in-law of Mary Acuna, who himself did not believe in the apparitions but had seen someone be healed and actually remove their neck brace, the doctor of the person healed was so amazed that he called Acuna to find out what she had done. Faith is very important, but curiosity can uncover some proof, unfortunately faith is required for belief, and so I go on as an unbeliever.
Throughout the night people arrived, with a big coach load of pilgrims from Oakland arriving just before dawn. The first thing the pilgrims who arrived a few hours prior to the main event did was set up the folding chairs they had brought, reserving themselves a good view, some even brought gazebos (a few of which were actually roped off) and reserved their entire family a big spot. However later on when the service began the chairs and gazebos seemed to be irrelevant, people mostly stood up and pushed forward for a view, but that was hard to come by with countless numbers of umbrellas up not even the tall were guaranteed a view.
Whilst the service was conducted entirely in Spanish there were a fair few white non-Spanish speakers, but they tended to arrive a lot later than the Hispanics, and came in smaller groups. Despite turning up later than everyone else they were quite pushy and would happily push others out of the way in order to get a good view. However, I found that a lot of the pilgrims were quite selfish, they were there for their own reasons and didn’t want anything to get in the way of that, so they would push or not help when they easily could. For example when I was in a long queue for the one toilet and an elderly lady with a zimmer frame and a carer, who was clearly in pain, was making her slow way to the end of the queue, but no one stepped forward and allowed her to push in. I was fairly near the back and told her she could take my place but should try to push in at the front, she followed my advice, but the people at the front would not let her in and so she still had to wait five minutes. It might not sound like much, but it showed how selfish a lot of the pilgrims could be, and how unchristian they were, or perhaps they just really needed the toilet.
The more people arrived the worse the toilet queue became, and I quickly discovered that it is a great way of hearing people’ testimony, standing around for upwards of half-an-hour is enough to make anyone talk! I got chatting to Maria, a middle aged Catholic woman on her second pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Rocks. The first time she came her whole family group as well as herself saw Jesus’ face whilst on their way home. She was hopeful of another sighting that day, but I was unable to find her later and discover whether she had or not. I also met someone who had been coming for well over ten year but had never seen anything, yet still had faith.
I was impressed by the sheer faith of the pilgrims, some of whom come month after month, to travel long distances to a pilgrimage that is not approved by the Church. They have probably never met Acuna, yet they still believe her claims to having visions of the Virgin. It is impossible for a non-believer, such as myself, to give a true account of the event, I could only ever be a bystander. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. In the early stages there was a great sense of community and true spirituality about the place, and I suppose that when the pilgrimage happens on a weekday it is likely to be what I experienced the night before, it will draw only the truly dedicated and be a more intimate experience. Despite the lack of intimacy or community during the actual pilgrimage the pilgrims took away a lot with them, even if it was just hope or reinforced faith.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Homesickness
As you could probably tell from my last blog I'm feeling homesick, I'm fed up of being in IV and need a real kick up the arse, I'm being very lethargic at the moment and can't be bothered to do anything about it. Most of my friends have left and I live a long way away from those who are still here, I hardly ever run in to them and am often to lazy to organise things. So I end up by myself not doing anything but watching TV. One of my friends room mate is leaving and I really hope I can move in with her, it would be so much better than living here.
I've been watching several British films recently and as a result I am missing the greenery of England. I long to walk across a green field and get lost in a green forest. But the public footpaths are all well cared for, not the historic and badly signposted, barely used footpaths I am used to. Also all the walks are so far out of town that they require a car to get to. I would love nothing more than to get lost in the countryside, but it is impossible to do. I wouldn't even mind that the weather is appalling by southern Californian standards (its spitting with rain), in fact I almost like it that way. I need a mini-adventure. Perhaps I should just go for a magical mystery tour anyway.
Last Saturday I went rockpooling and had a great time, just like I use to as a child on family holidays to France, I went for a walk along the beach at low tide and discovered a wonderful world I had never seen on the local beach before. I even found loads of wild mussel beds with the biggest mussels I've ever seen. I can't wait to harvest some and cook a great meal.
Hopefully I'll somehow manage to have an adventure soon and so will have something to tell you all about!
I've been watching several British films recently and as a result I am missing the greenery of England. I long to walk across a green field and get lost in a green forest. But the public footpaths are all well cared for, not the historic and badly signposted, barely used footpaths I am used to. Also all the walks are so far out of town that they require a car to get to. I would love nothing more than to get lost in the countryside, but it is impossible to do. I wouldn't even mind that the weather is appalling by southern Californian standards (its spitting with rain), in fact I almost like it that way. I need a mini-adventure. Perhaps I should just go for a magical mystery tour anyway.
