Buses and Trains

This weekend I took a small adventure to Rhode Island. The drive there is always a little rough--Connecticut is some kind of insane wormhole that delays you by two hours no matter what--so I took the bus and the train instead.

Buses I have no great feelings about, but I love taking the train! It always feels special somehow. 

As mentioned on this blog before, I take great pleasure in going on a journey surrounded by a pile of belongings and snacks. For this weekend trip I packed my new art journal book, bag of pens, scissors, glue, photos to cut up, research papers to read, computer, iPod (recently rediscovered with all my old music on it), water bottle, candy, some clothes.

The bus was full of the same people as always--Guy On The Phone, Lady Talking Two Decibels Louder Than Required, Person Coughing On The Back of Your Head. In the bathroom of the bus station a cleaning person banged on one of the doors, yelling "you can't sleep in here!" and in the stall next to me a woman threw up violently. This is just the way buses are.

I transferred to the train at Penn Station in New York, where I entered Train World, a totally different experience.

I don't know what it is that makes the train seen special to me. I like the sound, the big windows, the view of the ugly side of things--the backs of buildings, the graffiti wars, chain link fences. My absolute favorite is train with a table, which I was able to wrangle in the "cafe car" on the way home.

Now I am on my way home. I finished the train journey and am back on the bus, which is surprisingly empty and lacking the usual suspects. It just got dark and I am typing this on my phone screen while I drink a coffee. I can see the outline of the trees along the road. My bag is on the seat next to me tucked under my arm, full of options should I want them.

For now, though, I am happy to sit and watch the silhouettes slip by. 

This Week in London

These last few days have been busy with adventure. I have been trying to make the most of my time here and have ventured out every day to a new place to see what I can see.

Once on our last trip a well-to-do English businessman asked me what my favorite part of London is, and I said "the transportation system." He was disappointed in my answer, but I stand by it. Trains, trams, tubes, and buses, you can get anywhere. The city is so well connected, and you rarely have to wait more than 10 minutes for your next ride. The place we are staying is about 8 miles outside of the city proper, which translates to over an hour journey in to areas like London Bridge and the waterfront, but that hour is easy and is have gotten pretty good at figuring out the main hubs from which other side trips can follow.

There is great pleasure in a latte and a train seat by the window. In this case there was even a table, and I happily watched the fields and brick buildings and graffitied back walls go by. 

My first day out was to the Old Operating Theatre. It was used for poor women mostly, in the early 1800s before anesthetics were invented, and is one of the only 19th century operating theaters still surviving.

I paid 6 pounds to go in (about $10 US) which I never would have done on our world trip. I'm so glad I did, though! By chance, King's Medical College was holding a special lecture for their students inside the theatre on the use of surgery in cancer treatment. I sat down too and listened to the whole thing. It was incredible---the platform where the patient was operated on in the 1800s was now holding a laptop and projector, a screen was hung in front of the place where the surgeons used to (sometimes) rinse their hands in a porcelain bowl, the students and I sat around the wooden rows where medical students used to watch surgeries, beneath the same sign--a quote in Latin that means "mercy before wealth." 

It was an amazing experience, and made me even more excited for the physician assistant program to start in August. 

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I drew all the time on our world trip, but have hardly drawn at all since then. I wanted to get back to it so I google searched for drawing classes in London and found the "London Life Drawing Society" and went to a drop in session for 10 pounds--right down the street from the British Museum, I might add, which was cool in its own right.

I was very nervous about going--what if everyone there is friends and I'm a random stranger, what if everyone there is really good at drawing and I'm not, what if the model looks at my drawing and feels bad about themselves because I drew them poorly, what if I go to the wrong place and walk in and everyone stares at me and and and. Standing outside the door all of my insides yelled at me to just go home and take a nap. I powered through, however, and of course am so glad I did.

 

I've never gone to a life drawing class before, aka nude model. Little desks were arranged in a circle around a table covered with a black cloth. The model had some sort of accident and couldn't come, but to my great surprise one of the other people in the class just decided to get naked and be the model instead. 

