New Zealand Decembers

This is how I spent the last few days. How's the weather in the states these days? Bahahahaha!


Kisses!
-Katie

(For the people who want the deets, the picture is of me, Pheonix, and Pheonix's Dad [Rob] jumping off a dock into Akaroa harbor.)

By Popular Demand...

At the request of both family and friends, and much to the chagrin of Katie, this blog is being temporarily co-opted by...me (Pheonix).

We did some pretty rad things during our stint in Australia. I'll jump right to Melbourne, because it was our favorite. It reminded us a lot of Seattle, maybe because we spent most of our time in cafe's drinking coffee, but we had some good nature experiences as well, as you'll see.

We started off our trip there by riding into the train station with no idea where we were or how to find the folks we were staying with. After a few ventures out to find an internet connection, and convincing Katie that she didn't have to embrace each and every bag to avoid theft, we found our hosts in the grocery store buying some beer. Leo and Greg are awesome guys with great senses of humor, and they made sure we enjoyed ourselves in their city.

Melbourne has tons of colorful graffiti and stencil art. Here is a pretty typical alley way:

And a few of my favorites up close:

Keep your eye out for a little graffiti zine we will be working on.

We also went to the immigration museum, which was fantastic. Melbourne is like the Ellis Island of Australia, and they had tons of history in this museum. Other touristy things we did included: having lunch in some park and walking through the Queen Victoria Market, a huge open air combination of flea market junk, organic produce, and live little chickens and ducks. I bought a tea towel with a map of Australia on it, and Katie tried to find a cool Australia jacket that would fit her brother, but they were all too small.

Oh, and we went to the beach. Seeing as how there is no ozone layer down here, going to the beach consisted of: rolling our pants up a little, lathering up in sun tan lotion, getting out our books and water bottles, and sitting on the sand for about 5 seconds before it got too hot and it was time to move on. We did, however, have a lovely walk along the water and found a few adorable dogs to play with. There were 2 little yappy gay boy dogs who just wrestled and rolled around in the sand, and a tough little girl dog who ditched her owner when we walked up and decided we were the only ones who could throw her tennis ball for her.

That was the beginning of the nature experience, where all the ferral little creatures of Australia came out to say hi to us. We saw wild penguins nesting in rocks, they used to be called Fairy Penguins, but out of respect for fags everywhere, some of whom apparently didn't want penguins named after them, their name was changed to...Little Pengins. No pictures, though, because it blinds the little things. We did see some fluffy little chicks, along with some swimming water rats.

We also saw kangaroos:

Unfortunately they don't stand still for pictures. But, they do just hop wild in the streets of suburbs.

We also saw a deadly spider:

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), our hosts sprayed it with Raid. This picture is post-Raid.

We saw a bat just chillin in a tree in the park:

The best, however, were the 'possums, which we quickly made best friends with, thanks to a loaf of stale bread:

(That is a lollypop in my hand, which I pulled out of the mouth of a baby 'possom. Stealing candy from babies, I'm so bad.)

And that pretty much wraps it up. We are now in New Zealand to reconnoiter with my folks, I'm sure Katie will be glad to have control of her blog back to give her faithful readers the next update.

xo,
Pheonix

Cool Kids

Pheonix and I are having a ball in Australia, mainly because we are meeting really cool people. We spent three nights with Ed and Kat:

They are superfun. Ed rides a Penny-Farthing (RAD!):

and plays in a couple bands. Here he is in The Fuelers playing the upright bass:

Kat just generally kicks ass and got an adorable puppy, Eva, a week ago:

We had a great time sharing food, drinks, and stories with Ed and Kat in Canberra. We were sad to go, but hopefully we'll see them in Seattle some time soon-ish.
We are now staying with Leo and Greg who are the wonderfullest people in all of Melbourne.
-Katie

PS: We saw kangaroos (duh) in Canberra and penguins in Melbourne.
"What?!" say you. Yeah... I don't really know why penguins are on the beaches in Southern Australia - no ice, no ozone, it's summer. But, there they were and the pictures didn't turn out! Dammit! They were super cute, too. Grr.

Wollongong (rated PG13)

I left India and I am heartbroken about it so it’s not to be discussed until I have a ticket in my hand to go back.

