Hey all,
So it's really late (like almost 2 AM late), but today was Sunday, so that means a blog post for you. I'm going to try to keep it short.
My week was spent writing essays, then procrastinating, then writing more. Honestly, it makes for a pretty boring synopsis. But it was also a really stressful week for me.
I'm a hardcore procrastinator. Anyone who's been at school with me knows that there are very few assignments that I ever start more than a day or two before the due date. I usually play it off as confidence or boredom. At the end of the day, I get the work done.
But I don't do it because I'm bored or even because I think the work is easy. I procrastinate because without the pressure of the deadline hanging over me, I can't do anything. I'll sit at my laptop with the internet turned off, trying to get a head start on my work. For like an hour. Without typing more than a few words. Even things I enjoy writing, like this blog, get pushed to the absolute last minute (or sometimes a little late, like tonight).
Yesterday is a great example. I had a short story due this morning. I had an idea for a setting, the characters, the conflict. It was pretty much fully formed in my head when I went to sleep on Friday night. When I went to the library to write it, I didn't get a single word typed. Not one. I ended up watching the entire season of Dear White People which had just been released on Netflix. It's a great show, but it really should have waited until after I'd finished my story.
I wrote it today and I'm fairly proud of it (until it gets workshopped on Thursday, at which point I'll hate it for a little while), but that doesn't do much to soothe my frustration at my inability to sit down and work when I want to.
So far, I haven't been able to find a system that allows me to motivate myself to get work done in advance. I've got a bit of a lull in my workload right now (which means that nothing big is due in the next 3 days), but if I could, I'd be getting ahead on some assignments that are due in a few weeks, but close together.
This didn't actually end up being short, but it was cathartic and that's what public forums are for, right? Sorry it's not about Australia or whatever.
See you next week,
Emily
(P.S. If you also have a hard time not procrastinating and something has worked for you, feel free to send it my way! I may have already tried it, but I'm running out of ideas.)
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Week 9: Flying Solo
Okay, so I promised you last week that I'd talk about New Zealand. Now it's time.
Last Friday, I woke up early and took some trains to the airport. I boarded an airplane (depicted below) and sat down for a few hours. When I stood up again, I was in New Zealand.
That's the level of detail you want, right?
Just kidding. I'm not going to give you a play-by-play. What I will do is follow a time-honored blog tradition. Unsolicited advice! I traveled alone, so here are a few tips on how to do a vacation all by yourself.
1) Find the free walking tour. Go on your first day.
Lots of cities have "free" walking tours, which are the best introductions I've ever gotten to the more touristy areas of any city. I have done these in a few cities and they're always super interesting and the guides are always really cool. They'll point out good places to eat and attractions you should go back to. If you go on your first day, you'll have some sense of direction for the rest of your trip and a to-do list for later!
2) Hostels are actually a pretty great option.
I've heard a lot of friends say that they find hostels to be weird. And I get that. Staying in a room with strangers is definitely different. And the hostel didn't provide a towel. It was super cheap, though, and in a central location. The atmosphere was social, so even though I was traveling alone, there were people for me to hang out with. And people who had been there longer than I had gave me some ideas for things to do, like climb a volcano to watch the sunset.
3) Try something new.
On Wednesday, I walked about 16 km (that's roughly 10 miles) across Auckland. I've done long hikes before, but never by myself. This one started at the harbor near my hostel and went out into the suburbs, which I hadn't visited yet. I walked through some parks, climbed a few volcanoes, ran out of water for a little while (make sure you don't do that. It was bad), and took lots of pictures. I almost gave up about six separate times, but I made it all the way to the end in about 6 hours. Between the views and the sense of accomplishment, I think that this was my favorite activity of the whole trip.
I hope you like my little foray into the ancient art of listicles (or whatever they're called). In case you couldn't tell, this is really just a way for me to tell you about what I did while making it sound like I have something profound to say. (I don't.) Anyway, here are some pictures I took.
School starts up again tomorrow, so I should get some sleep. I'll see you next week for another installment of me telling you about all the stuff that I'm doing while living in a cool place!
Last Friday, I woke up early and took some trains to the airport. I boarded an airplane (depicted below) and sat down for a few hours. When I stood up again, I was in New Zealand.
That's the level of detail you want, right?
Just kidding. I'm not going to give you a play-by-play. What I will do is follow a time-honored blog tradition. Unsolicited advice! I traveled alone, so here are a few tips on how to do a vacation all by yourself.
1) Find the free walking tour. Go on your first day.
Lots of cities have "free" walking tours, which are the best introductions I've ever gotten to the more touristy areas of any city. I have done these in a few cities and they're always super interesting and the guides are always really cool. They'll point out good places to eat and attractions you should go back to. If you go on your first day, you'll have some sense of direction for the rest of your trip and a to-do list for later!
2) Hostels are actually a pretty great option.
I've heard a lot of friends say that they find hostels to be weird. And I get that. Staying in a room with strangers is definitely different. And the hostel didn't provide a towel. It was super cheap, though, and in a central location. The atmosphere was social, so even though I was traveling alone, there were people for me to hang out with. And people who had been there longer than I had gave me some ideas for things to do, like climb a volcano to watch the sunset.
3) Try something new.