While I am by no means a real artist and nowhere near as skilled as most of the people in the class, I was surprised to find I wasn't actually THAT bad. I've always thought that a person's drawing ability was 70% natural and 30% learned, but now I think it's more like only 20% natural, 30% learned, and 50% practice. My ability to draw has increased dramatically in the last year as I just did it over and over again.

The class was a series of 10 and 20 minute poses. It was great experience to have the time to just stare at something and really see what it looked like, how the parts related to one another in space. I had enough time to realize that I have a tendency to make legs too short, and fix it. 

I used charcoal, which I've never really used before. It was so fun! I made the decision to commit to big dark lines, which normally I am afraid of. With the charcoal though if a line went wrong I could just rub it away. 

The guy next to me did this cool thing where he shaded in the paper with the charcoal and then used the eraser to draw. I tried to do this but realized I'm just not skilled enough to get the first line right like the style required, so I drew on top instead and ended with my favorite drawing of the day. It's a style I would never have thought of without going to the class to see my neighbor's idea.

The class also made me feel oddly body-confident and in love with the bodies of all my fellow humans. The man who modeled was very muscled, and it was fun to draw him because you could see the muscles under the skin and it was interesting from an anatomical perspective, but the other two people who modeled first were heavy, and were equally fun to draw because they had swooping curvy lines and just as much detail. I had so much fun, and drawing them felt like a way to celebrate each of them for their unique shape among 7 billion others.

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Finally, yesterday I went out to the Camden Passage antique market, and the to the "Fashion on the Ration" exhibit at the Imperial War Museum.

The antique market was a bit out of my price range, generally, but I had fun wandering up and down the narrow street looking at piles of shiny old things.

I did end up buying this necklace for about $10 US, a souvenir from my adventures.

I ate an amazing "apple and goat cheese" crepe and then went off to the war museum.

The exhibit was 10 pounds, which I don't really think it was worth, although the rest of the museum is free so I suppose they have to make their money somewhere. It was all about how men and women made do during the many shortages of world war 2, and the clever ways they reused items to stay unique and fashionable in a time of crisis.

My favorite examples were of the purses that had special slots to hold a gas mask and luminescent white buttons to give visibility during blackouts:

And the lingerie made from silk maps given to soldiers of the areas they were deployed. The one is from a silk map of Italy a woman's boyfriend had been given while fighting there, which was repurposed by her during the major silk shortages of the war. 

It's been a great week so far. I only have 10 days left before it's back home again to real life. Even that will be okay, though. We have moved to a new town so I can go to school and I don't know anything about it yet, but it seems promising. This trip has inspired me to explore our new town the way I would explore a tourist destination. Walk around, figure out the buses, look for free events, make the effort.

But! That is still ten days away. For now it is off on the next adventure.

Away Again

Today I find myself at the airport again. I am heading to London, where Subash is already waiting, having been there the last 2 weeks watching cricket.

We booked these tickets shortly after returning from our trip--it is good we did, because honestly I doubt we would have booked them now. It seems a bit crazy, but I'm taking it as a gift from our month-ago-travel-happy selves. One last hurrah before two years of school.

That being said, I am very excited to be going! 20 days of fancy coffee and free museums and reuniting with trip friends. 

The cheapest flight was from New York, so I made my way here earlier today. It is about four hours from my parents, and after exploring the options I decided to take a van here. Supertrans!

Me and four of my closest strangers made our way from outside Philadelphia to JFK. 

I have gotten pretty good at packing, although I probably brought as many clothes for this 20 days as I did for our whole world trip. It was kind of liberating to throw in some extra things without having to think of lugging it around for months. I also have a small carry-on full almost entirely with presents. I believe very much in the IDEA of never arriving empty handed, but am sorry to say that even despite depending on the kindness of strangers for most of our trip we hardly ever came bearing gifts to show just how much we appreciated what everyone did for us and how much we liked them. I can blame it on a lack of luggage space and funds, but whatever the reason I really regret it. Sorry, everyone! This time, seeing some of our old friends (and depending on their kindness once again) I am ready!