Last Saturday I went rockpooling and had a great time, just like I use to as a child on family holidays to France, I went for a walk along the beach at low tide and discovered a wonderful world I had never seen on the local beach before. I even found loads of wild mussel beds with the biggest mussels I've ever seen. I can't wait to harvest some and cook a great meal.
Hopefully I'll somehow manage to have an adventure soon and so will have something to tell you all about!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Sexual and Political Responsibility
Sorry, but I've been very quiet again, partially because I haven't been doing anything exciting lately, partly because I'm feeling fairly anti-American and I don't want to come across racist.
Don't get me wrong, I've met some really nice Americans, but generally I've found them to be very hard to get to know properly and some even plain rude for no reason. In fact some of my new room mates are very rude - when I've cleaned up after them (even when it wasn't my turn on the rota) they have seen me do it and yet not even thought to thank me, yet they are quick enough to ask me to tidy up, etc. At times I feel like their mother.
Anyway I'm not here to slag off my room mates but comment on something I noticed when I decided to take advantage of the free HIV testing that was offered on campus today (for the record I don't have HIV, not that I thought it was at all likely, but better safe than sorry!). As I sat down to await my test results (which only took 20 mins) I looked around and was surprised to see that there were around 20 girls there, and yet only 4 men. Are men less sexually responsible? I tend to think that is the case, although having said that a friend of mine last year had one of the free Chlamydia tests offered on campus and proudly announced that he didn't have "knob rot!" when he found out his results. Generally it strikes me that men take less responsibility, leaving women the job of sorting out contraception, mainly because the failure will leave us in a much worse position than the men.
If I was writing an article for a newspaper I would come up with lots of statistics to support my thesis based on rather meager evidence, but I'm writing a blog dammit, so I can be as biased as I want!
On an entirely different note student politics here has really impressed me, the recent primaries (bloody stupid reason to have an election, get the party to choose the Presidential candidate, don't drag it on, especially when at the end of the day it makes little difference) led to lots of campaigning, varying from political protests to signs places everywhere around Isla Vista imploring people to vote for a particular candidate. Today there was even a big anti-war protest, which last year drew 1500 people and succeeded in shutting down the highway the leads straight to campus (yes thats right, highway 217 leads straight to campus!), quite what this did to stop teh war in Iraq I have no idea, but their hearts were in the right place. Unfortunately I had a class I really had to go to, so I couldn't make it, but I have seen the photos that show a large police presence and I've discovered that there were 3 arrests. Almost harks back to the 60s and 70s, which as my lecturers keep telling me, was the place to be.
Anyway, I've got to get back to actually doing some work (occasionally I'm forced to!), so I better go - but I'll leave you with these thoughts - be politically and sexually responsible! (God, I sound so dull, really must get out more.)
Don't get me wrong, I've met some really nice Americans, but generally I've found them to be very hard to get to know properly and some even plain rude for no reason. In fact some of my new room mates are very rude - when I've cleaned up after them (even when it wasn't my turn on the rota) they have seen me do it and yet not even thought to thank me, yet they are quick enough to ask me to tidy up, etc. At times I feel like their mother.
Anyway I'm not here to slag off my room mates but comment on something I noticed when I decided to take advantage of the free HIV testing that was offered on campus today (for the record I don't have HIV, not that I thought it was at all likely, but better safe than sorry!). As I sat down to await my test results (which only took 20 mins) I looked around and was surprised to see that there were around 20 girls there, and yet only 4 men. Are men less sexually responsible? I tend to think that is the case, although having said that a friend of mine last year had one of the free Chlamydia tests offered on campus and proudly announced that he didn't have "knob rot!" when he found out his results. Generally it strikes me that men take less responsibility, leaving women the job of sorting out contraception, mainly because the failure will leave us in a much worse position than the men.
If I was writing an article for a newspaper I would come up with lots of statistics to support my thesis based on rather meager evidence, but I'm writing a blog dammit, so I can be as biased as I want!
On an entirely different note student politics here has really impressed me, the recent primaries (bloody stupid reason to have an election, get the party to choose the Presidential candidate, don't drag it on, especially when at the end of the day it makes little difference) led to lots of campaigning, varying from political protests to signs places everywhere around Isla Vista imploring people to vote for a particular candidate. Today there was even a big anti-war protest, which last year drew 1500 people and succeeded in shutting down the highway the leads straight to campus (yes thats right, highway 217 leads straight to campus!), quite what this did to stop teh war in Iraq I have no idea, but their hearts were in the right place. Unfortunately I had a class I really had to go to, so I couldn't make it, but I have seen the photos that show a large police presence and I've discovered that there were 3 arrests. Almost harks back to the 60s and 70s, which as my lecturers keep telling me, was the place to be.