On Wednesday, I walked about 16 km (that's roughly 10 miles) across Auckland. I've done long hikes before, but never by myself. This one started at the harbor near my hostel and went out into the suburbs, which I hadn't visited yet. I walked through some parks, climbed a few volcanoes, ran out of water for a little while (make sure you don't do that. It was bad), and took lots of pictures. I almost gave up about six separate times, but I made it all the way to the end in about 6 hours. Between the views and the sense of accomplishment, I think that this was my favorite activity of the whole trip.
I hope you like my little foray into the ancient art of listicles (or whatever they're called). In case you couldn't tell, this is really just a way for me to tell you about what I did while making it sound like I have something profound to say. (I don't.) Anyway, here are some pictures I took.
School starts up again tomorrow, so I should get some sleep. I'll see you next week for another installment of me telling you about all the stuff that I'm doing while living in a cool place!
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Week 8: Why is This Year Different…
Hello!
In case you don’t remember from last week’s post, it’s
Passover! If you don’t know what Passover is, it’s an 8-day long Jewish holiday
that celebrates the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt. I’d recommend
Googling it if you want to know more (or ask a Jewish person).
I’m in New Zealand right now on vacation, but I’m not going
to write about that at all until next week. I want to write about being away
from home for the holiday.
My mom sent me an article about a girl studying in London
who got invited to a Seder (a traditional Passover meal held on the first 2
nights). She posted about it in a rather lovely series of tweets. Honestly, I
don’t think I can do a better job than she did of talking about my experience
of celebrating a holiday without my family, but I’m going to try anyway.
First of all, I’d never attended a Seder without my family
before. I took a gap year before starting college and they came to visit me for
Passover. My school at home aligns spring break with the holiday, so I get to
be home. But this year, I’m too far away for my parents to visit and I had
school, so I couldn’t go anywhere.
I wound up at two very different Seders. The first night, I
went to a local synagogue. There were probably about 80 people there, including
a good number of students from abroad. Seders are super formulaic, so on the
surface it was the same. The same words as every year sung to many of the same
tunes. The order of events (The Hebrew word seder literally translates
to “order”) was the same.
But the people around me were mostly strangers and our only
link was our Judaism. But Judaism is a strong connection, so I felt right at
home in this new community, as if these strangers were long-lost friends.
On the second night, I went to a friend-of-a-friend’s
family. I’d only met her once before, but again the Jewish connection made me
feel comfortable. Her family and their friends laughed and joked around the
table and I was fully included. Again, it felt so familiar to me that I almost
forgot that I was 10,000 miles from home.
I went back to that synagogue for Friday night dinner (which
is part of the Shabbat celebration), where I had some delicious food and great
company. In classic Jewish fashion, I met someone who knows my mom. But I also
found a community where I can find the comfort of familiarity, even in a place
so far away.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Week 7: A Slight Change of Plans (AKA I’m Okay Now, I Swear!)
Hey!
I had an interesting weekend, which mostly revolved around a lovely little asthma attack on Friday night. And, me being me, I forgot to bring an inhaler to Australia and procrastinated on getting one. So I had to recover the hard way, with sitting up, water, and eventually a hot shower. I was up all night.
Even with a good day's sleep, four hours of not breathing leaves you a little bit exhausted. Instead of the afternoon out I was planning for yesterday, I bought the inhaler (which, of course, was cheap and didn’t require a prescription) for and then sat at the library on my computer all evening. My dad asked me for photos of campus, so I took a few.
Today, I was feeling 100% again, so I decided that I could reschedule my adventure day. Sundays are the best day to travel in Sydney because they put a $2.50 cap on public transit. And that’s for the day, not per ride. The forecast said rain, but not until evening, so I decided to spend my afternoon at the beach again. This time, I took advantage of the cheap travel and went far. Cronulla Beach is at the end of the train line, about an hour from where I live.
The beach was really long, and I walked along it for about half an hour. I started a small sandy area full of swimmers and sunbathers, but next to that was a rocky shore. The water eroded holes into the rocks, which were perfectly round and quite deep. I had to watch where I stepped, lest I soak one of my sneakers by accident. I managed to avoid that and also didn’t fall on the slipperier rocks. But I was pretty glad I didn't bring my camera because with my coordination, it would probably be in pieces on those rocks right now.
And now it’s time for another round of Pictures from the Beach!
I hope you enjoyed looking at those pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them (though I don't know if the satisfaction of taking a halfway decent picture can be felt secondhand. Let me know in the comments if you had some otherworldly experience with my photos).
Next time I shout into my lovely little corner of the void, it will be Passover and I’ll be in New Zealand! I’m still not sure if I’ve totally processed the fact that I’m actually on a semester abroad, even though it’s been 7 weeks since I was last in the US. The semester is nearing its halfway point and I feel like there’s so much I still haven’t done, but I’ve got well over 2 months left here in Australia.
Next time I shout into my lovely little corner of the void, it will be Passover and I’ll be in New Zealand! I’m still not sure if I’ve totally processed the fact that I’m actually on a semester abroad, even though it’s been 7 weeks since I was last in the US. The semester is nearing its halfway point and I feel like there’s so much I still haven’t done, but I’ve got well over 2 months left here in Australia.
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Chag Pesach Kasher v’Sameach (That means have a good Passover)! I’ll see you again next Sunday.
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