I will try to photograph the luggage at some point, but the breakdown is as follows:

1 x jeans 

1 x shorty shorts

1 x dress that can go either casual or fancy depending on accessories 

2 x tank tops

2 x t-shirts

2 x long sleeved shirts

1 x cardigan

1 x sweater

1 x sneakers (wearing for journey there to reduce packing space)

1 x sandals

1 x first aid kit

1 x giant medical text book and flash cards, required for my program in August 

As for my purse, I took this photo at the airport for your perusal: 

These are all the things I've learned to be most important to have on your actual person when possible instead of packed away. The breakdown here is:

Slightly trashy novel

Journal and two pens

Travel watercolor set and tiny watercolor papers (in the zippered pouch)

Eye glasses

Sunglasses

Eye cover -- I've never used one of these before but have been having some light sensitivity issues lately and thought I'd give it a try

Headphones

Phone charger and UK adapter 

Candy

Make up and deodorant 

I also have on my person a sweater and a fashion scarf, which I have learned by experience always come in handy when traveling. 

They've started boarding now so I should go. I have a D seat which I think means I'm going to end up in the middle, but we can always hope for a miracle. 

I'm off to 7 hours of terrible movie watching and sleeping, and then to the tube and at last our friends' house where Subash and fun times are waiting.

See you on the other side! 

Home Again

On March 31st at 6 am we got in a cab, went to the Melbourne Airport, and started the long flight home.

I can't believe our trip is over! We have been home for almost two weeks now and it seems like it should be time for us to move on to our next location, but there are no next location left!

Our flight home was relatively uneventful, with one 14 hour leg and one 7 hour. Our seatmate on the 14 hour flight was a hilarious guy from Tennesee, who, when they forgot to feed Subash and I, snuck in the back and stole us some hotdogs. (Note: airplane hotdogs may not be the best idea). Then they finally came around and gave us more hotdogs, and I ate them all, before having to turn over something like seven empty hotdog boxes to the flight attendant collecting trash. Hats off to you, seatmate guy, wherever you are.

We finally made it to New York, and my parents! It was so nice to see them after all this time. 

My dad took some pictures of us with all of our stuff and when I looked at them later I found this amazing photobomb:

The purple suitcase I bought in a second hand store in South Africa (what could possibly go wrong in a sentence like that) made it to the end, mostly. The handle and wheels were broken off on its first voyage, and the stitching holding all of my treasures inside was giving way, so I had it plastic-wrapped at the Melbourne Airport. It seems to have worked, as all of my souvenirs from our 9 months made it. Plus it was easy to identify my bag at the luggage claim, as that one with the jaggedy plastic shard sticking out at the bottom where a wheel used to be.

For anyone curious about our financials, we ended the trip with about $400 to our name. Accordingly, we have now moved in with my parents! 

My poor parents have already had our two cats all this time, who have been slowly destroying their nice house. One has scratched up their previously flawless couches, while the other chewed off all the pull-cords to their window blinds. 

Seeing our cats again was one of the best parts of coming home, and we have quickly resumed our old positions of taking naps together.

My parents are incredible saints for everything they've done for us, and we couldn't have done this trip without them. We were so jammed for time when we left last July that we basically abandoned all of our remaining belongings on their front porch, which they then had to deal with alone for no good reason. They have been incredible.

So now what! 

The first few days were rough as we dealt with all of the paperwork of normal stationary life. Taxes were due within two weeks of coming back. My drivers license had expired and we had sent back the license plate on our car so we didn't have to pay car insurance while we were away, and the car was also now out of inspection. Our health insurance had to be sorted. A giant box of mail awaited our attention.

I am very excited to say that I got in to graduate school, which I applied to before we left on the trip. I start a two year program in August, and it has been a huge help knowing that there is something set. We drove over to the area a few days ago to see where we should live, and I think it will be okay.

I've been looking for a job. Something, anything. 

I can't believe our trip is over. Not that long ago we were in New Zealand. Even less than that I was surfing in Australia.