Anyway, I've got to get back to actually doing some work (occasionally I'm forced to!), so I better go - but I'll leave you with these thoughts - be politically and sexually responsible! (God, I sound so dull, really must get out more.)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Life without Oz
I'm a bad blogger, bad, bad blogger. I have no excuses as to why I have not blogged for so long. I shall try and make up for it now. Rather than boring you by just how much I enjoyed travelling and living with Oz before he headed back home to Australia (it was wonderful), I'll give you some more recent news.
I have moved into my new place and after an initial concern about my new room mate I'm now feeling a lot happier, although she has some strange habits, ones that I had never come across before, but are apparently quite common in the US. She is apparently unable to go to sleep (at least when sober) without the TV on, although she now out of courtesy to me she watches something on her laptop as she nods off. As I write this she is gently snoring next to me, having fallen asleep whilst watching American Dad (can't say I blame her!). The TV in our room is constantly on, my room mate seems to spend her days either sleeping (which she is very adept at!) or watching TV, at night she is the typical IV party girl, regularly getting in at 5am!
I am however not in the mood for partying, lots of my friends were only here for a term and so have now left, and of course Oz has to, so I'm a little bit depressed. The first few days after Oz left I walked around in daze, but have been doing a lot better since, although I'm still not quite my usual self.
Yesterday I went on an excursion club hike up to the highest peak in the Santa Barbara mountains, something that Oz and I both wanted to, but were unable due to the lack of a car. I had a great time, the hike wasn't too long (10 miles max), but it was very steep in places and a lot of it was on rocks, which really hurts the feet. It was well worth it however, the view from the top was spectacular. In the one direction there was Santa Barbara and the Pacific, in the other there was the Santa Ynez mountains that were snow covered in the distance. Added to that there was a wonderful rainbow framing the mountains. Despite all this beauty and making new friends I just wanted to either have Oz with me or be alone.
Yesterday Oz cycled 130kms to a dinosaur dig with a big trailer on main roads and I haven't heard from since, I'm assuming he's alive, but I would really prefer to know for certain. This is just making me miss him more, I've spent the whole of the day unable to concentrate on things, why can't he damn well send me a text? But I'm not going to call him because I don't won't to get in the way of his fun and become a demanding girlfriend. Bloody difficult work being in a long distance relationship. Sorry, but needed to get that out, I'll try and avoid that in the future.
On a rather more British subject the weather has been appalling lately, its been raining for days, and not just showering either, its been full blown torrents. And Santa Barbara isn't exactly set up for rain, the drains are few and far between, resulting in floods or streams. At one point it was actually impossible to get into the library without walking through a flood. I must say it makes me feel more at home, I'm unused to the usual amount of sunlight IV receives. And I get to wear my really cool mac!
I have moved into my new place and after an initial concern about my new room mate I'm now feeling a lot happier, although she has some strange habits, ones that I had never come across before, but are apparently quite common in the US. She is apparently unable to go to sleep (at least when sober) without the TV on, although she now out of courtesy to me she watches something on her laptop as she nods off. As I write this she is gently snoring next to me, having fallen asleep whilst watching American Dad (can't say I blame her!). The TV in our room is constantly on, my room mate seems to spend her days either sleeping (which she is very adept at!) or watching TV, at night she is the typical IV party girl, regularly getting in at 5am!
I am however not in the mood for partying, lots of my friends were only here for a term and so have now left, and of course Oz has to, so I'm a little bit depressed. The first few days after Oz left I walked around in daze, but have been doing a lot better since, although I'm still not quite my usual self.
Yesterday I went on an excursion club hike up to the highest peak in the Santa Barbara mountains, something that Oz and I both wanted to, but were unable due to the lack of a car. I had a great time, the hike wasn't too long (10 miles max), but it was very steep in places and a lot of it was on rocks, which really hurts the feet. It was well worth it however, the view from the top was spectacular. In the one direction there was Santa Barbara and the Pacific, in the other there was the Santa Ynez mountains that were snow covered in the distance. Added to that there was a wonderful rainbow framing the mountains. Despite all this beauty and making new friends I just wanted to either have Oz with me or be alone.
Yesterday Oz cycled 130kms to a dinosaur dig with a big trailer on main roads and I haven't heard from since, I'm assuming he's alive, but I would really prefer to know for certain. This is just making me miss him more, I've spent the whole of the day unable to concentrate on things, why can't he damn well send me a text? But I'm not going to call him because I don't won't to get in the way of his fun and become a demanding girlfriend. Bloody difficult work being in a long distance relationship. Sorry, but needed to get that out, I'll try and avoid that in the future.
On a rather more British subject the weather has been appalling lately, its been raining for days, and not just showering either, its been full blown torrents. And Santa Barbara isn't exactly set up for rain, the drains are few and far between, resulting in floods or streams. At one point it was actually impossible to get into the library without walking through a flood. I must say it makes me feel more at home, I'm unused to the usual amount of sunlight IV receives. And I get to wear my really cool mac!
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