The upside is I’m in Australia, hooray! And, I’m with Pheonix, hooray! We’ve been in and out of Sydney, which feels strangely similar to Seattle so it was somewhat familiar. Now, we’re in the town of Wollongong where the residents have weird senses of humor.
A Public Service Announcement about the problem with drunken walking:

Business establishments that refer to sexual acts without apology (!):


And the current events are rather gruesome:

This place is, needless to say, bizarre. Let’s hope weirdly fascinating things happen to us here...
-Katie
(I turn 26 tomorrow, which I’m sure you all remember, but it is kind of sad to have a birthday on the road... miss you guys.)

Sanjay

This:

is Sanjay.
Sanjay drives a rikshaw and this is how we met: Yesterday afternoon I was looking for someone to take me sightseeing around Pune (pronounced "Poona"). Sanjay stood out from the crowd of eager drivers - I think it's his friendly face and demeanor. Once we agreed that he would be my driver, we almost immediately developed a fun and lively relationship. One that wasn't so much based on verbal communication, but rather subtle more profound methods including various arm and hand gestures... Anyway, off we went! Sanjay's tireless rik tore around Pune with enthusiasm and speed that can only be fueled by loud, noxious diesel gas.

First, he took me to:
The Aga Khan Palace (Gandhi was held in detention here for 2 years, his wife passed away here, as well):

Then, to The Saras Baug Park:

Rushing past the Lal Mahal (another palace where a famous Indian historical figure was held in detention for a while):

Nearby was Shaniwarwada (which is an old kick ass mansion, but really a fortress):

Lastly, we went to The Pataleshwar Caves:

After that, we called it a day, but not before we promised to meet up early tomorrow (this) morning to go to The Osho Commune:

And to check out the Laxmi Market:

Sanjay and I just bid our final farewell where he overcharged me for a second day in a row. Sanjay, thanks for the goodtimes!

-Katie

Transportation in India

I'm in India!
A couple first impressions: it's not as hot as I expected, it is relatively easy to navigate around, and the transportation here rules.
For starters, they drive on the right.

Weird:

Next, there are rickshaws that drive around willy-nilly. They are like covered tricycles. They are driven with motorcycle handbars inside.

In other words, they are rad:

My final observation about the transportation issues in India I've discovered thus far is that people like to honk. A lot. It's like they are communicating all sorts of little things to each other, things that I don't normally see people honking about in the US. For instance, if you are turning right, HONK. Or, if someone else is merging, HONK. Or, if things are just too slow, dammit! HONK! Or, you're bored, just honk. I think it is hilarious.

It can all be summed up with this bumper sticker that I saw:

I love India.
-Katie

More Generosity

I am staying at Uri's place in Tel Aviv and I've been here since Friday, he is so willing to share his space. I hope someday I can return the favor...
I have explored various markets and cafes since my return to the tel. I haven't done anything terribly interesting - except there was a protest/march we went to the other night. It was basically the Israeli equivalent of Take Back the Night: "NO means NO means NO..." or in Hebrew: "LO ez LO ez LO..."
Uri was arrested for civil disobedience, but he's out and fine now.

Yesterday I visited family outside Jerusalem. I hung out with my cousin and his wife and I met their four adorable kids - it was so much fun to spend even a little bit of time with them. David, my cousin, lives close to my grandmother's roommate from college and she gave him a picture of her from college days:


David and Devorah, his wife, treated me to a wonderful dinner and dessert plus a comfortable bed to spend the night.
-Katie

Israeli Graffiti Art

Happy Thanksgiving!

We North Americans celebrated Thanksgiving with smoothies and french fries. It was a fun way to spend my last night in the lap of luxury in Haifa. Sheer leaves for Switzerland today (have fun!) and Adam and I head south to Tel Aviv.
More to come soon...
-Katie

An Ending and a Beginning

Yesterday was my last day on Lotan and it was mostly spent packing and running around doing last minute things. The previous day (Sunday) was when I really said goodbye. It was a lovely day - chi gong in the morning, a final lesson with Mike, a closing circle, and then the certificate ceremony with dinner

I had an absolutely wonderful time on Lotan. I strongly recommend the Green Apprenticeship for anyone who is interested in living sustainably and has a few months to spare. I learned amazing skills and I am impatient to put them into practice upon my return to Seattle. I am thankful to the members of Kibbutz Lotan and the staff of the Center for Creative Ecology for their time and energy. The GA is a wonderful program because of them.

