Pure Happiness

Sunset on the beach

This past weekend was absolutely without a doubt the best weekend of my life. I feel so amazingly lucky to be able to be here experiencing all that this beautiful country has to offer. Just a warning-this blog post is long because I have to express all the joy I felt this weekend. If going to Australia, Byron Bay and Nimbin are absolute musts. We stayed at a hostel called Backpackers Inn (made me feel like a genuine traveler), which was about a 30 second walk to the beach and right down the road from all the amazing shops and restaurants. When we first got there, we went to the beach for a bit to watch the sunset and take in the most breath-taking scene. Then, we went for dinner at the "Beloporto Burger Bar" and had delicious burgers. Everyone also told us to get the gelato, so we did, and yes it was heaven in my mouth. I got the Fererro Rocher one--YOU MUST TRY THIS!! That night, we went out to a bar called Woody's, where we basically had a blast from the past dancing to songs like Greased Lightening. We left around 1am and we just couldn't miss the chance to go on the beach and lay under the stars for a bit, so that's exactly what we did--it was so peaceful and calming.

Signs leading to quarry

The next morning, we got up early and made our way to an old quarry where we heard that people cliff jump. As we approached, there were many signs up such as "Venomous Snakes" and "Do not Jump". I immediately started scanning the ground and jumping at every movement. There were a couple metal art sculptures on the way and even a man working on one of the sculptures which was really cool to see. How great would life be if you could just go off in your own little pocket of the world and just do art work while in a tropical paradise?

We finally got to the cliffs and peered over about 50 feet into the dark, questionable water. We had no idea what was even in there or how deep it was. I for sure thought I wasn't going to jump. Then, our friend Molly decided to jump and was perfectly fine. Next Sam, then Claire, then Cierra jumped. Finally I felt like if they can do it than I can, and I knew I would regret it if I didn't. So, I climbed down the slope of rocks where if you slipped or lost your footing at any moment you would tumble down and break yourself or possibly die, and when I finally worked up the courage--I jumped! Right into the arctic ocean. It was probably the coldest water I've ever been in--and then we had to swim about 200 feet to get out. It was so cold that I could barely breathe and was trying to swim as fast as I could because I didn't know what kind of creatures lived in there. I finally got out and felt so exhilarated and happy and proud of myself.

The quarry

Next we went to look around the shops in town. We were on a mission--find those adorable flowy almost genie-like pants that all the Australians where. They are the perfect pants for living here because if you're down at the beach and it's a little windy and chilly, they are just warm enough to keep you comfortable but they are also light enough that you could wear them when it is a little warmer. They also come in all sorts of patterns and types so you never tend to see two people wearing the same pair. We were disappointed to find that as we were walking into most of these stores the first price tag we'd see would be something like $120. No thank you. Some of the girls found ones they liked for about $35, but I really needed to be absolutely in love with them if I was going to spend that much. Finally I walked into a store called Factorie, went straight back to the sale rack, and picked up a really cute pair. Checked the tag--$14.95!!! I tried them on, and they fit perfectly! I was SO happy.

Metal sculpture

That night our hostel had a barbecue (I mean..barbie) and live music. The music was awesome, very reggae--I wanted to buy a CD but after having a conversation with another backpacker I met I looked up and the musician was gone! I'm determined to find out who that guy was and buy a CD. Later we went to the famous bar everyone talks about, Cheeky Monkeys. The cool thing about this bar is that instead of having a dance floor, they have heavy duty tables that everyone gets up and dances on. It was so fun! The music, however, was not up to par--they kept playing these weird house songs that I just wasn't into.

Byron Bay Lightouse

We passed out at 2am, and were up by 4:30pm because we decided to do the hike to the famous light house and watch the sunrise. What an adventure. We really didn't know where we were going, but hey, at least we were trying to get to a lighthouse that would basically just show us the way. When we first got on the beach, we looked up to admire the stars--I had never seen so many stars in my life. After walking for about half an hour, I started to realize how ridiculous we all looked. I was still in my pink and black tight dress from last night, using it as a tank top, wearing the flowy blue and black speckled pants I bought the previous day, my neon yellow running sneakers, and carrying a blanket.

Me at most easterly point:]

I looked like I had slept on the side of the road that night and decided to get up and find my next home for the day. But you know what? The best part about it was that I'm in Australia and NO ONE CARES. At all. We finally made it to the top, where there is a sign that says "Most easterly point of the Australian mainland".
Looking out into the water we could see whales blowing out water, and on land we could see...Asians. I'm sorry but the stereotype is true--they all crowded around the sign with their tripods and took a million pictures holding up the peace sign. At least we got to watch the most beautiful sunrise I'd ever seen while we waited. I absolutely can't wait to do this again, I wish everyone could experience this.

Sunrise!!