How do you keep all of the best parts of who you are when traveling in your normal daily life?

I'll have to try. 

United States Soil

The Last 30 Days

I haven't written here in so long! I don't even know why. I haven't had any words in my head. 

I also don't know how to catch up. So instead of worrying about it any more I'm just going to word-and-picture vomit whatever comes to mind.

We are in New Zealand now for 2 weeks, and have been in Australia for over a month. We return to Melbourne for two more weeks and then on March 31st we get on a flight and return home, our trip at an end.

In the meantime we are ignoring the inevitable, and having a great time. In Australia we visited Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, and Canberra. 

In Cairns we saw the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing--even on the plane coming in it was beautiful, the blue water punctuated with little dashes and commas of lighter greenish water and arcs of coral.

I went snorkeling off Green Island. I wore a "stinger suit" to protect from jellyfish--this time of year in Cairns the ocean becomes home to two kinds of stinging jellyfish, some of which can kill you, and crocodiles, which can definitely kill you. 

I had a disposable underwater camera, which sadly did no justice whatsoever to the color and quantity of life there. There were fish of all sizes, from tiny to almost frighteningly large, glowing in electric blue, orange, yellow, pink, or all of the above combined. The most astounding thing was you could HEAR them! They were eating from the coral, and you could hear the sound of their mouths scraping along. 

I've always found the water a little spooky and am not a great swimmer, so I was terrified to see the shape of a shark on the water in front of me. It was clear enough to make it out, but murky enough to be very scary looking. I think it was a reef shark, which are harmless to humans, but it certainly scared the shit out of me. 

I didn't see it again, which was almost MORE frightening--how easy it is for the ocean to hide its secrets. 

I became convinced that my pale white hands flapping around at the end of my dark wet suit arms would look like delicious food and just get chomped off, and spent the rest of the time with them tucked in. 

And yes, I did take a picture of the shark even as I was afraid of it, hah. 

It was exhilarating, and I've never seen anything like it. So much life, so much different life, all sharing the same space.

Australia is an amazing place. It has outback and bush, of course, but also rainforest, which I didn't realize. The animals are so different, filling the same ecological niches you have in other parts of the world with different flavors of marsupial and giant birds. Everything is venomous.

We rented a car and drove a large triangle over the course of a few days following the Cricket World Cup. It was so fun, such freedom and the open road and the ability to stop or go as you see fit.

Being too cheap to stay in a hotel at some random place along the way, we just slept in the car along the side of the road between Adelaide and Canberra. We pulled over and turned off the car and got out to look at one of the clearest skies I have ever seen. The longer we stared the more stars we saw. They looked almost like they were dripping from the sky, with a hazy strip of milkway blurring the middle.

We had planned on it being a short stop just to refresh, but we are lazy people and we slept there for over seven hours.

We woke just after sunrise and drove on to a lake, and breakfast pastries.

The cricket World Cup had been a lot of fun, more than I expected. I have been to three or four games so far, often sitting by myself or with new friends while Subash is in the press box. I love watching all of the fans, decked out in team colors, happy.

We are watching more matches here in New Zealand and then back in Australia for the quarter finals and finals. 

I have become much more invested in it than I expected, especially Ireland, who is a bit of an underdog, struggling to be accepted into a tight club of larger cricket-obsessed countries, but doing surprisingly well. They have won both of their matches so far. We are watching an Ireland v India match soon, which I am really looking forward to.

I can't believe there are only 30 days left! I am really looking forward to going home and seeing my family, and our cats, and eating an everything bagel with cream cheese. But I don't want all of this to be over, and the idea that we have to find new jobs and pay our taxes and sort a life out is overwhelming. 

But! We aren't there yet. We still have lots to see and do and soak up before the plane ride home. 

It's been an amazing experience and I am SO glad we took the chance on it, whatever happens upon our return. If you have ever thought about doing something like this, DO IT. I keep thinking about how time just goes by, and how easy it would have been for us to stay in our comfortable lives in our jobs and our apartment, and we would have been happy, but we would have missed all of this.