Australia Day & Farewell Celebrations

The 26^th of January, Australia Day, marks the day I am leaving my life in Berkeley. What, where, why? You ask. Well, it’s time. I was offered a job in SoCal (the local term for Southern California) on Catalina Island working as a Science Teacher whilst simultaneously scuba diving, kayaking, hiking, boating every day. Anyone who knows how much of a water baby I am will understand why this is a dream position for me; it combines my love for the ocean and outdoors with science and education. “Catch a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; you feed him for a lifetime”. Educating our youth about the environment and science is fundamental in creating sustainable futures, and this position will not only give me invaluable experience professionally in the education field, but did you read what I just wrote? Scuba diving every day! The weather is getting warmer, and summer is fast approaching. It is just an opportunity I’d be mad to turn down.

Prior to my move to the island on the 10^th of February, I am going to be working on an organic farm for a few weeks in exchange for food & accommodation with a man called Llyod, whose story I have yet to learn. I will elaborate more once I arrive on the farm in Big Sur and can give you more insight.

In the meantime, I had to go through that awful process of saying goodbye. As I mentioned, my departure coincided with Australia Day, so what better a reason to throw a party? Further, a week or two before I left we had another Australian move into the house, Nick Nelson. His story and mine are uncannily similar. For starters, we both have Brazilian partners who we met in Australia at the same time, were long distance for the same time, moved to the US with and their birthdays are a day apart. We also both studied in Canberra and have similar social circles in Newcastle/Sydney and now we are living in the same house in Berkeley. The list of unfathomable connections goes on and needless to say I made a great friend in him who I will somehow hold dear forever despite our short-lived friendship. So Nick and I stocked up the Fosters (yes, that awful American beer they claim to be Australian except it isn’t even sold in Australia), snaggers (cheap sausages, ketchup and white bread), goon (boxed wine) and played the Triple J Hottest 100 (alongside some John Williamson, ‘I still call Australia home’, and various other Australian tributes). Everyone came in thongs (flipflops) and boardies or footy shorts. We started the party with a sunset BBQ, and as the night got rowdier the dancefloor took place. Needless to say, the Aussies were the last ones standing (no one can handle goon like a true blue, dinky die).  It was a fantastic way to farewell my friends and wake up the next day with that feeling, ‘yes, I laughed a lot last night’.

On my last night at Euclid Manor all the housemates that could make it went out to Indian food and we ate until we exploded and somehow rolled back home to bed and crashed out early.

On a side note, earlier in the week Nick and I went to see ‘The Way Back’, a film director but Australian director Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society). There was a Q&A with Peter after the film, and a small reception with champagne and au d’ouvres where we got to meet Peter after as well. It was really lovely, and in some ways I wished I had harnessed the cultural scene a little more in San Francisco whilst I was there. I guess I will just have to come back.