Contest: Name My Wombat!

The past week has been pretty fun. Classes are going well; I love the campus (I think it's absolutely gorgeous), I'm doing well in Astronomy (I got a 44/50 on my first assignment and 4/5 on all of my labs so far). Theories of Subjectivity is making me question the basic structure that I have accepted all of my life, and the first essay is due Tuesday at 5. We discussed homophobia in Queer Theory; it ended up turning into a discussion of how masculinity is constructed in our society. It's interesting to me that, whenever homophobia is discussed, the discussion inevitably focuses on men's experiences with homophobia. The threat of physical violence is not the only homophobia that any person faces. For example, the fear of even being thought of as homosexual keeps us all from expressing ourselves. Men have to fit a very strict code of what is manly; women, while we are allowed a broader range of expression (I believe), still need to prove that they are feminine for risk of being considered manly and thus a lesbian. If one does not fit the norm, we are ostracized; if we keep silent about our desires, we are shamed by others' language. So many people are hurt by the wayward comment; it's hard to call someone out on homophobic language, especially when, by calling them out, your sexuality is brought into question. If you don't want to be found out, you are hurt in silence.

Okay, that's enough of that. As I said, I love my classes and love discussing what I'm learning. Last week I finally started meeting more people from the Herring Road apartments. Up until now, I've basically been hanging out with the same people. Wednesday night I went over to apartment 6 to watch a movie with the guys and apartment 10 (Becky, Suzie, and Dani), when some of apt. 10's friends busted in and asked us to come over and hang out. A few of us headed out, and I met people from apartment 21 and 22. Loads of fun for the evening.

I realized that I haven't been exploring the south of the city, so Friday (I have no classes on Friday) I headed to Chinatown. I asked my flatmates and people from apartment 6 if they wanted to come, but only Derek took me up on the offer. As we walked towards Chinatown, we stopped and explored little stores on George Street. We found a cool bookstore which sold used books and CDs. I ended up buying $64 worth of CDs. CDs are a LOT cheaper here; I paid AU$15 for a CD, which would be about US$12. So I've been pretty happy this weekend, listening to new music (Radiohead, Talking Heads, and a CD called "The Sound of Queer Nation," which is a collection of songs that would be played at the club that Queer Nation, the queer activist group, ran).

Although it's referred to as "Chinatown," the section of the city is a mixture of many Eastern Asian cultures. As you get closer to Chinatown, the signs slowly start including Chinese/Japanese/Thai/Tiawanese symbols. It's off of George St., so Derek and I walked by it before realizing that we had to turn right to get into the heart of it. We looked for food and finally found a Tiawanese place where the server didn't speak much English. I wanted to try Woo Long tea, for example, but when I asked her what it was, she said, "It is...tea..." I decided to go with the Diet Coke because I wasn't in the mood to pay $3 for something I might not enjoy.

Near Chinatown there is a building called Market City. Within the building, the famous Paddy's Markets are located. If any of my readers have been to the Durham Fair, Paddy's Markets are very similar to the commerical "tent" at the fair. There are stalls everywhere, selling some of the most ridiculous stuff for very cheap. Most stalls are selling souvenirs and clothing for crazy-cheap prices. We wandered around, and I bought a cute stuffed wombat for $2. I got the wombat with a messed-up face because he looked like he was angry; I named him Grumpy the Angry Wombat. After buying my little wombat, we were entranced by a display of big stuffed animals. I found a wombat which fits comfortably in my arms (not too small, not too big) for $10! I wanted it, but didn't necessarily want to pay for it, so I asked Derek to buy it for me for my birthday. Thus I got my first birthday present! Derek is obsessed with koalas and was captured by the stuffed koalas holding babies. He ended up paying $20 for a huge stuffed koala. We spent the rest of the day carrying a huge bag of stuffed animals and pulling them out to play with every so often. We're children.

While wandering through the stalls, I glanced at price list for a massage stall claiming that "all of our employees are licensed medical practicioners in China." As I looked at the ridiculous prices, $12 for a neck and shoulder massage, $17 to add the back, one of the women working there walked up to me. "Massage?" she asked.

"Oh, no, thank you," I began to reply, as she reached out and started rubbing my shoulder.

"Yes, you come sit down, only $12," she said as she rubbed.