Farewell images:
Sunrise over the Jordanian Mountains, just East of Lotan:


I planted these sunflowers as seeds!


Award Ceremony (I am a certified permaculture and ecovillage designer. bahahahaha!):


Goodbye GA. It was a blast!


As I struggle with the transition out of Lotan, I am fortunate that Sheer is incredibly generous and offered to put me up for three nights in her family's apartment in Haifa. I don't know if I would have survived if it hadn't been for the condo on the 18th floor of an apartment building on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. It's been a difficult transition but at least I have a king size bed and balcony to make it a little bit easier. (Thanks to Sheer and her family for their generosity. This apartment is, without a doubt, going to be the nicest place I'll sleep for the next six months.)

Goodbye Lotan...
Hello Haifa!
-Katie

More Lotan Adventures

My time is winding down on Lotan, but I still have another week so I’ll do the whole “it’s been great and I’m going to miss it” thing then. I had a good week and one of the highlights was going to Timna which is like a national park. It has these ancient copper mines and beautiful landscapes. It was an all day hike and we had a ball.

Check it out:

We also saw Solomon’s Pillars:

At the end of the week we went to Neot Smedar which is another kibbutz that some people think is a cult, but I think it’s all a big misunderstanding. The members built this crazy craft center and it’s kind of... ugly, but still impressive, no?


Then, I had my second to last shabbat dinner on Lotan and enjoyed the quiet weekend.
-Katie

Weekend Travels

Dude. I was in Egypt over the weekend. What the hell, right? Here's the deal. A bunch of us have been talking about going to Sinai (Egypt) for a while. We decided a few weeks ago that we were going to go this past weekend. Then, the equivalent of the Israeli Homeland Security Department released this scary thing saying that people shouldn't go to Sinai because someone's going to kidnap people and hold them hostage. So, I wasn't going to go and I was totally bummed because it was going to rock. But then, I went. It doesn't really make sense, but it did rock and I didn't get kidnapped so I'm thrilled I went (except for the mosquito bites all over my FACE).

We stayed with Ahab on Diana Beach. Ahab is Bedouin and his beach has been passed down through a few generations and now he's building mud houses there. One of the GA's (Amit) has a boyfriend who volunteers with Ahab so we decided to come down and help, too. It was fun to be useful and relax at the same time.

Here's the hut I slept in on the first night:

Here's the umbrella thing I slept under the second night (the sun's coming up on the Red Sea, whoa):

Mud building:

Ohad and I are wearing orange:

Despite the previous week's difficulties, I managed to have a perfectly lovely time this weekend (so there, Andrew).
-Katie

Kvetching

For some unknown reason this was kind of a rough week for me. I’ve been in Israel for two months and I think it’s a little too much time here. Perhaps part of it is kibbutz life, I have discovered some problems or shall we say challenges about this lifestyle.
“WHAT?!” say you?
Yes... I know it’s damn near impossible to believe that there are some hard components to living on a commune. But, it’s true.
For instance, I share a house with three other people and a room with one of those three. The door to our shared room in our shared house has been broken for oh... three weeks now. In a country where cockroaches are not really seen as a pest problem, I miss having a door to shut out undesirables: bugs, sights, smells, the occasional stray cat etc. And I have a hunch that the kibbutz isn’t going to get that door back on its hinges until well after we leave. Just a hunch.
Additionally, there is this expectation that “what’s mine is yours” or more precisely "what's yours is mine." While I appreciate that things should be shared (sharing is caring) and that personal property can be a problem (I mean, property is theft), I grew up in America. As a middle child. What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours. If I want to share mine with yours (which I do), let me offer it to you. I am not suggesting that all Americans are selfish little shits. I am suggesting that all American middle-children (ahem) are selfish little shits. Thus, the kibbutz mentality just doesn’t jive with me.

That being said it was still a pretty good week on Lotan.
We baked brownies in a solar oven:

We visited an Anarchist Kibbutz (What the hell, right? I just go on the trips I don’t plan them) where they had crazy boob houses:

I went snorkeling in Eilat:

And I made a mug (!):

The finished mug (just for you, Alex):

I’m in Israel for another month and then I think I will welcome the change of scenery as I venture to my second (and last) “I” country for this trip around the world: India.
-Katie