That day, a couple of us took a shuttle bus to an un-real little pocket of the world called Nimbin. Nestled within the mountains of Australia lies a town that has a very strong relationship with marijuana, as our bus driver put it. He explained that this was once a town no one knew of, until some hippies decided to have America's version of Woodstock there, which was called the Aquarius Festival. Some people sort of stuck around and decided to completely transform the town--and those people were still there. The bus driver explained that as we walk down the street there will be people asking us if we'd like to buy cookies--but "these are not your grandmas cookies" he said. And it was 100% true--as soon as we got off the bus we were immediately asked if we wanted cookies, BY LITTLE OLD LADIES! What?! This place is not real. We felt like we were in a movie. You don't have to go out and find the dealer in a sketchy ally, the dealer comes right up to you and offers. The little shops and museums were fantastic--filled with quotes and images saying "one love" idea type things. It was the best experience ever. I just couldn't stop thinking about how there is absolutely no where else on Earth a place like this and I got to go there.To top the weekend off, we got back to Byron and got some bangers and mash (sausage, mashed potatoes and green beans) at a pub while we listened to live music.

Welcome to Nimbin:]

In the Nimbin Museum

Up until this weekend I liked Australia quite a bit--after this weekend, I loved Australia with all my heart. This is a place where people just live for life and are just happy surfing and being free and accepting all types of people. It was the most refreshing experience--to just be away from all technology for a bit and take in everything and observe a different way of life. I can't wait to go back!!

The human as a machine

For my New Communication Technologies class, we were asked to watch the classic movie Bladerunner, based off of the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. It is a 1980's sci-fi thriller depicting Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered robots called replicants--visually indistinguishable from adult humans--are manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation, whose slogan is "More Human Than Human". These replicants are only used on off-world colonies and are banned from Earth. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are then hunted down by "Bladerunners". A central theme of Bladerunner is delving into our psychological enthrallment with power over others. Society views these replicants as nothing more than a machine, therefore making it easy for society to treat the replicants immorally. To humans, replicants have no souls. It then becomes a theme of the replicants becoming self-aware and doing a little "soul-searching" (pun intended). This theme becomes more apparent with the film's obsession with eyes. You know the common phrase, the eyes are the windows to the soul. In this movie, the eyes are used as a metaphor to reference the condition of one's soul. The Bladerunner Holden's eyes were very damaged, giving insight into his soul. Many killing/death scenes in the movie also involve eyes, such as when Roy Batty puts an end to Tyrell by pushing in his eyes. I found the movie very eye-opening (can't help the puns). It ties together the discussions we have been having in class about the possibility of biochips being put in our brains, and the implications of this.

We also discussed cybernetics, which is the study of communication, command and control in living organisms. Cybernetics is a science that proposed a completely new vision of the human body, and its relationship with the environment and machines. Norbert Wiener, a founding figure of the science of cybernetics provides a useful overview of different phases in machine-based history of the western body. These stages are a mythic Golemic age, the age of clocks (17th and 18th centuries), the age of steam (late 18th and 19th centuries) and lastly the age of communication and control--marking the shift from power engineering to communications engineering (Wiener, 1948). Wiener noted that these stages generated four models of the human body: the body as a malleable, magical, clay figure, the body as a clock mechanism, the body as a heat engine, and the body as an electronic system (Wiener, 1948). I thought it was interesting to think of the body in this way--to think in a way that technology is changing so quickly but we as humans are adapting to it just as quickly--how far can we go?


Wiener, Norbort, 1948, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Click here to view a timeline history of Cyberpunk!

Footy and Tubing

This weekend, we got the chance to go see a Gold Coast Suns AFL game (Australian football)! As the game started, it immediately became apparent to us that one, this game is basically a mixture of almost every other sport you could think of (football, soccer, ultimate frisbee..there's a little bit of quidditch in there too because there are three goal posts) and two, these men are extremely sexy. We each started to pick out our men: "I call 41! Ok you can have him if I can have 23." Every so often we would remember we are watching a football game and not a model shoot.

Claire, Kate, me and Cierra at the Metricom stadium
cheering on the Gold Coast Suns!

What was even more exciting, sadly, was that since McDonald's sponsors the team, if Gold Coast wins their first quarter, than everyone in the audience gets a free quarter pounder! They won their first quarter, and for a bunch of poor American's this was extremely fantastic news.

The atmosphere of the game was very different as well. At American football games there's always music pumping you up and cheerleaders and people getting rowdy. At the AFL game, they had live performers before the game and during half time, and they were singing...love ballads! What?! There also wasn't a national anthem played before the game started. Either way, it was a blast and I would love to go to another!

Claire and I tubing!

The next day, it was looking to be just another day on the gorgeous beach (poor me). But then, we got the opportunity to go on a boat in the ocean and go tubing! We went out to what is called "The spit" where a lot of surfers go, and there were people doing all kinds of water sports. We also found out that you can go camping on the island that we were near, so hopefully we could do that sometime! After a day of screaming and laughing, we finally went to maccas (McDonalds) and got our free quarter pounders and 30 cent ice cream cones! Literally never thought I'd say that sentence with so much enthusiasm...