I felt guilty, but there was no way that I wanted to pay that much. I looked for Derek, hoping that he was walking by so that I could escape. I found him to my right, watching me. Suddenly, one of the male employees walked up to him. "First minute free!" he said as he started pushing Derek into a seat. Derek began to pull away, saying, "No, I don't have any money..."

"You need a massage! It's the end of the day!" The female employee pointed at her wrist (no watch was there to point to).

"I-I-no money, I mean, I have money, but..." I stammered.

"ONLY TWELVE DOLLARS! Sit down!" The woman pushed me towards a chair. I obliged, cuddling my wombat. As we walked to the opposite side of the stand, another woman working there said, "Oh, cute wombat!"

"Yes, cute wombat," my massuse said as she pushed me into the chair and threw a cloth over my shoulders to start rubbing. As she worked, she leaned over and said, "I can add back for $3, usually another $12," to which I thought, I'm spending a ridiculous amount of money on this already, what the heck? and nodded. After she was done, Derek and I walked off in shock before bursting out laughing. We weren't really sure how we had each just paid $15 for massages that weren't really that good anyway.

We continued to wander around Chinatown, looking at different stores, including a Chinese-Australian bookstore and a DJ supply store (Derek DJs at home). We then headed back home, where we found apartment 13, which includes a girl in my Queer Theory class and tutorial, barbequing on the grill outside. They offered us some food, so we dropped our stuff off and came back out to hang out. I then invited them over for cocktails, because I wanted to try out some of the recipes I'm contemplating having at my party. A few different people wandered through the apartment, including Matt from apartment 1 and some of apartment 13's friends. All in all, it was a fun, chill night.

Saturday night a bunch of us went to the Rocks to go pub-hopping and dancing. People from apartments 21 and 22 were going, so Sarah, Christian, Derek, and I joined in. We ended up splitting up because Christian wasn't wearing nice enough shoes to get into one of the bars. David met up with us and we wandered around, eventually meeting up with 21 and 22 again and heading to a German pub. Christian and David delighted in explaining how it's very much like a German pub--tables, no real dance floor, and a huge bar. When Germans cheer, they smash their mugs together, not caring if beer spills on the floor (I paid good money for that beer, I did not want the wood floor drinking up my $6!).

There was a makeshift dance floor, however, so we headed towards there. Derek, Sarah, and I were dancing together when two guys suddenly jumped in. "You, and you!" the tall one in a white shirt yelled over the music, pointing at Sarah, then me. The two guys then proceeded to attempt to dance with us. I smiled, bemused, because the tall guy was the most awkward guy I've ever seen. Sarah took to her guy--he was her type, curly, dark hair and black clothes (she's into Iron Maiden and bands like that, and I believe he was wearing a band shirt or something like that).

The guy who was dancing with me, clearly a wingman, could tell I wasn't really feeling it (I kept glancing at Derek, my face clearly communicating "Who the heck does this guy think he is?") so he started hitting on a girl standing near me. However, since he was trying to chat me up so that his friend could get with Sarah, he'd turn to me and try to talk to me at the same time. I just shook my head and Derek and I slowly pushed towards the rest of the group, away from tall wingman and Sarah and her new dance partner.

Christian, Derek, and I all kept glancing over to make sure that Sarah was doing all right and eventually leaned up against the windowsill. As Derek and I stood there (Christian had gone to get another beer) the man in the white shirt walked up and tapped Derek on the shoulder. "Do you know her?" he asked, clearly trying to see if he should keep hitting on me. "Yeah, she's my girlfriend," he lied, putting his arm around me so that the guy would leave me alone. "Oh, I'll stop right there, then," Tall Wingman said and walked off. I was definitely grateful for Derek right about then, and you have to wonder that, when I've been hanging out with the same guy the whole night, what guy would try to hit on me still?

At the end of the night we debated when Daylight Savings time would come into play, and whether the bus schedule would conform to the extra 2:00 AM. We walked towards the bus at about 3 AM, which is when Sydney switches the time. Since it's fall here, we were "falling back" and gained another hour. David was convinced that the buses would keep running to the new 3, but we all figured that the buses would want to make it as cheap as possible for themselves. We ended up making the bus and everything was grand.

So, now that I've told a few ancedotes from the past weekend, here's my contest! My big wombat does not have a name yet. Post, as comments, your suggestions for names. Next journal entry I will announce the winner!

P.S. One week until I'm 20! I'm having a huge party this weekend, and it should be loads of fun...