Manifest Destiny

My semester is over, I just walked away from my very last exam. I am leaving for the airport in only 37 hours to depart from this great nation, the Commonwealth of Australia. I feel like this would be good time to reflect on my experience, to come full circle from my first blog entry. Not that most of my entries had anything to do with Australia, but I was sort of intending for them to and I'm going to write this with that spirit in mind. I am going to write this in the form of a F.A.Q., and then I'm going to print it out and bring it with me to Thanksgiving, and the grocery store, and the hairdresser, and to my friends' houses, so I don't have to answer them over and over again.

Q:How was Australia?
A: Good.

Q:Did you have fun?
A: Sometimes.

Q: What was the best part?
A: Seeing the biggest rocking horse in the world.

Q: Did you do any traveling? / Where did you go?
A: I went to Cairns (great barrier reef), Sydney, Tasmania, Alice Springs, Uluru, Coober Pedy, Adelaide, the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, and of course Newcastle.

Q: Did you see a Tasmanian Devil?
A: No.

Q: Can you do an Australian accent? (although I anticipate this will come as a command rather than a question)
A: No. But we can watch Australian tv on youtube if you want to hear one.

Q: Did you see Cat Empire?
A: No

Q: Why didn't you see Cat Empire?
A: I don't know, I didn't hear about any concerts nearby.

Q: Did you fall in love with an Australian boy?
A: Heavens no. OMFG, No.

Q: Did you buy me any Australian opals?
A: Only if you are my mom.

Q: Did you stand up when you went surfing?
A: Yes, followed by falling off.

Q: What was the weather like?
A: Pretty nice, interrupted occasionally by torrential downpours.

Q: Your mom told me something happened to your foot. What's the deal?
A: Yeah I dunno it's fine now except that it's all hot and puffy, and 2 of my toes hurt when I bend them. I think it needs to be amputated.

Q: Is everyone tan and blonde?
A: No, but some people are. Probably more than in the states.

Q: What was the food like?
A: Pretty much the same, except no Taco Bell, and different names for lots of foods.

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This is better on mute, the OH MY GOD DO YOU SEE THAT, THEY'RE SOO ADORABLE doesn't really add to the perfection of the moment.

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People like to assume that the meat they eat comes from animals that died quickly and painlessly, but that just isn't how it happens. The meat industry is enormous, and most people know nothing about it, but support it nonetheless. I think people should be more conscientious consumers. People should be aware that their actions have consequences and the purchases they make reflect the industries they are supporting monetarily, if not morally.

"We believe that people who are eating our products are assuming the food animals being used are treated in a humane manner," -Burger King spokesman Rob Doughty*

"Yet here as they lie stricken and needful, writhing on cement floors, they are cut open with machetes and left to slowly suffocate, convulsing and contorting in the throes of agony."
-Earthlings, a documentary

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967

*This quote is actually from an article about how Burger King is pushing the USDA to make more regulations regarding the humane treatment of animals in meat factories...and BK has veggie burgers, rock on.

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By Jose Gonzalez

Posted by at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What I will write in the jacket of my novel once it is finished

Alena is not related to the Smiths of upstate New York, no matter how many times you ask. You are not the first to mention her resemblance to that actress, that comedian, or that person in the glasses commercial. She is also 100% sure that she did not meet you at your liberal arts college in Rhode Island in 1998. Just accept the fact that you don't know her. She grew up in a brown house with a black dog and seashells on her wallpaper. She is unmarried with no children, and has one fish who doesn't love her. She has also written several poems, short stories, and articles, none of which have been published.

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