One heck of a weekend!

Hello again folks... I'm realizing I'm not very good at keeping this blog updated weekly... will work on that. This past weekend I went home with Sven to the Cobargo Folk Festival near the coast.... Spent some time at the beach (where I inevitably lost my Rine-stoned sunnies to the hungry ocean). It was really hard to leave that beautiful spot.

The folk festival was really really good... had a blast with Sven's friend Fiona. We were the "roadies" for the Hellands (Sven's family act). We would carry a few instruments around go backstage for a minute or two. Saw some AMAZING performances... this girl Penny has a voice similar to Jewel's and sung the sweetest songs, this choir performing sacred church music, an orchestra who invited us to get up and dance to their music, the Fagans who sung the most perfect 4 part harmonies.... and of course the Hellands who played a lot of instruments and took requests from Fiona and I.

One of the craziest things at the festival happened on Saturday night... We were standing around outside of a tent talking when I thought I actually recognized someone about 50 feet away. I thought "come on Meg, you're on a whole different continent, you're 6 hours away from your uni in Australia at some small folk festival, you really don't know anyone"... but Sven and Fiona insisted that I go see if this person really was who I thought... indeed it was Jonas Friddle from Berea who is traveling around for his Watson fellowship studying folk music in Scotland, Australia, and Canada... how crazy is that? It really is a small world.

Classes are starting to pick up... I found myself today trying to overly multi-task to the point of craziness... and I'm wondering, how am I so cramped for time when I don't work and only have 15 hours of classes a week? I don't know how it happens other than the fact that I live on res and someone is always going to the river or into town... it's ridiculous! It's so interesting to me, the way I tend to get sucked into the fast-paced living.

When I was e-mailing the Paiger I recognized that I have the need for a few places no matter where I am:
-a tree or some spot outside that I can feel is my secret hideout and a place to recharge myself
-a course to run when I don't want to think about which way to go
-a place to study outside of my room whenever I want to

Currently, I have a course to run... it's great it's just off campus and down this dirt road shaded by eucalyptus trees. The tree thing is a bit harder to come by here, because there aren't woods like what I'm used to... To some extent I feel naked in this landscape without much canopy. I'm looking for a place to study... this is a challenge because kids are always watching tv in the living room and the library closes at 5pm.

Perhaps I should get back to studying before I hit the sack... goodnight everyone.
love,
mn

ps... things that I'm thankful for (and that made me smile today) are:
-feeling comfortable in my group for REC 167
-knowing the answer "herpetology" during trivia night at Kinross (a restaurant near campus)
-birthdays all over the place
-clean laundry
-cous cous and tofu with peanut sauce
-my first pair of Australian board shorts (found 'em for $5 in the red cross op shop)
-finding $20 in my pocket
-finding toilet paper in my pocket (from the camp out)
-People and Places lecture (Our prof Catherine reminds me of Pat Adams)
-my inter-library loaned copy of The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama arriving
-peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
-listening to my cd from Penny (who sung at the festival)
-getting an e-mail that Kristen made it to China